Introduction
The Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) is one of two Islamic banks in the UAE, the other one being the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. DIB is a sharia-compliant institution with approximately US$40 billion in assets and with an employee strength of more than 8,000, serving the different parts of the UAE and other areas in Asia and the Middle East (Dubai Islamic Bank, 2016).
From its humble beginnings in 1975, DIB has grown into an international organization, providing customers banking needs with flexibility, change, and modernity, and serving as one of more than 400 institutions that meet Islamic banking and finance needs worldwide, particularly in the UAE (Dubai Islamic Bank, 2016). In 2013, DIB had more than 40 branches throughout the UAE and has been expanding ever since (Al-Tamimi & Al-Amiri, 2013).
Its vision is to be at the forefront in Islamic banking and finance and its mission is for improvement and growth coupled with excellent customer service, positive innovation, and an unmatched employee career development program (Dubai Islamic Bank, 2016).
The Sharia Supervisory Board, which is composed of experts in Islamic law and other relevant aspects of Islamic banking and finance, supervises the operations of the bank and provides innovative solutions for finance and banking services and also issues “fatawa” for operational guidance. Sharia auditors are working to provide an internal audit (Dubai Islamic Bank, 2016). DIB is known in the industry as people-oriented, which means it has fostered employee development and promotion of human capital. Training and development are some of the key activities to optimize employees’ performance.
Training and development issues
DIB’s training department encompasses all its branches. Employees with a talent for leadership and a passion for service are enjoined to participate in the training program. DIB has to find and mold leaders from the current pool of employees by way of a talent management program known as the High Potential Employee Program, which is one of the initiatives of an HRD scheme known as Masdar. The program aims to train and mold corporate leaders, enhance career opportunities, and help support the bank’s fast growth (Albawaba business, 2015).
High Potential Employee Program identifies and develops potential employees who show dedication and passion for work and the necessary traits to become future leaders. The goal is to ensure that these employees are given the appropriate support and training to expose their leadership skills and to enhance personal growth and organizational performance. DIB, through CEO Adnan Chilwan, recognizing the employees’ value to the organization, wants to expose talented and dedicated employees at the early stage. Training and development and staff retention are part of the bank’s long-term aims to attain a competitive advantage (Albawaba business, 2015).
However, some critics argue that Islamic banks are not widely accepted by the general population because of the issue of service quality. In the banking industry, service quality is a must in order to gain competitive advantage; conventional or commercial banks are a challenge to Islamic banks (Al-Tamimi & Al-Amiri, 2003). According to Parasuraman et al. (cited in Al-Tamimi & Al-Amiri, 2003), service quality refers to the “gap between customers’ expectations of service and their perception of the service experience” (p. 120). Once the service experience becomes negative, customer behavior is affected. This will rebound to the banks’ competitive advantage and organizational performance.
The problem lies in the fact that the UAE government is continually pursuing the program of Emiratization. This program focuses on giving priority to Emiratis in the public and private sectors’ human resource development, such as aspects of staffing, training, and development, and so on. The question is: how can Dubai Islamic Bank deliver service quality if it has to address the government’s program of Emiratization? At present, the UAE cannot meet the human resource requirement of UAE banks, which need foreign employees to meet the problem of service quality. Unemployment is common among Emirati youth due to lack of availability of “government or uniformed jobs, the preferred choice of Emirati job seekers” (Cummings, 2013).
Emiratis are just a minority of the UAE’s workforce (CIA as cited in Cummings, 2013). This means the country’s economic development relies on the strength and expertise of foreign labor which has given the technical and commercial insight that helps businesses organizations. It has been argued that unwelcome economic and social phenomena, even the Arab Spring that dominated the Arab world in 2011, is possible in the UAE (Cummings, 2013).
Some regional social and political protests conducted by unemployed local youths and political activists led to the UAE government imposing a quota system for Emirati employment and to protect Emirati employees. The World Economic forum (as cited in Cummings, 2013) has noted the imbalance of the Emirati and expatriate labor.
Solutions implemented to rectify the problem
DIB has answered the awareness call – to follow the administrative order of the quota system – through training and development of Emirati talents. DIB must have an efficient management team that can be enhanced through effective training and development. Currently, the company has this effective team but the problem lies in the young, untrained Emirati nationals who were accepted into the workforce because of the Emiratization program.
