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Human resource
Human resource diversity diversity
in the United Arab Emirates:
empirical study
15
Abdulfattah Yaghi
Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Received 7 March 2012
United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain City, United Arab Emirates, and Revised 25 October 2012
Accepted 19 December 2012
Ihsan Yaghi
International Arab Islamic Bank, Amman, Jordan

Abstract
Purpose – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the few countries where nationals make up less
than 20 percent of the total population and less than 2 percent of the workforce. Hence organizations in
the public and private sectors are highly diverse in terms of their employees’ nationality, language,
religion, race, and gender. The purpose of this paper is to examine how employees perceive human
resource diversity and what they consider successful diversity to be.
Design/methodology/approach – The main research instrument is a questionnaire which
measures diversity in human resources. Exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression, and
descriptive statistics were used in order to analyze 795 survey responses.
Findings – The findings reveal that perception of human resource diversity in the UAE vary by
employees’ gender, educational level, nationality, professional experience, job level, previous experience
in diverse workplace, and second language competency. Analysis of employees’ responses helped to
construct a four-factor model, which can be utilized to improve diversity practices in organizations.
Research limitations/implications – Although the literature on the UAE is limited, the study
proposes four factors needed to achieve perceived successful diversity practices: legal, personnel,
bureaucratic, and political factors. Researchers are encouraged to use comparative approaches to test
the proposed model.
Originality/value – The study offers important insights for researchers and practitioners of human
resource management in the UAE.
Keywords United Arab Emirates, Diversity management, Organizations, Organizational change,
Emirate, Human resource management, Culture
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Diversity in human resource management in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an
important topic because of the continuous increase in the numbers of foreign
employees (expatriates) in the UAE who work in various economic sectors. In the past
20 years, the large population of expatriate employees made it extremely important for
organizational leaderships to look for new ways to manage their highly diverse
workforce. The demographic composition of the workforce in the UAE is unique, as
over three million expatriate employees coming from all parts of the world work side Education, Business and Society:
by side (Tanmia, 2006; Shah, 2006). In 2012, the expatriate workforce occupied over Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues
Vol. 6 No. 1, 2013
90 percent of the workforce in all the UAE economic sectors (Al-Jenaibi, 2012). The pp. 15-30
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
realities of workforce diversity oblige organizations to adopt human resource diversity 1753-7983
practices that are capable of maintaining a productive workforce. In other words, DOI 10.1108/17537981311314682
EBS human resource diversity should enhance organizational performance. Managing a
6,1 diverse workforce is essential to ensure human-related differences do not hinder the
achievement of organizational goals (i.e. productivity) (Rees et al., 2007; Yavas et al.,
2007; Syed, 2008; Syed and Ozbilgin, 2009).
In the UAE, studies show that modest actions to institutionalize diversity practices
have been taken. Basically, the government’s response has been limited to enacting new
16 policies that protect the rights of the national workforce, such as the Emiratization
policy. Large private organizations follow governmental policies, which stipulate that
all employees should be treated equally regardless of personal differences (Ahmad, 2011;
Human Rights Watch, 2006). Other private organizations deal with workforce diversity
based on a conflict management approach where the administration interferes only
when differences among employees ignite disputes or problems that can harm the
organization (Al-Jenaibi, 2012). However, with the influx of foreign employees and
the increasing rate of work-related conflicts, a need emerged in recent years for the
management of diversity issues by the government as well as by organizations (Al Amir
and Dajani, 2012; Saher, 2012; Faridi and El-Sayegh, 2006; Shaw et al., 2003).
The present study attempts to explore how employees themselves perceive
successful human resource diversity practices in their organizations. Because all sectors
in the UAE heavily depend on expatriate employees, it is imperative to map how
employees in general perceive diversity and how they interact with other co-workers
who differ, for example, in race, language, religion, health status, and gender.
Unfortunately, little has been written about diversity in the UAE or in the Arabian Gulf
region. Therefore, we know far less about employees’ perception of human resource
diversity practices in this part of the world than we know about it in other parts of the
world. The present study is an attempt to add new knowledge in this regard.

