WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2012
LOCAL In my VIEW
In my VIEW
Fractious policies of Al Maliki
Managers... Stop managing, start leading By Ismail Ismail
By Mohammad Akef Jamal
f you pay peanuts, you get monkeys” goes a popular idiom. Would you like to get lions, instead of monkeys, while still paying peanuts? Then lead and don’t manage. Do we have leaders in Kuwait? The answer, largely, is NO! Management is different than leadership. The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate people who work for or follow them, and this sets the tone in most other aspects of what they do. Leadership has been described as the process of social influence in which one person can organize a group of people to achieve a common goal, whilst management comprises of planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. This is more commonly seen in Kuwaiti society, and mainly in governmental sectors. I worked in the Government sector for three years, and never once did I feel a sense of belonging (other than my loyalty towards my beloved country). I didn’t feel part of the organization, mainly due to the way supervisors treated their subordinates, including me. On the other hand, when I joined the private sector and was introduced to a new culture of leadership, I noticed that I started following a role model rather than obeying orders and complying with rules without having a buy-in. Have you felt the same way? Probably so, and my suggestion is to start leading people rather than managing them. Leadership uses the power of influence and positive reinforcement to drive the business outcome. Positive reinforcement occurs when a positive stimulus is presented in response to a behavior, increasing the likelihood of that behavior in the future. The use of positive reinforcement is a successful and growing technique used by leaders to motivate and attain desired behaviors from subordinates/followers. Organizations such as Frito-Lay, 3M, Goodrich, Michigan Bell, and Emery Air Freight have all used reinforcement to increase productivity. Empirical research during the last 20 years suggests that reinforcement theory gets a 17 percent increase in performance. Additionally, many reinforcement techniques, such as the use of praise, are inexpensive and provide a higher performance at a lower cost. Some managers will defend their case by explaining that company objectives need to be accomplished, whether the employees like it or not, and that’s why the employees are getting paid. It could be a fair statement, yet this will only drive compliant behavior, whereas what’s needed instead is a committed workforce. On the other hand, leadership inspires commitment that increases ownership and the feeling of belonging to the organization, which motivates employees to do more than is expected of them just because they feel happy and are rewarded for it. My message to all of those who have subordinates or staff reporting to them: Don’t manage your team, they are humans, not machines. Lead your team and apply your interpersonal skills to drive work and commitment, not compliance. Then you will get lions. (Ismail A. Ismail is an Organizational Effectiveness coach and a Human Resources Business Partner at EQUATE Petrochemicals, and an MBA student at Gulf University for Science and Technology.)
n April 21, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) held an emergency meeting in an attempt to solve the issues that are threatening to break its unity as a result of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s controversial policies. Former prime minister Ebrahim Al Jaafari, who is also the INA’s chairman, did not attend the meeting, neither did the representative of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
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The irresponsible statements made by the State of Law members have also poisoned Iraq’s relations on the regional front with some of its neighbours.
kuwait digest
People’s safety is your responsibility By Waleed Al-Ghanim
“A
catastrophe which would have killed 220 passengers was miraculously avoided when the radar at the Kuwait International Airport malfunctioned, just as the captain of a Kuwait Airways flight requested permission to make an emergency landing minutes after takeoff” - Al-Qabas, May 11, 2012. Such news usually prompts instant action from state officials: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation for example would rush to reassure people that the situation is under control, or the Minister of Communications would make an official statement to explain what actually happened. This incident should have been the main topic of discussion for an emergency Cabinet meeting, or prompt lawmakers to demand a detailed report from airport officials. However, none of those things happened because we are in Kuwait, where everyone is too distracted by minor things than to address crucial matters that affect the entire nation. In Kuwait, the Communications Minister is protected by MPs in his same tribe, while labor unions are too busy staging strikes for more financial privileges. MPs have so many ‘important’ priorities that they can’t put anything on hold for such an incident. But even a case in which the lives of hundreds of people were on the line couldn’t change that? The Government, as usual, doesn’t have a clear work program by which state departments can plan to deal with cases of emergency. It needs a massive fire to take place before the Government decides to relocate the scrap yard away from inhabited areas. Blackouts need to happen before a decision is made to boost the production capacity of power plants. Staff members of state depar tments
learned that the Government only remembers to pass their allowances when they stage strikes. It appears that the Government is very fond of Isaac Newton’s law of motion ‘for every action there is a reaction,’ and takes that as the main standard on which to base their decisions! The airport radar system is operated by hardworking people. Their job leaves absolutely no room for error and requires a level of 100 percent attention, but this is often overlooked by the majority of the public. Despite how vital the system is to work at airports, it is weird that the main airport in a wealthy country like Kuwait has only one radar. Operators are left to deal with an outdated, manually-operated military radar, should the radar system go out of order as it did during the recent incident. I appeal to the Minister of Communications, Salem Al-Othaina, to hold an urgent meeting with airport officials to address the radar system woes and provide all the requirements necessary to maintain the safety of passengers. This responsibility lies on your shoulders, Mr. Minister. —Al-Qabas
It appears that the Government is very fond of Isaac Newton’s law of motion ‘for every action there is a reaction,’ and takes that as the main standard on which to base their decisions!
