The Role of Leadership and Employee Empowerment

Executive Summary

The following dissertation is related to the study of evaluating the role of leadership and employee empowerment to achieve Total Quality Management and the company chosen to be the case study is General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. TQM is basically the process through which planning, organizing, controlling and directing is managed and consists the quality of products used, services provided and the satisfaction level involved. The process of Total Quality Management makes sure to take control of all the procedures and operations of the company and provide 100% satisfaction level to the management of the enterprise and also to its customers. Total Quality Management is one management principle which could help the companies in attaining respectable position in the global marketplace among other competitive private companies.

Leadership skills and employee empowerment are another two elements of Total Quality Management which could help the public sector to stand above other competitive companies by delivering quality service to its customer base. The approach of Total Quality Management along with Leadership skills and Employee Empowerment facilitates the public sector to improve its working conditions, working environment, and quality of services delivered to the customers. The main motive of Total Quality Management is to make sure that the leaders of the project prevents and then removes the problems from the process cycle instead of identifying them. These elements along with TQM facilitate the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs to provide services to the local and foreign residents in Dubai. The following study emphasizes on evaluating the main reason behind the quality control of services provided by the management and the working staff in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This department is responsible to keep track of all the tourist, commercial, and business activities in Dubai.

Introduction

In every economy, development and performance is highly dependent on how its people, citizens, culture, strategies, environment, resources, and infrastructure are handled by the leaders of that country. Nations rely on the leadership skills of their leaders and rulers. People are the main entities and assets for every country because they play the most vital role in the growth, sustain development, economy intensification, popularity graph, and future plans. Same goes for every organization where the management has to understand the importance of its employees by incorporating polished leadership skills and the ingredient employee empowerment for the future development of the enterprise. The main role in the establishment of any department or organization is its people and the company can only perform well if the people working in the company are sincerely devoted to work there.

The following dissertation is related to the study of evaluating the role of leadership and employee empowerment to achieve Total Quality Management and the company chosen to be the case study is General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs Department works directly under the banner of General Administration of establishment and affairs with whom the Ministry of Foreign Affairs department is also allocated. The main objective of this department is to offer public service to the local residents and the foreign inhabitants and keep a track these people in associated to state land. The circle of General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs department is wide because it contains several other small and large department such as, The Department of Residence and Investigation, The Department of Entry Permits, The Department of Companies, The Department of Passport Issuance and Finance, and many others that help the management to look after all the local and foreign population of Dubai and The United Arab Emirates carefully. General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs Department is responsible for keeping track of all the people who have boarded in Dubai, left Dubai, came to visit Dubai, for issuing visit and immigrant visas, for issuing resident visas, for issuing passports, or for deporting any illegal resident.

Background of Study

As per Sallis (2002); in today’s world, managing people while keeping the environment in control, safe and healthy is one of the most significant concerns. Total Quality Management (TQM) can be defined as the management of all the processes and strategies of company to attain good quality in all aspects; such as products, services, time-frame, teamwork, infrastructure, management of shareholders and getting 100% customer satisfaction level. The low quality of work could be replaced by providing total quality management in return. TQM is basically the process through which planning, organizing, controlling and directing is managed and consists the quality of products used, services provided and the satisfaction level involved. The main objective of Total Quality Management is to make new customers while retaining the old customer base. So in order to compete, organizations restructure their marketing strategies and working conditions to generate higher revenue and profitable circumstances. In this field, private organizations are more active than public organizations in the global competitive marketplace because of the changing working conditions, globalization, advanced technology, innovative creations, quality control management, and inflation in economy of different countries.

On the other hand, public organizations are also trying to put their best effort along with the help of governmental bodies and departments so that they could meet the competitive edge with a broader vision to satisfy their customers. In today’s world, it has become essential and mandatory for all the organizations to reorganize their working infrastructure so that they could compete in the global competitive marketplace, survive among their competitors while making a difference, attain 100% customer satisfaction level, and make new customers as well while making high profitable revenues. Customers have different opinions about the product or service offered by the company and they want their requirements to be fulfilled by that simple from the company. These objectives can be achieved by implementing Total Quality Management within the working environment of the company. The process of Total Quality Management makes sure to take control of all the procedures and operations of the company and provide 100% satisfaction level to the management of the enterprise and also to its customers (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2008, p671).

According to Crowther & Green (2004); on the other hand, leadership and employee empowerment are two significant elements of Total Quality Management that plays a vital role in the progress and future development of the company. The main objective of leadership is to focus on the significance of quality delivered to the customers and emphasizes on optimistic changed behaviors in the company. Factors that depend on the rule of leadership are self development, enterprise philosophy and motivational factor of the working staff. It has been observed that poor quality delivered by the company leads to unprofessionalism and unmotivated staff because they are not allowed to contribute with their innovative ideas or are not willing to contribute towards correcting the company incompetency.

Importance of Study

The following study is very important and significant due to the factor that every company is in great need of proper quality management and improved performance, varying from the private sector company to public sector organizations. The main source of performance, growth and development lies in the quality of the products or services offered by the company. This is why companies have to keep an eye on what level of service and quality they are delivering to their customers. This is one of the greatest challenges in the global market. Speaking of the global market, the level of services provided in the sector of the United Arab Emirates is not as appreciable as it had to be. UAE is a famous country due to the growing building infrastructures, business opportunities, and fashion range. The country receives lots of local and foreign customers that is growing every year.

Apart from all these developments, the level of quality of services delivered is not as good as they were supposed to. This affects the entire government budget, growth, business objectives, and economy of the country because customers simply leave when they are not attended properly. The quality crises are faced mostly in the private organizations where there is no proper check on the quality of services delivered to the customers from employees and management of the company. The following study emphasizes on evaluating the main reason behind the quality control of services provided by the management and the working staff in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It would analyze how leadership and employee empowerment along with the Total Quality Management could improve the overall scenario and how it could maintain sustain development in this sector by satisfying not only the local population, but also the foreign residents (Özbilgin & Syed, 2010, p372).

Problem Statement

The following study revolves around the concepts of leadership and employee empowerment which are related to the main theory of Total Quality Management.

According to Grunig & Dozier (2002); Total Quality Management has been the core topic of many subjects where its aspects, principles, pros and cons have been discussed in detail for many years. It has been concluded that Total Quality Management is essential for every organization that is in need of development, growth, prosperity, profitable revenue generation, improved quality services, and 100% customer satisfaction level. Total Quality Management, Leadership skills, and Employee Empowerment could be the solution to all these concerns if they are properly implemented and incorporated within the functional body of company’s working environment. The main objective of every company’s management is to grasp the attention of its customers and rule over other competitors in the competitive global marketplace.

Total Quality Management can help organizations and their management to make their dream true. Private organizations are more complex and complicated as compared because they have more challenges and obstacles to handle as compared to the public organizations. However, public organizations also have challenges but usually they are not given importance because of the fact that most of the governmental bodies and agencies do not take public companies seriously and take their problems or challenges very lightly. Examples of these are poorly designed compensation packages, lack of reimbursement plans, lack of properly designed policies, lack of enthusiasm, lack of innovative ideas, and lack of bureaucratic interest in delivering quality services to the customers. However, in the recent years, governmental bodies in many countries are paying attention to this problem and trying to help he public sector so that they could provide quality services to their customers.

As stated by Genc (2008) The General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs in the region of Dubai is yet another public sector that faces such problems and is in great need of a solution that could provide sustain development, customer satisfaction, growth, prosperity, good reputation, trust, and profitable revenue generation to the entire sector. This could be achieved with the help of implementation of Total Quality Management, strategic Leadership skills, and Employee Empowerment. The following study would lay stress on how these three factors could make strong foundation for the entire department and help it grow. The study would also emphasize on how these concepts could be actively used in the public organizations so that quality service could be delivered to the customers of the company.

