Queen Rania of Jordan: Leadership Case Study

Queen Rania of Jordan: Leadership Case Study Introduction: Queen Rania Queen Rania of Jordan is one of the most influential personalities of the Middle East. She has been called as the New Face of Islamic feminism in the recent world i.e. 21st century. This graduate in business administration, a former banker and a mother of four works tirelessly to improve the conditions of weaker sections of her country and to improve the image of her country on the world stage. She claims to represent the large segment of Arab women, sharing their hopes and aspirations with their face. PERSONAL LIFE: Early Life: As far as her family background is concerned, Queen Rania does not belong to a royal lineage and formerly was Rahia al Yasin. The origin of family is from West Bank of River Jordan. It was previously a part of Palestine that has been annexed by Jordan after 1948 Arab Israeli Conflict and again taken by Israel in the year 1967.Today it is a disputed area as West Bank territories central to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Because of the continuous instability Rania father, a partition (doctor of childrens), settled in Kuwait in early 60s and became a prosperous man. Childhood and Education: Rania was born on August 31st, 1970 in Kuwait city. She did her early education at a private school New English School After completing her early education in Kuwait, Rania graduated in Business administration from American University in Cairo in 1991. About her childhood experience she writes There was a very large expatriate community in Kuwait. My classroom had child from many different Nationalities. So I grew up with people of Europe, the United States Africa, and the Fareast. These interactions make me realize how alike we are that makes us similar much more Career: After her graduation from American University Rania could not return to Kuwait because it was occupied by Iraqis forces under Saddan Hussain region and the family had to flee to Jordan. Rania follow her family to Jordan Capital Amman and joined City bank there and then served for a short period at the local office of Apple Computer. Here her business contracts brought her a dinner invitation by Prince Abdullah, who was serving military at that time, happen to be present in that party and came in contact with her. Family Life: Rania began her life with her husband Prince Abdullah in 1993 and blessed by four children vs. Prince Hussain (who was named in honor of his grandfather), king Hussain of Jordan, princess Iman and princess Salma and the fourth one is Prince Hashem. King Hussain, the then ruler of Jordan and father of prince Abdullah was fighting with cancer and passed away in 1999.Just before his demise he has chosen Prince Abdullah as his designated heir. RANIA AS A QUEEN: Although king Abdullah ascended on 7th February 1999, Rania had to wait up to march 22 1999, when her husband proclaimed her Queen. Social Life or HM The Queen Rania of Jordan has been declared 76th in the list of 100 most powerful women of world nearly 600,000 people follow her on twitter. She significant strides in promoting East West dialogue by leading a series of files in you tube that explored shared misdeal heritage. Hence she was awarded the first ever Visionary Award by you tube work of H.M. The queen Rania can be divided into the following heads: Domestic Agenda : Her majesty has so many activities on her domestic agenda which includes : A) Madra Sati (My School) This program is the brain child of the Queen Rania, which she launched in April 2008.It, is a public private initiative with an aim to refresh 500 of Jordans public schools over a period of 500 years. She also launched Queen Rania Award for excellence in Education with awards to principals in April 2009. B) H.N the Queen Rania established the first interactive children museum of Jordan. It was established in May 2007. Queen Rania is also chairperson of the royal health Awareness society. This is guide for health for the citizen of Jordan. Queen Rainia recognized three factors to build happy families and healthy homes via Expertise and Energy of Staff at RHAS Ideas and Enthusiasm of Students. Commitments of Partners. At front of higher education, HM Queen Rania scholarship Programmed was established in partnership with several leading varsities from around the world. These scholarships are given in the field of management and marketing, design, finance, business, psychology, architecture, law etc. The standard of scholarships is high and these are given only to most outstanding achievers. These scholarships are given to create a more innovative and dynamic workforce with an eye to fill the existing knowledge gap in for domain labor market which aims at more sustainable socioeconomic model. COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT It is a nonprofit organization started in Amman to empower society, especially women and children. It is aimed to improve the quality of life and to secure a better future to all for domain through a sustainable socioeconomically and cultural program. It has a weaving project named Bani Hamida weaving project, which promotes Bedouins handicrafts and improve economic and social well being of Bedouins handicrafts and improve economic and social well being of Bedouins women and children. Wadi Al Rayan project is another project hosted by Jordan River Foundation. A group 165 women is engaged in this project in making baskets mats, and furniture from local banana leaves and cattail reeds. SUSTAINABILITY: Queen