The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a busines hub in the Middle East and is sought out place for work by expatriates. Gallup's Great Jobs Briefing (2018) reported UAE as one of the highest achiever for Job-Satisfaction rating, out of 128 countries. It was further reported that 72% jobs are considered as 'good job' in the UAE, based on several determinants. However, there are some contradictory findings regarding employees enagement level, wherein 69% participants were not engaged in the workplace. Further reports from Gallup (2017) found more than 75% UAE employees as highly disengaged and the world happiness report (Helliwell, Layard,, & Sachs, 2019) did not find UAE to be amongst the ranking of happiest countries. Further, there was disinterest in working with private sector as 62% participants preferrred to work in the public sector of UAE. The question then arise, if employees are satisfied, why they are not happy or engaged? Are there any motivational (de) factors that differentiates satisfaction level of employees working in UAE's government sector with those working in the private sector?

Keywords: comparison public and private organizations, Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, job satisfaction, UAE