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THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

School of Civil Engineering

Dissertation

Submitted in accordance with the requirement for the degree of;

Master of Science (engineering)

In

ENGINEERING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

To study knowledge, skills and

behaviours those are required for

Construction Managers in regards to

worker escape (issue) in Sultanate of

Oman

Written By

Mazin Said Abdullah AL Hasani

September 2013

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Abstract

This research sets out to identify the knowledge, skills and behaviours of the project

managers in regards to worker escape and idleness career in the public sector in Sultanate of

Oman. The number of foreigner worker in the Sultanate has been increased in the last

decades as a result of huge demand to develop the infrastructure of the country and to

increase the economical growth. Therefore, a number of issues raised in many aspects such as

economic, social, culture and security as a result of worker escape which received a great

interest from the government of the Sultanate of Oman. On the other hand, several Ministries

are suffering for idleness career in which the employee came late to the work place or leave

early. The author, through this study, aims to study what are the capabilities of project

manager required to deal with these issues. These the knowledge, skills and behaviours are

discussed in the literature review which also used to develop the research data collection

methodology. The author believes that the project managers’ knowledge, skills and

behaviours could help to reduce or avoid these issues. The cause and effect of both issue

examined by the author and therefore, some recommendations been made.

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Acknowledgement

I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to all individuals who took part of this research,

making this study possible and bringing it to successful conclusion.

First, I would like to acknowledge the immense support of Dr. Nick Johns for his supervision

in which he guided me and always there whenever needed. Second, this research would not

have been successful without my parents’ prayers which provide morale support.

Indeed, my appreciations are extended to my friends who usually encourage and motivate me

during my study.

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Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... i

Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. ii

Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... iii

List of Tables .......................................................................................................................................... vi

List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... v

Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1

Background ......................................................................................................................................... 1

Aim and Objectives ............................................................................................................................. 3

Literature Review ................................................................................................................................ 3

Research Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 4

Limitations and Exclusions .................................................................................................................. 4

Scope – Research definition ................................................................................................................ 5

Dissertation Outline ............................................................................................................................ 5

Chapter 2: Motivation and Leadership (Literature Review) ................................................................... 7

2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 7

2.1.1 The role of project manager .......................................................................................... 7

2.2 Motivation ..................................................................................................................................... 8

2.2.1 Why people work? And the reasons behind poor performance ........................................... 8

2.2.2 Motivation theory ................................................................................................................ 10

2.2.3 Employee satisfaction .......................................................................................................... 16

2.2.4 Motivation strategy ............................................................................................................. 18

2.3 Leadership ................................................................................................................................... 19

2.3.1 Leaders and manager ........................................................................................................... 20

2.3.2 Management and leaders .................................................................................................... 21

2.3.3 Leadership theory ................................................................................................................ 23

2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 29

Chapter 3: Negotiation, Communication, Delegation and Decision making (Literature review) ......... 31

3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 31

3.2 Negotiating skills ......................................................................................................................... 31

3.2.1 Types of Negotiation ............................................................................................................ 31

3.2.2 Negotiation techniques ........................................................................................................ 32

3.2.3 Negotiation theories ............................................................................................................ 34

3.3 Communication ........................................................................................................................... 37

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3.3.1 Types of communication ...................................................................................................... 37

3.4 Delegation ................................................................................................................................... 38

3.4.1 Obstacles in delegation ........................................................................................................ 39

3.5 Decision making and Problem solving ........................................................................................ 39

3.6 The relation between a project manager and the employee ..................................................... 40

3.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 40

Chapter 4: Research Methodology ....................................................................................................... 42

4.1 Research design: ......................................................................................................................... 42

4.1.1 Case selection: ..................................................................................................................... 42

4.1.2 Variable ................................................................................................................................ 44

4.2 Research method: ....................................................................................................................... 45

4.2.1 Selection of research method: ............................................................................................. 45

4.2.2 Methods of collecting data: ................................................................................................. 46

4.3 Process of collecting data: .......................................................................................................... 48

4.4 Issues to be considered:.............................................................................................................. 48

4.4.1 Pre-testing ............................................................................................................................ 48

4.4.2 Research validity .................................................................................................................. 49

4.4.3 Triangulation ........................................................................................................................ 49

4.4.4 Research ethics .................................................................................................................... 49

Chapter 5: Data collection and Analysis ............................................................................................... 51

5.1 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 51

5.2 Data Analysis – why people work? And job satisfaction ............................................................ 51

5.3 Data Analysis – Worker escape and idleness career causes and effects .................................... 53

5.4 Data Analysis – Communication Skills......................................................................................... 59

5.5 Data Analysis – Negotiation and Motivation skills ...................................................................... 60

5.6 Data Analysis – Leadership and delegation skills ........................................................................ 61

5.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 63

Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendations ..................................................................................... 65

6.1 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 65

6.2 Research Findings: ...................................................................................................................... 65

6.3 Research Summary: .................................................................................................................... 66

6.4 Recommendations: ..................................................................................................................... 67

6.5 Limitations: ................................................................................................................................. 68

6.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 68

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References ............................................................................................................................................ 69

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 77

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List of Tables

Table 2.3.1: The difference between managers and leaders .................................................. 21

Table 2.3.2: Differences between management and leadership ............................................ 22

Table 2.3.3.3: Theory X and Theory Y (IAAP, 2009) ................................................................. 26

Table 4.1.1.2: Advantages and disadvantages of the basic design (Kervin, 1992 cited by

Tutesigensi, 2012) .................................................................................................................... 43

Table 5.1: Various Reasons of people to work ........................................................................ 51

Table 5.2: Total Expatriates Workers Registered with Directorate General of Civil Status

(National Centre for Statistics and Information, 2013) ........................................................... 54

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List of Figures

Figure 2.2.2.4: Herzberg’s (1966) hygiene and motivators’ factors (citied by Cooper, 2003) ............. 14

Figure 2.3.3.3: The Managerial Grid (Blake & Mouton, 1964 cited by Bolden et. al, 2003) ............... 25

Figure 5.1: Reasons of people wok ....................................................................................................... 52

Figure 5.2.1: Worker escape distribution according to their nationalities ............................................ 55

Figure 5.2.2: Reasons of worker escape (Employees’ view) ................................................................ 55

Figure 5.2.3: Reasons of worker escape (Managers’ view) .................................................................. 56

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Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter provides a brief discussion of this research. It begins with indicating the

background of the research with an illustration of the main issue that has to be solved.

However, the aim and objectives of this dissertation will be included in this chapter. Indeed, a

brief discussion of the literature review and the research methodology adopted in this

dissertation will also be included. Research definition, limitation of the research and the

structure of this paper will also be considered in this chapter.

Background In 1970, the development of most sectors gradually increased as his Majesty Sultan Qaboos

Bin Said became the Sultan of Oman. This is because the economic growth rate has been

increased as a result of the rise of the oil income and the desired of government of Sultanate

of Oman to establish new projects which benefit economic and social sectors. Although there

are high demands for these projects, the lack of human resource still been an issue. Therefore,

the option of foreign workers seems a must at that period as the Sultanate considered as one

of the developing nations demanding for foreign worker. Nevertheless, those foreign workers

have a vital role in lay down the infrastructure projects and contribute in the development of

the country however, a number of issues raised in many aspects such as economic, social,

culture and security. This could arguably be said that it was not subject through well plan,

clear visions and timeframe for recruitment. Over the time, this issue becomes more complex

in which it has transferred to become an obsession needing government and public opinion. If

the first objectives in demanding foreign worker is to develop the country and increase the

economical growth, thus, the reaction of increasing the number of foreign determine a threat

in the present and future. This is from one side, whereas on the other hand foreign workers

cases in the light of the development in economics and politics stressed the countries which

demand for those workers from other development countries and organisational right

institutes in terms of politic and economic, therefore a way to intervene on the country

affaires claiming that they abuse the agreement of human right and work internationally

(Centre for Studies and Research eastern chamber, 2009).

Worker escape is considered as one of the major issues arises due to the huge increase

adoption of the foreign workers. Hence, the means of worker escape is that a sudden leave

from workplace without noticing the responsible person. This could have an impact not only

on the government and organisation but on the social community as well. The focuses on this

issue and the explanations of its causes and impacts on the countries, its effect in increasing

the non-employment especially between youth, the increasing of its money transfer oversees

and highlighting its reflection on the social community should be highly considered. This also

could lead to determine as one form of international economic crime.

In the last decade, worker escape received a great interest from the government of the

Sultanate of Oman in which newspaper publish a report, article and statistics. Also, from

what can be seen from different types of media such as TV, radio, internet, conferences and

workshops which organised by Ministry, private organisation and institution of civil society

like human rights cooperation.

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In Sultanate of Oman, many organisations are suffering from workers escape. This can be

classified into two main categories: the first one leaving the job before the end of working

hours, which also called idleness career, and the second one is leaving the work without

informing the responsible person, in other words, escape from the work. The majority of the

foreign labours working in Sultanate of Oman are coming from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan,

Sri Lanka and Philippines and most of these expatriates perform physical and lower level

jobs.

Workers escape is one of the most important cases that have a negative reflection on the

society as it influence the safety, stability and security of the society. It may lead to several

crimes such as theft, swindle and fraud. Additionally, whenever workers escape commits

crimes, it is difficult to find the place that it stays in as well as it will be far away from

justice. As a result of its illegal situation, it will be far from heath care which may lead to

spread different kinds of infectious diseases.

According to Ministry of Manpower statistics, the number of foreign worker until February

2011 reach 1155392 and the number of worker escape reach 84047 until the same decade.

Majority of the labours are working in construction project and others working in trade, cars

maintenance, manufacturing, hotels, restaurants, property activities and community service.

Furthermore, the rate of workers escape daily reach 44 worker which consider as high rate.

This lead government to do further investigation on the reasons behind that and the side

effects in terms of social, psychology and economic aspects on a worker.

On the other hand, idleness career also has been found to increase in last two decades.

Employees tend to come late to the work place or leave early. Before, indicating the impact

of this issue, it should be first highlight the cause that could lead these employees to do so.

According the ALLawati (2013), there are several reason of idleness career such as employee

dissatisfaction, less motivation, employee feeling of unfair, no flexibility in terms of finishing

personal needs, long working hour, type of work and recruiting someone in position far away

from his major. These reasons could lead employee to leave the work earlier or ever coming

late. The impact of this issue may affect the organisational and people who has dealing with

that organisation in terms of delay submission of the work.

The topic of this study is forcing on the knowledge, skills and behaviours those are required

for Construction Managers in regards to worker escape (issue) and idleness career in

Sultanate of Oman. The author, through this study, aims to study what are the capabilities of

project manager required to deal with this issue. Therefore, the gap of knowledge will be

explored by the author by means of this study.

The outcomes of this study will be useful for the constriction manager or project manager to

deal with worker escape and idleness career. Moreover, the study will indicate the several

skills, knowledge and behaviour require for a project manager when he face such issue.

This paper begins with an introduction of the study then highlighting variation skills and

behaviour of the project manager. The skills and behaviour will be discussed in details.

Following that the analysis based on the data been collected through the methodology which

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been adopted. The paper ends with the recommendation which could be obtained through the

analysis.

Aim and Objectives The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the reasons behind workers escape and idleness

career in the public sector in Sultanate of Oman as a case study. In order to achieve this aim

the following objectives will be accomplished:

To indicate the knowledge, skills and behaviours that required of project

managers and compare it with the past one which lead labours escape and

idleness career.

The author will highlight various skills and behaviour of project managers

To discuss the causes of worker escape and idleness career.

Here, a discussion of the reasons behind worker escape and idleness career will be

conducted along with its impacts.

To examine the influence of knowledge, skills and behaviours that required of

project managers on the project type.

By means of this objective, the author will examine the influence of knowledge, skills

and behaviour of the project managers on the project type and the role of employee in

the organisation.

To illustrate the management skills required for today’s project managers with

correlation of workers escape and idleness career

Management skills are different form managers’ skills, therefore, an illustration of the

management skills required to deal with worker escape and idleness career will be

highlighted.

To discuss the benefit of adopting this skills to derive a project successfully.

At this point, the benefit of using such skill will be determined, thus, it could reduce

worker escape and idleness career and therefore, drive the project successfully.

Literature Review The literature information required for this research has been obtained through several

materials including books, journals, internet, technical documents, government documents,

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and articles. Majority of the books used are primarily related to the different skills,

knowledge and behaviour of project managers. The books illustrated several theories and

skills required for project managers in the work environment.

Indeed, the journal articles that been used in this research published by International Journal

of Project Management, Project management institute, Journal of Leadership &

Organisational Studies, Journal of Managerial Psychology, International Journal of

Management, Business, International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration,

Journal of Marketing Research and African Journal of Business Management. The reason

behind using these journal articles is due to their contemporary and relevance to this research.

Besides this, the references which been published in the articles are been searched through

Google scholar, Engineering Village and University of Leeds library catalogue.

Nevertheless, internet web pages also been used in this research in order to retrieve general

information. Published newspaper articles were used to highlight the background study and

previous research on the topic. Case study information gathered through government of

Sultanate of Oman. All the information required for this research has been collected and

arranged in a systematic way in order to provide smooth flow throughout the research.

Research Methodology The method of gathering and analysing data in a systematic way in order to gain knowledge

and understanding the research study called research (Kervin, 1992). In simple words,

research could be defined as a process of collecting and gathering information. Asgari (2010)

has indicated that there are two types of research which are; applied research and basic

research. This research considered as basic research due to the author aims to investigate the

behaviour, knowledge and skills required for project managers in order to deal with worker

escape and idleness career in Sultanate of Oman. The author has adopted two research

methodologies in order to gather information which is interviews and running workshops.

The author has prepared interview questions and workshop proposal to collect the necessity

data required for the research.

Additionally, the secondary data has obtained by the author by means of several resources

such as books, journals and internet. Primary data has been obtained through interviews and

running workshops. In order to address the research issue, the author has used both primary

and secondary data and analysed them accordingly

The research samples have focused on both employees and project managers in the public

sector in Sultanate of Oman. Indeed, the findings which obtained from the research will be

used to develop the research recommendations.

Limitations and Exclusions

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This research is limited to the knowledge, skills and behaviour required for project managers

in public sector in Sultanate of Oman. Because of limited time, the author believes that the

sample data could be increased and a number of issues may be highlighted in details.

Therefore, the research outcomes would be much better. However, the author claimed that the

outcomes obtained still covered most of the issues and achieved the research aim.

Scope – Research definition This project is a research project which aims to investigate the reasons behind workers escape

and idleness career in the public sector in Sultanate of Oman as a case study. The author has

illustrated several types of skills, knowledge and behaviour required for a project manager.

Additionally, the author believes that this research provide a clear understanding about how

project managers could behave with the employee in order to eliminate or reduce worker

escape and idleness career. These skills and behaviour have been examined through several

theories and analysed. The analysis provided outcomes in which how project managers

should react with the employee problems. Therefore, the recommendations were made

according to these outcomes.

The author found from the extended literature review that there are several skills required for

a project manager in order to deal with worker escape and idleness career. These skills

involve motivation, communication, negotiation, leadership, delegation and decision making.

All of these skills and behaviour has been examined and explained in details. The research

also has indicated the relation between project manager and his employees.

Dissertation Outline This dissertation has been divided into six main chapters in which each chapter also divided

into subchapters. Wherever it was necessary the subchapters again were divided in order to

provide more details. This structure has been adopted for all chapters in which all chapters

begun with an introduction to the chapter highlighting what it will cover. The main body of

each chapter explained in details. All chapters end with conclusion which summaries what

have been discussed including the finding. Chapters that included in this dissertation are

highlighted in details as the following:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter provides general idea about this dissertation. It illustrates a brief background

about the research and indicates in details the aim and the objectives of this paper. Moreover,

research methodology which the author has adopted is included with a short description about

literature review. Nevertheless, the dissertation scope and definition will also be considered

in this chapter.

Chapter 2: Literature Review (Motivation and Leadership)

This chapter includes the main body of this dissertation in which it involves the literature

about motivation and leadership. This chapter covers in details several motivation and

leadership theories with an illustration of the role of the project manager, employee

satisfaction and the difference between managers and leaders. Therefore, provide a clear idea

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about some of the project managers’ skills, knowledge and behaviour. Additionally, it shows

the role of the project manager, what leads to employee satisfaction and the role of leaders

and manger as a comparison. The outcome of this chapter will highlight one of the

dissertation objectives.

Chapter 2 – Negotiation, Communication, Delegation and Decision making

This chapter continues highlighting about various knowledge, skills and behaviour of project

managers. Negotiation, communication, delegation and decision making skills will be

discussed in details. Moreover, various theories in negotiation and communication will be

explored with the author suggestion in which project managers could adopt one of them.

Indeed, the outcomes of this chapter will cover some of the dissertation objectives. Also, this

chapter and the previous one determine the management skills required to deal with

employee in order to fulfill the needs. The theories, skills, knowledge and behaviours that

been mentioned in chapter two and three will be used to analysis the data collected and

therefore, provide results and further recommendations.

Chapter 4 – Research Methodology

This chapter indicates the research methodology that will be used in this study in order to

solve the research issue. This chapter illustrates the research gap of knowledge in brief with

the research strategy that will be adopted. Additionally, discussions of the techniques used by

the author for primary data collection also included in this chapter with the indication of the

samples details. Moreover, the issues that needs to be considered while doing the research

will be illustrated. Nevertheless, this chapter in general is about the procedure that used in

this research.

Chapter 5 – Data Analysis

This chapter explores the research in details and provides the solution. It highlights an outline

of the primary and secondary data that been collected. Then, these data will be analysed in

order to address the research issue. Indeed, the reasons of worker escape and idleness career

will be involved in this chapter and based on that knowledge, skills and behaviours required

for project managers will be determined in order to tackled this issue. According to that,

some recommendations will be made.

Chapter 6 – Recommendations and Conclusion

This is the last chapter of the dissertation in which it will cover two main sections which are

conclusion and recommendations. The conclusion section will indicate the aim and objectives

of this research with the outcomes that been found through the data which been analysed.

However, recommendation section will determine the suitable recommendations that can be

used either for project manager, employee and organisation or for those who have an interest

for further study in the future.

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Chapter 2: Motivation and Leadership (Literature Review)

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter, literatures about the role of a project manager within an organisation will be

highlighted. The main focus of this chapter will be on two types of features that a project

manager should have namely; motivation and leadership. In the motivation section, the

reason on why people work and poor performance in the work place will be discussed.