Rania actively supports the development of sustainable tourism in Jordan through Royal Society for Conservation of Nature (RSCN).RSCN is a non profit, non government organization. It is supported by institutions and individual donation. It is supported by bird life international, world conservation Union (IUCN); later it becomes the largest democratic conservation agency in the world. RSCN was instrumental in establishment of IUCN which covers west Asia.RSCN and IUCN are partners in implementing Jordan Rift valley project and co financing part of this project through direct technical support. International fund for animal welfare (IFAW) also cooperates with RSCN with an aim to enhance biodiversity protection in Jordan. Queen Rania has supported the partnership between Ministry of tourism and Antiquities with WHA (World Heritage Alliance for Sustainable Tourism) YOUTH PROGRAMME She is a strong supporter of junior achievement of world wide. The later is a nonprofit youth organization founded in the year 1919 by Horace Moses. This is the worlds largest and nonprofit organization dedicated to teach the students about entrepreneurism, workforce management and financial activities. GLOBAL AGENDA Human Rights for Women Is a serious practice of killing women, who are found, engaged in extra mental of fairs? Usually it is done by the male members of the family. The telegraph writes about Queen Rania in following words (3rd Dec 2011).Queen Rania, who regularly appears without head scarf, let alone hi job, has given her quiet support to womens rights group who wants to change laws amounting to legal impurity for men involved in honor killing. Queen Rania is supported by Islamic scholars like Sheikh Hamza by insisting that Islamic law or Sharia does not support honor killing is nothing to do with Islam. B). GLOBAL LEADERSHIP The world economic forum is an independent international Organization committed to improving the state of world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agenda. H.M Queen Rania is also the chairperson for the nomination of young global leader at WEF. She was the only serving member from Arab world when she attended her first weekly at WEF in 2003. In Nov 2000, Queen Rania was invited to join the global leadership initiative of United Nations Children Fund in recognition of her concern to the cause of children and youth. Vaccine Fund is non-profit International Organization which harnesses resources to seek to provide vaccination of children in the countries of world. In early 2002, the board of Directors of International Youth Foundation has appointed Queen Rania as its member. This foundation is based in BALTIMORE in USA and helps young people to learn basic life skills, education and training. They need to succeed. Queen Rania is also the Honorary Chair of the Board of Governors of the Packman Terric institute of la Roche College (USA).This offers scholarships to young outstanding talented youth from developing countries. She is honorary President of the Arab Academy for Banking and financial Sciences. This is a pioneer institute in field of Banking and Financial activities. She is also honorary president of the Arab Women Labor Affairs Committee of Arab labor Organization. She is honorary chairperson of Jordan Chapter of operation Smile, which is an organization (a secular NGO) providing help to the children worldwide for surgeries of cleft lip and cleft palate. Queen Rania is also patron of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and was awarded by the Italian government for the achievement in this field of osteoporosis. Her majesty is the president of Jordan society for Organ Donation. (Her Majesty Queen Raina) Queen Rania: A Role Model for Future Generation Queen Rania is really an icon and role model for young generation. She is involved in so many activities for human well being that she can considered as one of the worlds greatest leaders. These activities include: Focus on quality and caliber of education for children especially for girl children. The most important project in this regard is Mordacity Palestine to rehabilitate and refurbish the public school of Jordan. She also started Mordacity Palestine for ovate dilapidated schools east Jerusalem. Her majesty also established Al Aman Fund in 2003 which works to provide education to the orphans. Community Empowerment : Jordan Rive Foundation a brain child of H.M Queen is a nonprofit NGO working in the field of community empowerment , started in Dec 1995.The foundation mission statement reads as follows: The foundations mission is to promote, in partnership with stakeholders, the development of a dynamic society by initiating and supporting sustainable social, economic, and cultural program that empowers community and individuals based as their needs and priorities This organization is committed to improve the lives of children and families through: National program Community Empowerment Program JRF Children Program JRF consist of the following components: A showroom in Jabal Amman. Bani Hamidias Womens Weaving Project. Based in Mukawir, near Madaba this project aims to improve the economical and social conditions of Bedouin women and children. Bani Hamida handicrafts are displayed by JRF in the showroom. Wadi Al Rajan Project for women empowerment consisting of a group involved in making handicraft items from locally available banana leaves and cattail reads. Her majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah has involved in all aspects of JRF. She is the chairperson of the Board of transteers