Dissertation
CHAPTER SIX
Interpretations, Conclusions, and Recommendation
This chapter contains seven sections. The first section presents a summary of the study’s results. This is followed by the conclusions, implications for theory, implications for practice, discussion of results, and recommendations for future research.
Summary of Result
The purpose of the study was to identify HR practices and factors that affect employee retention in the United Arab Emirates with emphasis on public organizations in a comparative approach between Sharjah and Dubai. To accomplish this task, both quantitative and qualitative been approached. A non experimental survey, using a semi-structured interview was employed as the primary instrument to collect data. This was supplemented with a questionnaire and interviews using focus groups.Based on the result of the study, answers to the research questions are discussed below:
Question 1
How do HR practices affect employee retention in UAE public sector organizations?
The research’s objective is to determine the various functions conducted by the human resources who affect the retention and satisfaction of employees within an organization. The questionnaire questions touched on aspects like style of leaderships, appraisal systems, compensation, and the environments of the workplace, decentralization aspects, and strategies of development, training, and retention. From the responses given, the research was able to provide a clear understanding of these factors in relation to how they affect employees. These findings could then be used in understanding the practices of the human resources which are related to the retention of employees in public organizations.
The participants of the study, who are the representatives of Sharma organizations, have responded to questions based on market labor, practices of HR and organizations culture. Their responses gave a clear indication of how the practices of the HR affect the satisfactions of employees and their subsequent retention in the organizations. The major aspects that affect an employee according to the research findings are aspects like job security, job description, and job profile. The desires of most employees are decentralization and reduced hierarchy in the workplace. They are also in need of empowerment and accountability in the areas of work. This means that they require specialized training (Barber & Bretz, 2000; Chiu et al, 2001; Rynes and Gerhart, 2000).
On the current management practices and style, the employees were in need of change. Work place environment should be suitable to the needs of the employees. This ensures that employees can perform better reduce absenteeism and reduce the rate of employee turn over. Such an environment should be safe and not a health hazard to employee. The results from the interviews carried out on Sharjah government organizations show that a workplace environment should place great importance on the employee growth culture and for office space. The desire of the employees is to have an organizational culture and environment while facilitates personal growth. This means a given job responsibility given to an employee is that which facilitates his personal developments and growth. Such an environment will enable the employee to have a sense of responsibility as well as motivation to work to his / her level best. The work environment according to most of the participants was unsatisfactory. One of the participants comments that this environment is weak because the building capacity of the company is not based on future goals. They are also a lack of a pleasant environment to work in such s the office spaces, narrow corridors and uncomfortable setting.
On the work place culture, the participants called for the need of accountability on cultural and socio-economic and political aspects because of the employee varying culture. The culture of a country has direct influence on the organizational culture based in that country. Many of the Sharjah organizations have overlooked the cultural aspects among them. Corporate culture affects the retention of employees into that organization this means that the organization needs to determine the suitable culture for the sake of retaining employees. The research participants gave information to show that the workplace culture is not highly satisfactory but need formulation of strategies for improvement. This will ensure the satisfaction of employees to the work they are performing in that given organization. Culture alongside aspects like job description, job responsibilities and job profile should be satisfactory to the needs of employees so that they can be retained in the job.
What factors influence employee retention within UAE organizations?
Lack of empowerment and management style are some of the factors that influence the retention of employees all over the worlds and within UAE organizations. A business management style that is autonomous operates independently in aspects of costs and profits, the process of decision making which makes them not accountable to the top organizations executive members but to the manger at that particular unit or division. There managers have their responsibility of ensuring effectiveness and success of that particular region. An organization structure can therefore be decentralized or centralized. Many organizations differ in style of leadership which can be authoritarian, participatory or a delegating style. Many of the participants in the research stated that the main style of leadership is the centralized style of management.
