UAE Construction Workforce and Skills Shortages

Introduction

The Construction Industry is one of the largest employers within UAE with growing demand for a new requirement. In recent times, the construction industry in the UAE has been facing the risk of rising labor cost and labor shortages, which in turn is squeezing up the smaller contractors. It has primarily been driven by an elevated liquidity environment because of high petroleum revenue, the government’s idea of diversifying the nation’s economy from gas and oil, and negative rates of real interest. Private and public investments have been introduced in the construction industry in order to build houses for their growing population, airports and hotels for the tourists and large and modern business centres to attract multinational companies. Thus, construction being at the heart of all these ideas is absolutely at its height (Stern, 2001).

To date skills shortages problems have left the UAE Construction Industry with hardly any option but to depend on migrant labor to fill the gap. It can be learned that there are some fields in the construction industry, which are more affected than others are, hence are, requiring closer attention. Such areas are masonry, carpentry, steel and pipefitters, heavy equipment operators that have been found to have high levels of skill shortage in UAE particularly in Dubai. However, the case of overseas labor in any economy has been the usual trend not only in the construction industry.

The main risk of such an environment is the shortage of skilled labor and high material costs, which has pushed the construction industry in a complete turmoil in the past few months. As the Middle East construction division has developed in a private and confined manner, future expansion of this division is a huge challenge. Until now, the main constructors have been able to pass the extra labor and material costs on to the developers. However, if this condition prolongs, it could hamper the expansion plans of some important companies, like Arabtec and the Arabian Construction, both inside and outside of the Middle East and have a huge impact on their share prices. (Grant, 2007)

During the mid 70’s of the last century, many foreign workers migrated to the Middle East expecting higher salaries and a better life, which they did not have in their home countries. Now a number of Asian countries have had a rapid economic growth resulting in larger career opportunities and increased wages, slowly but steadily closing the wage gap between the Middle East and Asian countries. In addition, international and regional competition is making it very difficult for these construction companies to find skilled and unskilled labor at low prices. (Nagy, 1998)

Earlier due to contraction and negative growth of the construction companies, many people had to switch their careers as their companies either downsized or closed down. However, as projects increased, the need for skilled work force and experienced labor force increased. With this increase in the market players, the supply of managerial and engineering talent is unable to keep up with the demand, leading to shortages in the workforce. This recurring nature of the construction industry has contributed to the acute shortage of skilled personnel. (Athukorala, 2002) Thus, it is important to understand and evaluate the conditions in UAE with proper methods.

Rationale of the research

• UAE Construction Industry faces workforce shortage, which in turn seeks migrant to provide labor.
• With overseas labour, there are various problems like communication, culture differences, also training (if any) and industrial set up differences.
• The workers are seen as low class and hence are poorly paid and are employed mainly for arduous work, often in a poor working environment.

Aim of the Research

This dissertation is aimed at evaluating UAE construction workforce and skill shortage and its impacts of expatriate labour on the construction industry. Furthermore, it is aimed at evaluating the extent of overseas workforce in the UAE Construction Industry, their contribution and problems associated with external work force.

Objective of the research

• To identify and evaluate the labour requirement for UAE Construction Industry
• To identify and assess problems associated with overseas work force and their contribution to UAE Construction Industry.
• To assess any obstacles, which might be associated with communication, difference in training, culture and industrial set up.
• To study labour trend and propose viable future solution.
• To identify the purpose of individual, organizational and overall cultural changes or modification that will be affordable and desirable for the better of the UAE Construction Industry.
• To know the shortage will slow down, the development and affect the economy in a long term.
• To verify the shortage will ramify the objectives of the investors in UAE or divert the development process to a new location.

Hypothesis

• Local resources (work force) cannot fulfill UAE Construction Industry workforce requirement, hence, the need for migrant workers. However, those workers encounter various problems; among them is communication and cultural difficulties, which affect efficiency:
•  The skill shortage in UAE construction industry would slow down the development however, it would be on a short term. Thus, it can be assumed that it would not affect long termed goals. Additionally, it is assumed that as the crisis is short termed the objectives of the investors would not change and they would not shift their business to a newer economic zone.

Literature review

Literature in the realm of research performed on the advances in sales and marking and their use would be quite numerous and diverse in their content and methodology. In the different separate studies located, only few would have spanned a time beyond a decade. The majority of research pieces, which focus on the inclusion of theoretical and technological advances in the sales and marking process, would actually focus on the overall market segments through fundamental sales and marking levels. The fact that there are not very many-advanced research items specifically directed toward the corporate strategy and marketing in the context of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labor & construction industry would be the focus of this dissertation.

Structure and management

United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven states, which are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, and Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. It is situated in the Southwest Asia on the Southeast Arabian Peninsula, sharing borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia, along the Persian Gulf. It is rich in oil and natural gas and has a high Human Development Index at 31^st in the world and Gross Domestic Product of $200.5 Billion as per International Monetary Fund. (Schuster, 2008)

The fast economic growth in United Arab Emirates has prompted infrastructure development fuelling boom in construction industry. Infrastructure development is happening in the most unprecedented manner in all across in the UAE, with most of the investment in development for tourism, hospitality, retail and healthcare industry. With UAE’s effort not just to stick to Oil and Gas business but also other sectors namely the construction business. UAE has been diverting funds from oil-based income to Infrastructure development. Even in event in global slowdown UAE going full ahead with its Infrastructure projects mostly in housing, tourism, industrial and commercial facilities, education and healthcare amenities, transportation, utilities, communications, ports and airports. UAE is going all out to change the face of landscape; an excellent example will be Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira.

Construction industry work force

In construction, industry in UAE, as in any other industry, has a structure and management. Few of the processes involved are the process of planning, designing, financing, constructing and operating physical facilities. The process management is very important and exact knowledge, of which process fits where, is also essential or else waste, excessive cost and delays can cause poor management and communication. Since starting a construction project involves major capital investment, commitment such resources are dependent on market demands, facility expectation. It makes sure that few of the factors like quality, timeliness, cost of the completed facility and penalty for project delay are in complete control of the company. The project life cycle involves understanding market needs subsequently defining project objectives and scope, conceptual planning and feasibility study subsequently preliminary design, design and engineering subsequently construction plans and specifications, procurement and construction subsequently completion and construction, startup of occupancy subsequently acceptance of facility, operation and maintenance subsequently fulfillment of useful life and at the end disposal of facility. Few of the major construction types are Residential Housing Construction, Institutional and Commercial Building Construction, Specialized Industrial Construction and Infrastructure and Heavy Construction. The construction or the owner also requires hiring professional services like Financial Planning Consultants, Architectural and Engineering Firms, Design/Construct Firms, Professional Construction Managers, Operation and Maintenance Managers and Facilities Management. There are also requirement for Construction Contractors who include General Contractors, Specialty Contractors and Material and Equipment Suppliers. For financing these activities they also need expertise from these fields namely Construction Financing and Facility Financing. For Legal and Regulatory Requirements they require experts to handle Legal Responsibilities, Mitigation of Conflicts and Government Regulation. With the changing face of construction industry it also needs to analyze New Technologies, Labor Productivity, Public Scrutiny, International Competition, Contractor Financed Projects and Lean Construction. In the process, they require specialists like planners, architects, engineering designers, constructors, fabricators, material suppliers, financial analysts and of course labor. (Grant, 2007)

In good project management in construction as in UAE or any part of the world, there is need for effective utilization of labor, material and equipment. For cost control of infrastructural facilities any improvement in labor productivity should be a major area of concern, which is defined as output per labor hour. As labor comprises a huge element of the construction cost, so the quantity and quality of labor hours used in doing a scheduled task in construction are more vulnerable to the influence of management, rather than are materials or capital used. Here labor productivity is the effectiveness of the company to utilize its labor, equipment and capital to effective or meaningful output. For example if unskilled labor is used in high technical place then all the effort will be waste which will be waste of capital.

