8/10/2019 Yahoo's acquisition of maktoob

1/3

Yahoo!s Acquisition of Maktoob

Hashim Saeed

4223172

What does it take, in your opinion for the Arab employee

to join the Global Work community? What skills and traits

need to be developed?

Culturally, Arabs are constantly challenged with

integrating a degree of social change with development

in society. While being demographically pressured, the

labour force has grown at an average rate of 2.7% over

the past decade; the key factor that leads to lack of

global development is disproportionate labour. A

discrepancy in the labour market has been propelled by

the incompetence of the economy to create highly

skilled work along with inappropriate methods of

providing education to the youth.

One of the main skills lacking in the arab community is

that the youth are not exposed to academics in

comparison to the others. The standard of education is

lower and due to this, the students perform well within

their high school academic life. However, when they

enter the real world they face difficulties as theyre

unable to cope. Theyre aware of their situation and are

8/10/2019 Yahoo's acquisition of maktoob

2/3

willing to put in extra work in order to obtain an enhanced

working life. This will also help them in easing into the work

environment. Some of the other skills and traits needed tojoin to global community are:

Language Barrier: there are many downsides associated

with language barriers. The most obvious one of them is

the level of frustration involved with not being understood

by others. This can create a hostile environment due to

the lack of effective communication. It can also lead to

misunderstandings that arise from being unable to

successfully put a point forward.

Another aspect of a language barrier is when people use

online language programs or dictionaries as a means to

translate. These sources are not always reliable and can

lead to problems. In situations involving legal or medical

translations, a minor error or an attempt to find an

equivalent word in an Arabic/English dictionary can lead

to the creation of bigger mix up between the two parties.

However, these barriers also come with answers to help

minimize or even completely eradicate the problem. One

of the simplest ways to minimize the risk involved with

8/10/2019 Yahoo's acquisition of maktoob

3/3

miscommunication is to hire an interpreter who would be

able to effectively translate information. Another way

could also be to provide a few language classes in orderto help facilitate some understanding of the language.

In conclusion

With the help of better education for the arab youth, the

proficiency needed to enter global work communities will

be attained, the need to retrain vocal and verbal skills will

be eradicated. Furthermore arabs should exploit their

resources to build a portal into the vast global community.

References

Education for Employment: Realizing Arab Youth

Potential, IsDB and IFC, April 2011,

www.e4eArabYouth.com.

8 Mona AlMunajjed and Karim Sabbagh, Youth in GCC

Countries: Meeting the Challenge,

Booz & Company, 2011.

http://www.e4earabyouth.com/http://www.e4earabyouth.com/http://www.e4earabyouth.com/