Gaining Legitimacy through Hiring Local Workforce at a Premium - Article Example

Name : xxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxx Title : Article critique of gaining legitimacy through hiring local workforce at a premium: The case of MNEs in the United Arab Emirates. Institution : xxxxxxx @2011 Authors: Forstenlechner, Ingo and Mellahi, Kamel Title: Gaining legitimacy through hiring local workforce at a premium: The case of MNEs in the United Arab Emirates. Date of publication: 2010 Publisher: Elsevier Inc Introduction Organizational legitimacy is an important aspect in the study of organizational behavior because it strives to explain the importance of acquiring some sense of appropriateness in the organization in order to meet the stipulated law or adhere to the communities in which the businesses operate standards and expectations in the quest to maintain the sustainability of any particular organization. This paper seeks to critically analyze a research work title gaining legitimacy through hiring local workforce at a premium: The case of MNEs in the United Arab Emirates conducted by Forstenlechner and Mellahi with the aim of looking into the process of acquiring external organizational legitimacy in UAE based Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) through the use of locals manpower (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). This paper will criticize this research work under the following subheadings, introduction, statement of the problem, literature review, conceptualization, research methodology, data analysis, results interpretation and discussions, applicability and readability of the research work. Introduction of the research work The authors have introduced the subject understudy appropriately be defining the terms within the topic such as external legitimacy and expounding on the global stance of the topic understudy. The introduction also goes ahead to identify the indicators that will be used in the study to identify MNEs that have utilized the local workforce. Within the introduction the authors were in line to identify the three research questions which can also be taken to represent the objectives that the study intended to achieve. The research questions are in line with the topic understudy as the authors wanted to know how the sampled MNEs acquire external legitimacy, the drivers and benefits of the same (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). However in my opinion I think that the authors would have come up with a more convincing introduction if they would have availed some information with regards to the trend of national’s employability and their role towards actualizing external legitimacy. Further approaching the introduction from a broader perspective towards a narrow perspective by looking at the external legitimacy of companies from a global perspective and narrowing down to UAE would have improved on the richness of this work as this would have illustrated more awareness and command of the topic understudy by the authors. Statement of the problem The authors have also identified the problem understudy as the need for Multinational enterprises to acquire external legitimacy as the subject has gathered a lot of attention globally thus necessitating the need to highlight the emerging trend of employing indigenous members of the society as opposes to foreigners in order to create a conducive working environment for multinational organizations based in UAE (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). To support their problem statement, the authors have gone further to indicate the value of external legitimacy to multinational enterprises which are considered as a liability especially when operating in foreign lands and thus necessitating the need to find out how the MNEs manage to acquire external legitimacy, internal and external factors that drive the need to acquire legitimacy and the benefits associated with companies that have employed the tactic of employing nationals in their organizations in order to achieve popularity among the locals, adhere to the law and be in line with the governing political class (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). In my opinion, the problem statement was well stated by highlighting both the pros and cons of achieving organizational legitimacy and well justified with the implications of the tactic to the companies sustainability and recognition in the society. Literature review The author’s literature review is very expansive covering the major aspects of the topic understudy. When conducting a literature review, it is important to incorporate all the aspects of the study and therefore the entire objectives understudy should be discussed in details. In this case, the researchers have used research questions instead of objectives which are in line with the guided stipulations of conducting a qualitative study. To highlight on the broader aspect of the topic understudy and its global application, the researchers have reviewed literature on the extent and popularity of external legitimacy with particular emphasis on MNEs operating in the Middle East. The authors have also elaborated on the reasons as to why organizations in this particular country are more inclined to ensuring that they maximize on employing the locals such reasons include the need to ensure business prosperity, ensure societal acceptance, improving on the company’s image among the locals and the international community and to ease acquisition of required resources for the company’s products within UAE (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). Literature review has elaborated on the process of acquiring external legitimacy in middle East by way of highlighting how MNEs employ nationals within the countries that they operate in. this is important for purposes of operating effectively and attaining their organizational goals without being accused of discriminating the locals which according to the literature review may star boycotts from the members of the public and other organizations that have been established to look in to the interests of locals through monitoring employability in multinational organizations. To further insist on the process, the authors were in line to use institutional theories to explain how MNEs in UAE have been able to penetrate the market by way of employing locals (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). The literature review also focused on both narrow and broader aspects of legitimacy by classifying narrow acquisition of external legitimacy as a product of good connections among organizations and the political class while broader external legitimacy as a product of involving the local inhabitants with their business undertakings and engaging in social projects within the community. The literature has also narrowed down