Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment of Employees in a Culturally Diversified Environment

The UAE economy is a high growth economy (Ministry of Planning, 2005) and it is rapidly diversifying into areas of tourism, manufacturing, logistics, banking and finance. To promote all these industries a huge construction boom is being witnessed. The country's construction industry is valued at $221 billion (around Dh811.73 billion) - the highest in the Middle East region. This highlights the fact that planned construction is the focus of the Emirates, particularly in the emirate of Dubai.
The shortage of indigenous manpower in the construction industry has attracted a large influx of overseas workers. Due to political stability in the GCC region as compared to other countries in the Middle East, the construction industry is mostly dependent on foreign workforce from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka), and neighbouring Arab countries other than GCC countries.
As a result the workforce being very multicultural there is a need to appreciate the cultural diversity and expectations of employees while managing projects. Similarly, it is essential to understand the influence of different factors affecting job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees, especially in this culturally diverse environment.
A strong correlation exists between organisational commitment and job satisfaction, with many researchers believing that the latter affects the former (Porter et al., 1974; Barling et al., 1990; MacKenzie et al., 1998; Mannheim et al., 1997). A pick and drop survey method was adopted for a qualitative questionnaire. A pilot study was also carried out to evaluate the questionnaire before distributing it to three construction organisations in the Emirate of Dubai.
The study revealed that job satisfaction and organisational commitment are strongly influenced by the nature of work, salary received, career progression, job flexibility, job security, direct manager’s behaviour, company leadership and company culture. Thus, the findings of the study suggest that employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment are affected by a common list of factors, irrespective of industry sector.
Furthermore, the study evaluates the results in the context of cultural diversification in the construction industry. The analyses of the responses received from three construction organisations shows that there is a difference in extent of the factors influencing job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees, based on their cultural background and origins.