The Ways Dubai Islamic Bank Motivates Its Employees - Case Study Example

Dubai Islamic Bank   Your name:   Course name:             Professors’ name: Date: Introduction Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) was formed in 1975, and is the first bank in Middle East to include principles of Islamic in all its dealings. The banking is the largest banks in United Arab Emirates, the bank operate a number of branches, the branches in UAE are as follows: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Sharjah, and Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al, and Fujairah branch. Dubai Islamic Bank is also involved in international partnerships, having established Dubai Islamic Bank (Pakistan) Ltd, which is has more than 34 branches in 15 major cities in Pakistan. In addition, the bank also has branches in Jordan, Turkey and Iran. The bank shares have been listed in Dubai financial Market. In this context, the bank operation in Dubai has been an impressive one; the bank has remained true to its roots as a customer-centered Bank where understanding and personal service has form the basis of its operations. The bank has incorporated Islamic culture, traditions and heritage and this is joined with commitment to innovation, modernity and flexibility, and this has enabled the bank to provide its customers with comprehensive solutions to their financial needs. DIB Human Resources approach Dubai Islamic Bank uses HR approach to respond to their changing needs, the banks rapid growth in new market has forced it to keep up with the demands of increasing its workforce. The bank operation in the competitive market has forced it HR to move away from activities that are liabilities to the Bank, and invest in activities that will improve the general performance of the bank. The DIB HR has focus on the following in its operations: Recruitment The company has a policy of recruiting the most qualified personnel from both internal and external market to supplement the company workforce. The HR division has a well defined recruitment procedure that ensures all potential candidates being interviewed have been treated fairly and with respect. In addition, the bank has a management trainee program across all its business functions and branches. Training and Development Dubai Islamic Bank has realized training and development for its workers is critical to its future success, therefore, HR division has a program of investing into its employee future. As Dubai Islamic Bank, training is a partnership between the Bank and the employee, the bank a framework in which the employees can identify an appropriated training and development needs of the bank. Training and development have shown to be valuable to the banks success and this has been the reason behind it success in the global market; the bank has able to train and retain its talented employees, and this has been a way of dismantling it traditional structure that would limit the bank employee ability to be creative and innovative. Cross- culture management skilled In culture competency is the ability of a manager or employees in the organization to respond respectfully and effectively to Arab cultures to an extent religion and being able to protect and preserves the dignity of that culture (Lowe. In life it is amazing to see how different people in other cultures behave, many people tend to generalized that all people are the same, but they are not. Therefore, it is important for a Bank to make decisions based on the culture that is found in UAE or other Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Jordan. If the Bank can hire a manager who will understand and applied Arab culture properly; it will reduce the level of frustration, anxiety and concern for the organization. In Dubai Islamic Bank the following dimensions will be highlighted: Leadership skills: education and experience are valuable assets, but Dubai Islamic Bank will hire a foreign expert when they cannot find a local person with the expertise. But leadership skills are also an asset, as the Bank will want to learn from different employee leadership styles. Leadership will deal with the interpersonal relationship, therefore in the bank, leadership skills along with managing an organization are a must. The role of a leader in the bank is to guide, inspire, and communicate organization policies and to build trust and to direct people under him towards achieving the goals of the bank. when a leader is able to persuade employees under him/her to complete some objective that is required in the organization without forcing his authority on them, then the manager has demonstrated leadership qualities; a leader can be a good manager, but a good manager is not necessary a leader. Communication skills: Arab culture is segregated in general, but you can find women working with me in the workplace, distance is a must when you communicate with the opposite sex at work place. In Arab culture making physical contact with opposite sex is not permitted and can land an employee into trouble. While, body languages is a part of Arab culture, and you see people nodding their heads down; that an indication of a “yes” response or an approval of a statement made, and moving the head sideways is associated with a negative response “NO.” eyes contacts is also used during conversation; the manager’s nature determines the level of maintaining eye contact with the other employees in the bank, but the manager is supposed to avoid prolonging eye contact with the opposite sex workers because this could be interpreted as an invitation. Everyday a manager will spend most of time in communicating to his/her subordinates in the bank. Therefore, it is very vital for effective communication in the bank; processes such as: planning, organizing, directing and controlling are accomplished in the organization through good communications. A manager having good communication skills in the organization, it will reduce conflict and also prevent unnecessary misunderstanding. Some people would argue that lack of communication skills in managers, is the source of all conflicts within the bank; therefore, it is not enough for a manager to have good communication skills but he/she must know the process of communications that has been set up in the bank. A manager being able to communicate instructions and ideas to his/her subordinate is important in the bank. Team building: in DIB working culture is important to establish personal relationship with your work colleague or a business client. In most cases a client or a work colleague can invite the manager to a café to meet socially at first, while others will exchange their home invitations with business associates. In Arab culture social attitude will vary to a great extent, some Arabians are liberal; others are reserved and may reject an invitation outside of work. Therefore your first impression meeting with a client or work colleague will give you a good indication to how open or reserved and individual is; the prospective manager should take your cue from your colleague or client. Team building and development is very important in the bank. Some