Comparative Analysis of Human Resource Management in UK and UAE

This report provides a comparative analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It begins by outlining the political and economic frameworks of both countries, including their industrial relations and transnational issues....Read More

Human
Resource
Management
– A
Comparison of
UK and UAE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

UK Polity
– The political framework of the United Kingdom is that of a constitutional
monarchy and it is based on the system of a parliamentary democracy
– The United Kingdom is a geographic region that is divided into as many as four
different constituent parts – England, Scotland, Wales and the Northern part of
Ireland (Rosamond, 2018).

UK Economy
– The economy of the United Kingdom is an open and advanced capitalist
economy (Waite & Morgan)

Property Boom in the UK

National Industrial Trade
Relations in the UK
– A quarter of the employees in the United Kingdom are members of trade
unions (Richards & Sang, 2019).
– Only one Union Federation is seen to exist in the UK, which is known as TUC
(Richards & Sang, 2019).
– Individual Unions in the UK are entirely independent (Collings et al., 2018).
– Less than one third of the work force in the United Kingdom happen to be
covered by the process of collective bargaining (Brewster et al., 2018).

Trans-National Issues in the
UK
– United Kingdom and Spain are currently engaged in a dispute over their
occupation of the Strait of Gibraltor
– The United Kingdom has recently been challenged by a huge influx of refugees
from countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Syria and Iran, among others (Richards
& Sang, 2019).

Human Resource Practice in
the UK
– HR Practices in the UK comprise of the following –
– Recruitment of employees based on the evaluation of CV and communication
skills
– training and development of employees
– Employee counselling
– Management of remuneration
– (Collings et al., 2018).

Analysis of UK based on Fox
(1966)’s theory of Unitarism
– In the view of Alan Fox, a unitary state is characterized by little centralization of
power, with most decisions being taken by the government that is in power
(Fox, 1966).
– This is something that is clearly evident from the case of the United Kingdom
where a top down approach is followed by the government when it comes to
the implementation of decisions. With respect to industrial relations, while
trade unions do exist to look into the welfare of employees, workers are denied
any representation at executive of board levels.

UAE POLITY
– The political framework of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) is a framework that
is comprised of a federal, constitutional as well as presidential monarchy
(Farooq et al., 2019).
– UAE is essentially a federation of as many as 7 emirates, with the largest and
most prosperous of these being Abu Dhabi (Farooq et al., 2019)
– Political parties do not exist in the UAE and all legislative, judicial and executive
functions are the responsibility of the seven hereditary rulers of the UAE
(Farooq et al., 2019).

UAE ECONOMY
– UAE Economy is a hugely diversified economy and is one of the largest in the
Middle Eastern region as a whole
– The economy of the United Arab Emirates is highly dependent on the use of
petroleum (Alansaari et al, 2019).
– The government is open to adopting economic reforms as and when needed
–

National Industrial Relations in
the UAE
– The employment regime of the UAE is connected to the country’s immigration
regime. Foreign nationals cannot work in the UAE unless they hold a residency
visa or valid work permit that has been issued by a registered as well as locally li
licensed entity (Parcero & Rayan, 2017).
– Expatriates make up more than 80 % of the employee population in the UAE nit of
late there has been an emiratization policy adopted by the UAE government, that
gives more prominence to UAE nationals during recruitment (Parcero & Rayan,
2017).
– A gender balance council is in existence in the UAE that promotes gender equality
at the place of work (Alansaari et al, 2019).

Trans-National Issues in the
UAE
– Circulation of illicit drugs is a rampant problem in the UAE (Pinnington et al.,
2018)
– Money laundering is a persistent issue in the country (Reisinger et al., 2019).
– Border disputes exist with regard to the Gulf of Oman (Alansaari et al., 2019).

HR Practices in the UAE
– HR Management in UAE is comprised of the following –
– Contractual recruitment and selection of employees (BaniMelham et al., 2018).
– Training and development
– Performance management
– Diverse company culture
– (Bougharriou et al., 2019).