Workforce management

Factors affecting job-site productivity in UAE can be divided into labor characteristics, project work conditions and some non-productive activities. Labor characteristics include age, skill and experience of workforce and leadership and motivation of workforce. Project work conditions in UAE include Job size and complexity, Job site accessibility, Labor availability, Equipment utilization, Contractual agreements, Local climate and Local cultural characteristics in foreign operations or expatriate labor in local operations. Non-productive activities in UAE include use of indirect labor to continue the advancement of the project, amendment for correcting substandard work done, work stoppage due to stormy or rainy weather or material shortage, occasional off for union activities, absentee, delayed start ups or premature exits, non-working days or holidays and strikes.

Communication and culture

UAE as a country has many languages like Arabic, which is official, Persian, English, Hindi, Urdu etc. Emiri constitutes of 19% of the population, Arab and Iranian 23%, South Asian 50% and other emigrants around 8%. These emigrants include Westerners and East Asians. As per religion is concerned Islam is followed by 96% with Sunni 80% and Shiite 16%, and other religions are Christian, Hindu, and other which constitute only 4%. (Grant, 2007)

With the above statistics, it is well understood that cross-cultural construction projects are quite common. Construction companies in UAE have to understand that most of the projects happening in UAE, due to globalization of workforce, methods employed have considerably changed. The very fact is that it is not unnatural that the design team comes from France or Italy, laborers from India, Sri-Lanka and Bangladesh, and Company owners from Dubai. In this multitude of a project, project leaders need analyze the multicultural environment. Taking a cue from an incident from Palm Jumeirah where designers had to resort to hand sign to facilitate work, which is a gross example of communication problems due to culture. Another fact that Indian Hindus start with prayers with their respective gods and Muslims offer Namaz, that construction project managers have to understand these religious sentiments of the migrants’ labors, and also the fact that they are far away from home.

Skill requirement

In UAE, work force requirement in construction industry is of major importance. In UAE, over 160 construction projects at present are going on with worth $160 billion in Dubai alone. In Dubai alone around one million laborers are engaged in construction industry. Among them, due to labor shortage 95 percent of the workforces are foreigners. UAE has nearly 500,000 migrant construction workers, who mostly come from South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, while to total migrant population being around 2,738,000. (Schuster, 2008) UAE citizens under employment job agreement employ expatriate labors, for one to three years, which may renewed subject to conditions. As when the work permit expires, the expatriate worker must leave the country and gets no benefit for staying in the nation and his/her contribution to the state. Most of the migrants are males with vast majority employed in a single company are than 20 numbers or less. These are typically recruited from the rural areas from the native countries and are mostly illiterate. To obtain or secure job in UAE they typically pay fees in range of $2000-$3000. On securing job they get average salary of $175 per month which in contrast with UAE per capita income per month is $2106. They are given living spaces closely to the employers. They are given dormitory style living places outside the cities commonly known as labor camps. They either have to buy their own food or sometimes they are given subsidized food or food coupons. Employers are required to provide health and emergency health care by the government. Some of the living conditions have been to be dismal, with room given as small as 12X9 feet and as many as eight living in there. They do not even have the right to strike. News of captive workers fleeing or death of construction worker, workers protesting of due for many years or dismal condition of abandoned worker are common now. (Schuster, 2008)

Availability of required workforce

Workforce management in construction industry in UAE includes all responsibilities for maintaining workforce productive and organizing for effective utilization. It includes workforce management at both at enterprise level and projects level. UAE construction firm needs to ensure workplace health and safety, training and skill development along with good industrial relations. All these are to be integrated into an organization’s day to day procedures and practices along with high performance standards. It would help to create and maintain a hazard free working environment. Company needs to stress on training and skill development and treat it as an integral component of their business strategy as every day there are changes in technology keep updated will only help in reducing costs. It also needs to give support for cooperative industrial relations i.e. relations between management and workers. Also regard for compliance standards along with awards are to be maintained. Also laws and legislation of UAE need to be maintained. (Grant, 2007)

Skill shortage

Basic skill set required in UAE for most of the construction labor jobs needs little or no job experience or training, related to construction. However some amount of training through apprenticeships along with basic education is always desired. Ability to work indoor in closed spaces to working outdoors on roof tops is required. Elementary education is needed for reading signs, label and instructions for material use and read warning for hazardous places. Most of the skills are learned on the job from more experienced workers and typically requires 2-3 years to learn the most of the skill set. Some of the basic construction skills include blueprint reading and understanding, correct use of tools and equipment, and basic knowledge of safety and health. Other skills require knowledge of building construction, heavy/highway construction and environmental cleanup. Basic knowledge for handling toxic chemicals along with basic procedure for working in hazardous environment is required. It is required for the laborers to have good manual dexterity, good hand-eye coordination, balance and no fear for heights. However, UAE construction companies take labors that are mostly unskilled and uneducated from Southeast Asian countries. (Grant, 2007)

Migrant workforce

As discussed earlier availability of required workforce is obtained from countries like India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. As per rules in UAE, only UAE citizens can give employment to expatriate laborers for job agreement. UAE relies mostly on temporary foreign workers from labor-exporting nations which are increasing due to construction boom. During the period of 2006 and 2007, the UAE in need to feed the requirement of increasing need of construction industry, followed persuasive bilateral cooperation with labor exporting nations by signing Memorandum of Understanding with several South Asian countries like India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand and the Philippines. This was done to solve the problem of illegal immigrants.

With the boom in the construction, industry there is severe shortage of skilled workers as well as labors. As per study conducted by University of Wollongong, Dubai (UOWD) that serious shortage in qualified construction professionals is threatening UAE’s booming construction and real estate business. This is happening even after offering higher salaries. As per recruitment consultancy Macdonald & Company, salaries and additional perks rose by 22 percent in real estate in the year 2007. (Schuster, 2008)

Contribution of migrant workers

Also with the introduction of Greener Building standards in United Arab Emirates, construction companies are needed more labors and skilled staff. The new regulation gives the guidelines specifying that all the buildings should meet the international green building standards. So in order to meet the demands the construction companies need to increase their recruitment activities. As the regulations are implemented the construction companies will struggle to meet the delivery deadlines. As the current labor and the sub-contractors employed are not skilled enough to meet the regulations, it will not be advisable to continue construction. (Grant, 2007)

Strategies and source to fill up

Therefore, for construction companies need strategies to fill the ever-increasing gaps in recruitment. There are many reasons for this lack of skilled workers. One of them is poor regard for human right or absolutely no human right, by the authorities. Also construction booming in countries like India, Philippines and Malaysia is also put skilled staff from going to UAE as it is natural for expatriates to live in their native countries. More over countries like UAE has been dependent long on cheap labors some even resorting to systems like bonded labors or slavery like practices. It is only recently that few laws have been enacted to look into the causes of plight of expatriate workers but by then most of the damage is done. One of the right steps taken by UAE is by signing MOU’s with nations like India, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. China could me new market from where laborers can be sought. UAE should also look after the proposal for making basic minimum wages for expatriate labors in construction. Construction companies should go for training themselves and get construction professionals of their desired standard as training existing staff will far easier than recruit new employees and train them. This will help them execute projects to global standards. They also need to recruit employs with basic education at least 10+2 and provide training and skill development. In addition, disadvantaged or unemployed can be put back to work.

