Article written in collaboration with the young women in
BUS-309-001 & 002 – Fall Semester 2009 AUH.
There is very little written about managers and managing in
the UAE. This makes it hard for new management professors to use
relevant, local examples in class. However, it makes it even harder for
students as they must listen and then try to put into context examples from
North America and Europe (and my students have had an even tougher time of it
as many of my best examples are from the dreadfully exciting Canadian forest
products industry). As a first step to remedy this situation I asked the
students in my two Introduction to Management classes to interview a
manager. Not just interview for interest and curiosity though, interview
for research. Yes, there is a difference, as my students found out.
First, we had to decide on the purpose of the interview.
We wanted to see if what Henry Mintzberg and Henri Fayol wrote about the roles
of managers in the West is applicable to managers in the GCC. (Dr.
Mintzberg is a contemporary Canadian management guru who has written many
influential books on strategy and the roles of management. M. Fayol,
wrote the Principles of Management when he was the CEO of a mining company at
the beginning of the 20 th century in France.) Then we had to decide on
the questions, which actually took a few weeks as we debated the best questions
to ask and the best way in which to ask them. Before we could venture
into the “field” though we had to write generic query emails. Which again
took more time than many had thought it would. Finally, into the field.
Students interviewed by telephone, email and face-to-face (and
one by proxy, with follow-up emails to verify the gathered information).
Some students found they had to use more than one method to verify information,
and one student used all three! We soon found out that managers are busy
people, but that for the most part are very willing to share their knowledge
with students.
The knowledge that was shared with students was priceless.
There were managers from all levels of the organization, CEOs and Board Members
of major corporations and senior officials of ZU, senior military officers,
senior government officials, owners of SMEs, men, women, Nationals and
expats. However, even with all these differences there were many
similarities in their answers.
The first question asked managers what was their greatest
challenge managing in the UAE. There were many diverse answers of
course, but the responses fell into four main themes: recruiting skilled
Nationals, the great cultural differences of employees, motivating and guiding
employees, and managing change. The drive for Emiratisation was
not seen in a negative light, rather it was just the challenge of finding
qualified people to fill positions at every level of the organization. Of
course, for my students this can only be considered a good thing – there are
many challenging and rewarding opportunities out there for them when they
graduate. The challenge of cultural diversity was also not seen as
a “problem”, but rather it was considered as a source of competitive advantage
in a globalised marketplace to have a global employee base. However,
managers did mention that they had to learn about these different cultures in
order to manage effectively.
The follow-up question was to ask what managers had done
to overcome these challenges. Here there was an overwhelming insistence
on the importance of training and continuing education, for both
the manager and employees. Training was done in house, through continuing
education and through seminars and conferences abroad. Managers insisted
that “learning” can never stop, it is just part of the continuous
evolution of the organization and the individual. The need for
communication, open communication based on trust, was also mentioned by several
managers. Some said they had an “open-door” policy, others had regularly
scheduled meetings and others used on-site visits.
Managers were then asked what they considered as their
most important role. There were many roles listed here, the most
commonly listed were the role of leader and mentor, the role of decision
maker, recruiting and supporting qualified employees (both Nationals and
expats), creating a positive work environment, creating a culture of continuous
improvement and working towards achieving the organization’s mission and goals.
The final question asked about how the role of manager
had changed over the years. The word increased was used a
lot. Increased competition, both global and local, increased focus on innovation,
increased work load, increased attention to strategic plans and increased need
for continuous training.
The feedback from the students was overwhelmingly
positive. Many said that they wished that they could have followed-up and
would like to interview more managers and compare answers. They even
enjoyed analyzing the answers by comparing what their managers’ said to the
theory we have covered in class. And there were some powerful insights
made that will help me next semester when I teach the course to another few
groups.
Finally, there were a few enterprising students who asked
their managers for advice. They were told to enjoy their jobs, listen,
respect, make goals, work hard, challenge yourself,
be loyal, don’t take short cuts and to continually develop
their skills. What wonderful advice from generous people. This
valuable new knowledge would not have been possible without the generous
support of the fantastic managers interviewed by my students. So thank
you for your time and wisdom, your interviewee learned from the interview, the
rest of the class did through each presentation, I did by reading and listening
to your words and the general ZU community through this mini-article.
Managing and managers in the UAE… a story to be continued.
