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In this study, we used the career construction theory (CCT) to examine the effects of career adaptability resources and career adapting responses on the career readiness of young adults in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using data from a sample of 635 senior business students at two universities, we found that career adaptability has a positive impact on two measures of career readiness including career decidedness and perceived employability. Our findings also indicate that career adaptability, as expected, predicts two relevant career adaptive responses within the United Arab Emirates context including intentions to seek "Wasta" (using social connections to help in finding a job) and willingness to work in the private sector (WWPS). We further found that WWPS mediates the relationship between career adaptability and perceived employability. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Few studies have explored the careers of Native Americans. Historically, this population has been, and continues to be, ignored within mainstream career and management studies. To address this research gap, the current study explores the challenges that Native Americans, living and working in various locations and states across the United States, face. Drawing on Syed and Özbilgin's relational framework, a qualitative approach was used whereby 14 in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings highlight the salience of some challenges including poor educational levels of completion, lack of transportation means, shortage of employment opportunities, difficulty in work-life balance, and cultural stereotyping and prejudice. The results of the study have important implications for career development practitioners, legislators, higher institutions of learning, and other stakeholders interested in advancing the lives of these disadvantaged people.

Does the way in which people do gender influence their career advancement strategies? Based on semi-structured interviews with Saudi women senior managers and drawing from the postcolonial feminist theory, we discover in this study that it does. We show that Saudi women choosing to do gender well, the Sailing Through cohort, achieve career advancement by amplifying their commitment to family responsibilities, enacting respectful femininity, and invoking family associations to build winning alliances. We describe this form of resistance as crafty agency. In contrast, Saudi women choosing to do gender differently, the Trailblazing cohort, achieve their advancement goals by acting in a serious, composed, and competitive manner, investing in their human and professional capital, and effectively using self-promotion and self-advocacy. We describe this form of resistance as determined agency. Overall, our study demonstrates that Saudi women's agency is not fixed, or definite, or passive but rather it is fluid, multifaceted, and transformational. This article contributes to gender studies by showing how different stances on doing gender drive the reinvention of gender identities and pursuit of alternative career advancement strategies. It also provides a nuanced understanding of how Saudi women attain senior management positions as they navigate the messiness and contradictions of gender roles and gendered contexts, agency, doing gender well and doing gender differently, and career advancement strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances research on the nexus between macro‐level turbulence and workers' experience through the empirical analysis of the coping strategies of women human resource managers in the context of Lebanon. Theoretically grounded in the transactional theory of stress and coping, the findings reveal how the multidimensional coping strategies of human resource managers unfold at the juncture of macro‐level turbulence, emotion‐focussed and problem‐solving strategies, doing/re‐doing of gender, and the deployment of various types of silence. Practitioner notes: What is currently known?Research on women's coping strategies is minimal, primarily focussed on single sources of stress and ignores the role of silence as a coping strategy.Research on coping strategies is Western‐centric, overlooking the experiences of workers in Arab, turbulent macro‐contexts. What this paper adds?In‐depth understanding of the coping strategies of women HR managers beyond the narrow dichotomy of emotion‐focussed and problem‐solving coping strategies.Demonstration of how various types of silence and gender as a performative unfold as coping strategies for women in turbulent contexts. The implications for practitionersPractitioners need to deepen their understanding of the stresses that employees in countries with macro‐level turbulence experience.Practitioners need to improve their understanding of silence and gender as a performative as coping mechanisms and integrate them into their development of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how institutional contexts and digital technologies influence women's digital entrepreneurship and emancipation potential in the conflict-laden, Arab country-specific context of Palestine. Drawing on insights from Institutional Theory and emancipation literature, we capitalize on in-depth, semi-structured online interviews with Palestinian women entrepreneurs. Accordingly, we present empirical evidence demonstrating that while digital technologies enabled Palestinian women to launch their enterprises, the unsupportive institutional contexts confined them to home-based, feminine enterprises and subjected them to a toll of additional challenges, health issues and hostility. Our findings challenge the claim that digital entrepreneurship emancipates women by showcasing the context-specific nature of emancipation. This paper