Bridging the Gap: Communication in Abu Dhabi Governance Ministry

This research proposal investigates the crucial role of communication in bridging the gap between regulations and practices within the Ministry of Presidential Affairs in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The study aims to enhance effective governance by analyzing the effectiveness of current communication modes, defining the ministry's political activity, and measuring its ability to practice public engagement and eliminate communication barriers. The proposal includes a review of relevant literature on effective communication, public governance, and related theories and models. The methodology outlines the research design, including the research philosophy, population and sampling, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques. Ethical considerations and anticipated outcomes are also addressed, highlighting the potential implications of the study's findings for improving transparency, accountability, and public engagement within the ministry. The research employs qualitative methods to gather data and analyze the results. The study seeks to offer insights into how the ministry can improve its communication strategies, promote better governance, and align its practices with regulations.

1Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
Running head: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN REGULATIONS AND PRACTICIES
Bridging the gap between regulations and practices: Communication as an important tool for
effective governance in the Ministry of presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Name:
Course:

2Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
Table of Contents
First: Overview................................................................................................................................2
Second: Rationale for the proposed study.......................................................................................2
Third: Aim and objectives...............................................................................................................3
3.1 The main aim of the study......................................................................................................3
3.2 The study objectives could be stated as follows....................................................................3
Fourth: Relevant literature...............................................................................................................3
4.1 Effective communication.......................................................................................................3
4.2 Public governance..................................................................................................................7
Fifth: Research design.....................................................................................................................9
Sixth: Methodology.......................................................................................................................10
6.1 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................10
6.2 Population and sampling......................................................................................................10
Seventh: Data collection................................................................................................................10
Eights: Data analysis......................................................................................................................11
Ninth: Ethical issues......................................................................................................................11
Tenth: Assumed outcomes and implication of the study...............................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
Expected timescale........................................................................................................................14

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First: Overview
Government communication is a process through which people can get involved in
decision making and problem-solving by sharing their ideas with the government entities.
Communication practices significantly impact public organization transparency (Edwards, 2011).
Good public sector governance should consider six principles the rule of laws and
regulations, transparency by disclosing the required information, accountability and trust, public
sector ethics and policies, stewardship and leadership. These principles could be put into practice
by organizations by defining the key organizational and process elements that should be placed.
These elements should include an organizational culture, which is committed to good public
sector governance, internal and external stakeholder relationships and internal and external
compliance and accountability and risk management (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation,
2011).
This research main purpose is to fill the gap between regulations issued by organizations
and their actual practice by considering communication as an important tool for effective
governance. It will take place in the context of the ministry of presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi,
UAE.
Second: Rationale for the proposed study
The ministry of presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi, UAE is a governmental entity that
mainly supports the UAE president and gives him the best advice to ensure the social welfare of
the Emirati citizens. In order to successfully accomplish its mission, the ministry of presidential
affairs should practice public engagement by regulating and implementing its corporate political
activity (Ministry of Presidential Affairs, 2019). In this regard, the ministry should be able to

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select and adopt the appropriate communication mode and to ensure transparency and
information delivery to the target groups. Also, it has to eliminate barriers to communication and
use different communication channels to fill the gap between its plans and application.
Accordingly, the ministry of presidential affairs should not only apply the elements of good
public sector governance processes and practices to help in bridging the gap between regulation
and implementation, but it has also to adopt the concepts related with new public governance.
Third: Aim and objectives
3.1 The main aim of the study
The main aim of this study is to bridge the gap between regulations and practices by
considering communication for effective governance with an application in the ministry of
presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
3.2 The study objectives could be stated as follows
 To measure the effectiveness of the communication modes applied within the ministry
 To define the ministry political activity
 To measure the ministry ability to practice public engagement
 To investigate the ministry ability to eliminate barriers to effective communication
 To measure the degree of the ministry compliance with the principles of good public sector
governance processes and practices
 To measure the ministry ability to apply the new public governance concepts

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Fourth: Relevant literature
4.1 Effective communication
Communication represents a dynamic process that takes place between two parties; one
of them is the sender of the message and the other one is the receiver and it develops over time.
The processes of public participation could employ one-way, two-way or deliberative modes of
communication. The one-way mode of communication is the unidirectional mode of information
follow from the sender to the receiver. Information flow from the administrative body to the
citizens through communication channels. It is usually used for information sharing that is
necessary for a public context. For example, issuing new law. It is characterized by low
opportunity to discuss and usually prevents the feedback. Unlike the one-way mode, two-way
communication is a bidirectional information flow, where the parties involved in the
communication process act as both senders and receivers. The traditional public communication
is based on two-way communication that mostly used to defend the political discussion.
Deliberative communication represents a more structured method of communication, which is
directed towards problem-solving. It involves the diverse parties to participate in the reasoned
discussion process that reflects the positives and negatives of the proposed solutions (Nabatchi,
2012).
Governments should consider effective communication value and implement processes of
proactive transparency. The process of information exchange between government and its
stakeholders is mentioned as ‘public information’, ‘public sector communication’,
'administrative communication ‘government public' or ‘government communication’.
Communication is an enabler to government transparency through facilitating vision and voice
(Bogdał, 2013).

