UNITED NATIONS PUBLIC SERVICE FORUM WORKSHOP
Leadership Styles and Government
Transformation: Case of Dubai’s Government
Sector
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THE TRANSFORMATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Mhamed Biygautane,
Research Associate at the Dubai School of Government
26 June 2013
Bahrain
Presentation’s Outline
• DSG’s current research project on leadership
• Transactional vs transformational leadership
• Is there a unique Arab leadership and management
style?
• Leadership styles in the Gulf region and UAE
• Leadership initiatives in Dubai, UAE
• Challenges related to these leadership initiatives
• Smart Government Initiative (mGovernment)
LEADERSHIP FOR THE TRANSFORMATIONAL GOVERNMENT
DSG’s current Research Project on Leadership
Models of Leadership in Dubai's Public Sector
Objectives: Interview Directors General/CEOs of government
entities in Dubai to identify their leadership styles. How do
they lead their organizations and what affects their decisions?
What is the impact of religion and HH. Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Rashid on their leadership styles?
Is there a Dubai model of leadership that is different and
unique than other parts of the world?
Research methods: Extensive literature review to identify
models of leadership globally, regionally and locally. Then, indepth interviews with Directors and CEOs of government
entities in Dubai to identify existing or new trends of leadership
for government transformation.
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Transactional and Transformational Leadership
• Leadership is generally defined as “the process of influencing
employees to work toward the achievement of objectives”
(Lussier 1990)
• One of the most important aspects of leaderships is the style
of the leader.
• The classic leadership styles tended to be either:
1) Autocratic;
2) democratic (participative) or;
3) delegative (laissez faire).
• The compatibility of the leadership style with the culture
and norms of a country is an essential prerequisite for its
effectiveness and success.
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Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership
• Transactional leadership is made of two distinctive
features: contingent reward and management by
exception.
• However, charisma and inspiration are the main two
features of transformational leadership.
• The leader earns the respect of others and develops a
deep emotional connection with them.
• The leader’s clear vision is a source of inspiration and
motivation to others around him.
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Leadership vs. Transformational Leadership
From a Western perspective, Baker and Coy (2003)
identify 7 leadership virtues:
1. Humility
2. Courage
3. Integrity and impartiality
4. Compassion and empathy
5. Humor and imagination
6. Passion and enthusiasm
7. Wisdom and judgment
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Is there an Arab Leadership & Management Style?
(Jackson 2012)
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Is there an Arab Leadership & Management Style?
• To what extent is our understanding of leadership
indigenous?
• There is a strong tension between dominant “Western”
perspectives on leadership and “local” definition, needs
and realities.
• To what extent are the “Western” perspectives on
leadership applicable to the “local” realities of people
and programs in the Arab world?
• In some cases, attempts at reconciling “East” and
“West” meant taking ready-made frameworks and
“masking” them to be culturally suitable.
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Is there an Arab (Muslim) Leadership &
Management style?
(Jackson 2012)
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Leadership Traits in Kuwait and Qatar
From a Gulf perspective, Abdallah (2001) identifies 6
leadership virtues:
1. Inspirational
2. Knowledgeable/experienced
3. Integrity and honesty
4. Rapport (having good social skills)
5. Visionary
6. Charismatic
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Leadership Styles and Virtues in the UAE
• A study conducted by Varadarajan and Majumdar (2010)
found that the leadership style in the UAE is based on
democratic participation.
• The dominant style is: democratic style
• Virtues that best describe UAE’s context:
1. Courage
2. Impartiality
3. Empathy
4. Judgment
5. Enthusiasm
6. Humility
7. Imagination
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Leadership Styles and Virtues in the UAE
“The relationship between the leaders and the people of
the UAE is one of the secrets behind the nation’s
success…
Our leadership style is to make the organization a family
with a head whose job is not only to make the family
strong and successful, but also to look after the
members of the family” – H.E. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulaymen
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Leadership Styles and Virtues in the UAE
“The word impossible is not in the leaders’ dictionaries. No matter how big the
challenges, strong faith, determination and resolve will overcome them… A
leader does not necessarily need to be the most intelligent member of his
group… rather he is the one with the clearest and most far reaching vision.”
- H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
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Leadership Initiatives in the UAE
Christina and Dabbagh (2010)
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Leadership Initiatives in the UAE
Christina and Dabbagh (2010)
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H.H. Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum
Leadership Initiatives
• The Mohammed Bin Rashid Programme for Leadership
Development (MBRPLD) :
• An innovative leadership programme designed to develop
future national leaders capable of promoting the
sustainable development of the United Arab Emirates.
• The long-term training programme consists of four
categories:
1) Young Leaders;
2) Promising Leaders;
3) Government Leaders and
4) the Director General Majlis category
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DSG’s Leadership Initiatives and Programs
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Challenges to Current Leadership Styles
• Psychological and socio-economic environment that does not
appreciate and support leadership.
• The lack of clarity between leader development and leadership
development.
• The current leader programs prepare Emirati individuals to think
and act in new ways, but they do not help them create new
channels of communication, trust and cooperation.
• Leadership (or leader) development programs in the Arab world
“import” leadership paradigms from Western practice.
• Even the ones that are modeled after existing programs and
paradigms still carry heavy cultural and social codes mainly from
the US and Europe.
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Smart Government Initiative
• The objectives of the mGovernment:
"The Government of the future works 24/7 and 365 days a
year. It is as hospitable as hotels, fast in delivering and
strong in its procedures".
• He instructed the federal and local governments to provide
their services in creative channels within 24 months.
• A creative government is the advanced one that forges
ahead and breaks the routine, to always be number one.
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Objectives of Smart Government Initiative
• “Our role as a government is to make people's life easier and achieve
happiness for them. Our duty is reach out to all categories of society
regardless of their e-status and e-culture, and offer them the best
public services,” Sheikh Mohammed.
• “Today, we want to take government service centres to clients who can
submit their applications through a mobile phone or any other mobile
device from any place without waiting ... the successful government is
the one which goes to clients wherever they are and doesn't wait for
them to come to it,” (HH, Seikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum)…
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