Challenges: Translating Quality Management Practices in UAE Government

This research proposal examines the challenges of translating quality management practices from strategy to operations within the UAE government sectors. It begins with an overview of quality management, emphasizing its importance for organizational success and customer satisfaction. The proposal outlines key research questions, including the influence of quality management on UAE government sectors and the nation's journey towards excellence. A comprehensive literature review covers quality control, quality assurance, and the evolution of quality management in the UAE, including initiatives like the Dubai Quality Award and the implementation of ISO standards. The methodology section details the research methods, including qualitative and quantitative approaches, primary and secondary data sources, and random sampling techniques. The proposal aims to analyze factors influencing the execution of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the UAE government and provide valuable insights into improving service quality and operational efficiency. The study is based on the premise that the UAE government has become a key driver of quality superiority in UAE and organization has started involving in best practices, international standards on Quality and Business Excellence frameworks and investing in people development.

Running head: Quality Management Practices 1
Research proposal

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Contents
Project title: Translating quality management practices from strategy to operations- challenges
for the UAE government sectors.....................................................................................................3
Overview..........................................................................................................................................3
Key research questions....................................................................................................................4
Relevant literature............................................................................................................................5
Methodology....................................................................................................................................8
Methodology....................................................................................................................................8
Outcome.........................................................................................................................................10
Timescale.......................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Project title: Translating quality management practices from strategy to operations-
challenges for the UAE government sectors
Overview
The success of any organization is dependent on the quality process and outcomes at every level.
Quality management is the tool that makes sure the customer satisfaction, enhanced revenues and
operational efficiencies. The practices of quality management are translating from strategy to
operations. It has been analyzed that most of the organization tend to have the centralized
continuous improvements and quality team who keep focus on to do directly working with the
business units to help execute standard practices around competency and procedures (Jiménez-
Jiménez, et. al., 2015). It is the research proposal which will reflect the various elements
regarding translating quality management practices. Literature review will be provided in this
research to emphasize the aspects of quality management. The research process will be made so
as to conduct the implementation of the research program in a valuable manner. There are so
many organizations in UAE that are facing issues in attaining the suitable consumer contentment
and constant enhancement (Uluskan, Godfrey and Joines, 2017). Recently, quality departments
such as centre of excellence have been adjoined various organizations in UAE, whether it is a
government, semi-government or private organization. In term of quality management, it has so
many components such as Six Sigma, lean, total quality management, ISO9000 and lean
(Atanas, Rodrigues and Simmons, 2015). Total quality management is the most recent element
of the quality management that was proven to be a successful field of management. Literature
review of this research proposal suggests that there is no difference in manufacturing

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organization than other kind of organization such as construction organization. The main aim of
this research is to examine the various factors of execution of TQM that best suits UAE.
Key research questions
 What is quality management and how can it influence the UAE government sectors?
 How UAE began its journey towards excellence?
 Is UAE government successful to provide the efficient services to its customer as citizens
in an efficient manner?

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Relevant literature
Quality management comprises quality control, inspection, total quality management and quality
assurance. As per Khanam, Siddiqui and Talib, (2016), Quality control and examination are
demonstrated in a way that their function is to recognize and perceive occurred issues. Quality
assurance is able to find out the issues within an organization that are regarding to quality by
effective planning and methodologies. Jabnoun and Khalifah, (2015), concluded that the nature
of quality assurance is proactive by looking to complete quality management system by a well
recognized system such as ISO 14001. Quality control is the component of quality management
which can be referred as the detailed procedure and methodologies like planning, reviewing the
work analyzing the process of work, scheduling and checking. Furthermore, it prevents
unrequited changes in the services and products being offered.
Figure 1: Summary of quality control
Source: (Khan, et. al., 2014)
It has been evaluated that the oil and gas a major contributor to the UAE economy. The
role of quality management has a major role in the journey of UAE to translate the strategy of
quality management into operations. However, it faced so many challenges and the government
sectors of UAE had to put lot of efforts for the success of this implementation (Goetsch and

