Here's what Middle East professionals look at before taking a job

Eighty-one percent of Middle East professionals choose jobs based on the company’s management structure and style, Bayt.com said in a recent survey.

Almost 80 percent prefer working for a company with very clear organizational structure and reporting lines, while only 16 percent prefer flexibility in management structure and style, it added.

Although more than half of poll respondents believed that higher salary is more important than better management (12.7 percent), more than a third said that both factors play an equal role in choosing a particular job.

According to the survey, the most important aspect of a manager’s job is in fact “communicating vision and directing efforts” (80.3 percent), followed by “assigning tasks and responsibilities” (10 percent), “handling more challenging projects” (5 percent) and “providing feedback and training” (3.2 percent).

When asked how to tell a good manager from a bad one during a job interview, 71 percent of respondents said it is based on their “communication and personality” and on the “questions and information shared” (17.7 percent). 

Meanwhile, 87.3 percent respondents believed that hierarchy in organizations is necessary for clarity; 8.8 percent said it may be essential in large organizations, while only one percent said that hierarchical structures are “unnecessary and slow things down.”

The survey results are based on a sample of 10,109 respondents from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and others.