Moreover, an illustration of a number of motivational theories, motivational strategy and

employee satisfaction will be highlighted. In the leadership section, it begins with the

definition of leadership followed by a discussion on the different between leader, manager

and management. This section end with different leadership theories which a project manager

can adopt one of them

2.1.1 The role of project manager

In any project, many people are involved in order to deliver the project successfully which

could be referred to as a project team. This team should be managed, thus it requires a project

manager (Lientz and Rea, 2002:105).

Graham and Portny (2011) stated that the job of a project manager in any project is to

manage the venture on the day-to-day basis in order to deliver it successfully. There are three

main management roles of the project manager as suggested by Lientz and Rea (2002):

Planning and controlling: develop the project plan that highlights all the project

aspects, thus, delivered within time, budget and quality.

Resources manager: managing and directing all the project resource to meet the

project objectives.

Coordinating: communicating with high level of management regarding the project

issue, approval and review, then, passing it to all staff.

However, technical work is not one of the project manager roles. S/he may be involved with

that job as a team member. Thus, it is essential to distinguish between the project manager

roles and a member of a team roles. Lientz and Rea (2002); Graham and Portny (2011) stated

the roles of the project manager. Some of these roles are mentioned as the following:

Motivating the project team

Directing the project resources

Managing the team work and change

Preparing project plan (including schedule, budget and people in charge) and

reporting the work progress

Interacting with higher level of management and other managers

Managing risk and develop action plan to deal with it

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Dealing with conflict project team, management and stakeholders

Implementing the organisation policy

Delegating responsibility

Communicating with team work in a case of misunderstanding

Preparing management presentation

Closing the project down when everything done as planned.

Besides, it could be said that the role of the project manager is not only focusing in planning

and directing the project but, but exceed to motivating, delegating, dealing with conflict and

communicating with his team.

2.2 Motivation In Latin, the words “motivation” and “emotion” have the same root. However, the word

“movera” means to move’ (Richard et. al., 1992 and Passer et. al., 2001 cited by Wallace,

n.d). This approves that both motivation and emotion have a similar or closer link. According

to the Macmillan dictionary, a motive is the cause that a person does something. Motivate

could be defined as “to provide with a motive” (Shanks, 2006). Broussard and Garrison

(2004) have defined motivation as “the attribute that moves us to do or not to do something”

(Citied by Lai, 2011). Guay et al. (2010) referred motivation to the causes underlying

behaviour. Therefore, motivation can be defined as the method of motivating a person to do

an action. Motivation comes to fulfill the requirement or the need of people or organisation.

This definition might arise several questions that need to be highlighted such as what are the

rewards, who should motivate employees and is everybody in the organisation should be

motivated?.

Project managers around the world are mainly facing two challenges in terms of motivating

their employees. The first one is motivating employees in order to achieve the organisation

objectives. The second challenge is motivating employees to achieve his/her personal goals.

Therefore, motivation could help to improve the employees’ performance which, as a result,

improves the organisation performance. However, it is difficult for project managers to

achieve all the needs or the goals of both employer and employee.

2.2.1 Why people work? And the reasons behind poor performance

One of the important reasons that make people work is to earn a living which could be

obtained through money. In addition, this is not the only reason why people actually work.

There are other reasons for illustration (Rees, 1996):

Achievement

Fulfillment

Personal Growth

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Sense of Belonging

To make friends

To have job security

Maslow (1943) suggested that people do work in order to satisfy their wants and needs and he

developed a hierarchy for human needs which will be discussed later.

People may not work effectively either due to job or person. Hence, examination should take

place not only on a person but on his job as well. This is because a person might never work

in such job. In some cases, jobs could pose motivational issues. However, circumstances in

person lifestyle could also lead him/her not to work effectively. Similarly, in most jobs, there

are some people who perform effectively. Therefore, a basic question could arise here that the

poor performance of an employee is due to a person, a job or the matching of the two (Rees,

1996). Diab (2011) suggested that poor performance at the workplace could be one of the

following reasons:

Mismatching between individual skills and job requirements:

This usually happens when the employee engages in the family business just for job

privileges.

Lack or limited experience in a given role:

In case of promotion, an employee may not have the experience required for the new

position.

Environmental factors and Organizational issues outside the scope of the person’s

responsibility.

The work stress, pressure and drama that cannot be changed due to its nature especially

for those who work in oil and gas fields. Sometimes the workplace environment is

negative where an employee is not respected and no one appreciate his/her work. Indeed,

manager’s behaviour also affects the performance of employees which could lead to poor

performance.

However, Vaishnav (2011) claimed that there are four main causes of poor performance

which are: ineffective leadership, wrong people at the wrong place, inadequate work-systems

and processes and individual’s incapability’s. In many workplaces, leaders or supervisors

play an important role in supervising the work which could improve the employee

performance. However, ineffective leadership may lead employees to neglect the work and

this leads to poor performance. As Diab (2011) mentioned, promoting an employee may also

lead to poor performance when the organisation place an employee in a position that s/he has

no experience or in different than his/her specialization. Therefore, it is essential to set the

right person at the right place. Rules and regulations in the organisation may also affect the

performance of the employee. They may restrict the worker, thus, feeling inflexible. The

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work atmosphere where employees feel flexible seems more comfortable, and the work

quality could increase. Moreover, some organisations tend to hire an employee who does not

have the capability to handle that job. These organisations do so as they want to decrease

their payment due to an expert may ask for more money.

2.2.2 Motivation theory

A number of authors believe that employee motivation is important in order to increase the

worker performance. Many psychologists have studied human motivation and come up with

several theories that motivate people which are Maslow’s Need Hierarchy, Alderfer’s ERG

theory, McClelland’s learned Needs, Herzberg’s two Factor theory and Expectancy theory.

These theories will be highlighted in details in the following sections.

2.2.2.1 Maslow’s Need Hierarchy

Maslow (1954) supposed hierarchy of needs that could be used to examine individual

motivation. He believes that human behaviour is centred on various needs which can be

arranged in a hierarchy. In other words, human needs could be classified into several levels in

which meeting all levels needs could motivate individual. There are five main levels of needs

that Maslow postulated in a hierarchy namely: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-

actualization (Maslow, 1943; Maslow, 1954; Rees, 2004).

Level 1: a physiological need means any physical that human need including air,

water, food, sleep and sexual drive for instance: when someone feels hungry, s/he will

require eating in order to fulfill his/her needs

Level 2: safety needs which refer to security, pain, home, freedom, health, money and

protection. In other words, safe environment.

Level 3: social needs which refer to work, love, friendships, family and various type

of support.

Level 4: esteem needs which refer to self-respect, confidence, positive regard,

attention, appreciation status and independent achievement.

Level 5: self-c needs which refer to achievement, personal development and

autonomy.

Maslow (1954) indicated that a person could become a motivator only if s/he is dissatisfied.

In many countries, safety needs almost satisfied only those who are living in the poor area,

such as Africa, where they are not having the basic requirement. Moreover, a person may not

move to another level until s/he is completely satisfied in his/her level (Cooper, 2003). For

example, a person cannot be motivated in the work if s/he doesn’t have the basic needs such

as house and food.

Wahba and Bridwell (1976) argued that Maslow theory is not specific enough to develop and

design the hypothesis studies which could be used for proper examination. Moreover, a little

evidence has been found which support Maslow theory. Sayles (1979) stated that most of the

lower level needs have already been satisfied but still a person cannot be motivated. The

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highest level needs of Maslow hierarchy can only be achieved through work. This is because

even the lowest level needs could be obtained through job where money is essential. Hence, it

does not mean that money is the only thing that motivates people but the job facilities as well

such as: benefits, health care and education. This could lead to classify the motivation into

two main types which are: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation could be defined as doing an action or activity for personal satisfaction

without any external force or pressure (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Some authors defined intrinsic

motivation as a task that a person is interested to do. It’s when a person moves to act or do

something by him/herself without any external stress or rewards. This phenomenon was

discovered within an experiment study on the animal behaviour. The result of this study

shows that many animals tend to play and curiosity-driven without any rewards or external

reinforcement (White, 1959). When intrinsic motivation applied on human, it points out that

even human are curious, active, playful and readiness to learn and explore everywhere

without the need of someone to motivate them. This phenomenon only exists between

individual and the task that s/he wants to do (Ryan and Deci, 2000).

Extrinsic motivation is defined as doing some activities or actions in order to obtain some

outcomes by means of external motivator (ibid). For instance, a student dose his/her

homework due to the fear of punishment for not doing it, thus, s/he is motivated to do the

homework in order to avoid the outcome. Similarly, a student is motivated to study to choose

his/her career bath in the future which could be obtained by the outcome of study. Therefore,

it could be said that extrinsic motivation is in contrast with intrinsic motivation. Skinner

(1953) stated that all human behaviour is motivated by rewards. Hull (1943) believes that human

behaviours are motivated by physiological drives.

2.2.2.2 Alderfer’s ERG Theory

Alderfer (1969) suggested another theory of motivation which is the expansion of Maslow

hierarchy needs called ERG theory. This theory involved existence, relatedness and growth

needs which will be highlighted below. The proposal of Alderfer theory is basically based on

the outcomes of the experimental studies in order to clarify the relationship between

satisfaction of needs and human desires. Schneider and Alderfer (1973); Robbins and Judge

(2008) asserted Alderfer theory by means of further empirical studies.

Yang et. al. (2011) indicated that existence needs could be referred to three main forms

namely: physiological, safety and material needs. Physiological needs could be described as

the individual's requirement of satisfaction at vivacity level in terms of exercise, leisure and

sleep. Safety needs could be described as the avoidance of danger, fear, threat, tension and

anxiety. Material needs could be described as the individual's requirement of resources such

as food and clothes.

Relatedness needs comprise three forms which are: senses of security, belonging, and respect.

Sense of security refers to mutual trust and humanity. Sense of belonging could describe all

forms of prevention from hardship or suffering including, loneliness, isolation and distance,

thus, people tend to be member of a group. The belonging needs also comprise love which

could be given to others or caring from them. Moreover, sense respect refers to the feeling of

12

respect from others in terms of importance, social status compliment and popularity. Sense of

respect is given value to people.

Beside, growth needs comprise two main needs which are self actualization and self esteem.

Self actualization means self achievement involving achieving personal’s goals and

developing or improving personality. Also, it includes the capability to recognize person’s

potentials and supporting others growth. Self esteem means self productive effects including

the ability to achieve, to seek knowledge, to build confidence, to be independent and to

control (ibid)

There are three main differences between Maslow’s hierarchies of needs and Alderfer’s ERG

theory, as Borkowski (2005) stated, as the following:

The most important difference between both theories is that ERG theory applies the

principle of frustration–regression. This means when individual cannot obtained

higher level needs, s/he may 'regress' to the lower level needs in order to obtain

satisfaction

Alderfer ERG theory provides the ability of individual to satisfy his/her needs from

the higher level of needs before satisfying the lower level. However, Maslow

hierarchy of needs requires individual/s to satisfy the lower level first then moving to

the higher level. The concept of both theories seems same but ERG theory provides

flexibility for a person as compared with Maslow theory which requires ones to strict

on the level order.

ERG theory highlights the difference in needs between cultures, thus, the ranking of

needs would be different from one culture to another. This provides flexibility in

which ERG theory could be applied in different culture, therefore, different

behaviours.

In the light of the above differences, it could be said that managers should realize that an

employee may has multiple needs, thus, satisfying one need only may not effectively

motivate him/her.

2.2.2.3 McClelland’s learned Needs

Lussier and Achua (2007) defined McClelland’s learned needs as the theory that attempts to

clarify and expect human behaviour and performance through individual’s need for

achievement, power, and affiliation. McClelland’s theory suggested that people can be

motivated through several ways which are; need of achievement, the need of power and the

need of affiliation. These types of needs can be learned during a person’s lifetime (Lussier &

Achua, 2007; Daft, 2008)

The need for achievement could be defined as the successful in competing with some criteria

or standards of merit (McClelland et. al., 1958 cited by Moore et.al., 2010). In other words,

an individual goal is to be successful in terms of competition with some criteria of merit. The

concern over competition with a creation of merits still motivates a person to identify his/her

13

goal that s/he needs to achieve even if individual fails to achieve his/her goal. McClelland et

al. (1958) highlighted that the most notable competition with a standard of excellence was

when a person was in a direct competition with someone else. Although individual's has their

own way to do task, how well a person performance is the main concern. Lussier and Achua

(2007) and Daft (2008) indicated that the need of achievement and accomplish goals is

something difficult in which it is the unconscious concern for individual and his/her effort.

The need of power refers to the need of controlling, influencing, maintaining leadership

position and making others to behave in a certain way (Remi et. al., 2011; Chimucheka,

2012). It describes those who enjoy their power in order to enhance personal interest. The

need of power includes also those who have high need of social power, thus, aspiration to

help others. Moore et. al (2010) stated that individuals who show the need of power aim to

make an impact and have a yearning to be influential. However, Chimucheka (2012) believes

that an effective leader should not have the need of personalized power but the need of

socialized power.

McClelland (1961) defined the need of affiliation as the need to establish, maintain or restore

a positive and 1effective relationship with others which could be called friendship. Daft

(2008); Moore et. al (2010); Remi et. al (2011) and Chimucheka (2012) referred the need of

affiliation to a desire to make close relationship with others, to seek approval from them,

need for warm, avoid conflict and to be accepted by others. Moore et. al (2010) and Remi et.

al (2011) argued that a person who shows the need of affiliation tend to interact with other

people and support them. They claimed that those people try to project positive image of

themselves. According to Du Toit et al. (2007) point of view of McClelland’s theory, the

human needs can be learned and increase their achievement by motivation.

2.2.2.4 Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Herzberge (1959) suggested motivational theory which is known as the two factor theory.

This theory states that a number of factors could cause job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in

the workplace. He believes that satisfaction factors were totally different from dissatisfaction

factors. In other words, removing dissatisfaction factors does not mean that the employee is

satisfied or increasing satisfaction factor does not mean the level of dissatisfaction reduced

(Cooper, 2003). Herzberge (1966) classified these factors into two main types which are

hygiene factors and motivation factors (Figure 2.2.2.4). The factors which are responsible

about good feeling of the job are related to intrinsic factors. However, factors which are

responsible for bas/sad feeling are referred to extrinsic factors (Herzberge et. al, 1959).

Hygiene factors are similar to Maslow’s lower level of needs in which it comprises job

security, salary, company policy and relationships with other employee. Motivation factors

refer to achievement, responsibility, advancement and recognition. This factors seems similar

to Maslow’s esteem and self-actualizing

14

Hygiene Motivators

MOTIVATION AND JOB SATISFACTION

Figure 2.2.2.4: Herzberg’s (1966) hygiene and motivators’ factors

(citied by Cooper, 2003) In Herzberg’s research, he found that most of the dissatisfied people had small impacts on job

satisfaction for example supervision. Similarly, a few motivation factors mitigate the job

dissatisfaction for instance achievement (Khan, 2005). Herzberge et. al. (1959) stated that

motivation factors help to increase productivity, in contrast, hygiene factors led to poor

performance and dissatisfaction. The research also highlighted that the nature of job could

affect employees' attitudes and, therefore, it may lead to poor performance. As a sequence, an

employee may withdraw from the job. As the employee reach job satisfaction, his/her loyalty

to the organisation will increase (ibid).

Indeed, most of the organisations mainly focus on hygiene factor to improve productivity

(Stello, n.d). However, Herzberge et. al. (1959) stressed that focusing only on hygiene factors

is totally wrong. There should be a balance between two factors in which both organisation

and employees achieve satisfaction. In other words, organisation needs should be correlated

or paralleled with individual goals.

Gaziel (1986) argued that two factor theory have several criticisms in terms of the following:

It confuses between satisfaction and dissatisfaction feeling with the organisation

A negative impact could be arisen from the reliability of data by ego-defensiveness on

the part of the worker

Salary

Job security

Supervision

Conditions

Company policy

Extrinsic

Work itself

Responsibility

Achievement

Advancement

Recognition

Intrinsic

Dissatisfaction Satisfaction

15

The theory did not highlight the individual differences among workers

Factors may be overlapping as sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction

Besides that, this research was done by Herzberge and his colleagues, but it is credited only

to Herzberge. Cooper (2003) stated that this theory introduces useful

dimensions/categorization in which it could be used to understand work motivation.

However, managers or individual may apply this dimension according to their understanding

which is mostly unclear (ibid). Therefore, many organisations tend to control this

categorization by means of presenting to them how to behave toward satisfying both

organisation and individual needs. Evans (1996) stated that if the individual needs of workers

are satisfied, organisation needs would equally satisfy too.

2.2.2.5 Expectancy theory

Vroom (1964) proposed a theory of motivation in which it has a direct application to the

work setting called expectancy theory. This could be referred to the human belief that there

are relationship between the effort they perform in the workplace, the way they perform to

achieve that effort and the rewards that they may obtain from their work. This means that

people or individuals could be motivated if they believe that their effort lead to good

performance which could also lead to desired rewards (Lunenburg, 2011).

In Vroom (1964) theory, four main assumptions are suggested as follows:

The reaction of individuals to the organisation is influenced by their expectation about

their needs, motivation and past experiences, in other words, people behaviours is

influenced by their expectation. This is supported by researchers who asserted that

workers who do not have any expectation about their needs, motivation and

requirement tend to be less devoted to their organisation (Avner et. al., 1982;

Caldwell and O’Reilly, 1983 cited by Cooper, 2003),

Individuals can choose a cause of action or behaviours according to their expectation.

Individual's desire different things from the organisation. This means that people's

choice is mainly based on their preferences outcomes for instance: salary and job

security.

Individual’s process of choosing from alternative is rational.

These assumptions of this theory are basically having three elements which are: expectancy,

instrumentality, and valence. Individuals could be motivated based on the degree that s/he

believes. Work that s/he does may lead to accepted performance which will be rewarded and

therefore, the value of rewards is highly motivated (Lunenburg, 2011).

Expectancy is the effort that an individual tires to perform at a given level of performance.

The effort of a person to meet the desire result is based on the possibilities and range

according to the effort performance relationship from 0 to 1 (Tosi and Carroll, 1982 cited by

Cooper, 2003). This probability means if the employee believes that his/her effort will not

16

lead to the desire performance, the expectancy value is 0. However, if the employee believes

that his/her effort will lead to the desire performance and complete the task, the expectancy

value is 1.