Theory and relevant literature

Diversity in organizational settings has two aspects: human and procedural. Diversity
as a human aspect refers to the existence of people who are different in terms of many
aspects, such as gender, race, ethnicity, language, color, country of origin religion, and
health status (Chan, 2011; White and Rice, 1996; Smith, 1994). Although accepting others
is the essence of diversity, human resource diversity practices require employees to not
only accept others who are different, but also to engage in work-related activities with
them by cooperating and teaming-up with them, all under equal conditions and equal
treatment by administration and law (Rachele, 2012; Foster and Harris, 2006; Bell, 1990;
Jamieson and O’Mara, 1991; Daniel, 1996; Downey, 1999; Cox, 1998).
Based on its human aspect, diversity refers to the “otherness” and “the qualities”
that different people have, although they might not be popular in the workplace
(Loden and Rosener, 1991; Steinberg et al., 1990; Roosevelt, 1990, 1991). Therefore,
researchers define diversity as a philosophy of inclusiveness of all individuals who
exhibit differences that are found in each one of us, such as disabilities and racial
minorities (Auman et al., 1996; Ezorsky, 1991; Gottfredson, 1992; Bearak and Lauter,
1991; Oguntebi et al., 2012).
The human aspects of diversity require certain practical procedures to translate the
philosophy of inclusion into practice. Hence, Roosevelt (1991), Dobbs (1996) and
Contreras (1994) operationalize the policy of human resource diversity as a collective
effort of managerial practices that starts with widening the pool of job applicants and
ends with empowering employees equally, and eventually improving the organization’s Human resource
overall productivity. After bringing in new employees from various backgrounds, the diversity
next goal will be adopting diversity practices that maintain a workplace hospitable to all
human differences and achieve equality of treatment for all employees (Daniel, 1996;
Downey, 1999; Cox, 1998; White and Rice, 1996; Al-Meer, 1989; Kuhen and Al-Busaidi,
2002; Waters, 1996; Light, 1999).
Contrary to quotas or set-aside methods, for example, diversity policy does not 17
reserve a specific quota or percentage of the workforce for a particular group of people
(Forstenlechner et al., 2011). Instead, it institutionalizes a set of managerial practices
that can, at a certain point, shape a new organizational culture around values, such as
equality, accepting others, tolerance, merit, and efficiency. Therefore, organizations can
develop their own organizational cultures that reflect their peculiar practices, yet the
same values on which diversity builds remain intact. Of course, creating an
organizational culture that shelters successful diversity practices can be complicated
because the nature of cultural practices are deeply rooted in employees’ consciousness;
thus, changing old practices in the organization may require rigorous efforts by
policymakers and top management to gradually change the value system in the
workplace (Schein, 1993, 2001). In other words, in order for diversity to become an
original part of the organizational culture, the organization itself needs to go through a
series of changes in the philosophy of its management.
In the UAE, federal regulations stipulate that protected rights for working women
should be ensured by all organizations. The same legal protection is ensured for
underage and handicapped persons (the UAE Federal Human Resource Law
No. 11/2008). Article 14 of the law explicitly explains the process of hiring people
with disabilities where federal agencies are required to recruit handicapped persons
based on professional merit. Those who possess the needed intellectual and physical
capacities to perform the minimum requirements of the job should be appointed,
regardless of their handicap. The law penalizes organizations that discriminate against
people with disabilities or fail to accommodate their needs. Aside from these specific
provisions of the law, people with disabilities are treated as other people, with no special
distinctions in terms of employment policies, such as orientation, appointment
procedures, work tests, promotions, retirements and resignation.
The law also includes additional articles about working women. Article 53-1 gives
working women a 60-day paid leave after giving birth. Article 53-2 allows women with a
new-born child (under four months old) to leave work for two hours per day to feed her
child. The law gives such women flexibility in choosing the time when they decide to
leave work; they can choose to come late to work by two hours, or leave work anytime for
the same period. In a related issue, the law in Article 54 gives fathers three-days paid
leave when their wives give birth to a child inside the country. Article 57 of the law gives
a “mourning” paid leave for working women who lose their husbands for a total of
130-paid days (four months and ten days).
In regard to expatriate employees, Articles 65 and 66 of the law stress that all
employees should be treated with high respect and to be treated equally in all professional
matters. Cultural and racial differences should be regarded as a source of wealth to the
organization. The law forbids any discrimination based on the race, ethnicity, religion, or
language of the employee.
EBS Based on the federal regulations, as explained in the UAE Federal Law of Human
6,1 Resources No. 11/2008, expatriates and nationals are treated the same except in specific
issues, such as financial compensation, housing, educational allowances, resignation, and
end of service gratitude. The differences stem from the fact that expatriate employees
establish their relationship with the organization based on contracts that have start dates
and end dates, while national employees have a constitutional right to the job (supported