kuwait digest kuwait digest
Reality of education
A lesson in politics!
By Dr Yaqoub Al-Sharrah
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ountless of educational conferences are held in the Arab World, resulting in countless recommendations combined with wide media coverage. However, they have failed for years to achieve the slightest bit of improvement in the Arab educational system, or bring it into line with improved international standards. All recommendations by Arab educational conferences share the same fate: they are shelved without even a small effort to realize them. They are only remembered when educational officials decide to meet again, and over and over again they make the exact same recommendations they made before. Maybe media and political showoffs are the main reason why this fruitless cycle continues to happen. In other words, officials believe that as long as they continue giving the public the impression that they have the intentions to achieve educational reform, people will always be optimistic that this goal will eventually be realized. The main reason why recommendations by Arab educational conferences fail is because they lack visions by which they can realistically be implemented. They often fail to take into account the differences between educational systems in Arab countries when it comes to capabilities, as well as the lack of coordination between different systems. One thing educational systems in Arab countries have in common is the fact that they are heavily influenced by politics more than they are effective in achieving the true changes that people demand. It is not a surprise, despite forty years of continuous recommendations and studies, that Arab educational systems remain at the bottom of the UNDP list for outcomes of education as well as educational roles in economic development. Achieving educational reform requires more than holding conferences and redundant recommendations. It needs efforts to address internal aspects that stand in the way of pushing educational development forward in each Arab country. Deteriorating education in the Arab world reflects a general deterioration in Arab societies, as Arab universities are far behind international colleges in educational and scientific standards.—Al-Rai
By Dr Hassan Abdullah Jouhar
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don’t blame the distinguished colleagues at the Social Sciences College for their rage over and resentment for the cheap false accusations pointed at them by an MP. They visited North Korea to participate in the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the state founder, Kim El Song. This was followed by another visit a year earlier by an academic delegation from the same college, both of which were portrayed as Iranian Intelligencedesigned! Any citizen is entitled to get angry at being accused of betrayal and disloyalty, accusations that have become so common amidst the ongoing sectarian tumult that they are even being accelerated by some MPs with the aim of making electoral gains, regardless of their possible perilous consequences to national unity. Unfortunately, this has become our destiny in view of the impossibility of holding MPs accountable, or suing them because of their parliamentary immunity. Through my modest parliamentary experience, I realized how some MPs can be used as tools, be that voluntarily or forcibly, in political conflicts. This is evident in so many statements and in the constitutional tools that they utilize merely to settle personal scores. They make use of the media to spread political propaganda, tailor-made for the lawmakers and their possible impact on public opinion. Therefore, I am calling to take the recent accusations calmly. The
whole thing is nothing but the personal jealousy of a fellow professor because he was not sent to visit North Korea. He has access to
Any citizen is entitled to get angry at being accused of betrayal and disloyalty, accusations that have become so common amidst the ongoing sectarian tumult that they are even being accelerated by some MPs with the aim of making electoral gains, regardless of their possible perilous consequences to national unity. Unfortunately, this has become our destiny in view of the impossibility of holding MPs accountable, or suing them because of their parliamentary immunity.
