The Role of Abu Dhabi Police in Improving Traffic Safety - Essay Example

? ROLE OF ABU DHABI POLICE IN IMPROVING TRAFFIC SAFETY AND MANAGEMENT IN ABU DHABI EMIRATE IN ADDITION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT Road safety is a multi-dimensional aspect of everyday life that cuts across most societies and countries at large. It affects everyone since on the road you are either a pedestrian or motorist or passenger. Road safety encompasses orderly road development and management, provision of safe and roadworthy vehicles and quick and rapid response to traffic accidents. The role of police in improving traffic safety should be clearly defined. They include swift response to accidents, ensuring only safe and road worthy vehicles are on the roads and ensuring all other legislation regarding road safety are observed fully. There are also other traffic management centers tasked with the responsibility of ensuring traffic safety and management is well thought of. Introduction The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is contemporary adopting a comprehensive development plan in all aspects of life. It shows a huge interest in developing plans and measures for the renaissance through integration for a future vision for the emirate to 2030. The government has started to prepare the urban plan of Abu Dhabi city, which was adopted in 2007. Achieving this goal will help the government’s strategies to become one of the best five most leading and advanced governments in the world. The realization of the urban plan will require development and improvements of Traffic Management through enhancing traffic safety and improving traffic performance. The collaboration of vehicle and highway to provide transportation must be treated as a system as Rodney K. Lay (2003) suggested in his research. There has been a good effort in Abu Dhabi for the last couple of years between government stakeholders to develop road safety strategy, define rules and responsibilities, and increase a fully coordinated and integrated framework to deal with road safety. It is suitable here to say when you work to prepare a strategy for traffic management, it is very important to consider the most motivating factors for the safety as the humanitarian concerns, economic costs and benefits, and legal and regulatory considerations. The importance of the management in all aspects of the life is indeed consistent with service marketing literature which emphasizes that the ‘people factor’ is an important component of perceived service quality (Ganesh et al, 2000; Chiou et al, 2002). The Henri Fayol as one of the most influential contributors to modern concepts of management considers it to consist of forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordination and controlling [2]. Other scholars, such as Mary Parker Follett, consider management as "the art of getting things done through people"[3]. Usually the transportation systems operating in a developing country may not be as economically, or as efficient as the ones in developed countries. According to my point of view the challenges that might be seen as a problem for the future development of Abu Dhabi can be the management and lack of coordination between all concerned parties in the operation. Here we can narrate what Stanley Pickett (1955), said "Think of the things you see in your own city which everyone wishes were otherwise. They might have been otherwise, if there had been careful planning in the past". The proposed study will focus on the development of a framework that will integrate elements of urban planning related to transportation. These will include traffic management systems, speeds management strategy on the roads, application of the principles of management on traffic safety for road projects, rules and responsibilities for the difference departments involved, and the effective management of the integrated intelligent traffic systems with infrastructure to improve the road safety in Abu Dhabi. All the above will be integrated through the main domain of traffic management which requires an effective structure and organization. As many developing countries are interested in implementing modern traffic management centers lack the financial resources to do so, the proposed framework will include economic assessment mechanisms as part of its structure. OBJECTIVES This study is not aimed at asserting the already written and existing literature on the ideal role of police in improving traffic safety. Neither does it intent to set a new way that is right but it investigates the extent to which the roles of Abu Dhabi Police should encompass so as to improve traffic safety and management In Abu Dhabi. The goal of the study is to establish and even widen the scope on the roles the police should play in order for the future of traffic safety and management of Abu Dhabi to be something to be admired and talked of the world over. It also focusses on empowering the police to make them an integral part of every traffic safety and management policy. In order to fulfill this goal, the study seeks to fulfill the following specific objectives of the study; 1. To identify and study any flaws in the current traffic management centres. a. To identify shortfalls in current efforts to improve traffic safety and in traffic management centres. 2. To carry out analysis about the flaws and come up with implementation strategy to counter the flaws. 3. To come up with uniform and efficient procedures for the government to effectively manage all traffic affairs by studying other similar organisations with internationally acceptable practices, with particular interest on the ideal role of Abu Dhabi Police in improving the traffic safety. 4. To validate the proposed framework and develop a new structure of the traffic management tasks for Abu Dhabi. 5. To evaluate the operation and structure of the developed traffic management centers with the aid of cases and scenarios. 