Dubai Government Research Articles

Exploring the link between integrated leadership-in-government and follower happiness: the case of Dubai

This study develops a concept of integrated leadership-in-government as a global and multifaceted construct for the first time in the Dubai and wider Gulf context. Leadership-in-government combines eight public leadership roles articulated in recent literature, as performed by managers at all levels within the government hierarchy. The eight public leadership roles are: accountability, rule-following, political loyalty, network governance, task-oriented, relations-oriented, change-oriented and diversity-oriented leadership. Data is gathered via a survey of over 900 employees in Dubai government organisations. Findings from the empirical analysis suggest that a manager’s performance of integrated leadership-in-government has a significant effect on employee happiness, as measured through job satisfaction and self-perceived performance.

Influence of organizational culture on knowledge transfer:Evidence from theGovernment ofDubai

In the current context of globalization and technological spread, the role of knowledge as an organizational resource is phenomenal. Knowledge management can be seen as an add‐on to reform paradigms such as new public management, good governance, and smart government, which has generated significant interest for public sector reformists in recent years. The amount of literature on knowledge management in public the sector of the United Arab Emirates is relatively scanty. In the Government of Dubai (1 of 7 Emirates in the UAE), the journey towards knowledge management has started 2 decades or so ago and now has begun to take structural roots in many organizations. This study examines the relationship between organizational culture elements (i.e., trust, communication between employees, reward, leadership, and learning and development), organizational socialization, and knowledge transfer in the government organizations in Dubai. Based on a theoretical framework to measure the influence, this study conducted a questionnaire survey in the Government of Dubai entities. From 811 respondents representing these organizations, the survey results unfold positive relationship between knowledge transfer and the 4 selected organizational cultural elements (i.e., trust, communication between employees, reward, and leadership). Socialization is found to play a moderating role in all the hypothesized relationships except between reward and knowledge transfer. It also examines further research implications to support knowledge transfer processes and practices in the public sector of Dubai and the UAE.

Design and Performance Prediction of an Energy+ Building in Dubai

The result of the joint efforts of University of Bergamo and Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (a Dubai Government institute) is the first Energy+ building in Dubai, virtually off-the-grid and PassivHaus certified. The present work deals with the computer models developed to predict the energy performance and to guide the design choices of the two floor office building unveiled to the public in November 2016. Trnsys software has been used to revise and validate the architectural ideas and the energy design.

Evaluating the benefits of introducing “BIM” based on Revit in construction courses, without changing the course schedule

Recently, the building industry has shown great interest in building information modeling (BIM) due to the many benefits BIM provides. During the last decade, the government of Dubai has been working toward a BIM environment, where any new building project that is ten floors or higher shall be submitted in BIM format. The need for BIM creates more job opportunities for technicians with BIM skills. This inflates the need to prepare related field engineers with BIM background before graduation. This report analyzes the implementation of BIM in a construction course, which is currently using AutoCAD, by splitting the laboratory skills. Through this implementation, we will test whether adding BIM based on Revit to a currently existent course will improve the students’ motivation, performance and satisfaction. The authors use the results of the Architectural Engineering (AE) students at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in construction courses to study the performance before and after implementing BIM. The authors found some issues, which can decrease the students’ performance with a 97% certainty. The students’ motivation and satisfaction was tested using a pre-test/post-test quasi-experiment design. The tests showed that BIM based on Revit reduces student performance time while increasing student motivation and satisfaction. The causes behind the last statement were analyzed with the use of interviews with related students.