Performance in migrant workers

As discussed earlier, migrant workforce consists for about shortage 95 percent of the workforces working in UAE from nearly 202 countries. Most of the migrant workers are taken only to be subcontracted to other companies for short term or long term assignments. The UAE’s Labor Law No. 8 of 1980 permits only UAE citizens under license by the Ministry of Labor to sponsor or hire expatriate workers. Companies pay a request fee of 200 dirhams (AED) ($55) and an employment visa issuance fee of 1,000 AED ($273). Alongside, they are required to give air tickets to return home, but forbid them to take employment fee from them. (Schuster, 2008)

In 2005 production of crude oil accounted for 35.4 percent GDP, growing at 21 percent while other sectors mostly expatriate labor dependent grew at 11 percent. So the growth of UAE is closely related to contribution of migrant workers. Construction industry is the most boom industry in UAE, leading in economic growth with 10 percent. Construction industry accounts 8 percent of GDP. If considered migrant workers as a single community, it would not be incorrect to say that it is one the most contributing factor in UAE’s economy. Even after these staggering figures, expatriates are the most neglected ones in the country. (Grant, 2007)

Migrant workers problem

Even after few enacted labor laws by there is large-scale exploitation. Few of them are being already discussed. Labor laws of UAE are flouted at will. Take an example law forbids employers collecting any fees, but instead they ask migrants to pay their visa and travel fees. Another most common complaint is the withholding of wages or salaries by employers. These have a serious impact as they are unable to buy food and ration, done for the purpose so that the worker doesn’t run away. Famous incident of September 19, 2005, when workers of Al Hamed Development and Construction staged protests in the UAE, is well known. Low wages and with holding of passport by employers is also common. (Grant, 2007)

UAE and labor exporting countries should meet and so something for the plight of the migrant workers in Construction Industry. Starting they can reduce fees which will help agent charging labor exorbitant amounts and friendlier visa laws. Perhaps some migrant specific laws to help them and good monitoring policy would help both the migrants as well as solve the problem of skill shortage. (Grant, 2007)

Literature Discussion

It can well be stated that corporate strategy and marketing in the context of the impact of labour force and it effects on economy in today’s world are an extremely important factor for any individual or business establishment. This is where industry like corporate strategy and marketing come into play. These companies offer various modes of international commerce and it effects on supply chain management are based primarily on the developments of technological advances. They negotiate the technological developments well enough to formulate systems that would help the client to monitor the needful areas. The basic concept of the company regarding their market structure is to become the leading supplier of commerce, it affects, impact of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry.

Alongside, it is the mission to become the best possible that would be responsible to employ every arrangements of security that would be at par with the satisfaction limit of the most demanding customer. Similarly, corporate strategy and marketing holds its belief to become the most developed sector in the perimeter of financial design. Alongside, the industry wants to become the leader in the area of installation and support of integrated systems with a commitment to total customer/supporter satisfaction. Broadly speaking the industry’s concept of business is based on these firmly stated principals.

Furthermore, it can well be said that the purpose of this literature review is to provide evidence of prior research managed in regard to sales and management strategy relating to the movement of commerce and it effects on management market segment amidst consumers. This is to assist the researcher in informative matters for understanding positive and negative aspects to the use of international finance and business from the perspective of the potential consumers. It also provides aspects of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry and its use including probable charges, installation, maintenance and up gradations whether in the hands of manufacturers, retailers or wholesalers. This exploration of literature provides a broader examination of each of the aspects that concern impact of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry and it effects on economy.

The UAE strategic location in the Gulf of Persia in the west and Strait of Hormuz on the east had made it a splendid trading centre since ancient times. The culturally rich and great Persian Empire has had a great influence in UAE. The UAE is surrounded by Two very rich countries The Bahrain & the Oman.

The first oil well in well in the Middle East was explored in 1908 in the foothills of Zargos at Masjid Sole yam in Iran. It was a great break through for the Gulf region.UAE falls in the Gulf region, thus it also enjoyed the exploration of Oil in this region. The foot hills of Zargos in Iran and the Persian Gulf coastline with some deposits off shore, where all the thick caps of salt or shale and marl have trapped oil and gas underground.

The Oil boom came in the late seventies, and trading in Gold made UAE a rich and prosperous nation.

Abu Dubai, Dubai and Sharjah became expanding in infrastructure development. The construction industry also started to grow very fast. The growth in the eighties and nineties were extremely fast and many skilled and unskilled labourers entered UAE. The unskilled expatriate work force from Asian countries came in hordes to work there. The pay for unskilled labourers in UAE was lucrative for Asian workers, due to the foreign exchange earnings are four to five times what they earn in their home country. The labour force with multilingual, religion, ethnic and diversified cultures has made the UAE their working capital and the UAE became cosmopolitan in nature with large foreign workers presence. The UAE government had to handle a large labour force present in their country. The labour import from foreign lands has a big chain of organized people consisting of labour contractors , medium and large size recruitment agencies and organized gangsters who control the large number of people working at the sites of construction sites The large companies from overseas and UAE based companies, along with UAE government agencies give construction jobs tenders. Most of the contracts are time bound and has to be completed within specified time. The labour work force from overseas consists of people from age groups of twenties to forties.These expatriate work force may or may not carry their families with them, where they are working , due to space and expenditure issues. The demand for space to stay, eat, sleep, relax may be provided by their employers There may be other human needs such as sexual demand.

So the flesh trade may be provided by brothels from countries where these overseas workers originate. The flesh trade may be operational in large scale to carter to the large work force. This may partly affect the UAE government agencies to take protective measures. To check the health of overseas workers, there may or may not be schemes to check healthy workers performing effective duties. The UAE government agencies must also check healthy brothels running the flesh trade. There must be license given to the brothels to sell sex, to workers who are from overseas. Healthy workers mean better performance and better output. The Islamic laws prevailing in UAE may or may not permit such practice as legal identity to prostitution. Due to this illegal sex, trade may be thriving in UAE controlled by organized gangsters. This is an unhealthy sign for a small country, where organized gangsters control labour work force, and illegal sex trade.

Another problem with the overseas labour work force working in the construction sites is the labour laws of the country may or may not be strictly followed strictly.

The organized gangsters help is used by the labour contractors to smuggle illegal work force with illegal documents. The overseas work force may be exploited beyond limits. The fantastic landscape, which we see today in UAE, which we see today, is due to the major contribution of this large overseas work force The UAE local population is not sufficient – physically, mentally and technically to produce the enormous technical marvels created in UAE. With the wealth of Oil the UAE, government has wisely invested in infrastructure development. The developed infrastructure needs to be maintained in perfect conditions. This area is to be addressed in a typical long-term functional goal. To address this problem the companies who had built these mechanical marvels must also be involved in a long-term maintenance contracts.

To access any obstacles which is associated with communication, differences in training, culture and industrial set up, UAE government must have a mandatory obligation with all large companies and organizations, who are registered ETP contractors operating in UAE territory. To run an industrial training camps, with the following agenda.

All overseas expatriate workers must compulsorily attend two weeks training program:

1. Communication – to learn the local and English workable language.
2. Culture – to learn basic local culture and hygiene and local basic laws.
3. Industrial labour laws – basic labour of the country with vigilance procedures.

The overseas expatriate workers would like to come back to work in UAE again, if they find their labour is respected by not only paying for their labour, but also train them up for better performance and mixing with the local culture , language and human development attitude induced by the government of the country. The strong vigilance set up to stop exploiting by gangsters and organized labour contractors syndicate. The UAE government along with all infrastructure construction related business community need to focus on the overseas expatriate work force problems. They can be divided into two folds, primarily as the local work force cannot fulfil UAE construction industry work force requirements, hence the overseas migrant workers is a compulsion.

First fold action is to strictly regulate labour laws as per International Standards and strictly adhere to it by implementing them. The local & overseas community of business people should also be brought to confidence to follow strictly laws of the country. The mafia and gangsters , labour brokers gangster syndicate should be taken to task or rather they must be indirectly used to counter labour law implementation to work in co-operation with labour law implementation agencies The flesh trade legislation law to cater to the human needs of the with health check up facilities to all prostitutes operating in UAE.

Second fold action is to regulate and implement Training centres with sponsorships from infrastructure development civil construction companies operating in UAE. All overseas expatriate workers as soon as they enter into UAE with the job permit, they must undergo training on local & English workable languages for approximately two weeks. They must also study basic hygiene, local culture and customs, Laws based on labour law of UAE and vigilance back up laws for protection of overseas labourers working in construction industry.