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4.1.1 Communication theories and models
There are many theories of communication, but this study focuses on the communication
of government organizations to ensure transparency. According to Ruler and Verčič (2012), as
cited in Ruijer (2013), introduce an overview that explains the reason behind the simultaneous
occurrence of both transparency enablers and hinders in their "information model'. The
information model is called the one-way approach that results in information dissemination about
the government organization's decisions and plans. The organization is the information sender,
while the citizens are the message receiver and it approaches the targeted people at the right time
via mass media channels.
Another model is the 'persuasive model'; it acts as a tool to promote the organization
plans to key stakeholders by focusing on persuading the target groups to accept the delivered
message. This model devotes efforts to convenience the public and influence their actions. The
success of this model ensures a positive image by the key stakeholders. A third model is the
'relationship model'; it considers communication to be a tool for establishing and maintaining
mutual benefits relationships between the government organization and the public. It focuses on
the process of communication between the independent target groups. There are no senders or
receivers, but there are groups of actors (Ruijer, 2013).
4.1.2 Public affairs: definitions and professional identity
Public affairs play a significant role in organizations, either public or private. Despite
this, Showalter and Fleisher (2005), as cited in Moss et al. (2012), assume that there is still
considerable debate about the contribution of public affairs to the organizational success due to
the consensus between scholars and practitioners about the meaning of the term 'public affairs'. It
is defined in general to be an extremely oriented function that encompasses all of the

7Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
organizational activities that allow organizations to engage with external stakeholders, mainly
who are involved in public policy. Marcus and Irion (1987), as cited in Moss et al. (2012),
assume that public affairs departments have four key functions in general; maintaining
government relations, public relations, issues management and community affairs. Then, a
broader scope of public relation added the media relations, corporate social responsibility and
crisis management issues. These added dimensions directly contribute to organization
competitiveness.
4.1.3 Practicing public engagement
The public engagement legitimate should consider both of inputs and outputs by
considering its impact on governance. Public engagement provides the opportunity to
organizations to rethink their policies and practices and to gain public trust. Initiating a dialogue
by public organizations could be considered as an implementation of technology of humility that
allows organizations to question their governance and extract the public opinion in a convenient
way. The more practice of public engagement the clearer the tangle of organizational motivations
behind them. Accordingly, the institutionalization of the public engagement is costly because the
meaningful dialogue with the public involves risk factors (Stilgoe, Lock, & Wilsdon, 2014).
4.1.4 Corporate political activity
Corporate political activity represents a new body of knowledge, which is more
empirically driven compared to public affairs. This new concept connects the key components of
political influence and lobbying. It considers prioritization of the political activity that an
organization should follow. In addition, the political activity of the organization is highly
influenced by its degree of reliance on the government. Moreover, being engaged with the

8Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
government creates a competitive advantage to the organization compared to its competitors
(Lawton, McGuire, & Rajwani, 2013).
4.1.5 Barriers to effective communication
Barriers to effective communication could occur between government organization and
the target groups when public relations executives use themselves as members of the model
audience and represent the information that they find more important. In such cases, there are
contradictions in the roles and non-utilization of the communication tools and authority they
gained. Another barrier takes place when the message content is not suitable to the targeted
audience that leads to misunderstanding the message (de Bruina & Bostrom, 2013).
4.2 Public governance
4.2.1 Theoretical framework for governance
The term 'governance' is used by researchers to refer to the political activities of every
government. Government and governance are not the same, although they involve shared goals.
The government refers to the formal authority, possessing power activities and implementing
them. That is why the government is considered to represent legislation, regulation, control,
budget, bureaucracy and power. On the contrary, governance represents the increasing use of
nonregulatory instruments of policy. Governance represents the interaction among processes,
structures and traditions that define how power is executed in practice. Decisions are taking by
involving citizens and social groups in the process of decision making, the matter that reflects
organization accountability and effectiveness (Asaduzzaman & Virtanen, 2016).
4.2.2 The new public governance
The new public governance is a theoretical paradigm which is more adaptive to the
government public administration. This new paradigm involves major changes in the role of the

9Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
government and its relationship with the target groups and internal and external organizations
with great attention to governance issues.
The term 'governance' was considered in the research since the 1990s; It used to consider
that governance is not limited to governments but extended to other public institutes and entities.
Also, governance was associated with uncertainty and ambiguity of the responsibility. In
addition, governance was meant for respect for methods, diversity and contents. Public
governance used to focus on resources allocation, but the new public governance focuses on the
collective thinking and behavior of the individuals (Runya, Qigui, & Wei, 2015).
New public governance has six major characteristics that are discussed according to
Runya, Qigui, & Wei (2015), as follows:
 Power dispersion: This involves that government, market and other organizations working in
the society have the right to contribute to the public affairs management and solving public
problems.
 Coordination of the government: In the past, the government was considered the center of the
public administration, from formulating policies to implementing them. But the new public
governance treats the government as a coordinator of social interests that prepares the arena for
public dialogue and integrates public resources.
 Complex networks: The government role is to integrate individuals and social organizations to
create a big and complex network that maintains the restriction of power
 Resource exchange: The complex network is able to provide its members with wide access to
resources including information, money and technology.
 Trust and stability of the contract: The new social contract between the government and the
stakeholders depends on trust that takes the informal shape.

10Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
 Value the role of social public organizations: Government consider the citizens to be its
customers and involves the market role in allowing its public goods and services.
4.2.3 Good public sector governance processes and practices
Good public sector governance could be implemented in practice by maintaining key
organizational elements and processes that should take place. They are discussed according to
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (2011) and European Union (2015), as follows:
 Organization culture committed to good public sector governance: The leaders are required to
apply the principles of good governance as the core values of their behavior and judgments.
They could take the form of formal written ethical codes for public employees.
 Stakeholder relationships: It involves building and maintaining good relationships with an
internal and external stakeholder who have an interest in government operations. Internal
stakeholders include the cabinet of ministries, the minister, board of directors, and the
providers of goods and services. External stakeholders are the politicians, citizens, interest
groups, media and the wider community.
 Internal compliance and accountability: Efficient public sector organization should be keen to
align its internal accountability with its external commitments. This could happen by
implementing the internal audit activities and the external audit requirements.
 External compliance and accountability: Performance monitoring activities should be exposed
to the external audience to maintain transparency and information sharing through effective
communication
 Risk management: Good governance should include an effective risk management system to
assure that crisis and hazards will not affect the organizational objectives.

11Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
Fifth: Research design
This research follows the positivist design that involves theory testing. A field survey of
the top executives will take place in the ministry of presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The
research variable related to effective communication (the independent variable) and good
governance and new public governance (the dependent variables) will be tested by using
statistical methods.
This research is a descriptive research that helps in data analysis to assure research result
accuracy. Imperial investigation of the effective communication and governance related concepts
will be conducted (Flick, 2013).
Sixth: Methodology
6.1 Research Philosophy
This research will adopt the positivist philosophy of scientific investigation to ensure the
research objectivity and researcher independence. The researcher seeks to investigate the realities
that exist in the outside world. Hence the existing theory will be applied to achieve applicable
outcomes (Xian & Meng-Lewis, 2018).
6.2 Population and sampling
The research population is the group of individuals that have common characteristics and
related directly with the research. This research considers the executives at the ministry of
presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi. The sample size is determined to represent the individuals who
will be part of the research. This research will consider the 'convenience sample'; it will consider
the available sample that involves data collection from the individuals who meet the specified

12Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
criteria and conveniently available. It is a non-probability sampling method ( Etikan, Musa, &
Alkassim, 2016).
Seventh: Data collection
The quantitative data collection method will be adopted in this research because the
positivism philosophy requires data to be quantitatively collected. Also, it guarantees the
objectivity of the research who observes the investigated phenomenon that takes place in the
outside world (Kuha, 2011). The survey method will be used in data collection from the
respondents who are the sample units who are the executives at the ministry of presidential
affairs in Abu Dhabi (Hirzalla & van Zoonen, 2017).

13Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
Eights: Data analysis
Data analysis will take place after data collection and verification. It will consider
measuring the quantities numerically and the results will be represented in graphical and tabular
formats where the relationships between the variables will be analyzed and presented to be
generalized to the population within the ministry of presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi (Taheri,
Porter, Konig, & Kanellos, 2015).
Ninth: Ethical issues
The social research should consider ethical issues when conducting the research. The
respondents' personal data should be treated with high confidentiality and to be only used for the
research purpose. The researcher should assure the clarity of the questions included in the
questionnaire and explain the research method to ensure trust. The research result should comply
with the applied research method to create trust in the result and to be generalized to the
population at the ministry of presidential affairs in Abu Dhabi (Harriss & Atkinson, 2011).
Tenth: Assumed outcomes and implication of the study
This research is expected to fill the research gap between regulations and practice. Also,
it is expected to have a significant impact on the way the ministry of presidential affairs in Abu
Dhabi apply regulations into practice by utilizing effective communication in good public sector
governance and applying new public governance concepts.

14Bridging the gap between regulations and practices
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Expected timescale