advances entrepreneurship research by demonstrating how Arab women's digital entrepreneurship unfolds at the intersection between emancipatory enablers and unique, conflict-laden regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutional pillars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the coping strategies utilized by Muslim women entrepreneurs in the country‐specific context of crises‐laden Lebanon. In so doing, we capitalize on a qualitative interpretative methodology, drawing upon in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews. We present empirical evidence detailing how women entrepreneurs utilize Muslim feminism and various Islamic practices and values as means of coping with crises situations and contexts. We also provide insights into how the doing of gender unfolds as a coping strategy enabled by Muslim feminism in the advent of adversities. Hence, we underscore the importance of approaching religion as a social construct which is performed, as opposed to treating religion as something located outside the spheres of gender and economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Frequently used in fostering the career progression of individuals this paper aims to explore the concept of "wasta" and its significance in the career advancement of individuals in the Middle Eastern region. The paper also seeks to compare "wasta" with networking and mentoring. Design/methodology/approach: The argument is based on relevant literature, the authors' own knowledge through conducting research in the Arab world, informal interviews and survey data conducted across the Middle Eastern Region. Findings: The research clearly shows that on balance "wasta" remains traditional in its influence in the career advancement of individuals and business life and social life and is unlikely to diminish in the near future, despite the perception that it is an unfair practice. "Wasta" also displays similarities and differences with networking and mentoring. Research implications/limitations: Fundamental knowledge on "wasta" is limited precluding reliable conclusions on how "wasta" compares with networking and mentoring. Further research needs to be conducted with a larger sample, across a range of industries. Practical implications: The paper suggests the need for human resource departments of Middle Eastern organizations to create conditions that encourage managers to develop social relationships given the lack of interactive support mechanisms. Originality/value: Given the token status of systematic management studies in the Arab world, this research is important as it extends knowledge in "wasta" practices in the region, and also in comparing "wasta" with networking and mentoring. Overall, the paper argues that "wasta" is a lucrative area for future research. (Contains 3 tables.)

In a bid to accelerate the modernization of its economic and social structures, Saudi Arabia has recently embarked on a set of ambitious reforms, including those aiming to advance the role of Saudi women in the economy and society. This study explores both how and the extent to which human resource (HR) managers are involved in undertaking a strategic role in advancing women's careers amidst the changing legislative mandates. In so doing, we draw upon semi-structured interviews with HR managers and capitalize on the strategic human resources management partnership model and insights from Institutional Theory. Accordingly, we present empirical evidence detailing how the Saudi HR managers are experiencing a slow transformation away from strictly administrative tasks toward strategic partnerships in terms of reducing gender discrimination and further developing women's careers. However, this transformation is hindered by the varying speed of change among the cognitive-cultural, normative, and regulative institutions, along with disconnects between policy makers, senior managers, and HR managers. These disconnects unfold as institutional challenges hindering the transformation of macroeconomic goals into social progress and managerial practices that further advance the progression of Saudi women's careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Despite the proliferation of studies on talent management (TM), few studies focus on the perspectives of human resource management (HRM) representatives. Furthermore, there is a dearth of studies that explore talent philosophies and TM in practice in private organizations in emerging economies, such as those of the Arab Middle East (AME) region. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to explore talent philosophies and TM in practice in the country-specific context of Lebanon. Design/methodology/approach: This study was exploratory in nature and followed a qualitative interpretive methodology. It capitalized on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with HRM representatives. Findings: The findings of this study indicated relative consensus in talent philosophies across organizations in four industries; talent was largely perceived as exclusive, despite disagreements on whether it was stable or developable. Differences were identified in terms of how TM was understood in organizations and also how it was executed in practice in terms of talent identification and recruitment, training and development, performance assessment and talent retention. Originality/value: This study is the first to empirically explore talent philosophies and TM in practice in the context of Lebanon. It is also among the few studies to extend the use of institutional theory (IT) to talent philosophies and TM practices. The originality of this study is also derived from its focus on the practices of HRM departments through using feedback from HRM representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply insights from poststructuralist