An Investigation to Enhance the Vocational Competency of South Asian Migrant Workforce - Essay Example

Research Proposal Working An Investigation to Enhance the Vocational Competency of South Asian Migrant Workforce in the Saudi Public Sector Construction. Research rationale: Saudi Construction Industry heavily relies on foreign workers, particularly of South Asian origin. Every year, thousands of workers from South Asia migrate to Saudi Arabia to find employment in the Saudi Construction Industry because construction work is tremendous. A vast majority of these workers are Muslims who have another reason for choosing to work in Saudi Arabia i.e. to perform Haj. According to the records of the World Migration Report of the year 2003, 25 per cent workers of the total workforce in Saudi Arabia, 67 per cent of the workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 65 per cent workers in Kuwait and 70 per cent of the total workers in Qatar belong to the foreign community, a vast majority of which belong to such South Asian countries as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (Anon., 2010 p. 1). In order to give their best performance and excel in their work, they need to be competent enough to adjust themselves according to the trends, norms and practices prevalent in the Saudi Construction Industry Saudi culture. However, there are certain factors that decline the migrant workers’ performance at work, many of which can be attributed to the linguistic and behavioral differences between Saudi Arabian managers and engineers and the South Asian workers. This research will identify those factors, and suggest suitable strategies to eradicate them so that the South Asian migrant workers’ competence at work can be enhanced and their productivity be increased. Challenges that particularly need to be addressed are the determination of all factors that play a role in defining the migrant workers’ competence at work. Also, scaling of their competence is a big challenge for the researcher, for competence needs to be quantified in order to judge whether certain strategies have helped improve it or not. Aim of the research To study the ways to improve the skill, knowledge and motivation of the South Asian migrant workforce in the pubic sector of Saudi Construction Industry so as to enhance their productivity as well as the quality of work they produce. Objectives The research will include the following objectives: Study of the factors that decide the vocational competency of the South Asian workforce in Saudi Construction Industry. Study of the vocational training and certification systems for South Asian workforce in place in the Saudi Construction Industry. Study of the impact of variation of culture on the competency of South Asian workforce in Saudi Construction Industry. Formulation of a training programme for the South Asian workforce so that the factors declining their competency can be precluded and their competency can be improved. Justification: Quality of construction is one of the primary concerns in construction and development that is currently taking place all over the world. Particularly, countries like Saudi Arabia are known for rapid construction and development because of good Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The average annual GDP growth in Saudi Arabia between 1969 and 2009 was 5.06 per cent (Trading Economics, 2010). The exaggerated construction and development rate in Saudi Arabia can be attributed to the need to accommodate millions of pilgrims that visit Saudi Arabia every year to perform Hajj and to construct more buildings to facilitate business and trade with other countries, as Saudi Arabia assumes a cardinal position in the promotion of global trade. In order to fulfill the demands of rapid construction and development, and overcome the shortage of skilled labor, Saudi Arabia employs thousands of foreign workers every year. A vast majority of these workers belong to the South Asian countries like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. They are accustomed to the work practices prevalent in their countries of origin which are often, not conducive for the achievement of high quality in work. Construction in the South Asian workers’ native countries is too different in many ways from that in Saudi Arabia. In their countries of origin, vocational training and education is not up to the mark, and does not fulfill the needs of increasingly complex construction practices. The technological change that has happened all over the world has influenced both the learning and teaching practices (Wolf, 2009, p. 67). In order for the migrant workers to produce good quality work and adjust in the culture and climate of Saudi Construction Industry, there is dire need to improve their competency, because workers’ competency has a direct impact on the quality of work. The research would particularly address this subject in context of the public construction sector in Saudi Arabia because it is directly influenced by the rules and regulations of the Saudi government. The research will find out what government bodies are involved in the vocational competency improvement, certification and accreditation process and how they can collaborate with each other so as to achieve an improvement in the competency of migrant workforce in Saudi Arabia. Review of the literature Before reviewing methods in place in the Saudi Construction Industry to improve workers’ vocational competency, it