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The purpose of this article was to investigate the employee perceptions of diversity management and employee performance. To achieve this, employee respondents’ perceptions and perspectives have been tested, and findings are discussed.

To address this study's purpose, survey data were collected from 250 employees of two organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Data were analyzed by age, gender and nationality for two variables: diversity management and employee performance.

Results showed that respondents perceived an improvement in employee performance when diversity was managed for employees of different age groups, females/males working together and a workplace composed of employees from various nationalities.

The implication of this limited study is that further studies on the perception of diversity management for employee performance in the Middle East region needs to be conducted. The social implication is that organizational leaders can initiate diversity management to improve employee performance. The research is limited by the geographical context and access to the collection of data during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The implication of this limited study is that further studies on the perception of diversity management for employee performance in the Middle East region needs to be conducted. The social implication is that organizational leaders can initiate diversity management to improve employee performance.

The contribution to academic knowledge from this research is two-fold: findings from a novel study conducted in the Middle East evidenced diversity management improved perceptions of employee performance. The value of the study for praxis is to incorporate employees' belief in diversity management for its potential to improve employee performance.

The purpose of this study is to report empirical research on gender managerial obstacles in UAE private organizations. It identifies the barriers that limit opportunities for gender equality promotion in managerial level positions.

Primary data were gathered from 384 female managers operating in UAE organizations using Survey Monkey and ANOVA for statistical analysis. Two variables (years of experience and industry) were used to compare the average means across the responses and the differences among the group.

The situation of gender equality in UAE management currently shows a positive trend. The females who participated in the survey have considerable work experience and jobs in a vital economic sector of the UAE industry. The earlier cultural stereotypes that worked against the interests of women in the UAE society are no longer relevant except for informal barriers and the level of cooperation among female leaders. We found differences among industry, service and transportation sectors in which gender managerial level in a private industry is dependent upon the number of years of experience for female managers.

The limitation of the study is the online survey was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during the lockdown period in the spring of 2020, which led to a low number of participants responding to the questionnaire. Additionally, the survey did not include a nationality question to distinguish Emiratis from non-Emirati.

This study indicates a need to coordinate UAE female leaders' actions to protect their rights, develop formal and informal mechanisms of gender inequality realization in business and promote professional skills, orientation on social networks, and mentoring programs for female leaders. These initiatives improve the positions of female leaders.

The study of the UAE case adds to the existing literature on gender studies because the survey-based research in the UAE context contributes to the limited knowledge of Middle Eastern countries. The females’ employment and their representation in managerial levels remain lower compared to males. Differences exist among the industry, service and transportation sectors.

The purpose of this paper is to report empirical research conducted in Saudi Arabia on the impacts of organizational policies and practices on the diversity management of the Saudi private sector. To this end, the Saudization policy and views of key respondents have been tested and discussed.

Primary data were collected through questionnaire surveys from the largest 11 private sector organizations listed on the Saudi Stock Market in the financial/banking, oil and gas, petrochemical, private higher education and private health service sectors. Statistical tools such as means and standard deviations and one-sample t-tests were used for analysis.

The findings suggest that Saudization, retention, pay with benefits and health insurance policies significantly affect the diversity management in the Saudi private sector. Therefore, there is a need to develop organizational policies that support the existence of foreign employees for private businesses in Saudi Arabia. Considering differences as strengths that can be utilized to enhance performance, a diverse workforce might better be able to serve diverse markets.

Collecting data from a closed environment such as Saudi Arabia is constrained by access difficulties, as well as inadequate literature on relevant diversity issues. However, the convenience sampling method and snowballing approach adopted in this study generated reliable data. As a result, this study has implications for both the multinational corporations operating in Saudi Arabia and Saudi owned companies operating in the West and intending to adopt and implement diversity management initiatives for branches in different countries. As such, further research on the gulf countries’ diversity management issues would be critical.

The current study is a first survey-based research endeavor on the topic of diversity management in the Saudi context. The findings contribute to the limited knowledge base on middle eastern countries, thus presenting new empirical evidence on the organizational policies and practices of Saudization, retention, pay and benefits and health insurance policies. The study of the Saudi case, thus adds value to the existing knowledge on diversity management.