Dissertations for Project Management (PM)

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Leadership Style and its Influence on Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment A Study Encompassing the Construction Industry of Dubai, United Arab Emirates
(The British University in Dubai, 2002-02) Chaudhry, Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Haq
Dubai is one of the United Arab Emirates leading emirate in terms of infrastructure development and other industries such as tourism, and real estate. The novelty of the industry and it’s rapid progression persuades one to assess the factors influencing the construction industry. Due to the competitive market, project management area has gained undisputable importance in the construction projects. Construction firms are now seeking professionals with better management and leadership skills rather than technical skills (Dulaimi, 2005). Employees are an important part of any industry and their job satisfaction and organisational commitment affects the turnover rate and productivity of a company (Benkhoff, 1997; Randeree and Chaudhry, pending). Leadership has a strong influence on employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment (Lok and Crawford, 1999). Thus, it is vital to examine leadership styles in a rapidly growing industry in a cosmopolitan city. Hence, the research undertaken aims to study leadership styles and its influence on the employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment in the construction industry of Dubai. Earlier research has contented that leadership behaviour is determined culturally and hence varies markedly from culture to culture (e.g. Aram and Piriano, 1978; Burger and Bass, 1979; Wright, 1981; Adler, 1991; Muna, 1980; Al-Jafary and Hollingsworth, 1983; Ali, 1993; Ali et al., 1997). Yousef (2000) has examined the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction and performance in the UAE and found significant results. To attain the research aim, different theories on Leadership styles, job satisfaction and organisational commitment have been explored. The limitations of the study are that it focuses on office employees because of time constraints and the level of education of the workforce on site. A qualitative survey investigates existing leadership styles, preferred leadership styles by the employees, and the influence of leadership styles on employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The study also evaluates the extent of various other factors influencing the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees. The findings show that employees feel that Consensus and Team Management leadership styles are predominantly prevalent in the industry and employees have shown preference of working under these leadership styles. Furthermore, a strong influence is found between leadership style, employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Some of factors strongly affecting job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the industry are nature of work, salary received, job flexibility, job security, direct manager’s behaviour, company leadership, and company culture. Major conclusions are job satisfaction and organisational commitment are influenced with respect to culture, age, and work groups.
Using Suggestion Systems: How to apply usability techniques to increase workers participation in suggestion systems
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2006-10) Al-kuwaiti, Abdulla Jaber
Customer Service and Satisfaction in the three main Airports of the United Arab Emirates
(British University in Dubai, 2007-01) Taliah, AbdelRahman Rashid Bin
The United Arab Emirates is considered a relatively young country; nevertheless, both its aviation and tourism industries are rapidly growing to an extent that it can fairly be compared to more developed countries. The ultimate aim of the paper is to study the customer satisfaction in the aviation industry within the United Arab Emirates, but to properly do that both UAE's airlines and UAE's airports need to be studied. While this paper only focuses on studying the customer service at UAE’s 3 main Airports (Abu Dhabi International Airport, Dubai International Airport and Sharjah International Airport) the same model created can be tailored and actually serve to study the airlines in future studies. Moutinho (2001) indicates that air travel has become even more accessible to all classes of people like never before. The middle class can take its pick from the competitive rates of hundreds of airlines. Besides, no-frill airlines are making a big debut in the aviation industry. Targeting the wealthier, top airlines are being over backwards to come up with new and exotic incentives to attract a larger customer base. First Class, business class and premium economy are some of the classifications available in the seating arena on airlines today. Moutinho (2001). This indicates that Airport travelers are only going to increase going forward. To begin with, the UAE's environment is studied to test the main needs, demands and necessities of the country's aviation industry. Based on that, 5 main criteria were set that had to be met and continuously achieved by the aviation industry in the UAE. Having set the criteria needed for UAE’s airport customer service, a thorough literature review is conducted to learn more about what customer service and customer satisfaction models are available by scholars through papers, articles, studies… etc. and which will best suit the UAE and the criteria set. This paper will develop a new model, which is actually an amalgamation of parts of three other models discovered and discussed within the literature review. The new model will serve all set criteria and will act as a benchmark against which UAE's airports will be tested, and should prove better. The study was made based on surveys, distributed on a sample of various passengers through the airports under study, coming from different backgrounds to obtain the results. One main question was assigned to each of the 5 criteria, and then another 15 questions were asked to follow up and explore the reasoning behind the results achieved. A hypothesis is assigned to every criterion, and all null hypotheses proved to be negative when tested using the T-Test. For further analysis, the results were run through a Chi-Square statistical test, using a program called 'Statistical Program for Social Sciences' to prove that there actually exists some differences between the results achieved from the main Airports in the UAE, namely Abu Dhabi International Airport, Dubai International Airport and Sharjah International Airport. These differences are further explored through the feedback of follow interview session, to explain why and where the differences occurred, and detailed examples of them. The study proved that the three main Airports in the UAE comply with the 5 criteria set in this paper. The statistical analysis also proved that Dubai International Airport is doing significantly better than the other 2 airports in 3 of the criteria set, while there was no clear difference between the three airports on the remaining 2 criteria. Finally the paper sets some recommendations which are basically further emphasis on the criteria set within the paper and the model developed to serve UAE's aviation sector. The main recommendation was to apply the same model and tailoring the survey questions to the three main Airlines which are UAE based, namely Etihad Air, Emirates, and Air Arabia. In conclusion, the airports in the UAE happen to have more of a positive nature. They all comply with the five criteria set. However, there is quite some room for improvement and betterment of customer satisfaction within the aviation industry in the United Arab Emirates, specifically in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah Airports.