Aims & Objectives of the Study

There are always some main aims and objectives on which the entire research is carried out for the study. The following study is related to the study to evaluate the role of leadership skills and employee empowerment to carry out successful Total Quality Management in the General Directorate of Residency and General Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. There are some major aims and objectives that are listed in the following in detail:

• To carefully study and analyze the role of leadership skills and employee empowerment and their direct impact on attaining the application of Total Quality Management
• To critically evaluate the role played by leadership on the department of general directorate of residency and general affairs in establishing organizational systems and processes aimed at supporting TQM efforts.
• To critically evaluate how leadership behaviour and management style influences employee satisfaction and motivation in the provision of services.
• To critically evaluate how the employee empowerment impacts on the successful implementation of TQM in the naturalization and residency department.

Research Questions

The entire research carried out for this study would emphasize on some particular research questions which are laid down so that they could be identified carefully. These research objectives and questions are listed as under:

• Does leadership behaviour have an impact on employees in achieving the goals of TQM?
• What is the role of leadership in establishing processes that support TQM?
• What is the relationship between leadership and employee satisfaction?
• What is the importance of the employee empowerment in achieving TQM?

Overview of Chapters

The whole dissertation has been divided into several partitions and these parts are described as under:

Chapter#1: Introduction

As said from its topic, the first chapter reveals the introductory part of the dissertation which includes the main theme, theory, aims and objectives, limitations of the study, importance of the dissertation, research objectives and research questions which are set ahead to help out with the remaining dissertation

Chapter#2: Literature Review

This section of the dissertation provides the reader with the detailed information and insight of the main concept of the dissertation. It would provide the reader with the definitions, concepts, elements, people involved, working and safeguard of the safety culture in construction industry.

Chapter#3: Research Methodology

This chapter reveals the research involved in the dissertation. This section not only gives the main case study’s insight to the reader, but also evaluates the quality of the dissertation by analyzing its research methods used, qualitative or quantitative method, and the validity and reliability of the dissertation.

Chapter#4: Findings & Results

This chapter highlights the main key points and results of the descriptive statistics found till yet in front of the reader with regards to the main concept and research of the dissertation.

Chapter#5: Discussions and Conclusion

This chapter describes, discusses and concludes the dissertation topic in detail. Apart from that, the limitations faced by the researcher are also explained with conceptual methodologies.

Chapter#6: Recommendations

This chapter would include any recommendations or suggestions that are needed to improve the overall cycle and infrastructure of the main model of research. It would emphasize on how the subject matter could be improved further by using what resources under what circumstances.

Limitations of Study

The limitations which were faced while carrying out the research on this dissertation are listed below:

• Limited financial resources possessed
• Different markets designs, characteristics, specifications and structures
• Lack of knowledge possessed by the research participants of the research carried forward for dissertation
• Lack of resources or references while carrying out research for carrying out the investigation regarding the subject matter
• Lack of knowledge regarding the main topic of the dissertation
• Restrictions implemented due to the factor of money and time
• Wrong interpretation of the commonly used processes and procedures in the markets’ environments

Introduction

This section would be holding the main concepts, definitions, ideas, elements and everything which are related to evaluate the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain the application of Total Quality Management in the areas of the General Directorate of Residency and General Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The section is known as Literature review, an important section of the thesis which helps in getting the main idea of the research. The key task here is to compare the definitions and interpretation of Total Quality Management along with its applications, principles, benefits, disadvantages, and importance. Moreover, scope of leadership skills and employee empowerment would also be evaluated carefully and then would be compared after embedding them with the concept of Total Quality Management. The department selected as the final case study for this dissertation is the Department of General Directorate of Residency & General Affairs in Dubai.

Previously, public sector and public oriented organizations were usually not taken seriously by the governmental bodies and agencies due to their limitations and limited future scope. But speaking as of today, the scenario has been changed and public sector has shown a lot of improvement within its working infrastructure. This is 21^st century and this era has seen a lot of developments and growth aspects in case of public sector. Now, public organizations have conscious towards their future goals and objectives and are more interested in attaining a respectable position in the corporate sector. However, there are some public oriented companies and governmental departments where they want to compete with the modern world but are not aware of what to do or not given enough opportunities to show their capabilities. This is because public sector needs to be efficient and productive just like the private sector and organizations due to the fact that public sector is also important and has significant importance.

They need to grow and develop strategically because they have important objectives to accomplish which could only be achieved if properly handled and given importance to. Total Quality Management is one management principle which could help the companies in attaining respectable position in the global marketplace among other competitive private companies. Leadership skills and employee empowerment are another two elements of Total Quality Management which could help the public sector to stand above other competitive companies by delivering quality service to its customer base. Quality of services provided to the customers is one of the most significant elements for any company to improve its public image. The approach of Total Quality Management along with Leadership skills and Employee Empowerment facilitates the public sector to improve its working conditions, working environment, and quality of services delivered to the customers.

Framework for Review

In this section of literature review, we would discuss the main literature on the basis of which this research would be carried out. The main topics which would be included in this section are:

• Understanding Total Quality Management (TQM)
  • Origin of Total Quality Management
  • Principles of Total Quality Management
  • Advantages of Total Quality Management
  • Disadvantages of Total Quality Management
• Understanding Leadership
  • Understanding Employee Empowerment
  • Effect of Employee Empowerment on Leadership
  • Relating Total Quality Management & Leadership
  • General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs – Dubai
  • Total Quality Management in the Public Sector

Understanding Total Quality Management (Tqm)

Kubr (2002) explains in his book that in today’s competitive world, private and public sectors strive to carry out a lot of tasks and operations so that they could survive successfully and achieve the targeted objectives set ahead of them within the timeline by using their resources, power and wherewithal available to them so that they could serve and satisfy their customer base. It is not an easy task as the public sector, its management and the team workers need to carry out the essentials according to the needs and requirements of their target relevant group.

The goal of attaining a respectable position in the competitive world is to understand how their offered services can satisfy the needs of the group being served while carrying out their social responsibilities in accordance to the favour of people’s health and maintaining safe environment for the atmosphere (Visser et al, 2008). Achieving customer satisfaction is the most difficult thing to do because it needs perfect source of product or service offered to the customer and a level of continuous improvement for the management of the public sector. Generally, it seems impossible to attain all these tasks and to achieve 100% customer satisfaction level. However, it is not impossible at all. It is all quite possible and the process of Total Quality Management makes it possible for the management of the public sector. Total Quality Management is the process that changes impossible into possible.

Rawlins (2008) illustrates that Total Quality Management is a structured, well planned, and comprehensive principled approach that enables the management of public sector to improve the overall quality of their offered product or service. It helps the management of the public sector to manage its resources, products, services, and ongoing processes. It also allows the public sector to focus on the quality of the products or services offered in the marketplace and to increase the performance and productivity level of the working staff and working infrastructure. It emphasize on continuous improvement of the public sector including its manufactured goods, offered services, the area of improvement includes customers, public company’s working environment, employees, and even suppliers. Total Quality Management streamlines everything, minimizes errors, takes care of supply chain management, increases customer satisfaction, ensures employee management, and seeks for equipment modernization. The main origin of it was from the manufacturing sector but it could be applied to any organization specifically. In general, Total Quality Management is all based on management of quality and customer satisfaction.