feminist theory to contribute to entrepreneurial leadership. By drawing on 21 individual narratives with Lebanese women entrepreneurs, we explore how they determine their status as entrepreneurial leaders and establish their entrepreneurial identities. Although the factors of gender, sociocultural values, and agency can be counteractive, it is agency that creates space for entrepreneurship for women and provides them a means to navigate structural inequalities. The entrepreneurs in this study engage in compliance, disregard, and defiance strategies to expand the boundaries of what is socially permissible for women and to strengthen their identities. This research contributes to studies on entrepreneurial leadership and aids in the development of theory by demonstrating how Arab women construct entrepreneurial leadership, agency, and identity at the juncture of patriarchy, sociocultural values, and gender ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on institutional theory, this study gives voice to Arab women entrepreneurs. Through contextualization and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, I examine Lebanese women entrepreneurs' conceptualizations of career success, the mechanisms they use to realize it and their overall awareness of it. According to the findings, the entrepreneurs experience career success as an act of disobedience against socially imposed cultural and gender mandates. Furthermore, career success evolves as a contextual, dynamic process that is culturally dependent but individually negotiated, interpreted and constructed using external and internal conceptualizations. In turn, these conceptualizations are intertwined with agency and unfold as a process at the intersection of gender, patriarchy and cultural values. Accordingly, I argue against reducing career success to static, objective and subjective criteria. Doing so undermines the complexity and processual nature of the construct and neglects the importance of cultural values in shaping the understanding and experience of career success in different societies. I also stress the importance of contextualizing women's entrepreneurial experiences and demonstrate that Lebanese women entrepreneurs' conceptualizations of career success reflect both Arab social-cognitive and normative institutions and their own agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Few studies consider the relationship between organizational justice (OJ) and trust in Non-western contexts. In an attempt to address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational trust (OT) and OJ in Saudi Arabia. First, the authors examine two foci of trust and explore whether trust in an immediate supervisor/manager is correlated with trust in an organization. Second, the authors test the relationship three widely used constructs of OJ and two aspects of OT. Third, the authors examine the mediating role played by trust in immediate supervisor in the relationship between the various aspects of OJ and trust in an organization. Design/methodology/approach – Using Social Exchange Theory, this study reports the responses of 231 junior and middle managers from eight organizations in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected through a structured survey questionnaire that used standard scales on distributive justice, procedural justice (PJ), and interactional justice (IJ), as well as trust in immediate supervisor and trust in organization. Findings – Consistent with studies conducted in western contexts, the findings revealed a positive, significant, direct relationship between trust in immediate supervisor and trust in organization. However, contrary to what has been reported in the majority of western studies, among the three dimensions of OJ, IJ was the only predictor for trust in immediate supervisor. PJ and IJ were predictors of trust in organization, with PJ the stronger predictor. Finally, trust in immediate supervisor mediates some of the relationship between OJ and trust in organization. Originality/value – The current study is the first to explore the relationship between OJ and OT, with the latter being measured in more than one focus, in the Arab Middle East. Therefore, this study contributes to bridging the gap in the understanding of the relationship between OJ and OT in non-western, Arab and Muslim Middle Eastern contexts. The interconnectedness between the organizational experiences of Saudi Arabian managers and cultural values highlighted in this study has significant implications for researchers, managers, and HR departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Few studies examine the career success of women in the Arab Middle East. With that in mind, the purpose of this paper is to explore the conceptualizations of the career success of women managers in Lebanon. Drawing on the individual, behavioral, and structural approaches, this study also investigates the women’s approaches to career success. Capitalizing on the institutional theory (IT), the current investigation accounts for the complexity of the local context by illustrating how a diverse set of socio-cultural values and norms, institutional constraints, and individual agency impact the overall experience of career success among Arab women. Design/methodology/approach – This study is exploratory in nature and draws on a qualitative approach. In-depth, face-to-face, open-ended interviews were conducted with women managers across the managerial hierarchy in a wide range of industries, sectors, and organizations. Findings – The findings suggest that the Lebanese women managers’ career success was not conceptualized exclusively using the objective or the subjective measures. Rather, it was conceptualized on a continuum between these measures, thus challenging the rigid objective/subjective dichotomy in the context of Lebanon. The