Only few of the participants reported that the management style was decentralized. The one under the centralized form of leadership required a change to a decentralized form of leadership. This would enable them have a sense of responsibility, given them the power to make decisions and to be involved ion the decision making process within the organization. For example one of the participants was against the need of seeking approval for seeking leaves from general department director and he proposes that such approvals should be left to the HR director. Such a move will enable fast operational of an organizations activities as well as the creation of commitment within the HR system. Other forms of delegation of roles can include giving the decision making to an account department when there is need to make petty cash transactions. A centralized form of management restricts employees from being creative and provides them with minor liberty to make their own decisions. Low job satisfaction is also contributed by a work place which has low autonomy.
Management style also influences job productivity, commitment and satisfaction on the type of leadership style used by an organization shows various managerial behaviors, attitudes, and skills characteristics. Performance appraisal is also another aspects which influences employees satiation. The participants requested for programs of appraisal and assessment which should have well communicated basis. If the basis and standard of these programs are not well articulated the employees will be affected by them having a feeling that they are not driven logically. Through appraisal program an employee can evaluate themselves and come up with ways of improving their performance. If these performance programs receive negative feedback from employees, they will always think of quitting the job.
Another aspect that the participants raised in on the effect of discrimination among supervisors when evaluating performance. This is a factor that would negatively y impact on work eon those employees who are not favored. Another call that the participant s made were on the activity of the HR which should focus on communicating in an effective way on the performance evaluation of employee. The HR team should maintain clarity and be carried out on a continuous basis. Such a strategy will keep on reminding the employee on the organizational goals. .
How do HR practices affect employee commitment and job satisfaction in UAE public sector organizations?
UAE organizations have portrayed aspects of discrimination and biasness which have given companies images making employees to resign. the role of the HR is therefore to ensure there is just and fairness in handling all the needs of the employees the HR personnel have the responsibly of enhancing proper salary and wages are given to employees. This depends on the work level and amount of job done. The HR department can also come up with a reward system which is systematic and fair so as to support the organization’s norm and culture of equity(Lobel & Kossek, 1996).. The critical aspect in satisfying the needs of employees is to provide them with a job design and job description which they are contented with. The compensation system should also be just and fair as required by the research participants. This means that there should be a salary scale to show that one is paid according to ones own job performance.
The UAE participants also gave the point that most organizations lack compensation benefits like lack of air ticket allowance, housing allowance, telephone allowance among many other aspects. Also in terms of bonus, the service civil law in Sharjah is not enough even to masters degree holders. Other benefits which lack according to some of the respondents were health insurance in the organizations. This therefore makes employees in Sharjah organizations to feel insecure if they are working to cater for their own bills even during emergency periods. This is not the case compared to organizations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
According to Deloite survey, the only way to attract and retain desired work force is to the Human recourse department should plan for the future needs of employees and provide sufficient initiatives to attract the right personnel. The research participants called for the need of establish a human resource department within their organizations which will plan for their present and future needs. They representatives also wanted their staff to be taught the difference between the administration management and the human resource management. Therefore the participants stressed the importance of having a HRM in their organizations for the sake of retaining the employees and attracting highly qualified individuals.
The participants also called for leaders who would lead the employees to the right direction. This means that even the HRM leaders should be highly qualified individuals who are committed to the needs of the staff; thus giving the organization in EAU positive aspects tom move forward. The HR departments should also be responsible in providing training to employees. Many of the participants reported that most organizations do not offer training to employees. This therefore limits the development and growth f an n individual employee. For the organizations to start training it s employees they first have to carry out assessment to weigh the points which require to be addressed within the organization(Medcof, Rumpel, 2007).
Limitations and future research
Several limitations need to be identified in this study. The first is that the participants in this research were not representative of all UAE employees. The entire sample, for instance was drawn from the government sector. This means that the results might not be transferable to employees in the private sector. Because this was a study undertaken in the government sector, it focused on a workforce cohort comprised predominantly of UAE nationals. This study focused on the UAE partly because of the lack of research on employee retention in the United Arab Emirates. Whilst this study contributes new knowledge, we cannot assume that the findings can be generalized to other Arab Muslim countries. It is important to recognize the cultural differences which impact on people’s attitudes; differences between countries in implementing Islamic Shariah law; differing local Arab traditions;
as well as the diverse economic and policy contexts which shape the nature of the workplace, and in particular the participation of women in the workforce.This research is limited to a few representing United Arabs emirates workplace organizations. The research only considered six volunteering organizations both in Dubai and Sharjah. Only aspects which have been studied in the research are on employee retain within the organizational and national culture within the context of UAE. This means that the research’s scope is only based on a limited investigations .this is also a challenge because there are very little literature on UAE work place and how the organizations facilitate employee retention. For future reach, the findings of this research may not be applicable to some of the government organizations because they may not agree to use the same methods applied in this research.