According to Antony & Preece (2002); there is no particular rule how to implement Total Quality Management within its working infrastructure. Every public sector has its own protocol of rules and regulations and it just need to concentrate on how to improve the working environment in continuous manner; therefore, the public sector can incorporate Total Quality Management procedure according to the way it likes to. The only procedure that everyone should follow is to carry out all the tasks according to the will of the management of the company in a structured manner. That’s the only difference between a structured and unstructured working environment that follows Total Quality Management procedures within its infrastructure. However, there are some predesigned Total Quality Management Models that some companies prefer to follow; for example, the ISO Series of Standards TQM, the Deming Application Prize, the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, and many other models which are globally known.

Total Quality Management could also be taken as a set of processes, procedures, and principles that are designed together to carry out efficient business along with good quality management in a professionally working environment. These principles contribute to carry out continuous performance and improvement over time (Chary, 2009, p33).

Origin of Total Quality Management

McCollum (2004) explains that the main origin of Total Quality Management could be tracked from the time of World War I when the methods of quality assurance were newly developed and introduced. The poor manufacturing and bad quality of goods and services in bulk quantities gave rise to the concept of Total Quality Management. In order to solve this problem, quality managers and inspectors came forward and introduced the concept of quality assurance so that they could control the low quality manufacturing of goods and could help the companies in delivering improved services of good quality and price.

Amasaka (2004, p107) writes in the book that after the end of World War I, companies started believing more in good quality and the practice of quality assurance became so common that it gave rise to the concept of Statistical Quality Control (SQC). Dr. Edwards Deming invented this methodology for better product quality. It is a quality assurance methodology that assures strategic and statistical method of quality assurance on the basis of quality and service delivery. The methodology of Statistical Quality Control was designed and made on the perception that a discrepancy in the manufacturing process leads to discrepancy in the finished product. If this discrimination or variation could be demolished from the process then it would lead to the maximum level of improved quality of the finished product.

As stated by Kaila (2005); when the World War II was ended, Japan, a leading manufacturing base of products and services start delivering poor quality of goods and services to its customers and client countries. In order to come over this problem, the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers asked Dr. Deming to come and find a solution for this problem. Dr. Deming came and gave training to the Japanese staff, manufacturers, and suppliers too deliver better quality products and services. By the end of 1950, quality control assurance became one of the most integral and significant part of Japanese manufacturing and supplying industry. Later on, other organizations all around the world also adopted quality assurance and quality control measures so that they could also provide the highest rate of good quality of products and services.

Dabade & Wankhade (2010) writes in their book that 1970 was the era of quality control where it became the topic of every industry and organization. Not only the top management of every company, but also the middle and staff employees became interested in incorporating quality control measures within their organization so that their company could provide the best product in the market. This includes Japanese and non-Japanese organizations. In the next decade of 1980, more organizations took interest in implementing quality control measures and it became so popular that quality control became the most fundamental element in delivering good quality of product or service. Later on, quality control was given the title of Total Quality Management where it was applied by all known industries and multinational organizations. As time passes, quality control measures took over not only the product and services of the company but also the environmental control, working conditions, but every single task that is related to the organization.

Principles of Total Quality Management

According to Kumar (2006); there are some significant principles on which the entire process of Total Quality Management exists. These principles are listed and explained as under (Business Excellence Website, 2010):

• Employee Empowerment – Involvement of people and involving employees while making decisions of the future business is one of the most important principles of Total Quality Management. It ensures that all the people involved with the public sector and its business are connected with the management and together.
• Process Thinking – Being processed centrally is what businesses need to apply before doing any deal or making any big decision. If the management of the public sector knows how to think and act strategically, then it makes the entire process very simple.
• Systematic & Strategic Approach – Every public organization must plan according to what is right for everyone. Every strategy should lead to one core component of the product and that is, good quality.
• Factual Decision Making – The management of the public sector is responsible for making decisions and implementing them according to the strategy that the company follows. Every decision made by the management must not be made on the base of personal interest or thinking, rather it must be made on the basis of actual facts and figures.
• Perfect Communication – There should not be any communication gap between the people working inside or outside the public sector. Everyone should be in touch and well aware of every single change made in the company because everyone involved in the public sector business is important.
• Integrated System – The vision and mission statement of the business should be clear to all the employees of the public sector so that they could mutually perform together to attain the targets and goals set ahead.
• Being Customer Focused – The public sector and its management decides and plan for quality control but they are not the one who judges the quality of the products or services offered by the public sector in the market. It is the customer who decides whether the provided food or service is good enough to be utilize by its customers or not.
• Continuous Improvement – This is the most important principle on which every organization works. Continuous improvement is the only factor through which a public sector could make new customers while retaining the old customer base.

Advantages of Total Quality Management

Janakiraman & Gopal (2006) explains that with the implementation of Total Quality Management, public sector gets a lot of advantages. These benefits are not only enjoyed by the management of the company, but also by the employees, stakeholders, suppliers, customers, and all the people who are somehow related to the business of the public sector. Total Quality Management is one simple process but it has several uncountable advantages. With the help of this system, companies can save extra costs and increase the level of productivity. Working environment become extra efficient where employees are found motivated and devoted to their work with sincerity towards the public sector and its assets. Quality control becomes conscious but it results in delivering the best quality to the customers which ultimately results in customer satisfaction.

Total Quality Management enables the management of the public sector to reduce the level of work load and the level of mistakes by producing financial savings that uses minimum resources and utilizes maximum efficiency and productivity. Level of readiness increases along with the increase in satisfaction of working together among individual employees. Failure timings reduce that enables the company to produce more within less time while carrying out sustain development. Total Quality Management also helps the public sector to calculate accurate monthly and annual budget for its production of goods and services. Moreover, it enables the public oriented companies to streamline its procedures and production plan in a better form than ever. While doing this, the company is able to perform well and develops improved reputation which reduces the amount of errors and gives quick response and result. Last but not the least, other benefits of Total Quality Management includes elimination of customer support expenditures, elimination of extra warranty, and 100% level of customer satisfaction (Vallabhaneni, 2008, p190).

Disadvantages of Total Quality Management

Mylonas, Harvey, & Hodges (2007) states in their book that every process has some pros and cons, and there is no procedure which is error free or perfect. Same is the case with Total Quality Management that being very beneficial, it has some disadvantages that disturbs the cycle of delivering total customer satisfaction. The main disadvantage of this system is that it promotes bureaucracy where the ideas and decisions of the top management are mostly approved while the ideas of the working staff might or not be heard in a proper way as it used to be in a simple model working environment. Total Quality Management brings performance to the public sector but it is also responsible for bringing time delays while carrying out quality inspection and extra expenditure on the quality checking and quality control.

This process makes the quality control and inspection team arrogant because they have to keep a strong and strict check on the products and services delivered to the customers so they usually tend to be arrogant and rude because of their job nature; this might be good for the job they are doing but it brings distances among other employees. Employee nature and their natural hesitance might also show up when its time to implement Total Quality Management and they feel uncomfortable and hesitant to adopt that change. After doing so much for quality control, the public sector is not the final judge of deciding whether they are providing the best product in the market; it is the customer who decides which product is good and which is not to be used among all the goods and services available in the marketplace. Even after implementing Total Quality Management, competition among competitor companies and business sectors never ends, it continues because other companies might also have implemented the same process for their product and business environment improvement. Another disadvantage is that the change after incorporating the system might not be seen or noticed in the working environment and the result might come after a long time (Harris, 2001, p71).

Understanding Leadership

As stated by Riddle (2008); the word leadership seems so simple from its appearance, but it is of significant importance and has huge deep meanings. The word is not so simple in actual or practical senses. It has different meanings to different people in different scenarios. It could be associated with political leadership, religious leadership, team leadership, group leadership, organization leadership, corporate leadership, community leadership, or social leadership. It is a wide concept, theory and belief on which foundation of organizations stand. The word leadership has many meanings because it is applicable in organizations, departments, economies, countries, and the world around us. The term leadership is used wherever there are people involved. According to the definition of leadership, it is the set of rules, regulations, managerial tasks that helps in managing teams and people.

