Critical Evaluation of Leadership Styles at Nizwa Bank

This report critically evaluates the leadership styles at Nizwa Bank and their impact on performance and productivity. It also examines the types of leadership styles and their influence on followers. The report focuses on the challenges faced by Nizwa Bank, a devoted Islamic bank in Oman, and analyzes the need for future leadership development.

RUNNING HEAD: Management 0
Nizwa
Leadership project 2

Management 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Critical evaluation of the types of leadership styles...............................................................................2
Critical evaluation of the leadership styles impacting people performance and productivity................5
Critical evaluation of the leadership styles determining who will follow and how................................7
Critical evaluation of the personal leadership capabilities and analysis of the need for future
development..........................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................10
References...........................................................................................................................................12
References...........................................................................................................................................15

Management 2
Introduction
The leadership is all about leading a group of people in the organization. The leaders
themselves and inspire others to do the right things. They build an inspiring vision in order to
do something innovative. The leadership is stated as a dynamic interactive process
comprising different dimensions. These dimensions are existing in the planning and
organization along with the direction and controlling of the efforts intended at attaining the
goals managed by the leader. This report includes the leadership problems and challenges
faced by the Nizwa bank. Nizwa is Oman’s first devoted Islamic bank with Shari’a
acquiescent products and services. The bank is engaged in offering a complete portfolio of
commercial banking services. Nizwa works according to the license allotted by the Central
Bank of Oman (CBO) and the banking law. The bank strives to be a financial partner of the
people and enterprises of Oman. It strongly believes in improving customer’s lives and
always makes extra efforts for them. The traditions of Islam are celebrated and put into
practice on a constant foundation for the clients. The company is striving to make extra
efforts to represent a real variance today and for the future by advanced ideas. The seven
leadership mindset theory (vMEME) has been applied to the Nizwa in the report. vMeme
suggests the idea of leadership in which leaders are required to be at the equivalent or higher
level than the admirers. Various types of leadership are included in the vMeme model and
indicated through the coloring scheme. The report has critically evaluated the leadership
styles contingent on the history, culture, geographic life and conditions. The specific type of
leadership styles impacting people performance and productivity have been critically
evaluated in the report. The leadership styles have been also evaluated determining who will
‘follow and how’. Finally, the personal leadership capabilities have been critically evaluated
along with the necessity for future development.
Critical evaluation of the types of leadership styles
The leadership assists in maximizing efficiency and in attaining organizational goals. It even
leads to building work environment by coordinating within the organization. The leadership
or management styles differ as per the history, culture, geographic life and conditions. The
history of banking in Oman has moved in tandem through socio-economic development in
the nation. The last four decades have witnessed extraordinary growth in the banking
industry. It has even provided a career to the people and excelled in meeting the targets

Management 3
(Iqbal, Anwar, and Haider, 2015). The capability of a leader for influencing employees
towards an organizational goal is not always the priority of the individuals. There are several
types of leadership styles such as behavior-based theory and trait-based theory but such
theories do not sync the cultural theme of an organization. The culture is at the top priority of
the leaders. It expresses goals through the values, beliefs and guiding activity by sharing
assumptions and norms. Nizwa occupies an important location which has a role in enhancing
the growth of the bank. Oman also occupies close relations with the UK and open to the
innovations. It is also a center of trade (Solomon, Costea, and Nita, 2016).
The Seven Leadership Mindsets Theory (vMeme) stands for ‘value meme’ and describes the
kind of cultural genetic code. It has a role in describing the values of a certain society and it
passes from person to person by the social interface. It merely describes the characteristics of
the values which individuals make up a given social group hold. The vMemes are enabled
with the color scheme. Each vMeme is erected on the ones underneath it (Schmid, et al.
2017). Each vMemme is the requisite foundation for the next wave. There can be no red
without purple and without red there cannot be purple. Purple represents animistic and the
structure are going to be a family tradition. Red comprises an egocentric leadership style
which is empire driven and dedicating industrial power. The tools of vMemes are brought to
the surface when required instinctively. On the other side, orange leadership is a multiplistic
with the delegative style of leadership (Hwang, et al. 2015). The green is a relativistic form
with the egalitarian leadership style with the reliant on the social network. Yellow comprises
efficient thinking form through the integrative leadership form. Turquoise comprises holistic
discerning with the global structures in the leadership. Coral contains result driven leadership
form.

