May 28th, 2015: Dr. Haniyeh Yousefpour has addressed a group of senior government officials from across the GCC about the importance of process-driven improvement in establishing and maintaining smart government and smart services across the region.
Dr. Yousefpour, Assistant Professor in the School of Business at Canadian University Dubai (CUD), was speaking at the GCC Smart Government and Smart Services Conference, held recently at the Ritz Carlton, DIFC.
An expert in the quality management technique, Six Sigma, Dr. Yousefpour was invited to give a presentation on the subject of continuous process improvement in smart government. As a professor of organizational behaviour and HR management, she proposes a people-centred approach to achieving excellence in smart services.
Dr. Yousefpour was among a line up of international speakers sharing their expertise at the 21st edition of the annual conference, which brought together executives, decision-makers and key policy makers from regional and global government organizations, to address the critical issues in smart government operations and infrastructure.
While the conference has been running for over two decades, the smart government concept has taken on a new dimension in recent years with the advancement of technology supporting process innovation, including the creation of mGovernment tools, where user interactions with government information and services can be conducted entirely through mobile devices.
According to Dr. Yousefpour, new technology provides an excellent platform for the smartening of government and services, but process improvements are ultimately driven by the people within the organization, and what’s more, it’s those at the operational level that often have the most insight into how process excellence can be achieved.
She said, “Often, a top-down approach is taken towards improvement-driven change, and yet it is usually those involved in the day-to-day delivery of services that are best placed to identify and implement process improvements.
“Technology gives us the tools to effect change in the delivery of smart services, but it must be combined with a shift in mindset, towards an organizational culture that promotes employee engagement in performance strategy and measurement.”
CUD was the official education partner of the event, which saw more than 600 delegates attend across the five-day conference.
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