Instrumentality is related to the person performance in which it will lead to a desired

outcome. Instrumentality is similar to expectancy in which work performance will be ranged

from 0 to 1 for instance, if the work performance of the employee is considered as good and

resulted to increase the salary, the instrumentality value is 1. On the other hand, if the work

performance of the employee is not good and does not lead to an increase in a salary, the

instrumentality value is 0.

Valence is related to the individual’s preference for reward that s/he received according to his/her

outcome for examples; promotion and salary increases. Valence can be positive or negative

depending on the outcome of the employee. An outcome that the organisation wants individuals

to desire will receive positive valence. In contrast, unwanted outcome will receive negative

valence (ibid). Valence also is ranged from -1 to 1. It could be said that valence presents a link to

the need theories of motivation which are mentioned above in which it is related to the employees

needs.

Vroom (1964) suggested that the relation between motivation, expectancy, instrumentality, and

valence could be in terms of the following equation:

Motivation = Expectancy x Instrumentality x Valence

In the light of the above equation, it could be said that higher level of motivation would be

obtained when all expectancy, instrumentality and valence are high. However, if one of the three

elements is zero, motivation will be zero. This is because all of the factors are considered as a

chain in which each factor depends, in such way, on other one (Lunenburg, 2011). Indeed, one

of the main issues of this theory is that if the employee sees that the outcome of his

performance may lead to positive valence but s/he cannot achieve it (expectancy zero), this

theory expects that the employee cannot be motivated. This means that if the manager asks

the employee to do a task and s/he may desire a reward if s/he do it, but the employee

believes that s/he cannot achieve that outcome. Therefore, s/he cannot be motivated (Cooper,

2003).

2.2.3 Employee satisfaction

In any organisation, employee satisfaction is considered as an important issue for

management and employee. Numerous researches have been conducted in order to explore

the key factors influencing job satisfaction with a special focus on gender difference. A large-

scale survey conducted by Clark (1997) which aimed to test the hypothesis that males and

females in the similar job should be equally satisfied. These research results showed that

women have a higher level of job satisfaction even if they have lower income and stature.

Another research done by Sousa-Poza and Souza-Poza (2003) asserted Clark findings.

17

Vlosky and Aguilar (2009) suggested a model to identify the relationship between employee

satisfaction and six explanatory variables which are:

Control/Autonomy/Influence

This could be related to the employee job expectation which leads to employee satisfaction. It

is similar to valence element in the expectancy theory which discussed before. Successful

accomplishment of the task given to the worker leads to certain results or rewards. Positive

rewards could help to improve employee satisfaction. In the lower level of a job, the

employee role seems ambiguous in which s/he does not know his/her actual job. This might

lead to job dissatisfaction (Szilagyi et. al., (1976) cited by Vlosky and Aguilar, 2009). Teas

(1981) emphasized the positive relationship between worker internal control orientation and

job motivation. It could be said that employee satisfaction is positively affected by employee

control/autonomy/influence.

Challenge

Hall and Lawler (1970) indicated that the employee faces challenges which could be internal

or external in nature. Internal pressures refer to the employee needs, values, abilities etc.

External pressures refer to the formal prescribed tasks, positional requirements and demands

from others. A challenging task could generate stress on the employee in order to approve

his/her ability to meet the organisation goals in which it leads to job satisfaction. However,

challenging tasks also could lead to job dissatisfaction when the employee couldn’t meet the

organisation needs (Locke (1968) cited by Vlosky and Aguilar, 2009). Challenging tasks

include avoiding routine job and standardisation. A project manager may ask the employee to

do a job in different way which helps to change the work routine.

Performance Measures

It is essential to communicate individual's performance to them by their supervisors or

managers in which recommendations are given to the employee to improve his/her

performance to achieve organisation needs (Sirota & Mischkind, 2006). The

recommendations that should provide to the worker should be specific, unemotional, direct to

the employee performance not to his/her personality. Performance measures are used in order

to generate standards in which employee performance to accomplish task could be defined.

Feedback

From the organisation view, providing feedback to the employee on his/her work performance

can serve two functions. The first one, feedback can maintain task-directed behaviour on track

and the second one, it can motivate the employee to improve his/her effort (Payne & Hauty,

1955). Moreover, feedback could help to fulfill the employee needs in order to achieve his/her

personal goals. In other words, feedback directs employee to the right bath. Employee may

feel job satisfaction as the organisation keep providing feedback which helps him/her to

improve his/her performance and therefore, achieve personal goals.

Instrumentality

18

As highlighted before, employee satisfaction could be categorised into intrinsic and extrinsic

detentions. When the organisation keeps focusing in both dimensions, employee job

satisfaction could be achieved.

Stability/Security.

Bolt (1983) believes that employee productivity increases when the workers feel secure in

their job. According to Sirota and Mischkind (2006), there are three main sets of goals that

employees seek for their work, which are equity, achievement and camaraderie. Equity

comprises treated fairly in the workplace in terms of benefits, salary and job security.

Achievement involves being proud of the job and achieving successful accomplishment of the

tasks. Camaraderie includes the relationship with other employees (Cited by Vlosky and

Aguilar, 2009).

2.2.4 Motivation strategy

Learning how to motivate employees is considered as one of the important roles of the

managers. A numerous motivation strategy has been suggested by authors that can be adopted

in any organisation. . Barbuto (2009) proposed five different sources that motivate employees

which are Fun, rewards, reputation, purpose and challenge.

There are several social activities employees want to do outside the work environment,

therefore, a manager could arrange for these activities after the working hours. In other

words, a manager arranges enjoyable events. These activities include playing different types

of sports, watching movies or visiting friends. This could help to motivate the employee

when s/he sees that his/her organisation takes care about him/her even outside the work

atmosphere, therefore, employees loyalty increases. Not only the activities outside the

workplace could help to motivate employees, but also the activities inside the workplace, for

instance, arranging small party during the lunch time.

Another way of motivating employees to work is informing them about the rewards that they

will get if they perform efficiently. This is because employees may feel that it is unfair when

s/he sees her/his colleagues perform without any productivity and then earning the same

amount of money. A manager could improve worker performance by rewarding those who

perform well which, as a result, leads others to improve their performance and, thus, get a

reward. Rewards do not mean only money, but something tangible. What employees tend to

do is to compare what they get to what others get in their work rather than money. For

instance, when employee performs well, a manager can reward him/her by means of prizes.

Employee can be motivated by reputation which has a strong need in order to enhance self

esteem of image. Many employees improve their work performance when they know that

their effort will be noticed and recognised by others. Moreover, employees could also be

motivated by appreciating his/her work performance by the manager. In contrast, when the

manager neglects his/her worker performance, motivation disappears. This source of

motivation is considered as the proper way of motivation for those individuals who seek

approval from others. A manager could keep providing feedback about this type of people,

and when s/he would like to give them a prize; it should be in front of others.

19

A number of researches showed that managers tend to use different techniques for motivation

which is called as extraordinary level of self-concept. This means that a manager tends to

motivate his/her employees by means of challenging themselves to new skills and

opportunities to develop. Some managers believe that one of the most important ways of

motivating an employee is by means of challenge (Barbuto, 2009). It could be said this

ideology cannot be adopted. This is because different people have different skills and ability.

This is also supported by University of Nebraska research in which it stated that challenge is

one source of motivation and it cannot motivate the employee alone. A manager could use

challenge as a source of motivation by asking employees to do a task which requires skills

and talents. Furthermore, a manager could also ask an employee to do a task by using his/her

own way.

2.3 Leadership There are several definitions for leadership which are adopted by different authors. Some

leadership researchers believed that leadership is a complex phenomenon and it involves

three main aspects namely; the leader, the follower and the situation. However, others

claimed that leadership focuses on the personality and leader behaviours or the relationship

between the leaders and the followers (Meindl and Ehrlich, 1987). In order to understand the

complexities of leadership, researchers have suggested several definitions as the following:

The activity which uses to influence people to cooperate in order to achieve some

desirable goals (Tead, 1935 cited by Cooper, 2003).

The method of operation which uses to control work performance (Heinrich, 1951).

Directing and controlling the work of team members (Fiedler, 1967)

The process of influencing an organised team in order to accomplish its goals (Roach

and Behling, 1984).

The process of social influence by means of a leader who support others in order to

accomplish a common task (Chemers, 1997).

In the light of the above definitions, it can be said that researchers have defined leadership

from different angles which arguably highlighted many aspects. Firstly, leadership is considered

as a process when it is used as a non-coercive influence in order to coordinate or direct activities of

the member of group to achieve specific goals. Secondly, there should be a group of people who are

influenced by the leader. Thirdly, Jago (1982) asserted that leadership also is considered as a property

as it requires several qualities which qualify those who wants to be a successful leader and influencing

others. Besides that, Tead, Roach and Behling and Chemers definitions mainly focus on

influencing group of people in order to accomplish or achieve common goals. However,

Heinrich and Fiedler definitions focus on behaviours which are used to direct and control

work performance, thus, may de-emphasize the emotional aspects of leadership (Hughes et.

al, 1993).

20

With the consideration of all definitions, the author believed that the definition suggested by

Tead, Roach and Behling and Chemers seems a comprehensive and helpful one. Therefore,

the author adopts their definition for this research.

2.3.1 Leaders and manager

The common question that many people usually arise is that whether there is a difference

between leaders and managers or not? Zaleznik (1977) argues that managers and leaders are

two different types of people. He believes that managers’ goals usually arise due to the

necessities and ensure that organisation’s business gets done day by day. However, leaders

are those who set personal attitudes in order to achieve goals along with organisational goals.

Lunenburg (2011) stated that the assumption that all the people who take management

position could be considered as a leader. However, not all leaders can manage. This means

that leadership is not related to the management position in which a manager could not

become a leader just because of his/her position. Both leaders and managers should make a

valuable contribution on the organisation to survive and succeed (Zaleznik, 1977). The

following table highlights the differences between the managers and the leaders in terms of

several factors.

Basis Manager Leader

Origin A person becomes a manager by

virtue of his position.

A person becomes a leader on basis

of his personal qualities.

Functions A manager performs all five

functions of management.

Leader influences people to work

willingly for group objectives.

Role

continuation

A manager can continue in office

till he performs his duties

satisfactorily in congruence with

organizational goals.

A leader can maintain his position

only through day to day wishes of

followers.

Formal Rights Manager has got formal rights in

an organization because of his

status.

Rights are not available to a leader.

Sanctions Manager has command over

allocation and distribution of

sanctions.

A leader has command over different

sanctions and related task records.

These sanctions are essentially of

informal nature.

Stability It is more stable. Leadership is temporary.

Mutual

Relationship

All managers are leaders. All leaders are not managers.

Necessity A manager is very essential to a A leader is required to create cordial

relation between person working in

21

concern. and for organization.

Concern A manager’s concern is

organizational goals.

A leader’s concern is group goals

and member’s satisfaction.

Followers People follow manager by virtue

of job description and the

subordinates are the followers of

managers

People follow them on voluntary

basis or the group of employees

whom the leaders lead are his

followers

Accountability Manager is accountable for self

and subordinates behaviour and

performance.

Leaders have no well defined

accountability.

Table 2.3.1: The difference between managers and leaders Sources: Management Study Guide (2013)

In the light of the above comparison, it could be said that there are several differences

between managers and leaders. Moreover, it could be argued that a leader can be a manager

as s/he has almost all the skills and knowledge required for that. When a leader becomes a

manager, the organisational goals could be developed with the improvement of personal

skills of employees. This is because the charismatic of leader tends to focus on the personal

attitudes, skills and motivating of the employees or followers which need to be developed,

therefore, an organisation could accomplish its goals. This is supported by Choi's (2006)

study when he stated that the charismatic of leader generate individual and organisational

outcomes.

2.3.2 Management and leaders

A controversy question that always arises is about the difference between management and

leadership. Indeed, not all managers exercise leadership (Lunenburg, 2011). Some

management proponents argue that leadership is a subset of management. They support their

argument in terms of providing an example of the military where they assert that leadership is

a definable skills which can be learned. Bass (2010) highlighted that some authors argue that

leadership and management overlap, however, they are not synonymous. This is also

supported by Shriberg and Shriberg (2011) as they stated that leadership and management are

entirely different. They believe that leadership is about ideas, vision, direction and has more

to do with people in terms of directing and motivating them towards personal and

organisational goals. However, they indicated that management requires different skills to

accomplish organisational goals. Yukl (2010) mentioned that the point of disagreement is the

degree or overlap. Kotter (1990a, 1990b) emphasized that leadership and management are totally

different. He believes that leadership is about dealing with change, whereas management is about

dealing with complexity.

22

In order to distinguish between management and leadership, the following table highlights the

main differences between them.

Activity Management Leadership

Focus

- Managing work

- Locking inwards

- Short term horizon

- Leading people

- Locking outwards

- Long term horizon

Outcomes

- Executes plans with details

steps

- Result

- Create/develop future vision

and strategies

- Achievement

Relation with

others

- Organising and Controlling

- Avoid the conflicts

- Subordinates

- Directs & coordinates

- Providing policies and

procedure to guide people

- Empower and aligning

people

- Use the conflicts

- Colleague or followers

- Trust & develop

- Accept other way to achieve

the task or flexible

Operation and

style

- Does the things right

- Managing change

- Money in exchange for work

- Risk averse

- Involved in the work

- Formal authority & Position

- Transactional, Autocratic,

Consultative and Democratic

- Does the right things

- Creating change

- Excitement/ motivation in

exchange for work

- Risk-taking

- Facilitative the work

- Charisma & Influence

- Transformational, Dictatorial,

Authoritative, Consultative &

Participative

Table 2.3.2: Differences between management and leadership

23

In the light of the above comparison, it could be said that a person may be skilled as a manger

or leader or both-or neither-. However, the skilled manager should understand the principles

of leadership and vice versa. A skilled manager, for example, usually tends to establish a

structure to accomplish the task with the alignment of people who should be in charge with

that task. Thus, a manager creates a method to monitor the result. On the other hand, a leader

tends to develop a network to achieve the goal by aligning people and communicates

direction with them to ensure that everyone understands and accepts the vision. This means a

leader provides flexibility to his team to accomplish the task as s/he already explained the

requirements and the vision to them.

2.3.3 Leadership theory

More than 3000 studies in leadership have been conducted in the last seventy years. These

studies suggested several leadership theories namely: Great Man Theory, Trait Theory,

Behavioural Theories, Participative Leadership, Situational Leadership, Contingency Theory,

Transactional Leadership and Transformational Leadership

2.3.3.1 Great Man Theory

The first thought is that leaders to be born not to be made which is called ‘great person’

theory of leadership which proposed by Thomas Carlyle (1907). He promoted the notion of

great man by reinforcing the leader concept to the skilled individual with a unique quality

that captures the imagination of people. This means that some people are born with certain

inherited features or traits that allow them to become leaders in any situation or period of

time. This theory assumes that the leader is different from the normal person in terms of

personality traits, for instance, ambition and intelligence. It also assumes that leaders should

have sufficient combination of traits (Kouzes and Posner, 2007; Biju, 2010). Druck (1989)

argued that leadership cannot be taught or learned. However, ALFaqee (2008) stressed that

leadership is an acquired habit and continues education which person can be learned and

taught with the consideration that some people could born with traits that can be acquired

through human nature. It could be said that ALFaqee argument seems more acceptable. This

is because Druck beliefs mean a person could be a leader if and only if s/he was born with

traits which arguably seem wrong. A number of people had been a leader as they face several

challenges which develop their personality and skills. Great man theory developed onto what

known as trait theory of leadership

2.3.3.2 Trait Theory

In the first half of the twentieth century, several studies and research have been conducted in

trait theory which is considered as the first modern theory of leadership ((Biju, 2010; Shriberg

and Shriberg, 2011). This theory assumes that if the leader is endowed with different qualities

that differentiate him from others or followers, it should be possible to recognize these

qualities (Biju, 2010). In others words, this theory means that a number of traits are common

to leaders for instance; self-confidence, sociability, intelligence and integrity. Stogdill (1948)

argues that there is no specific traits that determine who would be a leader. He asserted that

several traits within the individual and the relationship between the individual and the social

situation could help to determine leaders where a person finds him or herself in front of

24

situation that requires someone to lead. Stogdill conducted another study in 1974 to compare

his first results with the new one. He found that both traits and situation determine leadership.

In 2008, Jossey-Bass published the research which was done by Posner and Kouzes. In their

study, they asked more than 1500 managers the following question “What values do you look

for your supervisor?” They found over 225 values, the top four, which called credible, were

being honest, forward looking, inspiring and competent (Shriberg and Shriberg, 2011).

According to Ghiselli (1963) research for traits associated with leadership, there is a

significant correlation between leadership and traits of initiative, the ability to supervise,

intelligent and self confident. He suggested that the leadership quality is reduced by higher or

lower intelligence. Ghiselli study is supported by Fiedler (1955) who argued that

effectiveness under special circumstances can be highly correlated with the leader

intelligence and other cognitive attributes. The author adopted Stogdill view. This is because

the leader appears in the difficult situation where several traits are required in order to

overcome any issue. However, the leader does not only appear in that, but also in a situation

that needs someone to motivate, inspire, and encourage employees to achieve the goals and

thus, achieve the vision.

2.3.3.3 Behavioural Theories

Behaviour theories mainly tend to focus on the type of successful leaders actions and the

ways that these actions can be developed or trained. Many schools of thought over the world

start to highlight leadership behavioural theories (Shriberg and Shriberg, 2011). The

assumptions that been developed are that leader can be made, rather than born. Moreover,

successful leadership is mainly based on learnable and definable behaviour (IAAP, 2009).

This means that behavioural theories do not focus on inborn traits but on whatever leaders

can actually do. Additionally, success leader could only be defined in terms of describable

actions. Behavioural theories conclude that leadership capability can be learned. According to

IAAP (2009), there are two general types of behaviour which exhibited by leaders namely,

the one which concern with people and the other which concern with production. Early

research on the two dimensions indicate that employee turnover and absenteeism decreased

as the leader consideration increased. It also showed that employee performance increased as

the leader’s task orientation increased (Ibid).

The Managerial Grid:

Between 1958 and 1960, Robert Blake and Jane Mouton developed the managerial grid

which focuses on people (employee), production (task) and the combination between the two

extremes (Blake and Mouton 1964; Molloy, 1998; Bolden et. al, 2003). A grid which concern

for people presented on the vertical axis and the one concern for production presented on the

horizontal axis. Basic leadership styles are represented on the grid shown as five plots (see

figure 2.3.3.3). The first number, which shown on the plots, refer to the task orientation or

leader’s production. However, the second number refers to the employee orientation...

