Good human resources - training & development for leaders in middle east research proposal example

1. Abstract:
This paper aims to define the importance of leader or leadership training and development in Middle East organization and most particularly in Saudi Arabia. This paper will find out the factors that are driving the need for leadership development in Middle East. This is a vast topic, data gathering through single source may pose ethical challenges for the research. Therefore, the mixed approach of data gathering will be used.
2. Description of the project:
Countless changes are taking place all over the world, and the effects of these changes are flowing throughout the organizations and societies. Due to these changes, strong need occurred for leadership development, and through the recognition of this need organizations started spends immense part of their earnings on leadership training and development (Dugan & O’Shea, 1-17). Leadership training and development has not been pivotal in Middle East as it gained importance after the Arab Spring and global financial crisis of 2008. There is a significant lack of detailed knowledge of strategies regarding the development capacity in leadership, knowledge management, and national skills (Metcalef & Mimouni, 83-84).
2. 1. Problem statement:
Numerous pieces of research have been conducted in this domain. It has been realized that researchers conducted these researches by considering specific countries and some are based on building general literature. No effort has been made towards the leadership development of Middle East organizations. Therefore, it has been decided to recognize the importance of leadership development in Middle East organizations and to build literature by considering Saudi Arab as a targeted market.
2. 2. Basic Objectives:
The aim of this research is to disclose the facts that exist in Middle East regarding the leadership development and training and to find out the factors due to which leadership training and development gained importance in Saudi Arabia. In order to gain the objectives following questions will be addressed:

Why leader or leadership development is important in Middle East and Saudi Arab?

How leadership development is perceived in Middle East and Saudi Arab?
What are the challenges that being faced by organizations in Middle East and Saudi Arab while considering training and development of leaders?
2. 3. Literature Review.
Many people confuse leadership development with leader development. Leadership development is about the capability building of the organization in order to gain the shared mission of the organization (McCauley & Van Velsor, 32; Iles & Preece, 317-340). When organizations consider leadership training and development, they blend leader and leadership development. Literature presents diverse definitions of leadership, but in the Arab world, the term “ leadership development” is considered more appropriate by most of the practitioners for their programs as compared to “ leader development”. The focus of leadership development is on sharpening the skills of individuals, their knowledge, abilities, and talents that are related to the roles of formal leadership. In the Arab world, leader development is about the development of intrapersonal effectiveness and competencies such as self-motivation, self-awareness, and self-regulation. However, leadership development is about the development of interpersonal effectiveness and competencies such as respect, trust, networked relationship, and commitment.
Human capital challenges and trends are being faced by the Middle East organization at a broader level. According to the report of Deloitte Human Capital; reinventing human resource, learning & development, culture & engagement, and leadership are the most common talent challenges; Middle East organizations are facing nowadays. Decline in recognizing the issues of the organization is posing the question on the training and development practices of the leadership of the Middle East organizations (BQ Staff). Therefore, it has become pivotal to discuss the importance of leadership training and development and current situation that exist in the middle east and most particularly in Saudi Arabia. Several pieces of research have been conducted in this domain, but the work on this topic by taking the leadership of Middle East has not be considered yet. Therefore, this research through analyzing the challenges and trends of training and development in Middle East will contribute in existing studies and will explore some new aspects of the topic. This research is different from other researches because in this research Middle East organizations and most specifically Saudi Arab have been considered. Training and development is a lifelong process and requires at all level of organization. Training and development are essential for all those who recognize the importance of knowledge for their career building from managers and executives to enter level employees. Factors that created renewed interest in leadership include globalization, changing the workforce, losing the loyalty of employees, lack of accountability, changing the structure of the organizations, and rapidly changing technologies. All these factors with globalization enhanced the demand for efficiency and effectiveness that is derived by organizational leaders and, therefore, effective leadership is crucial to the success of the organization. Leaders play an important role in managing the diverse workforce in a way that it becomes productive in this unpredictable and complex time (Landy & Conte, 345).
Leadership development has been recognized as a key business strategy by organizations because the professional development of managers or leaders is crucial for the efficiency of operations that lead towards the organizational success. Leadership development is the high-speed growth industry not around the world but in Arab states as well and growth of interest has been recognized by numerous actors from private, public, and not profit industries. Even significant growth has been determined in leadership training and development programs.
This is essential to recognized the importance of leadership development before considering the detailed research. It has been determined that in this new era oil based economies are transforming towards knowledge based economy, and the middle east is the one in which concerns regarding the diverse types of leadership are incurring. Middle East, particularly Arab countries are developing rapidly, and several projects are taking place that cause to activate multiple cultures. Leaders are facing challenges not to interact with their employees, but with other countries’ subordinate as well (Gates). Talent development and its grooming have always been important to businesses. However, it has become more important at an enhanced level in the middle east because in the middle east multiple organizations are doing knowledge based and much more complex work, and many are operating globally. Only successful leaders can retain the violent war of talent management. Therefore, it has become important to recognize that how the leaders can be trained and developed that can help in maintaining the long-term sustainability of business (International Summit).
2. 4. Basic Information Sources:
Information sources have immense importance in drawing a conclusion. There are three sources of information that are used to collect data include primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary source of information is an original document that contains first hand information regarding the topic. Different researchers such as interviews, letters, original work, diaries, and speeches use different primary sources. Secondary sources of information include discussion or commentary on the primary source. Through secondary sources, interpretation of primary data can be gathered. Tertiary sources of information present condensed materials’ version and summaries. Each information source has its limitations, and leadership training and development is a vast topic. Therefore, in order to gain the insides of such a vast topic both primary and secondary resources will be used to gather the information that would help in making sensible and worthwhile conclusion.
We may have to face difficulties in gathering primary data and lack of knowledge regarding leadership development in Middle East may not allow getting appropriate data. Therefore, secondary research will be considered. Both sources together will enhance the credibility of research.
2. 5. Research Strategy:
It is a plan of action that provide direction to the efforts of the researchers and enable them to conduct systematic research. In order to gain the objective of this research, the detailed literature review will be conducted, primary data will be gathered and based on the gathered data analysis will be conducted.
2. 6. Methodology:

