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Introduction
Leadership is critical for ensuring good governance either in private or in the government sector. In the present circumstances, the government organizations are over managed; nevertheless, they are poorly led. In todays ever-changing world, leadership issues are getting more and more prominence in managing government departments and organizations. Enhancing the performance of the government organizations is necessary to meet the interests and expectations of the people. Effective leadership can help government organizations to implement the schemes and transform policies into practice efficiently and swiftly. In order to enhance the effectiveness of its departments, it is necessary for government to undertake several structural reforms. In the absence of an effective leadership, these reforms cannot be materialized to reap the benefits of the reforms by taking them to the people.
The public sector is under constant pressure to improve its service delivery and cooperate with the citizens more effectively. As a result the demand for leaders and leadership to carry out the public demands regarding improvement of service delivery and to ensure the fundamental process of change has increased. In case, the leadership within the public sector needs to be improved, it is essential that the operating environment promotes good leadership. It is observed that the structures and cultures of the public sector have placed a constraint on the leaders and the development of true leadership. Although some of the features of the public sector environment need to be modified to pave way for leadership development most of them cannot be changed to provide effective service to the citizens. In order to be effective the leaders in the government organizations must be provided with sufficient freedom to lead and they need to be supported and challenged by others working within the government agencies and departments and outside beyond their own organizations. In essence the availability of effective leaders need to be improved within the government sector as well as from outside. In this context, this qualitative study analyses the need for leadership development in government sector with specific reference to leadership development in the context of United Arab Emirates.
Leadership in Government Sector an Overview
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) explain governance as the process in which the underlying values of a nation are institutionalized. This process usually takes the route of being incorporated in the constitution of the respective nation. The process of governance includes many formal elements such as separate powers, checks and balances, transparency, accountability and responsiveness. However, the citizens of the nation can realize these values in actual practice only when the actions of the public officials are guided throughout the system by the values. It is necessary that the values become a part of the culture. The process of governance therefore requires the able support of leadership, which is considered as the flesh on the bones of the constitution. Needing the good and effective leadership at the heart of good governance, the government sector cannot enhance the managerial capacity of the public sector leaders without that. Of late, it has been realized that it is the quality of leadership that determine the growth and progress of any public sector entity more than any other factor.
According to perceptions of large number of the practitioners and leadership theorists, a consistent definition of leadership is not available. The different definitions available laydown various criteria for inclusion or exclusion in to the definition of the leadership (e.g. Avolio, 2007; Bass, 1997; and Chemera, 1997). Although leadership has certain common characteristics across all sectors, it must be adapted to be effective in the public sector. The public sector is highly diverse in nature and the governance and size of different agencies and organizations within public sector vary largely. The boundaries of government sector have undergone tremendous changes in the recent years and change is a constant factor that demands the extension of public service beyond the public sector. Nevertheless, there are certain characteristics of public sector that distinguishes it from private sector.
They are the political context, funding arrangements and accountabilities, the lack of market competition, the pressure to collaborate horizontally and the distinctive ethos of public service. It is essential that a vision for effective leadership must reflect all the above features. In addition to that, the leadership in public sector must recognize the personal characteristics that are based mainly on charisma; but the leadership must also reflect the ability of the leaders to motivate and bring the best out of government servants. The leadership in government sector must also recognize the organizational skills required to meet the complexity of modern organizations and focus on defining and communicating mission and strategy. It should not just confine to issuing commands to people at lower level. Further, the leadership within the government sectors needs the ability to work in cooperation with other organizations so that common goals can be set and achieved.
Leadership in government sector helps bringing changes within the agencies and departments by opening channels of communication with the public and other stakeholders. Leadership makes it possible to achieve integration among different departments and different levels within the government hierarchy. With an effective leadership it becomes possible to make effective use of technological advances for improving performance of the public sector. Leadership facilitates the modification of organizational processes to promote newer ways of delivering service to the citizens. By developing individual, team and organizational capabilities to take on different challenges, leadership brings public and private actors to achieve developmental goals swiftly and in a sustained manner. In essence, leadership is a critical element in the process of offering good governance in any nation.
Leadership Development in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
The goal of this study is to provide a broad assessment of leadership development programs in the public sector of United Arab Emirates. Deciding what can be considered as leadership within the context of the UAE is a real challenge. In terms of the UAE and of considered in the contexts of the whole Arab World, a large chunk of the practitioners use the concept of leadership development. However the more appropriate term to describe and solve the issue would be leader development. The so called leadership development programs within the UAE aim at excelling the skills, abilities, knowledge and talents of the individuals as these qualities relate to formal leadership roles. The difference between leadership and leader can be compared with the difference between social capital and human capital and their development contexts (Day, 2000).
