The Need for Performance Appraisal in the Uae Transport and Travel Industry

Introduction

Human resource management is the main determinant of employee performance in any organization (Wright et. al 2003). For effective management of employees, performance appraisal and management is a critical aspect in the human resource department.

With the increasing competition, the advancement of technology and the current global economic decline, government departments and organizations are changing their employee practices to save resources and at the same time increase productivity (Armstrong 2009). They are working towards improving employee productivity. Resources in organizations are currently moving from capital and asset holding to skills employees possess, their brand and intellectual capability. Thus, the research will aim at critically examining how performance appraisal will improve employee productivity and reduce disputes in the UAE transport travel industry.

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Statement of the problem Increased poor performance and low employee productivity in the government sectors is affecting the general economy of the United Arab Emirates governments. An increased employee within the transport industry calls for a critical evaluation and implementation of performance appraisal.

Research Objectives and Aims

The research will basically base on ways of improving UAE employees’ productivity through performance appraisal. It restricts its scope to government sector and issues affecting employees within their departments and in the general organization.

The research will also involve the government sector in the UAE.

Specific Objectives

To determine what is causing reduced productivity among employees
To identify areas of weakness within the government organization
To identify specific appraisal measures that the organizations are lacking
To suggest appropriate measures of realizing improved performance

Background and Significance

The United Arab Emirates is a federal association comprising of seven different countries in the Southeast of the Arabian Pensula. The Emirates has conserved customs, laws and business practices governed by Islamic beliefs.

It is known for well developed infrastructure and its transport and travel industry that extends to international levels and serves a wide range of nationals. This is because it adopts technologies of other foreign states and is improves its transport industry by expanding it internationally (Alrawi & Sabry, 2009. However, currently, employee disputes and strikes experienced in most of the emirate countries is rampant. This is common in the biggest and most famous Emirates such a Dubai and Sharjah.

Significance of the Study

The study will look at employee productivity as a factor of performance appraisal in the UAE government departments with an emphasis on the travel and transport industry of the UAE. The study will have significance both theoretically and practically. It improves the understanding of how performance appraisal of employees will increase their productivity and improve relations among employees and with their seniors in the UAE. It will also enable the government department to know which strategies they should put in place in order to attain employee job satisfaction, commitment and increased retention rates.

The problem of employee productivity is an area of limited research. The study will develop a theoretical framework for employee performance appraisal and productivity in relation to UAE policies.

Literature Review

Employee performance and levels of productivity determine profits of any firm. According to Heathfield (2008), organizations are aiming at seeking advantages, and for this reason she says, evaluation of workers performance is becoming the immediate area of target. She says that the management of employee performance is of advantage for both the employee and the employer.

She further states that, however the approach to the concept of performance appraisal may differ from one organization to another, the concept and its meaning still focuses on human capital as the most important asset in the organization. How the UAE transport industry has failed in embrace performance appraisal Emirisation policy (Nationalism) Emirisation policy aims at developing more workforce among the nationals of UAE through education systems, training and career development so as to reduce the number of non-nationals in the countries and encourage employment of the nationals (Rees Et. l, 2007). This in turn may affect performance of the non-national employees and may lead to unfair judgment of employee performance by the managers. Many organizations are embracing the policies, and in turn changing the managerial approaches of the firms (Mansour, 2008). Human resource practices such as recruiting procedures (Randeree, 2009) and employment strategies are affected as a result of the emirisation policy. For example the banking sector where employment of the nationals increased to 30% from 28% in the year 2005. Employee wage rates and prohibition of workers tribunal

Low wage rates and poor working conditions as a result of prohibit trade unions in the UAE, is a matter of concern and making headlines (Francis, 2008 ). This however involves discrimination of non-national workers from india, Plilistienes and Pakistan. The result of ignoring the human resopurse factor leads to disputes, strikes low employee production and damages the image of the organization. She states that the government intervenes to have more control on the employees; however, arresting workers who are fighting for their rights is uncouth.

