About 80 per cent of their employees in the GCC were either somewhat or highly engaged in their job roles, compared to around 25 per cent worldwide, according to a recent survey for a major government entity.

Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel committed to their job, and engagement can deliver major benefits for organisations, explained Oxford Strategic Consulting, which conducted the survey.

The Gulf Arab leadership style plays a key role in maximising engagement and that this can be applied in any organisation – with lessons even for non-GCC enterprises, the UK-based consultancy said.

Qatar’s Joaan Bin Jassim Joint Command Staff College under Major General Nasser Al Sulaiti recently invited Professor William Scott-Jackson of Oxford to present and discuss their latest advanced research into the Gulf Arab Leadership Style with the Qatar Armed Forces.

Professor Scott-Jackson explained that there are several distinctive dimensions of the leadership style, with each dimension being quite different to best practice leadership as developed in Western economies. These differences have major advantages in many situations and contexts confronting government entities like the Qatar Armed Forces.

Most importantly, the focus on relationships and leaders acting as ‘heads of families’ can lead to extremely high levels of engagement, the report said.

For the Qatar Armed Forces, high levels of engagement are absolutely crucial in high stress, life-critical situations. Yet all organisations can utilise engagement to achieve strategic success, explained Professor Scott-Jackson.

Greater emphasis on building relationships and creating more understanding between employees helps gain mutual trust and respect.  As a result, employees are better placed to deal with crises or difficult situations because the people element has been thought about beforehand. Moreover, there is a positive and tangible effect to their style which can be mapped across to other organisations, he added.

In addition to high engagement levels, the results from Oxford’s research showed that these GCC government entity employees were inspired to be part of the country’s vision and considered their roles as government employees to be very important.

Other key factors contributing to high engagement levels included feeling respected in the workplace, a good sense of job security and excellent relationships with their co-workers. – TradeArabia News Service