Islamophobia as a Deterrent to Halal Global Trade

Islamophobia continues to be on the rise in Europe and other regions, such as Australia, Canada and the United States. It is now a global phenomenon which has multiple manifestations and is generated at different layers of society, and does not only affect citizens1 in non-Islamic countries, but has recently shown a new expression: the target has shifted towards Islamic economies, and more specifically towards the halal trade. Emerging economies in the region of Asia-Pacific and the Gulf are net importers of halal products (particularly foodstuff), which, paradoxically, are produced in non-Islamic economies. A report commissioned by the Dubai government, and researched and written by Thompson Reuters and Dinar Standard,2 valued the halal food and beverage (F&B) market at US$ 1.37 trillion in 2014. That represented 18.2% of the total global F&B market. In addition, the youthful population of the Muslim world - with 60% under the age of 30 - indicates that demand for halal products and services is likely to continue its upward growth curve and become an increasingly influential market over the next decade. This tremendously attractive market niche, combined with the slow growth of the economies of Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States, has prompted many industries to seek halal certification and to adapt their products and services to the requirements of Muslim consumers worldwide, including the significant minorities already living outside Islamic economies.3 However, some newcomers to the halal global market have found that there is another obstacle to overcome, apart from those already present in global trade: Islamophobia. In this article, I will explore the many expressions of Islamophobia aimed at stopping the growth of the halal market, and the different policies and attitudes of governments and institutions when confronted with the need to balance economic growth with cultural misunderstandings and hatred. I found systematic attempts to undermine the halal food industry made by some European Members of Parliament, claims of animal cruelty sparked by animal rights groups, bans on halal sacrifice in the meat industry, the “boycott-halal” on-line campaign, alleged funding of terrorism, threats and other expressions of hatred that have managed to prevent many businesses from accessing the emerging halal market.

Developing a Comprehensive Taxi Strategy for Dubai: Based on System Analysis & Structured Assessment

Taxi plays an important role in providing passenger mobility. Taxi services are among the most frequently used passenger transport services in many cities in the world. Taxis are an integral part of a city’s image. In a recent IRU/EU report taxis are considered as part of the collective public transport chain. In this context taxis role is a complementary mobility option to public transport rather than a competitive one. In the growing city of Dubai taxis are utilized by many local and foreign residences as well as by tourists and visitors. The annual number of taxi trips reached 104 million trips in 2016, while the fleet is growing currently at 9613 and is expected to reach around 12,765 by 2020. Riding a taxi in Dubai is known to be pleasant, comfortable, convenient and relatively affordable experience. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is the Dubai government authority responsible for the planning and governance of the taxi sector in Dubai. The RTA through its agency namely the Public Transport Agency (PTA) exercises such roles. This research is meant to provide a system analysis and structured assessment of the taxi sector in Dubai with the objective of identifying strengths and gaps as well as reviewing the literature and conducting stakeholder consultation hence culminating on developing a comprehensive taxi strategy in Dubai. Such strategy would be targeted to achieve customer satisfaction leading eventually to customer happiness. All in all this is expected to provide an added value and benefit to the business planning for PTA as well as for the overall strategic and futuristic planning by RTA.

Medical Tourism Development in Dubai: Managing Challenges and Opportunities

Objective – International medical travel is one of the fastest growing and lucrative segments of the tourism industry of this century. In the past, affluent people from Middle Eastern countries travelled abroad to the UK or USA for medical surgery and not wealthy citizens from developed countries are seeking affordable, accessible, world class quality of healthcare with modern medical technology, no waiting lists and combining it with a holiday. Dubai has established itself as a destination that can offer all this to foreign medical travellers. Methodology/Technique This paper is exploratory in nature and provides a conceptual study to investigate the expansion, challenges and economic opportunities for developing, promoting and managing Dubai as a medical tourism destination, which is a unique contribution to the theory of medical tourism management. Findings The study indicated several interesting findings regarding challenges such as highly dependence of UAE on foreign human resources, providing safety to migrant workers, implementing integrated medical tourism policy, global health insurance transferability, establishing legal and regulatory issues and others. Novelty : This paper has presented ground breaking findings indicating the issues faced by the Dubai Government regarding the growth and sustainability of medical tourism.The lack of direct access to the Dubai Government and medical tourists is a limitation of this study. Type of Paper: Review Keywords: Dubai; Medical Travel; Tourism; Development; Healthcare Management.