Performance appraisal aims at looking into the affairs of workers which also involves changing policies as the economy also improves. Francis (2008) further states that employee strike also resulted from policies established in the past two decades that organizations were still using in determining the rates of payment entitled to workers. He says that in Dubai, striking was illegal and therefore, for workers to engage in it, having in mind the consequences, it means that they are responding to the industrial working conditions that would result to utter poverty.

The government in this case denies the workers certain rights and worsens it by detaining the demonstrators when they have no tribunals that they could rather have gone to and negotiated with the government. Dubai is known for its advanced air services, transport and tourism. However, labour issues as a result of employee wage rates are also a rising issue of concern. Shaibany (2011) writes an article on employee strike as a result of less pay. In is report he says that two hundred employees of Oman air went on strike following their demand for increase in pay. This is just after another incident in the North of jobs and wages.

He say says that however, the flight staff did not strike, that the ground staff. Although this had no effect on flights for that day, the issue of employee performance is still an issue of concern. The issue of remuneration is also affected by gender inequality. In some cases in the UAE, female employees have been legally considered to earn less income than their male counterparts irrespective of their abilities and commitment (Tanmia, 2005). This has a direct effect to their performance. National Culture and traditions Arab traditions do not for provide elections in the political system of the UAE.

The culture is based on previous generations, National and regional culture, gender and social organizational cultures that in turn have an effect on work values (Abubakr, 2006). Regional influence is more diverse than the rest. Religion, language and historical factors affect organization retention and employee satisfactions which are among the goals that performance appraisal aim at. Pawan et al. (2006) argue that the economic and political importance in the middle East are the areas of interests and therefore, this over shadows the development of human resource management literature.

This, he says, affects performance in the business sectors which largely contribute to the general economy. That poor economic growth as a result of assuming the human resource capital of the organization is affecting the standard of living of people in the region. Goel (2008) explains how a performance appraisal interview puts the employee in a better position to communicate their views and opinions, to identify their weaknesses and knows areas which require improvement and adjustments. He states that this improves communication within the organization and motivates workers to improve themselves.

Goel notes that different organizations conduct the appraisal exercise at different times, others yearly or twice a year. However, he suggests that unscheduled and informal exercises are better and more useful. The United Arab Emirates is experiencing a commendable growth in the economic sector and is embracing technology from foreigners at a high rate. According to (OECD 2010), the government aims at capacity building. The government is now moving form the traditional system of personnel management that has less professionalism and is routine oriented to a human resource management system which focuses on performance.

OECD states that human resource management focuses more on employees as recourse to the organization and not a tool. This therefore means that, their performance is a priority to the organization as well as their well being, which the organization ensures by providing them with favorable working conditions while balancing its advantage.

Organization Culture

Recognition is one of the factors that ensures employee satisfaction and enables them to stay in a given job for a longer period (Buckingham & Coffman, 1999).

Many organizations in the United Arab Emirates transport industry, especially in Dubai and Sharjah, perceive manager as the best and expect employees to simply follow instructions and work. Practices within organizations in relation to economic policies and strategies are also an issue. Beer and Ruh in Vroom (1990) managing people state the use of Management by Objective (MBO) system as an important in instilling accountability on the part of workers other than just improving their personal qualities.

Beer and Ruh further explain that many managers and top executives dislike judging their subordinates on how they work as a way of ensuring that everyone is working towards the goals of the organization. However, he says, this is the most Important role of the managers within the organization to ensure that all efforts are directed towards achieving a common goal of the organization. Some managers fear giving negative results o employee analyses when they need to so as to enable the employee improve on the areas of weaknesses. Likely, some are ignorant of employee reactions and interpersonal situations as they focus on results alone.