results also suggest that the career success of these women managers is better predicted and explained by the individual and behavioral approaches than by the traditional, structural approach. This empirical work sheds light on the gendered working conditions that women experience and how they capitalize on their individual agency to survive the hegemonic masculinity embedded in their workplaces, along with the inequalities that it promotes. Originality/value – This study is the first to explore the conceptualizations and the determinants of the career success of women managers in Lebanon. However, the originality of this paper is not only limited to its contribution to the limited research on the careers of Arab women; it also extends to its usage of various approaches to predict career success as well as to adapt IT as a theoretical framework for capturing the myriad of factors that impact women’s careers and success. The originality of this study also lies in advancing the theoretical concept of hegemonic masculinity into studies looking at Arab women’s career experiences by shedding some light on how the reproduction of gender, gendered working practices, and agency impact their career success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have explored the professional training experiences of Arab women within the contexts of learning organisational cultures and relevant human resource development (HRD) practices. Capitalising on in-depth, face-to-face interviews, this study explores the experiences of women managers in Lebanon with professional training and organisational learning. The findings demonstrate the paucity of professional training and learning opportunities for women and illustrate how organisational discrimination and gender-biased cultures and tension influence women’s learning. To overcome these barriers and alleviate organisational tension, the Lebanese women managers capitalise on their agency and individual capacities to improve their training experiences and increase their access to learning opportunities. By virtue of individual agency and through their agentic process, the careerists shape their training and overall learning by being adaptive and developing structures of action that enable them to advance their learning. The results have important implications for HR managers and HRD scholars. They also extend our understanding of the importance, or lack thereof, of the learning culture within an organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the entrepreneurial motivations of women entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates. It analyses the impact of macro social forces and cultural values on the motivation for entrepreneurship and explores how post-materialism, legitimation and dissatisfaction theories may explain these motives. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with local women entrepreneurs and analyzed using an interpretive approach. The results illustrate how Emirati women entrepreneurs navigate the patriarchy of their society, socio-economic realities, and structural and attitudinal organisational barriers to construct and negotiate their entrepreneurial motivations. The findings also illustrate how the entrepreneurial motivations of Emirati women unfold in a complex interplay between pull and push motivational factors within the Arab patriarchal and Islamic contexts, thus lending credence to the post-materialism, legitimation, and dissatisfaction theories, which collectively help explain the entrepreneurial motives of women in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by Institutional Theory, this study adopts an exploratory, qualitative, in-depth interviews-based approach as it explores the self-reported career paths of 32 women managers in Lebanon. The results indicate that in contrast with the majority of Western-based literature, the traditional-organizational career path in comparison to contemporary career patterns is still relevant, and continues to exist for Lebanese women managers as they progress in their managerial careers. At the same time, the findings suggest that women selectively adopt some aspects of contemporary, flexible careers to navigate their career paths amidst the macro-national economic and sociocultural factors and institutional challenges. The overall results and the implications for various stakeholders are further discussed in light of the related literature. This study suggests that scholars interested in women's careers in under-researched developing nations need to further integrate the agentic process – and the role played by women's individual agency in constructing their careers as they respond to institutional mandates – into their career models in more details. Similarly, multinational companies currently operating or interested in expanding their operations to the developing Arab Middle East region should incorporate these factors into their management and human resource practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are few career studies that examine the unfolding of the careers of women managers in the Arab Gulf states. Based on in-depth interviews, this study examines the career paths of women managers in the United Arab Emirates. The current study demonstrates how the careers of women in this country unfold in a multidimensional perspective, within the country’s unique macro-cultural and meso-organizational contexts. The findings also reveal how the women managers adopt some aspects of the contemporary careers to fight or rebel against the gender discrimination, inequality and bureaucracy that are inherent within their traditional careers. The study ultimately provides some recommendations with implications for human resources development and the further advancement of women’s careers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While