Conceptos básicos

The second research question provided an opportunity to explore, in more depth, the social influences that might support or encourage the employment decisions of the prospective private sector Emirati employee and what institutionalised support might exist for private sector participation.

As has been illustrated earlier, the UAE is a very family oriented society. In such a society, parents and siblings have a strong influence on an individual’s choices. The importance of support and encouragement from this source for private sector

employment can therefore be seen as significant. It was very notable from the findings that only Participant 11 had been actively encouraged by his parents to start a career in banking, although Participant 3 had been introduced to banking at an early age by his parents to build some familiarity with the industry. All of the remaining interviewees were either left to make their own choices or more actively encouraged to join the government sector. It is clear that family support is currently either low or non-existent for private sector employment.

Once an individual had chosen to join the private sector, varying levels of both support and resistance were experienced in the family setting. For example, in the case of Participant 5, a banking career was not actively encouraged at the outset by the father. However, when he realised that his son was struggling to gain his first job, the father used his own local influence (or wasta) to make it happen. The more typical situation was described by Participant 15, who unusually had always wanted to go into banking

76 and to do something different as all her family were working in government positions, who explained:

“I faced a problem at the beginning. I didn't get support from my family but I got support from one side when they said "ok, we will be with you whatever you are choosing or selecting but we prefer the government sector", but still I went into banking.”

Participant 10 had also received what seems to be a typical family reaction - “I [generally] like the work but my family said no, sit at home and wait for government.” Participant 4 the same - “My family said why you go to the bank, wait, my family and my wife saying why you go to the bank, wait, think about this one.” These reactions can act as a serious deterrent for prospective employees (Al Waqfi & Forstenlechner, 2012; tan, 2014). More helpfully, a small number had benefitted from having wider family members already in the banking sector suggesting that where there is existing first- hand experience of the private sector, the resistance is much less.

There also appears to be significant influences emanating from the community’s religious values. On the few occasions when banking was considered an acceptable career to follow, there was a distinct inclination towards Islamic banking models, as these are more clearly aligned with Muslim beliefs. Participant 1 highlighted this important issue when he identified this preference for the Islamic Banks in many conservative families:

“In my social community most of the UAE Nationals prefer to work in Islamic banking so that pressure was there but with the career

opportunities and the challenges available, in the end it was my decision but I had to go some way to convince my family that [conventional banking] is what I want to do.”

Fortunately as Participant 4 explained, this preference may be overcome with a greater awareness of the different roles within a conventional bank:

“They don't believe in the bank because its haram [forbidden] or something. I said, don't go let your daughter go to lending and those things, let them go to risk department. They can work anywhere, let them go to Treasury department, later they can do business from their home, let them go to the Credit department, to HR, to Finance, they can work anywhere.”

77 Nevertheless, these findings suggest that the banks with sharia compliant operations will be more attractive to Emirati employees and that efforts should be made to highlight those areas in a conventional bank that are not considered so problematic.

Clearly, if the young Emirati joining the workforce is going to feel comfortable and supported in deciding to join the private sector, there needs to be some action taken to counter the existing preconceptions that prevail amongst most family members and the wider community and to increase the overall familiarity and support for the private sector. The need for the private sector in general to demonstrate greater social and cultural sensitivity was mentioned in the literature by Al Ali (2008) and seems to point towards a deep seated challenge for the private sector. This broad concern is aligned with the idea of employees needing to feel able to engage as a prerequisite to

becoming effective employees (Macey et al, 2009).

The interview questions then focused on the availability of support from more formal sources, such as the government, the education sector and the employers. The low level of family and community support for a decision to join the private sector may not be so significant if the education system and government policies are working

effectively. The education system provided the most frequently mentioned source of guidance from the formal sector. This guidance included work experience arranged by the Higher Colleges of Technology for their students. However, there appears to be little or no formalised career counselling provided by the sector and certainly nothing that provides specific advice in respect of the private sector. It is clear that the

institutional infrastructure has to change if it is to help create an environment that supports a prospective Emirati employee looking to enter the private sector, envisaged in the paper by Al Ali (2008) and seen in Oman (Al Lamki, 2005). The full extent of this problem was illustrated when Participant 1 recalled that when one of his college mates was looking to join a bank after having studied HR Management - his career adviser commented “why are you going there if you want to work in HR”! Improving the level of knowledge and support available would appear to be an essential requirement of the overall government initiative to encourage more Emiratis into the private sector, and it is in the interests of the private sector employers to help.

78 The efforts made to date by private sector employers to develop more interest amongst students also appear largely inadequate when compared to the scale of the issues described above. Most of the perceptions concerning the various types of work and the different types of employers were constructed from the experiences and comments of family and friends. Only a small number of interviewees had joined the banking sector as a result of a presentation from one specific organisation looking to recruit, whereas Participant 11 was the only one that had seen anything that was organisation neutral. However, he was not happy with the message being portrayed as it focused on very basic and immediate issues such as pay:

“…they had this big meeting and gathered all the students in the auditorium and talked to them that banking is a good place to be, private sector is better than government sector, government sector do have more days off, they do have better timing, but not that very good salaries, banking has better salaries, better income, bonuses, all those things financial wise and they were literally saying to us, if you are going to go into banking with your current degree and no experience you are not going to get less than AED25,000 at the start.”

This shows that insufficient effort is being made by the private sector in general to reach out to inform school and college leavers, and that what little is happening remains anchored to the idea that hygiene considerations are paramount. Little or no reference is made to such things as the value of the work on offer, the career

development opportunities available or the nature of the working environment. More informative and better targeted career events could help address the need for greater awareness and the current lack of institutional support.

Clearly if the private sector wishes to attract more Emiratis in the future, employer organisations and the education sector will have to make a greater effort to explain the opportunities available and the working conditions therein and to tackle the social, cultural, religious concerns expressed above. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the research found that the informal sources of information and support are considered more important to the Emirati new entrant to the workforce than formal provision, thus prioritising the need for more constructive engagement in the wider community. As mentioned above, this point was also highlighted strongly in the bank’s survey (Appendix 3).

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