Q1.
Sheikh Mohammed has been able to radically develop Dubai from a coastal town known for only pearl business into an economy dependent on real estate, tourism, oil, and free trade zones. The opportunity to leverage it has been through global a recession which calls for diversification of source of incomes. Intellectual property is also crucial in implementing diversification strategies in Dubai since it is in an Islamic region where laws can negatively affect investors. Hence, intellectual property can guarantee and safe guard investors assets. The steps that I can use to design the innovation process are: problem identification, research and development, implementation and commercialization, and confirmation of the idea.
Q2.
The leadership style of Sheikh Mohammed is transformational style blended with a little autocratic. Transformational is a leadership style that results in changes in social systems and individuals. Since age 19, Sheikh Mohammed transformed Dubai’s military, oil industry, real estate, trade, airline, and tourism into profitable ventures. These diversified Dubai’s economy from dependence on oil industry. Autocratic is seen when he set up policies and legislations that provided for emiritization and fines against speaking ill of the ruling family.
Q3.
Dubai has been very successful largely because of many factors all of which attributable to stable leadership and political stability. Looking at the history of Dubai it is seen that it has been ruled by families, and was no coups or civil wars. This smooth transition of leaders was able to see development projects inaugurated by certain Sheikhs completed. Political instability around the regions also did not affect Dubai. The recession in the 1940’s and 1980’s acted as opportunities for diversification of the economy. The first diversification was from pearling to oil industry, the second was from oil industry to real estate, airline, free trade, and tourism. Other factors resulting to success of Dubai are: capitalism, experienced and visionary leadership, and usage of oil revenues to expand infrastructure.
Q4.
Innovation is using an idea come up with offerings that are very useful and acceptable to the society. The difference with entrepreneurship is that innovation is just an idea while entrepreneurship entails strategies that enable the successful introduction of the idea to the market. Once introduced to the market, they have to result to positive returns, hence entrepreneurship. Three types of innovation are: disruptive which aims at creating new market categories; application or solution, which creates new markets for existing offerings; and product, which focuses differentiating offerings while focusing on an existing market.
Q5
An invention is coming up with a novel idea for offerings through a breakthrough or research. Inventions are mostly patented so that they cannot be misused by other people in the society. Extension refers to introduction of new features or functions of an existing offering so that it comes out as new. Duplication in innovation signifies copying of certain ideas and expanding them on a large scale to niche markets so that they are well known. Synthesis in innovation refers to combination of many existing ideas to come up with an idea that is new and effective.
Q6
Innovation can follow four paths which are: informative where their main aim is to provide the society with information on new offerings; specialized where innovation aims at producing certain ideas for other non-related departments or organizations; research based where innovation has to come up with new discoveries for the society using latest research technology. There is also scale intensive trajectory where innovation has to be in high proportions hence requiring usage of large amounts of resources to come up with numerous innovations.
Q7.
The three misconceptions are: (1) innovation is a distinctive business practice. This is not the case as strategy and differentiation are the business practice. The misconception leads to inadequate commercialization and technology driven innovation as opposed to consumer driven; (2) innovation signifies change. This is not the case as some changes are not innovative as they do not entail exploring untapped opportunities and being a leader in the explored field; (3). Innovation can be copied from other successful models. This is not the case as each case is unique and requires its own culture and guidelines to succeed. What one can do is just learn and apply the lesson in accordance to your problem.
Q8.
An innovator has to have internal loss of control so that they think objectively on new ideas. This eliminates emotional skewed thinking, which are hindrances to innovation. He/she has to be tolerant to ambiguity which will help in leadership, psychological flexibility, and become diverse in thought. This is through becoming able to express different innovative ideas accurately. Thirdly, an innovator has to calculate risk to know which actions have the most potential to succeed during innovation.
Q9.
