Managing Expats and Their Effectiveness: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Abstract Objective: This paper investigates how expatriates and UAE citizens understand the effectiveness of expats’ performance and significance in the workplace. In addition, it explores the difficulty of managing expats to achieve operational excellence. Methodology: A questionnaire was sent to over 1000 subjects whose feedback was analysed using descriptive statistics. A t-test has been used for the inferential part whenever requirements allowed it; in case this was not possible, a Mann-Whitney U test was used. Findings: The results of the conducted statistical analysis suggest that expats think it is difficult to be managed in the UAE compared to the locals who find it relatively easy to manage them. Furthermore, expats believe their effectiveness as a distinct competency to organizations is much higher compared to UAE citizens. Value Added: The results of the conducted statistical analysis point some important conclusions about the way that expats and local Emiratis view differently in managing expats and effectiveness of expats. Recommendations: A further research of this study can be done by examining various types of firms and organizations, by distinguishing them based on their provided services. Comparison among the 7 emirates could also be examined. Comparison between the views of different nationalities of the expats would be very interesting. Other parameters to be examined include age, educational level, nationality (or country of origin), and marital status of the participants.