to localization of the workforce in UAE through the process of emiratisation (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). In my view, the literature review was very expansive and elaborative explaining all the research questions that the authors intended to cover and thus very informative and professional. Conceptualization The whole concept of the research was centered on identifying the process of external legitimacy, identifying the driving force and highlighting on the benefits of the process. To meet the stipulated concept, the authors used the institutional theory to explain the process of external legitimization. To highlight the factors that drive MNEs towards attaining external legitimacy, the authors employed the institutional theory to come up with concepts that explain the driving factors. The concepts identified include mimetic isomorphism which explains factors that are centered around imitating other companies within UAE in the process of acquiring a competitive advantage over other companies, coercive isomorphism which highlights factors that are driven by the need to obey the law of the land, government policies and pressure from representative bodies such as workers force organization and the media, normative legitimacy which is driven by the need for an organization to meet self imposed guidelines and standards (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). The concept developed in this research was in line with guidelines for conducting research because it was able to identify the process, factors affecting the process and the outcome of the process thus a well though concept that can be applied to conduct a similar study. Research methodology Baring in mind that this study was of a qualitative nature because the research questions do not require any quantitative findings, the authors were in line to use qualitative method of conducting research. The authors used semi structured interviews to collect data and they justified this method with the need for flexibility. However, I tend to disagree with them because I think questionnaires would have been more appropriate in order to collect more data and create some form of uniformity with the use of both closed and open ended questions. The open ended questions would have supplemented the semi structured interviews. The authors have clearly stated that they conducted 48 interviews within three main cities and four major sectors of the UAE economy where MNEs practice external legitimacy. In my view, the number of interviews conducted where very limited, instead, the researchers should have conducted more interviews in more than five cities in order to improve on the applicability of their research findings and generalization of the findings to al MNEs operating within UAE (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). Further it is not clear which criteria was used to identify the major cities and sectors to be included in the study. However the authors have justified their inclusion of the snow-balling technique to identify respondents to the research. This however is a limitation as one is likely to get contacts from people or organizations that are acquitted with each other and thus living out other respondents that would have contributed to the research findings. This therefore has a negative bearing on the internal validity of the research findings. Data analysis Considering that the data collected was in form of interviews, the authors were in line to code the verbatim into categories in order to identify the emerging themes. The use of two research assistants and one author was appropriate in order to ensure the control of quality and the proper identification of emerging themes and there implication on already existing theories in the quest to answer the research questions and identification of hypothesis that are in line with the topic understudy (Forstenlechner andMellahi 2010). Results interpretation and discussions The results were properly interpreted in one table while descriptive interpretation was the major tool used to present the results findings. Again the use of descriptive interpretation is in line with the research methodology of qualitative research. The table was appropriate because it helped in illustrating the findings more clearly and thus creating a visual representation of the research work which is advantageous in generating a visual effect on the individuals reading the research findings. The discussions were based on the research findings and they highlighted on all the three research questions identified at the beginning of the study. To further improve on the authenticity of their research findings, the authors have used numerous studies to support or disagree with their findings. This is in line with any research undertaking and thus improving on the validity and applicability of the research findings. Applicability and readability of the research work The research work was well organized with properly structured sentences and identification of different topic in different paragraphs. Generally the whole research work was flawless in terms of the grammar used and the format applied thus it was an easy read for me. Based on the research methodology, concepts and findings identified, the format of this research can be applied by other scholars to form the basis of conducting a similar study or a study that is related to this research work or any other research work that is likely to follow the format used by the authors. The authors have also demonstrated their ability to use a large number of resources in form of books, journals and articles dating between 1975 and 2010 in their work. Thus their secondary data inform of literature is quite current therefore improving on the internal validity and applicability of their research work. Conclusion Generally the research work was conducted diligently and professionally in accordance with research work guidelines. The strong aspects of this study were a good introduction with appropriate definitions, well stated problem statement, expansive literature review, proper identification of concepts and their applicability to organizational behavior, well though research methodology, proper data analysis and interpretations of results and discussion. The weak aspects of this study include a generalized introduction, a small sample size, lack of an identification criteria, the use of semi-structured interviews and snow-balling technique. Therefore the research findings are applicable in the field of organizational behavior but cannot be generalized as the status of external legitimization of MNEs in UAE. References Forstenlechner, I, and Mellahi, K 2010, ‘Gaining legitimacy through hiring local workforce at a premium: The case of MNEs in the United Arab Emirates’, Journal of World Business, vol. 10, no. 1016, pp. 1-7. Read More