Leadership includes the management of people who works in a company, group, team, community, or society. Leaders are the people who supervise and manage the people working under them. In simple words, leadership is the process of social persuasion through which a person can solicit the assistance and support of other people to achieve a common objective or target. It is the process through which a person gathers other people to work under him in order to accomplish extraordinary. Leaders are the people who make rules and perform the right thing needed to be done on right moment. They carry forward their leadership skills and lead the way for others to follow. The source of leadership is very powerful because it sets path for others. However, good leaders can only be the people who are not formal leaders because ordinary people who make it up to be leaders knows the requirements and needs of the common people and know how to control the community or group of people. Efficient and effective leadership is one where the leader manages a group of people by good communication skills to attain a common goal.

According to the understanding of Mumford (2009, p13); leadership is not a science, but responsibility because it involves management of people to accomplish some major target set ahead by the management of the company. A leader is usually the person who has all the responsibility of completing the job and getting the reward or blame in either case of completing the job or losing it. That’s why leadership is not an easy task but huge responsibility. Leader is the person who set a new path, do something right and innovative, develop an inspiration revelation, and create an example for others to follow. He is the person who is willing to win with the help of his team by using his energetic, effervescent, and stimulating skills. A leader is someone who makes use of four fundamental actions that every well organized leader use to carry out the best strategy. These four actions are; promoting change, developing people, realizing values, and achieving results. The four fundamental actions can be shown in the following diagram:

Understanding Employee Empowerment

Gitman & McDaniel (2007) explains in their book that the foundation of every public sector stands on the performance and productivity showed by the working staff of that company. It means that the main root of every business’s success is its productive employees who works together towards attaining certain specified goals and objectives of the company’s business. The real meaning and the real asset of the company is its employee’s output that they put to serve the organization. Employees are the most significant element for any company. Therefore, public companies must take care of their employees and their rights. This could be achieved with the help of employee empowerment. The term employee empowerment related to the rights and power of every employee working in the public sector. According to the theory of employee empowerment, every public sector must create a working environment where the employees are well aware of their rights and where they are allowed to make their own decisions in particular scenarios and situations.

There is no specified rule of how big or small the employee is allowed to take serious step in what circumstances, but the employee is allowed to make decisions that do not cross the work related boundaries or limits of authority set by the company’s management. The main reason to imply employee empowerment within the public sector’s working environment is to increase self confidence, self morale, free will, sense of responsibility, and to increase the rate of productivity of employees. The idea behind the logic of employee empowerment is that the working staff in the public sector are also humans and they need to be more motivated, productive, efficient, and responsible towards what they are contributing towards the business of the public sector. By giving them responsibility to take decisions on certain situations, the employees identify their potential of how to solve a problem in what circumstances. In order to increase the positive behavior and ratio of motivation among employees, companies train them and give the power of employee empowerment so that they could make decisions under certain boundaries when there is a need to handle certain sort of situations (Woodside & Martin, 2008, p493).

Giving authority and power to employees des not means that the public sector and its management is no longer the in charge or responsible for better performance or delivering the quality goods and services. in a working environment where employees are rewarded with employee empowerment facilities, the management makes sure that employees work with more productivity and motivation while giving their best work to produce best quality in the market by giving their best input, feedback and decision making capabilities. Management trust its employees to deliver the best results as compared to other competitive companies in the marketplace.

(Daft & Marcic, 2008)The major contributor in carrying out best employee empowerment is the communication medium. There should not be any communication gap between the employees and their management and everything should be delivered through proper communication channel. Not only this, but communicating with management becomes easy. With the help of good communication among people and their team leaders and the management, public sector could grow more than ever while showing increased performance, increased productivity, increased level of satisfaction among employees towards their jobs and future, increased level of motivation among employees, and increased level of revenue generation. Another contributor in the cycle is participative management. Involvement and contentment are strongly associated with enthusiasm and performance. For example, small groups of employees who work towards solving other employees’ general problems. In this way, problems related to quality, productivity, time management, and service delivery could be resolved within no time.

According to Plenkiewicz (2010); the most important reason of allowing employee empowerment to other employees is to support, promote and persuade employees and their capabilities. Employees have shown better performance and productivity when they are given the power to make their own decisions on certain situations. However, there are some supervisors and managers who feels threatened by employee empowerment because they fear that they might lose their power, authority and leadership by giving power to the employees working under them. However, it has been proved that employee empowerment facilitates the work of supervisors by taking the extra burden off their shoulders.

There are some measures that are needed to be considered and taken before implementing employee empowerment in the public sector. The first thing to do is to take supervisors and managers in confidence and let them know the advantages of employee empowerment so that they do not feel as if they are losing their value and power in front of their junior co-workers. After doing that, training should be provided to all supervisors and managers so that they become aware of what changes would be occurring in the company and how they should react in what circumstances. In the end, employees should be informed with the new amendment in the working environment of the company and then finally, strict check should be followed on all employees whether they are delivery best services and quality to the customers and not crossing their limits (Dopson, 2010, p326).

The motive of employee empowerment is to increase the level of performance and productivity in the company because it can only be done with the help of employees and their handwork as a team together. To achieve this level, it is important to make them feel important and good about what they are doing for the company. This could be done by giving them employee empowerment so that they could have the desired satisfaction while carrying out other tasks properly.

Effect of Employee Empowerment on Leadership

Bass & Riggio (2006) explains that leadership is very important for effective business and employee empowerment is one important element of leadership. In this way, leadership and employee empowerment are related together. Without power, public sector might get tumble down badly. Even managers behave in the same way by taking back the authority and power of employees whenever they feel threaten that they might lose their authority over other working staff. Leadership is one principle and employee empowerment is the collection of rules to assist leadership. There are some tactics to follow good leadership while carrying out employee empowerment in the working environment. People working in the company are of significant importance for the public sector and its business because they build the future of the organization by giving their performance, work, dedication, skills, and strength. Publicly owned companies should also understand the difference that either big or small; employees do make a difference for the company and for its value in the marketplace. That’s why; employees should also feel important that they are performing well towards the success of the public sector. This could be done by giving them employee empowerment so that they could feel extraordinary and work towards the goals and objectives of the company with more dedication and enthusiasm (Moiden, 2003, p67).

Together, leadership and employee empowerment creates a communal society where people interact and work together, no matter whether they like each other or not. With the addition of employee empowerment, work becomes fascinated, exciting, motivated, and actively productive. People indulge themselves to attain the goals of the company’s business. Not because they have to or are supposed to, but because of the fact that they want to. Employee empowerment creates sense of responsibility among employees and makes them realize that they are capable of doing something extraordinary.

Relating Total Quality Management & Leadership

As stated by Suganthi & Samuel (2004); Total Quality Management is just not a quality check or quality control function; rather it is a wide variety of processes, collection of functions and management approach that starts with an ambition to actively encourage a project or specific task by the supervisor, manager or leader of the group. An ambition is the target that is supposed to be achieved within a certain time period by using the manpower and resources available to the company and its management. With the help of Total Quality Management, the public sector can improve its competitiveness, efficiency, productivity, performance, and effectiveness to benefits its management, employees, customers, and stakeholders. It is a proper cycle that plans, systematize, manage, and comprehend every activity and eliminates every extra unwanted activity or energy that is identified within the working environment of the public sector. The main motive of Total Quality Management is to make sure that the leaders of the project prevents and then removes the problems from the process cycle instead of identifying them.