Comparing Usability Standards for Arabic and English
(British University in Dubai, 2007-01) Kalban, Hamdah Mohammed Bin
Users from all over the globe are attracted and use the World Wide Web and the websites are a new perspective of a truly global medium of communication. All users regardless of their background and origin should be able to experience the web with equal results in terms of content impact. Although most websites are in English today, but there are non-English speaking people living and working around especially in the Middle East. Therefore, the web should be easily enough to be used, accessed and understood by all users. The purpose of this research was to compare usability standards for Arabic and English websites. Dubai Municipality website was considered as a study case. The research for this paper included an extensive review of current literature on usability definitions, characteristics and benefits associated with usability, in addition to the usability criteria and cultural differences. The literature review also included a detailed description about the Usability Evaluation Methods, both the Inspection and Testing methods. Based on the review the usability criteria were determined and the Thinking Aloud testing method was selected as the usability technique for the research in addition to questionnaire. A total number of thirty participants, with defined user profile, were selected to carry out the experiment. The experiment tasks were based on eight hypotheses which were defined and tested. The experiment included ten scenarios or “real-life” tasks. On the other hand, the questionnaire subjects were based on identifying user profile, supporting experiment questions, website navigation, presentation layer, text size and overall quality. After analyzing the usability test and questionnaire, the major findings indicate that English is more practical than Arabic. Where users are more confident browsing the English version, which means that English website is more usable than Arabic. The recommendations on the factors which caused the Arabic website to be less usable than English such as content translation, text size, etc has been identified and steps on how to make the Arabic more usable has been recommended.
Evaluation of strategic performance management in government organizations
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2007-06) Al Youha, Hind Yousef
Analyzing project management practices to improve the performance of construction project at DSSCB, Abu Dhabi
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2007-06) Al Sharyani, Yousif
Enhancing Emiritisation in the private sector
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2007-10) Al-Alili, Suha Abdulla Khalaf
The impact of organizational justice on the job performance and job satisfaction of unskilled workers in Dubai
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2007-10) Malik, Imran
Applying Customer Orientation to IT Organizations
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-02) Al Qubaisi, Khaled Ahmed Hamel
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the various models used in the application of market orientation to different sectors and select an appropriate model to be examined and implemented within the IT organizations / departments to measure how market oriented they are and enhance their effectiveness in servicing their customers. The Methodology used in this dissertation is the model of Kohli and Jaworski (1990) and Jaworski and Kohli’s (1993) as an application of market orientation within the IT organizations / departments in the United Arab Emirates. This model consists of intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and organization-wide- responsiveness. Case studies with four companies in the financial sector in the United Arab Emirates were used to examine this approach by conducting interviews as a method of data collection. The application of market orientation in IT organizations was suitable. It was found that IT organization seriously lack the concept of market orientation. In addition, barriers were identified which halted the application of market orientation. However, the organization selected are in the development stage of market orientation where couple of factors found could be enhanced, adjusted, and used as a base for implementation of market orientation.