Briefing: Public–private partnerships in the GCC: a changing landscape

A new law creating the legal framework for public–private partnerships in Dubai was issued by the Dubai government on 20 September 2015. It came into force in November 2015 and may well change the legal and financial structure of major projects across the Emirate. This is part of a growing trend in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries towards public–private partnership (PPP) structures as economies that have traditionally been dependent on oil revenue are looking to ensure greater economic productivity and diversification coupled with a more efficient management of risk. In this article the provisions of the new PPP law in Dubai and also the current PPP trends across the GCC region are considered in detail.

Front and Back Covers, Volume 32, Number 3. June 2016

Front and back cover caption, volume 32 issue 3Front coverSTANDSTILLBehzad Sarmadi tells the story of Dubai's descent into an economic crisis in 2009 by seizing on the financial concept of ‘standstill’.The government of Dubai publicly (and unilaterally) invoked this concept in late 2009 so as to pause the debt obligations of a ‘government‐related’ corporation in the face of immanent bankruptcy.This figurative use of standstill by the city‐state, however, soon manifested itself in the city. Cars once owned by over‐indebted foreign residents began to accumulate dust on the sides of roads and parking lots as they were abandoned to literally stand still.Sarmadi examines this process by repurposing the notion of standstill as a tool with which to ethnographically link the structural dimensions of a financial crisis and its lived experience.Back coverDISEASES OF THE SOUTHAt night the chimneys of the Ilva steelworks loom behind a residential building in Taranto, southern Italy. The largest steelworks in Europe, and one of the few former state factories still standing in southern Italy, Ilva provides much needed employment in an impoverished region. However, it is also one of the worst polluters in Italy. Epidemiological studies have shown a high incidence of pulmonary cancers in the area, prompting Italian legal authorities to put the owners on trial for illegal polluting emissions.In spite of the unhealthy environment both in Taranto and in toxic waste‐ridden Terra dei fuochi, near Naples, the state's dominant message is for its residents to adopt ‘healthier lifestyles’. Biomedicine emphasizes individual, lifestyle‐linked factors of disease. Yet such an emphasis diminishes some of the most obvious underlying factors, such as pollution, over which individuals have little or no control, and which affects entire territories and populations. When a population is stigmatized or racialized as ‘backwards’, as southern Italians are, even the most obvious environmental injustices can be obfuscated in this way.In southern Italy, as in other areas hit by environmental injustice, marginality is compounded by a stigma that demonizes as irrational local environmental movements fighting pollution on their own doorstep. Effectively, people are blamed for aiding and abetting their own diseases.While the health‐or‐jobs dilemma is a classic issue of industrialization, companies have even more power to pollute once they are the only source of jobs left.

Following a ‘standstill’: An ethnographic approach to financialization

This article addresses Dubai's recent financial crisis, bringing an ethnographic approach to ‘financialization’. It does so by repurposing the financial concept of ‘standstill’. Focusing on the consequences of the Dubai government's infamous ‘standstill announcement’, in late 2009, it argues that unpacking the literal and figurative registers of this concept offers insights into the political economy and lived experiences of financial crises.

Leadership Development Programs: Investigating the Impact of Contextual and Cultural Factors on LDP Effectiveness in the United Arab Emirates

The interest in leadership continues to grow over the past few decades. Leadership Development Programs (LDPs) have become a priority for all sectors, especially for the public sector. However, LDPs tend to be based on Western leadership theories, and predominantly utilize Western leadership development approaches, and do not consider the influence of national culture in their utilization, namely high-context cultures, as exists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This exploratory study focuses on elucidating leadership conceptualizations among Emirati leaders identifying their perceptions of the factors that impact on LDPs and leadership outcomes in the UAE public sector. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 leaders from three Dubai government organisations and data were analyzed using NVivo 10. The significance of the findings of the study are: (1) leadership conceptualizations were based on the common themes of inspiring others and communication, (2) mentoring and coaching were noted to be among the best mechanisms utilized in LDPs, (3) leadership challenges included access to financial resources, adapting to ‘smart’ government, and building and retention of leaders– hence the need for effective LDPs. The study provides a unique and significant contextual contribution highlighting improvement in opportunities for leadership development programs in the UAE public sector.