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Davis, 2014). There are various issues that have challenges such as the issue of unknown
standards has challenges of lack of benchmarking, lack of vocational qualification framework
and not recognized by higher authority. Other challenges can be limited source, weak quality
culture, low paid graduates and lower status graduates. Six sigma is major component of the
quality management that describes execution of the measurement based strategy that focuses on
the improvement of process and variation reduction through the process of six sigma
improvement projects (Mir and Pinnington, 2014). The economy of UAE has gradually evolved
into a service and knowledge based economy. It has been analyzed that in mid1990s the leaders
of the UAE has been realized that there is a requirement of improvement of quality and customer
service for the competitive advantages in the organization of the leaders of UAE have
recognition programs, excellence frameworks, e-government initiatives and major partnership
with quality focused associations (Albliwi et. al., 2014). These initiatives were helpful to
improve the quality of the product, productivity, competitiveness of UAE’s and consumer
experience. Although challenges were remain after implementing the strategies but the journey
of UAE towards excellence continues.
UAE involves 7 emirates namely, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al
Khaimah, Fujairah and Sharjah. The GDP of country has reached around AED 981 Billion in
2011. There are activities of services included Wholesale, Retail Trade, Real Estate, Government
services, Communication etc. included about AED 440 billion of the totals GDP (Annual
Economic Report, 2012). The economy of UAE was gradually converting into service and
knowledge based economy. It has been realized by the leader of UAE to fulfill the demand of the
customer by providing them efficient quality that is why they instituted a number of strategies
and far reaching a macro level quality and marvelous proposal for entire sectors of economy

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such as government departments, public as well as private sectors. It has been evaluated that
within this circumstance, the drive of Dubai for quality was born in 1990s and in that case the
government sector of the UAE has become the key driver of quality superiority in UAE and
organization has started involving in best practices, international standards on Quality and
Business Excellence frameworks and investing in people development (Papp, 2014). The vision
of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and current Vice President and
Prime Minister of UAE was the reason of best quality with institution of Dubai Quality Award
(DQA) in 1994.
Figure2: Journey towards excellence
Source: (Thawani, 2017).
The DQA process originally was for the only confidential sector organization, was initiated as a
means of humanizing the standards of business operating in Dubai, it would be great initiative of
boosting internal as well as external trade. DQA is awarded to only those companies that have
given their best to provide the best quality to their customers. There are mainly 11 organizations

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in the economy included such as manufacturing, education, finance, construction, healthcare and
media can involve in the program of award.It has been analyzed that recognition has been
categorized into three levels such as DQA Gold, DQA and DQ Appreciation Prize Dubai quality
group is a group which was set up in 1994 for the purpose of developing the quality and business
excellence practices in UAE. It was able to enhance the productivity of the organization to
develop the completion in the UAE (Sabella, Kashou and Omran, 2014). DQC prolongs to be
leading for revenue professional society for majorly quality professional and being the reason of
developing the voice of quality. Along with that it has been mentioned by Thawani, (2017), in
his article that UAE started implementing international quality management system standards
(ISO: 9000). It is fact that in the year of 2012, a sum of 3229 ISO 9001 certificates have been
issued in UAE. It has been done due to growth of the certification and along with those
implementing ISO standards was facilitated organization to make a establishment to hold
sustainable institutionalization of developments over time. Government organization of the UAE
has started to adopt a management system which significantly enhanced various numbers of
business offering training and certification services and consulting (Oakland, 2014). It has been
evaluated that government of Dubai was concerned about the services that is why in 1998, Dubai
Government was established Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP) for improving the
rescue services of government to the citizens, visitors, business and residents. The main focus of
this program was on the improvement the services of government and simplifies the procedures
of government (Talib, Rahman and Qureshi, 2013). It has been evaluated that the other Emirates
and the federal Government Departments started different programs for the purpose of improving
the productivity, effectiveness, customer service and efficiency of nation. Under UAE Smart
Government initiative, all services of government will be accessible on mobile devices within 2

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years period escorting in a period which is new for the customer services and experience and it
has researched that UAE has obtained 7th rank globally in the e-government services.
It was argued by Kamco, (2011), in his article “United Arab Emirates (UAE) –
Economic Brief and Outlook 2011” that foreign trade has an important role in the economy of
UAE more importantly in oil industry. There are certain countries such as India, the USA, Iran,
Germany and China that play a vital role in the trade of UAE as they represent 40% of the UAEs
trade. It has been evaluated that the situation of world economy caused growth in trade gradually
in 2009 due to the sum value of the UAE attained AED 660.4 billion compared to AED 788.9
billion in 2008, which showed 16 percent drop in foreign trade. It is vital for the government
sector to keep focus on the quality of the products and services which is being delivered to the
citizens of the UAE.

