Integrated Management Project: A Case Study Of The Diwan Of Royal Court In Oman

Identifies an issue in your organisation that has multiple and varied approaches to its resolution. The issue need not be one of failure but may be a challenge facing an organisation. This should be current or impending but not a past issue. You will identify and integrate a range of theories and techniques drawn from multiple appropriate disciplines from your MBA in the creation of appropriate solutions. 

Background on Diwan of Royal Court

The assignment on The Integrated Management Project aims to understand the current work scenario of the Diwan of Royal Court which is a government agency operational in Oman. This specific organisation has been selected for further assessment since it is one of the highest administrative bodies of this nation situated in the Arabian Peninsula. The significance and position of the body makes it a favourable topic for us so that it can be assessed and an issue that is imminent and needs urgent attention can be identified so that it does not increase in magnitude and negatively impact the functions of the institution.

One of the most vital issues had been highlighted in the proposal relates to the enormous amount of manual work processes that are involved in the administrative operations that are conducted in the Royal Court, Oman. As per Al-Jasmi, Choudhuri & Goel, 201, the subject wishes to adopt a number of frameworks, tools and theories that can help in devising an approach in order to find an appropriate solution to this issue (Al-Jasmi, Choudhuri & Goel, 2014, April). The most essential part that has been covered relates to the clear identification and understanding of the problem that is prevalent in a specific scenario. It has been identified that the various day to day functions of this institution are getting affected and the productivity of its employees is minimizing due to the involvement of manual process (Asif, et al., 2013). An electronic archive system has been recommended in this chapter in order to remove redundant aspects relating to manual work model.

According to Bal, Bryde & Ochieng, a thorough cost-benefit analysis has been conducted and different technical scenarios have been evaluated which can support the recommendation that has being made to tackle the current business and administrative issue that could expand in magnitude if not monitored and checked now (Bal, Bryde & Ochieng, 2014). A number of dimensions have been considered in order to understand whether the recommended approach can help the management to tackle the prevailing issue or not.

In the current business scenario when manual processes are getting replaced by automated work processes, the organisations which keep using the old traditional method of administration and operation will lag behind in the business world since their manual performance will be no match as compared to the accurate and fast performance standard of machines and latest technologies. As per Biesenbender & Hornbostel, the Royal Court is an Oman-based administrative institution that is involved in a huge amount of task that provides various sorts of administrative support to its national people. Since it is a government agency its duty is to address the needs of all the people of Oman and prioritise the activities that are very important or urgent in nature (Biesenbender & Hornbostel, 2016). One of the main functions of the body is to receive and send information so that relevant action can be carried out in order to achieve the desired outcome. The institute is responsible for handling a huge amount of the incoming and outgoing correspondences or communication. This bulky nature of the process makes the entire work model a complex structure since almost all aspects are manually managed and administered. The huge amount of transactions puts a lot of pressure on the officials and workers who operate there and reduces the overall output of their performance (Campbell, 2016).

Problem statement

These administrative professionals and employees that work at this Royal Court are responsible for keeping all the work related to daily operations happen in a smooth manner and these officials are the ones who have a direct interaction with the third party i.e. customers, clients, etc. Their high efficiency and productivity is essential for the overall effective operations that are carried out by the organisation (Cliche & Freeman, 2017). The need to have a flexible administrative model is the current need of any undertaking in order to function in an efficient manner in the highly unpredictable environment. There is need to reduce human intervention in most of the administrative related work and develop and introduce an electronic archive system that can simplify the overall administrative function of  Diwan of the Royal Court.

This section introduces the main problem that will act as a huge hindrance for the administrative operations that are conducted in the Diwan of the Royal Court of Oman, if it is not tackled soon.

The basic nature of administrative work is pretty challenging since it involves numerous number of sub-activities and the increasing workload further gives rise to tough administrative challenges (Cloutier, et al., 2015). One of the most vital challenges that has been identified in the current scenario relates to the manual nature of work along with rise in workload.

Since Diwan of the Royal Court is an administration body that links various departments with the leadership at the national level there is need to have a smooth workflow so that its employees can do their official work without feeling burdened. But that is not the actual scenario (Dong, et al., 2017). The increase in amount of work and the use of only manual assistance adds to the burden and creates a number of challenges for the administrative staff. In the current time, the agency needs to handle a huge amount of communication mails manually which makes the work process extremely difficult and time consuming.

The administrative work mostly includes work relating to the information related de-commissioning, record-keeping system, establishing an effective communication channel, archiving of collected communication, accessing of such information,  etc. To establish a solid control over these aspects, it is necessary to introduce a dual system involving physical / manual and electronic system.