Dubai’s socio-economic transformation between 1998 and 2008: the case of a rentier, developmental and competition state hybrid model

This article explores the relations between socio-economic development in modern Dubai with reference to a rentier developmental and competition state (RDC) hybrid model. A recent academic study on Dubai has shown that there is a positive correlation between the city’s rapid socio-economic modernisation or transformation and a multipronged paradigmatic approach to development. Similar to other countries, the semi-autonomous city state of Dubai has used various ecosystems of integrated development plans to dictate the pace and direction of the city’s development trajectory. The conclusion drawn in this paper is that there is no one path to development; the government of Dubai is cognisant of that and has thus used the capacity and resources of the state to transform the once impoverished and marginalised sheikhdom into a ‘commoditised’ prosperous city-corporate entity within a short period of time.

Tracing the evolution of the Dubai Government Excellence Program

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of the excellence awards of the Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP). The programme reports directly to the Dubai government cabinet. The paper traces how changing priorities have over time been reflected in an evolving portfolio of excellence award categories. Design/methodology/approach – The study followed a qualitative research approach, relying on interviewing within the DGEP, analysis of DGEP presentations and publicly available documents, informal conversations with senior UAE public sector managers, and ad hoc observations of the nature of public sector management and government in the UAE and Dubai. Findings – The DGEP exhibited three key rationales since its inception in 1997. They were rationalisations of excellence, measured effectiveness, and efficiency. They overlapped with one another and were also overlain with additional rationales, such as e-government and teamwork. This evolution of rationales has been reflecting political priorities and global trends in public sector management. Originality/value – The paper adds to the knowledge of successive rationales for the evolution of the excellence awards scheme of the world's first integrated, whole-government excellence initiative.

حوكمة التميز : جائزة وزير الداخلية للتميز نموذجا

الحوكمة | التميز | عناصر النجاح الحرجة | المتعاملون ديمنج ( مؤسس الجائزة اليابانية للجودة ) | HMIC | ( الجهاز التفتيش الملكي البريطاني على أجهزة الشرطة ) | برنامج دبي للأداء الحكومي المتميز | برنامج أبوظبي للأداء الحكومي المتميز | برنامج الشيخ خليفة للتميز الحكومي | Governance | Excellence | Critical Success Factors | Customers - Deming Prize | HMIC - Dubai Government Excellence Program | Abu Dhabi Government Excellence Program | Sheikh Khalifa Program for Government Excellence

Assembling the Dubai Government Excellence Program

Purpose– This paper seeks to outline the various elements of a public sector excellence awards programme, the Dubai Government Excellence Programme (DGEP), a unit reporting directly to the cabinet of the Dubai Government. It identifies how the programme seeks to overcome latent contradictions.Design/methodology/approach– The approach relied on interviewing within DGEP, document analysis, conversations with public sector managers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and more general observations of the nature of government in the UAE and especially Dubai. The notion of hybrids in governance is used to unpack the various components of the DGEP and their roles in its overall functioning paying particular attention to the monarchical context of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.Findings– The study found that the monarchical context of public sector management in Dubai acts as a strong influence to counteract the frequently observed inertia of public administration with regards to quality management initiatives. It traces how changing political priorities have been reflected in a changing portfolio of excellence award categories.Originality/value– The paper describes an unusual case of an integrated excellence management approach to a whole government. It identifies monarchical context as an aid to pursuing a modern management approach, speculating that this might be a special case of a more general condition that might aid innovation in public sector contexts. The paper also suggests the usefulness of the notion of hybrids for the public sector governance literature.

