Job rotation is an innovative human resources management approach that intends to maximize the internal skillsets of employees in an organization. Employees are usually assigned different roles at specific periods (Juneja para 1). Firms engage in the job rotation strategy to discover the hidden talents within their workforce and identify which employees can be replaced by others in case of eventualities such as resignations, redundancies, and absenteeism, including sickness (Rahman et al. 39). Job rotation has been necessitated by the globalization of labor, which has made employees to be highly mobile in a competitive globalized world where organizational loyalty has diminished significantly. Therefore, some organizations use this strategy to motivate their workforce and retain high talent without undoing the rigors of continuous recruitment, which is expensive and disruptive to the smooth operations of organizations (Kokemuller para 2). However, job rotation is applicable in some firms and not in others based of the specificity and expertise of the skills required to perform specific tasks. For instance, job rotation may be undesirable in a specialty manufacturing firm because of the high expertise required to perform specific technical tasks but it may work in certain service companies where general stills are transferable between tasks. Apart from orienting employees on the different operations in a firm, many firms engage in job rotation to improve performance, albeit in the long term. There is evidence suggesting that job rotation can be beneficial and detrimental to employee performance based on a myriad of workplace configurations and circumstances.

1.2 Problem Statement and the Justification of the Study

Although job rotation is widely practiced worldwide, the extent to which it is applied in Qatar is not known. Similarly, Qatar is a Middle East country that is heavily reliant on an expatriate workforce because of its small indigenous population with limited skills, amid ambitious programs of diversifying the country’s economy to reduce its reliance on oil. Therefore, job rotation can be a suitable strategy for developing a multiskilled workforce that can take up the jobs performed by foreigners. Such employee versatility is critical for government agencies that intend to employ Qataris rather than rely on foreign labor. The banking sector is one of the fastest-growing services industries in Qatar, supporting the economic diversification strategy that has swept across the Middle East countries in recent times. However, it is not known to what extent Qatari Banks use this strategy or whether it improves employee performance or not if applied. Besides, most job rotation studies have been conducted in the West and hardly in the Middle East.

2.0 Literature Review

Performance is a complex concept that requires sound definition before it can be investigated in a study. Pradhan and Jena (9) provided insights into the complexities of employee performance and categorized performance as task, adaptive, and contextual performance. Some categories suggest that flexibility, change management, extra responsibilities, and multiple assignments are performance parameters relevant to job rotation. Similarly, Diamantidis and Chatzoglou (171) linked factors such as environmental dynamism, skill flexibility, and adaptability with a positive impact on employee performance.

A study in the manufacturing industry by Zin and Ibrahim (7) found that job rotation spurred career development, particularly of employees with a longer tenure in their organizations, indicating that it promoted employee retention. Similarly, Van Wyke et al. (98) discovered that job rotation led to improved employee job satisfaction, provided they were involved in its design and implementation. Rahman et al. (40) outlined some of the advantages and disadvantages of job rotation and mentioned that some of its advantages included enhancing employee motivation and performance. However, they noted that job rotation could hinder specialization and lower employee performance levels due to increased stress and reduced morale.

Moussavi et al. (855) highlighted the importance of optimizing work sequences to make job rotation effective in improving employee productivity. Similarly, Bakhshi et al. (318) developed an algorithmic model for increasing organizational efficiency and employee productivity by optimizing the allocation of different jobs and shifts to employees. In the same vein, Aldaihani et al. (6) noted that job rotation could be employed in Kuwait Civil Aviation because it could ensure continuous services in the event of employee strikes and emergency natural disasters. Nonetheless, they noted that not all organizations and employees could benefit from job rotation.

3.0 Research Question, Aim, and Objectives

After going through existing literature and identifying the gaps in strategies for improving performance among the workforce in the banking sector, the question emerges: What is the effect of job rotation on employees’ performance in Qatar’s banking sector?

Therefore the primary aim of this study is to examine the effects of a job rotation system on the performance of employees in the banking sector and explore whether it is applicable in governmental sectors based on this examination. The objectives that will help address the research question are:

To determine the prevalence of job rotation in the banking sector across Qatar’s public and private banking institutions.
To determine why some banks rotate their employees and others do not across the banking sector in Qatar.
To describe the nature of employee job rotation structures and formats found in banks in Qatar.
To explore the perceptions towards job rotation among employees in public and private banking institutions in Qatar.
To assess the influence of job rotation on the performance of employees in the banks in Qatar.

4.0 Research Approach and Methodology

4.1 Research Approach

This study will adopt a descriptive qualitative approach because of the limitations of the researcher interacting directly and freely with banking employees while they are at work. In other words, the researcher is constrained in conducting an experimental study with bank employees because of the lack of such authority from the bank administrators, who will prevent any external interference with their internal operations. A qualitative experimental study would have been preferable because it would have investigated to which extent job rotation influences employee performance by subjecting some employees to job rotation as the treatment group and the others to regular work assignments without job rotation to serve as the control group, then comparing the differences in employee performance. However, the researcher hopes to find some public and private banking institutions that practice job rotation among their employees, from whom their lived experiences can be obtained.

The research has adopted an interpretivism research paradigm to ground this study. The researcher believes that reality is subjective and is multiple because it is based on the different interpretations of a lived experience, in this case, job rotation and its influence on performance. In the same vein, the researcher will adopt inductive reasoning when conducting this study and analyzing its findings. This means that the researcher will use the specific findings of the study to develop conclusions that point towards broad generalizations regarding the phenomenon of influencing employee performance using job rotation strategies.