This is the emphasis of DIB’s High Potential Employee Program, i.e. to continuously identify and develop leadership talents among the thousands of employees in the bank’s many branches, amid Emiratization. Training focuses on executive coaching, learning, and actual experience in relevant strategic programs and executive work. DIB’s management believes that the process will enhance the organization’s internal capacity, organizational performance, and employee performance through retention.
Through the High Potential Employee Program, Emiratization will no longer be a part of the problem but a feature of the solution because UAE nationals are the primary beneficiaries of the training and development, which involves the enhancement of leadership skills and career development. The staffing strategy that identifies Emirati talents will also be developed.
DIB can lead to providing Emirati employment but the local workforce is still small (55,000) compared to expatriates (Cummings, 2013). DIB can strengthen the workforce through continual training and development. The general problem in the UAE and in the GCC, in general, is the urgent need in appealing private-sector management opportunities to absorb the growing sector of unemployed Emiratis. UAE data collected in 2011 showed that the banking and finance sectors had the highest numbers of local employment. The problem is the lack of knowledge of the perceptions of local businesses about expatriate labor, and vice versa, with regards to adequate employment opportunities (Cummings, 2013). A close collaboration between the private sector and government agencies is needed.
Recommendations for organizational development
- Some fifty years ago, Dubai was just a place of about 30,000 poverty-stricken individuals; but Dubai today is a city of about a-million-and-a-half and home to high-profile investments and organizations. This becomes a training ground for the young Emirati who may someday take the helm of the management of DIB. Without forcing but slowly inculcating in their minds the spirit of entrepreneurship and leadership, young Emirati nationals will manage not just DIB but the growing businesses in Dubai (Hvidt, 2009).
- Training and development should include formal education in a university in the UAE; this means employees and managers who have not attained college degrees should continue their education even as they are under employment by the public or private sector.
- The government and the private sector should provide the necessary motivation for young Emiratis: today’s lack of expert Emirati personnel to manage businesses and lead organizations will someday be replaced with highly-educated and properly trained Emirati executives. Motivation should be a primary aim of effective training and development because it stimulates trainees to act and be good leaders.
- Knowledge transfer is a common practice among developed and developing countries. Expatriate managers and employees can provide mentorship and expertise to Emirati employees.
- The managers and employees undergoing training and development should be exposed to actual management practices under expert expatriates. Dubai today is a huge training ground not just for young Emiratis but for neophyte managers who have a passion for business.
- While there are already appropriate training methods, such as those provided by the DIB’s High Potential Employee Program, it is essential that young trainees should know the tenets and attributes of service quality. Service quality in banking means continuously predicting and meeting the needs and hopes of customers. Excellent service quality can only be perceived if the customer feels and values it.
- DIB management and HRD people should take note that Dubai is now the focus of the attention of international businesses and organizations. This did not happen overnight. The government and the private sector, expatriates and Emiratis, are responsible for transforming Dubai into a business “star” in the Middle East and of the world. Young Emiratis and those still learning the ropes in business are present beneficiaries of the technology, the resources, including the billions of dollars coming in enticed by the prospects of good business in Dubai (Balakrishnan, 2008). These are all part of the training ground that small and large businesses, especially DIB, should be able to take advantage of.
References
Albawaba business: Dubai Islamic bank launches bank-wide high potential employee development program. (2015). Web.
Al-Tamimi, H., & Al-Amiri, A. (2003). Analysing service quality in the UAE Islamic banks. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 8(2), 119-132. Web.
Balakrishnan, M. (2008). Dubai – a star in the east: A case study in strategic destination branding. Journal of Place Management and Development, 1(1), 62-91. Web.
Cummings, B. (2013). An exploration of private sector workplace experiences in the United Arab Emirates (Doctoral thesis, Walden University, Minneapolis, Minnesota). Web.
Dubai Islamic Bank: Overview. (2016). Web.
Hvidt, M. (2009). The Dubai model: An outline of key development-process elements in Dubai. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 41(3), 397-418. Web.