Strategy tools in practice: an empirical study in the Dubai government

Abstract Strategic management has become a centrepiece of public management in the United Arab Emirates (Elbanna, 2013). The regional Dubai government, which leads the national public management agenda, has consciously sought... [ view full abstract ]

Abstract

Strategic management has become a centrepiece of public management in the United Arab Emirates (Elbanna, 2013). The regional Dubai government, which leads the national public management agenda, has consciously sought to model itself on the corporate world, “where government [is] managed like the private sector, and rivals it with the services it provides” (WAM, 2016).

This study adopts a sociological eye to analyse the selection, application and outcomes of strategy tool use in the Dubai government. We utilize Jarzabkowski and Kaplan’s (2015) framework to examine how the affordances of strategy tools and the agency of public managers shape how and when tools are selected and applied. In doing so, this study extends beyond the established knowledge that government agencies in Dubai have strategy tools, to investigate how individual public managers within those agencies engage with those tools.

Drawing on an analysis of c.650 usable questionnaires returned from over 40 agencies, we find a pattern of willing compliance in the selection and application of tools, with individuals’ familiarity with strategy tools, and the range of tools adopted, forged by top-down policy. We suggest that strategy tools in the Dubai government carry significant interpretive affordances associated not only with the leadership’s vision of good government but also their political authority. Interpretations of these findings for practitioners, and for future research on strategy tools in public and political contexts, are offered.