6. To evaluate the behaviors of drivers in Abu Dhabi and how the police can deal with it. 7. To confirm the sufficiency or insufficiency of the traffic rules in Abu Dhabi Emirate regarding roads safety and traffic engineering. Methodology Approach This research will take a deductive approach that will entail the researcher working from a known hypothesis that police play and can even play a much greater role in improving traffic safety and management in Abu Dhabi. Thus, the study takes a top down approach as compared to the inductive approach that takes an up down strategy. This is illustrated by the figure below. To realize the use deductive approach, quantitative tools of collective and analyzing data like questionnaires and interviews were used. Quantitative tools were preferred as compared to qualitative tools because they enable the researcher to come up with facts like a hypothesis on the ideal role of the police in traffic safety and management. This is unlike qualitative tools that first come up with an abstract idea that is followed by creation of theories and concepts about the idea. Lastly, data in quantitative research is hard and reliable as compared with qualitative research where data that is just rich and deep (Quinn, 2002). In addition to the above, this study takes a positivism kind of philosophy towards the role that Abu Dhabi police should play in improving traffic safety and management. A positivism approach will make us understand more the impact of teamwork on not only employees but also overall organization. Research methods Quantitative approach vs. qualitative approach There are two ways to approach any study, either, qualitative or quantitative. However, a study can combine the two approaches by employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The distinction between these two methods arises in how data is collected, treated, and analyzed. A study that is quantitative usually makes an emphasis on transforming the data quantities and the models of statistics for purposes of measuring and analyzing data. The research topics in which researchers use this method have clear idea of what they look or search for and tools like questionnaires are used to collect data. Quantitative approach has its focus on the preciseness of data that is seen in terms of measuring data. Quantitative approach to a research involves using statistical data analyses to obtain information about the study simply because the approach is based on measuring the quantity or amount. On the contrary, a qualitative approach to research makes the researcher to switch his focus to gaining a better understanding of the problem of the research by giving detailed information about the main theme of the study topic. The major goal of a qualitative study is to have a complete and detailed description of the study phenomenon by applying reasoning. Qualitative research involves the use of interviews and observations to collect data and there are no formal measurements involved. Qualitative approach makes the researcher understand the phenomenon under study and be in a position to describe the whole situation as it is. The approach consists of descriptions, quotes, observations, and excerpts from books and other documents (Quinn, p. 2002, p. 308). This study would like the researcher and the reader to gain a better understanding role that police in Abu Dhabi should play to improve traffic safety and management. The study will provide a detailed explanation of teamwork, its use, and application in the traffic engineering and roads safety department of Abu Dhabi Police. In order to do this, a quantitative approach to research will applied by the study. This will involve gathering information about traffic safety and management and how the police can fit in. This approach allows the researcher to use statistical data. Strategy of research This study would get to the deeper understanding and knowledge of the role of police in improving traffic safety and management. The study also involves investigating what should be done to empower police so as to make them efficient in improving traffic safety and management. A case study is a strategy for the research that involves the researcher collecting and making an analysis of data from a given case. In this study, the researcher will use the traffic engineering and roads safety department in Abu Dhabi Police as the case study for improving traffic safety in Abu Dhabi Emirate. A case study is relevant as well as useful to the study in all situations that will give rise to different but relevant interpretations to the topic of study. This study will employ an embedded single case study that gives an attention to a single case study for analysis. A survey is another design that the research uses. A survey is good for this study because it can be administered from any location and large sample are feasible with many questions being asked about the impact of police in improving traffic safety in Abu Dhabi Emirate. In addition to that, the use of surveys makes the researcher employ standard questions that result in uniform definitions and responses from the respondents. There are three types of questionnaires design to be used in this study. The first one will be for experts, second for traffic officers in Abu Dhabi police and the third is for the public. 3.4 Data collection methods It is important to choose relevant data collection methods for the study because they will aid in successful completion of the study. The method that is selected by the researcher will determine how data is collected in the course of research. The various methods of collecting data will vary depending on the approach that the study is using. This study will employ interviews and questionnaires to collects data (Miles & Hurberman, 1994). The data will collected from statistics centers in Abu Dhabi police like the traffic statistic branch in traffic and patrols directorate at Abu Dhabi Police. According to Quinn (2002, p. 10), secondary data collection methods refer to the ability of the researcher to carry out an analysis of the data that has already been prepared by other researchers. This research will use both primary and secondary methods to collect data for the study. The primary sources of data will come from the questionnaires, interviews and traffic statistics from the Abu Dhabi police conducted by the researcher. The secondary sources will include review of both published and unpublished literature that is related to the suitability of teamwork for employee performance in non-profit making organizations. (Jain, 2006, p. 376). 