In this very training centre, these overseas expatriate workers must be taught to respect their work, the local culture and language, so that they will be reciprocated with respect to work with their head high in UAE. The overseas expatriate workers are never motivated, induced respect of labour, human touch to say that we thank you for your contribution not only by money, but also by love and respect. If this training programme is adopted in large scale, there may be a continuous flow of overseas work force with the trust, respect and love.

The absolute commercial exploitation of overseas work force by organised crime syndicate.

Instigated by labour contractors and brokers needs to be checked in large scale.All mafia crime syndicates based in Dubai must be given ultimatum or thrown out of the country, confiscating their ill gotten wealth by means of human trade sales similar to slaves trade ,drugs sales , illegal arms trade sales, terror funding, man slaughter through contract killings. These notorious people must be treated as per law of the country or they need to be eliminated. UAE may be sheltering such people to control labour work force by showing barrel of a gun, and force overseas workers to work out of fear with lesser wages or pay. This will effect the development of UAE on long term basis because labour can be bought vide wealth, but fear created in the minds of the overseas expatriate workers force will damage the good will of the nation as a whole. As if we are going back to the dark ages when small groups of war mongering Arabs were among themselves and destroying the heritage and culture of the Arab society as a whole.We need to look fast forward for the betterment of UAE nation as a healthy , wealthy and prosperous nation of UAE.

The skill shortage may slow down the development of UAE; however, we have to study, whether it is a long term or short term. The UAE government should strictly analyse this prospect to cater the already built up infrastructure.The sophisticated or simple structures, it needs to run on permanent basis, so that the country prosper.We have identified the purpose of changes. In the individual capacity of the overseas work force, the proper training facilities imparted by jointly UAE government with the sponsorship of the infrastructure development private companies from overseas and local is of prime importance. The individual overseas work force is motivated and brought into confidence by the local government as well as respective companies, who are employing them. The funding of these training programmes should be shared fifty-fifty between UAE government and the employing companies.

The increase in oil prices has a greater effect on inflation.The consumer prices have increased considerably. The inflation has further weakened the American dollar , thus the gulf currencies are also effected in turn.The prices increased of international commodities , had indirectly hit the gulf economy, UAE is no exception. Due to this rise in prices, the economy of UAE had been grossly affected. The building materials, as well as skilled and unskilled labour, are in short supply. The construction costs in the UAE have risen by around thirty per cent in the recent years. The UAE government rose to this effect by lifting duties of cement and steel duties in order to reduce price increase trend.The price increase and dollar weakening directly hit the value of the UAE expatriate workers income , that they were able to remit funds to their home countries less amount. The construction labour force becomes de-motivated by this payment pattern. The specific advantage to the expatriate labour force already in the UAE or those who intend to work there become less attractive.A construction worker from India expects four times their pay which they earn in India , provided they are employed in UAE. This trend is now reduced to forty percent. The expatriate workers from sub continent of Asia and India specially remit a sizeable proportion of their salaries income back to their native countries. This is the special reason they take up jobs in UAE construction industries, so that significant part of their income or salary can be, remitted back home to their respective countries.The recipient home countries in flow of foreign direct investment largely depends on the remittances from abroad. For example, India earns approximately USD thirty billions of foreign exchange remittances from non-resident Indians around round the globe.

Asian labour force will discontinue to enter UAE, because major Asian labour to head for UAE is from India. India is in for an economic growth, and the India own home demand for labour to work in construction industry increased in leaps and bounds. The Indian Government forecasts an expenditure of USD FIVE HUNDRED BILLION on infrastructure projects in the next five years. The increase in demand for labour will push up wages for the labour.It becomes more sensible to work in the home turf than leave overseas.

It is more attractive to stay at home and work with higher wages.

The Asian Governments like Bangladesh, India and Philippines have demanded from the UAE government for fair wages to be given to their citizens as per laws of the country. Minimum wages for its unskilled workers in the Gulf region, the law prohibits unskilled workers to labour to work in the gulf region, if the minimum wages fixed by the government is not followed to strictly. Due to inflation, there is a pressure to fix minimum wages, especially at the lower end of the pay scale. The minimum wages system will add to the cost of the construction, thus it will have an adverse effect on the construction business at UAE.

If the gulf construction companies governments are serious about diversifying their economies away from oil , it is to be done on the back of the of the indigenous labour.There must be an equal pay structure for overseas expatriate worker and locals , there should not be any discrepancy whatsoever it may be. There is a growing labour scarcity. The local workers opt to work in public sector where pay and benefits are good and the environment is not as tough as private sector. But the gulf construction companies are aware that their local structure of their economies are not sustainable , the states cannot pay to employ the increasing number of local job seekers , when the private sector cannot rely on expatriate labour work force forever.

The crisis is short termed , the objectives of the investors would not change , and they would not shift their business to a newer economic zones.The UAE government will have to set up long term and short term goals to set things right. To shift the development to a new location would also demand the labour, whether it is affordable or not and commercially feasible proposition or not is to be studied in depth. The population growth , education , health , countries development in health , energy , industrial growth , food , agriculture and essential development work needs to be focused. There is a growing concern from the investors as well as gulf Construction Company’s future. There is an urgent need to explore deep-sea oceanography research to find out whether underneath the seabed food and energy recourses are exportable. A scientific exploration is of utmost importance to begin the search from now on wards.

Given the situation of UAE, it is better to control the existing problem with proper labour maintenance and motivational skills. According to Deborah King, collaborative adult learning is important to help institutions in designing and implementing professional development procedures to support learning and progress of the administrators. She says that the principles and supers of the institutions have realized a need for developing a wider knowledge base of the curriculum to achieve their goals. Their instructional leadership capabilities need to be developed and professional learning groups must be encouraged. For the improvement of institutions, the leaders have to develop skills for collecting and using data from various sources. As she mentions, “Instructional leaders make creative use of all resources – people, time, and money – to support school improvements.” (King, 2002)

According to Ben Bissell, educational institutions must create an environment so that continual changes are viewed as a positive step for creating success and improving learning among the students. He says that a distinctive character of our successful leaders will be their capabilities of managing change on the educational front. Until and unless these educational leaders expose themselves to the changes that are going on, they will ultimately become irrelevant.

Bissell says that the speed of change is a relatively new thing for us and we no longer have enough time to think before a certain new change requires our attention. He says, “First, it is vital to realize that change is not new. The world has always been changing. What’s new is the speed of change.” (Bissell, 2002)

If the leaders are reluctant and display lack of enthusiasm to present changes it will take away success achieved by the students through their formal education. Bissell also says that there is always a resistance to a new change as they produce unexpected and unknown fear among the people. One way of overcoming this is that the leaders need to properly hear out, understand the staff members, and listen to them.

The resistance change is better since it realizes that there is nothing new about changes and only those people who can accept change will be the ultimate winner. It emphasizes that other than the things that are taught in the schools, there is also the need to understand how change can be managed and form guidelines for the success of its students and staff members. According to this theory, change is better if it is exercised and accepted slowly and gradually. It is also better since it is consistent with the changing ways of our present millennium.

This is a better model since unlike the older models, which believed that if people had to know something they would be informed about it. According to this model, the people in the organization should be responsible for their needs. This model also does not expect the staff to do according to the leaders but expects them to help the leaders understand what changes need to be done.