The key object for the success of Total Quality Management is that leaders of the company should understand and implement it completely so that the working staff and employees do not face sort of problem while manufacturing or service delivery process. All the managers and supervisors are supposed to demonstrate that they are interested, loyal, and dedicated towards delivering the best quality the company could produce so that they could understand the strategies, processes, principles, advantages, and the importance of employee empowerment behind the logic of Total Quality Management. This would help in developing the right approach for the entire public sector, covering the top management, middle management, supervisors, team leaders, and the employees of the company. It is the core responsibility of all the managers and leaders that they show interest in understanding the cycle of Total Quality Management and take responsibility for proper manufacturing, production, and quality control of the products and services delivered to the customers in order to ensure 100% customer satisfaction (Mukherjee, 2006, p376).

General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs – Dubai

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is a publicly owned governmental department in Dubai that works in accordance with the Ministry of Interior of United Arab Emirates. The main objective of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is to serve the general population and foreigner residents in Dubai. Services that are offered by this department are issuing of visas, residence visas, issuing of work permits, issuing of establishment cards, and providing passports. General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs department takes care of the local residents, foreign residents, businesses, and visitors who come for short visits to Dubai. It keeps track of the visitors’ entry from airport and seaports. In short, this department is responsible to keep track of all the tourist, commercial, and business activities in Dubai. There are several departments that work under the main section of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs that includes of; Department of Airports and Land Border Points, Department of Seaports, Department of Administrative and Financial Affairs, Department of Entry Permits, Department of Information Technology, and Department of Monitoring and Investigation.

General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is very concerned about its working environment, performance, productivity, and quality of services provide to the people because it’s their main motive to serve the people with quality services. Therefore, DNRD is working towards attaining this quality objective and has applied Total Quality Management within its working environment so that the entire model of the public sector could be changed. General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is the first public sector in the entire region of Middle East that has implemented Total Quality Management within its working environment. DNRD is an ISO certified public sector that has been awarded with the ISO 9001:2000 certification due to the performance, productivity and efficiency showed to its customers Wood (2005, p258).

Total Quality Management in the Public Sector

Wood (2005) explains in the book that the services provided by public sector usually has many responsibilities of providing services to the general public which ranges from healthcare services to educational services. In the recent years, it has been observed that the working structure of public sector is changing with the passage of time and focus is paid on overall performance, productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the public services delivered to the general public. Many governmental bodies have initiated the use of Total Quality Management so that they could increase the level of quality and customer satisfaction, including the public sector where stress is being paid on how to improve the overall infrastructure while minimizing the costs involved and raising the level of productivity. The public sectors are also paying attention on how to implemental Total Quality Management within their working environment so that they could also benefit themselves from the several advantages of the TQM process.

As stated by Milakovich & Gordon (2008); the best strategy before implementing Total Quality Management in the public sector is to consider leadership and employee empowerment because these two are part of the TQM process, which are essential to be incorporated. Leadership and employee empowerment help the public sector to unite their customers and stakeholders with the management of the organization like as strong bond because they ensure good quality and service delivery for achieving customer satisfaction. They also are the indicators of the success of Total Quality Management process.

Introduction

In the last three sections, role of leadership and employee empowerment to achieve Total Quality Management in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai was discussed in detail. In this section, the research methodology used would be described with entire criteria of research. Normally, research refers to the systematic collection of information, its evaluation, and dissemination process. It never “happens”, but is always initiated by some person or a group of researchers with an ambition to evaluate their gathered information, its reliability and policy goal. The unique and different aspect of research element of this dissertation would revolve around case study and the aspects used within it. The main objective of the following chapter is to analyze and assess research questions, research methodologies, implementation procedures, data collection, source of data, evaluation of data, and other research details while gathering information for this dissertation.

Research Design

(Hakim, 2000) Research design represents the entire structure and working framework of the research. It works as the glue or bonding element that holds other elements and parts of research together to give a perfect blend of conclusions and consequences of research. In short, research design is a conceptual structure, outline or blueprint of what the researcher would do in the future to continue his research by following proper guidelines and mediums. There are a lot of benefits that the researcher could gain from the proper utilization of research design, such as, it saves time and is cost effective, gives maximum information by avoiding unnecessary data flow, sets limits on certain areas and prevents blind research methods, provides reliable results, prevents researchers from gaining wrong conclusions, and provides maximum endeavors to the researcher to carry out an extraordinary research. Research design primarily deals with objectives, uses, aims, purposes, intentions and future plans while carrying out the practical research of the study.

(Saunders et al., 2000) Usually research has several ideas to accomplish the utmost capacity and focus; therefore, in order to gain the preferred and applicable data, there are a number of diversified alternatives on hand to the researchers to choose from in terms of selection of the research approach. The methodology of the dissertation is that of mixed methodology research with qualitative and quantitative design. The research has been designed to comprise both secondary and primary sources of data and information gathered by the researcher. The primary research mostly focuses on getting information about the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain Total Quality Management in the DNRD Department of Dubai (Creswell, 2003, p4).

Using the theoretical framework of the study, the qualitative and quantitative research methodology forms and builds the structure of the study while providing possible recommendations for the highlighted problems faced by the public sector while focusing on the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain TQM. The main research study that has been conducted is of the mixed methodology. The mixed methodology approach is a research design in which different forms of research methods can be used in one study. The reason for the use of the different method for this research was because limited information was available and it was difficult to get hold of the entire information to conduct face to face interviews (Creswell and Clark; 2006, p6).

Qualitative and Quantitative Research

According to Punch (2005); the qualitative and quantitative research is the research method for data collection and analysis of information available on multiple forms. In this study the qualitative and the quantitative research methodology has been used to perform primary research relevant to the study. Qualitative research methods are used in the cases where quality and nonnumeric values are concerned. This research method involves the real life experience gathered from a field or a group of people, society, organization, community or even individuals. Qualitative research method is usually used to seek the originality and real expressions and behaviors of people. Quantitative research method is quite different from that of qualitative. It usually makes its combination with surveys and real experiments; which consequently helps in gathering the differentiating values, separate characteristics which also helps in gathering data for the researcher or conductor (Brannen, 1992).

The primary research makes use of survey based questionnaires and the internet based interviews while the secondary research comprises of the literature review and the analysis of the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain the application of TQM in the DNRD Department of Dubai.

The sampling methodology that is used for the primary research conducted using the survey based questionnaire is that of non probability sampling procedure. In this scenario, the respondents who were available and willing to provide feedback and insight were included as the target respondents of the survey. The objective of the research is to get information about the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain the application of TQM in the DNRD Department of Dubai. These respondents had insight and have access to information on the characteristics and the trends to find information regarding the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain the application of TQM in the DNRD Department of Dubai. As result they were targeted using the non-probability based sampling that allows anyone who has reliable and valid information to share to respond to the survey. The validity and the reliability of the data gathered through the questionnaire based survey were ensured through the use of the triangulation technique whereby multiple questions were targeted at the respondents to determine the integrity of the answers.

Validity and Reliability

(Bailey, 2007) The research methodology employed was checked for validity and appropriateness by taking feedback from the instructors and the research supervisors. The validity was ensured in the mixed methodology research by ensuring both the historical qualitative research and the qualitative/quantitative research employed were valid with integrity. The sources for the historical qualitative research were taken from official company websites and the peer reviewed journals to ensure that the information used in the literature review was accurate and valid. The validity of the information gathered in the questionnaire based survey has been ensured by including triangulated questions to determine the validity and the accurateness of the responses.