3.4.1 Population and sample Selection The population of the study will comprise of the various people in charge of traffic and safety management in Abu Dhabi. It is important that all members of the study population be studied to ascertain the findings of the study. However, due to constraints experienced by the researcher during the study, only 30% of the study population will be studied. Mcneill, and Chapman, (2005, p. 226) argues that the process of sampling involves selecting elements from the study population so that by carrying a study of the sample and having an understanding of the properties of the characteristics of the subjects of the sample, it will be possible to generalize the properties to specific elements in the population. Sampling techniques that can be used in any research are many and the researcher can choose depending on the goals and objectives of the study. The use of these sampling techniques allows a researcher to choose the sample population from a subset of a large population rather than the whole population reducing the cost of the study. Concerning this study, Stratified random sampling was chosen because it is a probability method that gives every member of the population equal chance of being selected as a sample. 3.4.2 Design of questionnaire The questions that are commonly used in surveys and questionnaires are usually open ended, closed-ended questions and likert scales. Open ended questions do not always give answers that a respondent can choose from but allow participants to answer freely. On the other hand, closed ended questions provide answers for the respondent to choose from. Likert scale questions requests respondents to respond to the question along a given continuum from the given responses. The questionnaire and questions for interviews that were used in this study, contained question that had the above three structures. The development of the questionnaire considered questions that will give rise to information that is relevant to the importance of teamwork on employee performance in non-profit making organizations. 3.5 Data Analysis Responses to the interviews and questionnaires will be analyzed using thematic analysis. This tool is considered to be highly inductive, as themes are not imposed on data by the researcher but rather emerge from the data itself. In this method, data from different people is compared and contrasted, similarities and differences identified in a process that continues until the researcher is satisfied that no more new issues or themes are arising (Flick, et al. 2004). Thematic analysis was chosen because it allows rich, in-depth, and detailed meaning to be derived from the collected data. It involves coding of data according to the emerging themes (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Thematic analysis analyses the descriptions line by line, allowing rich in-depth data to be derived from the responses (Russell & Gery, 2009). This tool categorizes the findings and conclusions from various sources according to the emerging themes, making it possible to identify similarities in the meanings and explanations from the various respondents. The researcher is also able to highlight the main issues emerging from the responses. Line by line analysis allows the researcher to highlight matching patterns in the text from the different responses allowing quantification of data (Salkind, 2008). 3.6 Reliability and validity The performance of any research tool is usually measured in terms of reliability, validity and sensitivity as well as specificity. These concepts will also be applied in this study by the researcher to ascertain the reliability of the study. According to Clarke, reliability is the ability by which a study is able to produce results that are consistent and stable over a given period of time and given similar circumstances (Clarke, 1998). Various types of validities exist that include internal validity and external validity. Internal validity relates to the correlation between items when measured on a scale. Whenever a study provides the same results after the application of two different measures, the outcome is said to be equivalent. Validity is the extent to which a given instrument is designed to measure. The validity of a study can vary in different samples used. In one situation, a study can be valid while in other scenarios, it may not. The validity of a study is measured by what the study claims to and the availability of logical errors in the conclusions drawn from the study. According to Crotty (2003), internal validity is the extent to which it is possible to make independent reference from the findings of a study especially if the independent variable influences the dependent variable. On the other hand, external validity is the general application of the findings of a study to other settings. The measurement of the theoretical construct of a study is measured using construct validity while convergent validity makes comparison between the scores that are obtained from different instruments that are used in the study. Unlike convergent validity, divergent validity compares the instruments used in the study that measure concepts that are opposite. Given the above validity and reliability, the study is valid ad reliable for use by any person or strategic department (Clarke, 1998) References and Bibliography 1 Economic Vision for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi 2030 November 2008 2 Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 "Framework Plan 2007 Urban Structure 3 Strategic Plan of the General Directorate of Police Abu Dhabi 2010 4 the proposed strategic initiatives of the Directorate of Traffic and Patrols for 2011 5 Ganesh J.., Arnold M.J. and Reynolds K.E., (2000), Understanding the customer base of service providers: an examination of the differences between switchers and stayers, Journal of Marketing 64 (2) (2000), pp. 65–87 6 Yahya N., Nelson J.D., Mulley C., (2007), Evaluating the Effect of ‘Quality’ on Bus Users’ Satisfaction, Proceeding World Conference Transport Research. 7 Rodney K. 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