Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
Telework in the Arab World: The
Example of Qatar
Working Paper / Karsten Gareis / 2012-07-20
Table of contents
1
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 1
2
Background: Drivers for telework implementation in the GCC....................................................................... 3
2.1
Qatarisation ........................................................................................................................................... 3
2.2
Increasing employment rates for Qatari nationals ................................................................................ 4
2.3
Increasing female participation in the labour market ........................................................................... 5
2.4
Telework’s potential .............................................................................................................................. 7
2.4.1
Evidence from Qatar ......................................................................................................................... 7
2.4.2
Evidence from other GCC countries .................................................................................................. 9
2.5
3
4
1
Other drivers........................................................................................................................................ 10
Telework in policy and practice in Arab countries ........................................................................................ 12
3.1
Saudi Arabia ......................................................................................................................................... 12
3.2
UAE ...................................................................................................................................................... 13
3.3
Oman ................................................................................................................................................... 14
3.4
Egypt .................................................................................................................................................... 14
3.5
Morocco............................................................................................................................................... 16
3.6
Tunisia.................................................................................................................................................. 17
3.7
Algeria .................................................................................................................................................. 18
3.8
Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 18
Telework implementation in the Arab world – The influence of national culture........................................ 19
4.1
Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture .......................................................................................... 20
4.2
Implications for implementation of telework in Arab-speaking countries .......................................... 22
Introduction
A wealth of theoretical and empirical research suggests that national cultural context can play a significant role
in explaining differences in take-up of technologically based innovations in work organisation. The present
paper looks at home-based telework as an ICT-enabled innovation in ways of working. Our geographical focus
is on the Arab-speaking world in general, and Qatar in particular.
There are very few data about take-up of telework in Arab countries in comparison to other parts of the world,
in particular Europe and North America, in which the concept of ‘telecommuting’ was first developed and
1
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
piloted. Nevertheless, existing information clearly indicates home-based telework has not yet diffused much
within the Arabic-speaking world1. It appears that the little practice there is takes place in companies belonging
to multi-national corporations, which are increasingly introducing international HR practices with as few
adaptations to national circumstances as possible2.
The present paper looks at the situation in Qatar, an Arab Gulf country that has seen rapid economic growth in
recent years; Qatar today has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world. Since less than 20% of the
population are Qatari nationals, the country’s labour market features a very large number of expatriate
workers. This is the case not only in the personal services and blue-collar sectors but also among knowledge
workers and management staff. The last 10 years have seen a huge increase in immigrant employment3
following the rapid expansion of the economy due to growing exports of oil and, in particular, natural gas.
Home-based telework was largely unknown in the country before the start of a project initiated by ictQATAR,
the Supreme Council for Information and Communication Technologies, in 2010. The project set out to explore
the potential benefits of telework against the country’s strategic objectives for modernising the labour market
and for making best use of information and communication technologies (ICT). In a subsequent step, the
project is currently piloting home-based telework in five organisations from both the public and private sector.
In each of these organisations, between two and four employees were equipped with a “virtual office
environment” (VOE) in their home to enable them to spend between one or two full working remotely from
their traditional place of work. The pilot duration is roughly 6-9 months (late 2011-mid 2012), with some
variations between the participating organisations. Activities have included a feasibility analysis, careful pilot
preparation in each of the participating organisations, and a three stage-evaluation consisting of baseline, early
and late measurements via group discussions and interview surveys.
One of the main objectives behind the initiative was to develop new possibilities for women and people with
disabilities to participate in the labour market. Both groups suffer from participation rates which are
considered too low4. Qatar follows a policy of Nationalisation (here: Qatarisation) as a means to contribute to
one of the key goals underlying the Qatar National Vision 2030, i.e. to make best use of endogenous human
capital5.
Implementing telework in an Arab country can be expected to pose different challenges than doing the same in
Europe, North America, or elsewhere globally. The simple reason is that, as research has shown repeatedly,
cultural traits and behavioural patterns exert a powerful influence on the way workers and their managers
relate to innovations in work organisation, and work cultures seem to differ considerably between countries
(see chapter 4). This implies that a direct transfer of research results and practical guidelines from Europe or
North America (where experience with telework is most wide-spread) to a country with different cultural
traditions is not likely to produce the desired results. In practice, this means that the implementation of
telework needs to be informed by good understanding of the work culture in the country/region in which the
work relationships are embedded. Moreover, drivers for uptake of telework and impacts can be expected to be
different in the Arab world.
1
For example, see World Bank, The (2011) ‘World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development’, pp. 263-264, URL:
http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/EXTWDR2012/0,,menuPK:7778074~pagePK:777827
8~piPK:7778320~theSitePK:7778063~contentMDK:22851055,00.html
2
See Stahl, G. K. and Björkman, I. (eds)(2006) ‘Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management’, Cheltenham &
Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
3
Baldwin-Edwards, M. (2011) ‘Labour immigration and labour markets in the GCC countries: national patterns and trends’, Kuwait
Programme on Development, Governance and Globalisation in the Gulf States at the London School of Economics and Political Science,
URL: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/government/research/resgroups/kuwait/documents/Baldwin-Edwards,%20Martin.pdf [retrieved 201207-09, 13:00]
4
Shediac, R. and Samman, H. (2010) ‘Meeting the Employment Challenge in the GCC – The Need for a Holistic Strategy’, report, Abu
Dhabi & Dubai: Ideation Center, URL: http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/Meeting_the_Employment_Challenge_in_the_GCC.pdf
[retrieved 2012-07-09, 13:00]
5
Figliolini, A. J. (2008) ‘Localization/Nationalization in the GCC: Meeting the Challenge’, White Paper, Center for Advanced Human
Resource Studies, Cornell University, URL: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/research/whitepapers/upload/TheGCC_LocalizationNationalizationChallenge.pdf, [retrieved 2012-07-09, 13:30]
2
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
2
Background: Drivers for telework implementation in the GCC
There are a number of developments in the GCC region which act as powerful drivers for the implementation
of flexible, ICT-enabled ways of working, such as home-based telework.
The following looks mainly at the situation in Qatar, an Arab nation which is member of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC).
2.1
Qatarisation
The Qatar National Vision 2030 states that increasing effective participation of Qatari nationals in the labour
force is of essential importance for meeting the challenges of a future world economy which is increasingly
knowledge-based and competitive. Against this background, the country has implemented a number of
strategies for Qatarisation.
For example, the Strategic Qatarization Plan for the Energy and Industry Sector in Qatar, a five-year rolling plan
which came into force in 2000, set an overall Qatarization target for the energy and industry sector of 50%. The
plan contains very specific activities in support of company manpower requirements to meet the Qatarization
target. The focus here is on “Quality Qatarization”, which means an emphasis on key, sensitive positions by
applying performance-based, not time-based, training and development. Each participating company is to
regularly monitor, review and update their respective plan.
For the large majority of companies and organisations operating in Qatar, achieving the Qatarisation targets in
the foreseeable future will require substantial additional efforts. In the Energy and Industry sector, latest
available data suggest that Qatarization was at 28% in 20086.
Private sector employers, e.g. in the oil & gas industry, are aware that the majority of Qataris to be hired have
little or no work experience in the sector. This implies that increasing Qatarisation means that Qataris are
placed into entry-level positions, not initially into the more senior positions that require a high degree of
experience. As inexperienced Qataris mature and develop over time, they are expected to advance to more
superior positions. Recognizing this fact, companies state that they need to balance their Qatarization plans
with the need for productivity and efficiency 7 .
At the same time, the continuous influx of highly-skilled expatriates and the strong growth in total employment
mean that meeting Qatarisation targets will become even more difficult in the coming years. This may prompt
the government to exert more pressure on public as well as private sector employers to meet Qatarisation
targets than it has done so far.
As Qatar, so have all the other GCC countries embarked on a strategy for localisation/nationalisation. Shediac &
Samman (2010)8 have compared the main employment related challenges across GCC countries. They conclude
that “despite variations in their labor market structure, GCC countries face similar hurdles [including] lack of
employment opportunities for nationals that should be addressed through economic development; [and] the
need to substitute expatriates with qualified nationals”.