Companies or organizations involved in innovation are motivated because of benefits such as: increased competitiveness through being a leader in their respective field, higher satisfaction and value for clients, higher performance and motivation of parties involved in the innovation process, and improved returns. Because of these motivations, innovation becomes a requirement for many organizations creating future plans for expansion, profitability, and sustainability.
Q10.
The drivers of innovative ideas are: strategic factors which depend on business models and product advantage. For instance, the business model in Dubai that advanced economic development; adequate resources where leaders provide time, finance, and labor required in carrying out research and development; innovative climate and environment such as the case where free market zones are created for global companies in Dubai; and using cross functional project teams who can brainstorm and discuss ideas that might be useful to the society.
Q11.
Three myths are: (1) excellent innovation requires large scale, and sophisticated ideas. This is not the case as many innovations are simple as in the case of Nintendo Wii; (2) innovation requires creativity. The reality is that while it involves creativity what is required is discipline in a systematic way; (3) innovation is high prized. This is not true as what is required are moderate investment of time and thought.
Q12.
Causes of stress among innovators include: personal relationships that force decisions that were not originally intended; workplace stress where there is pressure to come up with an idea in a limited time; irritants such as work over load, under sleeping, and not discussing problems with the team; and inadequate resources where there is no time, money, and will by leaders to promote innovation. These sources influence innovation processes and result in a feeling of depression, anxiety, and decreased freedom of thought to come up with innovative ideas.
Q13
Managing stress can be implemented through seven steps that are: accepting that one is stressed and seek medical and management intervention, recognizing that some stresses are good and that they provide opportunities for perfection, knowing the causes of stress, avoiding the causes of stress, modeling calm people to know how they handle stress and applying it, cancel stress provoking thoughts, and seeking medications and maintaining a healthy lifestyle such as exercise and adequate sleep.
Q14.
The leadership style of Sheikh Mohammed is transformational style blended with a little autocratic. Transformational is a leadership style that results in changes in social systems and individuals. Since age 19, Sheikh Mohammed transformed Dubai’s military, oil industry, real estate, trade, airline, and tourism into profitable ventures. These diversified Dubai’s economy from dependence on oil industry. Autocratic is seen when he set up policies and legislations that provided for emiritization and fines against speaking ill of the ruling family.
Q15.
According to Sheikh Mohammed’s leadership, components of leadership are emphasis on the future, giving vision and inspiration, setting the strategy of what is to be done, leading people, and stressing on hierarchy, which is diffused authority. Therefore, based on the components of Sheikh Mohammed’s leadership, effective leadership has components such as: strategy that is systematic for other people to follow; culture where it has to be developed by people in an organization; action where a leader moves people from one place to another; socio-political where a leader has to accommodate issues that are affecting society and political stability; and moral where a leader he has to be open, fair, and honest.
Q16
An example of an effective leader is Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, while a successful leader is Paul the missionary. Effective leaders are those who strategize on achieving a long term goal while also aiming to balance short term goals. Effective leaders facilitate positive feelings among their subordinates hence motivating them to work as a team, be loyal, and enjoy participation. Successful leaders on the other hand achieve their main goals but only at the expense of their subordinate whose needs are ignored.
Q17
Obstacles to effective leadership are: inadaptability, micromanaging, not accepting other ideas, inability to act, having a traditional mindset, having a personal agenda as opposed to organization one, and lacking direction. However, currently the obstacles have changed in the recent years mainly because of globalization that has resulted to interaction of other cultures, latest education that changes the thought style of leaders, and advanced technology easing leadership in organizations.
Q18.
Leadership entails establishing a vision or direction which a team has to follow, while management is just controlling the team to follow set guidelines and visions. This means that leadership and management are different with the former having followers and the latter subordinates. The difference can be reconciled when leaders have to be productive to make sure results are achieved, which is an important skill in management. One the other had management has to have leadership skills of charisma and inspiration so as to motivate subordinates towards set goals. This shows that leadership and management are interdependent. Furthermore, it also anchors our understanding of leadership which is to create a vision, make people believe in the vision, and provide direction of executing the plan.