is imperative that a concise definition of competency is identified. Competency is a very broad term, that has been defined by theorists, philosophers and educationalists in different ways. Owing to the large variation in the interpretation of the term “competency”, it has remained the subject of debate for a long time. Identification of a wholesome definition upon which various theorists would mutually consent has been impossible (Deist and Winterton, 2005, p. 29). Competency can also be defined as a “useful term, bridging the gap between education and job requirements” (Boon and van der Klink, 2002, p. 6 cited in Deist and Winterton, 2005, p. 29). Stern and Kemp (2004) believe in the existence to two basic schools of thought which tend to define “competency”, of which the first defines competency as consisting of either knowledge or skill while the second visualizes competency as and feature which enhances performance. Competencies are essentially certain traits that help an individual succeed (Kessler, 2008). Stern and Kemp (2004) are of the view that competency comprises skill or knowledge, and various other factors like personality characteristics and motivation levels. According to Bernold and Abourizk (2010, p. 183), the competency of managers can be defined as a weighted set of skills and knowledge along with personality traits all of which are required to do the work in an organization efficiently. “Vocational competence is the capacity to solve multiple work tasks by mobilizing cognitive potential…” (Heinz, 2009, p. 38). In this research, competency will be understood according to the definition used by Stern and Kemp (2004). Hence, competency can be essentially thought to consist of three basic factors namely, the knowledge, level of motivation and personal characteristics. Of the three factors that jointly structure the competency of a worker, knowledge and personal characteristics are more objective and measurable as compared to motivation, which, like competency, is also a fairly abstract term. According to Posner (n.d.), personality characteristics of an individual can be categorized into the individual’s skills, attitudes, social endowments and other attributes. The term “motivation” has been defined differently by different theorists. It has fundamentally been extracted from the Latin word “movere” that is “to move” (Barnet, 2011). Motivation can be defined as “the inner power or energy that pushes toward acting, performing actions and achieving” (Sasson, 2011). Barnet (2011) sees motivation as a force that acts on an individual and makes him/her display a consistent and persistent goal oriented effort. “Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors” (Cherry, 2011). It is essentially a dispositional concept that is retrieved from human behaviour (Wong, 2000, p. 12). Various theories of motivation have been proposed from time to time that highlight various factors that influence a worker’s mood and determine his/her motivation level. However, no single motivation theory has so far gained approval of many theorists. This speaks of the diversity of conceptions various theorists hold about the term “motivation”. One theory that explains motivation is the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory. According to the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, there are numerous factors that step by step influence the level of motivation of a worker. There are five basic needs arranged in a hierarchical order. The basic needs are survival based, and the ones at the top are progress based. The concept says that a worker can not think about progressing in his/her profession unless all of the basic needs have been addressed. The following figure completely explains each stage of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs along with fugures: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (White, 2009). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory emphasizes that in order for managers to improve workers’ motivation for work, it is imperative that all lower level needs are adequately addressed and satisfied. This theory can offer a lot of help in the development of training and competency improvement programme in this research. It is noteworthy that different people impart different value to different factors affecting their competency (Heathfield, 2011). Some people are driven by money while for others, love, personal relationships and affiliation with coworkers are the most influential factors. Yet there are others, that want job security, accommodation and transport facility in order to remain motivated for work. This raises a lot of challenges for the supervisors and engineers who are required to exhibit good people management skills (Reh, 2011) in order to inculcate motivation in the employees for work. Like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s motivational theory has also made a big contribution to the existing body of knowledge regarding motivation. Herzberg suggested that satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the workplace do not always arise from similar factors. Instead, factors that inculcate satisfaction or dissatisfaction among workers greatly vary in nature from organization to organization. Human reactions can not be judged from a generalized set of factors. Different theories of motivation lay different reactions to the common factors in all workplaces. According to Herzberg (1959 cited in