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Abstract
Leadership role in UAE organizations is emerging into new trends in the context of globalization. The concept of globalization has led many foreign investors to invest in UAE. Along with the investors, workforce from foreign countries are recruited to work in their offshore units which in turn throws up challenges to managers in host country in managing and enhancing employee performance in a multicultural environment. As the globalization gets popular and more foreign investments flow in, employee diversity is expected to grow in future, thus need for developing management skills among the managers will grow to handle multicultural work environment. It is important for international organizations and managers to be prepared to identify and manage cultural challenges to meet the global competitiveness, flexibility, and learning capabilities and maintain a balance that could lead in building up cultural sensitivity and capability to manage and identify unique strategies in enhancing employee performance. This study aims at identifying leadership strategies to be developed among managers to overcome challenges in enhancing employee performance in the process of globalization over a period of time. Objectives of the study are to (i) study the influence of globalization in managing employees’ performance (ii) identify challenges in managing employees performance in a multicultural environment and (iii) identify strategies employed in enhancing employee performance. This research is based on a study of firms from United Arab Emirates (UAE). A questionnaire was distributed to 196 HR managers working in UAE organizations for indicating their level of opinion (using a 5 point Likert scale). The collected data is analyzed using factor analysis that helped the research to identify challenges managers are facing in managing employee performance and strategies employed in enhancing employee performance. Factor analysis conducted on null hypothesis indicates that managers do face challenges in identifying knowledgeable and skilled employees with good communication skills to meet international standards. Further results of the study indicate strategies such as motivation, training, remuneration, performance appraisal and encouraging teamwork show significant impact in enhancing employee performance. Managers strongly recommend that there is a need for regular development practices through training on updated technologies in order to increase employee’s productivity and there by organization’s productivity. Thus this paper gives useful insights on the challenges and effective strategies that could be implemented in a multicultural environment.