Module Code: BM5057

Locating Doctoral Research in Theory and Practice

Critical Literature Review

The Readiness of Government Sector Employees in the UAE to Keep Pace with Future Job Skills

Title: The Readiness of Government Sector Employees in the UAE to Keep Pace with Future Job Skills

Critical Literature Review

Introduction

The recent trend of technological modernization, together with global economic ups and downs has necessitated an assessment of how UAE’s employees in the government sector can be able to adhere to future job skills. As the UAE is struggling to position itself as a site of innovation and excellence, the tightly knit of the preparedness of the government workforce in particular is becoming essential.

This novel literature review deals with the complex issues of comparative analysis of organizational health of government employees in the UAE, including their experience with the changing skillsets in the labour market, as well as the approaches the employees apply to succeed in current workplace conditions.

This paper offers a snapshot review of how our society intends to effectively prepare our workforce for the job market which adapts constantly to the changes in our socio-economic framework. This is aimed at bringing some significant input into the debate regarding workforce development and society of today.

Theoretical Review

A review of theoretical models/frameworks has been presented in this section that links to the main subject matter such as the readiness of employees in the UAE government sector for upcoming job skills. The most relevant theories include the agile workforce theory and Maslow’s hierarchical framework.

These theories are relevant for the employee’s learning and development to equip them with the required and necessary job skills for the changing business market. While Maslow’s framework helps in understanding the basic needs to inspire individuals to reach the advanced stage, the agile workforce view posits that continuous adaptation and learning are the keys to success for future jobs and employment outcomes.

Maslow’s Hierarchical Framework

Maslow’s hierarchical framework is about the theory of human motivation which explains how individuals are motivated to perform exceptionally in various environments. The most important aspect of this framework, which is relevant to this study is the identification of physiological and security needs that are basic to every worker within the organisation.

Within the work context, the basic needs are wages, proper breaks, working hours flexibility and holidays, followed by security needs such as clear information, direction, job duties, job security and workplace atmosphere. When the basic needs are met, the employees are more likely to be ready to advance to the next levels of motivation and simultaneously increase their learning, development and job skills.

Ahmad, et al. (2021) criticised Maslow’s framework of motivation as it follows a hierarchal representation of motivational levels. The authors argue that human needs and motivation are not definite in any order, and the complexity of the self-actualisation stage makes it harder to empirically measure and validate.

However, the use of Maslow’s framework is still validated as it provides a logical approach to understanding employees’ basic and advanced-level needs for gaining basic and exceptional performance outcomes (Nurjanah and Suherman, 2022). the authors used 158 respondents’ survey results to demonstrate that employees’ job and work motivation is strongly linked with basic physiological, security, social, esteem and self-actualisation needs.

Thus, the application of Maslow’s framework in motivation research related to employees has been well-established which provides a strong basis for the present study to adopt it. The theory argues that employees, as humans, are not entirely motivated by punishments or rewards but their internal needs as humans dominate the motivational phenomenon which is central to the learning and development of employees (Uysal, et al., 2017). 

Thus, the present study has adopted Maslow’s hierarchical framework for its strengths and empirical evidence that validates its use in the modern business era. Specifically, the study uses this framework for assessing and understanding whether the employee in the UAE government sector is motivated in terms of fulfilment of their basic physiological and security needs. To address the drawbacks of this theory, the theoretical framework has included another theory such as agile workforce theory as discussed below.

Agile Work Force Theory

Agile Work Force Theory would be important, if addressed in terms of the employees of UAE’s government sector to help them adapt to the new demands of job skills that will be necessary in the coming times. Agility Landscape, which is at the core of the theory, is a concept that is focused on supporting organizations, especially the ones that operate in the dynamic and rapidly changing environment, to create an agile workforce that will deal with the challenges of the technological changes, emergence of new job descriptions, and the reactions of different sectors (Muduli and Pandya, 2018).

Agile Workforce Theory hypothesizes that the key factors of succeeding in workforce to be adaptability, collaboration, and continuous learning. Although adaptability requires individuals, organizations, and cultures to be agile in the face of a highly dynamic environment, it is also a critical factor in such circumstances.