HR Practices in the UAE
– Special efforts are being to recruit as many of the Emirati people into top jobs in
the country (Howe-Walsh et al., 2018)
– There is a concern that expatriates are taking up all the prominent jobs (Ibid)

Analysis of UAE based on Fox
Model (1966)
– The UAE like the UK is also a unitary state, with such a state being one where
the government in power is the sole decision maker when it comes to the
implementation of policies (Fox, 1966). This is clear from the Emitari policy
recently introduced by the government to give greater representation to
nationals at the work front. .

Conclusion
– HR practices in the UK and UAE are of a high standard but can be improved
upon.
– Employee representation should be increased in the UK at board level and HR
policies should be directed towards this end
– HR policies in the UAE should look into the interests of expatriates and Emirati
people equally to ensure fairness at the work place.

References
– Alansaari, O., Yusoff, R., & Ismail, F. (2019). Exploring the link between employee commitment, recruitment process, and performance of internal supply chain of
manufacturing firms in UAE. Uncertain Supply Chain Management, 7(2), 237-250
– BaniMelhem, H., Elanain, H. M. A., & Hussain, M. (2018). Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Employees' Turnover Intention in United Arab
Emirates (UAE) Health Care Services. International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector (IJISSS), 10(4), 21-41.
– Bougharriou, N., Benayed, W., & Gabsi, F. B. (2019). The democracy and economic growth nexus: do FDI and government spending matter? Evidence from the Arab
world. Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 13(2019-19), 1-29
– Brewster, C., Mayrhofer, W., & Farndale, E. (Eds.). (2018). Handbook of research on comparative human resource management. Edward Elgar Publishing
– Collings, D. G., Wood, G. T., & Szamosi, L. T. (2018). Human resource management: A critical approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge
– Conway, E., Fu, N., Monks, K., Alfes, K., & Bailey, C. (2016). Demands or resources? The relationship between HR practices, employee engagement, and emotional
exhaustion within a hybrid model of employment relations. Human Resource Management, 55(5), 901-917

– Dirani, K. M. (2018). Talent Management and Development in the United Arab Emirates. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 20(4), 479-497
– Farooq, O., Farooq, M., & Reynaud, E. (2019). Does Employees’ Participation in Decision Making Increase the level of Corporate Social and
Environmental Sustainability? An Investigation in South Asia. Sustainability, 11(2), 511.
– Fox, A. (1966). Managerial ideology and labour relations. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 4(1‐3), 366-378
– Grimshaw, D., Rubery, J., & Ugarte, S. M. (2015). Does better quality contracting improve pay and HR practices? Evidence from for-profit and
voluntary sector providers of adult care services in England. Journal of Industrial Relations, 57(4), 502-525
– Howe-Walsh, L., Turnbull, S., & Budhwar, P. (2018). An investigation into on-sourcing of advertising creativity in an emerging economy: the case of
the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Business Research

– Husain, Z., Dayan, M., Pathak, R. D., Langer, M., & König, C. J. (2018). How much self‐presentation behavior do applicants from the United Arab
Emirates exhibit?. International Journal of Selection and Assessment.
– Miller, V. X. (1941). The Master-Servant Concept and Judge-Made Law. Loy. L. Rev., 1, 25
– Moutinho, L., & Vargas-Sanchez, A. (Eds.). (2018). Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI Tourism Texts. Cabi.
– Parcero, O. J., & Ryan, J. C. (2017). Becoming a knowledge economy: the case of Qatar, UAE, and 17 benchmark countries. Journal of the
Knowledge Economy, 8(4), 1146-1173
– Pinnington, A. H., Alshamsi, A., Özbilgin, M., Tatli, A., & Vassilopoulou, J. (2018). Macro talent management in the United Arab Emirates:
Developing more informative government perspectives. In Macro Talent Management in Emerging and Emergent Markets (pp. 167-190). Routledge.

– Richards, J., & Sang, K. (2019). Socially ir responsible human resource management?
Conceptualising HRM practice and philosophy in relation to in-work poverty in the UK. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-28
– Rosamond, B. (2018). Brexit and the politics of UK growth models. New political economy, 1-
14.
– Waite, D., & Morgan, K. (2018). City Deals in the polycentric state: The spaces and politics of
Metrophilia in the UK. European Urban and Regional Studies, 0969776418798678