Q19
Leaders influence culture in an organization through: teaching followers their assumptions, opinions, and values; leaders imposing his/her teachings; and implementation of the leader’s ideas through primary and secondary mechanisms. Primary mechanisms of embedding culture in an organization can be: what leaders pay attention to, reaction of leaders, role modeling, criteria of resource, reward allocation, and recruitment strategy of leaders. Secondary mechanism involve: organizational design, structure, procedures, and rituals; stories, myths, and legends; and formal statements.
Q21.
The assumptions guiding the ‘insignificant leadership’ concept are that: leadership is innate and that one is born with the qualities, interaction between the leader and follower is minimal, and that no training is needed to become a leader. My position on the issue is that I do not agree with it. I believe the notion came from the old way of thought where leadership was hierarchical and that if your blood was not of leadership linage then you could never be a leader. Therefore, I can conclude by saying that leadership can be learnt, practiced, and effectively applied. Proof of this is president Barrack Obama who is a leader without being born in a leadership family.
Q21.
The elements of emerging leadership styles are: predictability where it is possible to identify characters of effective leaders; flexibility with exactness where effective leaders can tailor their abilities while recognizing skills of their followers; long-lasting stimulus with better results which has allowed for measurement of effective leaders. Factors that support such styles are measurement of success, retention and recruitment of emergent leaders, and development records, and adaptability of the leaders.
Q22.
The obstacles are handling diversity, being accountable, fixed mind set, handling conflicts, and dealing with unfamiliar responsibilities. The obstacles can be handled through introduction of diversity awareness and programs for leaders to know how to handle diverse groups, introduction of latest technological equipment and software to improve accountability in the company, introducing a conflict resolution program to handle conflicts, and delegating and training to gain knowledge on handling new responsibilities.
Q23
In the path-goal theory, a leader defines the motivation, satisfaction, and performance of subordinates by his behavior. For example while directing the leader explains the direction to take which might be effective when subordinates have less inclination for freedom and self-direction. A leader in using the path theory can also be supportive and create a friendly environment in an organization. This can improve leadership effectiveness when follower’s tasks are unsafe, repetitive, or demanding. This will enhance confidence, lower stress, and reward for pleasant work aspects.
Q24.
Substitutes are beneficial in organizations as they: promote subordinate independence where they can work freely on their own without referring to a leader; provide work satisfaction where subordinates have the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of their efforts; and provide innovative ideas where substitutes such as teams can came up with innovative ideas which they had either brainstormed or discussed. Negative impacts of substitutes in leadership may be: decreased performance where teams might work less efficiently because of personal unaccountability; and may cause conflicts in times of rewards and punishment since there is no one accountable for the results.
Q25.
Contingency models are models that advocate for leadership style that is suitable in a specific situation a group is operating in as opposed to the behavior. They are: Fielders model that assumes performance of a team is related on leadership style that depends on task and relationship motivation, and situation favorability that depends on leader member relations, power, and task; Hersey-Blanchard model that advocates leadership style to match maturity of followers; path-goal theory that stipulates performance, motivation, and satisfaction in followers through removing obstacles, directing the path, and clarifying paths; and the Vroom-Yetton model that advocates for selecting a leadership style for making certain decisions.
Therefore, in looking at Sheikh Mohammed’s case Fielder’s model is used when he allowed for setting up of Emirates airline during the 1985 recession. Hersey’s model is seen when he set a decree for emiritization of the job market. Path goal theory was seen when he allowed free zones for fortune 500 companies to set up in Dubai. The Vroom-Tetton model was witnessed when he became autocratic in dealing with critics of the ruling family and democratic when he allowed Dubai nationals get a share of job market through emiritization.
Reference
Mayo, A.J., Nitin, N., Mendhro, U., & Crommwel, J., 2010. Sheikh Mohammed and the Making of ‘Dubai Inc.’ Harvard Business School. Pp. 2-16