Such managers, he says, do not care about the employee and at times will communicate the results in a manner to frustrate them, which is not ethical. Research methods and design The research will use secondary data from available literature that is books and internet sources. The research will also use survey methods in collection of data by use of survey questionnaires to employees and employers at different job posts. Semi-structured interviews will also be involved. The research will include qualitative technique to gather analysis and concepts and quantitative technique to gather numerical data (Punch 2005)

Research Design

The purpose of the research is to investigate the need for performance appraisal in the transport and travel industry in Dubai. The study will based on employees and employers responses regarding the objective of the need for performance appraisal in the industry. The researcher will adopt an exploratory study design. An explanatory approach will also be used in explaining the relationship between variables. Research deliverables/potential values/expected outcomes The research will provide managerial information for managing human resource that will enable organizations in the transport industry to increase employee productivity.

This is of value to both employers and the workers. The research expects that the outcome will give relevant areas of weakness that management require applying employee performance appraisal and effectiveness of this procedure to the general organization. Limitations of the research Dubai is an Arab speaking country which only embraced English for business and commerce purposes. The researcher therefore is likely to face the problem of language barrier among the nationals. Not all nationals are used to English and if so, not fluent English. This will be a limiting factor in the case of interviews.

Being a Muslim country, religious barriers are likely. Cultures like restricted closeness with respondents of the opposite sex and way of dressing as restricted by the respondents’ religion might be a limitation during the research. Collection of information from respondents of a different gender will pose a challenge to the researcher. Nationality and race of the researcher might be a possible limitation in the research. Respondents may fear to respond to questions or get close to the researcher because of racial barrier and different nationality. Organization policy in the foreign country will limit research and collection of information.

Organization management might refuse to cooperate by restricting employees from participating in the data collection. Ethical Implications The research will observe quality in information and findings, encouraging no faulty or defrauding information from the participants of the research. It will also ensure safety of the participants is taken into consideration with equal assurance to them of confidentiality and non disclosure of their information details. The researcher will present confidential forms to this effect which he will sign and the respondent will sign too.

Quality of information will be ensured by collecting information from direct victims of performance appraisal (employees).

Bibliography

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2. Alrawi, K. , & Sabry, K. (2009). E-commerce evolution: A Gulf region review. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 4(5), 509 – 526
3. Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practices (11th ed. ). London: Kogan Page Limited. Buckingham, M.,
4. Coffman, C. (1999). First, break all the rules: What the world’s greatest managers do differently.
5. New York: Simon ; Shuster. Francis. V, (2008). Dubai Labor Fighting Back Vs. Indentured Globalization. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from GOEL, D. (2008). Performance appraisal and compensation management. New Dehli, Prentice-Hall of India.
6. Heathfield, S. M, (2008). Why organizations employ performance evaluation. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. (2010). Progress in public management in the Middle East and North Africa: case studies on policy reform. Paris, OECD
7. Pawan S. B, ;Mellahi,K. (2006). Managing Human Resources in the Middle East. Routledge Punch, F. (2005). Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. London: Saga Publications Randeree, K. (2009). Strategy, policy and practice in the nationalisation of human capital: Project Emiratisation. Research ; Practice in Human Resource Management 17(1), 71-79.
8. Rees, C. , Mamman, A. , ; Bin Braik, A. (2007). Emiratization asa strategic HRM change initiative: Case study evidence from a UAE petroleum company. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(1), 33-53.
9. Shaibany, S. (2011). Oman Air employees strike for higher wages.
10. Tanmia, 2004. Emiratisation in the Banking Sector: Factors Influencing Success and Failure: The National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority: Centre for Labour Market Research and Information. Human Resource development and employment Authority. Dubai: United Arab.
11. Emirates Vroom, V. H (1990). Manage people, not personnel: motivation and performance appraisal. Boston, MA, HBS Press. Wright, P. , ; Kehoe, R. (2008). Human resource practices and organizational commitment: A deeper examination. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 46(1), 6-20.

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