As per Fewings, an electronic archiving system is an important tool that can help an institution to retain relevant information that is not required on a day to day basis but needs to be preserved for a specific period. An electronic-based model needs to be introduced in the Diwan of the Royal Court so that all the necessary data can be stored on an electronic medium and data which is not necessary on daily basis can be removed from the day to day processing activity so that it can reduce the overhead on storing and processing resources (Fewings, 2013).

This system will be useful for the entire work process since it can simplify the tracking, management and storing of documents and reduce the paper work. The development of an effective software system to control and manage the current manual archive model that is prevalent in the Royal Court, Oman is the need of the time so that all the communication can be saved in form of electronic media and it will help in the maintenance of its confidential attributes.

Identified Issue

The main issue that has been identified and will be further analysed to gain better knowledge relates to the presence of manual process that is followed in Diwan of the Royal Court. According to Gianni, Gotzamani & Vouzas, the significance of maintaining an electronic archive system cannot be negated in the current business-operation scenario. There is a need to introduce a process that involves conversion of paper-based information into electronic records through effective scanning and storing operations (Gianni, Gotzamani & Vouzas, 2017). It must be noted that a number of government bodies have already invested huge amounts of funds to establish an effective electronic archive system that can simplify their overall work process.

According to Guo, et al, the current administrative staffs at the Oman administration institute are facing a number of challenges while handling the capacious correspondences and communication in form of paperwork on a daily basis (Guo, et al., 2016). There is an urgent need to build an electronic archiving system that can untangle the administrative operations that are carried out in Diwan of Royal Court. The identification of the problem relating to the administrative aspects is crucial since a variety of tools and techniques have been used to conceptualize an electronic-based archive system that can be easily integrated with the operations that are carried out in Diwan of Royal Court.

The objective is to establish and introduce an electronic archive system that will create a suitable and positive working environment and enhance the overall work model by introducing an electronic information system. A number of difficulties that currently exists in the administrative operations of the institution have been identified like time consuming manual work, chances of error by humans, communication gap due to inability to prioritize, misplacement of records, etc. All these challenges are further magnified when there is increased work pressure on the administrative staff (Han, Lee & Kim, 2017).

It is high time that an effective and simple electronic system is introduced which looks into the basic administrative aspects of Diwan of Royal Court involving record keeping, achieving of information so that the available information can be efficiently managed and can be retrieved as and when required in the near future. This Electronic Archiving System (EAS) can help the institution to maintain the confidentiality of the data and safeguard communication by enabling the archival processing and automating the entire process (Hartmann, et al., 2013). In the current times the simplification of data management is vital since it can reduce the burden of management to a large extent. So an online archive system basically can offer a service which will allow the firm to save its manual and physical set of data in form of electronic documents and enhance the overall productivity of Diwan of Royal Court (Kelly, Ellis & Flannery, 2015). This model is also helpful for the concern since it reduces the retrieval cost associated with physical storage process, offers digital imaging solution, increases employee efficiency, enhances the search and retrieval capabilities and allows effective implementation of an electronic-based workflow.

As discussed in the previous section, the issue that can pose a number of challenges in the path of Diwan of Royal Court and its conduction of its day to day operations relates to the lack of an electronic archive system in its current work model.

As per Langston, et al, the tool that has been used in order to analyse the physical or manual administrative work process that is adopted in the high administrative institution of Oman is Stakeholder Power Matrix. The basic object of using this framework is to cover a number of work-related scenarios that help to identify various challenge associated with the physical aspects of controlling the bulky information (Langston, et al., 2014). This model encourages creating an e-archiving system which can improve the overall productivity of the administration body at Oman. The objective of introducing an electronic archiving model that can easily integrate with the work process of Diwan of Royal Court is to succeed and value to the firm. Its success mainly depends on the participation of its entire stakeholder base, hence the Stakeholder Power Matrix has been adopted in order to assess and evaluate the current issue and introduce a new virtual system that can enhance the information management process (Lehnert, Linhart & Röglinger, 2016).

The stakeholder management is a vital tool that can determine the success of a concern and simplify its overall work process. The higher the responsibility of a body, the more is the need to involve various stakeholders while have the power to influence the outcome. Since the administrative operations that are conducted in Diwan of Royal Court involve all the national of the country, any change in its work process will impact all the people who are in some way or the other related to its operations in the society (Paech, Delater & Hesse, 2014). The Stakeholder Management model is a vital discipline that determines the success of a task and helps an undertaking to gain support from others. The application of Stakeholder Power Matrix would basically help the royal court to ensure that its administrative operations succeed in the current work scenario.

