An Intergrated Model for Effective Localization of Human Resources in the Emirate of Qatar: A Comparative Study of Expatriates and Nationals

Despite large amounts of oil wealth and some of the highest per capita incomes in the world, the Middle East has lagged behind many regions in human capital development and productivity. Further, the negative impacts of unemployment and underemployment have had widespread implications evident in the Arab Spring.Despite the high levels of unemployment and underemployment in the region, the Gulf Region, and in particular the Emirate of Qatar, have the highest dependency on expatriate labour in the world. As of 2014, Qatar has a population of over 2,200,000 and a local population of only 300,000. This dramatic, and critical imbalance in population has had a profound economic and social impact on the tiny Emirate.In order to increase the employment of nationals, Qatar, like many of the Gulf States, has developed a plan known as 'Qatarisation'. This program relies on quotas and the preferential treatment of Qataris in the workforce. However, despite this, the issues of productivity, low performance and weak human resource development remain prevalent.Localisation is the practice of replacing skilled expatriates with equally skilled nationals. Not unique to the Middle East, localisation has occurred in many regions including Africa, Oceania and Asia. An important and perhaps key point in localisation is the development of human capital to ensure that competent nationals replace nationals with the same degree of productivity as their expatriate incumbents. This work is a comparative study into the localisation of human resources in the Emirate of Qatar. This study reviews the localisation of human resources under the umbrella of human resource development before proposing a localisation model based on the influence of work values on organisational commitment and the relationship between productivity and affective organisational commitment.The link between work values and affective organisational commitment is tenuous, while the link between affective organisational commitment and productivity is somewhat more developed. This research proposed that a barrier to localisation was the lack of productivity of nationals based on different work values and low affective commitment when compared to expatriates.This pioneering study used multivariate techniques such as exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling to determine a baseline into establishing the factors effecting localisation. Finally, demographic factors were introduced and predictive values uncovered using regression analysis.