The limitations and strengths of this research can be guidelines when conducting future research efforts in this or related topics. One of the best strategies that can be applied in future is the use of an expended model to other related and relevant variables such as orientation strategy, leadership style management and the firm’s business strategy. For future research, it is advisable to consider aspects such as flexible work environment, employee’s empowerment especially the women workforce in UAE and practices of the HR for prompting retirement of employees and attracting highly qualified individuals. The main opportunities that future research can focus on is on documenting a research design with appropriate measures on ways of establishing practices of the HR which influences employee retain in the UAE countries. There is also need to consider a wider representative number in future research.The second aspects that future research should examine are on this study’s rasaarach hypotheses with longitudinal and case study designs. This would be as subject on small scale study will present a comparisons of HR performance of different organizations at different time before we conclude on the positive and negative aspects by the HR which influence employee relation and thus reduction of employee turn over.
Implication for theory
In the study of employee turn over, it is required to study the relationship between voluntary turn over and the performance of the organization. The main focus in this research is on the performance of the HR and how these factors contribute to employee turn over. The empirical study has managed to address the ways of enhancing practiced of the HR which will foster talent attraction and retirement of employees. The research is based on identifying the HR factors and practices which affect employee retention among public c organizations in United Arab Emirates. The second aspect was to establish what the HR can do to enhance employee retention and talent attraction. The research questions how do HR practices affect employee commitment and job satisfaction in UAE public sector organizations? What factors influence employee retention within UAE organizations? And how do HR practices affect employee retention in UAE public sector organizations? Are based on
The research study conceptual framework that has design and theory principles with employee committed are and systems of high performance. The two variables in this study are the Sharjah and Dubai public organizations. The model of this research is to consolidate the two variables and identify the relationship between them. The literature variable that build this theoretical framework are aspects like job satisfaction, HR practices, leadership, retention, organizational culture and labor markets. The lager role of satisfying the employees is by the HR who will in turn be committed to the responsibilities of ether work. (Wilson, 2000, Hokey, 2007) This is how the organization will end up retaining the employees. The main directions that this research theory suggest to the whole research is that; on employee retention, aspects such as leadership, job satisfaction ,and organizational commitment will be considered. Secondly, employee turnover can also be studied in consideration the influence of the practices HR and the effect of labor market on employee turnover.
Contributions to organizational practices and policy
The research suggests that it is important to consider leadership style as a threat for labor in the UAE government workplace. Without devaluing the current effort of the UAE government to support leaders, the wealth of information gained from this research should provide the foundation for managers and policy makers to recognize that it is the responsibility of government to protect workers from intention to leave in the most effective manner possible.Furthermore, the research has offered practical and theoretical significance in the provision of information that has helped in the understanding of the practices of HR which affect the retention of employees. The study of the two variables, will contribute to the improvement of the rates of employee relation among the United Arab Emirates public organizations. Moreover, the understanding and the identification or the critical variables in the practices of HR and job association with organizational commitment and job satisfaction is also learned from the research. This will therefore improve employee retention among the public organizations in Dubai and Sharjah at broader level. This is due to increased organizational commitment and job satisfaction among employees leading to organizations retaining them.
Conclusion
This research has managed to present the needed aspects and that the HR has to perform in the UEA public organizations so as to retain employee. High rate of employees turn over is expensive to an organization. The role of the HR is to satisfy the needs of the employees through the provision of trainings, rewards systems, equality and benefit among other things so as to create employee commitment to the job and thus reducing the rate of employee turn over.
Reference
Medcof, Rumpel, 2007
Wilson, 2000, Hokey, 2007
Barber & Bretz, 2000; Chiu et al, 2001;
Rynes and Gerhart, 2000
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