18 by provisions of the UAE constitution). Therefore, there is a complicated process of
ending the employment of a national employee, while ending the service of an expatriate
only requires mutual agreement and fulfillment of all provisions of the signed contract.
The aforementioned laws are enforced in the private sector in addition to other laws.
For example, Federal Law No. 30/1996 indicates that because the UAE is a member of the
International Work Organization and has signed the “equal compensation” agreement,
all workers who perform similar tasks should be treated equally financially. In practice
though, because the number of expatriate employees exceeds that of national employees,
the UAE Government often subsidizes jobs for national employees. According to
Emiratization policy, for example, each organization should reserve a certain quota for
Emiratis (Ministry of Labor, 2011).
The Labor Law Nos 46 and 47/1980 makes it illegal for any private or public
organization to employ persons who are under 18 years old. The law explains that
under-age employment violates federal and state laws. Therefore, penalties are imposed
on underage-employment. In addition, women, according to the Labor Law No. 6/1981,
cannot be hired in certain jobs that expose women to explicit danger. This law lists
21 different jobs that are dangerous for women, such as working in mines, butcheries,
and metal formation factories. These laws apply to all nationals and expatriates equally.
As we see, the UAE Government realizes the importance of managing diversity as a
reality, which cannot be ignored. However, some laws exist to protect employment
rights for national Emiratis. For example, the Labor Law No. 43/2005 stipulates that at
least 4 percent nationals should be employed in every bank (public or private). The
Labor Law No. 42/2005 requires every insurance company to reserve 5 percent of its
jobs for national job seekers. The Labor Law No. 41/2005 mandates that commercial
companies that employ 50 employees or more should increase the number of national
employees by 2 percent every year. The Labor Law No. 544/2011 establishes a new
classification of organizations based on the number of Emirati employees hired in each
one of them. Organizations that rank high in employing Emiratis receive incentives
and favorable treatment by the government (Ministry of Labor, 2012).
Al-Jenaibi (2012) asserts that managing diversity is a challenge for organizations in
the UAE as result of the demographical imbalance in the country. She found that
30 percent of foreign employees in the UAE had reservations about some human
resource policies which their organizations have implemented. The study revealed that
over 65 percent of the foreign workforce was skeptical about the capacity of their
organizations to successfully implement diversity practices.
Forstenlechner et al. (2011) assert that the quota system imposed by the UAE
Government through Emiratization policies is not effective. The study shows that while
the government aimed at increasing the numbers of Emirati national employees in the
private sector, the mandated quota system does not lead to achieving this goal. The study
implies that in order for the quota system to work effectively, each organization should
first succeed in implementing targeted human resource diversity policies. Even when the
quota system is successful, the study adds, allocating specific quotas for particular Human resource
nationalities can lead to stigmatization of employees from that nationality. diversity
Methods
The goal of data collection and analysis in the present study is to answer the following
research question:
19
RQ1. What do employees perceive to be the requirements for successful
implementation of human resource diversity?
Therefore, the study aims to construct a model which reflects employees’ opinions
about the elements, or requirements that can improve diversity practices in their
organizations in the UAE. To this end, the following hypothesis will be tested:
H1. It is expected to find significant statistical correlations between employees’
perception of diversity and their demographical factors; age, gender,
education, nationality, experience, income, job level, sector, previous exposure
to diversity, and language skills.
The study adopted and modified a survey developed by the University of Oregon and
Maricopa County Community College District, USA (Maricopa Community College,
2007) and translated it into Arabic by using back translation method. The original
English version was translated into Arabic by a professional translator. The translation
then was translated back into English. Comparing the two English versions revealed
minimal differences, which made it an authentic translation process. The survey included
44 items that measure diversity on a five-point Likert scale. Demographical information
was also collected. The survey was distributed to 1,100 employees in 17 public and
private sector organizations in the UAE between February 2011 and March 2012.
Descriptive statistics are used to describe the study sample and summarize employees’
responses to the survey questions. Multiple regression is used to test the study
hypothesis and exploratory factor analysis is utilized to answer the research question.
A total of 795 surveys were completed and returned making a 72 percent return rate.
Although this percentage may appear low, it is mainly because many employees
responded to some questions and left out others. In order to ensure accurate analysis,
the researcher decided to exclude any questionnaire that was missing any single
response. Only questionnaires that were complete and returned on time were included
in the analysis. Public sector employees make up 48 percent of the sample. Gender
distribution indicates that female employees make up 41 percent of the sample. Table I
provides further description of the sample.