Blackboard-user training framework: In light of Training as a Change management tool for Higher Educational Institutions in the U.A.E Anjli Gautam Narwani Masters of
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-02) Narwani, Anjali Gautam
The increasing presence of web-based educational technologies is continually pressing demands on UAE-based teaching-learning environments. Among other consequences, higher educational institutions are increasingly adopting technology for teaching such as learning management systems (LMS), most commonly the Blackboard learning system, in turn triggering changes on academic and non-academic levels. The rapid penetration of learning management systems as facilitators of knowledge management in the UAE-based Higher education space is inherently calling on user training as a tool for change management; and this occurs in a vacuum of a related body of knowledge. The purpose of this study is to develop a pragmatic framework to facilitate the process of devising Blackboard User Trainings, tailored to UAE based Higher Education Institutions to facilitate ICT triggered change management. Through extensive research, of literature expressing concepts, factors, drivers and approaches related to context, ICT and Training, their influence on Higher education systems, Change management and the Blackboard Learning System, the base for the framework delivered by this study is obtained. The author of this study published a paper in the context of this work, at the EIAE 07 conference Spring book and also for the BBSummit Middleeast 07. Following the initial research, the remaining part of the study takes shape using a four-stage methodology; first on groundwork the foundation of the proposition is laid. Further, based on Subject-matter experts’ feedback and an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Survey, the determinants of the training arrangement are extracted. Next, the working definition of the framework is detailed, followed by the Experimental application at the University of Sharjah in the UAE. The experimental results are analyzed using a mix of qualitative and quantitative tools.
The construction of a categorisation system for Total Care Products
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-02) Ahmed, Murshed Mohamed
Market competition and business environment of several industries is pushing companies to change their focus from hardware-based products to function based products. Total Care Products, which refer to products that are based on hardware, software and services, may be sold as a function rather than as hardware. In Total Care Products, also known as Functional Products, the supplier takes care of every aspect of the product, which allows the customer to focus on value rather than hardware. This imposes challenges that require a change in business models in which the price is related to the functionality, not to what the asset is worth. It also impacts the way business is conducted as maintenance and spare parts will no longer be sold, but instead they become a cost, which encourages the supplier to increase efficiency, decrease production cost and improve product knowledge. These factors motivated suppliers in many industries to introduce different products that have some characteristics of the Total Care concept, which made it ambiguous on how many types of Total Care products are available and what is the difference between them. In this work, a case study was conducted on the Internet industry highlighting 53 companies that come under 4 different service sectors. The main results include the establishment of a categorisation system for Total Care products that shows 4 levels and the characteristics each level possess. The categorisation system allows suppliers to classify their Total Care products in a structured way and helps their customer’s select the Total Care type that fits their requirements. The system assists suppliers to switch from conventional products to Total Care products by clarifying the different types of Total Care products they can introduce with minimum effort and business risk.
Assessing customer satisfaction in the UAE telecom sector
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-02) Ali, Khaled Bin
Improving the effectiveness of public sector organizations to manage change
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-02) Iqbal, Arqam
Public sector organizations face a momentous task of constant change and upgrade to their services in today’s dynamic and hyper turbulent market place. Owing to the hyper active nature of the market place, the pace of change has never been greater than in the current business environment and is becoming a constant feature of organizational life. Coupled with massive economic expansion, increased globalization and massive transnational flow of information, there is a colossal pressure on public sector organizations to relentlessly instigate change. More so manage change effectively so as to increase the competitiveness of the states; else the increased diversification and ambitious growth strategies pursued by states can be rendered futile. This research focuses on one such change (‘Salik’) wherein the organization (roads and traffic agency) is faced with the task of resolving the traffic woes of Dubai and is working towards the integration of the entire road and transport network. The aim of this research is to examine and improve the effectives of the public sector organizations to manage change. In light of the aim the objectives of the research are to: Investigate how the road and traffic agency is managing change, especially change related to the implementation of advance technology, examine ‘Salik’ as technological change adopted by the agency, evaluate the consequences of this change on the existing network and stakeholders and to appraise the management strategy deployed to address the transport network in general and ‘Salik’ in particular. The findings of this research indicate key emerging issues adversely impacting change approach deployed. These include prioritization issues, timing of the change activities, time allotted to the change activities and issues pertaining to monitoring and feedback of change. Despite the prevailing issues; the study indicates that the state of flux has transformed into a state of equilibrium. The research findings also indicate that owing to this initiative undertaken by the agency, similar other projects are in the pipeline and a trend of symmetrical change approaches will emerge due to increased public spending and overhauling of state infrastructure fostered by the economic growth. This nonetheless, calls for the entities to carefully implement change and manage change effectively; wherein this research provides detailed insights into the current change and hence serves as a good case study to extrapolate results.