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Methodology
Research methodologies are the set of various techniques and methods which is being
used in this research proposal to collect the information and requirements for the research topic.
There are various sources and methods have been utilized to implement the research. Quality
management is essential part for the organization and data has been collected for the success of
the topic “Translating quality management practices from strategy to operations- challenges for
the UAE government sectors” by adapting various methods.
Research methods
There are number of research methods for developing the research. Qualitative as well as
quantitative data has been chosen for this research. Qualitative method is can be enlightened as
an approach for gathering the quality data which helps in sustaining the quality of the research.
On the hand quantitative data refers to which involves collecting the numerical data on which the
statistical calculations can be done to draw the conclusions.
Research approaches
There are different approaches to carry on the research. Qualitative and quantitative research
approaches have been chosen for this research. Primary and secondary source are being chosen
for this research to gather the quality data from journals, articles, books, internet sources and
other author’s literature review. These sources have facilitated to put together the knowledge of
the aspects regarding the topic of the research.
Data collection

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Data collection is one of the major parts of the research. It facilitates ton gather the data in order
to complete the research with evidence and provide a valid conclusion. The roles of primary and
secondary sources are major to gather the data. A primary source refers a first-hand information
and evidence and it can be gathered from interview, questionnaire, case studies and surveys. On
the other hand a secondary source provides the data which is already used or utilized (Jaafreh,
2013). It can be accumulated from the magazines, articles in newspapers, reviews, research
papers, etc.
Sample and techniques
Sampling can be refereed as the process in which the certain sets of unit are opted from the total
population to make an observation. There are number of methods of sampling avaible and for
this research random sampling technique has been chosen because it is the method which gives
opportunity to every sample which is selected for the analysis the topic.
Research strategy
It is essential for accomplishing the research to analyze the collected data in sophisticated
manner. A systematic approach has been chosen for this research to analyze the research topic
and handle the execution of the research in sequence manner (Ismail, 2004). An action plan has
been prepared to identify the several activities regarding research program in sequence manner.
Targeted market
The uses of primary and secondary sources have been opted to gather the data from the targeted
market. With the help of questionnaire and interviews, primary data has been accumulated for

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this research. On the other hand, secondary data is gathered from the internet and articles related
to this topic.
Ethical consideration
The main focus of this research is to collect the data in a fair manner with keeping ethical
consideration. The integrity has been maintained in an efficient manner and the users can easily
keep faith on the given data and information given by research.

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Outcome
It has been concluded that quality management is considered as the Industry that has
attained increasing attention in the last decades. The advantages of Total Quality Management
have extensively identified in its successful execution in various organizations in companies
which has followed so many structures that have become highly competitive by developing the
products and services that are able to meet the requirements of the customer along with the
Expectations of them. There are a number of factors are reflected in this research which affects
the quality management of the country. It has been evaluated that in the United Arab Emirates,
the more attention was given to the quality Movement in the late 1990s, the quality management
industry is still being issued as having poor great performance in quality. With this regard, the
leaders of the government sector has been realized the need to improve the quality of their
product and services in order to become competitive. Various programs have been initiated by
the government of the United Arab Emirates to improve the quality of the services and products
for enhancing the productivity of the country to become more competitive in all over the world.
There are various issues that have challenges such as the issue of unknown standards has
challenges of lack of benchmarking, lack of vocational qualification framework and not
recognized by higher authority.

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Timescale
Serial no. Activities Starting
date
Duration
(days)
Completion
date
Description
1. Selection of topic 15
November
2017
2 17 November
2017
Choice of topic
will be done
2. Structure of plant 18
November
2017
5 22
November
2017
Plans will be
building to
execute the
research
3. Execution of the
research program
23
November
2017
7 29
November
2017
Plans will be
implemented
4. Data collection 30
November
2017
4 3 December
2017
Methods of data
collection will be
chosen.
5. Interpretation of
data
4 December
2017
4 7 December
2017
Results will be
drawn.
6. Conclusion and
recommendations
8 December
2017
3 10 December
2017
Conclusion and
recommendations
has been made as
per analysing the

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data.

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References
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of Lean Six Sigma: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Quality & Reliability
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Annual Economic Report, 2012, UAE Annual Economic Report – 2012, Retrived on 18th
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Oil and Gas Industry: Case Studies. In International Petroleum Technology Conference.
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Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
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magazine, vol. 15(4), pp.266 – 274
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