In other words leader development focuses on the development of intrapersonal competence and effectiveness by improving the self-awareness, self-regulation and self-motivation of the individuals aspiring to become leaders. Leadership development is more concerned with the development of interpersonal competence and effectiveness. This is accomplished by improving networked relationships, commitments, trust and respect (Gardner, 1993). Thus the majority of the programs currently taking place within the UAE is about leader development. The purpose of the current study is to explore the possibility of leadership development in the government sector in the UAE so that there could be marked improvements in the service delivery to the citizens. Identifying and suggesting effective leadership development programs that would suit the managers and leaders of government organizations and departments in the UAE are within the purview of this study. The challenges facing leadership development are also covered.
Aims and Objectives
An exploration of the leadership development in the government sector in general is the chief aim of this paper. Within this broad framework, the study seeks to accomplish the following objectives.
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To study the nature and scope of leadership development within the context of the government sector of the United Arab Emirates
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To study the main challenges faced by the leadership development programs within the UAE government sector
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To suggest some key recommendations for advancing effective leadership development in the UAE government sector.
The aims and objectives described above when met will provide answers to the following research questions.
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What is the scope and nature of leadership development in government sector in general?
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What counts as the leadership development regarding government sector of the UAE?
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What are the challenges faced by leadership development programs in the UAE government sector?
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What are the best possible leadership development programs that could be practiced in the UAE government sector to improve the effectiveness of the public sector?
Structure of the Dissertation
This dissertation is organized to have four chapters following this introductory chapter. Chapter Two presents a review of the relevant literature to add to the existing knowledge. Chapter Three describes the research methodology. Chapter Four presents the findings of the interviews followed by an analysis. Chapter Five contains discussion/analysis, conclusion with recommendations and implications for different stakeholders.
Literature Review
Introduction
The organizational functioning that indicates or decides the leadership development depends on the cultural attribute. In todays culturally interconnected societies and globalized world economy, organizations are no longer evolving within the confines of a particular national setting.1 To operate in global context, the public sector also should develop leadership styles and in this context the UAE or the middle east countries context is as follows.
On the contrary, Wilkings (2001) asserts that the Arab culture positively encourages training and development. According to Nixon (2005), it is public companies in Arab countries that demonstrate least interest in organizational training. A concrete example from the Arab world shows that training in Kuwait is essentially perceived as a reward by upper level management (Hassi 2011, 52).
This is due to the national culture that influences the behaviors of the managers in public sector as well as private. As the context is about public sector, different departments in government show less interest when compared to private companies have employees sent on training due to social relations established through friendships, family affiliations, external social pressure and the sort.2 In this regard A Hassi (2011, 53) quotes the work of Wilkins (2001) regarding the access to training in United Arab Emirates (UAE). He further states that the training will be achieved there by means of family ties and communal relations. As the training will not be imparted due to merit relate issues or due to professional experience. Even the qualifications dont matter in Middle East and UAE. Hence, the leader or leadership development in UAEs public sector could be a topic of study in the era of globalization.
Leadership and Organizational Performance
The concept of leaders is often subjected to several debates. School of thoughts on leadership have emerged to further specify definition on leadership. Several theorists (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2004; Tichy and Devanna) consider leadership in the forms of Transactional, Transformational, and Laissez faire. Leadership is critical ingredient that drives to success or failure. Hence the importance being provided to this concept is highly evident.
Transactional leadership works on the motive that the employees motivation could be achieved by rewards as well as punishments (Jeffrey, 2002). This idea is true in most organisations since employees are being adherent to regulations are productive because of the impending rewards. Bass and Avolio (1994) stated that transformational leaders have moral values that include honesty, responsibility, fairness, and honouring commitments. These leaders have to be transparent in decision-making and responsible in the outcomes of the decisions. These leaders are more inclined to set goals and attempts to emphasise of efforts before rewards are accorded.
Business leaders have to be true to their words and value the contribution of the employees. The idea of the leadership promotes the provision of something in exchange of another (Bass, 1985). In the business sense, this theory has been evidently used. Most company personnel are provided by tasks as their primary responsibility. In return, the firm gives to the employees a reasonable amount of remuneration. Logically, transactional leaders have an eye for getting something out of anything. This theory maintains the effectiveness of mutual relationships within firm.