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Figure 2.3.3.3: The Managerial Grid (Blake & Mouton, 1964 cited

by Bolden et. al, 2003) Bass (1990) illustrates a shorthand description for the each numbers shown on the five plots

as the following:

- “1,1: Laissez faire, abdicator of responsibility

- 1,9: Country Club Leader

- 5,5: Compromiser

- 9,1: Tough-minded no-nonsense production-prodder

- 9,9: Integrator of task accomplishment and trust and commitment from followers”.

Theory X and Theory Y:

In 1960, Douglas McGregor developed two theories namely; theory X and theory Y. His

observation is that managerial practice usually expresses some assumption about human

beings nature. In theory X, He illustrated “the average human begins lazy and self-centred,

lacks ambition, dislikes change, and longs to be told what to do”. However, theory Y

indicates that human beings are active of themselves and of their environment rather than

been passive shapers. Moreover, they tend to assume responsibility and the best way to

manage them is to provide them water and let them bloom. This means that human beings are

able to grow if the materials are provided; therefore, they will be able to achieve their own

goals and objectives. Although there are a quite few employees who could eager their

managers to autocratic murderers, a few managers are ready to investigate with the

unattractive self-image and indeed, no management theorist has been paying attention in

26

promoting it (Stewart, 2010). Unlike theory Y vision, in which freedom, self- motivation and

self-realization lead to massive leaps in productivity. This theory considered as a good things

as it drew the attention of managers on how they should behave with their employees. The

following table distinguish between theory X and theory Y:

Theory X Assumption Theory Y Assumption

Employees inherently dislike work

and, whenever attempt to avoid it

Because employees dislike work, they

must be coerced, controlled, or

threatened with punishment desired

goals

Employees will shirk responsibilities

and seek formal direction whenever

possible

Most workers place security above all

other factors associated with work

and will display little ambition

Employees can view work as being as

natural as possible, will rest or play

Men and women will exercise

self‐direction and self‐control if they

are committed to the to achieve

objectives

The average person can learn to

accept, even seek, responsibility

The ability to make good decisions is

widely dispersed throughout the

population and is not necessarily the

sole province of managers

Table 2.3.3.3: Theory X and Theory Y (IAAP, 2009)

2.3.3.4 Participative Leadership

They are two theoretical models which used to interpret the effect of the participative

leadership behaviour of managers on their employees work performance namely; the

motivational model and the exchange based model. The motivational model means that

greater intrinsic reword from work and higher levels of psychological empowerment could be

obtained by providing more opportunities to participate in decision making (Conger &

Kanungo, 1988; Thomas & Velthouse, 1990; Spreitzer, 1995). This could leads to improve

employee work performance. On the other hand, the exchange based model means when the

manager send a message to his employee that he is respect, concern and confidence in their

work performance could which lead to higher level of trust in the managers as well as

reciprocating the organisation.(Dirks & Ferrin, 2002; Huang et. al, 2010)

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Lewin’s leadership styles

Lewin, who considered as the father of modern psychology, set the stage or the level of

behaviour theories of leadership by describing of group life (Shriberg and Shriberg, 2011).

According to his study, he then developed the behavioural descriptions of leaders’ types

which highlight the following (Boje, 2000):

The laissez-Faire leader: who provide freedom and material to his employees to ask

and investigate about the decisions that need to be considered in order to complete the

given task. This type of leader behaviour could reduce the power of the leader as the

employee feel free to use his own way without any guidance except asking the

questions to understand the work.

The autocratic leader: who prefers to dictate job methods, centralize the authority, and

reduce the employee participation and independent decisions. This type of leader

behaviour could stress the employee to just follow the roles and instructions given

without any chance to discuss or develop the instruction provided.

The democratic leader: who tends to involve all the employees in working methods,

decision making and delegation authority. This type of leader behaviours leads to

employee satisfaction

Lewin found that the most effective leadership style was democratic. Although laissez-faire

style provides freedom to the employee to use their own method, it could result in less

coherent work patterns. Indeed, autocratic style may lead to revolution.

2.3.3.5 Situational Leadership

The performance management process of many organisation has been reduced to a once year

appraisal session. As a result, managers usually take on judgmental roles which limit their

ability to develop and improve the employee performance. Therefore, performance

management could be considered as a periodic intervention rather than a sustainable process

(Hersey & Chevalier, 2010). Thus, organisations find difficulty in achieving its objectives.

In order to overcome this issue, situational leadership provides guidance to the leaders that

they require coaching their employee throughout the period on the performance management

(Ibid). Sustainable leadership is basically based on the assumption that the best action that the

leader can take is depending on a number of sustainable factors. Besides that, when a

decision is needed a leader has many style that he can use to make a good decision (IAAP,

2009). Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) illustrated three main factors which has an influence

on the sustainable leadership namely; the force in the situation, the follower and the leader

(Citied by IAAP, 2009). This means that the sustainability of leadership depends on these

factors in which it only could call sustainable. Moreover, it focuses on behaviour style that

the leader should adopt with his follower (Ibid).

2.3.3.6 Contingency Theory

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Contingency theory, which developed by Fiedler, assumed that there is no single way for

managers to lead other. It depends on the situation in which leadership style is requirement.

Therefore, the best solution for any managerial situation is contingent on the features that

impose on the situation. Fiedler considered three main situations that could help to identify

the managerial task condition which are (Bolden et. al, 2003):

- Task structure: which refer to the work that fairly unstructured, highly structured or

somewhere between them.

- Leader member relation: which refer to the relation between the manager and the

employees.

- Position power: which refer to the authority that a manager have

The question that may ask is that whether the managers’ behaviour should be rated on the

task oriented or relationship oriented. Task oriented manager means the extent to which a

leader, as a manager, engages in such way that he communicate with his follower and explain

what, how and when to do tasks. However, relation oriented manager means the extent to

which a leader is engage in two communication way by facilitating behaviour and providing

soci-emotional support to the follower (Hersey and Blanchard, 1988).

2.3.3.7 Transactional and Transformational Leadership

Burns (1979) identify two type of leadership namely; transactional and transformational

leadership. The recent researches in studying leadership show that they should be acceptance

in distinguishing between transactional and transformational leadership (Meindl, 1990).

Quinn (1988) compares between transactional and transformational leadership in terms of

task oriented, relation oriented (cited by Fiedler, 1967) and consideration-initiating structure

(Korman, 1966). Bass (1990) believes that both transactional and transformational leadership

is a new concept. However, some authors explain paradigms as inspirational and charismatic

to transformational leadership (Bryman, 1992). These authors used different terminology but

still the similarities between them are more in terms of the concept. (Hartog et.al, 1997).

Gardiner (2006) defined transactional leadership as an exchange something valued which

takes place between leader and follower for a purpose. This exchange presented by the

traditional influence model which found with most human beings group. What Gardiner

(2006) found is that leaders who tends to used transactional style have the ability to fulfill the

requirement and the expectation of his follower. Therefore, employees are less likely to leave

the work place and they are ready to work more than the give time. Transformational

leadership is based on more than following the leader, as a follower, it includes sharing and

shifting the value, believes and the need of the follower. According to Burns (1979), the

result of transformational leadership is that the relationship between the leader and the

follower will be ‘mutual simulation’. Moreover, this form of leadership could also lead to

higher level of performance among employees that transactional leadership (Bass, 1985).

Bass (1985) has applied Burns (1979) believes in organisational management. His argument

is based on how transactional leader could improve and develop the quality and quantity of

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the work performance, how to implement the decision, how to reduce the conflict between

leader and follower to particular action and how to replace one goal for another.

Transformational leaders focus and tend in raise the follower to a greater awareness about the

problems or obstacles consequence. It requires the leader awareness, self confidence and

inner strength to understand what is good or right to his follower not what others has been

accepted before as a wisdom (Brass, 1985).

Burns (1978) and Bass (1985) has identified and recognised leaders by means of their

impacts and actions on their followers. This could lead for better understanding of type of

action that transactional and transformational leader need to be taken in order to provide a

framework to interact with his follower. Thus, provide better motivational states, improve

their work performance and understand their personal issues (Gardiner, 2006).

Weber (1947) and House (1977) in somehow highlight the same concept of both Burn and

Bass ideas of transformational leadership. House claimed that the charismatic of a leader

should have the ability the effect the followers and by influence is able to cause the follower

to complete their tasks. This charismatic also involved dominance, self-confidence and strong

conviction in the moral righteousness of one’s believes. Thus, it requires the leader to build

an image, demonstrating confidence and setting goals and objectives. These type behaviours

of a leader assert to convince and motivate the follower without any bartering them for goods

and rights, which describe the transactional leadership style, (Gardiner, 2006).

2.4 Conclusion This chapter has highlighted the role of project manager within an organisation and has

discussed about different motivational theories. It has also illustrated motivational strategy

and employee satisfaction. In addition, it has discussed about the difference between leader

manager and management. This chapter has pointed out about several leadership theories

which a project manager could adopt. It has been found that a project manager has several

roles such as planning, organising, directing and controlling the work and the employee in

order to achieve the organisation goals and objectives. There are many factors which affect

employee satisfaction which are salary, security, challenge, performance measure,

appreciation feedback, ability to develop and achieve personal goals. Moreover, there are a

numerous motivation theories which indicate who to motivate employee. The agreement

which has been developed is that whether an employee could be motivated by providing his

basic needs and he can then aim for something high or he could be motivated even he

couldn’t have the basic need. It can be said that different people have different opinion, thus,

motivation will vary from one to another. Something that motivates someone may not

motivate others. Additionally, there are several motivational strategies that project managers

can adopt, for example; rewards, money, reputation and spending time with the employee

outside the work place. Besides these, it has been found that a leader can act as a manager.

However, a manager cannot act as a leader unless he has the ability and characterises of a

leader. Leadership theories provide multiple choices on who a project manager, as a leader,

can lead others. Transformation leadership may be considered as one of the most effective

leadership style in which a leader has an influence and the ability to motivate, improve and

develop the employee and their performance. However, this type of leadership may have an

30

impact on the relationship between the leader and the employee in terms of losing the power

as the relation become close.

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Chapter 3: Negotiation, Communication, Delegation and Decision

making (Literature review)

3.1 Introduction This chapter continues the illustration of literature review. It indicates about the skills

required while negotiating with other. An illustration about different types of negotiation and

negotiation theories will be highlighted in details. This chapter also discuss about several

types of communication and delegation process. Moreover, it explains decision making and

problem solving method. It concludes with an explanation of the relation between the

employee and the project manager.

3.2 Negotiating skills Negotiation is another way of saying ‘engaging in conflict’ (Ludlow and Panton, 1992). Fells

(2012) defined negotiation as a process which involves two parties or groups with differences

in which the need to reach a certain agreement through discussing some options and sharing

some offers. From this definition, it could be said that negotiation considered as a process in

which in involves a number of activities. It also indicates that there should be two parties. In

some cases, negotiation needs more than two parties however, it becomes more complex.

Moreover, there must be differences between the parties. This is because if there were any

differences, no need to negotiate as negotiation required conflict between the parties.

Additionally, negotiation requires or tries to reach an agreement taken in mind that it might

not able to success. If the agreement shortly and easily reached, it could mean that some of

the value has been left on the negotiating table and thus, it probably not considered as a good

negotiation. Reaching an agreement in negotiation can be obtained through two ways. This

way helps to create new idea and may add value to negotiation. The first one is to identify

and develop the options that could be used to solve the issues. And the second way is to share

and exchange offers between the parties. The negotiation finally ends up with agreement. The

word ‘agreement’ may sound that they is positive outcome but, there is no such grantee on

that. One of the most important aspects in any negotiation is that how it would be

implemented (Fells, 2012).

In the context of work environment, negotiation could occur between managers, employers,

department and sales and buyers representatives. Ludlow and Panton (1992) claimed that

negotiation requires careful preparation, critical thinking, communication skills and the

ability to establish collaborative environment.

3.2.1 Types of Negotiation

Spoelstra and Pienaar (1991) indicated that negotiation could be classified into several types

such as integrative negotiation, distributive negotiation, and destructive negotiation. In simple

words integrative negotiation could be referred to a ‘win more-win more’ model of

negotiation not to the ‘win-win’ model. In this type of negotiation all the parties are trying to

come with more gain than whatever they have as an alternative solution. This probably the

most type of negotiation been used. Disagreement in this form of negotiation considered as

costly as compare with the compromise in which both gain and loss should equally

distributed. This is because the relationship between the parties may not end with the

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agreement but, it will continue in the future as they could have another business or work. the

best example of this type of negotiation is what happen in any organisation where a manager

could negotiate with employee, suppliers, buyers and contractor in order to reach the a certain

agreement that help the organisation and other parties to achieve their goals and objectives

(Ibid).

In contrast, distributive negotiation in simple word means ‘win-lose’ model. In this type of

negotiation, parties participate in the negotiation with the objective to win. This means that

the other side of negotiation will lose in terms of finance, resources or association. During the

negotiation, one party will act as offensive and other as defensive. Car deal, court case,

property and market sales are examples of distributive negotiation (Ibid)

Destructive negotiation could be refer to a ‘lose-lose’ model in which both the parties are

trying to increase the damage on the other party without bothering on the amount of damage

that they can obtained to themselves. This type of negotiation is used by groups of individuals

or labours unions who try to win by lose (Ibid)

In negotiation, the relationship between the parties could be classified into three main types

which are co-operative relationship, continuous relationship and intermittent relationship. In

co-operative relationship, win or lose negotiation are irrelevant in which it will not affect the

relationship between the parties. This means that the conflict will be turned to a co-operation

and it not considered as a competitive mode. Many authors believe that this form of

relationship exists with either integrative or distributive negotiation. Continuous relationship

in negotiation refers to ongoing relationship which could be maintained by means of

negotiation itself and into the future. Thus, issues, problems and difficulties between the

parties should be overcome through good relation in whom whatever they have on the

negotiation table will remain only there and will not affect in any way their relationship. The

best examples of this type of negotiation are employee and employee/manager relation and

wife and husband relation. Intermittent relationship usually occurs when an issue arise and

may have an impact on the relationship between the parties. This means that the past relation

between the parties been well and for some problem it cause to become bad. Delay payment

could be an example of this type of relation. This type of negotiation could also be once-off

in which it occurs only once and there will not be any sort of contact after that. The

negotiation between the buyer and the supplier can be an example of this relation (Spoelstra

and Pienaar, 1991).

In the light of the above classification, it could be said all types of relationship could be found

in any organisation. Therefore, a project manager should have the ability to understand the

situation and direct the negotiation to the safe side. This is because that conflict at work place

may always happen and it must not affect the relationship between managers and his

employee.

3.2.2 Negotiation techniques

Kilsheimer (2009) Schiffman (2010) has illustrated several techniques and principles that

should be used and applied in negotiation. Besides that, they stressed that a negotiator should

avoid stress, tension, politics and egos while negotiating. They also emphasised that a

33

negotiator should meet those people who have the authority to make decision. The attitude of

the negotiator should be present and maintained professional. Moreover, the negotiator

should understand his position and take time to collect the require information before starting

the negotiation itself. They suggested a list which they called ‘do and don’t’ as the following;

Dos

- Describe the aim and objective of the meeting

- Understand the situation and other part position

- Develop meeting agenda and follow it

- Communication with the other side of negotiation should be clear enough and easy to

understand

- Provide time for other side of negotiation to discuss his situation (listening and paying

attention)

- Ask question to clarify

- Be ethical

- All distractions should be minimize

- Try to provide alternative solution that could acceptable by all parties.

- All agreement should be written and signed

Don’ts

- Ask to decease the quality in order to reduce the cost

- Ask for unreasonable demands.

- Force others the final decision should be taken by you

- Hesitate to ask and clarify

- Provide promise which cannot be delivered

- Jump from one situation to another and start introducing offers

- Lie

- End up with agreement based on personal conflict

- Overestimating and escalating needs

- Be nerves or angry

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- Ask for personal interest.

In the light of the two lists, it could be understand that a negotiator, as a project manager,

should adopt these list in which it can lead for successful negotiation. Moreover, it also may

eliminate any misunderstanding between the parties and create healthy environment which

lead the certain agreement.

3.2.3 Negotiation theories

Agarwal (2009) claims that there are several negotiation theories namely; game theory,

negotiation analysis, psychological negotiation theory, integrated theory and prospect theory.

These theories will be highlighted in details in the following sections;

Game theory

This theory highlights the human interaction in social and economic environment in which it

provides ultimate solution to predict outcomes. Game theory has three main forms which

provide the basic initial for the area of game theories. These forms are zero-sum game theory,

co-operative game theory and non co-operative game theory (Von Neumam and

Morgenstern, 1944; Nash, 1951; Shapley, 1953; Shapley and Shubik, 1954; Luce and Raiff,

1957; Aumann and Dreze, 1974; Shapley, 1977; cited by Agarwal, 2009). Non co-operative

theory dominates zero-sum theory. Co-operative theory refers to a set of benefits that could

lead to a unique solution. However, non co-operative theory focuses on the outcomes of the

bargaining process overtime. Crawford (1982) believes that improving the bargaining

outcomes efficiency could help to obtain more gain through negotiation. It could be said that

game theory did not provide a clear idea of negotiation except that with the concept of

improving the bargaining efficiency in order to obtain more gain. Therefore, it may be

considered as general theory of negotiation (Agarwal, 2009).

Negotiation analysis

Raiff (1989) has presented new negotiation theory which he called negotiation analysis. This

new theory is based on the concept of game negotiation theory. he believe that this theory

offer more prescriptive approach to negotiation and examine the understanding of the

negotiator preference, behaviour and action with the comparison of the other side of

negotiation as well as suggesting the systematic ways which help the decision maker to divert

from rationality to optimality. Sebenius (2005) has illustrated several basic elements of

negotiation analysis which are the parties, the interest, alternative negotiated agreement and

the final agreement. Parties refer to those who is involve in the negotiation whereas interest

refer to both side of negotiating who has awareness in business, believes or something valued

to them. Nevertheless, alternative negotiated agreement refer to the all alternative solutions

that could be achieve in which final agreement indicate what the two parties have decided

(Ibid). The negotiator in this stage should be careful to obtain the maximum gain according to

his interest.

