Part of Jasim Ahmed Al Ali's job is to convince staff members about the advantage of rotating among departments for better exposure.
While some employees are enthusiastic, others resist.
Managing transition and change is a skill that Mr Ali has picked up in four years as the director of development and follow-up at the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai. In March, he joined Dubai Media as senior HR adviser to the director general.
To get a better understanding of how to manage change and transition, he was among the roughly 50 people who attended a seminar organised by Ashridge Consulting in Dubai a few weeks ago.
Organisational transition is a time of upheaval, be it in the government or private sector. And people need to be prepared for that. Professors from Ashridge Business School say that long-term planning and gaining the workforce's trust are what keep an organisation afloat during such times.
Ashridge also provides consultancy to companies and organisations on managing change.
"Why bother with different perspectives to change?" Liz Wiggins, an Ashridge consulant, asked the seminar's audience of human resources directors, business development managers and government officials.
Why? Because "it recognises the complex and multifaceted nature of change, and the different ways of seeing and reframing provides new possibilities for action."
That was evident in a game of picture cards at the gathering.
Pointing to a card showing a white figure of a man colouring a row of others red, Ms Wiggins said: "I see passivity of others."
A member of the audience said: "It tells me I won't change but would like others to change."
The diversity of the population also comes into play.
"High levels of diversity in the region affect how change is interpreted, made sense of and the level of motivation or buy-in to change," says Rory Hendrikz, a Dubai-based director of Ashridge Middle East.
Setting a change-management policy is also necessary for any organisation, Ashridge says.
And to have a policy suitable for a particular organisation, it is necessary to distinguish between change and transition.
"But we often find that organisations ignore transition management," Ms Wiggins says.
A policy geared exclusively towards "change" looks only at the desired outcome and ends up with a logical change plan. It ignores the emotions that staff members go through during the process of change - grief, loss, anger, fear, resentment, dissent, hope and finally acceptance.
"We have to work with these emotions to better make people and staff work together and otherwise we are less likely to succeed," Ms Wiggins said.
A challenge that managers face in dealing with change is the short period of time they have in implementing change, according to members of the audience.
There is no one way to make decisions.
Whether the process is long or quick, it will have advantages and drawbacks, Mr Hendrikz says.
"Quick decisions can lead to a 'fast start, slow finish' change phenomena, where once a quick decision is made, a long tail can follow," he says.
That, he says, can be due to a failure to plan through the whole process, and low levels of engagement leading to low levels of organisation understanding of the rationale for change.
Besides giving ample time to implement change, building identifying ways to engage as many people as possible in the change is necessary for smooth transition, Ms Wiggins says.
Communication is still the key.
Dubai Media's Mr Al Ali says that there are two groups of people when it comes to organisational change.
One is the group that resists change, and the other comprises humble people who are interested in change and are enthusiastic about it.
With the difficult people, Mr Al Ali said, "we mentor them, we have to know who are resistant, and see how we can increase their satisfaction".
ssahoo@thenational.ae
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
How it works
Each player begins with one of the great empires of history, from Julius Caesar's Rome to Ramses of Egypt, spread over Europe and the Middle East.
Round by round, the player expands their empire. The more land they have, the more money they can take from their coffers for each go.
As unruled land and soldiers are acquired, players must feed them. When a player comes up against land held by another army, they can choose to battle for supremacy.
A dice-based battle system is used and players can get the edge on their enemy with by deploying a renowned hero on the battlefield.
Players that lose battles and land will find their coffers dwindle and troops go hungry. The end goal? Global domination of course.
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
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Winner Meshakel, Royston Ffrench (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
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Winner Topper Bill, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
10pm Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (T) 1,400m
Winner Wasim, Mickael Barzalona, Ismail Mohammed.
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