SMEs strategies to enhance innovative work behavior of employees in United Arab Emirates (UAE)

People are considered to be a key enablers of innovation since they initiate the change as well as become part of a change which positively affects the innovation process. UAE is known to be an innovation-driven economy while the practices of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in UAE are little known. This paper aims to explore the strategies adopted by SME sector in UAE to enhance innovative work behaviour of employees. In this study, the researcher adopted the qualitative research to explore the strategies adopted by SMEs in UAE to enhance innovative work behaviour, A survey was conducted with 74 managers/ supervisors and leaders of SMEs in UAE through a structured questionnaire which attempted to ask about the strategies, how these are practiced by SMEs and what is the impact of these strategies on the innovative work behaviour. It was found from the research that the opportunity enhancing strategies namely autonomy, task composition and feedback positively impact innovative work behaviour of employees in UAE while ability enhancing strategy (training and development) and three motivation-enhancing strategies (reward and recognition, job security and employee involvement/ engagement).