of this fund and provides visionary leadership to the program. H.M Queen Rania Al Abdullah is actively involved in development of Jordans sustainable tourism through royal society for the conservation of Nature. Under her leadership Jordan is evolving as a safe and unique destination offering modern services with authenticity and heritage. Human Rights: HM Queen Rania has an excellent track record in the field of Human Rights. She is in particularly vocal against honor killing. On International Stage too, her majesty is a prominent figure especially in the front of global education and child welfare.UNICEF has invited her to join its global Leadership Initiative in recognition of her commitment to the cause of children. she was also named as the first eminent Advocate for children and also become Honorary Global Chairperson of the UNGEI(United Nations Girls Education Initiative) Queen Rania stresses particularly about the cross culture dialogue to promote greater understanding, tolerance and acceptance in the world. She always use her status to correct misconception about Islam, Arab world, and womens role in Islam Her majesty is also a member of many International Foundations and Forum like Foundation Board of young Global Leaders, world Economic Forums etc. It must be emphasized there are only some of the preoccupations of her majesty and are testimony of hard of Queen of Jordan in service of her nation and international Community. That is why she is a fit role model for any Jordanian youth in his/her future carrier. (Queen Raina of Jordan) LEADERSHIP REQUIRED BY UAE Before discussing the leadership required by UAE we must explore various theories of leadership. Leadership is a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in order to achieve a common goal. It must emphasized that a leader may or may not have a formal authority. There are eight types of major leadership theories prevailing in Contemporary world i.e. 1.Great Man Theories: These theories assume that the great man are borne and not made. These theories presume that leadership is inherited. These types of theories are predominately needed by military advantages and expeditions and in situation of crisis. 2. Trait Theories: These are the modifications of great man theories which presume that certain trait inheritance are required for a person to develop. These theories identify certain common characters in behavior of leaders. 3. Contingency Theory: It describes many variables for leadership to develop. As per this, any different type of leadership are required in different situations. Success is a result of interaction of different variables including the leadership style, qualities of followers and components of situation. 4. Situational Theories: These theories propose the choice of best action in a particular situation. This type of leadership is more appropriate for decision making. 5. Behavior Theories: These theories believe that great leaders are not born but are made. They are based on the action of leader in a particular situation and not on her mental abilities. According to these theories people can learn to become leader through training and education. 6. Participative Theories: Such leaders encourage participation and contribution from their followers and involve them in decision making process. 7. Management Theories: Management or transactional theories take in account the role of Supervision and group performance. As a matter of fact these are the blend of above discussed theories. This type of leadership depends on the reward and Punishment. Phenomenon is supposed to be best suited for business situations. 8. Relationship theories or Transformational Theories: These are based on the mutual understanding and relation bonding between leaders and followers. These leaders motivated inspire like a mentor i.e. they bring up the potential of individuals. Such leaders usually have high ethical and moral standards. Regarding UAE, a blend of almost all the theories except the first one(as there is no crisis or military expedition) are required to meet the challenges of business, social and cultural reforms, education requirement and health aspects. It must be realized that in UAE, the business management deals with the cultural diversity with many nationalities, ethical and cultural groups coming together to achieve a common goal. Moreover today is the era of virtual organization i.e. mostly the organizations are operating via electronic means and there is no face to face interaction of parties involved in the business. Online business is the word coined to denote such business outsourcing is the backbone of such organization along with the telecommunication. So, two different organization may enter into contract involve into exchange of services and payments without community in close contact with other. This may be called as Virtual Organization. This is to emphasize that leadership of these o f organization require a high degree of Managerial Capabilities especially with the phenomenon of globalization of market place i.e. the Integration of National Economic into the International ones through trade, foreign Direct Investment, Capital Flows, Migration Communication and transportation. This results into various nationalities etc to come on a common platform. The economy of UAE is mainly a business based one apart from being oil based. HSBC trade confidence index ranks 2nd in world behind India. So in the last it can be concluded that a leadership with strong managerial capabilities is the most suited one for