A study by the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell University, points out one of the main
challenges surrounding GCC’s nationalisation strategies, namely retention of qualified nationals in a situation of
tight labour markets: “One factor that makes recruiting experienced professionals easier while causing
headaches for HR managers is retention. Retention was not an issue until recently as employees would usually
stay with their employers until retirement. Mellahi (2006) 9 notes that traditionally in the private sector
retention was not a problem. Employers had much power due to traditional life-long employment practices.
However, recently the balance has tipped in favor of employees. Bayt.com (2008) 10 notes that fairly large levels
of churn are apparent, with 71 percent of respondents to their survey saying they have held two or more jobs
6
Gonzalez, G. et al. (2008) 'Qatar’, in: Gonzalez, G. et al. (eds) ‘Facing Human Capital Challenges of the 21st Century: Education and
Labor Market Initiatives in Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates’, Doha: RAND-Qatar Policy Institute, URL:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG786.pdf.
7
See Strategic Qatarization Plan for the Energy and Industry Sector in Qatar, URL: http://www.qatarization.com.qa/
8
See footnote 4.
9
Budhwar, P.S. & Mellahi, K. (eds.)(2006) ‘Managing Human Resources in the Middle East’, New York: Routledge.
10
Bayt.com
(2008)
‘Regional
Human
Resource
Overview:
http://img.bayt.com/images/uploads/article_docs/salary_20080224154403.pdf
3
A
Stakeholder’s
Reference’,
URL:
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
within the past five years. [...] Managing expectations and having a clear employment value proposition is vital.
However, it has been difficult for some more traditional firms in the region to adjust to having to articulate a
clear and competitive employer value proposition to employees, and so retention remains a large issue.”11 This
situation calls for additional efforts on the part of companies to become “employers of choice”, also by offering
attractive working conditions without compromising productivity and career development.
2.2
Increasing employment rates for GCC nationals
For increasing rates of Qatarisation it will be necessary to bring more Qatari nationals into employment. This
requires a look at the composition of the unemployed and inactive population at working age, see Exhibit 1.
Exhibit 1: Qatari population (15+) not economically active, by functional category and age group (2010)
Qatar in April 2010 had a population of about 1.7 million, 146,262 of which were Qatari nationals at age 15 and
older12. Of these, about half were economically active, i.e. in employment (70,500), registered as unemployed
(3,000) or paid trainees (500). About 72,200 Qatari nationals were economically inactive. The composition of
this group according to age and functional category is shown in Exhibit 1.
Excluding students and those aged 50 or older, the following groups of Qatari nationals appear as candidates
for participation in the labour market:
 Homemakers, i.e. women who are engaged in family work. Many of these could, given the availability of
support staff in Qatari households, be enabled to engage in paid work at least on a part-time basis.
There are about 17,000 economically inactive homemakers of Qatari nationality in the age group 15 to
49.
 Early retired individuals of both sexes. There are 2,700 retired Qataris in the age group 15 to 49. Half of
these (1,350) are women.
 Qataris classified as "unable to work" – While the large majority of these are elderly people, there are
about 700 Qataris "unable to work" in the age group 15 to 49. Perceived inability to work might have its
cause in disability. To the extent that there is an interest among these in employment (for which there is
11
Figliolini, J. (2008) ‘Localization/Nationalization in the GCC: Meeting the Challenge’, report, Center for Advanced Human Resource
Studies,
Cornell
University,
URL:
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/research/whitepapers/upload/TheGCC_LocalizationNationalizationChallenge.pdf.
12
Source for 2010 data: http://www.qsa.gov.qa/QatarCensus/Populations.aspx. Readers should note that there are some inconsistencies
in the data published by GSA, which may have been reproduced in the statistics quoted here.
4
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
considerable anecdotal evidence), the country should seek to enable them to overcome existing barriers
to participation in the labour market.
 Finally, some of the persons who in the Census interviews reported that they are "not seeking [paid]
work" might change their mind if they knew that more flexible working arrangements (including
telework) were available.
2.3
Increasing female participation in the labour market
As the employment data show, the main potential for increasing Qatari employment is clearly by getting more
working-age women into jobs. This trend is already underway: In 2010, 25,231 female Qataris were
economically active, which represents an increase of approximately 11,000 (almost 60%) since 2001. However,
a huge potential remains as the female labour force participation rate of Qataris aged 20 to 49 (47.8%) is much
lower than the figure for male Qataris (84.6%), and it is also much smaller in comparison to the major
industrialised countries worldwide.
Moreover, there is evidence of mismatches in particular on the labour market for Qatari women. According to
the Qatar Labour Force Survey 2010, the number of unemployed Qatari females is much higher than that of
males. Unemployment is highest for both females and males in the age groups of 20-29 years, but overall more
than 2.5 times higher for women than for men – 2,200 women versus 811 men.
Women aged 20-29 years may have particular difficulties to find jobs for reasons related to practical
responsibilities as well as for cultural traditions and social attitudes: They may have obligations in their young
families and thus not be able to take jobs that do not allow sufficient flexibility in work time and space; and
many may also face difficulties in accepting a job which requires working in mixed environments and/or longer
commutes and business travel.
A study conducted by the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute identified, by means of a survey of female university
graduates, the key barriers which educated Qatari women see to getting a job 13 : These were family
responsibilities, high level of competition, lack of job openings, and own lack of adequate English language
skills.
Earlier data from the Planning Council (2002) suggest that working in mixed-gender environments was still an
issue for the majority of unemployed Qatari women. This appears to be less of an issue for young Qatari
women: 95% of the female respondents in the 2007 RAND survey quoted above stated that “working in a
mixed-gender work environment was a very or extremely important characteristic of their future job”.
Lack of jobs in the public sector (especially in education) used to be a major barrier as well; in recent years,
however, the traditional reluctance of Qatari nationals to work in the private sector – because of its perceived
low social status and low wages – seems have decreased markedly.
Overcoming the barriers discussed above would allow Qatar to take advantage of the full potential of Qatari
women to participate in the labour market and thereby to contribute to the country’s development: There are
indications that this potential is substantial:
 Once employed, Qatari women tend to persist in their professional commitments even through childbearing years14;
 Qatari women are perceived by employers as having a high motivation to work15, even if many
respondents report that female employees “ask for more time off for family reasons” 16;
 Young Qatari women are more likely to be university-educated than men: “By the age of 25, for every
100 Qatari women with university qualifications there are only 46 Qatari men equally qualified” 17;
 Still, even among university-trained Qataris, a much smaller share of women is in employment
compared to men: In a survey conducted in 2007, researchers found that 87% of the male secondary
13
Stasz, C. et al. (2007) ‘Post-Secondary Education in Qatar: Employer Demand, Student Choice, and Options for Policy’, Doha: RANDQatar Policy Institute.
14
Felder, D. & Vuollo.M. (2008) ‘Qatari Women in the Workforce’, Working Paper, Doha: RAND-Qatar Poicy Institute.
15
Bahry, L. and Marr, P. (2005) ‘Qatar women: A new generation of leaders?’, Middle East Policy, 21:2.
16
Stasz, C. et al. (2007), see footnote 16.
17
Planning Council (2005) ‘Labor Market Strategy for the State of Qatar: Main Report’, Volume I, Doha: Government of Qatar Planning
Council.
5
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
and 88% of male university graduates surveyed were employed compared to 30% of female secondary
graduates and 58% of female university graduates18.
The situation appears to be similar in other GCC countries. A study conducted by researchers at the Masdar
Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi19 identified several challenges preventing women from
pursuing careers in science, technology and engineering, one of the core sectors of the knowledge economy.
The study found unfavourable social attitudes and widespread misconceptions about science jobs and what
they involve are major stumbling blocks. A major factor putting women off from the science labour market
appears to be the sector’s mobility requirements. While men can easily relocate, for instance, between
emirates, it was perceived as socially unacceptable for women to do so. Moreover, jobs in science and
engineering are still often perceived as men's jobs: “Available jobs in these fields are [considered] not socially
and culturally suitable for women. Families have the priority in making post-graduate plans”.
A survey in 2009, conducted across the Arab world, looked into factors influencing employee motivation. One
of the questions was about the support employees receive from their current organisation “to help achieve a
good work-life balance”? The results (Exhibit 2) show that only 27% of Qatari respondents consider the support
they receive as “complete” or “good”. 29% say they receive only a little support from their organisation for
achieving work-life balance, and 34% say they receive hardly any or none support at all.
