Easier Work Culture Lures

When I graduated from AUS four years ago with a B.Sc. in Finance, I knew that I wanted to build the basis of my career in the private sector. I knew that this is the right place to be. I knew that if I needed excellent exposure and superior experience then it had to be in the private sector. Thus, the article “Easier work culture lures” attracted my attention because I always had discussions with my colleagues about how important it is, in my beliefs, that young people join multinational companies once they graduate, most of which of course are classified as private sector. In any case, I always knew that many nationals would always prefer the public sector for a number of reasons that are mentioned in the article.

In analyzing this article, I will consider the private sector a firm, and the public sector the competitive, both sectors are after the same customers, the UAE nationals. Each sector offers an employment package, but according to the article, the better package is that offered by the public sector! (This doesn’t mean that I support working for the public sector, I am an advocate of working in private sectors, and more specifically multinational companies.)

One way to analyze the situation is through Barney’s framework where the questions of VRIO are answered. When we start with the question of value, the public sector appears to have the resources that enable them to respond to environmental opportunities. In this case, the demand of UAE Nationals to the jobs offered in the public sector. The sector offers fewer working hours, reasonable salaries, longer annual leave, and other benefits that are accustomed to the culture of the UAE like the paid leave to accompany sick relatives for treatment abroad and the days to complete the pilgrimage to Makkah. So, in answer to the question of value, YES, the resources and capabilities depicted in the package that they offer the UAE nationals allows it to exploit the opportunities of appealing to these UAE nationals to come and work for them.

The question of Rareness is also answered positively since we have two main players, the public and the private. The only firm who has the valuable resources is the public sector, this makes the resources rare. Also, the private sector may find it very costly to match the same resources and make it available to UAE nationals.

Then moving to the question of Imitability, we can see that imitating the package is not rocket science, however, many private firms will find it extremely costly to match that one offered by public sectors especially that businesses are there to make profit. Thus, this sector may prefer to hire nationalities other than the UAE because they simply can’t afford matching the resources offered by the public sector.

The last question of Organization is also answered positively because the public sector is organized to exploit the full competitive potential that they have and offer.

In conclusion, the public sector fulfills a sustained competitive advantage. The only way that the private sector will gain a similar position will be either to match the package that is currently offered to the UAE nationals. This option will be very unlikely. The other way around would be as the article mentions, is for the public sector to start matching working hours, and maybe also reduce some of the benefits currently offered.

I don’t care what UAE nationals want or prefer, but I am sticking to the private sector for a while, I know that this is the place to be!