Employee perception may be key to success of UAE’s big data initiative
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) officially launched the United Nations (UN) “Big Data Sustainable Development” platform on 25 January 2022. This is a component of the nation’s nationwide agenda for harnessing the facility of big data, whereas on the similar time adhering to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Under this agenda, the UN hopes to steer the world in direction of “universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination”. The time period sustainability, as used within the context of the UN platform and the UAE initiative, contains financial, social and environmental sustainability.
Well earlier than 2022, big data applied sciences and techniques had already been utilized in each the private and non-private sectors of the UAE – sufficient for workers to kind a powerful opinion.
To feed into the nationwide debate about how to make sure the success of the federal government’s big data initiative, Zayed University researcher Syed Mustapha carried out a research that explored worker perception of big data applied sciences and techniques in an organisation, and the influence that has on the efficiency of initiatives within the UAE. The analysis was published in November 2022.
Studies had already been carried out on different important elements in implementing big data initiatives. For instance, one research discovered, not surprisingly, that data high quality had a big influence on the standard of decision-making. Other research centered on financial, environmental and social points as important elements. Still others checked out how gross sales progress, provide chain administration and the standard of accounting are affected by big data.
However, no earlier research had proven how vital worker perception is to the success of a big data challenge. That’s what units Mustapha’s work aside. “We need to recognise that the challenges may not come primarily from the technology,” he informed Computer Weekly. “The motivation of this research work is to investigate factors that may come from other dimensions.”
Discovering worker perception of the important elements of success
The research was based mostly on a web-based survey of randomly chosen workers. A Likert-style five-point scale was used, and examined for validity and reliability. Employees had been requested concerning the important elements for success of a big data challenge, together with technological elements, organisational elements and folks elements. They had been additionally requested about their perception of the contribution of the challenge to a extra sustainable future.
Syed Mustapha, Zayed University
Most of the respondents (58.8%) believed that big data was sustainably carried out of their organisations. And workers typically believed that the sustainable implementation of big data initiatives had a direct and constructive influence on the enterprise efficiency of their organisations.
“In general, the findings suggest that employees strongly think the quality of big data infrastructure is an essential factor for sustainability of implementations,” stated Mustapha. “This includes the scalability, interoperability and connectivity aspects to support the five characteristics of big data, which are volumes, velocity, values, varieties and veracity.”
“Other factors are organisational readiness and human cognitive factors,” he stated. “The total organisational setting has to be aligned with the governance of implementation, which incorporates the creation of a brand new place that focuses on coverage, planning, monitoring, execution and analysis.
“It is also essential for an organisation to measure employee awareness, capacity for innovation and cognitive abilities to assimilate the new paradigm shift. The culmination of the entire big data adoption is its impact to business performance in terms of profitability, customer satisfaction, efficient services and the organisation’s reputation.”
Enhancing probabilities for success by enhancing worker perception
As is the case in different nations within the area, one of the vital pillars of the UAE’s total expertise technique is to assist younger folks construct expertise and capabilities in new applied sciences. Big data and synthetic intelligence (AI) are two of an important applied sciences that may contribute to long-term success of the nation.
Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, minister of state for synthetic intelligence, digital economic system and teleworking functions, views data because the “true wealth of the government of the future and the main tool for developing next-generation government services”.
One problem confronted in big data initiatives within the area is that almost all massive and transformative initiatives are conceived and carried out in a really top-down method. Almost all choices are taken on the prime and ultimately trickle down to the extent of the common worker.
On an optimistic word, the UAE has at all times proven big ambition and a willingness to go full pace forward to obtain its objectives. In this case, going full pace forward may imply ensuring workers are absolutely on board from the start. Organisations in the private and non-private sectors would do properly to contemplate Mustapha’s analysis, which factors to the significance of including not less than a contact of a bottom-up method to their methodology for implementing massive initiatives.
“The study provides a framework for investigating the critical success factors that influence the sustainability of the big data implementation,” stated Mustapha. “It covered a wide-ranging community of big data employees. But the same framework can be replicated using similar constructs on specific government agencies or private companies using their own samples. It is essential for all organisations to ensure the critical factors are in place to ensure big data sustainability in the long run.”
At a naked minimal, administration ought to be certain workers perceive the imaginative and prescient and have an excellent perception of how the challenge contributes to a extra economically, socially and environmentally sustainable world. Doing so will assist make sure the success of the UAE’s Big Data Sustainable Development initiative.