Exhibit 2: Perceived support offered by employer to help achieve work-life balance
These figures indicate a strong unmet demand for better work-family balance among both women and men.
Another study20, conducted by by Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC) and commissioned by HSBC, argued that
“countries that have large proportions of working professional women offer more flexible working
arrangements and more work-based facilities for women. These arrangements can include part-time working,
flexible hours, return to work after maternity leave, job-shares and so on. There should also be a greater
emphasis on vocational training (in the sense of preparation for the working environment) and on career
guidance.” With regard to telework, the authors find it “striking that one working practice in particular is not
prevalent in the GCC for professional women. Home working is very common for individual, locally based craft
and catering workers but not for professional highly qualified women. Yet, as has been shown in many
countries, Home working can offer a productive and efficient alternative to office-based working as well as
overcoming many of the barriers mentioned above. There are other societal benefits including reduced
transportation costs through less commuting. This does not, of course, just apply to women. The same
principles can be applied to men and other categories such as disabled workers.”
18
Stasz, C. et al. (2007), see footnote 16.
19
Source: “Survey identifies female employment challenges”, Jan 14, 2011, URL: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uaenews/education/survey-identifies-female-employment-challenges
20
Scott-Jackson, W., Kariem, B., Porteous, A. and Harb, A. (2010) ‘Maximising GCC Women’s Employment and Economic Contribution’,
report,
Oxford
Strategic
Consulting,
URL:
http://www.cahrr.org/human-resourcesresearch/material/OSC%20GCC%20women%20participation%20in%20workforce%20draft%20report.pdf
6
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
2.4
Telework’s potential
Telework, understood as employed work in which an employee works some of the working time from ”virtual
office environment” installed in his/her home, may be a viable solution to offer GCC women jobs which are
sufficiently adapted to their various responsibilities, constraints, ambitions and preferences.
2.4.1
Evidence from Qatar
A preparatory study undertaken in 2010, consisting of in-depth discussions with representatives from major
employers and other stakeholders in Qatar, came to the conclusion that telework would be likely to create a
real possibility to better reconcile demands of work and family, thereby opening up new possibilities for
women to enter, maintain or re-enter the labour force in spite of family commitments. The information
collected by the project suggests that this applies to the situation in Qatar to the same or an even larger degree
than in western societies where telework is already widely diffused. One reason is that Qatari women are likely
to have access at home to domestic help which frees them from some of the traditional household duties –
which in western countries have remained largely in the responsibility of women in spite of increasing female
labour force participation.
Compared to most other parts of the developed world, the Qatari labour market is still predominated by what
are called “regular employment relationships” in so far as job security and working time arrangements are
concerned. Qatari nationals can as yet not opt for part-time employment, flexitime or other arrangements
which would offer them increased possibility for reconciling job with private (family) responsibilities. As rates
of female labour force participation increase and traditional role models become more fluid, this situation
appears to create a strong demand for innovative approaches to employment. This is reflected in the data
collected by Bayt.com
The government of Qatar is fully aware of the need to modernise working conditions in order to make it easier
to reconcile job with private responsibilities: “Improving the work-life balance” is stated as a goal in the
National Development Strategy 2011–2016.
Against this background, home-based telework could play an important role, opening up new possibilities for
women to enter, maintain or re-enter the labour force in spite of family commitments. Studies show that one
of the main benefits of home-based teleworking for women is that it gives them the freedom and flexibility to
shift between paid work and family responsibilities during the day and to give them better control over the
planning of their various activities21.
Unpublished research, conducted in 2011 by Seshan on behalf of ictQATAR22, used a representative sample of
Qatari households to explore Qatari nationals’ perceptions and attitudes towards working from home. Key
findings included the following:
 About 33% of Qatari men and 38% of Qatari women would be interested in working from home, either
part or all of the working time.
 When asked to rank the three most important advantages or reasons for their interest in a work-fromhome scheme, man and women shared a common perspective that these were (1) the ability to manage
time better, (2) flexibility in when to work during the day and (3) prospects of a better work-life balance.
 With regards to education level, the study found a positive relationship between having a university
degree (undergraduate or post-graduate) and interest in telework. Having some years of work
experience (between 5 and 9 years) is also positively associated with interest in working from home.
These results confirm findings from studies in other parts of the world. A likely explanation is that highly
educated employees and those with more experience in their job are more likely to appreciate the
notion of working from home due to their ability to exercise more control over their work organisation
than less well-educated or newly recruited employees.
 Persons with a disability are also more likely to voice interest in working from home, which suggests that
home-based telework is considered as an option of specific interest to persons who are as yet suffering
from significant barriers to participation in the labour market due to their disability.
21
Cullen, K., Kordey, N., Schmidt, L. & Gaboardi, E. (2003) ‘Work and Family in the eWork Era’, Amsterdam et al.: IOS Press.
22
Seshan, G. (2011) ‘A Social Evaluation of Introducing a Work from Home (WFM) Model in Qatar’, Family Research Division at DIIFSD,
unpublished research report.
7
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
 Individual attitudes towards work matter for interest in working from home: A person who admits that
he/she tends to postpone home chores is less likely to be interested in working from home. This can be
easily explained as working by oneself requires a higher degree of self-discipline and self-motivation.
Hence this form of employment is clearly not for everyone – it needs individuals who are "self-starters"
in the sense that they find it easy to complete work tasks with minimum supervision and in a timely
manner. Importantly, however, this was recognised by the interviewees.
 Women from families which do not allow female household members to work show less interest in
working from home. This suggests that home-based telework cannot reasonably be expected to
overcome all barriers to female participation in the labour market.
The interviewees were also surveyed about the advantages and disadvantages they associate with home-based
telework. Exhibit 3 presents the results for female respondents only. The data clearly indicate that Qatari
women perceive that working partly or fully from home would bring major advantages, especially with regard
to work-family balance, e.g. with regard to the possibility to reconcile employment with child-rearing.
Exhibit 3: Statements about the impacts of VOE work (home-based telework). Base: Female interviewees
only. Ranking of statements by share of “strongly agree” answers
Note: Data from WFH Perceptions Survey.
8
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
2.4.2
Evidence from other GCC countries
Likewise, an online survey conducted by Bayt.com23 of about 9,900 job seekers across the Middle East found
that 72% of respondents think that telecommuting would be a good idea for both employees and employers.
The main benefits seen by respondents were:
 increased time with family;
 reduced costs and time in commuting;
 flexibility in working hours.
Benefits from the employer’s viewpoint are considered to be: better employee motivation, retention and staff
loyalty and greater productivity. Because of the sampling procedure, however, the findings of the Bayt.com
surveys are not representative for the entire working-age population.
A recent report by Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC), commissioned by HSBC, looked at the potential of
telework as a means to increase female employment rates in the GCC region24. The study focused on
teleworkers who are either self-employed or employed by an intermediary, and who provide services to
companies in an outsourcing relationship. In contrast, the research conducted in Qatar (discussed above) dealt
with teleworkers who have an employment contract and work from home for only part of their full working
hours.
The OSC researchers interviewed employers and employees25 of about 50 larger private and public sector
companies across the GCC. Topics included perceptions about home-based telework for highly educated
women. The main obstacles to women working from home, either self-employed or employed by an
intermediary, are depicted in the figure below.
Exhibit 4: Perceived obstacles to women working from home
23
Bayt.com (2009) ‘Telecommuting good for both employees and employers say 72% of region’s professionals’, Bayt.com.
http://www.bayt.com/en/press-release-article-6341/
24
Scott-Jackson, W., Kariem, B., Porteous, A. and Harb, A. (2010) ‘Maximising GCC Women’s Employment and Economic Contribution’,
report,
Oxford
Strategic
Consulting,
URL:
http://www.cahrr.org/human-resourcesresearch/material/OSC%20GCC%20women%20participation%20in%20workforce%20draft%20report.pdf; see also: Scott-Jackson, W.
(2010) ‘GCC Firms Could Employ More Women Through Telecommuting’, WorldLink, 20(2): 2-3, URL:
http://www.henryorg.fi/data/dokumentit/Worldlink/April%202010%20WorldLink.pdf
25
Sample size not disclosed in the publication
9
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
Results suggest that most respondents see challenges related to commitment, trust and management when
working at a distance from the client’s premises. There seems to be awareness that candidates would need to
have the right personality for self-responsible work at home.