Project procurement management: procurement strategy - the missing link between project and business strategies in the oil & gas industries
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-04) Al Mahri, Saeed Ahmed Saeed
This Dissertation provides insights into improving aspects of Project Management in UAE. A research is conducted in order to assess the impact of Procurement Strategy on Business and Project Strategies with respect to management of Oil & Gas projects. UAE is rapidly developing and International as well as local companies are participation in hundreds of varied on-going projects. To elicit and maintain interest of majors, Procurement of projects should be towards achieving strategic objectives and improving relationships. The Aim of the research is to detect the link between Project and Business Strategies. Procurement Strategy is identified as the missing link and, as a Hypothesis to the Research, to solve project problems in meeting objectives. Research objectives are to assess influence of Procurement Strategy on Projects/Business Strategies, show how current Procurement Strategies are impediments in achieving project and strategic objectives and identify elements of Procurement Strategy that aim at achieving strategic objectives. The Literature reviewed on current knowledge of related issues suggested the inter-relation of Business to Project Strategies through Portfolio and Programs Strategies. The links to Procurement Strategy for outsourced projects in the Supply chain was explored extensively. Research Methodologies of Quantitative and Qualitative methods were adopted to test the Hypothesis and assess Objectives of the research. Questionnaire for investigating the strategic role of Project Procurement in Oil & Gas was developed. As a qualitative method, a Case Study for surveying four major projects in Refining industry within Oil & Gas was also developed. The case study involved surveying different parties of the projects to assess problems in projects Procurement. These methods generated valuable ideas in supporting the position of project Procurement in Oil & Gas industry projects towards achieving objectives. Data of the surveys responses were then presented in the both forms (Quantitative and Qualitative responses). The data was then analyzed with the findings from Literature to propose the recommended actions. Recommendations cover Linking Procurement to Business Strategy in Oil & Gas and proposing Procurement Strategies to overcome problems in Oil & Gas Projects. Conclusions have been finally derived and a subject of investigating Procurement Strategies on Project Performance was suggested for further research.
Determining the best forecasting method for intermittent spare parts demand in helicopter operations
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-04) AlNuaimi, Bader Khamis
Critical Success & Failure Factors for Public Private Partnership Projects in the UAE
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-05) Alhashemi, Mohamed Yaqoob
This report is part of the requirements of the Master program of Projects Management in the British University in Dubai. The purpose of this report is to identify and examine the critical success and failure factors for Public Private Partnership projects (PPP) in the UAE. The report provides a brief description of PPP and the area in which it is adopted internationally as well as the types of PPP. The success and the failure factors available in PPP projects will be described and identified. Eleven success factors and eight failure factors were identified from the literature. The method used in the research was to carry out case studies on available PPP projects in the UAE. There were few PPP projects identified in the UAE, but the number is increasing. Most of them are under development phase and only two were completed and under operation. There is no national data available on PPP projects that can be used for this research, therefore face-to-face interviews with senior staff in each PPP project were carried out and notes were taken and summarised in the appendix section. Several telephonic enquiries were carried out as well as search in the web for data regarding the case studies. The major findings indicate that two types of PPP were adopted in the UAE, and they are Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT), and PPP based on management service contracts. The findings show that tender process were carried out for management service contracts, while BOT projects procurement process were carried out through initiatives of either the public partner or the private partner followed by further discussions and negotiations. Each case study had its own circumstances and conditions that it developed in, therefore it perceived success and failure factors in a different way from other case studies, and each success factor and failure factor had different level of importance in each PPP project. In general, political support was the most important success factor for PPP projects followed by a strong private consortium, while the most important failure factor was the lack of appropriate skills. These findings show that the Government support is 6 critical for PPP projects to success. It is a new concept in the country, and it needs solid base in order to develop on. Strong private consortium is essential to the success of the PPP project as it is the consortium that will take care of the technical aspects of the PPP project and it will carry out the project. If the consortium lacks essential skills and experience, the project will fail. Another major finding appeared in this report is the attitude of the banks and the financial institutions towards PPP projects. They hesitated to finance some of the PPP projects in the UAE and preferred to watch how things are going on with PPP. Banks are always conservative regarding new things and in the same time suspicious about the success of new ideas, and as no sufficient security could be provided to the banks, the private partner did not own the land and the assets, the bank refused to finance the project. The report provided several recommendations for better improvement of PPP projects in the UAE. The main recommendation was to create a regulator authority for PPP projects in the UAE, which will monitor the performance of the private partner in the project in order to make sure that the objectives for the PPP are achieved, to regulate the relationship between the public and the private partner, to be the final authority that gives final decision regarding any dispute that may raise in PPP projects in the UAE. The Government should issue PPP Law in order to provide sufficient legal status for the project and for the private partner, and to provide legal security for the financial institutions and banks that are interested to finance the project.