The first and foremost effect of change among the individuals of an institution is that they become fearful of the change, as they do not know what to expect of it. The implementation of the change is in a way shut down due to this fear. Sometimes there are misunderstandings among the leaders and staff members, which need to be clarified. Thus, this affects the leaders who in the process of understanding the staff themselves become learners, making them powerful leaders. However, dealing with change is not easy. It requires sustainable relations. “Sustainable improvement requires investment in building long-term capacity for improvement”. This proves to be most beneficial during the event of changes. (Hargreaves, 2003)

Nevertheless, sometimes the leaders themselves become angry. Unresolved anger also creates low morale among the staff and this becomes an overhead cost for the institution. Changes are always followed by stress thus, requiring everyone to take care of their need, both emotionally and physically. If we neglect them then we may get depressed for working too long and too hard. (Wilson, 2002)

To implement any new change and reduce its negative effects on the people, the leaders must first increase the flow of information among them so that the people are informed and do not resist to the change. If people have no information about a certain change, rumours will be created which can sometimes be harmful. They also should not withhold any information from the staff as it may make them feel incompetent. The staff members should also take individual responsibility to learn about the changes. When changes take place, people’s perceptions become vague, thus the leaders should make sure that the staffs properly understands the tasks and goals.

The leaders should clearly listen to the staff and set limits to the time they can give them. This will make them stick to the important points and not blabber around. Both the leaders and staff members should not bottle up their feelings and speak out so that no one gets hurt and problems are solved. As changes bring about weariness and tired people are not able to express, listen or learn self-care becomes a priority for all. Leaders and staff members should also maintain a social life outside their workplaces. (Hiatt, 2004)

In order to monitor the trends affecting our institutions and prepare the people to accept changes, the leaders should increase flow of information so that harmful rumours are not created. In order to do so new models must be developed and the leaders should make it clear to the staff that it is their responsibility to ask questions regarding things they want to learn. The leaders should frequently check that the staff members are on the same track as them and clarify any misunderstandings.

The leaders themselves need to keep their cool and not get angry as this may hamper their communication with their staff members. Everyone must practice anger management and rules should be established to stop conflicts from taking place. The leaders should make sure that the staff and students engage themselves in sports activities, reading and, if possible, travelling so that their demanding schedules do not make them boring. (Cameron, 2004)

To motivate the staff members of an institution the leader should always encourage, share information with the staff members, and never tell them that they are not responsible or mature enough to handle situations. They should be treated like adults if the leaders want them to behave like adults. In order to clearly listen to the staff, the leaders should set a time limit for them as this keeps them on track and they get to the important points within the limit. However, they should not be sarcastic when doing so. People should learn from each other how to handle conflicts and not from theoretical models.

Methodology

The research will comprise of two parts. One a survey of the UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry will be conducted. This will include studying various literatures that abounds in this area. The usage of labour is carefully analyzed. The primary purpose will be to reach the objectives of the research using theoretical means. Two, a company will be taken up and the gain the company enjoyed by employing the labour force is studied. This is carried out using a survey of the company. A short questionnaire is designed so that the managers of the company are not averse to filling it up. The data from the questionnaire is used for the purpose for real time analysis. These two together will be able to help us understand and prove the various points that rose in our objectives and reach the aim of the research undertaken.

Various researches and reports have been studied that are connected to the area of work. These reports that are supportive and contrary to the hypothesis of the research are taken for consideration. These literatures are analyzed and the results of these analyses are recorded. Every objective listed is thus ratified with the earlier reports.

Literatures that identify appropriate metrics are also identified and these metrics are checked for their validity in the current situation. If they are valid they are identified and used for further analysis. This will also help in realizing objective listed above. Similarly, every one of the objectives is realized.

Further research is then done to check with the real time data whether these theoretical conclusions that are arrived at using the literatures is valid and right. This is tallied with the results obtained during the survey carried out in the specimen industry.

Rationale of questioner design

All interviews were reviewed with maximum comfort and privacy exercised for the interviewee, interviewer and myself. When deciding where the interviews were to take place a range of options were available to the participant to which I will discuss further with the participant in question. The interview was not conducted if the interviewee had not signed a consent form, which was available to them prior to the interview.

All interviews remain confidential before and after the conclusion of this study and any recording that took place will not be disclosed to any other parties. Privacy in regard to the questionnaires utilized in this study were observed by masking the names and other major identifiers of the people involved. Each participant was given an identifier to keep them categorized appropriately. This ensured that bias was removed and authenticity and integrity are both contained within the study.

The questioner is designed in accordance to various ethnic background followed by organization and seniority. The research question will involve the use of theories. A deductive approach will be used, in which the researcher will attempt to verify the revised theories as outlined in the literature review and design a research strategies to answer the research question, with the explanations of causal relationships between the variables. The research will select samples of sufficient size in order to generalise conclusions, to ensure the validity of data. Survey strategy will be used by collecting the data from a sizeable population of the organisation’s workforce. This will be done by using a questionnaire, to allow easy comparison and standardised data. Structured interviews with standardised questions will also be used. As the research is time-constrained, the research will be taken at a particular time; hence the research design will be cross-sectional. Systematic sampling technique will be adopted in this research; since statistical inferences will be made, it does not contain periodic pattern and it is easily accessible. Ethical issues are considered in the research design as followings:

• The researcher’s identity, contact information, references and intention of research will be disclosed on acquiring the organisation’s permission
• Research will be undertaken only on organisation’s consent
• Assurance of confidentiality
• The purpose of research will be at research population’s awareness
• Research will only be taken only on participants’ willingness
• The research design will not subject the research population to embarrassment or any other material disadvantage
• Gratitude for time consumed will be acknowledged

As descriptions of statistical methods that will be used it could be stated that in order to isolate the results for this particular study, only a survey questionnaire done would have been utilized. These questionnaires would be delivered to potential investors and stakeholders along with the administrators of the events. The results were divided into these same categories to ensure validity and reliability. General information in regard to identifiers was utilized in order to ensure that there would be no bias.

However, it should be taken into contention that to obtain such goals in finding legitimate and verified answers substantial and thorough research should be operated in a far larger scale. For example, for interactions away from desk, the first and foremost variable required is to find out the exact location of occurrence. Next, it should be looked into whether there are enough variables on the structural properties, examining how conversations are opened and closed and the ways that participants introduce and agree on conversation context. Another test prediction is about frequency. Frequent interaction should share background context as well as being familiar with each other. We therefore expected frequent interactions to show less formality in opening and closing interactions as well as reduced need for context setting.

The research sample

• The research sample was drawn from various companies in UAE involved in construction business. However, the backgrounds of the companies were not taken into account in order to avoid any bias.
• This study is limited to UAE construction industry and particularly those that are involved into hiring immigrant labours.
• 21 questionnaires were sent out to the subject who were chosen from a variety of hierarchy. This includes managers, administrators, suppliers and permanent workers. They were contacted through e-mail.

The sample comprise of small, medium and large companies.

Method of analysis

The best statistical method would be to interview long well formulated day-to-day working procedure at a specific and well-selected location. Throughout the procedure, it should be noticed whether there are specific variables within the testable population or not. These variables would be extremely important while evaluating the basic data in the final stages where the adjustments would be made to the formulated data in accordance to the observations. However, it is important to completely take into account the aspects of fundamental variables of an individual such as ethnicity, religious belief or positive support from the sales structure of the management and individual.

It is necessary to design a new experiment that test the statistical method. For the purpose, it is necessary to collect a complete data of the site that would include different religion, ethnicity or gender. An open meeting with potential stakeholders of e commerce would be very relevant in this context but only the upper income limits should be taken into account in the initial stages. This is because only upper sections are the groups that are most likely involved in the issue. The mixed gender of male and female potential stakeholders could well be excluded, as that would complicate matters in the context of gender variable juxtaposed with other pre mentioned variables but considering other dependable factors sustaining it would yield to be fruitful in the long run. Data would be collected in relation to the gender, colour, and religion of the potential stakeholders in respect to the composition of the management under the same parameters. Furthermore, the favourable conditions in the context of experienced stakeholder response would also be accounted.

All these variables are considered as very relevant and important features of the statistical method and it is to be seen if these aspects are fundamentally acceptable in practical world and it could well be mentioned that service, especially e commerce service industry, are a very relevant manifestation of the social dimensions. As a result, if the test is carried out in a proper manner with proper calculations of the population involved then there is no reason that the results would be both logical and true at the end consideration.