Some of the responses have to do less with the fact of working from home but with female Gulf nationals’
preferences concerning employment in general, e.g. salary expectations, preference for public sector jobs, and
refusal to work full-time.
Exhibit 5 presents the survey’s findings about perceived obstacles from the employer’s viewpoint. Here again,
performance control and management of individuals working from home are seen by many as a major
challenge, together with the costs of providing remote workers with the equipment and connectivity required.
Exhibit 5: Perceived obstacles from the employer’s perspective
These findings suggest that there is a widespread lack of knowledge and uncertainty among managers as well
as potential teleworkers about how to set up and manage people who are working at a distance from their
supervisors and co-workers. In addition, respondents are unsure whether working from home, either selfemployed or employed by an intermediary, would be a sufficiently attractive option for GCC women seeking
employment.
2.5
Other drivers
Apart from the potential for increasing female labour market participation and, by implication, better
possibilities for companies to fill vacancies with qualified Qatari nationals, a number of other drivers lead to
companies and public sector employers exert interest in telework. The preparatory study conducted in 2010
identified the following drivers:
 Telework could increase job satisfaction by enabling improved work-life balance. The latter has been
shown to improve work motivation, productivity and employee loyalty. In many countries, employers
who offer their staff the possibility to work from home tend to be considered “good places to work for”,
making it also easier to attract and retain scarce skills. Working from home is bound to become an
important tool of HR management in a context of increasing difficulties to recruit staff with sought-after
skills.
 Telework could make it easier to address temporary shortages of labour: Our analysis showed that many
employees take leave only to be able to deal with minor family emergencies, visits to the doctor, etc. 26 If
they were able to effectively work from home, rates of absenteeism would most likely be reduced.
Employees who are highly motivated often find it hard to take leave at all, as their unit heavily depends
on their contribution. Being able to work from home would allow them to better combine job and family
responsibilities.
26
10
Compare Bayt.com (2012) ‘Absenteeism in the Workplace in the Middle East & North Africa’, report, URL:
http://www.bayt.com/en/research-report-13862/ [retrieved 2012-07-12, 12:00]. Note that, because of the sampling procedure the
findings of the Bayt.com surveys are unlikely to be representative for the entire working-age and business population, respectively.
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
 Organisations that enable their staff to work from home would be better prepared in the event of major
disruptions / disasters, including pandemic outbreaks, as evidence from the USA has shown 27. This is
because keeping employees able to work in the case of disruptions in the central office building(s)
makes organisations less exposed to disasters of any kind. In fact, many companies in other parts of the
world have started equipping employees with the possibility to work from home as a major component
of their Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity planning.
 Telework could help reduce office overheads, especially if VOE-equipped employees use shared desks
(hot-desking) when present in the central office. It may also be possible to reduce selected benefits,
such as the “transportation allowance” paid as compensation for commuting expenses, depending on
the telework arrangement chosen.
An additional point of interest from the viewpoint of GCC governments is telework’s potential contribution
within strategies to reduce traffic volumes and increase energy efficiency 28. An online survey of employers and
staff, conducted by Bayt.com29 in 2010, found large support for “greener offices” and widespread awareness of
the advantages of environmentally conscious ways of working in all GCC countries.
27
Fedscoop (2010) ‘Telework 2010: Telework in the Federal Government’, report, URL: http://fedscoop.com/pdf/telework-2010.pdf.
28
See for example: Mokhtarian, P.L. (2003) ‘Telework Reflections’, in Jackson, P. and Rapp, B. (eds) Organisation and Work Beyond 2000,
Berlin: Springer, 153-155.
29
Kaukab, M. (2010) ‘UAE professionals thinking green, but not doing’, Business and Politics in the Muslim World, GCC News Monitoring
Report, Weekly Report # 124 & 125, URL: http://www.gilanifoundation.com/homepage/125/Asia%20125/GCC%20125.pdf
11
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
3
Telework in policy and practice in Arab countries
This chapter presents an overview of publically available information about telework in policy and practice in
Arab countries of North Africa and the Arab peninsula.
No initiatives were identified from Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco and Syria.
3.1
Qatar
3.2
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has been an early proponent of centre-based telework as a solution to one of the main challenges
facing the country today, mainly the need to create more jobs for women without having to give up the policy
of strict gender segregation in the public sphere.
Telework centres in the public sector30
This project was launched by the Ministry of Information, Technology and Communication (MoITC) in 2007
already. The main objective was to set up more women-only work centres to enable an increasing number of
women to enter the work force while preserving the policy of strict gender segregation at the workplace. In a
first stage, three centres were established by government departments. According to the plan, the ministry will
subsequently establish similar centres in the country’s 13 regions and major cities. No information is available
about how far the project has advanced since 2007.
The programme is a reflection of the fact that Saudi Arabia increasingly depends on women to fill new job
positions on the labour market. Nearly 250,000 Saudi women currently work at government departments and
45,000 in the private sector. Saudi women are more likely to have advanced degrees than men, making it
essential that the country provides adequate opportunities for all of them to find employment.
Project by GLOWORK to get more women into the labour market by offering telework
One of the stakeholders who is promoting spread of telework in the country is the Council of Saudi Chambers
of Commerce and Industry (CSC), which in 2010 hosted a seminar on "The Legislative and Regulatory
Environment for Part-time Working and Telecommuting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia". 31
In 2012, the Council’s “Women's General Administration” signed an agreement with GLOWORK, a website
operated from Saudi Arabia by Khaled Al-Khudair with the objective of promoting employment of GCC women,
and EXA for Information Technology. It aims to support the employment of Saudi women in the private sector
by offering them the possibility to work exclusively from home. Jobs to be created will be in “research,
marketing, customer services, sales and other activities” that are considered feasible for being done remotely.
EXA provides private sector companies that want to employ women as teleworkers with technical support and
the required ICT infrastructure. Teleworkers are supplied with a system that allows them to execute their tasks
and gives supervisors the means to monitor job performance and conduct (including hours worked). Employees
are also trained to operate the ICT system installed in their home.
Within the context of the project, about fifteen retail companies have already reported that they have
established ~500 job opportunities for Saudi women to work from home. The women work as call centre
agents and in e-marketing. The plan is that roughly half of private retail companies will hire women in this
manner “in the near future”. Private sector employers benefit directly because teleworkers do not receive any
transportation allowance. The project’s success is in making companies that have never employed women
before (partly because they cannot afford gender-segregated offices) offer jobs specifically to Saudi women.
30
Ghafour,
P.
K.
A.
(2007)
‘IT
Ministry
to
Create
Women-Only
http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=98646&d=18&m=7&y=2007.
http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=83386&d=6&m=9&y=2006
31
http://www.csc.org.sa/English/AboutCSC/OurAchievements/Pages/2010-P1.aspx;
see
http://english.nuqudy.com/Jobs/Saudi_Women_Telecom-1323 and http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/36/36295/1.html
12
Work
Centers’,
See
Arab
News,
also:
also:
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
The project is to “help address the problems facing the process of employment of Saudi women in the private
sector, both those relating to the location of work and those concerned with the work environment like lack of
separate places for women. These are related to social conditions and the community culture. Many ladies
therefore are unable to go to work outside their homes to long distances sometimes, in addition to their family
obligations.” Another group which is to benefit from the offer is people with disabilities, “by providing an easy
way for them to work regarding their special circumstances, support their work and integrate them in the labor
market in Saudi Arabia.”32
Awareness raising activities
Some awareness raising activities have taken place recently throughout the country, such as the Teleworking
Forum 2009, organised by the “Program for Training and Job Localization in Qassim” under the auspices of
Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Qassim Region. The event was titled "Teleworking:
Opportunities and Challenges" and aimed to “introduce the basic concepts, fields and importance of
teleworking”.
3.3
UAE
There is little sign of government initiatives for the promotion of telework in the United Arab Emirates apart
from the occasional awareness raising event. There has, however, been some research activities and also some
discussion in the public sphere about the potential offered by home-based teleworking and other more flexible
work arrangements. Some of this has taken place against the background of government activities for “going
green”, i.e. raising awareness about environmental issues and developing strategies for improving resource
efficiency.
