Coordination of Emergency and Crisis Management in the United Arab Emirates - Case Study Example

The Original Case Study The Organization The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management ity (NCEMA) is the major national standard-setting body responsible for regulation and coordination of emergency and crisis management in the United Arab Emirates. Working under the umbrella and supervision of the Higher National Security Council NCEMA is also responsible for the development of a national plan for emergency response. This is therefore the largest Emirati Authority that is charged with the development, consolidation and maintenance of laws, policies and procedures of emergency and crisis management at the national level. NCEMA was established on the 14th of May 2007 under the organizational structure of the Higher National Security Council of the United Arab Emirates to ensure citizens’ safety, protect all residents of the UAE and secure the country’s property. Being under the Higher National Security Council, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority falls under the jurisdiction of the Executive Affairs Department in the GM office, this is a government department that was established in 2010. The Authority is located in Abu Dhabi and it has about 300 employees. NCEMA plays the role of lead organization when it comes to crisis management and emergencies in the UAE. The organization’s mission is to promote the country’s capabilities in the management of crisis and emergencies. The organization’s roles involve the regulation and coordination of the entire efforts of emergency and management of crisis. By ensuring that it sets the requirements for business continuity, the Authority enables quick recovery after emergencies through joint planning. It pursues the development of a national plan designed to give a response in times of emergencies as well as coordinates communication at the national and local level during emergencies. NCEMA has several departments, the Executive Affairs Department is a new department that was established in 2010 and operates under the office of the General Manager. The other departments under NCEMA include the Operations Department, Planning and Preparedness Department, Support Services Department, ICT Department, Media and Public Information Department, and the Safety and Prevention Department. The organization is known for its high performance standards. It focuses on promoting development, consolidation, maintenance of laws, policies, and procedures of emergency, and the management of all crises at the national level Important Persons in NCEMA The first most important person in NCEMA is the organization is Mohammed Khalif, the Director General of NCEMA. The Director General acts as the chairman of the Board of Directors for the organization. The Board is an important organ and provides leadership for NCEMA as well as makes important decisions affecting it. The Board acts as an intermediary between the organization and the government and carries out bigger corporate functions including budget authorizations and soliciting of funds for the government. It is also responsible for approval of plans and evaluation of the Authority’s performance on behalf of the government and the public. As the chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Khalif plays a leadership and coordination role in all its functions. He also carries out liaison functions with the Authorities leadership and management of NCEMA. For example he sets up meetings between the Board of Directors and the Management to discuss issues affecting the organization and all reporting is done to him. It is the duty of the Director General to ensure that organizational policies and programs are implemented in the expected way by the management of NCEMA and that the right outcomes are achieved failure of which he is charged with ensuring that the management provides answers to the Board. The next important person at NCEMA is Mr. Saif, the General Manager. Aged 66 years old, Saif is an immensely experienced man in public administration and holds a bachelor degree in legal studies. He has work experience in different fields where he has worked for the last 45 years. Mr. Saif has spent the greatest part of his professional life working in the army and Higher National Security Council. In the army, Seif has achieved the rank of Colonel; he possesses very good communication skills and is a good leader with strong leadership characteristics. As the General Manager he plays a role of leadership, coordination, motivation and organization of operations in NCEMA with the assistance of other managers and departmental heads. Mr. Seif is a self-confident man with good experience in business administration from management of his own business investments; he is highly respected and has a good reputation within and outside the organization. Seif has also shown good relations with the CEO and all other executives in the organization. Mr. Ahmed is the head of Executive Affairs in NCEMA; he is 45 years old and joined the Authority in July 2011. He is a qualified administrator with a master degree in economics. With over six years worth of working experience, Ahmed has worked in different government authorities in Abu Dhabi including Mubadala and ADDIA. Ahmed is not known to be a very astute leader with his greatest weakness being that he lacks self confidence. He is also known to have attitude issues especially with those below him in authority; this combined with lack of self confidence makes him a very insecure manager. This is one of the reasons why he lost his former position at ADDIA. The official system in the UAE requires fluency of communication in Arabic, both written and spoken. Ahmed’s lack of self confidence and attitude problems are associated with the fact that he studied in a foreign country and therefore lacks fluency in Arabic, which affects his writing. As a result of this Ahmed largely depends on others to help him accomplish his tasks and is not known to accomplish much working independently. The presence of Mr. Ahmed in his job at the Authority is one issue that raises controversy among most members of the organization as he is believed to have been placed in the position irregularly by his friend, the son of the GM Mr. Saif. With most employees quietly viewing this as favoritism, it is believed to be one of the factors affecting his confidence and effectiveness in general. After two years working in the Authority, Ahmed got a promotion to become the head of the Executive Affairs Department even though it was well understood that Ms. Noof was doing all his work. As the head of that department it is understood that he only achieved 10 percent of the work because