This is especially applicable to the UAE government sector department as it operates with the context of above mentioned trends (Petermann and Zacher, 2022). The attitude of concern employees is of the kind that not only just accepts but welcomes changes for the purpose of continued prosperity in a place that is forever in evolution. The idea of collaboration, that highlights the power of collective actions in the confrontation of complex issues, is another aspect that is covered by the theory (Teebi, 2023).

Constant learning is the third pillar of Agile Workforce Theory postulates that not only professional development but also lifelong education plays a crucial part in how people work nowadays. The significance of this link can be further highlighted by connecting it with dynamics of skill acquisition which were reviewed earlier that underline the necessity of employees’ involvement in lifelong learning that keeps them on track with current trends (Muduli, 2017).

Such behavior was abolished by the talented leaders of UAE and in the field of government, it is manifested in the help of mechanisms and creating a culture in which all personnel of this sphere are dedicated to continuous learning, where employees act proactively to enhance their professional skills and always be ready to accept new learning experiences.

With regards to the UAE public sector, Agile Workforce Theory makes much sense and offers tangible guidance to be translated into practical solutions of the listed issue in the research question. The approach of the theory in the dimension adapting to technological resources exactly corresponds to the necessity of taking the lead role in technological training and support (Gannod et al., 2018).

Primarily, it increases the need for organizations to fund themselves for self-motivating and characterizes an environment where employees can feel safe to experiment with new technologies and innovation as well. Such a flexibility towards technology gives the government employees the chance to circumvent any technical complexities that are inherent in their job functions in this era which is very much technologically inclined.

To illustrate, the culture of adaptability will be of prime importance in UAE governmental administration, as it is a multicultural environment where the participants participate from various cultural backgrounds.

The concept maintains that organizations should not only see the variations as a difference but work actively to make them as a valued source of strength. Such an initiative should be undertaken through the promotion of cultural intelligence, cross-cultural training and nurturing a climate where people from a diverse background appreciate and respect each other.

In essence, Agile Workforce Theory (AWT) offers a rounded and enriching approach for reckoning the employment for UAE government employees to stay up with the upcoming job skills. Its autosomal genetic core tenets of adaptability, collaboration, and continuous learning in avenues that make them perfects when combined with the dynamism of the UAE government (Muduli, 2017).

The Agile Workforce Theory gives the opportunity for an organizations to promote employee resilience, to encourage teamwork with individuals from diverse backgrounds, and to enable employees to become more up-to-date regarding their skills by facing the fluidity of the job scape.

While the government sector Presidential Scholarship struggles with addressing the disruption involved in technological advancements and the setting of job roles, Agile Workforce Theory offers a background view into a strategic plan needed to assemble a workforce that not only survives but thrives with uncertainties for more information visit

Empirical Review

Dynamics of Skill Acquisition and Technological Advancements

Adopting pass-efficacy to skill development in jobs, especially in Emirate government sector is the focus of Button et al. (2020). The framework indicates the dynamic skill set that is updated as technology advances pushing any skill to become obsolete. This dynamic character makes it imperative that the rigid, uninventive skills are moved to a state of mind where a worker should embrace a learning culture and be adaptable (Cassidy et al., 2022).

In an era with rapid technological advancements, workers must therefore adopt a mindful approach of upskilling for their increased employability in the near future. The rising development of new models of education and careers in steady jobs is breaking into its existing conventionality (Chow et al., 2021).

Instead, learners would like to live a legacy lifelong learning regime where they do not forget topics that are taught to them but are abreast to the technology of the present days and they adapt their skills with the need of learning situations. The theoretical framework, as such, seeks the radical change of the existing attitude to teaching and ability development.

Role of Technological Advancements

The various endowments of technology are indeed a sparkles of the dynamic nature of the way in which skill-sets are learned. The infusion of so many rapid technologies in different fields, especially the use of artificial intelligence, automation, and digital technologies, will be a novelty that the workforce will need to be well equipped to navigate as well as harness (Shufutinsky, Beach and Saraceno, 2020).

