Questioning quotas: applying a relational framework for diversity management practices in the United Arab Emirates Ingo Forstenlechner, Faculty of Business and Economics, United Arab Emirates University and Federal Demographic Council, Abu Dhabi Fiona Lettice, Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia Mustafa F. Özbilgin, Brunel Business School, Brunel University Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 22, no 3, 2012, pages 299–315 The use of quota systems to improve demographic diversity in organisations is receiving mixed responses from commentators. This article demonstrates that the normative success and failure of a quota system is contingent upon the multi-level and relational dynamics of the diversity management intervention, which uses the tool of quotas. Focusing on a quota system, which seeks to promote localisation of the workforce in the United Arab Emirates, this article presents a longitudinal case study. We analyse the multi-level dynamics of the implementation of the quota system to show how the interdependence of these levels influenced the outcome of the quota programme. The study also accounts for the complexity of normative assessment of the quota-based diversity intervention by illustrating how a diverse set of vested interests, a multiplicity of discourses and the interplay of schemas of change, support and resistance between managers and employees come into play. Contact: Dr Fiona Lettice, Senior Lecturer, Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. Email: fiona.lettice@uea.ac.uk INTRODUCTION Q uotas are one of the diversity management techniques concerned with changing the demographic composition and diversity of workforces across one or more distributive categories, including gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation and educational background (Schwindt-Bayer, 2009). Quotas are contentious as they seek to change the demographic composition of workplaces, which may undermine the status quo and alter the balance of power within institutional structures (Agócs and Burr, 1996; Von Bergen et al., 2002). The use of quotas has received mixed responses from commentators (Dahlerup, 2006; Garcia et al., 2009). While the quota practices to improve women’s representation in boards of publicly traded companies in Northern Europe are now widely hailed as ‘successful’ (Nielsen and Huse, 2010), quotas generally remain unpopular in industrialised countries (Combs et al., 2005; Tienari et al., 2009). In many Arab Gulf countries, quotas have become the method of choice to increase labour force participation of home nationals. The unemployment of home nationals has been rising, even as many jobs are created because most positions are filled by foreign expatriate workers. Thus, employing home nationals remains a key domestic policy challenge for the Arab Gulf countries (Forstenlechner and Rutledge, 2010). Quotas have had mixed results, with regards to outcome and acceptance (Noon, 2011). It is, therefore, both timely and interesting to study quotas in a country where less than one per cent of employees in the growing private sector are home nationals, although the quota requirements have been in place for well over a decade. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2011.00174.x HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 22 NO 3, 2012 299 © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Please cite this article in press as: Forstenlechner, I., Lettice, F. and Özbilgin, M.F. (2012) ‘Questioning quotas: applying a relational framework for diversity management practices in the United Arab Emirates’. Human Resource Management Journal 22: 3, 299–315.