of the reasons that underlie the importance of team building are that it is an important tool for ensuring good management, it reduces stress among team members because it opens up networks for sharing the workloads of the team evenly, it has the potential to enhance team performance due to the fact that more creative and innovative ideas are created through team building and it increases the capability of teams to solve multi/ interdisciplinary and interpersonal. Organizational skills: in Dubai Islamic Bank, organizational skills have been broken down into three areas; planning skills; Time management, timetabling and working to deadlines; and assigning priorities. The bank have realized all threes qualities are important for its operations. For example, if the bank does not set their priorities right, they will become overwhelmed because they will try to respond to anything, while planning will set the agenda of the bank-sorting out priorities of the bank and how to achieve them, and time management is how the bank implement their priorities. All these three combinations provide an elusive work-life balance for the bank and its employees in general. The bank have realized establishing organizational skills will help employees to perform their work according to their work responsibilities and duties, and this has help the bank to promote overall objectives of an person’s profession or job. Knowledge transfer skills: it involves transferring knowledge from one part of the bank to another part of the bank. The purpose of knowledge transfer seeks to create, organize, capture knowledge and ensure the bank has the ability to use the knowledge in the future operations. Dubai Islamic bank has realized knowledge transfer is a complex one because knowledge resides in the bank tools, tasks, members, and their sub-networks. In the bank, knowledge is the basis on what the bank does on a daily operation, and the bank understanding what kind of knowledge can be found in the organization, has helped the bank to foster its internal social structures that has facilitated and supported learning in all the departments in the bank. Strategy used in Bank In order to compete with their competitors, the bank has been able to employ different strategies. Among the strategies employed by the bank is the managing for “growth” strategy. This strategy has enabled the bank to develop rapidly; also it has enable the bank to build it strengths and adheres with those areas that needed further enhancement. Since the sole purpose of the bank is to be a leader in financial services sectors in UAE, the bank has used the strategy that strives to protects and sustain its operations to be the leading position among their target market. Dubai Islamic bank has also used the human resource management as a strategy; the bank has been able to provide comprehensive and intensive value among its workers. Their productive employees have enabled the bank to reach their targeted goals. In addition, the organization has been able to apply customer relationship approach that has enable them to maintain good relationship with their customers all over the countries which they have operations. Through the use internet and other new technology such as mobile phone banking, the bank has been able to reach different customers from all over the world, and this has made the bank see the need to provide quality and satisfactory packaging. Management is also a strategy that has been employed by the bank that has enabled the bank to maintain competitive advantage in their area of operations. Organization Behavior Organizational behavior can be defined as the study of employee’s behavior and patterns of structure in order to help the bank improves its organizational effectiveness and performance. Through Organizational behavior, Dubai Islamic Bank has realized it will offer several ideas to management as to how human factor should be properly managed and emphasized in the bank to achieve the goal and objectives of the bank. Through organizational behavior, the bank is given an opportunity to analyze employee behavior and also it provides a means in which it can shape their employees in a particular direction. Employee motivation Most of countries in which the bank has its operations are welfare countries, so money is not an issue to their employees, but the biggest motivating factor for their workers would probably be high status and this goes along with high salary. Loyalty at work place is also a motivating factor in UAE culture. The work of a manager in an organization is to get things done through his/her subordinate, to be able to do this, manager should be able to motivate his/her subordinates. There are some common traits in which a successful manager in an organization must possess, is there: drive, enthusiasm and their motivation to succeed, the role of a manager in an organization is to solve problems, jump over hurdles, mitigate risks, manage conflict that may occur in the organization, and negotiate demands; I'm sure you have seen very unmotivated manager in an organization, the ones that just go with the flow, never seem to really take a stand or make a decision. For a manager who is in touch with his/her strengths and weakness, will know how to play to their strengths; a manager who has is a good public speaker can use his/her talents to motivate his/her subordinates. Conversely, a quieter manager can motivate his/her subordinate by setting the right example and leading through close team participation. It is the work of a manager to push his/her subordinate to the limit in a way that will get them motivated- if employees in an organization cannot identify and relate to the objective of the organization, it is the work of manager to motivate them towards the objectives of the organization. The bank motivates its employees through the following ways: Job Enrichment: this where the bank redesigned the work of an employee so that it can provide recognition, achievement, responsibility and growth in an employee. Job enrichment comprises of variety in greater use of skills, work contents and opportunity for worker growth. The purpose of job enrichment is to enrich authority in bank employees. Flexi-Time: the purpose of this is to make employee have control on their work schedule, this when the work time of an employee is divided into core time and flexi-time. During flexi-time, the workers are free to choose their own timings while during core time workers are compulsorily present. Reference List Bovée, C. 2003.Business communication today. London: Prentice Hall Publisher. Buchele, N. 2008.Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture. New York: Kuperard Publisher, Gallupe, H.Q. 1912.Team work: a comedy in three acts. New York: Walter H. Baker & Co., Lowe, P. 1995. Leadership Skills. New York: Kogan Page Publisher,. McBride, P. 1996. Motivation skills. London: Harcourt Education Publisher, Kittle, E. 1994. Leadership skills: developing volunteers for organizational success. London: Fisher Books Publisher, Porter, M 1980, Competitive Strategy, The Free Press, New York. www.alislami.ae/en/index.htm Read More