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Psychological negotiation theory

Psychological negotiation theory has three main streams in which it has an impact of the

behaviour on negotiation which are cognitive, social and behaviour. Bercovitsh and Houston

(2000) believe that there are three contextual dimensions that influence the mediator

behaviour which are;

- Pre-existing factor which means identifying and understanding all the parties involved

in the negotiation

- Concurrent factor which means understanding the mediator and the mediator event.

- Background factor which means the effect of the mediation on the previous mediation

event. This also involves the culture background as people from different culture have

different style in negotiation.

Social theory in psychological negotiation theory refers to the interpersonal behaviour of an

individual’s social group membership (Tajfel and Turner, 1987; Turner, 1987; Hogg and

Abrams, 1988 citied by Agarwal, 2009). In some case, people tend to be self dependent in

negotiation in which they do not prefer to work with a group in negotiation. This could be

considered as an advantage as the more parties involve in the negotiation the harder to reach

agreement. However, others may feel that they been ignore and eliminated. Therefore, it is

suggest that group of individual’s could delegate someone to be their representative in which

he could negotiate on behave of them. One of the most effective ways in negotiation is that a

negotiator can change or effects the final outcomes by means of ask for higher price or offer.

This not means that he will get whatever he offers but, he could at least increase his gain.

This theory may help a project manager in how he could negotiate with his employee or even

with other. Understanding the psychology, social background and behaviour of the other side

of negotiation could easily lead to fair agreement (Agarwal, 2009).

Integrated theory

According to Agarwal (2009), both game theory and psychological theory present the basic

development of an integrated game theoretic psychological of negotiation which then called

as integration negotiation theory. This theory, indeed, is expected to introduce the

prescriptive recommendation in order to improve the outcomes of the negotiation. As this

theory tends to integrate both game theory and psychological theory of negotiation, research

has been fund that there are two important integrated models that been developed by Neale

and Northcroft (1991) and then improved again by Hausken (1997). What Neale and

Northcroft presented is that a conjoint game theory of negotiation and behaviour theory

model with structural influence, integrative position and deadline. In Hausken (1997)

improvement, he criticizes Neale and Northcroft’s framework in which that game theory is

considered as symmetrically perspective not symmetrically descriptive. Therefore, pragmatic

choice behaviour is referring to perspective rather than directly to game theory. Moreover,

game theory has been determined as unfit for descriptive research. This is because of its

extreme assumption. Also Neale and Northcroft considered psychological theory as dynamic

36

and game theory as static in nature. In contrast, Hausken (1997) believes that the assumption

of which game theory is static is wrong. He support his believes that this assumption is

unfounded; therefore, game theory could also considered as dynamic in nature (Agarwal,

2009).

Prospect theory

Kahneman and Tversky (1979) suggested another negotiation theory based on the basis of

analyse utility under condition of risk which been developed by Von Neumam and

Morgenstern’s (1944) which they called as prospect theory. This theory highlights four main

principles which are;

1- Value function which is refers to people ability to gain rather than losses. This means

that people tends to avoid taking risk and they prefer to risk averse.

2- Certainty effect which is refers to people who prefer probable outcomes instead of

certain outcomes. This is because they believe that risk aversion provide sure gain and

reduce losses.. However, risk taking may increase losses.

3- Isolated effect which is refers to people who tend to chose common option rather than

new one. Thus, they knew that this option will lead to these outcomes.

4- Non-linear transformation which refers to the probability scale under weight is

moderate and high probabilities. Whereas over weight is small probabilities.

In 1992, Kahneman and Tversky improved prospect theory to become what they called as

cumulative prospect theory. They indicated that five factors should be included in viewing

rational choice as the following;

1- Risk seeking means those people who prefer to small probability in order to gain more

instead of having high probability of loss or gain. This also could be referred to

‘gaining something better than nothing’

2- Nonlinear preference refers to Von Neumam and Morgenstern’s (1944) expected

utility theory that utility of risk prospect is linear to the outcomes probability.

However, Allias (1953) has indicated that nonlinear preferences could also exist in

choice.

3- Loss aversion: the basic principle in choice under risk is that losses seems more than

gain (Kahneman and Tversky, 1991)

4- Source dependence which is refers to the people tendency to choice under know

proportion is more than to which depend on chance. This supported by Ellsberg

(19610 observation who stated that people prefer to pick a ball among red and green

that have equal proportions instead to which unknown.

5- Framing effects: Kahneman and Tversky (1986) averred that there an evidence

asserted that when the options are formed differently, there will be difference in

37

preference. Therefore, Arrow (1982) claimed that a choice problem should be equally

formulated in order to increase the preference order.

In the light of the above theories, it could be said that these theories highlighting the way that

a negotiation may behave ether in accepting or rejecting the offers. Moreover, both integrated

theory and prospect theory seems more beneficial in negotiation in which it provides a clear

view on types and behaviour of the negotiator. It is suggested that a project manager or

employee should adopt integrated or prospect theory of negotiation taking in account

Hausken improvement in integrated theory. Additionally, a project manager should

understand the social background of his employee, thus, provide better negotiation

environment.

3.3 Communication Communication is considered as one of the most important skills require in the work place or

even in the normal daily life. This is because humans need to communicate with others for

many reasons. Ludlow and Panton (1992) defined communication as an individual process

which involved transferring of information and some behaviour input. In simple words,

communication means interacting with other people in order to help, enjoy, share, assist and

direct. It could be formal or informal, simple or complex depending upon the situation that it

takes place.

In an organisation, effective communication helps to improve the work and therefore, the

organisation achieves its goals and objectives. As the organisation structure and technology

become more complex, it requires effective communication. Therefore, communication may

provide several advantages such as; keeping employee in a picture, improve the relationship

between the manager and his employee, get people involves in the organisation in terms of

motivation and help the employee to understand the need to change. Many authors believe

that good communication lead to successful understanding of others needs and similarly

successful work environment.

3.3.1 Types of communication

Peel (1995) has classified communication into three main types which are oral

communication, written communication and communication technology. He also again

classified each type into subtopic as the following:

- Oral communication could be in terms of face to face, interviews, oral presentation

and meeting. Face to face communication considered as one of the effective

communication types in which it provides feedback and more chance to correct the

misunderstanding between other. As interview is also a face to face communication in

which information is provided from one person by means of one or more. Indeed, oral

presentation is another example of oral communication specifically face to face in

which it one or group of people provide a public speaking in any subject. However,

meeting to some extent is consisting of a number of people in which everyone could

participate and share his idea or information.

38

- Written communication could be in terms of letters, memos, reports, brochures,

advertising and other office communication – as a hard copy-. This sort of

communication must be written then sent. Besides that, the growth in technology

leads the use of written communication decrease

- Communication technology could be in terms of telephone and information

technology. This type of communication is the most rapidly developed and used by

most of the people. However, still it considered as written communication. Phone call,

text message, email and other social networking (tweeter, facebook, whatsApp etc)

are example of communication technology.

In the light of all types of communication presented above, it could be said that all kind of

face to face communication considered as the most effective way to communicate with

others. This is because both side of communication can understand and clearly identify the

requirement of each other. In contrast, written communication may not be clear enough to

highlight the needs and one cannot appreciate other emotion (Crippens, 2011). Therefore, it is

suggested that a project manager should adopt face to face communication with his employee

whenever it possible in order to provide better understanding.

3.4 Delegation Delegation of authority is one of significant organisational process. Many authors have

suggested several delegation definitions. Moore (n/d) has defined delegation as handing over

work to others and providing them authority to do so. According to Allen (n/d), delegation

considered as the dynamic of management in which a manager divides the work assigned to

him to someone else who accept the new duties (Cited by Akrani, 2010). In simple words,

delegation means transferring some of the responsibilities which has been assigned to a

manager, for example, to subordinates and provides the required authority to them.

Delegation is common in any organisation and in all kind of business, college and so on.

Delegation is an attempt in such way so as to have subordinates participation and cooperation

in order to achieve the organisation’s objectives. This means that the role of a project

manager reduce thus, his concentration will be in significant matters. Moreover, delegation

could be considered as a practical training to the employee to understand the meaning of

responsibilities. This means the delegated person will be responsible about overall

performance and employee performance as well. It required both individual’s physical and

mental capacity (Ibid).

Akrani (2010) also illustrates that delegation involves some basic element which are, firstly,

assignment of duties to employees, secondly, providing the authority to the delegated person

in order to perform his duties and thirdly, obligation should be created by the delegate person

to perform all the duties assigned to his in an orderly manner.

In many organisations, delegation process seems easy in such way that if the manager been

absent for any reasons, his assistance will be delegated automatically and so on for other

position. This result that works will not be stopped and it will continue processing. However,

39

delegating one of the employees without a clear framework may take time and, thus decrease

the work performance.

3.4.1 Obstacles in delegation

Basu (2013) highlights common obstacles in delegation process. His climes that the

following issues may occur:

Insufficient Experience

The delegated person may not have the required experience especially in small enterprise.

This is because small business needs to grow; therefore, a manager should spend most of the

time to train his employee in order to be capable to handle difficult tasks. It essential that a

manager should match between the task assigned and employee experience.

Inadequate Task Definition

Successful delegation depends on how the task clearly defined. Poor definition may lead the

employee waste time in order to understand the task. Clear task definition also involves

providing the methodology that should use to accomplish the work. Moreover, a manager

should also indicate who is in charge in the task, therefore provide better communication too

the delegated person

Managerial Interference

Many manager face difficulties to leave their work place for a certain time and delegate one

of their employees. This is because their do not trust their employee and they believes that

they can only handle all the tasks especially during the economic downturns. It is suggested

that am anger could delegate in stages, therefore, examine his employee capability (Ibid)

Indeed, there are also other obstacles in delegation such as conflict between employee which

may lead to poor performance or leaving the task at all and not expressing any appreciation to

the employee

3.5 Decision making and Problem solving Decision making is considered as the centre of management life in which it been usually

highlighted as popular images of management. Many authors believe that one characteristics

of a good manager is the ability to make good decision. However, the meaning of good

decision seems not clear in which people identify good or bad decision according to their

view. Therefore, it’s rescannable to determine what good decision is? In general, people can

judge whether their decision is good or bad after seen the circumstances or the benefits of the

decision. Moreover, looking back to the alternatives option and the cause of action that’s

lead to choice this decision also may help to determine the quality of the decision.

Alternatively, Decision could be judged as good by means of looking how it was made

(Cooke and Slack, 1991).

40

Cooke and Slack (1991); Lunenburg (2010) has suggested several decision making processes

which are; overall observation upon the situation, identifying the problem, understanding the

problem, setting the objectives of the decision, determining the alternatives, evaluating the

options, choosing the best option, implementing the choice and finally monitoring.

Decision making usually start when a manager observe that something happen in the work

place environment either on the work itself or between the stuff. The awareness of the

situation does not require any clear evidence. However, the manager may notice that within

the work. Thus, manager decision engagement in this situation is essential. As the manager

notice that a decision must be make, he should recognise the issue and understand it. This

means a manger should be able to diagnose the problem. Although different people seen the

problem for different view, the situation sometimes become difficult to reach an agreement.

Therefore, providing a clear detail of the issue could be used to understand the problem. In

the next stage, a manger may clearly highlight the evidence. Next, the decision maker should

set objectives in which how the decision look like and what are the goals that need to achieve.

These goals could be described as behaviour of whatever manager believes of the

organisation. The main concern with setting objectives is to close the gap between the

manager observation and the actual situation.

One of the most significant phases in decision making is determining the alternatives. This

stage shows how the issue has been recognised earlier. Thus, a decision maker could use

brainstorming technique to illustrate the options which will be evaluated in the next stage.

Evaluation stage examine each option and determine whether it meet the decision objectives

or not. Also, it indicates the consequences of choosing one option instead on others. After

that, the decision makers could chose from the given options then implement it. During the

implementation phase, a manager may change the selected option depending on the situation.

Finally, the selected option should be monitored to the effectiveness of the option and see

whether the provided solution reduce the problem or not (Ibid).

3.6 The relation between a project manager and the employee Employee relation management can be defined as the process of managing the relation

between different employees in the organisation (Management study Guide, 2013). This

relation could be between employee at the same level or between employee and higher level

of management. The behaviour of both side of relation should be transparent in terms of

communication in which they talk the truth and been honest. Moreover, they should act as a

family through understand employee needs and requirement as well as motivating them to

increase their performance. The organisation can also provide a group workshop to enhance

those employees who need support. Therefore, those employees believe that his organisation

take care upon him not in terms of work only but as a human as well (Ibid).

3.7 Conclusion This chapter has talked about negotiation skills, types of negotiation and negotiation theories.

It also has discussed about different communication ways and delegation process.

Additionally, decision making and problem solving methods has been explained in details

and the relation between the employees and the project manager has been highlighted. It has

41

been found that there are several types of negotiation which are integrative negotiation,

distributive negotiation, and destructive negotiation and each type has its own elements.

There are, also, many negotiation theories that have been illustrated for example game theory,

negotiation analysis, psychological negotiation theory, integrated theory and prospect theory.

The author believes that both integrated theory and prospect theory could be more beneficial

in negotiation and project manager should adopt one of these theories with the consideration

of Hausken improvement in integrated theory. This is because both theories provide clear

view upon the negotiator behaviour required in any negotiation. Social behaviour and

employee background should be considered while negotiating. It has to be noted that face to

face communication is considered as one of the most effective way in communication. In

contrast, written communication is the least effective way to communicate with other. This is

because the receiver will not fully understand the sender situation –emotionless-, thus, written

communication may called as ridge. Most of the organisations have adopted certain

delegation system in order to avoid delay in work process which may be taken in delegating

someone. There are many obstacles in delegation which could arise in the work place such as

insufficient experience and conflict between employees. Project manager should come closer

to his employee and act with them as a family therefore employee feel that the organisation

cares upon him.

42

Chapter 4: Research Methodology This chapter highlights the research methodology adopted by the author in order to gather the

data required for the research. The data collected for this research mainly gathered by means

of survey method through interviews and by means of using the available data. The author, in

fact, also conducted several workshops which involved both projects managers and their

employees.

Note: for the purpose of clarification the author means by the word idleness career those

employee who come late or leave the work place before the end of the working hour.

4.1 Research design: Research design is defined as the plan for collecting data in order to complete the research

(Kervin, 1992). In other words, it is the process or the way of assembling data. Research

design highlights several significant issues which are deliberating questions, information and

related data, collecting data, analysing method and the producing result from the research.

Additionally, a number of factors covered in research deign, as Kervin (1992) stated, which

are: case selections, variable and data sources. Vaus (2001) asserted that these factors could

help to provide the evidence of the research question that needs to be answered.

4.1.1 Case selection:

In order to assemble the data which need to be analysed, case selection should be considered.

This means selecting a person or group or team or elements where they can be examined for

the research. Kervin (1992) stated that case selection should cover four main aspects namely:

unit of analysis, basic design, specific design and sample design.

4.1.1.1 Unit of analysis

Analysis unit could be considered as the main subjects of the research in order to analyse the

study issue in which data need to be collected. According to Yau (2009), there are five units

that need to be considered in analysis unit namely: individuals, groups, objects, events and

social interactions. However, Kervin (1992) mentioned six units. He stated all units

highlighted by Yau and believed that relationship between two or more individuals or groups

could represent the case. The author's point of view is that adopting Kervin thought seems

better as his consideration covered more aspects than Yau. The individual unit of analysis

which is selected by the author is the project managers and employee. This is because the

focal point of this research is to identify the attributes of the project manager which may help

to reduce the work escape and idleness career in the public sector in Sultanate of Oman.

However, the author also selects the group as units of analysis by conducting a number of

workshops which involve project managers and employees.

4.1.1.2 Basic design

The difference between the research plan and the fundamental of experiment designation can

describe the basic design. This design consists of three basic types namely: true, quasi and

non-experimental design (Kervin, 1992 cited by Tutesigensi, 2012). The true experimental

design deals with one or more independent variable in order to examine the result of

dependent variable. In cases to groups, random assignment will apply. Quasi experimental

43

design seems similar to the true experimental design. The only difference between them is

that random assignment of cases to groups will not apply in quasi experimental design.

However, non-experimental design does not deal with either independent variable or random

assignment of cases to groups.

Kervin (1992) highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of the three types of the basic

design as shown in the table 4.1.1.2 (Cited by Tutesigensi, 2012):

True-experimental Quasi-experimental Non-experimental

Strength of causal

inferences

Strong Moderate Weak

Problem of feasibility Can be substantial Slight or moderate Not usually a

problem

Ethical problem with

manipulation

Sometimes Less often No manipulation

Design easily

incorporates

organisational change

Yes

Yes

NO

Generalisability of

results

Moderate Higher Higher

Limit to number of

independent variables

Usually about 10 Usually about 20 Hundreds

Table 4.1.1.2: Advantages and disadvantages of the basic design

(Kervin, 1992 cited by Tutesigensi, 2012) The aim of this research is to investigate the reasons behind workers escape and idleness

career in the public sector in Sultanate of Oman, and highlight the capability of the project

manager and management in order to reduce this issue. The basic design for this research

adopted by the author is the non-experimental design as the individuals and groups will be

chosen randomly. Individuals will be interviewed and the author will run a number of

workshops for groups of project managers and employees as the research involves two types:

worker escape which are: those who leave the work totally without informing their managers

and idleness career which means arriving late or leaving the work before the end of the

working hours.

4.1.1.3 Specific design research

44

This research could be referred to the practical design in which the decision of the specific

research should be considered to tackled the constraints which might the researcher face

(Tutesigensi, 2012). Kervin (1992) stated that specific design can be classified into three

main groups namely: number of groups, nature of the groups and times points at which

measurement or dimension are considered. In order to structure the research outline, the

number of groups should be determined. As this research considered as non-experimental and

comparison is not significant, single group will be divided into sub-groups (Ibid).

The groups’ nature is related to the method of forming the groups. Tutesigensi (2012)

suggested several methods to form the group which are: random assignment, matching cases,

matching groups, interact groups and random selection. In this research a compensation of

matching cases and random selection methods are selected. This is because matching cases

will be used for project managers and random selection will be used for the case of employee.

In order to differentiate specific designs, time points at which dimensions are taken can be

used. This can be done by cross-sectional studies or by longitudinal studies. The author has

decided to choose cross-sectional studies for this research as the change in time is not

important and project manager knowledge, skills and behaviour can be provided.