The theoretical position contends that the more the technology is refined the more so the working staff’s skills should be. This posits that for governmental sector employees in UAE, it will be thriving not only to keep with the changing technological landscape across the globe, but also to accommodate the specialty features found in the governmental background (Mittal Bishnoi, 2020).

Technological development is not the same in terms of industries or regions because the theoretical framework also suggests that technological advancements do not occupy the same space among different industries or regions.

The pace of technological infiltration across the different federal units of the sector may differ, and this is where an understanding of the required skills in different institutional contexts is needed so as to nurse along a smooth transition to the world of automation (Cassidy et al., 2022). The excellence of skill Accumulation is critically connected to the flux of technological progress, therefore, individuals ought to be mobilized and well-adjusted to change as speedily as possible.

Organizational Resilience and Cultural Factors

Organizational resilience and cultural aspects of employees working for government sector in the UAE land them where they ought to be according to the upcoming skill set requirements. This part discusses the organizational resilience theories and cultural components, aiming to demonstrate how such considerations influence the capacity of employees to overcome the obstacles presented by a fast-changing career horizon.

Judijanto et al. (2023) provided the state the essential organizational resilient also in enabling government employees to be ready for their next job skills mastery. Organizational resilience implies the ability of an organization to successfully cope with any type of future and keep functioning during hard times.

The theory states the organization that is resilient shapes its future and innovation by responding better to technological advancement and job requirements changes’ uncertainties. Strategic foresight, agility, the foundation of organizational leadership, and the culture that functions as a dedicated support constitute the main elements of the organizational resilience.

While these elements form a whole that creates a climate where staff can adjust to the change, learn new skills, and be one of the main factors that enable the organization to quickly adapt (Fietz, Hillmann and Guenther, 2021). Given that the UAE government sector, a functional system with specific demands, seeks to establish organization resiliency as a proactive measure to strengthen an employee’s preparedness.

Cultural factors continue to be yet another inescapable variable in the theory construction. The UAE’s complex cultural portrayal, which is a cultural beehive of diversity and traditions, is instrumental in how government employees perceive and interpret emerging job obligations (Chen, Xie and Liu, 2021).

The theoretical perspective holds an opinion that the cultural variables are vitally necessary to be considered in many business strategies, especially in the designs of employee training and development programmes that foster a productive environment.

Cultural dimensions will require to go beyond, but not only, local has cultural or territorial focused, considering all organizational cultural factors within government bodies. The theoretical framework is stating that the culture is incorporating the concept of continuous learning, innovative ideas and surviving adaptation to the process which will create the atmosphere where the developing of skills can happen (Barasa, Mbau and Gilson, 2018).

Furthermore, cultural factors are responsible for different communication styles and the way we all work together and share knowledge, in these terms. Identifying and playing the cultural features is part of the formula to obtaining the best results of performance of the public sector’s workers in the UAE.

Research Aim, Question and Objectives

Technological achievements reappear dynamically, restating the importance of general educational and training methods which could keep pace with changes of that nature. A manager, especially in the government sector, should be proactive and use forward-thinking strategies to achieve teamwork and competitiveness. According to Doherty and Stephens (2021), a theory of this kind supports an approach that is based on an integration of different approaches, and it is no longer only limited to traditional training programs.

It helps organizations in shaping their training programs by doing the gap analysis, applying personalized learning to it and also making the organizational culture which supports adaptability. The literature review findings highlight the complex nature of organizational resilience and cultural adaptability, pointing out that they are closely interrelated and mutually, positively impacting each other.

In the light of UAE government institute where the cultural diversity is the greatest value, making the resilient organizational culture relies on the comprehension on and the acceptance by various cultural standard (Suryaningtyas et al., 2019). An agile organization that is open to cultural adaptivity will leverage the whole workforce’s abilities and its reaction time to external threats will be better integrated.

On the other side, the theory of organizational resilience is solidly focused on the cultural adaptability of the organisation itself, where both factor catalyze each other. An organization’s resilience can add to their culture that accepts changes and on the contrary an environment that can adapt to the culture can advance the organization’s solidness.

