Purpose In patriarchal settings, cultural barriers continue to influence women’s participation in positions of leadership and political authority. This paper aims to explore these findings in light of the theoretical concepts of “hegemonic masculinity” and “patriarchy,” which explain gender disparities in the occupancy of political power and leadership positions in Qatar. Design/methodology/approach Data from original face-to-face national surveys conducted among subjects in Qatar were used, including 1,611 completed household interviews. Findings The findings were consistent with the prevailing patriarchal beliefs present in Qatari society and Arab Gulf States. The analysis showed that there was greater significant support for men holding key leadership and authority positions than women. Individual-level factors were found to have a significant association with attitudes favoring women. Compared to respondents who had never attended school, those who had completed secondary school and those who had partaken in higher education favored having women in leadership roles. Practical implications As a means to fix the gender imbalance within the occupancy of positions of political power in Qatar, this study recommends putting substantial efforts into increasing the number of interventions underpinning gender equality through social awareness programs that may improve the public’s perceptions. Furthermore, gender-equitable affirmative actions are needed to promote the inclusion of women in power and increase their presence in leadership roles. Originality/value This study is among the very few that have theoretically and empirically addressed the issue of women’s authority and involvement in key leadership roles in the context of Qatar.
Purpose: The State of Qatar has widely sought to include women in public life and has implemented several policies in order to improve gender equality in the workforce and fair distribution of development benefits. This study establishes how far the State of Qatar has achieved the equality of women in the workplace, since the initiation of new reform policies and agendas of modernisation in 1995. Qatari women in leadership positions still face major challenges in relation to cultural limitations and organisational constraints; these areas need to be further developed to improve the degree of gender equality and close the wide gap between the two genders in terms of economic rights and equal opportunities in the labour force. Methodology: This paper uses semi-structured interviews which were conducted with twenty-five women aged all of whom held senior management positions in a range of civil society and public sector organisations in Qatar at the time of the interview. The twenty-five participants who participated in the study ranged in age from 34 to 61 years. Main Findings: The findings suggest that Qatari women are helped by two forces: the support they are getting from the ruling family and the impact of reforms and social change in surrounding regions. Indeed, the slow pace of social reform is one of the common complaints of progressives. Implications/Applications: Therefore, focused, procedural steps should be taken to enforce adherence to frameworks by governmental institutions and to amend existing legislation to tackle the challenges faced by women. These steps include implementing some social policy recommendations in terms of establishing and funding women’s civil society organisations, integrating an evaluation and monitoring system in governmental organisations, promoting work/family policies, and initiating a feminisation policy in government organisations.
Properly implemented, e-government enables improved government efficiency and greater engagement with citizens. The State of Qatar has implemented many e-government initiatives but little has been done to investigate their progress. This study aims to bridge the knowledge gap by shedding the light on a specific e-government initiative: the Baladiya application system, the electronic service for municipalities. It uses qualitative data from semi-structured interviews conducted with the director of customer service in each of the municipalities in Qatar. An inductive approach allowed findings to emerge. E-government provides a broad array of services to local users however three main aspects remain problematic. First, the high quantity but low quality of information received from users via e-government hinders the customer relations. Second, while services are readily available, e-government channels are not widely adopted. Finally, the complex process for service delivery contributes to create a relatively opaque user experience.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the factors influencing the performance and productivity of Qatari citizens in organizational settings, with specific aims to maintain a high-quality performance standard in Qatar's labor market.Design/methodology/approachThe author applies job performance theory to explain the dynamics within organizational settings. Primary sources were utilized, and data was collected from a 2017 Qatari national survey using simple random sampling.FindingsThe results indicated associations between sociodemographic characteristics and work-related factors and job performance. As compared to their male counterparts, female employees reported lower job performance. Working in a private organization was associated with lower job performance as compared to working in the government sector. An older age (>50 years) and working in a family friendly organization was associated with higher job performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe approach used in this study contributed to a richer understanding of employees' positions in the Qatar workforce; yet, there are several methodological limitations in cross-sectional survey design. Further contributions to this research gap could include a wider scope of geographical locations within the Arab Gulf states with diverse industries; employing a robust experimental investigation, thus creating causation between the intervention and research outcomes.Originality/valueThe originality of this article lies in the micro-level model that recommends state-directed interventions to create family-friendly organizational cultures to assist in the retention of high-performing employees.
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