Data Collection

The data for the historical research was taken from accredited and authorized peer reviewed journals, public sector journals, public sector reports, public sector and United Arab Emirates profiles compiled on the literature worth, public sector operations, global industry operations, country profiles, and performance of public sector in the industry. The detailed information about the performance of the public sector was taken from their public sector websites that provided information about their financials and information about the role of leadership and employee empowerment in the DNRD Department of Dubai. Internet, HR oriented, public sector, market survey, public organizations’ journals were used as a source of data for the research.

The data gathered for the qualitative research study is in the form of journal articles, public sector journal reports and reviews of the public sector in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs. All the data collected is in the written form. The authorization and the verification of the data is provided by the peer reviewed nature of the journals and the bodies that have put the data on their academic electronic databanks. The reliance has been kept on the written sources of information on the successful Internet tactics used by public sector as they provided an easy and reliable source of information making way for a comprehensive analysis of the successful strategies.

Data Analysis

The analysis of the qualitative research conducted for the paper was employed through a subjective analysis of the qualitative information with the use of keywords of the subject matter. Any quantitative information that was also gathered was analyzed through statistical analysis techniques using the SPSS software, and Internet. The data resulting from the distributions will be evaluated using bar graphs, pie charts, and normal text.

Primary Research

The primary research for the study includes a survey based questionnaire and the in-depth interviews. The survey based questionnaires were aimed at collecting information regarding the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain TQM in DNRD Dubai and the in-depth interviews were also focused on this topic. The research participants were contacted via email and telephone for availability to answer the questions for the research. They provided information about the public sector, its operations and the performance of employees before and after implementing of Total Quality Management. The survey based questionnaires, that were part of the research, were emailed to the research participants where they responded in kind with their answers to the survey based questionnaire.

The sampling technique for the primary research was based on a non probability based convenience sample. The convenience sample was taken as it allowed the researcher to gather information from the respondents without putting a restrain on the target sample for primary research.

Sampling

The sampling technique for the primary research was based on a non probability based convenience sample. The convenience sample was taken as it allowed the researcher to gather information from the respondents without putting a restrain on the target sample for secondary research. In total, 50 employees and 2 managers from Dubai who work in the department of DNRD were contacted for survey based questionnaires. 2 managers were kind enough to answer the open ended questions, while the other 50 employees answered closed ended questions.

Survey based Questionnaires

The survey based questionnaire was simply emailed to the research participants in Dubai to gather information. The resultant sampling methodology that was seen to be most effective in this situation was that of a non probability, convenience based sample. The probability based sampling methodologies were avoided as they were restricting the sources of secondary information regarding the subject matter. The survey based questionnaire mostly comprised of close ended questions for the 50 employees, however open ended questions were also used to gather exploratory information from two managers on the subject matter. The questions were put in MCQ (multiple choice questions) format to minimize the time taken to respond to it.

Questionnaire Hypothesis

The resultant data gathered from the research participants is represented in graph format as under:

Introduction

This is the fourth section of the dissertation. So far, the research has been carried out and now is the time to see what the researcher succeeded in finding from the entire research of the dissertation. This is the findings and result section where the final results of the research would be discussed in detail related to the role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain the application of Total Quality Management in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai.

Findings & Results

As stated by Kubr (2002); a successful and competent business is based on making advantageous revenue and attaining sales target to its customers; it shall retain its present consumers while making new customer base if it knows their needs and necessities, and conveys exactly the compulsory products and services. this can be carried out in the case if; 1) the public sector has ensured the design procedures in resultants that meet consumer necessities and that can be manufactured in a cost effective way; 2) the public sector has ensured that all activities are inclined towards contenting their consumers; and 3) the public sector has ensured that public sector has minimized incompetency such as waste production and reworking processes. Good quality does not mean providing expensive, beautiful, luxurious, fresh, or good looking product or service.

When the word good quality is used by the company, it means that the customers are given more importance than the real boss of the company and the company cares about what the consumers really wants. This can be achieved if good quality is provided to the company while providing the exact required products or services in the marketplace that could meet the requirements of the public companies’ customers. Maintaining good quality and meeting what the customers really wants is the key to success in the global competitive marketplace that public sectors need to understand. This could be done while implementing the process of Total Quality Management. It is a process that ensures good quality of products and services while providing exactly what the customers really want and expect from the public sector.

According to Farazmand (2007); Total Quality Management is all about bringing change in the entire working infrastructure of public sector. For some sectors, it could be minor and slight, but for other public sectors, it could be a huge change in the working environment. Total Quality Management not only emphasizes on the products and services delivered to the customers, but also affects the operational, management, information, and control systems of the public sector. It’s not restricted to the production of goods and services because when a change is required in a product, it means that the change must be brought from the beginning stage that might start from any minor department of the public sector. It is grooming of a company from head to toe. Total Quality Management is important for every private and pubic sector because it improves the overall condition of the organization and its delivers products and services. The business environment at present needs a competitive product or service that improves continuously and never stops improving. This is required because customers never stop expecting from the company.

They might be spending a little but they desire to have the most of it. Even if not spending, perspective customers want to see companies flourish more and improve their products and services as the best in the marketplace. Public and private organizations needs to keep their flags up and going by providing what the customers want and by meeting their expectations. By doing so, public sectors could gain loyal and determined customers. The process of Total Quality Management makes sure to take control of all the procedures and operations of the company and provide 100% satisfaction level to the management of the enterprise and also to its customers. Total Quality Management is essential for every organization that is in need of development, growth, prosperity, profitable revenue generation, improved quality services, and 100% customer satisfaction level. Total Quality Management can help organizations and their management to make their dream true. Private organizations are more complex and complicated as compared because they have more challenges and obstacles to handle as compared to the public organizations. However, public organizations also have challenges but usually they are not given importance because of the fact that most of the governmental bodies and agencies do not take public companies seriously and take their problems or challenges very lightly (Barrier, 2002, p179).

Apart from being the most efficient and best procedure to be implemented for any public sector, Total Quality Management needs some helpful tools and managerial processes so that it could perform well. These managerial processes are leadership and employee empowerment. While implementing Total Quality Management in a public sector, leadership and employee empowerment makes sure that it serves the company and meets the expectations and requirements of the customers so that the company could generate profitable revenues. This was needed because public organizations have conscious towards their future goals and objectives and are more interested in attaining a respectable position in the corporate sector. This is because public sector needs to be efficient and productive just like the private sector and organizations due to the fact that public sector is also important and has significant importance. Leadership and employee empowerment helps the public sectors and private sectors to attain this position in the global competitive marketplace.

According to the understanding of Mumford (2009); the term leadership is used wherever there are people involved. According to the definition of leadership, it is the set of rules, regulations, managerial tasks that helps in managing teams and people. Leadership includes the management of people who works in a company, group, team, community, or society. It is the process through which a person gathers other people to work under him in order to accomplish extraordinary. Leaders are the people who make rules and perform the right thing needed to be done on right moment. Leader is the person who set a new path, do something right and innovative, develop an inspiration revelation, and create an example for others to follow.

He is the person who is willing to win with the help of his team by using his energetic, effervescent, and stimulating skills. Leadership is multidimensional in the sense of techniques and proficiency. Leaders pay with confidence because they live in the present while planning strategic successful future. They understand the working environment of the public sector, realizes the situation and circumstances, plans the strategies, and then implement them while focusing on the future goals and targets with the help of their task force. The teams they are leading are never to be blamed because they are not eligible for making decisions. Leaders are the only ones to be blamed for any unfortunate failure. This is why leaders must follow strategies very carefully because either they would win or lose in their missions.