Management 4
The egocentric leadership style is practiced by Nizwa through launching Shari’s banking
account. It will deeply systematize the change. In order to understand the culture of the
country, Nizwa bank has launched the unique bank service which is devoted to the Omani
youth. This service is designed to assist younger Omanis in informing financial choices. This
service introduces youngsters the benefits of specialized Shari’a-complaint solutions. It
combines banking, life style, and social functions. It is the first of the kind service to be

Management 5
provided by the Islamic banking institution. This service is specifically designed to help 50%
of the Omanis under the age of 25. The youngsters will be able to lead a financially secure
lifestyle in the coming years. It is a groundbreaking service deliberated to communicate liable
banking to young customers. It is the kind of first devoted Shari’s banking account for the
youth segment to meet the upcoming needs of those who are initiating their work life journey
(Khalili, 2016). Nizwa bank is the choice of most of the customers in Oman; it continues to
sustain technology in order to create a seamless experience for the customers by practicing
Islamic banking (Hassan, Asad, and Hoshino, 2016). From the last six years, the bank has
been at the forefront of backing to the economic diversification efforts. The specialized
banking solutions have been introduced by the bank for all the sections of the society. The
customer-centric approach of the company is also effective which is leading status as go-to
reference for Islamic finance. The youth banking account offers profit pay-out-based on
Sharia’s concept of Mudaraba. This concept works on no minimum balance charges, access
to all the digital experience and OmaNet ATM network. The bank has even become go-to-
reference for Islamic finance in Oman and systematized several initiatives to raise awareness
in the industry (Ghaffari, et al. 2017). Nizwa has even attained 90% Omanization rate and has
been inspiring youth in the Islamic finance sector.
The delegating style of leadership as a part of eMeme, Nizwa exercised leadership by
launching its first wealth management center for offering tailored products and services along
with growing wealthy customer base. In this style of leadership, the organization allows
making the decision for the product required by them (Şahin, Gürbüz, and Şeşen, 2017). The
wealth management center is devoted to meet the growing interest from high net value
investors and corporations. It will be more of the wide suite of personal retail banking
products and segmentation. It will even assist the bank to get close to the customers for
highlighting Shari’ah compliant solutions. The customers can get the complete range of the
products and services for catering the exclusive needs like 24/7 access to the personal banker,
Mudharaba investment options along with additional benefits (Trevor-Roberts, Ashkanasy,
and Kennedy, 2003).
Critical evaluation of the leadership styles impacting people performance and
productivity

Management 6
The leadership style impacts the enactment and output of the people at Nizwa bank. The
leadership styles used in the organization are likely to have effective management, rewarding
culture along with the product teams. It even provides guidance and direction to the
employees. The employees at Nizwa took up the actions of leaders very cautiously in order to
carry out the specific tasks. The performance of the employees is carried out by undertaking
specific types of leadership (Fiaz, Su, and Saqib, 2017). The employee’s performances in
Nizwa are associated with the leadership like autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire
management style. Mr. Khalid Kayed supervises the employees in the bank and monitors the
activities in order to make sure that the employees do not avoid accomplishing their duties.
Kayed has complete authority at Nizwa and reserves the right for making decisions. The
personnel in the organization do follow the instruction of the leader without any single
question (Kopelman, Prottas, and Falk, 2010). The autocratic leadership style has provided
positive results in the organization as the employees were encouraged to work as more as
possible towards offering services to the customers. The autocratic is the best approach to be
used by the organization as it is comparatively new organization and does not wholly involve
experienced persons. For instance, the employees were guided for inaugurating wealth
management centre. They were provided conditions to tailor the products as per the
requirement of the customers. It is an extension of the retail banking products (Bushe, and
Marshak, 2016).
The bank even provides training and development opportunities with the deliberation of
nurturing the coming generations of the Islamic banking leaders. The forward-thinking
strategy is erected by the bank to build human capital. Almost 200 employees of the bank
were also undergone the incentive tools, systems, and approaches. The employees were also
enabled with the Islamic banking disciplines. Both effective succession planning and talent
management are essential for the long term success in the briskly budding Islamic banking
sector (Buchanan and Kern, 2017). The growth strategies determine the success of the
employees in the organization. It also ensures that the employees enjoy a rewarding career
along with contributing prosperity in Oman. Nizwa continues to be the highest priority for the
banks in Oman (Beck, and Cowan, 2014). The bank is having a proactive approach for
training its employees with the assistances to meet the demands of the emerging banking
sector. The training and development programs through the leaders will continue to be used
by the banks for empowering leaders even in the coming years.