of poor performance. The next important employee of NCEMA is the Executive Senior Officer Ms. Noof. She is a 28 year old graduate in communication and public relation with over four years work experience. She is very industrious, smart, and intelligent and loves her work. With high self-confidence and exemplary work ethic and performance, Ms. Noof is a known workaholic. She works for an average of 10 to 12 hours a day in the office. Ms. Noof is recognized as one of the pioneers in the Authority as she founded the Executive Affairs Department with the support of the GM. With good public relations and interpersonal skills she is known to maintain good relationship with many people in the organization including the GM and Mr. Ahmed. Outside Environment The external environment of NCEMA consists of a number of organizations both public and private. First of all the Authority is created by government under the Higher National Security Council (HNSC) which plays a supervisory role. This means that NCEMA is a public authority funded through public money to provide services to the Emirates and it therefore is bound by the code of conduct of all public bodies. Being under the supervision of the Higher National Security Council, NCEMA is answerable to this council and therefore its activities, although largely autonomous, have to fall in line with the expectations of the HNSC. Another organization that NCEMA works closely with is the Department of Municipal Affairs in Abu Dhabi, this is a department with which the organization has a memorandum of understanding together with the National Media Council (NMC) and Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company. The partnership between these four organizations is based on the understanding that information has to be shared and plans and strategies forged together to be able to achieve the desired results in management of national crises and emergencies. The Department of Municipal Affairs is responsible for most emergency response facilities and infrastructure and it is custodian to a lot of data and information that is essential for the functions of NCEMA. On the other hand the National Media Council is important to any emergency and disaster management strategies as the media is critical in dissemination of information about emergency and crisis. Not only is the media an important tool for warning and information of the public during disasters but it is also critical for education of the people about disaster response and preparation. Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company also plays an important role in supporting the functions of the Authority as the later needs proper data for planning and it also requires good communication networks for disaster planning and management. These organizations form part of the external environment of the Authority and therefore affect its operations as they have to be involved at every stage. NCEMA also works with other department of municipal affairs all over the UAE even though it does not have a memorandum of understanding with all of them. The municipal bodies are obliged through public regulations to provide NCEMA with necessary support and cooperation in everything the Authority requests. The same kind of cooperation is required of any other public and private bodies dealing in any way with disaster management. Some of the other public bodies forming part of NCEMA’s external environment include the police, the national armed forces, and any local community organizations set up to deal with disaster management. The most important part of the environment in which NCEMA operates however is the public. The public is quite an amorphous entity but it can be subdivided into citizens, companies and any other establishments in the UAE that may be affected by any national crisis or emergency. These are the real customers of NCEMA, they are the ones that the Authority has been established to serve and therefore it has to be responsive to their needs and take in their opinions in its operations. Apart from the public, NCEMA needs to work with similar international bodies in the Middle East and other parts of the world so as to share critical information and expertise in emergency response and crisis management. The Authority is quite in its infancy compared to similar bodies all over the developed world which have been handling disaster management and emergencies for many years and have accumulated experience and expertise which can be tapped into by NCEMA. This is the reason why when NCEMA organized a conference to discuss ways to boost crisis response in 2012, a number of disaster management bodies from different countries were also invited to participate and share their experiences. The Problems and Need for Decisions In July 2013, Mr. Saif, the then General Manager left NCEMA. However, before leaving he appointed Mr. Ahmed the head of Executive Affairs to succeed his as the General Manager at the Authority. He also appointed Ms. Noof to become the Unit Head but without any salary increment. The most conspicuous thing about the appointments was that while Ms. Noof was the better performer, her appointment was not accompanied by better remuneration while her counterpart Mr. Ahmed was getting a pay rise of triple his former compensation with his new appointment. Even though Noof enjoyed good working relationship with both Seif and Ahmed, the departure of the former changed things considerably and the relationship between Noof and Ahmed became slightly strained. However, after his appointment to the position of GM, Ahmed’s attitude changed a lot and he started treating all employees respectfully and with greater consideration. On her part, Noof felt that all the developments following the departure of Mr. Seif had been unfair to her. Considering that she was doing almost all the work, she had helped establish the department and she had been largely hardworking and loyal, she felt unappreciated. Ms. Noof thought that she deserved a better position or at the very least better remuneration for her service to the Authority. The fact that she had come to the company with four years’ worth of experience and had worked for three years making a total of seven years entitled her to better terms of engagement. She started to think of leaving the organization because she was sure she would get a better offer somewhere else. This would prove difficult for some of the organization’s functioning as Mr. Ahmed was only new in the GM position and he was not knows as a great performer. Her close friends and confidants in the leadership positions of the Authority pleaded with her to stay for longer to see if things would improve because her presence was critical to the organization. At this time the