This symboiosis is interesting because it emphasizes the UAE as a place where the coexistence of different cultural backgrounds justifies a schematic and inclusive orientation to skills. Theory as a practical power for the UAE governmental sector is not uncommon.

It demands a well-orchestrated strengthening of organizational resilience, which is achieved through the implementation of customized initiatives, leadership development and the establishment of a culture which appreciates and values adaptability (Bui et al., 2020). Accepting and respecting for the cultural difference is not only vital but also key, when designing learning programs especially for employees of different backgrounds.

In practice, this means incorporating cultural intelligence into training curricula, creating mentorship programs that facilitate cross-cultural collaboration, and establishing communication channels that respect diverse communication styles.

Furthermore, organizational leaders play a pivotal role in championing resilience and cultural adaptability, setting the tone for the entire workforce. That is the core of the organizational resilience and cultural factors which leads to a complete setting that could explain how the UAE government sector is going to prepare its employees for the future job skills.

Organizational resilience, as a major part of the cultural component and by being synonimous with flexibility and recovery, is a great ally of the cultural factors that shape the landscape of employee readiness (Zanotti et al., 2020).

Making employees in the public sector in the UAE aware of the interdependence between resilience and capability of culture, and into helping these insights translate them into practical actions, highly can improve the contingency of public sector employees in the UAE.

This holistic approach reflects the distinct traits of the UAE governmental sector and therefore produces workforce with professionalisms in both the hard and the soft skills that is not only technically proficient but also mentally strong and culturally sensitive while undertaking to the continuously changing job requirements.

Aim: The present study aims to examine the readiness of government sector employees in the UAE  to adapt to future job skills in the UAE. The above aim requires the development and fulfilment of the following research objectives and the answering of the research questions.

Questions

The main research question is: “What is the readiness of employees within the UAE government sector for attaining and adapting to future job skills?”

• What measures have been taken by the UAE government sector to ensure that employees’ basic safety, physiological and self-fulfilment needs are fulfilled?
• What are the current strategies employed by the UAE government sector to promote continuous learning, collaboration, and development of employees?
• What is the extent to which government sector employees in UAE perceive organisational resiliency as a necessary component to attain success in their jobs within changing environments?

Objectives

The following objectives are necessary to be achieved for the aim and questions to be answered

• To examine the readiness of government sector employees in UAE to gain future job skills.
• To determine the measures that have been taken by the UAE government sector to ensure that employees’ physiological and basic security needs are fulfilled.
• To identify the current strategies employed by the UAE government sector to promote continuous learning, collaboration, and development of employees.
• To reveal the extent to which government sector employees in UAE perceive organisational resiliency as a necessary component to attain future job skills.

Critical Discussion including Business Orthodoxies and Ideologies

The literature review has been comprehensive in terms of identifying and unveiling aspects related to changing technology trends, rapid development, and evolving workplace dynamics that produce implications for employee readiness (Shufutinsky, Beach and Saraceno, 2020; Mittal Bishnoi, 2020).

The element of the UAE government sector with respect to literature review analysis presented a complex and unique platform for understanding how existing studies may inform the development of future studies focused on improving both theory and practice.

This section critically analyses business ideologies and orthodoxies prevalent in the literature studies to inform the case of how the workplace dynamics have changed and what exists currently for shaping employee readiness in adapting to future job skills in the government sector of UAE .

One of the business orthodoxies that have been challenged and reshaped by the existing modern practices related to employee training and development is the inefficacy of non-agile and inflexible workplace dynamics. The analysis of existing studies (Doherty and Stephens, 2021; Zanotti et al.,2020; Bui et al., 2020; Cassidy et al., 2022).

Aimed at identifying changing technological paradigms, work practices and organisational resiliency and cultural adaptability reveals the need to adapt to future workplace dynamics. An important consideration of this change is that technological trends are different in industries and sectors in terms of technology type and automation which requires proactiveness from organisations to prepare their employee (Cassidy et al., 2022).