Chapman, 2010), the dissatisfying factors for employees in the workplace are not necessarily the opposites of satisfying factors. Herzberg related this fact to two fundamental yet differing requirements of humans. He said that as animals, humans have to take necessary actions to avoid agony. As human, man has to take actions to develop himself psychologically. Therefore, there are two fundamental needs of humans, i.e. physiological and psychological. Of the two, physical needs are consistent with an individual’s health needs whereas the psychological needs represent the individual’s motivational needs. The health needs identified by Herzbergare such maintenance factors as policy, status, life, relations with peers and supervisors, company accommodation and transport. On the other hand, advancement in job, achievement and responsibility are motivational factors. According to the Herzberg’s theory of motivation, if employers do not take care of the employees’ hygiene at the workplace, they will themselves struggle to improve the hygiene of workplace. However, the satisfaction derived by the improvement of workplace hygiene is temporary and does not last long. In conventional workplace settings, employers arrange health and safety equipment for the employees and expect them to be motivated by that. But such attempts of employers only eliminate the demotivating factors, and hence, separate measures need to be taken to motivate the employees for work. In light of Herzberg’s motivational theory, employers can truly motivate workers by providing them with opportunities of professional development. Most migrant construction workers have very little knowledge about the work they do unless they have been through training sessions in the vocational schools. Unfortunately, the countries they come from are mostly under-developed, and do not stress much upon the vocational education and training of their workforce before their entry into the field. However, McCormick et al. (2001 cited in Mitullah and Wachira, 2003, p. 18) found that as many as 90 per cent of the workers interviewed expressed great interest in upgrading their vocational skills through getting formal training, particularly in the field. This means that despite the fact that not many migrant workers have gained proper vocational training in their homelands, most of them show a positive response towards availing the opportunity to enhance their skills through training programmes. Therefore, there is need of improving the vocational competency of migrant workforce working in the public sector of the Saudi Construction Industry. Culture of an organization is one of the most fundamental determinants of the employees’ motivation. In order for an organization to have strong culture, it is imperative that the values of employees are consistent with those of the organization as a whole. As a result of their study, Kotter and Heskett (1992 cited in Towers, 2006, p. 1) have found that performance of the personnel is related and is determined by the organizational culture and that only the cultures which are appropriate strategically remain successful. Culture is an important face of any organization that influences the attitudes of employees and all personnel who make part of it. Before making an in-depth analysis of the link of culture of an organization with the motivation and competency of the employees, it is customary to discuss the meaning of organizational culture. According to Anthony (1994), the concept of culture is abstract, yet quite general in nature and the term encompasses various aspects of an organization. Despite the great diversity in the interpretation of the term “organization culture” by various analysts, authors have mutually consented upon the existence of both invisible and visible aspects of an organization in its culture. Among the various definitions of organizational culture that have been put forth, one very famous definition is that proposed by Schein. As per the approach of Schein (1985, 2004), culture comprises “levels ranging from overt outward manifestations of culture to the deep underlying assumptions that derive the organisations action” (Towers, 2006, p. 3). The figure below offers a diagrammatical representation of Schein’s definition of organizational culture: (Schein, 2004, p. 27). In the figure above, “artefacts” represent the visible processes and organizational structures, “espoused beliefs and values” stand for the organizational philosophies, strategies and goals and the “underlying assumptions” represent the unconscious thoughts, beliefs, feelings and conceptions of the organizational personnel (Schein, 2004, p. 27). Therefore, it can be concluded that the model of organizational culture proposed by Schein (2004) refers to culture as extremely important for organizations because of its capability to both unite and disintegrate the unity among employees. A vast majority of philosophers and analysts have consented that the concept of culture can not be deemed as superficial. Instead, it makes an integral dynamic part of an organization, though the level of suitability of a particular culture to an organization varies from case to case. Martin (1992) is of the view that an integrated organizational culture is the one in which all personnel mutually share basic organizational values and their underlying assumptions. In such a culture, personnel know the significance of their actions and understand their respective roles in the