According to Radu, et al, the first step while using this tool is to identify the various stakeholders that are affected by the work of Diwan of Royal Court. Since the institute is a high administration body at Oman, it needs to deal with all the people of Oman. This makes its stakeholder base large since it encompasses all of its nationals. All of its administrative operations have some impact on the people. It is vital for the agency to address their needs and prioritize it on the basis of nature and urgency (Radu, et al., 2014). The current manual and physical process makes it difficult to perform its administrative work at a fast pace and affects the overall satisfaction level of the population. The body must also focus to reduce bureaucracy and enhance its overall routine duties through administrative work. It is vital for the body to identify the correct stakeholders and address their issues by adopting a better and enhanced model such as an electronic archiving system (Worrall & Corcoran, 2014).

This is the second crucial aspect which is interconnected with the first step of the Stakeholder Power Matrix framework. Just after the identification of its stakeholders, Diwan of Royal Court must prioritize them on the basis of their requirements and concerns. Since all the people of Oman are directly or indirectly related to the administrative work that is conducted by the body, it is essential for the institute to map the people who have administrative-related concerns and classify them on the basis of their administrative concern (Romanazzi, et al., 2016). In order to prioritize its stakeholders, Diwan of Royal Court needs to focus on their needs, power that they possess, monitor the overall communication scenario and accordingly perform its administrative activity. In order to do a timely prioritization of stakeholders, an electronic archive system can enhance the process and so the Royal Court needs to replace its manual information model with an electronic model since it will allow its employees to instantly access necessary information-related documents anywhere at any time and prioritise their activity accordingly (Vaughan & Parker, 2015).

In order to change the manual information process of the Royal Court at Oman and introduce an electronic system, it is essential to take into consideration the stakeholders and their needs before establishing and building such an electronic archive system that can simplify the overall communication handling process and a integrate a reliable and secure document processing system into the work process of the institution. This consideration of the various stakeholders and their needs will help the body to introduce a system that is efficient and flexible in nature (Sarkar & Panchal, 2015). The information management will allow the users to set a fair and legal mechanism that will help the agency to perform its administrative functions in an effective and simple manner.

Since people form the most vital element and lead to the very existence of the Diwan of Royal Court, the Stakeholder Power Matrix has been adopted to understand and assess their needs so that the advantages of an electronic and modern system can be clearly seen relating to communication or correspondence management (Sharbatoghlie & Sepehri, 2015). Since the main function of this institution involves the receiving and sending of correspondences on a daily basis the introduction of an electronic archiving model will ensure the trigger of an immediate action without any changes of failure (Snider, et al., 2015). 

Conclusion

The topic that has been covered is very crucial in the current scenario where different entities are trying to automate their work process and involve more and more technical aspects in their work process. The issue that poses a grave threat in front of the Diwan of Royal Court has been identified and further analysed. Since the government agency still uses a traditional mechanism of handing information, correspondences, mails, etc it gives rise to a redundant work model since it increases the use of paper work and slows down the overall efficiency of its administrative working staff.

Since the Royal Court at Oman is involved in administrative work, the process is pretty complex in nature and the use of physical information handling of information further complicates the entire work process. There is also a chance of red tapism which makes the entire process redundant and prevents the relevant action or the entire decision-making process. The Stakeholder Power Matrix framework has been used in the chapter which emphasises on the fact that the Royal Court needs to take into consideration all of its stakeholders and replace its physical information system and introduce an electronic-based system. The high complexity involved in the administrative operations of the government agency situated at Oman has encouraged us to select this body and its administrative work process. This assignment helps in identifying the key issue that is prevalent in the Royal Court, Oman and which can increase and affect the overall work process if it is not tackled now itself. The current scenario encourages the body to introduce an innovative model for better management of information and which can enhance the overall efficiency of the employees.

The need to establish, develop and introduce an electronic archive system in the Diwan of Royal Court is crucial since it is a government agency whose operations affect all the people of the Oman nation. Since its activities link operations, leadership and people together, the system that must be adopted by it needs to be an updated one which is able to adapt to the changing business scenario. A number of recommendations have been included which could have a positive impact on the entire administrative process of the Royal Court.

The introduction of a simple and basic electronic archive system in the work process would help the body to save data using various versions so that there would be minimum chance fto lose any data.

An electronic archiving model based on an enterprise solution easy and comprising of SQL databases would help the Diwan of Royal Court’s employees have a better control over the information that is available with them.

The adoption of latest technology in the administrative work model of the government agency would be useful for the institution since the generation, process and storage of the data in form of various formats would be possible which would be easy to retrieve as per requirement.

All these recommendations that could enhance the administrative process at the Royal Court would require new work model which does not need to exist in physical state.

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