there has been extensive research investigating the antecedents of women's job satisfaction, the majority of it has focused on Western women in developed countries. This study explores the job satisfaction of women in a developing, Middle Eastern country context through an assessment of personal demographics and their relative contributions to objective and subjective aspects of job satisfaction among women managers. More specifically, we looked at the impact of age, education, tenure, marital status and religious affiliation on the objective and subjective job satisfaction levels of 346 women managers in the services industry in Lebanon. Results indicate that job satisfaction is related to age, religious affiliation and tenure, but not to marital status and education. The implications of this study are then discussed, along with limitations and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined the association between selected organizational factors and job satisfaction dimensions. The study sample consisted of 346 women managers working in the services industry in Lebanon. This study findings indicate that managerial rank, monthly salary, and the size of the organization have a statistically significant effect on the job satisfaction of Lebanese women managers. Overall, the data revealed that women managers in the services industry were satisfied with their careers, despite their dissatisfaction with pay, fringe benefits, and promotions. The findings present implications for business management processes, human resource practices, and government-led initiatives in Lebanon and in the Arab Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the career success of women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The paper examines the interplay of some of the macro-national and meso-organizational factors in explaining the micro-individual experiences of career success. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on in-depth interviews with 26 women managers in large private organizations in the UAE to explore whether they experienced their careers as successful or not and the measures they used to operationalize their career success. Findings – The findings presented in the paper support the use of a multi-level research design to capture the complexity of women's experience of career success. The findings illustrate how local cultural values, societal expectations, and organizational attitudinal and structural factors influence the experiences and the conceptualizations of career success of women in this research context. Originality/value – The originality of the paper is threefold. First, the value added of this research lies in exploring whether the women experienced career success or not and the reasons underscoring their experiences, before looking into how they measured that success. Second, the originality of the paper lies in adapting a relational multi-level framework that is commonly used in diversity management studies, to capture the multiple factors that impact the experiences and operationalization of career success of women. Third, the paper contributes to the limited research on the career experience of women in the UAE and the Arab Middle East in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As the under-representation of women in management positions continues to persist globally, little is known about the experiences of women in the healthcare sector in the context of the developing Middle Eastern nations. In an attempt to address this knowledge gap, the current study explores some of the barriers that hinder and the enablers that foster women's career advancement in the healthcare sector. To meet its objectives, the current study uses a relational approach that integrates the macro socio-cultural, meso-organisational, and micro-individual levels of analysis., Methods: Guided by institutional theory as a theoretical framework and social constructionism as a philosophical stance, the current study adopts a qualitative research methodology. It capitalizes on in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with women managers in different occupational fields, across the managerial hierarchy in the healthcare sector in Lebanon. Snowballing and purposeful sampling procedures were used, and the interviews were analysed using thematic analysis, focusing on identifying new, emerging themes., Results: The results of the study confirm the salience of discriminatory cultural values, gendered social roles and expectations in Middle Eastern societies, and illustrate their role as barriers hindering women's career advancement. The results also portray the spillover effect of societal expectations and cultural gender stereotypes into the organisational realm, resulting in widely experienced attitudinal and structural organisational barriers. This study also illustrates how the enablers that facilitate and promote women's career progression unfold amidst the interplay between the macro and meso factors, lending credence to the role of women's agency at the individual micro level. Amongst the toll of barriers, Middle Eastern women navigate the patriarchy of their cultures and the discrimination inherent in their organisations by using their agency and persistence as they construct and negotiate their careers in management., Conclusion: This study provides new knowledge on the status of Middle Eastern women in the healthcare sector, a sub-category of female employees that to date, is under-researched. It primarily highlights the role of agency in building women's careers. It also stresses the notion that the complexity of women's careers in the healthcare sector can be best understood using a relational approach that highlights the intersectionality between gender, agency, socio-cultural realities and organisational boundaries.