According to Daft & Marcic, (2008); on the other hand, employee empowerment also plays a vital role in the success of every public sector. The real meaning and the real asset of the company is its employee’s output that they put to serve the organization. Employees are the most significant element for any company. Therefore, public companies must take care of their employees and their rights. Employee empowerment is the process that takes care of the rights of the employees working in the public company by giving them the authority to make their own decision in certain situations. Employee empowerment is needed because employees are needed to realize that they are important to the public sector and they must be responsible for what they are doing or contributing to. The future of every public sector lies in the hands of employees because they are the people who attain the goals and objectives of the company’s business. For this, employees are needed to be motivated and devoted towards their work and it could only be achieved if they are motivated from inside. Employee empowerment helps employees to become motivated and loyal form their company. Employees have shown better performance and productivity when they are given the power to make their own decisions on certain situations.

(Moiden, 2003) People working in the company are of significant importance for the public sector and its business because they build the future of the organization by giving their performance, work, dedication, skills, and strength. Publicly owned companies should also understand the difference that either big or small; employees do make a difference for the company and for its value in the marketplace. That’s why; employees should also feel important that they are performing well towards the success of the public sector. This could be done by giving them employee empowerment so that they could feel extraordinary and work towards the goals and objectives of the company with more dedication and enthusiasm. Leadership and employee empowerment together makes a mark on the history of public sector. The public sector that would be covered in the next chapter is the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai.

Introduction

This chapter is the fifth chapter of the dissertation and explains the final discussion and conclusion that needs to be carried out while coming to a point and making it very clear to the reader. This chapter also analyzes the necessary and most important details that have been presented in the previous chapters and would give a final conclusion for the convenience of the reader.

Limitations Faced

While compiling this detailed and comprehensive dissertation, several limitations have been faced that are related either to the corporate reasons or the academic reasons of the researcher. These limitations are listed as under:

• The research could be biased because of the information provided on the web as well as the information gathered by the research participants
• The information present on the subject matter are several, hence the information displayed is limited because there are numerous and uncountable sources present, but all of them cannot be presented in this detailed dissertation
• The information presented by the research participants may vary because different people have different views and opinions; and their opinions may vary from one another
• The research carried out is not extensively complete
• The research is carried out by a student, hence, the information may face conflicts by its lecturer or this assignment could be different from the point of view of the lecturer

Discussion & Conclusion

According to Walesh (2000); the research carried out for this dissertation is related to the evaluation of role of leadership and employee empowerment to attain the application of Total Quality Management in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is a public sector department. The main focus has been paid on Total Quality Management; it is a management process cycle which emphasize on the continuous quality improvement of not only the products and services delivered by the public sector but also on the entire processes, procedures, and working environment of the public sector. This process is carried out to meet the needs, wants, expectations, and requirements of the current and perspective customers of the public sector. All processes are carried out; all decisions are made while keeping the customers of the public sector in mind so that the company could achieve 100% customer satisfaction level. It is very important for every public sector because customers are the only ones who help the companies to carry on with their businesses successfully while making profitable revenues. In a public sector where Total Quality Management is implemented, employees are focused more towards attaining their assigned goals and objectives while the management of the public sector focuses on achieving the customer satisfaction by providing them the best quality of goods and services that they expect from the company (Swamidass, 2000, p804).

Every single entity and employee is involved in carrying out Total Quality Management, including the working staff and the leaders of the teams, that is, managers. Total Quality Management could be practiced with the best results if the public sector carries out proper leadership. Leadership is very important for every public sector because it focuses on taking the group of employees to achieve a common goal or objective set by the management of the company. It’s the capability of a person to rule a team, group, community, organization, or even country. A person can only born with the capability to become a leader, it is a God gifted talent and not everyone could become a leader because it required communicational skills, ability to lead the way, innovative and creative point of view, fast thinking, strategic planning capability, and troubleshooting skills. Leaders are the people who make their mark so that other people or group of people could follow them. Leadership is the most crucial ability of a person because it could either lead the person to win or lose. There is no guarantee whether the leader would win or lose in hat circumstances. Being a leader is huge responsibility because leader is the person who is responsible for everything, not his team. His team would always be regarded as followers, but he has to take the credited for his winnings and loses. That’s why, a person should lead only if he has the guts and talent to carry out successful and strategic leadership because leading could be fascinating, but it is also huge responsibility.

Apart from leadership, the concept of employee empowerment is very strong for every public sector because employees are the sole workers and assts. They represent, work for the company and contribute towards attaining the goals and objectives of company with their efforts and strengths. Employee empowerment is the strategy through which employees of the company are given authority to make their own decisions under certain circumstances. Every public sector must create a working environment where the employees are well aware of their rights and where they are allowed to make their own decisions in particular scenarios and situations. There is no specified rule of how big or small the employee is allowed to take serious step in what circumstances, but the employee is allowed to make decisions that do not cross the work related boundaries or limits of authority set by the company’s management.

The idea behind the logic of employee empowerment is that the working staff in the public sector is also humans and they need to be more motivated, productive, efficient, and responsible towards what they are contributing towards the business of the public sector. However, there are some leaders and managers of the public sector who feel threatened by the employee empowerment because they fear that they might lose their power of authority. Here comes the role of Total Quality Management that ensures that everyone gets their respect and power and no employee could supersede the other. If the public sector implements proper process of Total Quality Management, then no leader or manager would fear from employee empowerment.

(Ugboro & Obeng, 2001)The concepts of leadership and employee empowerment are directly related to Total Quality Management and are considered as a part of it. They are considered as the most significant elements of Total Quality Management because of their relationship with the level of customer satisfaction that every company wants to achieve. Public companies are adopting these principles so that they could provide good quality of products and services while also attaining customer satisfaction. Employee empowerment and enhanced stages of job satisfaction are associated by obligation to Total Quality Management and top administration leadership to achieve the top level of customer satisfaction by generating a working environment that focuses on best quality deliverance and 100% customer satisfaction level.

In this dissertation, Total Quality Management along with leadership and employee empowerment is related to the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs. This is a public sector that serves the local population and foreigner residents of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The sole purpose of this department is to look after the public services such as; immigration, entry passes, visa issuance, passports allocation, passport renewal, residence visas, visit visas, and nationality issuance. General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs Dubai is a very sensitive public department because it has to keep track of all the people arriving or departing Dubai. In short, this department is responsible to keep track of all the tourist, commercial, and business activities in Dubai. There are several departments that work under the main section of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs that includes of; Department of Airports and Land Border Points, Department of Seaports, Department of Administrative and Financial Affairs, Department of Entry Permits, Department of Information Technology, and Department of Monitoring and Investigation.

As explained by Genc (2008); the working environment of this public sector was in need of an environment where everything could be monitored and carried out in an organized way. For this reason, the government of Dubai stepped ahead and implemented Total Quality Management process within the working environment of the department so that it could concentrate on the quality service delivery. Before the implementation of Total Quality Management, there was no proper check on the activities of local and foreigners in Dubai. Everything was done in a mixed form of manual and automatic where there was no proper hierarchy available. But after the implementation of Total Quality Management, the working environment of General Directorate of Residency & Foreigners Affairs become more professional where they concentrated on delivering high performance, productivity, quality assurance, and customer satisfaction.

At first, the management system was implemented within the working environment where every employee came across a specific training that explained what role should be performed by what employee and what job should be carried out by what leader. Managers were given leadership training so that they could identify their authority level with the implementation of employee empowerment. Later on, the quality improvement process was carried out for the customer satisfaction where training was provided for quality service delivery. This not only improved the inner working environment of the public department while keeping everything on track automatically, but later on, provided job satisfaction from the employees in the form of motivation and customer satisfaction from the customers’ side. In short, implementation of Total Quality Management benefitted the department so much that it soon became eligible to receive the ISO 9001:2000 award for proving extraordinary commitment towards improvement and quality service deliverance (Genc, 2008, p12).