In accordance to the basic test selected it could be stated that it could be possible that the outcome would be relatively logical in the sense that it would ultimately follow the trends of social facilitation theory in marketing and thus it would be agreeable with the statistical method and thus a well formulated marketing strategy can be constructed for assessment of the impact. However, it should be stated that there would be few independent variables in the context of the test that could not be explained by the statistical method statements. Here the ethical consideration of the potential stakeholders or the ethnic background of the potential stakeholders may not be a very relevant factor. Thus, there could be some flaws to the collection of the population but if these aspects are kept in mind then the shortcomings would easily be negotiated during the ultimate computations. As a result, the test would appear to be a full proofed measure that would be able to define and prove the fundamental aspects and statistical method applied.

As descriptions of statistical methods that will be used it could be stated that in order to isolate the results for this particular study, only a survey questionnaire done would have been utilized. These questionnaires would be delivered to potential stakeholders and retailers along with the administrators of different companies. The results were divided into these same categories to ensure validity and reliability. General information in regard to identifiers was utilized in order to ensure that there would be no bias. This information provided the researcher with a more clarified view of perceptions in regard to the possibility and impact of market penetration and impact.

The variables involved would also include age groups, amount of education, and understanding of security needs and responsibility. Other variables may be inclusive of the economic standings of the potential stakeholders of the impact, the physical market, along with the same standings for the stakeholders at the edge of the market segment interviewed. A third series of variables includes the types of studies that are managed and the cultural background of the stakeholders at each of these areas. The research paradigm considered by the researcher in regard to this work included the consideration of groups and how strategically developed planning would target them. These considerations included in management and how the different respondents would in fact classify usage of impact.

The data for this work was managed through a single questionnaire handed out to potential stakeholders of the impact. The researcher utilized gender identifiers and numbers or letters to separate each questionnaire for validity and reliability of results and to ensure bias reductions. The questionnaire is located in the Appendix section for understanding of the questions. Each question had either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer or followed positive or negative reactions to certain questions. The process to deliver and collect these questionnaires would be spanned around approximately two weeks.

The data sampling would be randomly managed utilizing stratified means with thirty-seven questionnaires completed by both male and female potential stakeholders. The choice to use potential and existing stakeholders alone in this research was made for three reasons. First, it was far simpler to have access to stakeholders in regard to the researcher’s availability. Second, the focus itself is on stakeholders’ attitudes and understanding of the gadget. Third, the quantification of such information allows the researcher to gain a broader perspective on how stakeholders observe and realize the validity and reliability of information received from a variety of sources and how they apply it to daily life in terms of impact.

It should be noted that reliability for the researcher was achieved in the assurance that only a specified group of men and women were utilized in regard to the research. That group was focused mostly on stakeholders and retails along with administrative personnel. This gave the research a more focused view of the research goal. The validity was managed as a result of this focus and emphasized in the considerations involved in the data collection, variables, and sampling methods. Privacy and confidentiality methods included assigning numeric and alphabetic coding to each responding questionnaire. This ensured anonymity in regard to the researcher and the subjects of the research process.

Thus the most important objective of the interviews regarding this study concerning the market segment of impact would be building an impact regarding the profitability of this market for the stakeholder. As a result the study would feature qualitative interviews of personnel and personalities that are well known to the arena of marketing and a huge amount of potential stakeholders who would provide complete views of their needs through as series of open and close-ended questions. (Hall, 2006)

The interviews and questioners would certainly include the Administrators, Managers, marketing experts and Scholar, senior managers and obviously the potential stakeholders of e commerce system. The involvement of the administrators is a logical conclusion, as this is the main stronghold that would be able to render the impetus of the market with his valued opinions. It should be noted that the interviews of the organization managers would be very helpful as they are the personnel who directly understand the ground reality of the nature and feasibility of the game plans established in the market segments of the e commerce. Marketing scholars and experts are also important for the basic strategy development these are the people who would be able to provide the theoretical framework of entire project. Interviews of the senior administrators, Journalists and retailer are very important because not only these people are well respected and their words highly valued, these are the people who are able to influence the structure of the e commerce market segment with their experience and insights. Lastly, interview would also be taken of experienced and potential consumers because they are the key objective of the entire scenario and these are the people who would actually present the objective of the market and would be instrumental directly to make the market worth venturing.

To sum it up it should be mentioned that the methodology will involve client interviews, client’s strategic stakeholder interview, company records, secondary research through the Internet and university database, it will also use strategic analysis tools for development of the marketing plan. In this context, it should also be mentioned that the purpose of the project is formulated in a mutually beneficial way such that from an academic perspective there would be a huge gain in the context of valuable experience, and simultaneously add value by providing insights as well as a fresh & objective outlook on any matter relevant to the organization.

Limitations

However, it should be mentioned there are certain limitations of the study. A number of people (usually senior administrators) may also insist that the consumers have no contribution to the issue. Many of them may think that consumers come into the working formulation only during the advertising scenario and never in the development plan of the marketing procedure. As a result they do not use the requisite strategic management techniques or adaptive methods that need to be exercised while developing a study such as this. However, it creates a void in the test as this limitation can be overcome by taking the subject into better mode of confidence. However, at the same time, it should also be noted that there are certain limitations regarding the methodology of the interview aspect. It could be mentioned that past history has shown that it is not always people revealing a context in a survey or interview holds much truth in the long run in general sense. This is one variable that is able to corrupt any well-formulated strategically set formulations. However, this again is a possibility and not the general rule. At any case it should be noted that all steps would be taken with utmost care so that such variables are not allowed to upset the basic test of market segmentation beyond a certain permissible limit. If all these parameters are well implemented there could be no reason why a long-term strategy for operation in a full-length marketing penetration and procedure cannot be established.

Analysis of the results

In order to conduct the qualitative analysis, two questions are included in the questionnaire, which would provide the required fuzzy area for the respondents to put in their thoughts. These qualitative questions need to be analysed using the qualitative methods. The responses from the people will be evaluated based on the qualitative analysis techniques that has been identified and researched upon. The methods that are normally adopted would include analysing the generic responses, the psychological and preferential responses of the respondents. In addition to this, the qualitative analysis will also bring forward the various suggestions that originate from the respondents. These suggestions would also bring out the problems that they faced using the UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry problem in their day-to-day life and the ones that make it uncomfortable to work with. This will help in identifying the possible causes that could bring about a failure of the issue as well as the possible cause for the success of it.

The data collected under this process is all narrative in nature and there is no visual data that is obtained during the survey. In order to analyse the data thus collected, a thematic framework as suggested by Miles & Huberman (2002) has been employed.

The data collected out of the questionnaire comes in from the Likert’s scale. Using the scale the answers to the questionnaire are given an equivalent quantitative reference. After conducting the survey on the 50 selected respondents for the survey, the information is converted into quantitative information for most part of the questionnaire except the qualitative part. From this section, quantitative analysis is conducted.

This is initially done using the descriptive statistics method where the mean, median and the mode of the results are used to identify the behaviour of the group. Standard deviation and range is also used to study the overall variability of the data collected and the respondent’s attitude towards the UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry and its impact in their daily life. However, since the overall group who are using the merger and acquisition for their daily work and pleasure seem to be too high a number, it becomes imperative that a selection is made in the population. A random sampling was done of the population that make up the users of the merger and acquisition. In order to ensure that there is an appropriate sample of the population is selected and is used for the purpose, the selection is done based on the following criteria:

1. The respondents were selected from varying age groups. The entire age group of the users was divided into four. Less than 20, 20 to 35, 35 to 50 and finally, 50 and above. The spread of the sample was ensured to be equal across this cross section of people. This was done because it was also found that there are a larger number of teenage girls and boys who make use of the merger and acquisition for their day-to-day work and entertainment. Since this appears to be a large number of people, the same was included in the sample.
2. The second classification of the people was done using their profession and business. It was found that the people who are using merger and acquisition varied with their profession and business. This was classified into two categories. One, professionals and two, non-professionals. Professionals included engineers, medical professionals, lawyers and teachers. The rest of them were considered non-professionals.

