A new study on corporate leadership has revealed that less than half (48 per cent) of employees surveyed in the UAE have trust and confidence in their senior leaders.

Workers’ trust and confidence in corporate leaders has increased modestly over the past four years, but the number of workers who think top management provides effective leadership overall has slipped slightly, according to the Global Workforce Study from professional services company Towers Watson.

While a majority of employees give leaders high marks for promoting a positive image and understanding what drives success, barely half say leaders inspire employees, understand how their actions impact them or are open to new ideas, the study said.

While most companies agree joint ownership is best, in the Middle East, the traditional view of the manager in charge of employees’ careers is more common, with a tendency of 28 per cent for managers to guide employee’s careers, compared to the global tendency of 11 per cent.

In the UAE, 38 per cent of the employees think that their organisation seeks opinions or suggestions from them and 34 per cent think they act on employee’s suggestions. Only 32 per cent agree that their company’s management involves employees in decisions that affect them.

“Given the ever-evolving economy in the Middle East and considering the context of a multicultural population, leadership is a key component in retaining and attracting critical talent,” said Jim Matthewman, director and lead consultant on HR Strategy, OD and Workforce Planning, at Towers Watson.

“While we are pleased to see a positive trend in employees trusting the superior leadership, it is disappointing to see that most of them are skeptical about their leader’s integrity. People don’t leave organizations, they leave bad managers,” he added.

According to the survey, employees give leaders the following high marks:

•    Respectful treatment (65 per cent)

•    Ability to grow the business (62 per cent)

•    Assigns tasks well suited to respective set of skills/abilities (57 per cent)

At the same times, barely half of the respondents think that their immediate managers listen carefully to their point of view and 36 per cent think that career development discussions in the past year have further developed.

“The results of our study highlight the generation gap and their different expectations. The main attraction driver for the young generation is growth and career opportunities,” said Matthewman.

“It is a defining characteristic of generation Y: they were brought up with Internet and everything working at high-speed with the information available one click away. They are highly productive and will question the ways of their superiors if the messages are not consistent. Good leaders will challenge and motivate them to retain critical talent. Succession plans based on potential, development programs and training are key-tools in retaining and developing high potential and emerging employees.”

HR’s role in developing leaders

Effectiveness of leadership seems even more important than effective direct managers, therefore leadership skills improvement should be a key focus area for the Middle East employers. The view on senior leadership in the UAE points out the fact that only 42 per cent of employees think that senior leaders develop future leaders and only 39 per cent think that the seniors are sincerely interested in their well-being.

Strengthening the career management processes is also crucial for this market considering the fact that the younger generations focus is shifting from base pay to career advancement opportunities as the main attraction driver.

“Developing strong, effective leaders is not something that just happens on its own. In fact, HR plays a critical role in building the right set of leaders for an organization,” Matthewman continued.

“To start, HR must articulate the key capabilities required for their organization’s top management and evaluate how leadership is positioned for the organization’s near-term and future success. HR can build the profile of success, assess leaders based on their demonstration of those requirements and clarify the path needed to get the right leaders in place today while building the next generation of leadership,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service