The theory of transformational leadership is considered as a dominant theory practised by leaders. The theory assumes that the employees will follow leaders who inspire (Lipley, 2004). This theory has prompted organisations to create mission and vision. Also, making the theory promotes the incorporation of enthusiasm and energy in performing responsibilities. Bass (1990) explains that transformational leaders undergo several stages of development. The first stage is the development of a vision that serves as guide for future endeavours. The second step is to persuade individuals to follow the vision.
Among the phases, this stage is continually manifested. The third stage is for the leaders to formulate routes towards the goals. This is critical because the decision can either result to success or failure. The final stage is for the leaders to remain at the forefront of the charge. This will continue the followers to be motivated. Transformational leaders are known to be sensitive to the needs of their members. In particular, these leaders are aware of change phases being undergone by entities of organisations. Such recognition is critical in building a strong bond within groups and teams.
The Laissez faire leadership is characterised as passive and reactive. OReagan et al, (2005) noticed that these leaders avoid facing problems until worse effects are experienced. Although these leaders are mainly timid about issues, their manner of addressing problems is considered as meticulous. These are the leaders that rarely panic and value pressure packed situations. Despite the insufficient aggression, some of these leaders have managed to establish strong organisations.
After five decades of collecting data on the topic of leadership development, the opinion of psychologists is that it is not possible to learn the qualities regarding leadership. Their opinion is that they are inborn and genetic in nature (Avolio, 1999). Some researchers have found that fundamentally personality and character one possesses may have a great influence upon him in developing a good leadership. Their personality and character have given them confidence needed to lead the followers and get from them what was expected. It may imply that the leaders are born great and they are able to take up leadership positions in any situations regardless of social or historical context.
In a 2003 survey of more than 750 IT executives, 81% believed that that leadership can be taught (CIO Insight, 2003). The survey also revealed that a high value is placed on leadership-development training programs. A strong majority of the survey respondents, in addition to believing that elements of leadership can be taught, have participated in leadership-development programs at some point in their career. People think highly of leadership programs, even more of them participate in less-formal methods to sharpen their leadership skills. Indeed, the numbers provide glaring evidence that leadership is learned.
Avolio (1999) offered over a decade of research performance that leadership talents can be developed.
In their interviews with senior VPs in high-tech firms and the military leaders, they found that both leaders were highly influenced by their very involved parents who set challenging goals, translated failure into how to succeed next time and lived by high standards of moral conduct. These helped the future leaders to appreciate diverse views. In addition, in a series of five studies, leaders of different ages and levels of experience from around the world participated in workshops with other members of their organisations (Avolio, 1999).
For a leader to become successful, leadership development programs must be designed to develop and refine certain of the teachable skills, improve the conceptual abilities of managers, tap individuals personal needs, interests, and self-esteem, and help managers see and move beyond their interpersonal blocks (Maltby, 2006).
The leadership preparation programs now accessible all through the world can be divided into to have similar issues of prominence. Each of the most important companies offering leadership improvement seems to call attention to one of the following factors over the others: leadership skills improvement, theoretically accepted wisdom, personal development incidents, or response. These training mechanisms are designed to further explain the contention that leadership is learned.
Aside from the learning experience, other aspects contribute to the claim that leadership is more than genetics. It takes more than just inherent attributes to lead a successful organisation. Acquiring leadership requires constant learning and development. Although some leaders have become overnight sensations, most were successful because of valuable experiences.
In the context of studying the impact of leadership styles on BPR, it becomes important to understand the effect of leadership on the overall organizational performance, because leadership is viewed as one of the key driving forces in bringing improvement to the firms performance (Zhu et al., 2005). Rowe (2001) and Avolio (1999) consider leadership as a potent source of management development and sustained competitive advantage for improvement in firm performance. According to Mehra et al. (2006), focusing on the effects of leadership has been recognized as a long-standing approach to outperform the competitors. This is because of the fact that team leaders could play a pivotal role in shaping collective norms, helping teams cope with their environments, and coordinating collective action. Based on this leader-centered perspective several studies have been conducted providing valuable insights into the relationship between leadership and team performance (Guzzo & Dickson, 1996). A number of studies have focused on exploring the strategic role of leadership in order to investigate the ways of employing leadership paradigms and using leadership behavior to effect significant improvement in organizational performance (e.g. Judge et al., 2002; Judge and Piccolo, 2004; Keller, 2006; MacGrath & MacMillan, 2000; Meyer & Heppard, 2000; Purcell et al., 2004; Yukl, 2002).