The selection of the sample from the population using the merger and acquisition was based on these criteria. A total of fifty-five respondents were selected for the purpose. Out of these fifty-five respondents, only forty-eight people responded to the questionnaires that were sent over the email to them. The responses where then scientifically analysed and the results saved in an excel spreadsheet.

In addition to this, one of the companies that are employing merger and acquisition is chosen. The impact and the experience of the people when the new technology was introduced in the company are studied. The results in terms of both gains to the company and the ease of operation are checked out. This will help the research deduce whether the technology really helped the company to gain out of the usage of merger and acquisition. These points are then put together to form the conclusion of the report, trying to reach the final decision whether the merger and acquisition content delivery models help corporate bodies to gain an edge over others when they use this technology.

Firm’s background

According to the survey carried out by Forrester Corporation, the growth in the usage of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry has been exponential. Particularly, with the introduction of Black Berry series of personal data assistants, the growth has been remarkable. Pushing the emails on to the Blackberries has made it all the more attractive. A mobile executive finds in comfortable to keep in touch with what ever is happening in his or her company even while on the move. Important messages and requests get pushed into her inbox.

Rate of growth noticed in these areas, according to the research, is as shown in the figure below. There is continuous growth with other major players in the PDA market entering into the market. Today apart from Blackberry, HP and O2 are the major players in the mobile merger and acquisition platforms (Tom Reidal, 2004). The sale volume of these products is an indicator of the nature of growth that is happening in the mobile platforms.

The second major area of growth for UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry is in technology sharing and in developing communities of practice for large knowledge sharing environments. Typically, in companies that have multiple locations of operations or large multinational corporations, the problems with knowledge sharing and information passing is acute. This is resolved by ensuring that all relevant information is pushed to the end users inbox. For instance, standards adopted by the company could get altered due to certain issues at one location or at the head office. This information has to percolate down to all the users of the standards in all the locations. Such information needs to be pushed either through a server or over a peer-to-peer network. This will ensure swift and in time transfer of information.

The third major area of work where UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry is employed is with reference to the top management. The top management is in need of all important information and statistics of the company. It is quite common that they never make use of most of the information but when they do need one, they would like to have it. Not having this information could turn out to be quite costly for the company. That is possibly the reason, why many companies ensure that the statistics and corporate information is passed on to the top management as and when it happens. This is achieved through UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry.

Labour requirement

This has been made use of to a great extent by the businesses. The major usage area of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry will continue to be marketing and marketing support activity in the corporate arena.

The next major area of usage in businesses is in product support. Clients would like to know what is happening in their specific interest area. They would like to subscribe to magazines that would carry this information to them. They would only be pleased to receive information connected to their business and equipment that they are using, on a regular basis. There is a continuous and ongoing need for technology updates when the developments do take place. This is also looked at as a part of the after sales support though this might really result in further sale for the company.

The literature indicates that the businesses are interested in information that is of direct link to their business rather than spend time on some thing that might not be of consequence to them or have a remote connectivity to their business. The immediate priority will be to the problems at hand in their business and any news on the escalation or on the ebbing of the problem (Seung-Hwa Chung, 2008). RSS feeds get subscribed to these news sites. The same way, businesses indicate a strong inclination to adopt push technologies for the purpose of important information sharing.

In all these three cases, it is important to note that the information shared across the businesses or users are in the related area. The adopted technology for pushing could very well be Peer to Peer for effective information passing. Merger and acquisition is important in these cases and P2P would make it less cumbersome for the servers to handle. This would also make it faster and more reliable.

The existing research indicates these major areas of usage for UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry for the purpose is more comfortable and economical too. However, in this context, it should be clarified that in order to obtain error free results it data was evaluated and analyzed keeping in mind the shortage of labour and the availability of migrant labour force. Thus, it was observed that the development of construction industry depended on the availability of migrant labour forces.

Migrant labour in general

1. The survey will cover only a sample number of people of the total population of the customers for the merger and acquisition. The probable customers and target audience who might be interested in buying such technologies were not specifically covered. This would mean that the entire population has to be included in the survey. Therefore, these were eliminated and only those people who already own and using merger and acquisition based devices alone were used and they were included in the selection process.
2. The population in the interested location who are of the required age should be target for the survey (Robert Groves, Floyd Fowler, et al. 2004). Since the population is large, a small sample should be taken for the purpose of the survey. The sample should be a clear representation of the population on which the survey is to be conducted. Since a random sampling might not fully provide the complete picture of the population, a carefully planned selection has to be done on the population.
3. A stratified random sampling survey has to be conducted. This would mean that the entire population is broken down into different groups. The groups are broken down in the same manners as was explained earlier. They are broken down based on their age and profession. Along with this, a universal separator the gender is also a major grouping factor. Every one of these variables has been used for categorising the groups (Roger Sapsford & Victor Jupp 2006). With in these groups, the sample group is randomly selected for administering the instrument.
4. In this case, the sample size is decided based on the large population that has to be addressed. In this case, the sample size will be less than 1% of the total population that are already customers or about 5% of the total customer base any of the merger and acquisition companies might have. The small percentage is forced because of the large size of the target population. This sample size itself will cover over 50 respondents for the entire survey, which is of reasonable size taking into consideration the nature of survey that is being conducted. However, for the validity of the survey such a large respondent base is taken for the research work.
5. In order to take the survey with such a large respondent base effectively, an email-based survey has been planned. According to this, a sample lot of emails of the respondents will be collected. This will comprise of all the groups equally divided among them and their email addresses will also be collected. They will be sent a purpose email explaining to them what is the purpose of the survey and in which way their response will help the service providing company to provide a better service to them.
6. This is explained in a letter and their confirmation for participating in the survey will be sought. Such emails were sent to 40% more respondents so that any dropouts will be taken care of. This implies that the total number of people who will be sent the initial screening mailer will be 75 people. Confirmation mails will be taken from them and then the actual questionnaire will be mailed to them.
7. From the pilot survey the questionnaire’s validity was adjudged. From the sample lot of 75 people a final sampling group consisting of 48 people were chosen and the questionnaire was administered. The questionnaire is planned to ensure that the respondent marks it intelligently. The following standard practices were adopted while framing the questionnaire.

Migrant labour problems and contribution

The quantitative values obtained in the survey have been listed in the annexure II. The results are then plotted into graphs for easier analysis. The grouping of the questions has been carried out. And every group of questions has been separately plotted. A trend diagram for the entire group of questions is also plotted. This indicates the way the people are responding is noted.

The graph below indicates the response obtained for performance questions.

The trend line indicates that there is an overall above mean response from the respondents indicating favorable response. Here, 7.5 is the neutral response point.

The overall response for these questions is clearly over the nominal level. This indicates the users, the project managers and the management feel that the performance of the UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry is certainly good. They have realized the benefit of the technology and that there are a certain gain employing it in the company. However, the graph also indicates that the project managers are not feeling as high about its performance as the management does! This could be because the project managers generally have higher expectations. Also the project managers since they are close to the implementation exercise are also knowledgeable about the lacunas in the performance or in the product. This will make them rate the performance more clearly. But the management point of view could be more financial and on the overall gain in the company. This is reflected in the improving KPI’s. Naturally, if these appear satisfactory, management might feel comfortable. They may not be really aware of what is happening behind the screens in the project implementation.

Similarly, the end user also shows a larger satisfaction level when compared to the project managers and even the management. For them, if it optimizes their work, they should be feeling happy about the whole project. This is also clearly reflected in the next graph, which shows the personal gain that the respondents have obtained due its implementation.