4.1.1.4 Sample design

Tutesigensi (2012) defined sample design as the method of selecting a part of inhabitants as a

sample in order to symbolize the whole inhabitants in approximating inhabitant’s features.

The aim of this method is to offer practical means of facilitating data collection which need to

be good representative of population. This design involves two types of samples which are

probability and non-probability samples (Ibid). The author decides to conduct non-probability

sample for this research. Non-probability sample consists of five main types namely: quota

sample, judgment sample, snowball sample, self-selection sample and convenience sample.

Judgment sample allows the researcher to choose ‘typical’ cases in which those cases rely on

their personal opinions. The author, therefore, selected this type of sample for this research.

This is because the author will interview a number of project managers and run several

workshops for employees and project managers in order to allow them to provide their

opinions and thoughts regarding workers escape and idleness career in the public sector in

Sultanate of Oman. Thus, the author believes that judgment sample would work effectively

for this research.

4.1.2 Variable

Kervin (1992) defined research variable as the feature of the analysis unit which varies within

the same units or across unit over the period of time. The variable of research can be

classified into six types namely: dependent, independent, control, extraneous independent,

intervening and interacting variables. Independent variable is considered as the reason to

change dependent variable as Bryman and Bell (2007) stated. Tutesigensi (2012) stated that

most of the research variable beings with dependent and independent variables. In this

research, dependent variable is adopted by the author to illustrate the knowledge, skills and

behaviour of the project manager which have an impact on workers escape and idleness

45

career. This also could expand the knowledge in order to highlight the intervening variable as

the capability of project manager affects the worker performance.

4.1.3 Data sources:

In data resources, both the variables at which data need to be gathered and the variables

which indicate the data sources could be determined. Kervin (1992) suggested five types of

data sources namely: individual self-report, inside information, outside observer, researcher

observation and available data. In this research, the author adopts individual self-report,

inside and outside information as the sources of the data. The individual self-report is

selected because the author gathers the data by interviewing project managers and their

employees. Hence, this method covers a wide range of variables. Additionally, the author

selects those individuals who belong to public organisations in order to provide data about the

team (employees at workplace) which is considered as a cheap and faster method. Moreover,

the author chose outside information in order to increase the rage of variables in which data

that to be collected might highlight the research issue from different angles. However, the

quality, time and cost might be high for some of these methods and less for others. Therefore,

the author thought of reducing time and cost and increasing quality of the research by running

workshops with the research samples in which interviews and question discussion will be

carried out.

4.2 Research method: Research method is defined as the process or techniques used to collect the data required for

the research in order to analyse it and provide results. This section highlighted the

methodology adopted by the author for this research.

4.2.1 Selection of research method:

Selecting the research method mainly depends upon the type of research. In engineering

management field, there are several research methods that can be used to collect the data

namely: field experiments, observational studies, survey, laboratory experiment case studies

and available data studies (Tutesigensi, 2012). In this research, the author selects two

methods of research which are survey and available data studies. Survey method mainly

involves two types which are questionnaire and interview survey. One way of collecting data

for this research is determine by interview survey. This type of survey could also be classified

into several ways which are personal, computer assisted and telephone interviews (Ibid).

However, this method may raise some error such as sample, measurement, and non-response

error. Sampling error is the most common error in interviews due to its small size (sample),

higher in cost and requires more time. In order to tackle this issue, the author invited most of

the sample research to attend the workshop which may help to reduce the time and increase

the samples as much as possible. Indeed, the cost of this research could be neglected as it is

very low. The author also believes that interviews methodology provides a clear

understanding of the topic and therefore the responds will be much better.

Before conducting interview surveys, a number of considerations and guidance should be

highlighted which are illustrated by Tutesigensi (2012) as the following:

46

Interview schedule the layout should be prepared in order to organise the interview

and making notes of the responses

Arrangement of where, when and how the interview will take place as this method

does not require any distribution and collection of data.

The interviewer should have communication skills in order to generate successful

interview survey.

Information and assurances should be provided by the interviewer before the

interview starts.

The interviewer can record the interview for his/her transcription only with the

permission of the respondent.

It is not suggested to conduct telephone interviews as they create an issue due to the

respondent's answers to the questions according to what s/he hears

Available data studies refer to the data which is obtained or developed by other organisations

or people for their own purpose. This data is suitable for these researches which discussed the

issues related to government, records, information in documents, company files, statistics and

time series. The author will analyse this data in different ways in order to provide new ideas

or conceptions of the case (ibid).

Available data studies could be categorised into four main types namely: direct, indirect,

internal and external data. This research tends to be direct available data as the information is

produced by an organisation. A number of errors may arise while assessing the available data

in terms of the quality. However, the assessment of this data should consider several criteria,

which the author concerned about in this research, for instance: reliability, measurement

validity, coverage, unmeasured variable, measurement bias, cost benefit ratio and unusable

cases. Indeed, that available data could be acquired by means of generating measures,

accessing to the data, developing forms, sampling the data and procedure. Therefore, the

author already allowed accessing the organisation data required for the study in Sultanate of

Oman.

4.2.2 Methods of collecting data:

Data that need to be collected could be categorised into two main types which are the primary

and secondary data. Kumar and Ranjit (2005) stated that primary data refers to the data which

is collected by means of survey. However, secondary data refers to the data which has been

already collected by means of others authors. The following section highlighted these types

of data in details.

4.2.2.1 Primary data:

47

Primary data is the data which is obtained through survey. However, there are several types

of methods that can be used to collect data which are questionnaires, interviews, models,

experimentation, and observation on practical issues by getting involved in it (Walliman,

2011). In this research, the data has been collected by means of interviews and running

workshops. This method is considered as an important phase for the arrangement of

interviews, workshop, design process and research design. In other words, the way of

defining the research action plan.

Bryman and Bell (2007) stated that interviews can be classified into three main types namely:

structured, semi-structured and unstructured. Structured interview is not providing any

flexibility for the respondent to speak freely which, as a result, could limit the data that can

be collected. However, unstructured interview considered as rigid as each question follows

another one with the same tone. Moreover, there is no list of questions that need to be asked.

Although the respondent may have the opportunity to speak freely, this method could also

lead the respondent to talk about something not related to the main topic (Sauders et. al,

2007). Hence, the data collected by means of this method seems less.

Semi-structured interview could be considered as the best method of interview which the

author adopted. This is because the questions that need to be asked are listed and more issues

could be highlighted. It is a mixture of formal and informal speech which allows the

respondent to talk freely and reflect on each question with the guidance of the interviewer.

The author decided to conduct this type of interview in terms of face to face interview as the

respondent is allowed to clarify any question, thus, he will provide better answers. The

interview questions are developed in such way to meet the research objectives which, as a

result, meet the research aim. In addition, the respondent will be asked to state the reasons

behind works escape and rank them according to the most important to the least one

(Dulewics and Higgs, 2005). Moreover, the respondent also will be asked to determine the

skills, behaviours, and knowledge of the project managers. The list of interview questions is

attached with the research paper (Appendix A).

Besides that, the author will conduct several workshops as an idea to collect data. The author

adopt this method due to it provide a healthy environment in exchanging the ideas with the

ability to discuss with other participants. The author decide to use this method because

workshop provide synergy in which it promote cooperation, motivation and creativity

between the participants as everyone has the opportunity to offer some input and here the

input from others as well. Therefore, it could result with new ideas. Moreover, workshop

increased consensus, iteration, inputs, development and learning in which issues are easy to

highlight and each inputs could build good outcomes.

This workshop attempts to highlight the issue of workers escape and idleness career in the

public sector which lead project to delay. The author will use different tools and techniques

with the participants. Hence the number of participants in both workshop and interview were

276 persons. This number indicates the samples who have been selected randomly in which

they attend the workshop. Workshop proposal is attached with this research (Appendix B)

4.2.2.2 Secondary data:

48

The main research method that can be used in any research is secondary data which could be

obtained by several ways for instance: journals, text books, articles and websites. The

secondary data for this research was collected from the ways mentioned which could be

considered as the background of the research. This data provides theoretical opinions which

have been examined by others authors or writers. By means of this data, the research

discussions can be developed. However, Saunders et. al (2009) mentioned that not all

secondary data could be useful as it is gathered for specific purposes of research. This data

also could save time for the researcher as it will be published to the public and easy to access.

Thus, the author highlighted the secondary data in the literature reviews which has been

examined and studied to ensure that it’s useful for this research.

There are several methods of forming the structure of the project research which are;

Each main heading is divided into subheadings.

The relationship between each section should be shown with the design concept.

Critical evaluation followed the literature review which analyses that data collected

against the secondary data.

The literature review for this research highlighted several skills, behaviours and knowledge

of project manager for instance: negotiation, communication, leadership, delegation,

motivation and the relation between the project manager and his employees.

4.3 Process of collecting data: In the light of the process of collecting data, the primary data for this research has been

collected through two ways which are interviews and workshops. The researcher contacted

the respondents through email and phone in order to provide the introduction, purpose and

methods of the research as well as the acceptance from them. The workshop proposal sent to

the participants that include the objectives, time, data, place and the expected outcomes of the

workshop. Most of the interviews carried out before or after the workshop as the interviewer

believes that the respondents may not have time latter and it is good to use as much time on

the workshop day as possible.

4.4 Issues to be considered: In any research method, a number of issues should be considered which include pre-testing,

research validity, triangulation and research ethics.

4.4.1 Pre-testing

In order to improve the data, pretesting of the data collected is required. This involves

examination of the measures, procedures and instruments which, as a result, improve the

quality of the research. Pretesting of these aspects should involve, as Kervin (1992)

suggested, at least two of the following stages:

Reviewing and evaluating the data collected

The content of the measure should be asked to an expert person.

49

Comment of measures, procedure, and instruments should be gathered through an

experience researchers, friends or relatives who may have knowledge about the

research topic

Collecting data from sample(s) of cases which is similar to the target samples (citied

by Tutesigensi, 2012)

4.4.2 Research validity

This means the extent to which other research conclusions and recommendations, whatever

the research purpose and objectives, could be relied to use in the research investigation.

Research validity involved three main elements namely: research power, internal and

external validity (ibid).

Research power could describe the ability of design methods and data analysis to identify the

relationship between similarities and differences that may actually happen. There are some

threaten factors that may affect the research power such as: the design that does not highlight

the dependent variable which may be affected by influential variables and the research design

which does not provide enough variation in the variables relationships. Moreover, it can also

be threaten by weak statistics and poor measurement (Kervin, 1992 cities by Tutesigensi,

2012)

Indeed, internal validity describes the extent to which group features conclusions are co-

difference in the accurate cases analysed. Several issues may threaten internal validity such as

unmeasured variables, change in dependent variables, poor measurement and data analysis

threats for instance: statistical test (ibid).

However, external validity describes the same internal validity variables except it discusses

the co-variation which can be useful for the situation behind those particularly analysed in the

research. There are several threatens threatening factors of this component such as change in

programme, statistical error related to the test, error of case selection and interactive between

the research constant and cause (Kervin, 1992)

4.4.3 Triangulation

A combination of various methods or techniques to analyse one thing called triangulation.

The significant of triangulation is that the conclusion or outcome of any research can be

obtained from more than one source which increases the accuracy. In other words, if the

researcher uses any types of survey and finds something that use as case study, for example,

and finds the same result, thus, the findings from the second method enhanced the findings

from the first one. Moreover, triangulation could also increase the research validity in terms

of eliminating the disadvantages of one method by using the advantages of another one.

4.4.4 Research ethics

Sauders et. al (2007) and Tutesigensi (2012) illustrated a number of the ethical key issues that

may arise during the project research. These issues are:

50

All the participants in the research have the right to accept or reject to be involved in

the research.

All the participants in the research have the right to withdraw from the research

All the participants have the right to know the purpose of the research

The participants also have the right to know the data required from them and how it

will be collected.

The participants’ reaction on the data collection methods in terms of stress,

embarrassment, harm and pain.

The effect of data which has been collected, analysed and reported on all participants.

The researcher behaviour.

In the light of the statement above, all the participants have the opportunity to accept or reject

to be part of the research. Moreover, the participants have the right to withdraw themselves

during the event of data collection. The researcher has defined the purpose of this research

and introduced its objectives to the participants through email with the consideration of how

data will be collected. The researcher also considered the participants reaction against the

data collection method or the way that questions will be presented and asked. This is because

the participants in this research may feel embarrassed, stress, harm or pain. The data in this

research will be presented in a way that keeps participants' confidentiality.

Additionally, the protocol adopted by School of Civil Engineering at University of Leeds is

that the researcher is required to complete the ethical form with the supervisor approval to

start the data collection. The ethical form of this research is attached in the Appendix D.

51

Chapter 5: Data collection and Analysis

5.1 Introduction:

This chapter examines the primary data that has been collected for this research. Two

methods have been used to collect data which are a workshop and interviews. Both methods

took place between 24th

May 2013 until 10th

June 2013, and the questions used are mentioned

in Appendix A. The author has mentioned that the number of people who have participated in

the workshop and have been interviewed are 276 in total. Therefore, this chapter analyses the

data collected from them in order to solve the dissertation issue. The author would like to

acknowledge that only language and utterances were not analysed. This chapter will

illustrate each question that has been asked in the workshop and interviews separately and

follow it by the analysis. Questions 2, 3, 4 and 5 will highlight the main research issue in

detail. Moreover, the project managers’ point of view will also be mentioned in each

question. Indeed, most of the questions that have been asked focus on the employees in which

their views could be used to determine the knowledge, skills and behaviour required for a

project manager to deal with the research problem. Some of the data will be represented in

terms of graphical statistics in which the author will analyse it accordingly. This chapter

concludes with a summary of what has been done with the outcomes that have been obtained.

In general, the author believes that the primary data satisfies the research process and there

are some limitations that need to be considered for further studies.

5.2 Data Analysis – why people work? And job satisfaction This section of the data analysis highlights questions 1, 2, that were asked to the participants.

The first question provided an idea about the reasons that lead people to work and the causes

of poor performance. However, the second question indicated the factors which affect job

satisfaction.

Reasons No. of participants

Obtain income 72

Social status 12

Spending time 40

Help the country 59

Achievement 63

Experience 30

Table 5.1: Various Reasons of people to work

52

This table can be represented in terms of percentages as shown below;

Figure 5.1: Reasons of people wok It is clear from the above figure that the majority of people who took part in the research have

indicated that the main reason that led them to perform their duties is to obtain income with

about 26% of the sample population suggesting the same. However, nearly 23% of the

sample population believe that they perform work in order to achieve personal goals and

fulfil their requirements. Nevertheless, about 21% of the sample population aim to contribute

towards the development of the country. Only a minority of the people who took part in this

study have claimed that they aim to obtain life experience, spending their time and get social

status. Life experience means that the employee has the opportunity to make friends and

have life knowledge in terms of work and how to deal with different situations. Although

there are very few differences, a project managers’ point of view in doing work seems to be

similar to that of the employee's. Indeed, this finding is supported by Rees (1996) who

stressed that one of the important reasons that lead people to work is to earn a living

expenses. He also illustrated other reasons which are personal achievement, fulfil the

requirement and make friends. Moreover, this is also supported by Maslow (1943) who

averred that people do work in order to fulfil their wants and needs. Besides that, almost all

the participants believe that the cause that leads to poor performance could be one or more of

the following reasons;

Job dissatisfaction in terms of salary, mismatching between the employee skills and

the work requirements and no motivational system.

Job pressure; whenever the pressure increases on the employee, the performance

gradually declines.

Personal issues for instance family and health issues.

Inadequate work-systems. This can be related to work system adopted by the

organisation including working hours and breaks.

Managers and employee behaviours; this involves conflict, and leadership style.

26.10%

4.35%

14.50% 21.38%

22.80%

10.87%

Reasons of people wok

Obtain income

Social status

Spending time

Help the country

Achievement

Experience

53

Rules and regulations of the organisation in which it is solid, not flexible and limited

number of holidays.

Social view on the type of work.

These findings are also supported by Rees (1996); Diab (2011) and Vaishnav (2011). They

have stressed that poor performance can be related to the employees, the managers and the

nature of work. However, these authors did not express their social view on the type of work.

Therefore, the author relates this issue to the culture which is very minor and could be

considered as wrong ideology.

The second question is related to the factors affecting job satisfaction. Before highlighting

this question, the author asked the participants about the effect of gender in job satisfaction.

This means which gender tends to be more satisfied with the job that has lower income and

stature? The results showed that women have a higher level of job satisfaction than men. This

is support by Clark (1997) and Sousa-Poza and Souza-Poza (2003) in their research about

gender satisfaction. The author asserts this result due to two main reasons. Firstly, the men

responsibilities are higher than women in terms of finding suitable house and buying a car.

Therefore, it is difficult for men to accept a job with lower level. Secondly, culture issues

which consider men as the focal point to provide living expenses whereas, women focus

more in educating children by their nature. The participants have illustrated several factors

that affect job satisfaction for examples; salary, nature of work, working hours, challenge,

staff behaviours and opportunity for advancement and improvement. These outcomes could

be used as an evidence to make sure about Vlosky and Aguilar (2009) suggestion about the

factors that influence job satisfaction. Moreover, Hall and Lawler (1970) Teas (1981) have

also highlighted some of these factors such as the relation between staff and challenge in the

work place in which it would be considered as positive or negative. Positive in terms of

increasing the employees’ creativity and negative in terms of stressing the employees, thus,

finding difficulties to cope with the work.

5.3 Data Analysis – Worker escape and idleness career causes and effects In this section, the author will indicate the causes, effects and the impacts of worker escape

and idleness career. The author will firstly illustrate the number of foreigners who work in

Sultanate of Oman with a specification of their distribution and escape. This section will be

divided into subsections in which the first subsection will highlight the causes of worker

escape and idleness career. However, in the second subsection the author will analyse its

effects and impacts.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Status (2013), the total expatriates’ workers

registered with Directorate General of Civil Status until April 2013 is 1,488,116 workers and

they distributed as shown in the following table:

54

Educational Level Male Female Total

Illiterate 20,186 1,974 22,160

Read & write 367,834 41,929 409,763

Primary 126,358 18,342 144,700

Preparatory 469,347 52,273 521,620

Secondary 198,929 14,339 213,268

diploma 43,891 7,724 51,615

University 69,311 12,861 82,172

Higher diploma 4.043 720 724

Master degree 4,470 978 5,448

Ph. D 1,908 511 2,419

Not stated 22,176 8,012 30,188

Total 1,324,414 159,663 1,484,077

Table 5.2: Total Expatriates Workers Registered with Directorate

General of Civil Status (National Centre for Statistics and

Information, 2013) From the above table, it can be said that the total expatriate workers until the end of April

2013 reached 1,484,077 workers comparing with 1,437,299 workers in 2012 with an

increment of 46,778 workers. This means that the number of foreign workers has risen by

3.15% until the end of April 2013 only. According to the Ministry of Manpower annual

reports (2012), 52% of these workers are working in the construction filed. The number of

workers who escaped from January 2013 to April 2013 reached 106,853 which accounts to

7.2% of the total foreign workers.