Analytical methods:

The hypothesis will be formulated and tested in order to come to some conclusion, and it will be analyzed that either the hypothesis is rejected or accepted.

Sample size and type:

Random sampling technique will be used to gather primary data, and approximately 12 interviews will be conducted by sending emails to different organizational personnel

Analysis approach:

The qualitative content analysis approach will be used to extract the results because the explanation of existing literature, extension of existing literature and it refining will better improve the knowledge of the audience.
2. 7. The structure of the Project.
This paper will be separated into five sections. The first section will be based on the introduction that will help in analyzing the background of the research, aim and objective of the research, research problem, and questions to be answered. The second section will consist of the literature review in which existing literature will be discussed that would help in drawing results. Thirds section will be based on the methodology in with action plan through which research will be conducted will be discussed. The fourth section will be based on data analysis in which conclusion will be drawn based on data gathered from primary and secondary sources. The final section will be based on the conclusion that will summarize the overall research.
3. Expected Results:

The practical value of the research:

This research will be beneficial for the management and human resource students. They can better understand the importance of leadership training and development in organizational success. They can better analyze that how the implementation of such practices contributes to the success of the organization.

The technical and ethical problems:

Technical issues can arise in gathering primary data in order to resolve these issues appointment will be taken in advance and questionnaire will be emailed to personnel in advance so they can better answer the questions. Ethical concerns include biasness in making a conclusion. In order to eliminate this factor, results will be confirmed by conducting secondary research with the help of the existing researches. The thorough empirical analysis along with acceptance and rejection of hypothesis will ensure that results have not been drawn on a partial basis.

Works Cited

BQ Staff. Delottie: middle east organizations facing human capital trends and challenges. BQ Doha, Jun. 2015. 23 Jun. 2015.
Dugan, Beverly A., and Patrick Gavan O’Shea. ” Leadership development: Growing talent strategically.” SHRM-SIOP Science of HR White Paper Series(2014).
Gates, Michael. Cross-cultural factors in leadership in the Middle East. Cross culture, May. 2015. 23 Jun. 2015. http://www. crossculture. com/blog/nationalities/cross-cultural-factors-in-leadership-in-the-middle-east/
Iles, Paul, and David Preece. ” Developing leaders or developing leadership? The Academy of Chief Executives’ programmes in the North East of England.” Leadership 2. 3 (2006): 317-340.
International summit. Next generation talent and leadership strategies that support your company growth plans. 2015. 23 Jun. 2015. http://www. leadershipdevelopmentme. com/
Landy, Frank J., and Jeffrey M. Conte. Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
McCauley, Cynthia D., and Ellen Van Velsor, eds. The center for creative leadership handbook of leadership development. Vol. 29. John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
Metcalfe, Beverley, and Fouad Mimouni, eds. Leadership Development in the Middle East. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011.