UAE. (Queen Raina) HANDLING THE MULTICULTURAL WORKFORCE Multicultural Workforce refers to a non power of varying social, cultural, racing and ability characteristics. It is also denoted as diversified workforce. The main challenges is handling a diversified or multicultural workforce, is to accommodate the life style, ethical values, work style and need of these different group without compromising with the common goal on operations of an organization. A business leader can use the diverse characteristics of a multicultural human wealth to a strategic advantage with creativity. A multicultural workforce makes a good business opportunity. Organizations with corporate environment are now facing a difficult question i.e. Can Diversity be best treated by equal treatment or differential treatment? Although the advocated of anti discrimination may argue that it is inhuman or illegal in certain countries but some managers may argue that this premises ignores the fundamental of diversity i.e. the different behavior of the people from different nationality or Ethnic groups in different condition. For example an employee from the Far East may be happy if he is asked to work for more hours and paid for that extra period of time. On the other hand, the same person simply refused to work more if he will not be paid. But at the same time treating work force in a differential way may result into resentment and can erode morale. Such difficulties are enhanced when weaker sections of society like women are involved. However such difficulties may be addressed by simple measures like: Having warm attitude towards all employees regardless of their nationality, religion, or ethnical origin. This practice must exist at top managerial level without prejudice. Multi Cultural Dialogue: The man power of an organization diversified origins should be asked for a directed inter cultural dialogue. This means setting up a discussion group by top management with participants from different origins, nationality, ethnicity, or social backgrounds. This type of dialogues will result into exchange of cultural knowledge and the participants will learn more about why their co workers believe and act the way they do. This leads to a greater tolerance. Cross Cultural Training Seminars: holding of cross cultural training seminar is a positive approach to deal with a multiethnic workforce. Experts from multiethnic elations are to be involved in this type of approach to teach the employees to bridge the cultural gap between them. Such type of seminars may include value origin, world view and tolerance development. Core Values of Employees: This is perhaps the most important action that top management can have to understand the behavior of persons from different ethnic groups in their organization. This is greatly facilitated by presence of Internet and the Information about different cultures is just a click away. So it is clear that a multicultural workforce is not a challenge rather an opportunity creation and approach management in an organization. DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP The effective leadership can impart great deal of motivation in his followers resulting into a high level of achievements. This must be realized that self learning is the most important tool to develop an effective leadership. As the leader is the mentor of his followers it is important for him to acquire more and more knowledge, skill and education to pass it to them. To develop a good leadership one must explain: A basic sense of the System of organization, its function and role and how they are integrated to achieve the goal of the organization. Functions of management, Leadership are one of them and their integration in the organization. A continuous training of the management methodology is a must in this regard. Different traits, models and theories of leadership including different domains of it. As each domain requires different approach and competencies in order to lead that domain a continuous coaching of the leader is a must to develop such qualities. Finally how one can develop his abilities in leadership in a formal or informal way Developing Effective Leaders: Developing leaders to be more effective comes under the domain of leadership development program, which refers to any activity undertaken with a view to enhance the quality and effectiveness of leadership in an organization. These activities may range from management program like MBA, Business diplomas or any post graduate courses offer by companies owned universities, action learning i.e. an Education process of learning by ones own action and experiences in order to improve performance. There may be high rope courses, which are challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity. Such programs are usually constructed in trees or made of utility poles and require strict safety measures to be followed. However there is a non census to be followed about their utility in developing effective leadership. It is also to be emphasized at this level that leaders are rather developed internally rather than recruited. Future Leadership Requirement Model: A leader with focus more on Strategic issues and organizational changes, rather than current operational problem. Apart from leadership competence, a future leadership model will require to take into consideration of issues like work/life balance, potential advances in globalization, technology and return of Investment and increasing interest in the integrity and character of leaders and new way of thinking about leadership.