While following the specification of the escape workers, it is clear that the majority of these

workers are from two nationalities which are Bangladeshis and Indians as shown in the figure

below;

55

Figure 5.2.1: Worker escape distribution according to their

nationalities Indeed, the workshop participants have illustrated several reasons behind worker escape

which are:

o Limited availability of appropriate housing and accommodation

o Noncompliance in paying salaries

o Insufficient holidays

o Managers behaviours

o Other reasons

These reasons are presented in the graph below:

Figure 5.2.2: Reasons of worker escape (Employees’ view)

India Bangladeshis Other nationalities

34.30%

47.40%

18.30%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

14%

30%

23% 22.10%

10.87%

56

However, managers believe that worker escape is due to one of the following reasons:

o Enticing a higher salary

o Lack of knowledge of labour low

o insufficient salaries

o lack of knowledge of the nature of work

o work difficulties

o Other reason including employee inability to pay for labour card

Figure 5.2.3: Reasons of worker escape (Managers’ view)

It is clear from the employees’ and managers’ views that there are different reasons given for

workers escape. The author claims that the employee may focus on the human basic needs in

terms finding accommodation, holidays and managers behaviour whereas, managers tend to

focus more on rules and regulations in terms of understanding the labour low and the nature

of the job. However, all the reasons mentioned above should be considered and highlighted in

details thus, providing valid solutions.

On the other hand, the participants have emphasized that the causes of idleness career are:

Manager’s behaviours

insufficient salaries

Insufficient holidays

To accomplish personal matter

Family issue including child illness, appointments and taking children to the nursery

Work pressure

Lack of leadership

Lack of motivation

Traffic jam and those who live in far cities

Enticing a higher salary

Lack of knowledge of labour low

Lack of knowledge of the nature of work

Work difficulties

Insufficient salaries

Other reasons

57

Nature of work

Management issue (system, favouritism and the influence of those who can pull the

string to let some employee to come late (corruption)

Managers, on the other hand, support the causes given by the employees and they have also

indicated that employees may have lack of sense of responsibility. All the participants have

stressed that they do not have sufficient time to finish their personal matters including banks,

ministries and other organisations. They have explained that these organisations work five

days a week only and they open during the working hours. Therefore, they must go to get

their matters done during the working hours.

Nevertheless, both workers escape and idleness career could effect any organisation in terms

of delay in the work progress which includes internal and external effects. Internal effect

means increasing the amount of work that need to be done, therefore, increasing the pressure

on the employees and thus, poor performance. External effect refers to delay submission of

work especially project, therefore, the client can ask for penalties. Thus, extra money will be

paid.

Indeed, the impacts of worker escape and idleness career could be highlighted in many

aspects. In this section, the author tends to provide the participants' view of the impact

followed by the analysis. Hence, the author will analyse the impacts of workers escape in the

social wide context including five main types which are economical, sociological, political,

health and security.

1. Economical impacts

This means drain the funds of the organisation owners in which they will again

demand for other workers without any benefits because they may also escape and

work with someone else. This could lead to the collapse some of the small and

medium scale enterprises and thus, affect the overall economy of the country and

drain the owners’ fund which could be used to enhance the production, real

contribution in development and increase the economic value. Moreover, worker

escape could lead to inflation in terms of foreign workers in the country. These

workers may also compete with the local people in the labour market in which they

may not necessarily follow the rules and regulations. Therefore, they can work in any

place especially when there is someone who provides easier work for them to work

and gloss it. As a result, spreading of what is known as the hidden business or trade

may occur. Additionally, workers’ escape could increase the remittances outside the

country. The statistics show that more than £2.5 billion have been transferred outside

the country in 2012 compared to £1.4 billion in 2011(Central Bank of Oman, 2012).

Moreover, it could lead to load on goods and services by means of using some of the

goods that are supported by the governments. Thus there is an increase in overheads

and high deficits in the state budget.

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2. Sociological impacts

As men are primarily the workers who escape, it could lead to a qualitative imbalance

between the genders, social and ethical problems. Indeed, those escaped labours lead

the owner of the organisation to demand foreign workers in order to cover their work.

Therefore, it leads to increase the number of the foreign workers and thus imbalance

in the composition of the population which could prejudice the national identity and

transfer of some customs and traditions that may not suit the nature of society.

Workers escape is considered as a source of concern for the people and governments

alike through protest rallies.

3. Political impacts

This could be referred to stirring the labour organizations and the Rights of Migrant

workers through a published propaganda about the non-application of labour laws and

materials and accommodation as well as non-compliance with international standards

on the rights of migrants. Moreover, increasing the workers escape number could

spread what is known as ‘Human trafficking’ which is defined by the anti-Human

Trafficking law in Oman as "people use, transfer or harbouring or receiving through

coercion, threats or deception or by taking advantage of their work or of a position of

vulnerability or the use of an authority or using illegal means direct or indirect".

4. Health impacts

Health care department does not take large interest for foreign workers with the

proportion of 2.3% of their total expenses in goods and services as it is shown in the

Ministry of national economic survey (2011-2012). The author, therefore, claims that

this percentage may increase with those who escape. This is because of the fear from

official transactions (labour card and identity) in which it could cause the competent

authorities to catch them. Thus, it leads them to avoid going to the health centre which

contributes to spread many types of diseases.

5. Security impacts

Accompanied by the phenomenon of workers escape, a number of security problems

that are reflected on individuals and society exist and affect the reputation of the

country. Moreover, it affects the competitiveness in the strengthening of a country to

enhance the economy by attracting tourists and warheads foreign funds which are

always looking for the appropriate work environment to avoid a lot of losses. Thus,

the one of the top requirements of the foreign investors is the political stability and

security of the country. Therefore, workers escape is threatening the country and

spreading several issues which are against the rules such as theft, violation of the

sanctity of housing, forgery, fraud, damage the public and private funds, an insult to

the dignity and abuse secretariat.

On the other hand, idleness career could lead to several impacts. The author asked the

workshop participants to categorise these impacts into three main types which are;

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impacts between employee and administration, between staff and the impacts on the

organisation.

Impacts between the employer and administration:

Usual delays and leaving earlier from the work place could influence the

relationship between the employee and the administration in which the

administration could report this issue to a higher level of management.

Therefore, penalties may be applied. Moreover, this can impact other

employees’ view on the administration that they cannot stop this issue through

proper system and power. The annual assessment report will show poor

performance.

Impact between employees:

This could affect the relation between the employees. When the employer

comes late, others may feel it is unfair and unequal. Therefore, it increases the

spread of hypocrisy in terms of the type of relation that this employer has with

the administration that leads to come late to the work . Indeed, it also increases

the pressure on other employees by means of covering the absence or delay.

Impact on the organisation:

If idleness career has impacts on the administration and employees, it

definitely has impacts on the organisation as a whole. The huge impact will be

in terms of delayed submission of the work thus, increasing the overall cost.

Moreover, the performance will decrease as the pressure increases.

In the light of the above statement, the author believes that workers escape and idleness

career has huge impacts on the employees, administration and organisation. Therefore,

project managers must illustrate some practical solutions in order to reduce or eliminate these

issues. The author suggests that project managers could adopt what is known as ‘the causes of

the reasons’ thus, he will highlight these issues, in the next sections, by means of analysing

several skills and behaviours, and how both project managers and employees obtain the

maximum benefit from it.

5.4 Data Analysis – Communication Skills This section mainly focuses on communication skills and how the project managers

communicate with his employees and vice verse. This section begins with an illustration of

the system which is adopted by many organisations in the public sector in terms of providing

an explanation of the nature of work followed by an indication about how employees

communicate and deal with their managers. Hence, the author will analyse these data

presented by the workshop participants.

Majority of the workshop participants and those who have been interviewed indicated that

their organisations have asked them to attend the workshop in order to explain the nature of

work. However, they emphasised that they have not received any type of written documents

and they usually tend to depend upon others’ experiences to understand the work’s nature. On

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the other hand, the organisations stated that there are written documents that explain the work

nature for those who ask for it. Although running workshops for the employees is considered

as the most effective way to explore the job nature, the author believes that distributing

written documents during the workshop itself also help to provide better understanding about

the work. This is because that the employees could refer to the documents later whereas

workshop only occurs once. Therefore, employees may forget.

Nevertheless, the participants have highlighted that they usually communicate with their

managers by means of written communication (mobile phones) especially messages and

WhatsApp application. They emphasised that they prefer to use written communication

instead of other types of communications because it is very fast and they do not need to

explain their issue in depth. However, if they have any personal issue during the working

hours, they tend to explain it by means of face to face communication. The author claims that

written communication is considered as the poorest types of communication due to the

receiver understanding will only depend on whatever is in front of him. In contrast, face to

face communication has been determined as the most effective way of communication as

both sides of communication will have the ability to ask and clarify things and thus,

understand the other side in a better way. According to the Crippens (2011), written

communication is considered as ridge, and it comes without emotions. Therefore, it is

suggested that using oral presentation (face to face, meeting etc) in communication is much

better.

Besides that, the participants averred that they communicate with their managers whenever

they have a number of requirements in terms of increasing salaries and when they are not

satisfied with their job. The managers, on the other hand, have analysed these requirement

and tried to provide a suitable solution. However, managers emphasised that they are not

communicating with the top level of management in case of salary related issues. This is

because the salary system depends on the Ministry of Civil Services. Therefore, any change

made must be through them. Indeed, the participants also indicated that when they are not

satisfied with their managers, they tend to keep quiet rather than communicating with higher

level of management due to the fear of punishment. The author suggests that managers

should communicate with top level of management regarding any issue related to the

employees. Hence, when the demand of increasing the salary increased, higher level of

management will communicate with the responsible authority in order to come up with

solutions.

5.5 Data Analysis – Negotiation and Motivation skills In this section, the author will analyse how project managers and employees use negotiation

skills and who they actually deal with regarding their conflicts. Moreover, the author will also

analyse how those managers motivate their employees and examine whether it has any effects

on them or it requires certain improvement.

All the workshop participants stated that they use negotiation skills whenever there are any

issues or conflicts with their managers. Some of them use negotiation with the aim of win-

lose approach due to their belief that the organisation does not care about them in terms of the

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amount of work they have, the salary and work pressure. However, others use negotiation

with the win-win approach as they emphasised that both sides of negotiation should reach an

agreement which convinces everyone. These types of negotiation are mentioned by Spoelstra

and Pienaar (1991) which is known as integrative negotiation and distributive negotiation.

The author's point of view considers the participants' view as integrated negotiation. This is

because the relationship between the employee and the manager is a continuous relationship

and it does not stop with one argument. Moreover, continuous relationships mainly related to

integrated negotiation. Indeed, according to the description of distributive negotiation, it is

usually related to the sales where one side of negotiation may lose.

The managers mentioned that whenever there is any conflict with the employees, they tend to

meet the employer and discuss the issue individually, whereas when there is common issue,

managers prefer to highlight it during the general meetings.

The participants mentioned that they received some motivation for their managers. The

author then asked them whether they prefer motivation by money, by rewards or by

appreciation. Almost all the participants prefer to be motivated by appreciating their work

performance. This is supported by Alderfer (1969) theory of motivation which involved the

existence, relatedness and growth needs. As Yang et. al. (2011) stated existence needs

include the following forms; physiological, safety and material needs. The author supports

the participants’ idea of appreciating their performance in order to motivate them due to the

human nature which is mostly influenced more by words (physiological aspects). Managers

also indicated that all the staff are invited to participate in sport event, trip or visiting some

friends. They believe that employees will feel that the organisation is taking care upon them

not only in terms of their work performance but, by their nature (willing to enjoy) and needs

as a human. With regards to motivation by money, managers stated that this is not on their

hand. However, they leave it to the higher level of management. The author avers that

managers should stress the top management to motivate the employee by money not only

words due to the employees may find another job with higher salary. Thus, he will leave the

organisation. If the organisation fulfils the employee’s needs and requirement, he will

definitely not search for another job, or in this research issue, he will not escape/come late.

5.6 Data Analysis – Leadership and delegation skills In this section, the author will analyse the managers' point of view in how to manage worker

escape and idleness career. Moreover, the author will also illustrate the relation between the

employees and their manager. The author then will discuss about leadership and delegation

skills. This section will highlight the low that organises the relation between the employee

and the project manager/management.

According to the managers who have been interviewed, there is a management system

adopted in their organisation to deal with worker escape and idleness career. They

emphasised that they follow the Ministerial Decree No. (95/2001) which was issued by the

Ministry of Manpower in order to control migrant workers’ escape (See Appendix C).

However, the author stresses that there are some materials that are considered one of the gaps

that may be used by the workers in order to avoid legal prosecution in the case of escape as

62

well as exemption of financial obligations to his escape. In the item in relation to the

implications of the workers escape, this item requires that the labour must be committed to

pay the fine owed of his labour card if it is proved that it was true before the date of escape,

or if the escape occurred a month before the date of arrival to the country factor. “The

labourer shall also be obliged to pay the fees of the card renewal (vocational training

contribution) or the household workers fees as from the date the card has expired, if it occurs

after the absconding was proved correct. In case the labourer is bankrupt, his (her) employer

shall incur all fees and fines” (Ministry of Manpower, 2013). The first section of the decree

makes a sound set of workers and regulates their presence to work in the Sultanate, as well as

the consequences for them when question rules and regulations governing the labor market

and their relationship with the employer. However, the second part of this procedure for

exempting factor of all financial obligations in case of insolvency and to oblige the sponsor to

bear all the consequences is a procedure that can create a chance to escape working at any

time.

Besides that, the text of the resolution to provide a ticket to the escape worker is open to the

party that brought them. This procedure has been replaced by Resolution No. (146/2001) to

provide the delivery of the deposit of an amount equivalent to the value of a ticket for his

country by a working bank account allocated by the ministry for this purpose. Here the

procedure allows the worker to escape from his sponsor and work for nearly four years

without a sponsor, and without liability to labor law, while it allows him to return to his

homeland whenever he wants without bearing the financial costs of his return trip, and

without liability to labor law, which requires the sponsor to secure these costs in the event of

reporting the escape factor.

On the other hand, managers emphasized that when the employee continues coming late or

leaving the workplace early without an acceptable excuse, they tend to follow article (116)

from the Civil Services Law which was issued by the Royal decree No. (120/2004). This

article states that “sanctions may be imposed on employees are:

A. Warning.

B. The deduction of salary for a period not exceeding three months in the year.

C. The denial of period allow premium.

D. The reduction in the range of Bonus.

E. To job cuts and lower-class salary directly with maturity, who arrived in the degree to

which of them and cut bonuses and allowances of the degree to which it cut.

F. To job cuts and lower-class salary directly with maturity, who was receiving before

upgrading to the degree to which of them and cut bonuses and allowances of the

degree to which it cut.

G. Retirement.

H. Dismissal from the service” (Civil Services Law, 2004)

In the light of the above statement, the author asked the managers whether the law applied in

the real field or not. Managers indicated that this article is not that much applied to the

employees. They indicated that the main reason for not applying the rule is that they take the

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humanitarian aspects of the problem in terms of the emotional and cutting the employee

income and thus influence the course of his life and the lives of his family. The author

stressed that whoever does not respect the organisation rules and regulations, sanctions must

be applied. This is because that these sanctions teach all staff the meaning of commitment

and act as a deterrent for both tempted to damage or delaying the interests of individuals or

institutions.

The participants suggested several behaviours and skills as a compulsory for project

managers. These behaviors and skills involved; a project manager should be creative, has an

influence, be a decision maker, has the ability to lead the group, motivated, humanity, has the

ability to communicate and negotiation, knows about the rules and regulations, has vision and

message and proactive. Moreover, they emphasized that a manager should be a leader.

Therefore, the author argues that these skills and behaviors are the charismatic of

transformation leadership. This is supported by Weber (1947); House (1977); Burns (1978);

Bass (1985) and Gardiner (2006) when they identified and recognised the impacts of leaders

by means of their impacts on their followers. The above authors have highlighted some

specification of the managers as leaders. However, the author would like to stress that the

relationship between the manager and an employee should be close and democratic without

losing power and influence. The relationship between managers and employees should be

like a family where everyone in the organisation understands and supports another. This

could lead to increase in the performance and reduce the cause and effect of both idleness

career and workers escape.

All the managers mentioned that there is a delegation system adopted by their organisation

according to which whenever a manager is absent or late, his assistance will be authorised by

the law to take his position until he comes back. However, they indicated that the delegated

person should have work experience and the ability to take the lead. This is highlighted by

Basu (2013). Although he illustrated the obstacles in delegation, it still could be used to

determine the knowledge, skills and behaviours of the delegated person. Additionally, they

stated that the delegated person has not affected the relation between the employee and the

project manager. Also, there is no side effects on the organisation when the project manager

delegates one of the employee.

5.7 Summary In this chapter, the author has analysed the date that has been collected through workshops

and interviews. The number of the project managers and employees who took part in this

research was 276 all together. The author has analysed the data in five different parts.

The first part highlighted the reasons that lead people to work, poor performance and the

factors that affect job satisfaction. The author found that the main reasons that lead people to

perform work are obtaining income, achieving personal goals and helping the country to

develop. Indeed, the author also found that there are several factors affect job satisfaction; for

instance, salary, nature of work, working hours, challenge, staff behaviours and opportunity

for advancement and improvement.

64

In the second part, the author analysed the causes and effects of worker escape and idleness

career. The author observed that foreign worker usually escape due to limited availability of

appropriate housing and accommodation, noncompliance in paying salaries, enticing a higher

salary and lack of knowledge of labour low. However, he noticed that the reasons behind

idleness career could be managers’ behaviours, insufficient salaries, lack of leadership, lack

of motivation and to accomplish personal matters. The author found that the effects of both

issues could lead into delaying in the project or individual interests. The author also observed

that the impacts of worker escape could be categorised into five main types which are

economical, sociological, political, health and security. Moreover, idleness career has an

impact on organisation, administration and employees.

