Antecedents to employee suggestion schemes: the study of UAE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is identifying and ranking the various antecedents or enablers that will enhance performance through employee suggestion schemes (ESSs) in various sector-specific businesses based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an emerging Arab country. This study employs the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritize the factors affecting ESS. The AHP model was developed with five criteria and 24 subcriteria based on the interactional theory of organizational creativity. Data were collected through interviews with 27 top-level managers and industry experts from nine government agencies, nine semigovernment agencies, and nine privately owned UAE-based businesses. The findings show that leadership support and management style, individual attributes, and corporate strategy are the most important factors that influence performance through ESS. The research model had limited dimensions and the findings cannot be generalized. To generalize the findings, the study should be carried out in other GCC countries because of homogeneity in the political, organizational, and sociocultural context. The outcome of the study provides both organizational and managerial implications for the better organizational performance through ESS. Past studies on ESS have neglected the construct of individual characteristics of employees that generate novel ideas. This paper addresses the gap of sector-specific studies by considering that individual attributes of creative people as individuals are the heart of innovation, along with contextual factors that could help organizations to transform innovative engines through ESS. The originality of this research stems from a reliable and valid framework that can be subsequently used for driving performance through ESS. This study is a relevant contribution to both the academic literature and practical implications.