Motivation, Teamwork and Organisation structure in the United Arab Emirates

B1: Motivation, Teamwork and Organisation structure in the United Arab Emirates

Introduction The success of a company can be guaranteed with the successful implementation of management policies encompassing successful motivation of employees and coworkers, team working capabilities and general organizational structure. In the following report the three important aspects of management including motivation, organization and team-work have been discussed in detail. The report includes background and literature review on the above aspects followed by discussion on these factors with respect to a chosen company in United Arab Emirates. The last section discusses policy recommendation for the chosen company followed by concluding remarks.

The phenomena discussed in the following report are prevalent in different disciplines; however, psychology provides us intuitive definitions of these phenomena. These characteristics of organizations are prevalent in every industry and are adhered by for the successful achievement of the entity’s mission statement and policy. In the following report we have discusses these phenomena with respect to Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB). The bank was established in 1975 and the first bank to have incorporated the principals of Islam in all its banking practices. The bank has expanded its branches to Pakistan and Turkey but in this report we will focus only on the organizational structure of UAE network.

Concept of Motivation Motivation is a broad terminology and has been used in several different disciplines. Motivation refers to the ‘underlying reasons behind behaviour’ as has been pointed out by Guay et al. (2010). Gredler, Broussard and Garrison (2004) have defined motivation as an attribute that makes us do or not do something. Every discipline has noted motivation differently according to the context. According to Stipek (1996) the motivation can be called as reinforcers: these reinforcers can have either positive or negative effect. Positive reinforcers or rewards increase the probability of a given behaviour by removing or reducing the negative utility of this action. Similarly, negative reinforcers decrease the probability of a given behaviour by adding negative utility to the action. Motivation has been studied intensely in the field of Psychology.

The

Psychological

studies have differentiated motivation into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is induced by personal enjoyment, interest and pleasure. Deci et al. (1999) have defined intrinsic motivation as a motivation which energizes and sustains activities through the spontaneous satisfactions inherent in effective vocational action.

Concept of Teamwork Project management (Pinto et al. 1993, Gemuenden and Lechler 1997), as well as total quality management and continuous improvement (Griffin and Hauser 1992, Lawler et al. 1995, Mohrman et al. 1995) consider teamwork as a crucial success factor. Teamwork is defined by Scarnati (2001, p. 5) “as a cooperative process that allows

ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results”. The importance of teamwork has been emphasised time and again in literature; literature for different subjects have described the usefulness of teamwork in their subject area and it carries the same importance in all disciplines and organisations. Teamwork can be defined as the combined action of group to achieve a single goal effectively and with efficiency. It is widely believed that team accomplishes more than individuals and projects which are bigger in size require some degree of team collaboration for its successful execution. The team works and contributes to the whole organisation’s success. Teamwork sets up the whole organisation to win. The key attributes of a team as has been described in literature (Luca & Tarricone, 2001) include commitment to team success and shared goals, interdependence, interpersonal skills, open communication, appreciation, strong team composition and commitment to team progress. These skills are deemed to be ideal for the successful execution for a team project. First and foremost is understanding of the goal by all team members and joint commitment to fulfil this goal. This

is

complemented

by

interdependence,

interpersonal

skills

and

open

communication among each other.

Concept of Organisation Organisations are the distinctively structured and regulated form of purposeful interaction of individuals and groups. In other words, organisations represent purposeful co-operation of people based on shared structures, rules, interests and values. The first and foremost objective of organisations is striving for survival by fulfilling their purpose (Selznick, 1948). This is complemented by teamwork and motivation. Weber (1948) has used a somewhat different explanation of organisation; he used the concept of organisation to refer to a network of authority distribution. He asserted that such a network exists if and only if there is a high degree of correspondence between the authority and conditions favouring compliance of this authority. The concept of organization is defined as having some determining power over action that takes place under the scope of its jurisdiction. This power to produce an intended result is uncertain and depends for its effectiveness on complex structural conditions. The results do not depend just on the organisational structure but other factors

pertaining to the organisations complemented by management factors. More common definition and pertaining to business is that of organisation being a social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet or to pursue a common goal. Note here, this definition is very similar to that of teamwork.

Dubai Islamic Bank Motivation in Dubai Islamic Bank, UAE Motivation as has been defined above is the underlying reason behind certain behaviour. The reason to work might be induced by the desire of acquiring money, learning new skills, altruism, passion and other both psychological and money incentive can be deemed as a strong motivator. The motivation of the employees at Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has been evaluated through different Internet resources which provide insights and reviews of sentiments of the employees working at DIB. One of the most important motivating factors for employees of DIB has been its existence as the first bank complying with sharia and providing Islamic financial instruments. The bank being the first of its type, induced people looking for and motivated by working in Islamic bank

were induced to work here. Some other employees have different underlying reason behind their working at DIB. The review of some employees (Glassdoor, 2015) provides us insight into sentiments and reasons behind working at DIB. Some employees had been motivated by strong goodwill of the bank and world renowned popularity of the institute. Some employees were motivated to learn the sharia compliant Islamic financial tools. And lastly, some employees had been motivated by the good work environment and friendly corporate culture of the institute. In the end, all employees are motivated by the basic monetary incentive complemented by personal intrinsic motivators. There has been some disparity among the motivation of the employees working in different countries of this bank. Employees from Pakistan Dubai Islamic Bank have shown that resentment towards the salary disparity between people working in UAE and in Pakistan.

