Meritocracy, personality traits and recruitment: some insights from the Qatari enterprising community

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a picture on the impact of the meritocracy and personality traits on the recruitment process in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the State of Qatar. Design/methodology/approach - The study used ADANCO software for carrying a structural equation modelling analysis and for descriptive statistics. Findings - The findings showed that meritocracy and personality traits had an impact on recruitment process. In addition, meritocracy showed to be more important than personality traits in the recruitment process. Research limitations/implications - This research is conducted only in one country, i.e. the State of Qatar, and findings cannot be generalised for other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council and abroad. Extending this research in other countries and comparing the findings will help create a better portray on the role of meritocracy and personality traits on the recruitment process. Practical implications - This paper will help the Qatari and other SMEs owners to use a more comprehensive approach during the recruitment of their employees, considering that the process of recruitment plays an important role within the overall human resource management. Recruiting the right people has become an extremely daunting mission for SMEs, given that competition for talent is increasingly becoming a very tough and uncompromising issue. Originality/value - To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the only paper that has researched the role of meritocracy and personality traits on the recruitment process in the SMEs in the State of Qatar and abroad. Separate studies were conducted that treat the impact of meritocracy and personality on recruiting the right person(s) for the company, but none treated these aspects together in one single paper.