developments had affected the morale of a number of senior workers in the Authority who were also considering quitting. The organization was also having a hard time recruiting quality employees with the best training and experience because its reputation was deteriorating. The managerial incompetence and heavy handedness of the GM was no longer a matter just within the Authority because reports had spread among a number of other organizations dealing with disaster management and emergency in the UAE. This is largely because all these organizations work in cooperation with NCEMA and a large number of the employees in NCEMA know their counterparts from the other organizations. Concerns were getting raised about the functioning of NCEMA all over the emergency and disaster management fraternity in the UAE, this is because some of the shared programs started stalling and developing complications which largely emanated from NCEMA. However, after the appointment of Mr. Ahmed as the new GM, the CEO started bypassing the GM’s office and working more directly with the Executive Department which was headed by Noof, this was largely because he liked the brilliance and work ethic of Ms. Noof. He felt that she was a hard worker, she was smart and she knew everything about the organization. Because of this, the relationship between the GM and Noof started getting worse. Ahmed started to hate Noof and incessantly harassed her and created trouble for her in a bid to wear her down and make her resign from her position. This was mainly because Ahmed was jealous of her reputation and afraid of her. He seemed to be aware of the fact that the CEO rated Noof higher than him and he risked losing his place to Noof in future if she continued performing better than him at the Authority. Mr. Ahmed was also aware of the good relationship between Noof and a lot of employees in leadership position in the organization. Many other employees who had joined the organization before Ahmed start to hate work at the organization after Ahmed was hired as GM; the first year after his appointment saw scores of employees quit their jobs for jobs outside the organization. Morale in the organization hit an all time low and disorganization started showing in a number of functions which were directly under the GM’s office. It also became evident that Mr. Ahmed did not have trust in most of the departmental heads and senior employees of the Authority and therefore communication between their departments and the office of the GM deteriorated. Ahmed mostly worked and communicated with a clique of trusted friends and employees he had created in his time at the organization, planning and achievement of targets became difficult and long periods started to elapse before strategic meetings, something that had not happened before his tenure. With time Ahmed didnt allow Noof to deal directly with the CEO, instead he reported tasks accomplished by Mis. Noof as if they were his own tasks and he generally blocked any official communication between Noof and the CEO. When she finally decided to quit, Ahmed promised her a promotion head of unit, she then decided to stay some more but only received many excuses for not getting her promotion. The only reason she stayed in the organization more is because she loved NCEMA and the work environment it provided. She also felt the organization needed to be improved from within and it would be like a letdown to the other competent workers in her department to quit in short notice. However, at the same time Ahmed was hiring new staff and posting them to her department where they were to learn the job from Noof, clearly he had an aim of replacing her with his own preferred employee at one point. Apart from the issues between Ahmed and Noof, other scandals and irregularities too were occurring in the company soon after the former had been appointed GM. Barely half a year after his appointment, Ahmed was already employing people into different departments and positions in the organization without following due procedure. Rumors abounded at NCEMA that most of the new employees were his friends or people employed as favors to friends in and outside the organization. The main problem was that most of the new employees had high level of incompetence and quite a number lacked the minimum skills and experience required to work in the organization. As a result work in the organization became more difficult particularly for departmental heads and older workers because new employees required training and in initiation to perform. This situation was not only causing inefficiencies at work but it was also creating strife in departments as there were known cases where new incompetent employees were earning better than older experienced workers. The other problem facing the organization was that Ahmed promoted a number of close allies to key positions mainly because he was wary of most of the departmental heads and felt secure. The greatest problem for the organization however was that with time there developed a cold relationship between Ahmed the GM and the CEO. The poor relationship between them was negatively impacting on organizational performance because of occasional duplication of tasks and lack of once center of authority. This particular scenario however was one of the greatest headaches for NCEMA as it became evident that Ahmed had good connections with most of the directors including the Director General Mr. Khalif, this was purportedly because Mr. Khalif was a family friend and close with Ahmed’s father. This meant that Ahmed had the backing of the board of directors and complaints from the CEO and other employees would not bring about the required action. In fact it was well known that the reason behind Ahmed’s appointment to the post of GM was because of pressure on the former GM Mr. Saif by the directors. End of Case Clearly the NCEMA is faced by a number of organizational problems that have been highlighted through the incidences in this case. It is imperative that solutions be found for this situation as the body is charged with issues of critical national importance and underperformance cannot be risked. The first question that should be asked is ‘what are the roles of the various heads in the organization?’Is the GM for example allowed to interfere in the CEO’s work or vice versa? Questions also need to be raised on the role of an outgoing official in the appointment of their replacement. In general answers need to be found on the best strategies and actions to be put in place to restore order and trust in the Authority. To do this it must be understood to what level the current situation can affect the effective functioning of NCEMA and who are responsible for the situation and its solution. Read More