Teamwork in Dubai Islamic Bank, UAE The importance of teamwork in the working of a business has been emphasised in the above section. The literature consistently highlights that one of the essential elements of a team is its focus toward a common goal and a clear purpose (Fisher, Hunter, & Macrosson, 1997; Johnson & Johnson, 1995, 1999). Management of any institute tries to ensure that the employees when designated a task to be done as a team. The sharing of information, asking for help and cooperation is expected within the employees. Strategies such as team-building weekends and events are organised to increase cooperation and friendliness among the peers and have not been reported by employees of the bank. Screening and recruitment process has changed drastically for most of the international companies. Experienced HR managers and screening tests enable the company to recruit candidates who are able to show competency not just in intelligence and skills but team-working as well. This has led to companies selecting candidates who are optimal in interpersonal skills and teamwork. Dubai Islamic Bank being a huge multinational bank has adopted these screening techniques and has been able to hire good candidates and providing on-job training to further increase these interpersonal skills.

Organisation in Dubai Islamic Bank, UAE The organisational structure of Dubai Islamic Bank is strong. The bank takes pride in being the champions of morality, equality and transparency in everything they do. Even though the bank has expanded exponentially addressing the growing demand of Islamic finance, the bank has been able to keep its true roots of being a customer-oriented organisation (Dubai Islamic Bank, 2015). For a business like Dubai Islamic Bank which depends solely on consumers, it is necessary to keep the organisation in line with the key stakeholders. To enable the organisation of Dubai Islamic Bank to successfully execute its mission is to set short-term easily accessible plans. The hierarchy of authority has been clearly demarcated and the employees are aware of the career progress layers. The different departments have been well separated with intercommunication among departments with a central HR and Communication department. Dubai Islamic Bank is organised and sub-categorised in to six main departments including personal banking, investment banking, women banks, wealth management, business banking and treasury. Apart from these six main departments, there are other departments including HR and Communications. The bank has been structured to cater needs of diverse populations including people looking for conventional banking services and customers looking for Islamic banking. Team of professional has been dedicated to investor relations wealth management, investment banking and other sub-sectors of banking. DIB who take pride in being a customer oriented bank have to bear the costs associated with managing all these diverse departments. This has led to some communication problems among each department as reported by former employees in Glassdoor (2015).

Implications & Suggestions Dubai Islamic Bank has been performing well for a long time. The interest in financial instruments based on sharia has grown in recent time. The increase in Muslim population is evident and has been highlighted in the literature. The growth of this population has led to increase in Islamic banking and DIB has grown exponentially

alongside. As of 2010, over 1.6 billion of the world population are Muslims (Pew Research, 2011). Consequently, the demand for the Muslim friendly financial instruments has increased and thus expansion in Islamic Banking is seen. In response, DIB has established its network in Pakistan and Turkey as well. However, it is hard to implement and export the same level or organisation and efficiency to different countries but DIB has been able to do export their key traits. The motivation for working in DIB is higher among employees from UAE. The pay differential between the UAE branches and other countries’ branch can create a sense of demotivation because of wage parity. Furthermore, the teamwork in the company as noticed through reviews and the website does not direct toward any recreational activities offered at workplace. There is literature on the importance of recreation in increasing employees’ productivity. Evidence has been found by WHO (2003) which positively relates workplace recreation and employee performance. Organizations therefore need to put in place actions which are aimed at ensuring employees maximize their potential at the work place. Boxall et al (2003), states that individual performance is a function of ability, motivation and opportunity. Following suit, Dubai Islamic Bank should increase recreational and leisure activities with-in job. Availability of snacks could be the first move. Regular organisation of teambuilding activities is highly suggested. Motivation can always be induced using monetary and commission based incentives. One of the key motivator factors as has been reported by former employees is the venue to learn Islamic financial tools. Provision of on-job training in this financial area would lead to increase motivation among employees seeking to learn this niche.

Conclusion The above report has discussed in detail the three main components essential in the success of business. The chosen business institute, Dubai Islamic Bank has been reviewed with respect to literature on these components. Secondary data sources in the form of online reviews of employees working in the bank has been accessed and discussed. The overall reviews of the company have been positive with good corporate

culture, sense of teamwork and organisation in the company which has motivated employees and potential labour market to work for this corporation. Some suggestions including the introduction of team-building activities in the banking staff and equal monetary incentives among offices in different locations have been suggested. Teamwork, motivation and organisation have been discussed conceptually with respect to management and management psychology. These concepts tend to differ in different disciplines including child psychology, students, healthcare and etc. In this report, these managerial components have been discussed just in the light of business and the chosen company. A primary data in the form of evaluation of the three components can be obtained from the company’s employees and be analysed with respect to other independent variables including social life, job security and other possible explanatory factors.

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