Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the concept that expatriate status, as opposed to national citizen status, may impact leader behavior. The intention is not to pursue a research question carved out from the expatriation and leadership research streams but rather to raise the issue of non-citizenship status as potentially moderating leader behavior. Design/methodology/approach The authors used grounded theory methodology, including interviews to gather data on the behavior of non-citizen leaders in the UAE. The resulting 28 interview transcripts were analyzed using inductive coding to arrive at aggregate theoretical dimensions. Findings Their findings reveal a keen tendency among expatriate leaders to display organizational legitimacy by remaining sedulously within established organizational schemata and monitoring employees closely. Research limitations/implications The study asks, rather than answers, a question and does not use an established theoretical framework, as its area of concern is not one that fits solely within the literatures on expatriation, international business, leadership, cross-cultural management or national citizenship. Furthermore, the context in which they conduct our investigation is the UAE whose workforce has a disproportionately high number of expatriates. Although this serves as a convenient context in which to study the rising occurrence of non-citizen leaders due to increased professional migration, the issue may be more meaningfully tested in geopolitical contexts with typical expatriate–citizen workforce ratios. Originality/value The central theoretical contribution of this preliminary study is to provide initial empirical evidence suggesting that the hitherto-ignored variable of national citizenship may be a significant one to address given increasing professional global migration.

Purpose Diverse cultural contexts with their distinct enactments of traditional gender inequity present unique constraints for female leaders. In Western contexts, the Christianity-inspired principle of equality of all humans remains a latent principle operative toward greater gender egalitarianism. This paper aims to examine female leaders within an Islamic context devoid of such espoused equality in which gender differences are enshrined in culture and law. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaires based on the Competing Value Framework were developed and completed by 145 leaders and 365 employees from UAE companies. The salient findings of these responses were explored in six subsequent focus group discussions. Findings The study reveals no difference in how women perform leadership, except in terms of brokering skills in which women are perceived as superior to their male counterparts. Focus group discussion participants ascribed this difference to the Islamic benevolent sexism dynamic of according women greater respect, which facilitates their access to higher management. Originality/value This pioneering perspective of female leaders in a context of overt and sanctioned cultural and legal gender disparity contributes to scholarship on female leadership through a non-Western lens.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report an initial investigation into the role of national citizenship status in relation to leadership and organizational innovation in the context of the United Arab Emirates, an Arabian Gulf country with a workforce in which migrants far outweigh the number of locals. Design/methodology/approach The authors use grounded theory methodology to gather initial data and reveal potentially appropriate theory for further research into the role of national citizenship as it correlates with organizational innovation. Findings The dominant themes that emerged were that citizen leaders display high levels of willingness to deviate from organizational schemata to respond to new situations; a preference for focus on the big picture; and low monitoring of subordinates. These findings indicate that citizen leaders experience greater ease in diverging from organizational schemata, suggesting that national citizenship status may afford a freedom that enhances the potential to contribute to organizational innovation. Research limitations/implications The issue of national citizenship is clearly one of increasing significance in the global workplace and, therefore, must be added to the academic research agenda given the combination of more frequent worldwide professional migration and the growing imperative of organizational innovation. To this end, the authors suggest potentially useful frameworks for further study. Originality/value This pioneering research has applicability to other geopolitical regions with high numbers of migrants in their workforces.

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The purpose of this investigation is to understand how the performance management system (PMS) was implemented and used in a government organization in Abu Dhabi and how the PMS was nestled with specific organizational rationalities and context. This case study used semi-structured interviews and documents and drew upon Ferreira and Otley’s (2009) PMS framework and the Broadbent and Laughlin’s (2009) conceptual model. The former framework was used to understand the functional characteristics and use of PMS in a specific organization and the later model facilitated the understanding of the organizational context and the underlying rationality with respect to PMS. The findings exhibit that the institutionalization of PMS is a slow learning process and needs support of the top management. Specifically, the PMS was implemented in phases spanning over a period of more than five years. There was no unified reward system specifically linked to performance in the PMS and incentives/rewards varied in different divisions. Once implemented at corporate and divisional levels, the PMS was being cascaded down to individual level, to align individual goals/objectives with organizational goals. The paper contributes to the understanding of implementation and operation of PMS within a specific context in Abu Dhabi. The PMS was guided by the context where communicative rationality was dominant and that resulted in the acceptance of PMS by most of the employees. However, the field insights suggest that the case organization needs to invest in the development of human resources to support the operation of PMS.