A recent survey of private sector businesses and staff conducted by Bayt.com, an online job portal, indicated
that “some 13 per cent offices in the UAE allow telecommuting, or working from home” 33. This figure should be
treated with care, however, since the sample used is not likely to be representative; rather, it can be expected
to be skewed towards multinational companies with comparatively modern HR policies.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the actual spread of home-based teleworking in the country is negligible.
Some commentators are optimistic nevertheless. A recent news report 34 stated that “about five years from now
telecommuting can become more popular with advancements in technology and employees' insistence on a
better work-life balance, recruitment experts say. [...] The change will depend on the economic situation, the
perceived control employers believe they need to have over their employees and the ability of employees to
deliver work from home[...]. Green initiatives gathering strength in the UAE will increase the rationale for
employees to telecommute in order to reduce their carbon footprint”.
Research project I
Aboelmaged & Elamin from Ajman University of Science and Technology (UAE) and King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Mineral (KFUPM), respectively, published the results of primary empirical research in 200935.
They used a sample of employees of companies residing in Dubai Media City (DMC) and Dubai Internet City
(DIC). 136 completed questionnaires were obtained from employees of eleven small to medium sized ICT and
media companies. The survey included questions about:
 general interest in telework, differentiated by type of arrangement (part-time teleworking; full-time
teleworking);
 perceptions about facilitators and benefits associated with teleworking from home; 24 items grouped
via factor analysis into the categories “community concerns”, “individual freedom”, “productivity
improvement”, “travel load”, “cost reduction” and “empowering people”;
32
http://www.csc.org.sa/English/News/Pages/201214.aspx
33
Kaukab, M. (2010), see footnote 29.
34
Yousef, D. K. (2011) ‘Telecommuting still alien to UAE culture: Mindset requiring staff to be physically present still dominates’,
November 19, 2011, URL: http://gulfnews.com/business/my-career/telecommuting-still-alien-to-uae-culture-1.933102
35
Aboelmaged, M. G. and Elamin, A. M. (2009) ‘Teleworking in United Arab Emirates (UAE): An empirical study of influencing factors,
facilitators, and inhibitors’, Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management, Volume 4, Issue 1, pp. 18-36. URL:
http://www.business-and-management.org/download.php?file=2009/4_1--18-36-Aboelmaged,Elamin.pdf
13
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
 perceptions about inhibitors and drawbacks of teleworking; 24 items in factor categories “Management
concerns“, “Isolation“, “Union resistance“, “Home inadequacy“, “ICT cost“ and “Family intervention”.
The authors tried to “examine the influence of specific demographic and individual variables on the choice for
teleworking mode” and “to examine the differences in employees' perception of importance of the facilitators
and inhibitors based on their choice of the teleworking mode.”
With regard to the first research question, the data indicate that:
 women are considerably more likely than men to show interest in full-time rather than part-time
teleworking;
 employees in IT and media professions are much more likely to show interest in telework compared to
accountancy and finance professionals;
 Emirate nationals are more likely than expatriates to prefer full-time telework;
 Married persons are more interested in telework, especially in the full-time mode, than singles.
Number of children, age, years of experience in the job and Internet use intensity were all found not to be
associated with patterns of interest for telework.
With regard to the second research question, the study gives some insight into the issues which appear to
influence employees’ degree of interest in telework in general, and part-time vs full-time telework in particular.
The results show that perceptions concerning facilitators/benefits do not differ from findings in studies
undertaken in other parts of the world. Among inhibitors/drawbacks, only “lack of clarity about insurance
issues” was found to be significantly associated with degree of interest in telework.
The value of the study appears limited by the fact that the sample comprises nationals as well as expatriates;
because these groups can be expected to have clearly distinct perceptions about the issues in question, they
should be analysed separately, but this is made impossible by the small sample size.
Research project II
In an up-and-running research project, Mona Mustafa, assistant professor of human resource management at
the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), is exploring “teleworking in the UAE as a way to integrate
Emirati women in the labour market”36. Reportedly her research will “mainly focus on the idea of graduates
looking for jobs who find a position, but after a year's training, can ask for flexibility, [...] because then, if they
decide to get married and start a family, it doesn't mean they have to make choices and leave the labour
market altogether." Apart from these hypotheses, no results from her empirical research in the UAE have yet
been published.
3.4
Oman
There is no information that would suggest that there are any telework related initiatives underway in Oman.
In a related area, however, Oman's Telecoms Regulatory Authority (TRA) has announced earlier in 2012 that it
plans to establish “telecentres” across the country as part of the universal access initiative. “The planned
telecentres will ensure a minimum standard of telecom services to all Omanis regardless of their location,
gender or income. The telecentre initiative is a solution envisaged by the government, especially for remote
areas, to ensure access to services across the whole population”.
This plan represents the attempt to upgrade the country’s ICT infrastructure and to give a larger share of the
population access to state-of-the-art ICT-based services. There appear to be no plans to implement telework so
far.
3.5
Egypt
The North African Arab countries face a very different labour market situation in comparison to the countries
of the GCC, which means that the potential role of telework in contributing to national development is also
quite distinct. While the GCC region makes massive use of immigrant labour, Egypt and the other North African
countries are key sources of manpower within the Arab world. Against this background, telework has become
36
14
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/teleworking-could-serve-as-a-boost-to-emiratisation-1.965730; See also: Mustafa, M
(2011) ‘Introducing telework: experiences from Europe and the US’, paper presented at International Human Resources Conference,
Dubai, UAE, January, 2011. And: Mustafa, M (2010) ‘Managing Boundaries’. Paper presented at ATINER conference, Athens Institute
for Education and Research, Greece, July 2010.
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
known mainly as a means to export services while creating jobs within the country. This phenomenon is known
as e-offshoring, e-outsourcing, export of teleservices etc. Since most of the jobs in this sector are based in a
traditional office environment rather than at a location chosen by the employee (e.g. the home), they are of
limited relevance to the focus of the present report.
In addition, telework has gradually found its way into Egypt through the HR practices of multinational
corporations, the subsidiaries of which form an important part of the Egypt economy.
Moreover, academic researchers have started to explore the preconditions and impacts of remote working in
the country.
Policy
Telework has apparently not been on the Egypt’s policy agenda in recent years. One exception is the country’s
“Smart ICT Policies”, which make mention of “Generating telework using tele-presence, and broadband
applications” as a policy objective of the country’s ICT policy, also in the context of attempts for “green ICTs”37.
Here again, however, the term tele work seems to be used for jobs in the teleservice sector, rather than for
home-based ways of working.
Research project I
Ahmed Gad Abdel-Wahab and colleagues, based at University of Mansoura in Egypt, have been active in
telework research for some years already. In a study published in 200738, Abdel-Wahan attempted to explore
attitudes of Egyptian information workers towards the concept of telecommuting, and to examine the
relationships between attitudes and their expectation concerning their own productivity and job satisfaction if
they participated in a telecommuting programme. Empirical data were collected from 228 information workers
from Dakahlia Governorate, using a self-administered questionnaire. He found that the majority of
respondents held a positive opinion about the concept of telework, especially if they associated it with higher
productivity and greater job satisfaction.
In a 2008 paper39, Abdel-Wahab presented results from a survey of managers. Again, he found that positive
attitudes predominate, and 80% of respondents agreed that their organisation is under pressure to implement
telework sooner rather than later. The biggest barrier, in the opinion of managers, is lack of internal resources
in terms of ICT infrastructure and expertise.
Research project II
Aboelmaged and El Subbaugh40 did empirical research to explore the influence of demographic, technological,
individual and organisational factors on productivity of Egyptian teleworkers. Productivity was measured by
surveying teleworkers and asking about self-perceived changes in productivity. The analysis of data from ~200
teleworkers found that individual and organizational factors are crucial in explaining differences in perceived
productivity. Key factors include job security, job satisfaction, personal commitment, work flexibility and
management support. The findings suggest that telework managers should put most emphasis on job security,
work flexibility, and job satisfaction if they want to achieve sustainable increases in productivity. The paper is
one of the first to put the spotlight on teleworkers’ productivity in an Arab world context, which has been
under-researched as yet.