Findings and discussion

In order to test the study hypothesis, multiple regression is used, as shown in Table II.
Results indicate that the study hypothesis is valid where Model 3 shows that seven
variables influence employees’ perception about diversity within the public and private
sector organizations. These variables are gender, education, nationality, job level,
experiences with diversity, and second language skills. We can see here that gender is
important, maybe because men and women understand and interact with diversity in
their own ways (World Health Organization, 2006; Shaw et al., 2003). When employees
are highly educated, one would believe that their acceptance of others and their
EBS
Description %
6,1
Gender
Male 59
Female 41
Sector
20 Public sector 48
Private sector 52
Educational level
High school or lower 37
College/university 59
Masters or higher 4
Nationality
UAE 27
Arab (non-UAE) 18
European 7
Asian 39
African 2
North American 6
Latin American 1
Professional experience ( years)
1-5 25
6-10 38
11-15 20
16-20 10
21 or more 7
Income
Low income 21
Moderate income 64
High income 15
Job level
Ordinary job 72
Supervisory job 28
Previous exposure to diverse workforce
Yes 53
No 47
Table I. Second language skills
Summary of the Yes 79
study sample No 21

expectations of a diverse workplace might be different from those with lower

educational levels. A similar description might be true about those with long
professional experience and newly-hired employees. However, more studies should be
conducted to further understand this interaction between education and experience of an
employee on the one hand and his or her perception of diversity on the other hand.
Model 3 also indicates that employees’ level at work might be significant. If long work
experience was matched with exposure to working experiences in diverse workplace,
employees’ perception of diversity could be better understood. In particular, when
employees work with diverse workforce, they can be better accepting of continuing to
work with people who have different backgrounds. Yet, this assumption may not be true
unless more studies are conducted because bad experiences with diversity could easily
 Human resource
Independent variables Model l Model 2 Model 3
diversity
Gender 0.398 * (0.163) 0.310 * (0.261) 0.487 * (0.216)
Sector 0.063 (0.172) 0.114 (0.015)
Educational level 0.367 * * (0.261)
Nationality 0.715 * (0.528) 0.491 * (0.335)
Professional experience 0.611 * (0.310) 0.526 * (0.426) 21
Income 0.183 (0.142) 0.051 (0.027)
Job level 0.315 * * (0.281) 0.266 * * (0.183)
Exposure to diverse workforce 0.374 * (0.422) 0.423 * (0.214)
Second language skills 0.726 * (0.107) 0.0491 * (0.226)
Constant 20.723 13.225 26.51
Table II.
Adjusted R 2 0.421 0.374 0.448
Factors influencing
Notes: Significant at: *p , 0.10 and * *p , 0.05; cell entries are regression coefficients and standard employees’ perceptions
errors; for brevity only three models are listed of diversity