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The democratic leadership style is used by Nizwa for the employees and leaders to work in
collaboration with each other. It puts a optimistic impact on the efficiency and inspiration of
the employees. It inspires a sense of ownership among the employees. It also enables
employees to offer real input into the operations (Avolio, Walumbwa, and Weber, 2009). It
forms an environment which is open to advanced ideas. For instance, wealth management
center has been set by the bank for tailoring products and services along with growing
wealthy customer base. It creates a sense of ownership among the employees as customers
come to take their requirements and want to get it to form in one service. This way employee
comes up with the innovations with different portfolios of the customers. They are able to
offer real input into the operations. It not only represents the innovativeness of the customers
but also helps in the expansion of the organization. It moreover presents innovative ideas
along with the platform (Bhatti et al. 2012).
The laisez fair style of leadership is also opted by the organization as it allows employees to
take a decision. It includes very little guidance from the leaders and employees are provided
with the tools and resources required. This leadership style is used by the organization in a
very limited area. This leadership style also results in innovative ideas. Motivated employees
tend to bring new ideas in the organization. People work at a higher concentration and
represent their personal safeties in the tasks (Bolden, et al. 2003). The productivity of the
employees can be easily enhanced with this approach. Nizwa uses this type of leadership in
the case of senior staff only as they are highly skilled, self-inspired and adept of working on
their own. As the leadership used by the staff are expert at the managerial level and have the
knowledge of working independently and fulfills responsibilities with very little help. MOU
with INCEIF is evidence to the best practices adopted by the bank in the HR towards refining
a high-quality workforce. The bank is even practicing to attract high-quality talent and
experienced employees by the proactive approach (Renko, et al. 2015).
Critical evaluation of the leadership styles shaping who will follow and how
The leadership style has a role in determining who will follow and the way to be followed.
The leadership styles are used in the organization to deliberate the way in which employees
will follow and retort within the organization. The directive style of leadership creates a clear

Management 8
performance objective for the employees by the leader. The clear objectives are set for the
employees and are expected to be clearly understood the expectations of the organization
(Amagoh, 2009). This leadership is used by Nizwa for initiating a specific project. The
employees are provided with the responsibilities in order to complete the project. The leader
in the organization set the deadlines describes tasks and exercise firm rules and boundaries.
For instance, the employees are given responsibility to open Shari’a minimum number of
accounts at the end of every quarter. The leader focuses on his own experience and opinions
in order to get work done by the employees. They vision and missions are kept on the focus.
They build an inspiring vision in order to do something innovative. The directive leadership
is going to help employees by providing structure to the unstructured tasks. This leadership is
considered more effective when the knowledge and experience are used to provide structure
to others (Tucker, et al. 2017). The new employees in Nizwa opt for this leadership only. The
rules and regulations are the main focus of the directive leadership style. The employees in
the bank are approached to perform certain tasks for specific reasons. As here are some works
in the bank which require great focus in terms of accuracy as there is no room for error.
Specific rules are to be followed in the organization in order to communicate such facts
effectively (Ågotnes, et al. 2018). The directive leadership has a role in creating clarity within
role expectations. For instance, the employees in Nizwa are given a clear role in every
project. The leaders also represent clear expectations regarding the tasks to be conducted.
Such expectations even help employees in attaining rewards and lower the stress among the
employees. It even improves the performance of the team as well. The directive leadership is
all about telling others to do something and expect them to do the same. The senior managers
define the duty to the assistant managers on a regular basis and expect them to do the same.
There is no role of the emotional states or various motivational techniques. Here the priority
is given on what to do and when the job is required to be done. This leadership will even help
to reduce issues if ever they feel demotivated. The employees sometimes become
demotivated for several reasons. But the implementation of the directive style of the
leadership makes sure that the employees complete tasks, on the time without losing patience
(Owens, et al. 2019).
The great concern for the employees is represented in supportive leadership. There is a
mutual association between the leaders and employees and the employees trust their leaders.
It has a role in managing any kind of uncertainty. Here the leaders do not only delegate tasks
but also helps employees till they get the expected outcome. In this process, the employees