37
Ministry Of Communications and Information Technology (2010) ‘Egypt’s Smart ICT Policies’ Objectives: Green ICTs, Greening other
sectors and Green Citizenship’, Paper presented at OECD Technology Foresight Forum, September 2010, URL:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/25/38/46137669.pdf.
38
Abdel-Wahab, A. G. (2007) ‘Employees' attitudes towards Telecommuting. An empirical investigation in the Egyptian Governorate of
Dakahlia’, Journal Behaviour & Information Technology, 26(5): 367-375. URL: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1392852
39
Abdel-Wahab, A. G. (2008) ‘Modeling Managers' Intentions to Adopt Telecommuting in a Developing Country: A Case from Egypt’,
Electronic Journal of Communication, 18(1), URL: http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/018/1/01815.HTML
40
Aboelmaged, M. G. and El Subbaugh, S. M. (2012) ‘Factors influencing perceived productivity of Egyptian teleworkers: an empirical
study’,
Measuring
Business
Excellence,
16(2):
3-22,
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/267/2012/00000016/00000002/art00001; Aboelmaged, M. G. and El Subbaugh, S. M.
(2012) (2011) ‘Boosting Teleworking Productivity in Egypt: An Empirical Examination of Technology, Organizational and Individual
Determinants’,
Journal
of
International
Business
and
Finance,
3(2):
97-129.
http://serialsjournals.com/articles.php?volumesno_id=174&journals_id=274&volumes_id=398
15
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
3.6
Morocco
Inspired by developments in France, where a law governing telework in the public sector has been in the
making for several years now (it came into power in early 2012), Morocco has seen a public debate about the
suitability, advantages and disadvantages of telework. A recent news report 41 summarises the situation as
follows: “In Morocco, no investigation of this form of organization [i.e. telework] has yet been conducted.
However, according to HR departments and executives of companies, we can assume that it is still negligible,
(although online recruitment sites appear to offer more and more job opportunities in this area). The reason is
that "presenteeism" is deeply rooted in business culture in Morocco. For many managers, work is what takes
place within the space intended for this purpose: the office, factory or site. Control of subordinates’ working
time is a central element of their position as supervisors”. In contrast, another report emphasizes that the
conditions for implementation of telework in Morocco are fairly good: “Our country now has everything it
takes to implement telework. It has, indeed, one of the largest telecommunications networks in Africa,
providing the required infrastructure and quality of service”42.
While telework has not taken off in mainstream employment arrangements, there are up-and-running
initiatives applying telework to support people with disabilities to engage in meaningful work.
Telework centre for people with disabilities (AFHP, Tangier)
The objective of the initiative is to provide people with physical disabilities with decent work while taking into
account their specific needs.43 The experiment, the first of its kind in Morocco, focuses on overcoming obstacles
resulting from limited mobility by introducing them to the use of ICT to perform work either from the comfort
of their home or from a dedicated telework centre, set up in Tangier.
The project is supported by the Association of Brotherhood for the Physically Disabled (AFHP) 44 in Tangier, with
support from French NGO Sindbad Méditerranée Sans Handicap and other partners from Morocco and abroad.
Behind the initiative lies the ambition to move beyond the current situation, in which people with disabilities
are often seen as sick and requiring care and charity, towards an approach which supports them in becoming
fully integrated in society, including the labour market.
Telework, enabled by advances in ICT, is viewed as having big potential as it significantly increases the range of
jobs that people with disabilities could perform, either as self-employed (e.g. in teleservices), or as employees
working at a distance for a company.
The telework center covers all stages of the integration process, starting from job training (also making use of
eLearning services), search of suitable jobs and placement, organised in partnership with institutions and
companies that have declared their support of this project. The center is equipped with 10 computer
workstations to be used for training of candidates and later for remotely performing job tasks for companies
that use their services. The training programme lasts 872 hours, plus 382 hours training in business
applications. It includes several modules such office, programming, business organization, e-commerce,
financial and cost accounting, marketing, CRM, HRM, as well as language courses.
Once the training phase has been completed, the beneficiaries will be transferred to vocational courses and
then enrolled for the job placement services provided by AFHP.
41
Habriche, B. (2010) ‘Le télétravail encore peu prisé au Maroc, malgré ses avantages [Telecommuting still not very popular in Morocco,
despite its advantages]’, La Vie éco, URL: http://www.lavieeco.com/news/la-vie-eco-carrieres/le-teletravail-encore-peu-prise-aumaroc-malgre-ses-avantages-17231.html
42
Driss, F. M. (2008) ‘Télétravail: Quelles perspectives pour le Maroc?[Telecommuting: What prospects for Morocco?’]’, L’Economiste,
http://www.leconomiste.com/article/teletravail-quelles-perspectives-pour-le-marocbrpar-fouzi-moulay-driss
43
AuFait Maroc (2011) ‘Le télétravail, une alternative de l'emploi des handicapés physiques expérimentée à Tanger [Telecommuting:
alternative
employment
for
physically
disabled
persons
in
Tangier]’,
URL:
http://www.aufaitmaroc.com/actualites/economie/2011/5/11/le-teletravail-une-alternative-de-lemploi-des-handicapes-physiquesexperimentee-a-tanger
44
http://www.afhp.ma/
16
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
3.7
Tunisia
As it is the case in Morocco and Egypt, the focus of the public debate about telework in Tunisia is mainly on the
possibility ICT offers to provide services remotely to foreign clients (teleservices), thereby helping to create
new jobs at a time of high rates of unemployment and severe regional disparities 45.
Most initiatives appear to focus on enabling individuals to set themselves up as (self-employed) freelancers
marketing teleservices such as call centre services and other services which can be provided remotely to
offshore customers. Target groups include people in remote parts of the country, which suffer from lack of
employment opportunities, as well as well-educated people with disabilities.
Training Centre in Teleworking for People with Disabilities (Tunis)
The Training Centre in Teleworking for People with Disabilities is a joint initiative between the Tunisian
government and French local authorities: the Regional Council of the Provence Alpes Cotes d’Azur and the
General Council of the Bouches du Rhône46. The objective of the project is to support the inclusion of persons
with disabilities in society by providing access to job opportunities that have traditionally been unavailable to
persons with physical impairments, making use of teleworking arrangements. A Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) was signed between the partners in 2001, and the first telework centre opened its doors
in 200647. The original plan was to roll out the scheme to all regions of the country by 200948.
During the political unrest in early 2011, the International Training Centre in Teleworking for People with
Disabilities “Sidi Hssine” was ransacked and nearly destroyed. A new building at another site (Bab El Khadhra)
was allocated by the Tunis city council and the the centre reopened in January 2012. This was made possible by
financial support received from Microsoft.
The centre is now operated by two national disability and ICT associations and the Tunisian branch of the
French NGO Sindbad Méditerranée Sans Handicap (SMSH), in cooperation with the Ministry of Vocational
Training and Employment, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the French Embassy in Tunisia, and Microsoft.
Microsoft provides technological support for free through a donation of software and human resources (for
training the trainers).
The centre provides computer training for six months to people with disabilities who have got at least a
bachelor's degree, with the goal to enable them to start their own businesses, such as a call centre or a web
design agency. An additional three months of training is provided by a development agency once a business
plan has been created. The telework centre supports candidates in their efforts to win contracts from
outsourcing, both in Tunisia and abroad, through its own extensive network.49
Teleworking for providing employment in remote parts of Tunisia
The new Minister of Communications Technology and Information has announced that provision of
teleservices is to help mitigate the lack of employment opportunities in remote parts of Tunisia50. The existing
network of technology and science parks (e.g. El Ghazala, Ennahli) is to be used to attract foreign direct
investment from technology companies. The state will for this purpose invest in ICT infrastructure that meets
international standards. Stakeholders to be involved include the Center for Studies and Research in
Telecommunications (CERT), the National Digital Certification Agency (NDCA), and the Centre for Information,
45
See http://www.tunisia-today.com/archives/13259
46
Source: http://www.businessnews.com.tn/Tunisie-%E2%80%93-Le-centre-de-formation-en-t%C3%A9l%C3%A9travail-pour-personneshandicap%C3%A9es-d%C3%A9m%C3%A9nage-vers-ses-nouveaux-locaux,520,29037,3;
See
also:
http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=46&ved=0CGIQFjAFOCg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.itu.int%2Fwsi
s%2Fimplementation%2F2010%2Fforum%2Fgeneva%2Fdocs%2Fsessions%2Fifm_9_presMBA.ppt&ei=iqT1T87xFIvKtAb7yYnUBQ&usg=AFQjCNHfeuKplh5X0kA8AAtNTDNjkYmcew.