As the graph indicates, the end users have gained a lot in terms of time and ease of work with UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry. They were getting prompts and messages on the move and that ensured they had the right kind of information to do their job quickly and seamlessly. This could be the reason why they had responded positively in both the cases and this has resulted in a better support to the merger and acquisition from this set of people, the end users.

However, as to personal gains by the project owners or by the management seems pretty moderated though not very supportive. It is not expected that their work will be unduly affected. It is the people at the shop floor or in the market place who will be greatly advantaged by implementing the system. However, the rest of the team, the project owners and the management will realize the benefit because of the more efficient work that the field personnel produce.

As to the opinion questions, every one of the groups have responded positively and have supported the success of their Merger and acquisition implementation. There is no difference of opinion here. The difference is only in the depth of their satisfaction. It is interesting to note that the management has supported the cause much more than the rest of the group and so are the project owners. They have also more commitment to the project and the technology and seem to carry the torch further.

This could happen because of the fact that one, the project owners are the people who have brought it into the company and they are influenced by their own success. It is therefore, important for the owners to be known as successful. This is so the case with the management too. This factor could have also influenced the response of the respondents to the questionnaire. This skew in the responses cannot be offset by the quantitative figures. However, this needs to be kept in mind. The real response in this case is that of the end users who have clearly indicated their support to the technology and its implementation.

The overall result of the quantitative analysis is a pointer to the thinking that is happening in the market place. The implementation team comprising of the project owners and the end users do feel strongly about the disadvantages of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry implementation in their content delivery and customer service areas. The management also sees a push to this extent. However, in all of their cases, it is not an overpowering decision, but one that is close to neutral stand. The people are indicating that they are inclined to say yes to it more and there is hardly anyone who says no to the ills of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry implementations. The benefits reaped out of the new technology are also positive.

The response to the qualitative section of the questionnaire is very similar for all types of respondents. Most of them have implemented the merger and acquisition in their customer relationship management systems. This is possibly one of the areas where the customers are able to realize an immediate problem from the implementation of the UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry. This also explains why most of the sales persons are the people who are carrying the Black berries and not the rest of the professionals. This also implies that the data available with the users decide on a double-quick basis in case of customer relationship management. Most of the companies are also interested in ensuring that the customer relationship is more closely maintained than the rest of the departments. While nearly 70% of the respondents indicated that they are using the system for customer relationship management and that they find it more helpful there, the rest of them indicate using the same for content management. Customer complaints and responding to the customer complaints seem to be the major job that these people are attacking.

In either of the case it is clear that the customer centric approach is what the companies are taking and it might be the immediate priority for the management. Realizing an ongoing and similar advantage in other departments of the company is also possible though not visualized by most of the managements or by their managers.

The second question has elicited almost one hundred percent of positive answers though the degree did vary in as much as 30% of the respondents. Most of them felt that the aspect of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry is a differentiator and a positive differentiator at that. This would help according to them to strengthen ‘ties’ with ones client. Therefore, it is only important that the companies adapt to this system for their betterment and future growth and not for any other purpose. Thirty percent of the people said that they also feel the same way but not with as much force as the rest of them did. They are not against it but only the degree up to which they are for it is different.

Organisation culture

Every corporate body that implements a new technology does try to identify the nature of gain that the company has obtained through it. It is only common that the corporate body uses certain Key performance indexes to identify the extent of gain that has resulted out of the implementation of any new system. In the case of the implementation of P2P push technologies for marketing, service, knowledge and standards sharing in addition to top management push service, similar gains can be worked out.

Some of the KPI’s that are identified for the purpose include measures of time in related areas and financial gain in the same areas. For instance, in a company that had implemented push in customer relationship management, it is only right to check the following relevant KPI’s. Time taken for responding to a client request for quote, time taken for responding to a general query, time taken for confirming an order, number of customers handled by a sales persons, total outstanding receivables, receivables collected every week could all be some of the common and measurable KPI’s to know the performance of the implemented project.

Recommendation

Implementing the UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry should ideally go through the following stages to gain maximum out of the technology and the project.

1. A process for implementation of the project is first finalised. This would help in going through the entire work more professionally. The process can be a simple waterfall or a little complex agile or any other that suits the company. It has been repeatedly proved that agile has its advantages in areas were there is an understanding by the users of the implementation process and on the information technology that is going to be implemented. They need not know how the technology works or how it has to be implemented; awareness would ensure that the agile process is successful. This is so because most of the users are well versed in their own sphere of work. To have them in the implementation team would ensure not only ownership of the project but also share their knowledge to ensure success of the entire work.
2. The current status of the processes and the values of the monitored KPI’s are identified at this stage. This will give the pre-implementation KPI values, which can be compared with the values post implementation to study the performance of the project.
3. Once the process is finalised, the process is taken forward. The project is fit into the requirements of the company after doing a complete requirement analysis. This can be carried out by an analyst who would identify all the needs of the company and then ensure that the process is adhered to. He will also ensure that the product and technology understanding is equally good.
4. Implementing the system is done after this clear understanding of the requirements of the company is done.
5. The operational staffs that are involved in the process are adequately trained to ensure that the company gains out of the entire project. Every one of the users should know how to make use of the product to its maximum. Educating the user is a very important aspect of the entire process.

Review of the performance has to be done soon afterwards to identify whether the targets for the project have been met. This would also identify whether the company’s money has been spent worthily.

Conclusion

Presently there is a huge shortage of structural and civil engineers, project managers, safety managers, on-site supervisors and tradesman, like welders and fitters. More effort must be made in order to plan better work force and various human resource needs of the construction companies. The industry should also engage their retired tradesman to train and instruct imparting real life experiences to both the skilled and unskilled labour. Shortages of labour and rising material cost are responsible for major construction delays and project cancellation in the Middle East. Until and unless the contractors increase their capacity and resources, they will not be able to attract large project, hampering their own growth and their economy’s expansion plans. Therefore, there might be an outside chance, though unlikely, that the development would suffer due to this crisis and the investors may loose interest in the region and shift to a newer economic region nearby. However, these appear inconclusive to prove now. (Schuster, 2008) At the same context, it is obvious that to counter the present problems in the context of UAE construction workforce and skills shortages and the impacts of expatriate labour & construction industry it is recommended to gear up the solution process with the help of organisational skills and leadership motivation strategies. However, there are ample scopes for further researches on the said areas.

Bibliography

Athukorala, Premachandra; 2002; The use of migrant remittances in development: Lessons from the Asian experience; Journal of International Development; 4, 5, 511-529.

Bissell, Ben; 2002; Resistance Change; Leadership; Ebsco publishing.

Cameron, Esther & Mike Green; 2004; Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools & Techniques of Organizational Change; Kogan Page Publishers.

Grant, Jim, Fatema Shabbir Golawala, Donelda S. McKechnie; 2007; The United Arab Emirates: The twenty-first century beckons; Thunderbird International Business Review; 49, 4, 507-533.

Hargreaves, Andy & Dean Fink; 2003; Sustaining Leadership; Ebsco publishing.

Hiatt, Jeffrey M. Jeff Hiatt, Timothy J. Creasey; 2003; Change Management: The People Side of Change; Prosci.

King, Deborah; 2002; Changing Shape of Leadership; Ebsco publishing.

Nagy, Sharon; 1998; “This Time I Think I’ll Try a Filipina”: Global and Local Influences on Relations Between Foreign Household Workers and Their Employers in Doha, Qatar; City & Society; 10; 1, 83-103

Schuster, Camille P, Michael J. Copeland; 2008; Cultural theory in use: the intersection of structure, process and communication in business practice; Journal of Public Affairs; 8, 4, 261-280

Stern, Frank, Paul Schulte, Marie Haring Sweeney, Marilyn Fingerhut, Pamela Vossenas, Greg Burkhardt, Mary-Frances Kornak; 2001; Proportionate mortality among construction laborers; American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 27, 4, 485-509;

Wilson, David C; 2002; A Strategy of Change: Concepts and Controversies in the Management of Change; Cengage Learning EMEA