Management 9
are empowered and skilled enough so that they can tackle tasks (Walter, 2016). The
supervision is provided at utmost. Teamwork, commitment, focus on the relationships are
some important exercises of supportive leadership. The teamwork is encouraged and the
expectations of the leader are made known to the team. The leader fosters teamwork by
keeping open communication channels. The team efforts are also identified in this type of
leadership and are rewarded as a part of the recognition. The leader is committed to team
members along with the project. If the leader is not clear concerning the mission and
objectives then this uncertainty will be reflected in the team members for sure. Once the
leader is committed, team members will be automatically committed (Abecassis-Moedas and
Gilson, 2018).
On the other side, participative leadership style, the input of the employees are taken into
consideration. The authority is also delegated to the employees due to their involvement in
decision making. For instances, the employees having relevant experience in the specific
segment like a mortgage can be asked for the related matters. They can be involved in the
decision-making process (Li, Liu, and Luo, 2018). Such participation of the employees can
be inspired for the future outcome. They will be more loyal to the bank and likely to take
more responsibilities. It can even lead to the high participation of the employees towards the
implementation of the goals.
Critical assessment of the personal leadership competences and analysis of the need for
future expansion
Nizwa was established a few years ago only but the progress made by the bank is impressive.
It is the leadership followed which is helping the organization to lead in the competitive
environment of Oman. Nizwa is recommended to implement vMeme as an effective
leadership style. As this approach works on the color approach. The purplecolor is used to
represent emotion, security, rituals, and sense of belonging. The red color is insistent,
powerful, energetic, lenient, self-centred and likes to rule. The blue color is apprehensive
with events, routines and the appropriate way of doing things. This is considered as highly
responsive to the higher authority. The orange thinking is moreover of strategic and future
focussed. It is likely to attain and improve. Innovation and technology are focused and marks
progress. Finally, the green color thinking focuses on valuing people. Everyone is considered
equal and treats appropriately and the decisions are made by consensus (O’Keeffe, Ozuem,
and Lancaster, 2016).

Management 10
The red and orange level is focused By Nizwa as egocentric style and delegating leadership
style has been practiced. The egocentric leadership style has helped in driving and dedicating
industrial power. It has been practiced by Nizwa through launching Shari’s banking account.
It has helped in deeply systematizing the change. The delegating style of leadership as a part
of eMeme, Nizwa exercised leadership by launching its first wealth management center for
offering tailored products and services along with growing wealthy customer base. The bank
has been successful in motivating employees by risk-taking, status, and competition. It has
helped the bank in creating value (Wong, and Giessner, 2018).
Nizwa can opt for the green level as it is an interesting position. It is driven by people and
values people by treating equally and correctly. The decisions are made by the consensus,
reflects the advanced map of the human needs and motivations. Green is concerned with the
egalitarian style of leadership with the reliance on the social network. As per the egalitarian
style of leadership, all the employees share equal responsibilities and power. Here every
employee has a common job description than the specific ones (Ashkanasy, and Kennedy,
2004). The employees do not report to the superior but work cooperatively on the projects
and take equal responsibilities. It is useful for the bank as employees morale can be boosted
as they are liable to the same rights and privileges. It also encourages employees to think
independently and collaborate whenever necessary. This way employee also feels motivated
to contribute their maximum towards the development of the organization.
Conclusion
Nirwa has been successful in conducting operations by making use of the seven leadership
mindset theory. It has advanced workplace diversity. The leadership is regarded as a dynamic
interactive process embracing different dimensions. The leadership assists in maximizing
efficiency and in attaining organizational goals. It even leads to building work environment
by coordinating within the organization. The leadership or management styles differ as per
the history, culture, geographic life and conditions. The Seven Leadership Mindsets Theory
(vMeme) stands for ‘value meme’ and describes the kind of cultural genetic code. It has been
implemented in the organization It has a role in describing the values of a given society and it
passes from person to person by the social interaction. As a part of vMeme, egocentric
leadership style is practiced by Nizwa through launching Shari’s banking account. It helped

Management 11
in deeply systematize the change. The delegating style of leadership as a part of eMeme,
Nizwa exercised leadership by launching its first wealth management center for offering
tailored products and services along with growing wealthy customer base. Finally, the bank
was suggested to execute green in order to attain an interesting position. It values people by
treating equally and appropriately. The egalitarian style of leadership as a part of the green
level can be helpful for the bank to establish a social network.

Management 12
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Management 13
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Management 14
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