One of the important reasons for such an extended research in the area is because intangible assets such as leadership styles, organizational culture, and skill and competence levels of organizational members are seen key sources of strengths in those firms, which combine people and processes for an effective improvement in organizational performance (Purcell et al., 2004). It is evident from a discussion that previous researches have led to the expectation that leadership paradigms, when applied appropriately will have the effect of positively influencing customer satisfaction, staff satisfaction, and financial performance. Since these are the main objectives of any BPR application, it can be concluded that leadership styles have a positive impact on the BPR, which can be understood from the resulting improvement in the organizational performance.
Categories of Leadership Styles
Past research has developed several categories of leadership styles, each having its own salience and characteristic features. This section discusses some of the leadership styles, as understanding the different leadership styles will enable understanding the association between leadership style and BPR success.
Classical Leadership
This is the oldest form of leadership, still used in contemporary organizations (Avery, 2004). This leadership presupposes the dominance by a pre-eminent person or an elite group of people in leading the subordinates. This leadership style may have a coercive approach or benevolent approach or a combination of both the approaches. There are certain limitations attached to this type of leadership. First is the inability of the leader to command and control every action of the followers, especially when the situations become complex in nature and beyond the capacity of the leader. The second limitation is that this type of leadership often depends on the ideas of an elite few implying that only a few people among the group have the capabilities to exercise initiative. This makes the followers to deskill themselves and idealize the leader without any original thinking on their part. This results in the followers leaving the leader accountable to the organizational performance, making little contribution to the organizational success (Avery, 2004).
Transactional Leadership
Transactional leadership follows a transaction or exchange-based approach in leading the followers (Evans & Dermer, 1974; House & Mitchell, 1974). A transactional leader achieves his objectives by understanding the needs and desires of the subordinates and explaining them how their needs and preferences can be fulfilled in exchange for their contribution to the organizational success. The transactional leader clarifies what is expected of the subordinates and the consequences of their approach, attitude and behavior towards those expectations. By instilling confidence in subordinates, the transactional leader is able to exert the necessary efforts in the subordinates and achieve the desired levels of performance.
Judge and Piccolo (2004) identify contingent reward, management by exception-active, and management by exception-passive as the three dimensions of transactional leadership. The difference between management by exception-active and management by exception-passive lies in the timing of the leaders intervention. Active leaders monitor follower behavior, anticipate problems, and take corrective actions before the behavior creates serious difficulties. Passive leaders wait until the behavior has created problems before taking action, (Howell & Avolio, 1993; Judge & Piccolo, 2004). According to Avery (2004) in the transactional leadership, although the ultimate decision-making remains with the leader, the leader engages in different levels of consultation with the subordinates.
Transformational Leadership
Visionary or transformational, or charismatic leadership has been the subject of study during the last thirty years (Bass, 1985, 1998; Burns, 1978; Conger & Kanungo, 1987; House, 1977). Having added a new dimension to the leadership studies in the organizational context, visionary leadership ensembles the emotional involvement of employees within the firm. The basic conceptualization in visionary leadership is based on the perceived competence and ability of the leader and his/her vision to achieve success. Subordinates are hired based on their ability to share the vision of the leader and are expected to exhibit high level of enthusiasm and commitment to the visionary leadership objectives. Avery (2004) finds certain limitations with visionary leadership. According to Nadler & Tuschman, (1990), the unrealistic expectations of the followers to result from the decisions and actions of the visionary leader may lead to disappointment among the followers, if things do not move in the desired direction. This style makes the subordinates depend entirely on the leader, as they believe that the leader has control over all the issues. This leadership styles curtails the initiatives for innovations, as the followers are reluctant to contradict the leaders views.
Organic Leadership
The concept of organic leadership is relatively new in the field of organizational studies. Introduced by Drath, (2001) and developed further by Avery (2004), this leadership styles blurs the relationship between the leader and the followers. This paradigm relies on reciprocal actions, where team members work together in whatever roles of authority and power they may have, not based on position power, (Hirschhom, 1997; Raelin, 2003; Rothschild & Whitt, 1986). Organizations following this leadership style have many leaders in the place of one leader. Presence of multiple leaders enables organizations to cope with heterogeneous and dynamic environments with the help of the extended knowledge and capabilities of different leaders. In the absence of a formal leader, the interactions of all organizational members with shared vision, values and supporting culture represent a form of leadership and this situation gives rise to emergence of leadership rather than people hired to hold leadership positions.
