Employee Attitudes Towards the Privatization of Kuwait Government Departments and State Owned Enterprises

Abstract

There is little empirical evidence about how employees feel about privatizing state owned enterprises (SOEs) and such evidence provides insight on the impact privatization might have on employees. This study therefore aims at exploring the attitudes amongst Kuwait employees regarding the impact privatization might have on the employment system and recommends measures to minimise the impact so that the programme may readily be acceptable to civil servants. A mixed methodology was used to survey 500 and interview 15 people and in particular, descriptive and discriminant analysis demonstrated an effective categorization of Kuwait employees into those that were in support and those that were against the privatization programme. The research findings showed that although privatization of state owned enterprises was perceived to bring about improved service delivery, respondents’ attitudes towards privatization was overwhelmingly negative. Respondents’ attitudes were largely influenced by their concerns on the perceived changes in the employment system, in particular job security, and the impact of privatization on the localisation of the industry, commonly referred to as Kuwaitization (i.e. replacing foreign workers with Kuwaiti employees). Finally, we offer practitioners and researchers an analytical framework for assessing employees’ attitudes towards privatization of state owned enterprises and the study suggests strategies that might be suitable for dealing with employees’ concerns.