leave negative impact on employees’ attitudes and perceptions of diversity. In the UAE,
where Arabic, the official language, is spoken side by side with English, Urdu, Tamil,
and other languages, employees may need to show competence in at least one foreign
language besides their mother tongue. Al-Jenaibi (2012) reports that language is a vital
vehicle for effective communication among employees and it reduces misunderstanding
and tension in the organization. Thus, clear and effective communication can facilitate
employees’ diversity practices.
In order to answer the research question (How do employees perceive the requirements
for a successful implementation of human resource diversity?), the study utilized
exploratory factor analysis as shown in Table III. Because there is no solid theory to
explain human resource diversity or diversity in the UAE, exploratory factor analysis is a
suitable approach to find out factors that may shape human resource diversity in the UAE
(Bartholomew et al., 2008; Tabachnick and Fidell, 1996; Babbie, 2004). Exploratory factor
analysis enables us to identify the factors that describe perceived diversity in the
workplace in the UAE’s public and private sector organizations. Factor analysis also
provides evidence on the validity of the items of perceived diversity. An MSA value of
0.80 and above is utilized to determine the factorability of the data. Hence, the common
criterion with latent root (i.e. eigenvalue) determined as greater than 1 (.1) is used to
determine the number of extracted factors (for details on technicality of eigenvalue, please
see Hair et al., 1998).
Factor analysis revealed that 78.19 percent variance was explained in the rotated
factors. To identify the meaningful grouping associated with the 44 items from the
questionnaire, a component factor analysis with varimax rotation was used. Factor
analyzing all questions with loading greater than 0.30 resulted in the emergence of
four factors. All four factors have acceptable internal consistency measured by Cronbach’s
a, which ranged from 0.785 and 0.831. In order to better explain these results, Figure 1
shows the four factors in the form of elements that are needed to construct a model for
human resource diversity in the UAE.
The findings in Table III show that employees perceive four groups of requirements as
needed in their workplace in order to have successful diversity practices. These four
requirements are interconnected and peculiar to the UAE based on the findings of the
EBS
1 2 3 4
6,1
Human resource requirement, a ¼ 0.824
1 0.554
2 0.629
3 0.517
22 4 0.639
5 0.607
6 0.609
7 0.638
8 0.552
14 0.631
18 0.628
19 0.519
20 0.401
24 0.598
Bureaucratic/structural requirement, a ¼ 0.784
15 0.677
16 0.650
17 0.693
30 0.530
31 0.520
32 0.651
33 0.650
34 0.623
35 0.532
37 0.699
38 0.691
39 0.644
40 0.504
Legal requirement, a ¼ 0.758
9 0.646
10 0.530
11 0.600
12 0.674
13 0.613
36 0.639
Political requirement, a ¼ 0.831
21 0.658
22 0.609
23 0.463
25 0.572
26 0.687
27 0.663
28 0.607
29 0.595
41 0.610
42 0.628
Table III. 43 0.678
Results of factor analysis 44 0.611
 Human Resource Requirement Legal Requirement Human resource
diversity

23

Human Resource
Diversity Practices
Political Requirement Bureaucratic/structural
Requirement

Figure 1.
Diversity model: four
requirements to
implement human
resource diversity

