The HR value proposition model in the Arab Middle East: identifying the contours of an Arab Middle Eastern HR model

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the existence or absence of an Arab Middle Eastern (AME) human resource (HR) model. The paper adopts the HR value proposition model (VPM) introduced by Ulrich and Brockbank (2005, The HR Value Proposition, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press) as a conceptual framework and examines the role of HR along the model's five dimensions: (1) knowledge of external business realities, (2) serving the needs of internal and external stakeholders, (3) crafting HR practices, (4) building HRs and (5) ensuring HR professionalism. A total of 59 articles tackling human resource management practices in the AME are identified and critically analyzed along the model's dimensions. A descriptive survey method is used, whereby a multi-question protocol is administered to senior human resource managers of banks across 13 countries in the region. The descriptive results from the 85 surveyed HR managers suggest that current HR practices in the AME fall along the dimensions of the VPM. Results also show a shared perception concerning the most and least common HR practices in the region and imply that we can start identifying the contours of an ‘AME HR model’.

Keywords::

• Arab Middle East
• banking sector
• HR model
• HR practices
• international HRM
• strategic HRM
• value proposition

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS, Beirut, Lebanon) for generously funding this research project. We would also like to thank Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank for granting us permission to use their model as well as two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.