4.2 Research Design and Strategy of Inquiry

The researcher will adopt a cross-sectional study as the overarching study design. This design focuses on collecting data from one or several sample groups at the same time rather than studying one sample over an extended period. The cross-sectional design is informed by the time and resource constraints confronting the researcher, which will discourage an extended study. However, despite making observations at the moment in time, the researcher can still compare two sets of data from employees that have experienced job rotation and those that have not, and the effects these have had on their performance at the workplace. That comparison is important in answering the research question because it will inform the utility of job rotation in improving employee performance in the banking sector.

4.3 Methodology

4.3.1 Research Methods

A survey methodology will be employed in this study in which the experiences of the employees in the banking sector will be the main sources of data. In addition, their supervisors and banking executives will also be included to provide a viewpoint from a managerial standpoint. Thirty participants drawn from the banking sector across Qatar will be recruited using the snowball sampling technique. Therefore, Qatar will be the setting for this study. The snowball sampling technique, which is a nonprobability sampling approach, was preferred because it presents a minimal likelihood of the participants exiting the study midway before it is completed. This is because a few participants known to the researcher will be used to recruit other members of the banking community known to them. Therefore, the researcher is saved from the arduous task of convincing random bank employees to participate in a study. Besides, the researchers would not have the opportunity to select the participants randomly as their participation is strictly controlled by their employers and institutions.

In this regard, data will be collected using questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires will collect information related to the participants’ demographics, including the position in the banking institution, to determine whether the opinion provided is from an employee or managerial standpoint before interrogating their experiences with hob rotation in their banking institutions. Thirty participants comprising employees and those in supervisory and managerial positions are expected to fill the questionnaires, which will be administered online. After that, 10 participants drawn from the group of thirty will be interviewed to provide deeper insights into the information captured in the questionnaires. The interview will be administered remotely through videoconferencing. The remote approach to administering the questionnaire and interviews are informed by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic public health protocols that discourage large congregations and unnecessary travel to forestall the spread of the deadly virus. Therefore, online approaches are not only safe for the researcher and participants, but are also convenient because the participants can take part in the study in the comfort of their homes or offices and at convenient times. Participant convenience is critical because it is expected to reduce cases of exiting the study prematurely, alongside having incomplete data.

4.3.2 Methods of Data Analysis

The questionnaires will be analyzed descriptively using computer analytical software (SPSS). Each item and its responses will be coded so that it can be entered into the computer program. The expected output of this analysis is the diverse opinions of the participants and the frequency of the diverse responses denoting the different opinions. The findings from this analysis will be reported descriptively using graphical and textual formats. Contrastingly, the interviews will be analyzed using the thematic analysis approach in which the overarching themes will be extracted from the responses of the interviewees. The findings from the interviews will be reported descriptively as well along with the emerging primary themes.

4.4 Plan of Work

This study is expected to take 12 weeks as illustrated in the work schedule in table 1.

Table 1: Gantt chart of the plan of work

Activity	Duration (week)
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Proposal approval
Reviewing the literature and refining the methodology
Participant recruitment
Preparation of data collection instruments
Piloting of the data collection instruments
Modification of the data collection instruments
Administering questionnaires
Conducting interviews
Data analysis
Dissertation writing and proofreading
Submission of dissertation

5.0 Works Cited

Aldaihani, Faraj Mazyed Faraj, Saad MSN Almutairi, Jamal G. Alabtan Alshammeri, Fatemah Mohammad AlKanderi, Falah Bader Almutarir, Ayied Mazed Aldaihani, and Saleh Ali AlDurzi. “Benefits and Implementation of Job Rotation: Recommendations for Kuwaiti Civil Service Commission.” Journal of International Business and Management, vol. 5, no. 4, 2022, pp. 01-07.

Bakhshi, M., S. E. Hashemi, and H. Dezhdar. “Applying mathematical modeling to create job rotation for improve workforce performance in semi-automatic systems.” International journal of research in industrial engineering vol. 9, no. 4, 2020, pp. 318-327.

Diamantidis, Anastasios D., and Prodromos Chatzoglou. “Factors affecting employee performance: An empirical approach.” International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 68, no. 1, 2018, pp.171-193.

Juneja, Prachi. “Job rotation.” Management Study Guide. https://www.managementstudyguide.com/job-rotation.htm

Kokemuller, Neil. “Advantages & disadvantages of employee rotation.” Hearst, 25 January 2019. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-employee-rotation-18994.html.

Moussavi, S. E., M. Mahdjoub, and O. Grunder. “A multi-objective programming approach to develop an ergonomic job rotation in a manufacturing system.” IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 51, no. 11, 2018, pp. 850-855.

Pradhan, Rabindra Kumar, and Lalatendu Kesari Jena. “Employee performance at workplace: Conceptual model and empirical validation.” Business Perspectives and Research, vol. 5, no. 1, 2017, pp. 69-85.

Rahman, Hawkar Kh, Aras N. Yosif, and Bushra Q. Mahmud. “An Investigation of Obstacles Affecting Implementation of Job Rotation Process: A Case Study of Erbil Administrative Technical Institute and Shaqlawa Technical Institute.” Polytechnic Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 1, no. 1, 2020, pp. 38-47.

Van Wyk, Anna Elizabeth, Ilze Swarts, and Chipo Mukonza. “The influence of the implementation of job rotation on employees’ perceived job satisfaction.” International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 13, no. 11, 2018, pp. 89-101.

Zin, Md, Lazim Mohd, and Hadziroh Ibrahim. “The Moderating Effect of Organization Tenure on Job Rotation and Career Development.” Annals of Contemporary Developments in Management & HR (ACDMHR), vol. 3, no. 3, 2021, pp. 1-9.

Research Proposal

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study