The third part highlighted the communication skills. The author noticed that the majority of

the employees communicate with their managers by means of written communication.

However, they tend to use face to face communication when they are at the work place in

order to explain their issue. The author also found that the system adopted by many

organisations seems not effective as they run workshops only to explore the nature of the

work.

In the fourth part, the author analysed the employees’ and managers’ use of negotiation skills

and the motivation style adopted by the managers. The author observed that most of the

employees and project managers use win-win approach in negotiation or what is known as

integrative negotiation. In addition, the author has found that employees prefer to be

motivated by means of appreciating the work performance.

In the final part, the author has analysed leadership and delegation skills. He observed that

transformation leadership is the most effective leadership style as the project manager will be

close to his employee and he understands their needs and requirement. Moreover, almost all

the organisations have a delegation system in which they can use in the absence of the project

managers. The author found that there is no conflict among employees when the delegated

person has the authority.

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Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendations

6.1 Introduction:

This research aimed to investigate the reasons behind workers escape and idleness career in

Sultanate of Oman as a case study in order to indicate the skills, behaviours and knowledge

required for project managers to deal with these issue. The author has highlighted the main

skills, behaviours and knowledge in chapter 2 and 3 where the author had determined

literature reviews. Indeed, the author has analysed the data that been collected through

interviews and running a number of workshops. Through the analysis, the author had found

some significant findings therefore, develop the conclusion. Based on the findings and

conclusion, the author will provide some recommendations

6.2 Research Findings: The author has achieved the aim of this research by means of literature review and interviews

and running workshops. Therefore, he found the following results of the analysis:

The main reasons for worker escape are enticing higher salary and limited

availability of appropriate housing and accommodation

The main reasons for idleness career are Manager’s behaviours, insufficient

salaries and family issues including child illness, appointment and taking child to

the nursery

Worker escape has huge impacts on Sultanate of Oman in terms of economical,

sociological, political, health and security.

The impact of idleness career could be in terms of the work, employee relation

with others and employee relation with managers (administration).

There are several knowledge, behaviours and skills required for project managers

to deal with these issues such as motivation, leadership, communication,

negotiation, delegation and decision making.

Most of the employee use written communication which considered as the poorest

type of communication

Managers and employee usually tend to adopt win-win approach in negotiation

Majority of the employee prefer to be motivated by appreciating their work

performance more than providing money or any types of rewards.

Transformation leadership is the best way to lead employee

The entire organisations have delegation system in which they used it for

delegating one of the employees in the case of managers’ absence.

There are some gaps in the law which may be used by the workers in order to

avoid legal prosecution

In the light of the above findings, the author come with the conclusion that project manager

could deal with worker escape and idleness career by means of his knowledge, skills and

behaviours with his employee in terms of communicating, negotiating, leading, delegating,

motivating and decision making process. Moreover, organisation should improve its system

in order to deal with these issues. Based on the data analysis and findings, the author will

66

made some recommendations that could help to reduce or avoid this issues which will be

highlighted in the next section.

6.3 Research Summary: The author started this research by an illustration on the aim and objectives and highlighting

the background of this study. Based on that, literature review has been made in order to

determine knowledge, skills and behaviours required for project managers in order to deal

with worker escape and idleness career in public sector in Sultanate of Oman.

The literature review begun with an indication of the reasons that lead people to work and the

causes lead to poor performance. Additionally, the author has explained in details two main

skills and behaviours of the project managers which are motivation and leadership. Here, the

author illustrated several motivation and leadership theories and discussed them in details.

Moreover, the author also explained the factors that affect job satisfaction and the relation

between managers and employee. The first chapter of literature review provided an overview

about motivation and leadership style which were used in data analysis.

In the second chapter of literature review, the author highlighted four skills and behaviour of

the project manager which are negotiation, communication, delegation and decision making.

Some theories in negotiation have been discussed with the analysis of the suitable theory that

can be adopted. Nevertheless, the author had discussed several communication types with the

indication of the advantages and disadvantages of each type. Moreover, the author

emphasised about the delegation techniques and the process of delegation. The author

concluded this chapter by explaining about decision making process.

The author adopted two research methods in order to collect the required data which are

interviews and running a number of workshops. The participants who took part of this

research were primarily employee and project managers who is working in the public sector.

Through the analysis which performed on the interviews and workshops data been collected,

the author observed that the there are two main reasons of worker escape. The first reason is

enticing higher salary and the second reason is limited availability of appropriate housing and

accommodation. Moreover, the author also found that the causes of idleness career were

managers’ behaviours, insufficient salaries and family issues including child illness,

appointment and taking child to the nursery. The analysis showed that there are huge impact

of worker escape in terms of economical, sociological, political, health and security. Also, it

showed that the impact of idleness career could be in terms of the work, employee relation

with others and employee relation with managers (administration). Majority of the employee

prefer to be motivated by appreciating their work performance more than providing money or

any types of rewards. Indeed, the author found that both project managers’ and employees

tend to used win-win approach in negotiation. The employees prefer their managers to adopt

Transformation leadership in leading them. Almost all the employee indicated that they use

written communication which considered as the poorest type of communication. All the

organisation have delegation process. More and more, the author found that there are some

gaps in the law which may be used by the workers in order to avoid legal prosecution. Based

on the data analysis and findings, the author made some recommendations.

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6.4 Recommendations: During the interviews and workshop, the author has asked the participants to suggest some

recommendations which may be used to deal with both worker escape and idleness career.

Additionally, the author also provides some suggestion. The participants and the author

recommendations are:

Recommendations for project managers and project management :

Project managers and should use different skills and behaviours with their employees

which are:

A. Motivation: this means project managers should motivate his employees by

appreciating their work performance, rewards and money

B. Communication: project managers should adopt face to face communication with

their employees in case of misunderstanding and when the employer has some

requirements.

C. Project manager and the management system at the organisation should adopt

win-win approach in negotiation

D. Project managers should use transformation leadership while leading others.

Therefore, the relationship between the employees and their project

managers will be close.

E. Higher level of management must fulfil the basic requirements of the

employee including accommodation and health care

Worker escape recommendations:

In the case of worker escape, bail will be cancelled and the passport will be held to the

competent authorities when arrested worker escape is coordination with the Embassy of

his country to initiate deportation proceedings

Legislation law to protect expatriate labour and regulates their rights

Support campaigns to dismantle the security gathering expats

Increase the citizens awareness in how to deal with expats and motivate them physically

for reporting any case of escape

Raise the salaries of expatriate workers and to achieve the basic living requirements

Working to prevent movement in the work from one place to another without a letter

from the sponsor

Enactment of a number of laws and regulations are as follows:

A. Working punishable fugitive from sponsor a fine of RO 200 and imprisoned for

not less than two months and deported immediately afterwards if it is proved that

it is causing the escape

B. Whoever is running the escape worker must pay a fine in the amount of RO 2000

and imprisoned for not less than two months

C. The sponsor does not assume the financial and legal consequences for the worker

to escape after a lapse of three months from the date of escape if it is proved that

the sponsor is not the cause of the escape income

D. When you make communication factor should escape the dissemination of data

and image Group on police and border crossings and Chambers of Commerce and

Industry and newspapers, as well as circular to banks and money transfer offices

and others who had resorted to the escape worker

E.

68

Idleness career recommendations:

Activation of e-government which allow the employee to accomplish most of his personal

work (including Ministries and Banks) by means of internet website or phone application

Creation of a system or the law for personal matters and organise its provisions

Create a nursery within the organisation coupled with health care (which also help to

create job opportunity) therefore, employee will not waste time to take and bring their

children.

Increase the holidays for women due to pregnancy and frequent hospital appointments

Review of salaries and incentives and find ways for development and improvement

The study of idleness career could be improved by including an assessment of job

satisfaction. Thus, providing accurate results.

Moreover, this research could be also improves by increasing the sample data and provide more time

as the time is limited. The author also recommends those who has an interest on worker escape

research to include the age, governor population density and psychological aspects of the worker.

6.5 Limitations: This research is limited to the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for project managers

in order to deal with worker escape and idleness career in public sector in Sultanate of Oman,

Because of limited time, the author believes that the sample data could be increased and a

number of issues may be highlighted in details. Therefore, the research outcomes would be

much better. However, the author claimed that the outcomes obtained still covered most of

the issues and achieved the research aim and objectives.

6.6 Conclusion The author believed that he has achieved the aim and objectives of this research. Based on the

literature review and interviews and workshop that been used to collect the data, the author

had performed an analysis in which he observed some findings. Therefore, he provided some

recommendations that could be adopt by any organisation or could be used for further study.

69

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Appendix

78

Appendix A

Interview questions

The following questions were asked in interview:

Why do people work?

What are the factors that affect job satisfaction?

What are the reasons behind workers escape and idleness career?

What are the main issues that may arise due to worker escape and idleness in the

wider social context?

What are the impacts of worker escape and idleness career on the project?

Is there are any explanation for the nature of work before an employee starts the job

and how is it presented to the employee?

In case an employee has a personal problem, is there any communication with the

project manager?

If so, what type of communication? (Email, meeting, phone etc)

When the employee has a number of requirements (increase salary, not satisfy with

the job etc) does s/he communicate with his/her manager?

In spite of the employee communicating with his/her manager but still s/he is not

satisfied, did he communicate with higher level of management and how?

If there is any conflict between employee and his/her manager, how do the managers

deal with it?

Did the employee know and use negotiation skills?

How did s/he use them?

Did the project manager motivate his/her employee?

What type of motivation did the project manager provide to his/her employee?

How worker escape and idleness career is managed in any organisation? Is there any

specific management system?

What type of behaviour is necessary for that project manager?

How the relation between the employee and the project manager should be?

79

Is the delegation (delegated person) affecting the relation between the employee and

the project manager?

What kind of leader a project manager should be?

How the project managers highlight his/her employee issues?

Which aspects should the project manager consider in authorising the employee to

leave the workplace early?

Is there is any law that organises the relation between the employee and the project

manager/management?

80

Appendix B

Workshop proposal

In sultanate of Oman, many organisations are suffering from workers escape and idleness

career. Worker escape means a sudden leave from workplace without notifying the

responsible person. Idleness career means leaving the job before the end of working hours. In

other words, escape from the work. Workers escape is one of the most important cases that

have a negative reflection on the society as it influences the safety, stability and security of

the society. It may lead to several crimes such as theft, swindle and fraud. Additionally,

whenever workers escape commit crimes, it is difficult to find the place that it stays in as well

as it will be far away from justice. As a result of its illegal situation, it will be far from health

care which may lead to spread different kinds of infectious diseases. Idleness career may lead

to reduce the work efficiency and increase the time required to finish a specific job especially

in project where time is essential.

Workshop title:

Idleness career

Workshop objectives:

1 - To examine the reasons for idleness career in various state institutions

2 - To discuss the reasons for this phenomenon from the point of view of managers and

management.

3 - To finding practical solutions to reduce this phenomenon

4 - To discuss the qualities required in managers and management to deal with this

phenomenon

Participants:

* 20 - 30 employees and project managers per workshop

* Specialist / specialists from other organization

Workshop duration, date and place:

Duration: Three and a half hours

Date: 26th

May 2013 to 6th

June 2013

Place: Multipurpose hall at each organisation

Expected results from the workshop:

* Identify the reasons behind idleness Career

* Find practical solutions to curb or eliminate this phenomenon

* Find out the required specifications in managers and management in how to deal with the

employee and thus reduce this phenomenon

81

Appendix C

Absconding Notification

Requirements of expatriate labourers absconding notifications, according to ministerial

decision No. 95/2001 include the following:

Firstly: Shape of absconding notification

Publishing a notice accompanied by the absconded photograph in a local daily paper.

The notice shall be published 7 days after the labourer has left the work premises

without notifying the sponsor.

The notification shall come on the sample prepared by the ministry which should be

informed of the absconding . There should also be statements about the publishing

dates and the paper's volume. A a copy of the paper in which the notice has been

published should be attached. The ticket fare to the labourer’s country should be

deposited at the ministry’s account at Bank Muscat.

The notifications shall be submitted to the authority concerned with labour affairs

within 7 days from the publishing date.

The authorities concerned with labour affairs shall collect the absconding notifications

submitted to it and forward them to the concerned authority at the ROP every week.

Secondly: Steps taken by those concerned with labour affairs

After receiving the complete absconding notification, it will be marked and its data

will be entered into the computer and a copy of same will be kept.

Thirdly: Consequences of the absconding notification

In case the notification is proved correct, the labourer will lose his gratuity for the

period which proceeded the absconding date, in implementation of the provisions of

article (42) of the Omani labour law.

The absconded labourer shall be obliged to pay the fine of the labour card, in case it

was valid prior to the absconding date, or if the absconding occurred before the

labourer has completed one month in the Sultanate. The labourer shall also be obliged

to pay the fees of the card renewal ( vocational training contribution) or the household

82

workers fees as from the date the card has expired, if it occurs after the absconding

was proved correct. In case the labourer is bankrupt, his (her) employer shall incur all

fees and fines.

Fourthly: Objections to the absconding notification

The expatriate labourer whose absconding was published in the local papers may appeal

against this notice within two weeks from the publishing date, provided that the appeal comes

in writing and accompanied by the documents which prove that he (she) has not absconded.

Such appeal shall be submitted to the authority concerned with labour affairs. The authority

shall after reviewing the documents and listening to the concerned parties, decide in the

matter within one week from the date on which the appeal has been lodged. In case the

absconding was proved correct, the labourer shall be referred to the joint inspection teams to

take necessary action, in implementation of the provisions of article ( 103 ) of the Omani

labour law.

Fifthly: cancellation of the absconding notification

In case the employer has applied in writing to the officials concerned with labour affairs

within 30 days from the date on which the notice was approved to provide justifiable reasons

to cancel the notice, the concerned authority shall look into and decide on this request within

one week, according to each separate case. Any decision taken shall be approved by the

concerned director general.

83

Appendix D Ethics Approval Form

This form should be completed by the student and passed to the supervisor prior to a review

of the possible ethical implications of the proposed dissertation or project.

No primary data collection can be undertaken before the supervisor has approved the

plan.

If, following review of this form, amendments to the proposals are agreed to be necessary, the

student should provide the supervisor with an amended version for endorsement.

1. What are the objectives of the dissertation / research project?

To study the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for project managers with

regards to worker escape in Sultanate of Oman

2. Does the research involve NHS patients, resources or staff? YES / NO (please

circle).

If YES, it is likely that full ethical review must be obtained from the NHS process

before the research can start.

3. Do you intend to collect primary data from human subjects or data that are

identifiable with individuals? (This includes, for example, questionnaires and

interviews.) YES / NO (please circle)

If you do not intend to collect such primary data then please go to question 14.

If you do intend to collect such primary data then please respond to ALL the questions

4 through 13. If you feel a question does not apply then please respond with n/a (for not

applicable).

4. What is the purpose of the primary data in the dissertation / research project?

To analyse the reasons of worker escape and thus, suggest the required knowledge,

skills and behaviour of the project managers

5. What is/are the survey population(s)?

Project Managers and employees working in the public sector in Oman

6. How big is the sample for each of the survey populations and how was this sample

arrived at?

276

The final signed and dated version of this form must be handed in with the dissertation. Failure to

provide a signed and dated form on hand-in will be treated as if the dissertation itself was not

submitted.

84

7. How will respondents be selected and recruited?

Randomly and firstly the author communicate with them via internet.

8. What steps are proposed to ensure that the requirements of informed consent will be

met for those taking part in the research? If an Information Sheet for participants is to

be used, please attach it to this form. If not, please explain how you will be able to

demonstrate that informed consent has been gained from participants.

All necessary information provided in in the workshop proposal and the list of

interviews questions.

9. How will data be collected from each of the sample groups?

By means of running a number of workshops and interviews

10. How will data be stored and what will happen to the data at the end of the research?

Data will be stored on the author’s laptop and will be destroyed at the end of the

research

11. How will confidentiality be assured for respondents?

The author will be the one who will run the workshops and interviews

12. What steps are proposed to safeguard the anonymity of the respondents?

Refer to the workshop proposal

13. Are there any risks (physical or other, including reputational) to respondents that

may result from taking part in this research? YES / NO (please circle).

If YES, please specify and state what measures are proposed to deal with these risks.

14. Are there any risks (physical or other, including reputational) to the researcher or to

the University that may result from conducting this research? YES / NO (please

circle).

If YES, please specify and state what measures are proposed to manage these risks.

15. Will any data be obtained from a company or other organisation. YES / NO

(please circle) For example, information provided by an employer or its employees.

If NO, then please go to question 18.

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16. What steps are proposed to ensure that the requirements of informed consent will be

met for that organisation? How will confidentiality be assured for the organisation?

The author contact the organisation and asked them about the data after the conformation that

it met the requirement

17. Does the organisation have its own ethics procedure relating to the research you intend

to carry out? YES / NO (please circle).

If YES, the University will require written evidence from the organisation that they

have approved the research.

18. Will the proposed research involve any of the following (please put a √ next to ‘yes’ or

‘no’; consult your supervisor if you are unsure):

• Vulnerable groups (e.g. children) ? YES NO √

• Particularly sensitive topics ? YES NO √

• Access to respondents via ‘gatekeepers’ ? YES NO √

• Use of deception ? YES NO √

• Access to confidential personal data ? YES NO √

• Psychological stress, anxiety etc ? YES NO √

• Intrusive interventions ? YES NO √

19. Are there any other ethical issues that may arise from the proposed research?

No

Please print the name of: I/We grant Ethical Approval

student supervisor

Signed:

(student) Mazin Said Abdullah Al Hasani (supervisor) N K Johns

Date Date

AMENDMENTS

If you need to make changes please ensure you have permission before the primary data

collection. If there are major changes, fill in a new form if that will make it easier for

everyone. If there are minor changes then fill in the amendments (next page) and get them

signed before the primary data collection begins.

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CHANGES TO ETHICS PERMISSION

VERSION: ____

Please describe the nature of the change and impact on ethics:

Please print the name of: I/We grant Ethical Approval

student supervisor

Signed:

(student) (supervisor)

Date Date

(please cut and paste the next section, together with the heading at the top of this page, as

many times as required)

VERSION: ____

Please describe the nature of the change and impact on ethics:

Please print the name of: I/We grant Ethical Approval

student supervisor

Signed:

(student) (supervisor)

Date Date