Business Continuity Management Maturity Model for Banks in UAE
(British University in Dubai, 2008-06) Mahal, Ashish
Organizations have gone international. They are faced with increasing levels of global competition, demanding customers and employees, shrinking product lifecycles and decreasing acceptable response times (Lockamy & McCormack, 2004) They have employees and deal with clients, suppliers & vendors from all over the world. They use modern data processing systems to provide their customers with superior services. Realizing that these electronic systems have been, the major factor distinguishing competitors in today’s demanding business environment, organizations are taking steps to protect themselves from system failures. But, protecting against such system failures is not enough. Organizations have to be more concerned about the risks that threaten the operational continuity of their businesses as well. Methods as security and disaster recovery are no longer enough to fulfill the continuity needs of the organization. Also, there is increasing pressure that is forcing organizations to take measures to assure the continuity of their business. This includes pressure from customers who enforce requirements to their main suppliers and also by supervising & regulatory bodies. Any event, catastrophe or disaster in any part of the world has direct or indirect influence on organizations. In UAE, many organizations suffered loss of key staff who had gone back home for vocation when the Israel-Lebanon war broke out. This led to temporary disruptions in certain areas of organizations that did not have a defined succession plans in place. Now, UAE Central Bank has mandated all Banks to comply with BASLE II requirements (The Basel II Accord – How it may benefit banks that comply, 2004), which also has a domain on Business Continuity Management. Master’s Thesis – BCM Maturity Model iv ID: 20040020 Business Continuity Management (BCM) addresses operational continuity by concentrating on mission critical business processes. Although the awareness that something should be done to assure business continuity is present in many organizations, they often do not know how to implement BCM processes properly and integrate it through their entire set-up (end-to-end). According to a BCM survey conducted by KPMG (2006), same is the case with organizations in UAE, where only 20% of the organizations have an integrated organization-wide BCM. Details are available on KPMG, UAE website: http://www.ae-kpmg.com/index.thtml/. Therefore, organizations require an analysis tool which can be used to analyze an organization’s BCM process in terms of where they stand and what they should do to improve it. Such an analysis tool has to be based on a maturity model (as evident from the Literature review in Chapter 2) Currently, no standard maturity model exists for BCM implementation (something like CMM, CMMI etc.). Organizations have no way to assess where they are in terms of maturity of their BCM processes, how far they have to go and what they need to get there. This research aims to develop a maturity model for Banks in UAE that can serve as the basis for such an analysis tool, using both existing literature and the data collection from local market. This will help to have an in-depth knowledge of an organization’s BCM process; comparing themselves with other similar organizations and provide insight on how to enhance their Business Continuity Management processes. This model will cover all stages an organization goes through, before Business Continuity process becomes an integral part of its culture.
Enhancing privatization in industrial project through effective leadership style and qualities
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-06) Alkhaili, Mohamed
The Influence of Educational Technology and an Analytical Study of it's Efficacy on the Education System in Al Ain
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-06) Al Rashdi, Hamad Rashed
Technological development has always been incorporated in facilitating education. Be it the “quill” of the middle-ages, the fountain pen and the ball pens of the 19th and 20th centuries or the latest development of electronic pen, all have been technological advances, on sticks dipped in color, used earlier in human history to record knowledge. Newer and recent technological advances, namely, films, televisions and projectors have all been utilized with varying degree of success in man’s long quest of assisting and improving the edification process. The IT induced technological tsunami which seems to have completely submerged modern society has not left the education sector unscathed. Schools, in the mad rush to be up-to-date, have been scampering to buy computers and other related equipment to implement and integrate ET within their existing teaching methods. Unfortunately, in the haste to integrate Educational Technology (ET) and to make the edification culture more relevant to the modern society, little consideration has been shown for appropriate planning, i.e. awareness level, homogenous distribution and overcoming reluctance. The aim of this research is to look at the extent and efficacy of ET integration and implementation in the city of Al Ain. Additionally, the study aims to recognize any obstacles which might be hindering smooth ET integration in the traditional teaching system and recommend possible solutions. Extensive surveys, to deepen understanding and interpretation of the results, were conducted among teachers, students, parents, schools and government organizations. The data, while dispelling certain stereotypes about lack of ET awareness, did show profound imbalance in ET distribution among different schools and underlined the need for extensive work in ET planning, teacher development courses, maintenance of equipment and other related issues. It is hoped that the findings of the research, about the factors determining efficient ET implementation, will go a long way in changing schools' existing importance criteria of limiting ET incorporation only to the higher grades to giving attention to the lower grades as well. Even the Kinder Garten (KG), at the last rung of the school ladder, should not be deprived of ET as it is the building block of the whole educational edifice.
Safety management: study of the cost of construction accidents and investment in safety programmes in the UAE
(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2008-06) El Sayed, Waleed Farouk M

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