Kanter, (1989) identifies one downside of organic leadership in that the autonomy, freedom, discretion and authorization enjoyed by the employees might lead to lack of control and as a result increase uncertainty, which will hamper the growth of the organization. However, Meindl, (1998) argues that organic leadership is about creating a form of self-control and self-organization. It is important to understand that organic leadership is expected to generate a clear sense of purpose and autonomy among the employees within a given context. Avery, (2004) points out that the idea of organic leadership depends on the support of self-leading organizational members.
Leadership Development in Government Sector
Literature consists of a debate as to whether business practices can or should be applied to the working of the government departments and agencies. The review done has show the way to the belief that the theories of organizational function and leadership need to be modified in a suitable manner to meet the requirements of the government. Dissimilarity between government organizations and private firms do happen on purpose, structure and performance. Simultaneously, there are commonalities also. They are in the areas of
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attainment of resources,
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achievement of chosen goals,
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valuable and competent efforts from employees and
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acting up to the customer satisfaction.
It is necessary that these needs are satisfied for the government organizations to serve the public the customers effectively. Only when these needs are met with effectiveness, the leadership of any government department will be considered efficient and the entity remains sustainable.
Five elements have been found to emerge from the literature that are essential to maintain the effectiveness of government organizations. They are
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organizational vitality,
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employee work passion,
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customer devotion,
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strategic leadership and
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operational leadership.
Only very few individuals have expertise both in leadership of complex organizations and in the complexities of government sector. This always creates a difficult choice for the government machinery in any nation. The dilemma is whether the government should appoint persons having leadership skills or persons who would fit into the government departments because of their experience. Leadership development programs need an evidence base that determines the type of leadership which would be appropriate to the situation in question. The leadership review literature would be able to throw light; however majority of the available literature has been criticized as being limited and inadequate (Alimo-Metcalfe and Alban-Metcalfe, 2006; Leskiw and Singh, 2007). The mainstream leadership research has focused on issues like traits of leaders, leadership styles (as enumerated earlier), relations between leaders and the followers and the contingent influences on leadership (Bass, 1981; Lewin et al., 1939; McGregor, 1960; Blake and Mouton, 1964). Lindell & Rosenqvist (1992) found all the leadership research could be classified into four approaches (a) the trait, (b) the behavior, (c) the situation and (d) the power influence.
Organizational Vitality
There may be gap between action and thinking if vitality is absent in an organization. In this regard K Isomura (2010, 217) states that this is the reason for the conflicts of the people with what they do. As the public sector in Middle East and UAE do not have the vitality required for quick action, there may be some discrepancies in the implementation of policies and there is a chance of important factors neglected.
The important factors are as follows.
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Much that we perceive or are conscious of is either impossible or impracticable to put into words;
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Feeling a great deal more of things and events than we are aware of; and
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Most of the components of a thing or occurrence are beyond either our understanding or any important degree of feeling. (Isomura 2010, 217).
The last point of the above quotations can be found necessary in the context of implementation of schemes and policies of government departments to benefit people. In the absence of understanding the needs of the people, who are being benefited by the policies and schemes of the government may not be fulfilled. Hence, it is important not to neglect the fact of vitality in organization, which can be achieved by human relations. These human relations are necessary between employees in the organization ( in this context a department or a company in public sector; hereby organization in this paper means the same) and between employees and the beneficiaries of the schemes and policies. By implementing the policies regarding the development of human relations as mentioned just-above; vitality, decisiveness, persuasiveness, responsibility and intellectual capacity can be achieved within the organization. When human relations achieve vitality and endurance they promote the constant acquirement of valuable experience and knowledge.3
Regarding the vitality acquisition for an organization, the necessity of change comes to the fore. One thing that the employees in a government department oppose is the change. However, in this regard it is important to recall the Ovids quote cited by JA Wolf (2011, 368). There is nothing in the whole world which is permanent. 4 Hence to sustain the performance or enhance it, it is necessary to acquire perpetual movement and dynamic balance in the organization. To do so, the organizational members; in this context the employees in a government department have to move beyond the experience of paradox as an impediment to progress. 5 In o
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