factor analysis utilized in the present study (Figure 1). When employees were asked to
express their opinion about human resource diversity, they indicated that human
resources management practices should be compatible with three requirements, namely,
legal, political and structural. All diversity policies should broaden the pool from which
organizations recruit, promote, train, retain, and compensate qualified workforce. In other
words, the diversity-based human resource practices target different qualified candidates
within all stages of the employment processes. Here, the concept “qualified” means that
only those who are capable of effectively performing their tasks should be working in the
organization (Waters, 1996). Therefore, diversity does not mean hiring persons just to
fulfill the requirement of diversity, but rather hiring persons who are “different” and at the
same time possess “merits” that qualify them to be hired. For example, not all women, the
handicapped, and racial groups would automatically be hired in a given organization
solely because they are part of a diverse workforce (i.e. minority); but rather, only
qualified women, qualified handicapped, and qualified racial groups would be hired
based basically on their professional merits. Hence, merits become part of the value
system that guides organizational decision making and shapes organizational culture.
Once diversity becomes part of the culture of the organization, cultural elements
that celebrate human differences may emerge and become an integral part of the new
organizational culture (Mam, 1994; Palmer, 1989; Newton et al., 1996; Schauber, 2001a;
Buchanan, 2001). So, we can say that diversity practices change the values, norms, and
ways of doing things within the organization (Schauber, 2001b; Lewis, 1996;
Ezorsky, 1991; Yaghi et al., 2007; Waters, 1996). This happens because organizations
learn to focus on qualifications and merits, regardless of personal or group differences
(Sessa, 1992; Rice et al., 1996).
Maintaining diverse organizations requires legal mandates by which organizations
can change the internal conditions of the workplace. Figure 1 suggests that a legal
reference should be adopted prior to expecting successful diversity practices. This could
be a law or an executive order by the highest authorities. Laws such as the American
EBS Disability Act, the Civil Rights Acts, and the UAE Federal Human Resource Law
6,1 No. 11/2008 are ideal examples of major legal mandates that institutionalize diversity
practices (Ezorsky, 1991; The UAE Federal Human Resource Law No. 11/2008).
The political requirements in the diversity model (Figure 1) indicate a crucial
integration of the implementation of diversity policies and the political environment that
surrounds organizations, for several reasons. First, creating a new culture can be a political
24 process because diversity laws stress the interaction between organizations and those in
politics. The political environment in the society (outside the organization) can determine
the extent to which diversity practices in organizations are supported. For example, the
Emiratization policy in the UAE and other legislations that impose localization of
workforce, may affect the diversity policies being implemented in organizations.
The bureaucratic/structural dimension in Figure 1 explains that implementing diversity
may lead to causing changes in the structure of the organization. Major structures
may include structures of decision making, authority, division of units, and financial
structures. Laws, such as the UAE Federal Law No. 30/1996, which deals with equal
payment, once implemented will require the organization to establish units or departments
that manage and oversee equality payment in the organization. While some organizations
have structures that can be manipulated or adjusted, some other organizations may
host structures that are difficult to adapt to changes caused by adopting diversity practices.
Nevertheless, political and legal pressure forces the organization to make necessary
structural adjustments. For example, private organizations in the UAE have to hire Emirati
national employees in compliance with the Labor Law No. 41/2005. These organizations
may discover that national employees work only in administrative or supervisory jobs.
Therefore, organizations create new job titles and maybe new units where national
employees can be absorbed (Al-Jenaibi, 2012). In all cases, however, organizations may need
a gradual implementation of diversity in a manner that facilitates new patterns of
socialization and intra-organizational relations.
Bureaucratic distribution of power and authority should be redesigned in order
to energize diversity. Simon (1997) and Frederickson and Smith (2001) explain that
chain of command and supervisory styles in traditional bureaucratic structures tend
to be rigid and formal, while in diversity, the relationships between supervisors and
subordinates or between top-level managers and middle and lower-level managers
should be less formal. Compared to traditional structures, organizations with informal
authorities tend to emphasize adaptability and welcome organizational change.
When public and private organizations in the UAE comply with laws, such as the
Labor Law No. 6/1981 (dealing with women) and the UAE Federal Human Resource
law No. 11/2008 (dealing with the handicapped), more women and employees with
disabilities will enter the workforce. Consequently, we can expect that supervision and
decision-making methods in those organizations might change accordingly.
The personnel requirement is crucial to implementing diversity programs. In practice,
the legal, political, and bureaucratic provisions of the system guide human resource policies
(Figure 1) yet human resource practices are the observable features of diversity policies.
This is because they translate policies into actions and decisions into activities, thus they
connect theory and practice, and policymaking (planning) with organizational outcomes.
Department heads, top and middle level managers can improve employees’
acceptance of diversity by taking a micro level approach such as designing operational
policies that help their subordinates to cope with cultural changes in the workplace.
Therefore, it is essential to change departmental systems, such as recruitment and Human resource
promotion procedures and policies. In other words, top managements can deliberately diversity
institutionalize diversity by “planned, more encompassing, and more substantial kinds
of changes” that juxtapose cultural changes with organizational changes (Trice and
Beyer, 1993, p. 395). Some organizations in the UAE, however, may already have policies
that successfully embrace diversity. Others have more or less capacity to change old
organizational cultures and human resource practices. For the former, changes would be 25
partial and directed toward some parts of the organizational culture that exhibit some
departments, sections, or occupations (Trice and Beyer, 1993; Oguntebi et al., 2012). In
organizational settings, there are normally some units or jobs where employees are less
receptive to new values or practices, such as complying with the Labor Law No. 30/1996,
according to which some national employees may find it difficult to accept merit-based
wages regarding their salaries, a constitutional right that should not be equal with those
for expatriates. In such cases, top officials should create “lower-level leaderships” that
mentor and supervise the process of transition to diversity practices. In order to reconcile
changes, supervisors should also deal with the source of fear or threat, distrust, and
misunderstanding among employees that might hinder the emergence of a new
organizational culture, such as the fear or resentment of expatriate employees by
national employees in the UAE (Alvesson, 2002; Pettigrew, 1990).

