Voicing perceptions of local job seekers and employees toward workforce nationalization and employment
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2022-0178 |
| Published date | 27 December 2022 |
| Date | 27 December 2022 |
| Pages | 615-636 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Tamer H. Elsharnouby,Heba Younis,Said Elbanna,Nasrina Mauji |
Voicing perceptions of local job
seekers and employees toward
workforce nationalization
and employment
Tamer H. Elsharnouby
Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business and Economics,
Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
Heba Younis
London South Bank University, London, UK
Said Elbanna
Center for Entrepreneurship and Organizational Excellence,
College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar, and
Nasrina Mauji
College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
Abstract
Purpose –This study explores local Qatari job seekers’and employees’perceptions of the workforce
nationalization strategy to address an inadequacy in the workforce nationalization literature in Gulf
Cooperation Council countries. It also unpacks the factors that attract or discourage local job seekers and
employees when considering a new job.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected through in-depth interviewswith 28 local job seekers
who were either currently unemployed or employed and seeking another job at the time of the interviews.
Findings –The data revealed that nationals perceive Qatarization as a means to replace expatriate employees
with nationals, particularly in the public sector and leadership positions. This misinterpretation of the strategy
leads to complications, such as the waithood phenomenon and a sense of entitlement for guaranteed
employment. The findings also provide insights into nationals’attitudes toward employment, including job
attraction and discouraging factors.
Research limitations/implications –The results provide policymakers with insights into the
misinterpretation surrounding nationals’perceptions of workforce nationalization and remedies for better
implementation of the strategy.
Originality/value –The study addresses two clear gaps in the workforce nationalization literature:
(1) examining how nationals perceive the workforce nationalization strategy and (2) unpacking the factors that
make employment attractive or unfavorable for nationals.
Keywords Workforce nationalization, Qatarization, Attitude toward employment, GCC countries, Qatar
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The discovery of vast supplies of natural gas reserves led to unprecedented economic growth
in Qatar, effectively increasing the demand for both skilled and unskilled labor (Berrebi et al.,
2009). However, as with the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the economic
boom in Qatar resulted in a deficiency in the labor supply because Qatari nationals were
Perception of
local job
seekers and
employees
615
This paper was made possible by the NPRP grant # [12S-0311-190314] from the Qatar National Research
Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the
authors.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 16 April 2022
Revised 20 October 2022
6 December 2022
Accepted 6 December 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 45 No. 3, 2023
pp. 615-636
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-04-2022-0178
unable to match the demand, especially within the private sector. Foreign workers account
for approximately 73% of the workforce population in Qatar, second only to the UAE in the
Middle East (Budhwar et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the GCC countries have never embraced the
idea of alleviating labor shortages through mass citizenship schemes, citing fears that such
programs can disrupt the prevailing social fabrics (Alsahi, 2020).
As with the rest of the GCC countries, Qatari policymakers perceived an increasing reliance on
foreign labor and a shortage of suitablyskilled local workers as a threat to the country’s long-term
economic stability. Foreign labor employment is advantageous and costly for GulfStates (Muftah,
2012). Although the benefits of importing foreign labor are apparent, the explicit and implicit costs,
including the mobilization and repatriation of labor, massive remittance, additional spending on
education and health services, housing, roads, communications and other infrastructure-related
elements, are more challenging to calculate. Consequently, initiatives for workforce nationalization,
defined as a model of lowering expatriate employment by increasing national employment
(Randeree, 2012), have become one of the most important and pressing policy agendas in the GCC
countries (Elbanna, 2022;Hodgson and Hanson, 2014). As a workforce nationalization initiative,
Qatarization is meant to provide permanent employment to Qatari citizens in both the public and
private sectors. Several governmental institutions promote Qatarization as a national strategy that
enables the development of a competent local workforce through education and training.
From a theoretical point of view, this research makes two contributions to the workforce
nationalization literature in GCC countries. First, considerable attention in the workforce
nationalization literature in GCC countries has focused on the implementation challenges and
determinants of the effectiveness of the strategy from the employer’s perspecti ve (Al-Ali, 2008;
Forstenlechner et al., 2012;Forstenlechner and Mellahi, 2011;Rees et al.,2007). However, despite
the criticalrole of local job seekersand employees in theeffective implementation of workforce
nationalization, the literature remainssalient regarding how they perceive the strategy. Thus,
this study fills this knowledge gap by exploring the perceptions of job seekers and employees
regarding workforce nationalization. This investigation is expected to open the door for
policymakers to identify misconceptions about the strategyand its related complicationsand
inform theirremedies for better implementation.
Second, previous studies have identified an implicit social contract between the state in GCC
countries and local citizens, through which the government guarantees their employment and
provides them with secure and well-paid public jobs in exchangefor their loyalty (Alfarhan and Al-
Busaidi, 2018;Forstenlechner and Rutledge, 2010;Mellahi, 2007). Locals misinterpret this social
contract and, consequently, tend to be reluctant to accept employment in the private sector (Tlaiss
and Al Waqfi, 2020). Several previous studies in the GCC region have reported that locals prefer
public sector employment (Al-Asfour and Khan, 2014;Al-Waqfi and Forstenlechner, 2012;
Forstenlechner et al., 2012;Forstenlechner and Rutledge, 2010;Randeree, 2012), without unpacking
the key factors that characterize attractive versus unfavorable employment, which represents a
shortcoming in the workforce nationalization literature. As such, this study contributes to the
limited conceptual and empirical research on locals’career expectations and career choice behavior
in the GCC countries.
Against this background and given the research gaps noted thus far, our study
investigates the following key research questions:
RQ1. How do local Qatari job seekers and employees perceive the workforce
nationalization strategy?
RQ2. What factors attract or discourage local Qatari job seekers and employees when
considering a new job?
Our study analyses and discusses the perceptions and image of the strategy among
individuals whom the strategy targets to integrate into the workforce. It also explores the
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