Introduction

This is the final section of the dissertation that concludes the ending and provide any recommendations if necessary. Many companies think that they do not need recommendations for their future development, but there is always room for improvement and better future strategy plans that’s why recommendations are always beneficial and essential for every business. Since the case study of the above carried out research is about a public sector department, that is, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, which is no doubt a very sensitive public department so recommendations could play a vital role in further improvement of the department. There are not so many recommendations we could find out, but there are some which would be discussed in detail as under.

Recommendations

According to Wood & Wood (2005, p258); in today’s world, it has become essential and mandatory for all the organizations to reorganize their working infrastructure so that they could compete in the global competitive marketplace, survive among their competitors while making a difference, attain 100% customer satisfaction level, and make new customers as well while making high profitable revenues. After carrying out research for the subject matter, recommendations play very significant role in determining what should be the future strategy of the company and what should be done in order to improve the overall working environment.

(Özbilgin & Syed, 2010, p372) Every organization needs an organized and structured system so that it could work strategically. For this, implementation of Total Quality Management system is required. In the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Total Quality Management system has been applied for more than nine years now and a lot of changes have occurred since that time. Even after the implementation, changes are always required because with the passage of time, the public sector needs continuous improvement. So does the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs because the department is highly sensitive and needs continuous growth and improvement policies implementation so that the public sector could carry on work and compete with the current competencies.

The public sector needs proper hiring, recruitment, and training of working staff and managers so that they could get aware of the new technologies and new trends in the global marketplace. Apart from that, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs department needs continuous improvement in terms of technical support and automatic systems because of new advancements. The daily transactions and working of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs should be listed on an online system more often so that the working staff could communicate with each other easily. The employees and managers of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs must be provided with the automatic and technical training so that they could compete with the other public sectors and private sectors in Dubai and global market (Ali, 2005).

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Appendix

Questionnaire Sample

• Name:
• Age:
• Profession:
• Qualification:
• Contact #:
• Date:

1. Are you aware of the term “Total Quality Management”?

• Yes
• No

2. Are you aware of the fact that leadership and employee empowerment are elements of Total Quality Management?

• Yes
• No

3. Do you think Total Quality Management is essential for any organization?

• Strong Agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

4. In your opinion, should public sectors compete in productivity, performance and efficiency when compared to private sector organizations?

• Strong Agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

5. Do you think leadership is important for public sector?

• Strong Agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

6. Do you think employee empowerment must be implemented in organizations?

• Strong Agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

7. In your opinion, leadership and employee empowerment should be practiced in public sector?

• Strong Agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

8. In your opinion, Total Quality Management system is working fine in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai?

• Strong Agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

9. In your opinion, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is contributing towards continuous improvement to achieve good quality service delivery and customer satisfaction?

• Strong Agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

10. What do you recommend for better working environment and quality service delivery in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

Questionnaire – Manager 1

• Name: (Personal information is kept confidential on request)
• Age:
• Profession:
• Qualification:
• Contact #:
• Date:

11. Are you aware of the term “Total Quality Management”?

YES, all the employees in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs are aware of this term.

12. Why leadership and employee empowerment are elements of Total Quality Management?

Actually, both leadership and employee empowerment are part of the process Total Quality Management and these are important for this process because they are the essential parts. Without them, TQM would not be working well in the company because there are employees working in our public sector and they are needed to be controlled while being treated equally.

13. Do you think Total Quality Management is essential for General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

Our department General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is a huge working structure where there are many sensitive operations to be carried out daily. Without proper working structure, it would have rather be down and unsuccessful because we are suppose to provide good quality of service while maintaining our operations sides as well. That’s why TQM is necessary for General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

14. Why should General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs compete in productivity, performance and efficiency when compared to private sector organizations?

As a matter of fact, YES! Usually General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is taken non seriously by private sectors however our working environment and daily transactions are more complex than private organizations. We need to be more productive, creative, customer supportive, and efficient while providing quality service so why shouldn’t we provide services that could compete with the private sector organizations? Now that we have the support of the government, we are affirmative that we would succeed more in the future.

15. Do you think leadership is important for General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

Leadership is the sole of TQM. Without leadership, TQM cannot proceed ahead because

TQM is all about bringing changes in the working environment and that would need proper implementation of leadership skills so that employees could be controlled.

16. Do you think employee empowerment must be implemented in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

We all are employees and including me, we need to be felt important everyday while working for our department, because we are contributing with our efforts, efficiency, productivity, and skills towards the success of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs. Therefore, employee empowerment is essential.

17. In your opinion, leadership and employee empowerment should be practiced in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

Yes they should be and they are being practiced in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs. These are the two keys of success through which we are winning as compared from the private organizations.

18. In your opinion, Total Quality Management system is working fine in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai?

We implemented TQM in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs many years ago. It has been more than 9 years now. At first, it was difficult to accept the changes but now that we are habitual of it and can see the benefits of TQM. I think and believe that TQM is playing its role in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs very well.

19. In your opinion, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is contributing towards continuous improvement to achieve good quality service delivery and customer satisfaction?

We work here daily to perform our duties and provide customer satisfaction while doing our job satisfaction. The TQM system implemented in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is very modern and technical and hence, is designed to support continuous improvement and satisfaction of customers.

20. What is the future scope of Total Quality Management in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

There are a lot of things that General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is doing right now. We have daily work of tracking records of people whether local or foreigners. TQM was important for the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs and is still important for our department. There are some amendments and changes that are made with the passage of time. I am very hopeful from the future of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

Questionnaire – Manager 2

Name: (Personal information is kept confidential on request)

• Age:
• Profession:
• Qualification:
• Contact #:
• Date:

1. Are you aware of the term “Total Quality Management”?

All the employees working in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs are aware of this term.

2. Why leadership and employee empowerment are elements of Total Quality Management?

Leadership and employees empowerment are part of TQM and they are important for TQM. Without them, TQM could never make significant difference in bringing change in the company.

3. Do you think Total Quality Management is essential for General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

Before the implementation of TQM, there were things that were not proper. But with the implementation of TQM, great and positive change has occurred in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs. We have seen growth in the department with job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Therefore, TQM was essential to be implemented in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

4. Why should General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs compete in productivity, performance and efficiency when compared to private sector organizations?

General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is as important for the entire Dubai as other private organizations are. In fact, we are providing more than any other organizations. Therefore, it is essential that we prove our department is capable to compete with other private organizations.

5. Do you think leadership is important for General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

Leadership is an art. Without leadership, proper TQM could never be implemented anywhere in the world. It shows the tactics of how to control the employees working around.

6. Do you think employee empowerment must be implemented in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

Employee empowerment is as important as leadership. We are the employees of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs and we need some favors from the top management including employee empowerment because everyone including me needs importance and the authority to make our own decisions.

7. In your opinion, leadership and employee empowerment should be practiced in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

They should be and they are being practiced in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs very successfully.

8. In your opinion, Total Quality Management system is working fine in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai?

Dubai has seen development and growth continuously since many years and we are part of it. We have seen a lot of growth and were provided with ISO certification aware in the year 2002. I believe that would answer the question.

9. In your opinion, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is contributing towards continuous improvement to achieve good quality service delivery and customer satisfaction?

We contribute towards providing customer satisfaction and good quality service very much and hence, I guess we are performing well in that area.

10. What is the future scope of Total Quality Management in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs?

We have many plans and strategies ahead of us. The future of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs is very bright and successful. With the help of the government, we expect to grow more and to help other countries with their systems as well.