Key senior leadership characteristics and their impact on leadership effectiveness: a case study of the Ministry of Interior in the United Arab Emirates police

This thesis investigates the key leadership characteristics and their impact on leadership effectiveness. It develops a model of senior leadership characteristics for the UAE police. Evidence from previous extensive research undertaken in the area of leadership showed that there is a lack of sufficient investigation of leadership characteristics and their relation to leadership effectiveness in Arab nations, particularly in the UAE police organisations. This study employs a mixed-methods approach. The qualitative component of the research involved 25 semi-structured interviews in a study population consisting of Commanders-in-Chief, their deputies and Director Generals. The quantitative component involved the distribution of 600 questionnaires to the department managers and heads of division. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered to uncover the current and future perceptions of leadership characteristics and their impact on leadership effectiveness. Finally, documents of the annual assessments of some individual leaders and general reports on the assessment of the leadership were reviewed to identify further evidence of the current predominant senior leadership characteristics in the UAE police. The findings of this study showed that the perceptions of leadership characteristics in the UAE police were related to personal qualities, traits and ability to influence others. The findings also emphasised that there was a strong association between leadership characteristics and leadership effectiveness. This suggests that specific key leadership characteristics have an effective and strong impact on improving leadership effectiveness in terms of having a positive impact on others and achieving the goals of police organisations. This study makes a valuable contribution to a number of areas. Firstly, it contributes a better understanding of the leadership characteristics to the current body of literature in this field. Secondly, it develops a model of senior leadership characteristics which helps in identifying relationships between leadership characteristics and leadership effectiveness, as it is the first of its kind to directly investigate the key leadership characteristics in the UAE police. Thirdly, this is one of the few studies which addressed leadership characteristics using a mixed methods approach; previous studies tended to adopt a single approach. Fourthly, the outcomes of this research directly influence police organisations and decision makers to raise senior leaders’ awareness of the importance of leadership characteristics and their impact on leadership effectiveness; identify, promote and develop leaders based on their characteristics; and generate training and educational programmes for senior leaders, to improve their knowledge and personal development as crucial and necessary.