 In a nutshell, the future of the workplace is agile, Li-Sevilla and Lau (2023) contend that workplaces around the globe are changing to include flexibility and choice for employees. About 68% of the employees want to remotely work, at least sometimes, to attain this, it is extremely important that the organisations are technology-enabled (Li-Sevilla and Lau, 2023).

Thus, there is a need for the UAE government sector to fully mature in technological space including enabling flexible working environments. This, collectively, stresses the need for enabling technology-oriented learning and development of employees to be aware of the future and work towards attaining future job skills: becoming agile (Li-Sevilla and Lau, 2023).

Amongst UAE governmental authorities, diversity would be the primary feature. And the competencies of collaboration would be a key requirement. Under the view, all the employee’ understanding, knowledge, and creative thinking will be shared to surge the collective intelligence of the organization which will in turn bring more innovative ideas into the workplace.

This is how a collaborative approach generates motivation among the public servants as it enables them to have a clear focus on the attention towards future job skills since varied opinions contribute to a whole picture perspective on emerging employment demands and trends.

Apart from adapting to technological changes and preparing employees for future skills of employment, there is a need for organisations to work on becoming resilient and adaptive to the changing market landscape.

Another shift from traditional to modern business practices is the practice of generalising theories to all parts of the world without taking context-specific and cultural factors into consideration. The established employee training and development practices often follow the traditional view of motivating employees through punishments and rewards (Ahmad, et al., 2021).

This literature review challenges the outdated view and supports the application of a combination of old and new theories, Maslow’s theory of motivation and agile workforce theory, for an agile future where employees are adaptive, resilient, and agile (Suryaningtyas et al., 2019).  

The notions of organisational resiliency require the employees to be proactive, remain calm during stressful or unforeseen situations and respond mindfully to achieve desired career outcomes (Deloitte, 2021; Condeco, 2019).

On the contrary, employees who are culturally intelligent are more likely to embrace diverse workplaces, handle conflicts and learn and develop future job skills (Mangla and Singh, 2022).

Through the analysis of 364 respondents, the authors found that employees who are culturally intelligent have adequate exposure to experiences and equip them with problem-solving skills, information sharing, error acceptance and the thirst for more knowledge and learning through experimentation (Mangla and Singh, 2022).

Following the same line of thinking, Rand (2015) advised that organisations must assess their current business practices including human resource development and training programs to assess whether the existing strategies align with the future needs of job skills and overall business dynamics.

Such as assessment is extremely important for the UAE as it offers a rapidly evolving and multicultural workplace platform for the present investigation. Consequently, another business orthodoxy is unveiled in terms of the ineffective assessment and efforts to employee development and training for future job skills.

The existence of numerous studies about technological changes in various sectors of UAE (UAE, 2022; Qasim, et al., 2022; STA Law Firm, 2019; UAE.ae, 2023; Webster, 2022; R&D Government Policy, 2021) serves as evidence of how technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI) and others have changed workforce dynamics is abundant.

Despite this, the present research lacks evidence to suggest that organisations, especially in the government sector UAE, are ready for the future of the workplace and upcoming jobs. There should be no denying, because of the evidence of technological changes, that the upcoming job duties would be the same as today, with technological innovation, the job duties are likely to become technology-based (FHRC, 2017; Li-Sevilla and Lau, 2023).

An associated research gap is the identification of training and development programs aimed at employees to prepare them for future jobs in the UAE government. There has been an announcement by the UAE government which shows that the administration is well aware of the future jobs, skills and flexibility as basic demands to maintain work-life balance (The National News, 2023).

However, very little of this agile approach to human resource policies and management is reflected in the UAE government sector. This calls for an in-depth examination of the practices and strategies employed by the administration to prepare them for future job skills in the UAE government sector.

It is by challenging the mainstream business practices and questioning business orthodoxies that innovation and success are retrieved, the present literature review analyses the research on employee readiness in the UAE government sector and finds research gaps discussed above. More research is needed to understand how employees within the UAE perceive future job skills and the strategies that have been incorporated by the administration to prepare them for future jobs.

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