47
ITU (2011) ‘Case study “Training Centre in Teleworking for People with Disabilities”’, Connect a School, Connect a Community, Toolkit
of Best Practices and Policy Advice, Module 4: Using ICTs to promote education and job training for persons with disabilities,
http://connectaschool.org/en/persons/w/disabilities/connectivity/Section10.3_Tunisia_case_study.
See
also:
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/wsisc3_consultation5_disabilities_persons_report.pdf.
48
http://teletravail.fr/informations-generales/teletravail-dans-le-monde/le-teletravail-en-tunisie/index.html.
49
AfricanManager (2012) ‘Saccagé par la Révolution, le centre de formation en télétravail pour handicapés reprend [Tunisia: Sacked by
the Revolution, the training center for disabled telecommuting resumes]’, URL: http://www.africanmanager.com/137896.html.
50
THD.TN (2012) ‘Ministry of ICT: Telework can reduce unemployment in the interior of Tunisia’,
http://www.newsoftunisia.com/emploi/ministere-des-tic-le-teletravail-peut-reduire-le-chomage-a-linterieur-de-la-tunisie/.
17
URL:
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
Training, Documentation and Studies in Communication Technologies (Cifode'com). The Ministry intends to
actively support companies that hire in remote areas of the country, making use of telework arrangements.
Activities for awareness raising
The role of telework in creating jobs and employment was at the core of a seminar organized in spring 2012 by
the National Agency of Employment and Self Employment (ANETI), the World Bank, the National Observatory
of Employment and Skill (ONEQ) and UNDP51. The main focus was on promoting employment through the
provision of online services, with the target group identified as unemployed graduates who are to exploit their
skills (IT, accounting, secretarial, translation, etc.) as freelancers working remotely for their clients. Clients
could be found with the help of international intermediaries guaranteeing both quality of work offered and the
payment of service providers in Tunisia.
The seminar called for a guideline or roadmap comprising a set of solutions to the challenges faced, including
methods for the selection of candidates (selection criteria), payment methods, skill needs, training methods
etc. It was recommended to adapt existing legislation to new forms of employment, with particular emphasis
on distance work.
Case study: Telework helps survive period of public unrest
An insightful case study of the role telework can play in safeguarding continuity of operations at times of public
disruptions comes from the Tunisia subsidiary of GeniTech, a French company (120 employees) that uses
Elgazala Technology Center, located in a suburb of Tunis, as a low-cost site for serving the home market 52. It
employs 20 staff at the site. When political unrest was at its peak in January 2011, with general strikes and
scenes of looting, many large technology companies including Orange and HP initiated emergency procedures
and moved operations (e.g. call centre services) to other locations in France or elsewhere.
As a small company, Genitech lacked the flexibility to quickly shift resources to other countries. Instead, it
decided to recover servers from the office building and to set them up at the site manager’s home. The second
step was to connect all employees via Skype to restore communication between team members, scattered
across the city in their homes, and to the headquarters Paris. Because all applications run on the servers
located at the Paris site, business processes were not affected, but the Tunisian staff needed to be enabled to
take up their work again. For that, some changes in communication modes were required, as the Tunisian staff
needed to make do with low-bandwidth Internet connections (broadband is not widespread yet in Tunisia). In
spite of these challenges, the company needed only between 24 and 48 hours to get back to full operations.
Needless to say, the interruption would have lasted considerably longer (possibly several weeks) if the
company staff had to wait to be able to return to the office premises to be able to take up their work again.
3.8
Algeria
The Association Sindbad Méditerranée France (see sections on Tunisia and Morocco) has also started activities
for the creation of a Telecommuting Center for disabled people in Algiers 53. No information is available about
the current status concerning these plans.
3.9
Summary
The review of existing press releases and announcements and reports from the GCC region and the wider Arab
world shows that no other country has yet reached the same stage of development as Qatar.
The focus in Saudi Arabia is on centre-based telecommuting in the public sector, i.e. offering female employees
work in dedicated, gender-separated offices which enables them to reconcile employment with restrictions
and/or preferences concerning women-only workplaces. The emphasis here appears to be on low-qualified
service sector jobs, especially call centre agents. More recently, there have been attempts to make private
sector employers recruit women as home-based teleworkers. It is too early to judge whether this scheme will
be successful. While these attempts to broaden opportunities for women to participate in the labour market
51
Taboubi, K. (2012) ‘Tunisie : Le télétravail en quête de mode d’emploi! [Tunisia: Teleworking in search of instructions!]’, URL:
http://www.africanmanager.com/140729.html?pmv_nid=1.
52
Chausson, C. (2012) ‘Genitech met ses serveurs en télétravail’, URL: http://www.lemagit.fr/article/maintenance-offshoredeveloppement-support-tunisie/8179/1/temoignage-crise-tunisie-genitech-met-ses-serveurs-teletravail/.
53
See http://www.smsh.fr/fr.
18
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
are to be welcomed, the approach chosen bears the risk that female employees will be trapped in low-qualified
jobs with little prospect for career development.
Some news reports5455 have commented that home-based teleworking would fit Saudi society very well, as it
would allow women to enter into employment without the need to leave the safety of their home. Such
statements tend to ignore, however, that only a very small proportion of all teleworkers in forerunner
countries such as in Europe and the USA work from home all of their working time, with the exception of selfemployed individuals who work as freelancers. Research evidence indeed suggests that fully home-based
employment tends not to be successful in terms both of job performance and work-life balance.
In the United Arab Emirates, there is no information about government initiatives for implementing telework,
but recent years have seen some public debate about the potential of telework to address some policy
challenges, related to job creation for Emirati women but also to efforts for greening of the economy. Several
research projects have started to collect evidence about potential demand for home-based working, which
indicates that the issue will attract growing public attention in the coming years.
Looking beyond the GCC, in the North-African Arab countries telework is mainly being discussed within the
context of economic development strategies that focus on export of so-called teleservices. Through
outsourcing relationships, employees in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia are increasingly serving clients in
major markets, including the GCC region, without having to leave their country. Little of this activity, however,
takes place in the form of home-based teleworking, one reason for which is that Internet (especially
broadband) connections are still far from commonplace in the region.
Telework is also being applied, mainly in Tunisia and Morocco, for enabling people with disabilities to fully
participate in the labour market. A number of telework centres are up-and-running, providing disabled
candidates with the skills required to do a regular job or to set up their own online business. These initiatives
have frequently being featured as Good Practice in international surveys of initiatives for social integration of
people with disabilities.
Egypt is strong in terms of research on home-based teleworking that focuses on Arab-speaking countries rather
than the “usual suspects” (North America, North and Central Europe, Japan).
To sum up, no other Arab-speaking country has as yet reached the same stage as Qatar when it comes to
piloting home-based teleworking and developing detailed implementation guidelines which are adapted to the
specific requirements and regulatory context of a GCC country. Arguably, Qatar would be in a strong position to
lead efforts for telework implementation in the Arab-speaking world, spreading good practice and creating a
region-wide platform for the exchange of experience, with a strong focus on introducing telework in ways
which fully suit the GCC region’s strategies for economic and social development that safeguards the region’s
cultural identity.
4
Telework implementation in the Arab world – The influence of national culture
National culture can be expected to play an important role in the diffusion of telework in the Arab-speaking
world, for two basic reasons: Firstly, organisational and work cultures in Arab countries differ from those in
other parts of the world, which means that attitudes, perceptions, preferences concerning different ways of
working are likely to differ as well. Secondly, labour market and social policies might have different priorities in
the Arab-speaking world compared to other parts of the world; a unique feature of nearly all Arab-speaking
countries is that governments seek ways of combining economic development with preservation of the basic
tenets of Islamic culture. This implies that countries will differ in the support different ways of organising work
receive from policy-makers and the regulatory environment.
Researchers have developed a number of approaches for measuring differences in national culture and how
these can be used for explaining variations in, for instance, a country’s success in term of economic and social
innovation. These theories can be very helpful in highlighting differences in attitudes towards implementation
of telework and, by implication, how telework needs to be implemented in an Arab-speaking country if it is to
be successful.
