Introduction

For the last several decades, it has been increasingly recognised that people are an organisation’s most valuable asset in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage (Kiessling and Harvey, 2006). Professionals and managers who have a significant depth of specialised knowledge can add value to the organisation. By transferring knowledge internally through interactions among people and tasks, organisations can build a competitive advantage (Argote and Ingram, 2000). In 1981, the GCC was established in Abu Dhabi as an economic and political intergovernmental alliance among Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Together, these six states possess 40% of the world’s proven oil reserves; and for the last two decades, they have sought to invest their substantial oil rents to improve their human capital and global competitiveness (MENA Report, 2012; World Bank, 2014).

Today these nations are embarking on major economic diversification projects with the goal of transitioning from an economy fueled by natural resources to one that is innovative, knowledge-based, competitive and self-sustaining. To support rapid economic development, especially in the private sector, a growing expatriate population has provided a range of professional skills based on fixed term employment contracts. The total number of expatriates is the GCC is estimated at over 48.1 million (Global Labour Markets Migration, 2015). At the high end of the spectrum, the percent of expatriates in the UAE and Qatar is estimated to be just over 80% while in Saudi Arabia, it is about 30%. The UAE not only attracts the most expatriates, it has the highest retention rate, i.e., 88% of the expatriates residing in the UAE desire to remain in the country (Gulf Talent, 2015).

An important driving force that has relevance to building a knowledgeable workforce in the GCC is that population growth is expected to continue to be strong, especially in the cities, creating a large pool of labour, the majority of which will be 25 years of age or under (MENA Report, 2012). Based on the foregoing, a significant challenge to countries in the Arabian Gulf is to ensure that qualified nationals with relevant skill sets are available to build the industries and sustain the economic development that is desired for long-term stability and growth. While knowledge management is important to all organisations, the employment of a large number of non-nationals represents an opportunity to create and capture knowledge that resides in individuals that is easily lost due to turnover. Therefore, it is important to determine the factors that promote and encourage knowledge transfer to develop a knowledgeable native workforce so that organisations can reap the benefits of employing expatriate professionals. Knowledge exchange and building capabilities is a strategic priority. Leadership is required to encourage a culture and structure that supports learning, focuses on meeting and exceeding organisational goals, in order to not only build the right competencies in the workforce but lead to successful development of local economies.