achievement of goals. In addition to the integrated culture, Martin (1992) also identified two other types of organizational cultures, namely fragmented and differentiated organizational culture. In the former type, employees differ in their opinions and perspectives while in the latter, there is partial acceptance of organizational values, which means that some parts of organization approve of the organizational values while others do not. Kotter and Heskett (1992) conducted four empirical researches to identify the link between economic performance and corporate culture. As a result of their studies, Kotter and Heskett (1992, p. 11) concluded that corporate cultures influence an organization’s economic performance in the long run and considering the altering business practices, the role of corporate cultures in organizations’ success would become more profound in the following decade. Kotter and Heskett (1992, p. 8) asserted that strong organizational cultures lead to “powerful consequences” and make firms able to respond to the rapidly changing external market scenario. Kanter (1989) has identified five fundamental sources of motivation namely, mission, agenda control, value creation’s share, reputation and learning. His analysis finds a robust link between organizational culture and employees’ motivation. Kanter (1989) asserted that mission motivates workers to realize the significance of their responsibilities and work, agenda control allows workers to gain control over career, the value creation’s share rewards workers for their good work, reputation enables workers to earn good name and learning provides workers with good opportunities to learn within organization. Similar sources of motivation have been identified by Truskie (1999) and Denison (1990) which adds value to the findings of Kanter (1989). This speaks of a relationship between culture and motivation. Past researches have shown that organizational cultures that are strongly integrated inculcate motivation in workers. Therefore, it makes sense to study the impact of cultural differences upon the competency of migrant workforce in Saudi Arabia as is one of the objectives of this research. In light of the secondary sources analyzed in this literature review, it is obvious that competency comprises an individual’s motivation, personality traits and skills. There are various work specific factors that impact the employees’ motivation. In addition to that, motivation and hence, the competency of workers is greatly influenced by the organizational culture prevalent in the workplace. Therefore, in order to improve the competency of South Asian migrant workers in the Saudi construction industry, it is imperative that all of these factors need to be taken into consideration and addressed accordingly. Research Method Quantitative research techniques will be adopted. Primary data will be collected from South Asian construction workers working for Saudi Public Sector clients. Data collection procedure involves use of questionnaires. Data will be collected from a sample of around 100 workers. Research method also involves use of focus groups with migrant construction workers currently working in the public sector in the Saudi Construction Industry. The focus groups will help to gain qualitative insights in the research and help the researcher analyze the factors that influence the competency of workers from their own point of view. In fact, if the factors influencing workforce’s competency have to be identified, nobody but the workers themselves are the most accurate source of information. After conducting the focus groups, the factors identified will be offered to the migrant workers to grade them on a questionnaire as per their impact of the workers’ competency on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 with 1 indicating “no impact”, 1 indicating “mild impact”, 3 indicating “medium impact”, 4 indicating “strong impact” and 5 indicating “very strong impact”. Approach to analysis Results will be analyzed on the SPSS. Factor analysis will be used to determine the underlying factors from the set of variables determining employees’ competency. Further, the factors identified will be regressed to identify and verify the relationship between the organizational culture and the employees’ performance at work. Means of the impacts for individual factors will be compared using Factors Analysis for the various categories of workers. This will provide the perceptions of each of the chosen categories of workers of the individual factors that influence their competency. The variation in means will lead the research to derive conclusions about the factors that are considered important by each of the various categories of workers. Training programs shall be analyzed from the existing body of literature, and the best ones will be chosen that accord with the general culture prevalent in the Saudi construction industry. Training programs will then be devised according to the individualistic needs of the workers in the Saudi construction industry. Ethical considerations The researcher will not discuss any religious matters, or categorize the workers according to their religion. Anonymity of workers will be maintained while retrieving information from them in focus groups as well as while they fill the questionnaires. Employees that will be asked to fill the questionnaires will be compensated for their time and effort. 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