Introduction
Training is a crucial process in every organization. Regardless of how it is structured, it has a prime role to play in the development and success of all organizations. It is a productive and rewarding course to both employers and employees. Training enhances employer/employee knowledge and skills by addressing workplace weaknesses, and thus increasing productivity.
It also helps in maximizing human resource utility by improving employee morale and creating a working organizational climate. It further creates an environment where there is less supervision, but high efficiency and productivity of the workforce (Rees and Porter 254).
This paper looks at training in the Ministry of Interior (MOI) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) coupled with how it has helped in the maximum utilization of human resources. In so doing, the paper begins by looking at the history of UAE coupled with how the MOI came to existence.
The paper significantly analyzes the strategic plan of the MOI including its vision and mission. The paper then identifies some of the key training programs offered at the Ministry and reviews the structure of the organization. It also gives a report on how these training programs apply to different levels of employees working at the Ministry.
History of United Arab Emirates
Even though the federation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was officially established in 1971, early history of the Emirates dates back to thousands of years ago. Perhaps the turning point was the defeat of non-Muslims in the 630s, which saw the various Arabian Peninsula sheikhdoms converted to Islam. Later in the 19th century, these sheikhdoms disintegrated, with most of their members becoming pirates.
However, in 1820, the British imposed a truce on them and renamed the disintegrated sheikhdoms to Trucial Sheikhdoms. When the British finally granted them their independence, the Trucial states agreed to form a Union. This federation became known as the United Arabs Emirates.
The Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates
The Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates was created almost immediately after the states agreed to form a federation and work together. The member-states expressed a strong determination to realize peace, unity, and prosperity for the region. They also endeavored to achieve strength and dignity to improve their International reputation.
It was thus very necessary to unify their security under one essential federal authority. This unification brought about the creation of the MOI. The setting became one of the most important tenets of the federal government (Lori 315-337). Since its creation, MOI has gone through transformations with major changes witnessed in the leadership styles and human resource utilization.
For instance, at its early beginnings, the leadership of the Ministry was cunningly preserved to a certain class, specifically the elite officials. Sheikh Mubarak, its first Minister, is a very good example.
Even his successor, Hmooda bin Ali, was equally privileged. However, substantial developments started in the early 1990s with the posting of more professional leaders at the Ministry. Lt. General Dr. Mohammed was particularly responsible for defining the levels of stability and security in the region.
He helped raise the security standards by introducing principles and values, which ensured that the Ministry employees fulfilled their duties and obligations in various security-fields. In recent years, the Ministry has achieved large-scale developments and equipped its staff with efficient knowledge and skills to fight crimes and improve security (Lori 315-337).
Large Scale Developments
The Ministry of Interior has adopted a leadership style based on scientific rules to enhance progress, skills, maturity, accountability, and help in developing efficient human resources. These rules include a vision, mission, values, and strategic objectives. The vision of the Ministry is to make UAE one of the most peaceful, safest, and securest nations in the region and beyond.
Its mission is to improve the quality of life in UAE by guaranteeing everyone security. The Ministry values include honesty, integrity, justice, respect for human rights, teamwork, excellence, quality leadership, and creativity and innovativeness.
Lastly, the strategic objectives of the Ministry include enhancing safety and security, ensuing readiness, maintaining public confidence, investing in the public, working in partnerships, and finest utilization of human resources. However, to prioritize security and safety matters, the Ministry has developed training programs for its employees.
These programs seek to equip employees with more knowledge and skills so that they can understand their roles and objectives the best way possible. They also seek to help employees understand the needs and necessities of the society in a better way.
Training Programs
Training programs are very important in improving employee performance. They help in the development of human resources, which ultimately helps employees to achieve both organizational and personal goals. Secondly, these programs help employees to expand their skills and knowledge of the job.
They also help in measuring success and addressing workplace weaknesses. Above all, training programs aim at developing superior personnel that is equal to the tasks of the organization (Sloman 73-87).
The Ministry of Interior of the UAE has adopted a similar training program to that of the U.S army leadership model. The “Be-Know-Do” model is a superior training program, which focuses on leadership. It prepares everyone to be a leader in his or her own capacity.
Thus, the model forms responsible, mature, and focused employees. In effect, employees require less supervision, become well acquainted with goals, and have fewer chances of making errors (U.S. Army 1-22).
The “BE” training model is about placing the character of the employees first. Every organization is value based. Every organization wants to have employees who are respectful, loyal, courageous, selfless, honorable, responsible, and persons of high integrity.
This element is exactly the purpose of this program. It aims at forming the character of the employees in all human areas (emotional, physical, and mental) to increase their ability to lead. It also prepares employees to be leaders at all times, regardless of the circumstances.
Above all, this model aims at training employees to be in a position to balance their personal values with those of the organization. It can be so stressful to have employees who do not have common values or who act on their personal values regardless of the organizational values.
The “KNOW” model is a training program aimed at developing employees to become more competent in their jobs. The employees are trained particularly on four areas, viz. interpersonal, conceptual, technical, and tactical skills. Interpersonal skills comprise of motivational, counseling, communication, and teaching skills. Conceptual skills include critical, ethical, and innovative skills.