Sustainable High-rise Design Trends – Dubai’s Strategy

Until recently, the construction industry in Dubai was the creator of unsustainable world breaking high rise towers. This approach led to Dubai becoming labeled as the largest polluter in UAE and seen by the construction industry worldwide as an example of an unsustainable city. The current global crisis, however, has provided Dubai with the opportunity to firstly understand the benefits of sustainable practice and then implement this concept strategically within the construction industry. This study aims to identify the prototype for sustainable high rise design trends for the future by examining whether the future high rise towers align with the Dubai Government's strategy based on a number of case studies. It is within this context that this research generates a discussion regarding the Dubai Government Strategic Plan (2015) in conjunction with the recently revised green building rating system BREEAM Gulf and establishes that sustainable high rise buildings are being promoted throughout these strategies. Furthermore, this research presents case studies which discuss the future high rise functional use trend, the Burj Dubai / Nakheel Tower and the Dynamic Tower, leading to a determination being made that these projects align with the Dubai Government's strategy. It is highly recommended that the future prototype should be mixed-use, respond to the growing needs of the economy, and achieve the highest possible energy rating. Future research directions have also been pinpointed.

Un système de pilotage de la performance publique à dominante managériale : analyse de l’expérience de Dubaï

Le mode de gestion de l’administration publique de Dubai est tres specifique. Apres avoir presente les caracteristiques de la cite-Etat et les facteurs de contingence s’exercant sur son administration, le systeme de pilotage de la performance publique de Dubai, fonde sur les principes du New Public Management est decrit et analyse. L’article montre la coherence, les apports et les limites de cette demarche emblematique d’une modernisation de l’administration publique fondee sur la culture du resultat.

FRI0573-PC The prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases in emirati’s attending primary health care clinics in dubai

Background: Introduction Musculoskeletal symptoms are frequent complaints seen in primary health care[1]. Indeed, a considerable number of patients may have a long term sequel, including chronic pain and disabilities if...

An exploratory study of business excellence implementation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) public sector

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the implementation issues of the Business Excellence Model and the process of self‐assessment, from both management and employee perspectives, in a large government organisation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the large Government organisation is indicative of the type of large indigenous organisation in the region. The organisation is part of the Dubai Government Excellence Programme (DGEP).Design/methodology/approachA multi‐level case study approach is used, involving repeated in‐depth interviews with managers (n=12) and a questionnaire with employees (n=96) to explore the implementation issues at all levels.FindingsThere was considerable variation in the implementation effectiveness across the different levels within the organisation. The top down approach had a resonance with the Middle East culture at management levels. However, insufficient participation and empowerment of lower level employees, especially amongst non‐indigenous employees, led to a lack of closure on corrective actions emerging from the self‐assessment process. Overall there was an acceptance of the business improvement side of total quality management (TQM) but there was a need for increased cultural acceptance of the people development aspects.Originality/valueThere is a paucity of multi‐level in‐depth studies relating to Business Excellence and self‐assessment in Middle Eastern organisations where a critical cultural perspective is adopted, even though there has been considerable resources expended by Government in initiatives such as the Dubai Government Excellence Programme (DGEP).

Key issues and challenges in e‐government development

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and study the key issues and challenges facing e‐government development from an integrative perspective, and to provide strategies and policy recommendations to address them in a broad and holistic way.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve a comprehensive understanding of the key issues in e‐government development, the authors took an integrative approach built on several existing theories and research. The authors conducted an empirical case study of Dubai. The data collection methods included documentary research; reviewing the major websites of Dubai government entities; and interviewing 22 e‐government stakeholders.FindingsThe authors have identified a variety of important issues and challenges facing e‐government development in Dubai. Of them, they focus on language issues on websites, e‐integration, uptake of e‐government services and the digital divide, and quality of Dubai e‐government websites and e‐services.Practical implicationsGiven that Dubai was ranked the number one eCity in the Arab World and the eighteenth in the world in e‐government implementation, this insightful case study has wider implications. It contributes to a better understanding of the key issues in e‐government development in the Arab nations. The broad and holistic strategies developed through this study address the root causes of the issues, which could help governments not only in Dubai but also in other countries in their policy making.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first integrative and empirical study that explores the key issues and challenges in e‐government development through studying e‐government experiences of Dubai from both supply and demand perspectives.