54
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/oman-to-roll-out-telecentres
55
For example, see ‘Is telecommuting the answer?’, in: ‘The Report: Saudi Arabia 2008: Telecoms and
http://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/full_content/telecommuting-answer-working-home-could-help-women-join-workforce
19
IT’,
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
Peters et al. (2009)56 have suggested making use of Jan Hofstede’s “dimensions of national culture” for
explaining cross-cultural differences in telework adoption. This section first provides a brief summary of the
research on national culture, focussing on Hofstede’s widely accepted research work, before looking into the
relationship between national culture and perceptions towards home-based telework.
4.1
Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture
Based on various interview surveys involving a large number of employees from IBM sites around the world in
the period 1967-1973, Hofstede’s highly influential research suggests that attitudes and behaviours towards
work differ significantly across countries. These differences Hofstede attributes to variations in national culture
which are considered a product of socialization. Hofstede defines national culture as the “collective
programming of the mind which members of a group or category share and which distinguishes them from
others”.57
While Hofstede’s approach has attracted criticism58, Hofstede’s indices have been confirmed in a large number
of subsequent studies. They have also proven to be valuable for explaining differences in economic
performance and innovative activity. This applies, in particular, to the uncertainty avoidance index.
The first version of Hofstede’s model of national culture contained four dimensions: power distance,
individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation:
 Power distance is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like
the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more
versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society's level of inequality is
endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders.
 Individualism is seen versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are
integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals
are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the
collectivist side we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong,
cohesive in-groups, often extended families which continue protecting them in exchange for
unquestioning loyalty.
 Masculinity versus its opposite, femininity, refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which
is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. The IBM studies
revealed that (a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values; (b) men's values from
one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally
different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on
the other. The assertive pole has been called 'masculine' and the modest, caring pole 'feminine'. The
women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine
countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these
countries show a gap between men's values and women's values.
 Uncertainty avoidance deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It indicates to
what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in
unstructured situations. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations
by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a
belief in absolute truth. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and
motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more
tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and
on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many currents to flow side by side.
56
Peters, P., Bleijenbergh, I. & Oldenkamp, E. (2009) ‘Cultural Sources of Variance in Telework Adoption in two Subsidiaries of an ICTMultinational’, IJES, 17(2): 66-101.
57
Hofstede, G. (2001) ‘Culture’s consequences – comparing values, behaviours, institutions and organizations across nations’, London:
Sage Publications.
58
Brons (2006: 550) critiques Hofstede on the grounds that Hofstede regards his measurement as direct although in fact he based his
measurement not on actual behaviour but on what people said they would do. This refers to the problem of measurement of cultural
values: whether they are best measured against what people do or against what they think would be appropriate to do. See Brons, L.
(2006) ‘Indirect measurement of regional culture in the Netherlands’, in: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 97(5): 547566. Compare also: Von Rosenstiel, L. and Koch, S. (2001) ‘Changes in Socioeconomic Values as a Trigger of Organisational Learning’,
in: Dierkes, M. (eds.) ‘Handbook of organisational learning and knowledge’, New York: Oxford University Press.
20
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
People within these cultures are more phlegmatic and contemplative, and not expected by their
environment to express emotions.
Later on, Hofstede developed a fifth dimension, based on a study among students in 23 countries:
 Long-term versus short-term orientation: Values associated with Long Term Orientation are thrift and
perseverance; values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social
obligations, and protecting one's 'face'. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this
dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher who lived
around 500 B.C. However, the dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage.
Availability of data for mapping individual Arab countries according to the indices of Hofstede is very limited. In
his own database he combined data from Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya and Saudi Arabia to arrive at
index values for “Arab World. The findings suggest that work cultures in Arab countries tend to differ from the
United States, the country from which most of the management literature on telework originates, mainly in the
following ways (see Exhibit 6):
 Much higher power distance score, which measures the “emotional distance that separates
subordinates from their bosses” – the greater the power distance, the more less powerful members
accept that power is distributed unequally;
 Much lower individualism score, which measures the looseness of ties between individuals – the lower
the individualism score, the more people act as members of groups rather than individuals;
 Slightly lower masculinity score, which measures the extent to which emotional gender roles are distinct
– the lower the masculinity score, the more value people place on “caring” values;
 Higher uncertainty avoidance score, which measures the extent to which members of a culture feel
threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations – the higher uncertainty avoidance, the higher is the
degree of structure people require for a task.
Exhibit 6: Hofstede’s Dimensions of National Culture – Arab World compared to USA
There are, however, clearly limits to the usefulness of Hofstede’s research for guiding implementation of
telework in any given Arab country. Most importantly, Hofstede’s data sets are weak as far as the Arab world is
concerned. Differences between Arab countries are not reflected. An additional point of criticism is related to
the lack of time series data on national culture. The GCC countries have undergone fast economic progress and
social change in recent decades, a fact which is not reflected in the data used by the Hofstede school of
researchers.
Some of these problems can be addressed by looking at research that draws a distinction between Arab
countries and looks at national culture in relation to management and leadership styles rather than behaviour
21
Telwork in the Arab world: The situtation today
in general, see the GLOBE study, which sought to produce cultural dimensions for national differences in
leadership style.59
4.2
Implications for implementation of telework in Arab-speaking countries
As discussed in the previous section, theoretical observations and empirical research let us assume that the
cultural fit between the notion of telework and predominant working culture is lower in Arab countries than in
countries which are forerunners in telework diffusion (North America, North and Central Europe, Australia).
Under this assumption, we can expect that to be adopted telework needs targeted support measures if it is to
attract interest and get implemented by employers in Arab countries.
Based on the research conducted in Qatar, the table below outlines how the specific mixture of cultural traits
in GCC countries needs to be addressed in government-initiated telework programmes.
Figure 1: Implications of National Culture (Hofstede) in the Arab World for telework implementation
Cultural Dimension
(HOFSTEDE)
Power distance (PDI)
Individualism –
Collectivism (IDV)
Masculinity –
Femininity (MAS)
Uncertainty avoidance
(UAI)
59
22
Culture-specific requirements for successful
working relationships
 Employees tend to expect their supervisor /
team leader to make decisions and take
charge.
 Supervisors do not like to engage in lengthy
consultation with subordinates.
 Clear tasks, assignments, responsibilities and
ways to measure performance are required.
Implications for recommended design of
telework arrangement
 Communication tools and procedures must
support efficient coordination between
employee and supervisor.
 Some online surveillance will be accepted.
 Choice of equipment needs to take into
account that certain technologies are being
used to indicate status difference (e.g.
Blackberries, video conferencing).
 General preference for face-to-face
 Telework arrangements need to allow for
interaction over mediated communication.
sufficient working time spent on-site in direct
 Need for regular or at least occasional face- contact with supervisors and co-workers. In
general, employees should spend not more
to-face meetings with supervisor and cothan 50% of their total working time at the
workers.
home office.
 For effective communication, it might be
necessary to chose media channels which
allow transmission of “rich” data.
 Teams containing teleworkers should make
extensive use of advanced tools for online
team-building and co-operation.
 The workplace should be understood not
 See above – max. 50% of working time to be
only as a place to carry out work tasks, but
spent at home office.
also as a social sphere in which the quality of  Employer should provide tools that enable
human interaction determines individual
professional as well as informal social
satisfaction.
interaction (e.g. Instant Messaging).
 Awareness raising measures are required to
ensure that co-workers understand the
communication needs of teleworkers.
 Employees tend to require a lot of structure,  Supervisors need to be provided with
e.g. they will prefer tasks which are detailed
effective training and targeted support from
and provide detailed guidance.
HR (e.g. templates for documenting tasks and
achievements).
 Preference for ways of working which
closely resemble the experience in the
 At early stages of a telework
familiar office environment.
implementation, workflows should remain
unchanged wherever possible.
Grove, C.N. (2005) ‘Leadership Style Variations Across Cultures: Overview of GLOBE Research Findings’, Grovewell LLC discussion
paper, URL: http://www.grovewell.com/pub-GLOBE-leadership.html; see also House, R., Javidan, M., & Dorfman, P. (2001) ‘Project
GLOBE: An Introduction’, Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(4): 489-505.