Conclusion
Developments in UAE society have led to hiring large numbers of expatriate
employees from many countries. The workforce in the UAE, therefore, has become very
heterogeneous and imaginative approaches are needed to manage this highly diverse
workforce, wherein expatriates make up over 90 percent. Scholars in the UAE, as well as
in other countries, point out that better management of diverse workforce is needed to
achieve acceptable levels of productivity and to reduce labor conflict (Bearak and Lauter,
1991; Learson, 1998; Work, 1989; Morgan, 1997; Al-Jenaibi, 2012). It is essential to realize
how organizational cultures of the diverse workforce shelter values of tolerance for human
differences in age, gender, religion, ethnicity, and disability status (Tomasson et al.,
2001). Therefore, interest in studying diversity practices in the UAE emerges from the
need to bring equality to the workplace. This paper has discussed diversity from an
organizational culture perspective by examining employees’ opinions about successful
diversity practices in a workplace that has multi ethnic, religious, and racial identities.
The study asserts that employees have expressed different opinions about diversity
practices in their organizations. This finding means that diversity is a dynamic
phenomenon and employees with different backgrounds may perceive it differently (see,
Model 3 in Table II). Researchers and managers need to further examine diversity in the
UAE, to better assess how the following factors influence perceptions of employees
about diversity: gender educational level, job level, work experience, second language
skills, and possessing previous experience in working with diverse employees.
In addition, policymakers in the UAE are recommended to design human resource
policies that encourage organizations to recruit employees who have languages skills
and those who have better educational abilities. Learning Arabic is extremely important
as a common language of communication among all diverse employees. While English is
also used, knowing the Arabic language enables employees to better serve their clients
who speak Arabic.
EBS Respondents perceive successful diversity practices as a comprehensive system
6,1 that contains legal, political, structural/bureaucratic and human resources elements.
These elements are integrated into one theme of managing diversity (Figure 1).
Differently put, decision makers are recommended to make fundamental changes in the
way diversity practices are handled, in order to achieve good diversity management.
These changes may include:
26 (1) Policies and laws need to be revised so that a legal foundation for diversity is
established by reforming all regulations and enact laws that emphasize equality
among all employees and prospective employees regardless of any human
differences such as race or health condition. Therefore, Emiratization policies
and subsidized jobs and benefits for national employees need to be reformed in a
way that eliminates perceived inequality. Instead, new legal approaches can be
developed to ensure that national employees are protected against discrimination
practiced by expatriates or employers who prefer expatriates.
(2) Decision makers are recommended to invest in human resource training
to empower employees and help them realize their potentials. Merit-based
employment and professional development requirements are capable of enhancing
diversity while ensuring that nationals are not pushed away by the overwhelming
numbers of expatriate employees.
(3) New managerial approaches like flat management and mentoring leadership
should be adopted instead of rigid traditional hierarchal approaches. The new
approaches help larger groups of employees to participate in decision-making,
thus reflecting the diverse needs of the diverse workforce.
(4) Human resource practices should be aligned with the philosophy of diversity.
Therefore, human resource practices must include new ethical codes, new
systems for compensation and penalties, merit-based promotions, and
periodical mandatory training that ensure equality among employees from
different genders, educational levels, nationalities, and experiences.

In the future, researchers are recommended to empirically test the four systems in the
diversity model, which was introduced in the present study. A comparative approach
between public and private sectors may also be used.

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About the authors

Abdulfattah Yaghi is an Associate Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy in the
Department of Political Science at the United Arab Emirates University. He teaches in the Master
Program of Governance and Public Policy, as well as in the undergraduate program. Some of the
courses he teaches are Local Administration, Research Methods, Public Governance, Budgeting,
Public Policy, Policy Evaluation, and International Political Economy. He is the author of two
books, Public Policy: Theories and Applications and The Political System and Public Administration
in the United States of America. His research appears in journals such as Journal of Political Science
Education, Arab Journal of Administrative Sciences, Asian Journal of Social Sciences, Journal of
Public Affairs Education, Muslim Minorities Affairs, Dirasat, International Journal of Rural
Administration, Journal of Human Resource Development Quarterly, South Asian Journal of
Management, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Asian Journal of Management, Human
Resource Development Quarterly and International Review of Administrative Sciences.
Ihsan Yaghi has a PhD in Management and works as a Senior Banking Manager in Jordan.
Previously he worked in consultancy and human resource development in the Gulf region, the
USA and Jordan. His research interests include performance management, personnel, service
development, strategic management and planning, and balance-score card applications.

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