Technical skills apply to the employee-knowledge of equipments and systems. Lastly, tactical skills are those that enable employees overcome hardships or face challenges. Overall, the mastery of these four categories of skills enables employees to handle their jobs with the deserved delicacy and professionalism (Jenter 413-443).
The “DO” training model aims at preparing the employees to act. Given that the character has been formed and employees have been equipped with enough intellectual skills, this last program seeks to empower the employees to act. However, to act, employees require three qualities, viz. influence, operation, and improvement. Workers should do the right thing regardless of the outside forces.
They also need to assess the situation before they can act. Additionally, without creating room for improvement, their actions might not be of much help to future actions, and to sum up everything, through the training programs, the Ministry of Interior aims at forming its staff to be people with character, intellectual capacity, and presence.
The Structure of the Ministry of Interior of the UAE
The Ministry of Interior is structured into nine various departments. They include Traffic Department, Department of Finance and Support, Private Security, Police Sports Association, Department of Punitive and Reformatory Establishments, Human, General Inspector Office, Police College, and Law Respect Culture Bureau (United Arab Emirates Para. 3).
The Traffic Department supervises traffic services in all parts of the country to ensure that accidents are minimal. The General Department of Finance and Support (GDFS) provides the financial support to all public administrations under the Ministry. Its creation follows the “Council of Ministers Decision” No. (37). The Department of Private Security (DPS) ensures that there is security in the country.
It does this through creating partnerships between the security sector and the public. Established under the Federal law No. 43, the Punitive Reformatory Establishments (PRE) ensures that punishments are within the basic standards, while the Police Sports Association (PSA) ensures that police sports are properly developed through technical policies.
The sixth department oversees the maintenance of human rights and sees to it that there is freedom and dignity for everyone in the country. The mandate of the General Inspector Office is to ensure that safety and legitimacy are prioritized. It also oversees all the other police security services. The Police College is responsible for training all police officers.
Through training seminars and extensive courses, the College ensures that police officers are competitive in terms of their knowledge and skills. The last department, Law Respect Culture Bureau (LRCB), ensures that the rule of law is upheld by educating the society on the various categories of laws through languages that the people understand best (United Arab Emirates Para.6).
How the training programs are useful to employees in different Departments
The training programs are extremely useful to all employees across the Departments. Regardless of the different levels, all employees should be people with character, intellectual capacity, and presence. Besides, the Ministry of Interior has very clear values, viz. honesty, integrity, justice and respect for human rights, teamwork, excellence, quality leadership, creativity, and innovativeness.
These values appeal directly to the character of the employees. Not everyone possesses these qualities. Nevertheless, even for those who do, balancing their personal values with the organizational values might be challenging in many ways. It is only through training the ‘character’ of the employees that there can be a working harmony in the employee-values.
The Ministry conducts its training at two levels. The first level, the administrative, aims at training the directors of various departments to be competent leaders. The directors are trained to lead by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to those under them.
They also learn to lead by example through communication and by extending their influence beyond their departments. The directors are further taught to be result-oriented. However, this aspect calls for them to create a positive environment that would inspire their juniors to accomplish their duties consistently.
The second level, the staff, aims at training the employees to increase performance. It begins with forming the character of the staff members so that their personal values can fit into the organizational values.
The program is also meant to equip the workforce with necessary skills and knowledge to enable them to be competent enough in carrying out their duties. The staff training can be summarized as follows “know yourself, know your job, and be professional in what you do”. Alternatively, know your mission, earn the reputation, and rigorously pursue it.
Conclusion
As aforementioned, training is a crucial process in every organization. Regardless of how it is structured, it has a prime role to play in the development and success of all organizations. Training programs are important in improving employee performance as they focus on addressing workplace weaknesses.
They also help in the development of human resources, which ultimately helps the employees to achieve both the organizational and personal goals. Moreover, training programs aim at developing superior personnel that is equal to the tasks of the organization.
The Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has adopted the “Be-Know-Do” training model to enhance superior performance in its various departments. The training programs occur at two levels: administrative and staff.
The administrative program is the training given to the directors to improve their leadership competencies, while the staff program seeks to equip employees with more knowledge and skills to improve their performance.
Works Cited
Jenter, Dirk. “Security Issue Timing: What Do Managers Know, and When Do They Know It?” Journal of Finance, 66.2 (2011): 413-443. Print.
Lori, Noora. “National Security and the Management of Migrant Labor: A Case Study of the United Arab Emirates.” Asian & Pacific Migration Journal, 20.3/4 (2011): 315- 337. Print.
Rees, David, and Christine Porter. The Skills of Management. London: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
Sloman, Martyn. Hand Book for Training Strategy. Vermont: Gower Publishing Ltd, 1999. Print.
United Arab Emirates. The Ministry of Interior (MIO), 2012. 17 November 2012. <https://www.moi.gov.ae/en/default.aspx>
U.S. Army. Be-Know-DO: Leadership the Army Way: Adapted from the Official Army Leadership Manual. California: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Print.