an MP who has become specialized in Iranian affairs, and this enquiry would be a big hit earning him, as a beginner, some parliamentary stardom. I am confident that the poor MP’s leg was so pulled into this situation that he did not bother to enquire about the academic members of the delegation, who included many prestigious, distinguished university professors. The delegation included Abdul Rudha Aseeri, Abdul Wahab Al-Dhafiri, Bader Al-Essa, Hamad AlAbdullah, Mohammed Al-Sayyed Saleem, Malak Al-Rasheed and Abdullah Sahar. I even had the honor of escorting the second delegation, some weeks ago, and wrote about the visit on April 27. So, on behalf of my fellow professors, I can confidently declare that both visits were approved by both the former Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah, and the current one, Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled. I would also like to highlight how the Nor th Korean President praised the state of Kuwait, His Highness the Amir, and the late martyr Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmed. During the visit, the delegation visited the only desalination project in Pyong Yang which supplies fresh water to all of the capital population. It was a contribution from the State of Kuwait through the Development Fund. If this is espionage and intelligence work, then I do welcome such a ‘betrayal’ and wish that some MPs learn a political lesson from this experience! —Al-Jarida
These absences that may seem innocent are usually due to political reasons. The policies of the State of Law Coalition headed by Al Maliki pushed Iraq into a maze, domestically and regionally. They also created a ripe atmosphere for a mutiny against the current set-up by the blocs that make up the INA. And although the ‘news’ that is planted from time to time about the conflicts inside the alliance is either exaggerated or played down, one cannot deny the existence of a serious crisis facing the Shiite alliance for the first time. Iraq will be facing grave consequences as a result of the dangerous stagnation in the political process, which is threatening to erupt. The INA has announced its solidarity with Al Maliki’s government; however, the statement that was released after the meeting did not hide its disappointment with Al Maliki’s policies and that of the Al Dawa party, which he heads. The announced decisions also restricted Al Maliki’s freedom. The decisions came in four sections; three of them blamed the prime minister and showed displeasure with his policies. The alliance stressed the need for respecting bodies such as the Independent High Electoral Commission, the Iraqi Central Bank, Office of Financial Supervision, the integrity commission, and the National Communications and Media Commission of Iraq, and to refrain from intervening in their business. The decisions also stressed the importance of national partnership and sharing power, which is the exact opposite of what Al Maliki has been doing since he became premier. The INA also refused any form of foreign intervention in Iraq’s internal affairs. As a pre-emptive measure, Al Maliki had sent a letter to the parliament via Khudair Al Khuzaie, Iraqi Vice-President, wherein he pointed out his commitment to the Arbil agreement. Domestically, the idea of holding power exclusively, annulling the concept of the national partnership, and the attempts to dominate independent bodies have created tensions in the political process that threaten to derail it. As a result of this, the relationship between the central government and the Kurdish region has deteriorated, reaching the brink of direct armed confrontation. The irresponsible statements made by the State of Law members have also poisoned Iraq’s relations on the regional front with some of its neighbours. If matters had been left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the relationship with Arab countries and Turkey would not have deteriorated as it did after the Arab summit ended in Baghdad. In all reality, the INA would not have called for the emergency meeting if it were not fearful of the repercussions, which could also lead to the downfall of Al Maliki’s government. The Sadrist movement, which is the biggest in the INA bloc in parliament, expressed its keenness to re-evaluate its alliances. The Sadrists did not hide their eagerness to break free from the structures of this process by joining hands with Al Iraqiya and the Kurdish alliance for a no-confidence motion against Al Maliki’s government, and to back another government headed by one of its bloc members. In all truth, the Sadrists will not be the only ones to tread this road, as the State of Law Coalition has distanced itself from its closest allies because of its policy of holding power exclusively. The decisions taken by the INA in the meeting will have a great impact on the future events in the country, as they will be a test of the ability of this alliance to control the prime minister and his party and to maintain its unity. These decisions simply mean that the policies agreed upon while dealing with other forces in the political process are no more decided by the State of Law Coalition alone. These measures - despite the questions they raise about the extent of their compatibility with the Constitution - lessen the tensions in the Iraqi political process. The Kurdish alliance for one has announced that it welcomes these decisions, despite its falling out with the State of Law coalition lately. It is too early to imagine that the INA has succeeded in solving all the problems. Political blocs struck many deals in the past; however, they were never put into force and remained ink on paper, exactly as what happened with the Arbil agreements. The execution of these deals is the responsibility of the prime minister and is not guaranteed due to his penchant for holding on to power. The INA meeting decisions are also aimed at downsizing the role of Al Dawa party, while preventing the Sadrists from leading the political process. Most probably, Al Maliki will continue his tenure as prime minister until March 2014. Removing him is not an easy feat and sectarian forces are still in control of big political-decision making. The prime minister succeeded in thwarting and aborting steps that were taken against him recently, and he has redirected the crisis away from himself for the time being.