HLN405 Qualitative Research For Advancement Prospects Assignment

2. The aim of traditional ethnography is to produce a ‘factual description’ of a cultural or sub-cultural group. Drawing on contemporary works, critically challenge the idea of ‘factual description’ as an objective of ethnographic research.

3.Critically explore the use of action research as a strategy to promote social change. 

4. Select an area of feminist knowledge and argue how it can inform research relevant to your area of practice.

5. Discourse analysis has gained currency as a research approach in the health sciences. Critically discuss its application to a relevant area of your practice.

6. Negotiate a topic of choice. This is an opportunity for those enrolled in a research degree to develop their thesis work. Others may also negotiate a choice of topic area.

Answers:

In this competitive world, development through the means of innovation plays very significant role. The idea behind conducting the present qualitative research is to understand the country’s economy growth through various aspects such as build architectures, services and alliances for the countries that initiated smart city projects. The present qualitative research based work will shed light upon the innovative strategy of the beautifully developed smart city of Dubai in the UAE. The investigation is majorly based on examining the government based services that are associated in enhancing infrastructure and architecture of different locations of the place. In this report, the research work is conducted by developing aim which state the research work to be worked upon along with objective through which entire investigation will be undertaken. The aim of present research is to highlight the work done by UAE officials in declaring 2015 as the most innovative year of the UAE till 2021 (Lasar, 2015). The followed research will help to facilitate the researchers in effective manner.

Qualitative Research 

The aim of the present qualitative research study is to examine the Innovation of Government Services in Smart City.

There has been developed following objectives in an order to pursue the qualitative research study.

• To assess the role of government in developing a smart city
• To understand the strategic plans in bringing innovation to the Dubai city.
• To recognize the technology role in bringing innovation to the city
• To provide recommendations on the strategic planning and meeting the objective of the plan on making Dubai a smart city

In an order to initiate the present research study, there requires exploratory based of research design. The central idea behind the selection is to evaluate the innovation made by government of Dubai in programming and executing its services in various kinds of developments. In an order to bring the most effective outcome, there have been used both primary and secondary sources for collecting information (Kwang, 2016). This has been followed by the use of research methods which comprises of qualitative and quantitative means. For the current study, there used solely qualitative research method. For qualitative method of data collection, two types of surveys are conducted. First would be for the government  entities understanding from them how they came to know about the strategy 2021 and how they apply the needed in a form of innovative systems and how the staff and the customers reacted toward these changes from their point of view (Al-Jenaibi, 2017). Second, another questionnaires/survey using survey monkey form 10 respondents will be conducted to find out to the staff the entities to know if they are happy of these changes and how it affected their job routine (Fietkiewicz, Mainka & Stock, 2017). This qualitative research work has been conducted by keeping ethical consideration on account of avoiding plagiarism and taking confidentiality on priority.

Innovation has been radically adopted as a method of initiating growth and advancement prospects from time to time basis. However, there are people who accept this as challenge and view this as a hurdle in their personal as well as professional lives (Efthymiopoulos, 2016). It is true fact as well that innovation brings environmental changes where some are intentional and others vice versa.

From the point of view of organization, it is vital for them to analyze the requirement of bringing innovation. It can be evaluated from the concern of profit enhancement or expansion of market share. Anthopoulos & Reddick (2016) believes that the change can be brought from public sector firms who firmly involve in bringing improvements over time. It takes efforts, time and money. On contrary to the same, there are companies who on account of working on whether small, medium or large projects fails to adopt the desired outcome. The research conducted found that there are companies who are only happy and contented with their regularly working and thus at times not intended to accept change.  

According to Al-Jenaibi (2017), cities are regarded as the engines which are responsible for the development and advancement of the economy of every nation. A huge progress and growth have been noticed in almost every nation. There are various reasons which have been proved to be contributory in such development. Urbanisation is one among the most prominent and integral aspects that is majorly responsible for the same (Anthopoulos, 2017). This factor has been greatly considered as it has huge portion of contribution in measuring GDP, GNP, growth rate etc of the county. To lead this, several facets have been considered which are inclusive of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure. These factors play contributory role in enhancing and updating the quality of life of ample of individuals living in the nation. These act as major and integral factors that drive, influence, attract and appeal people to participate in such developments (Yaghi & Al-Jenaibi, 2017). This is how concerned authorizes who play marvellous role of bringing such are successfully able to make people involved in similar investment. Hence, the above study is thus being focused towards conducting a study with regards to the development of Smart Cities. This is a step towards the direction that leads to the greatest contribution in the progress of the economy.

Before undertaking deep study on different viewpoints on the trends and developments which are associated with the smart city, it is vital to understand some prime facets. The key consideration lies in understanding that what smart city is actually defined as. There are various authors who have shared their viewpoints on the same. In the words of Behmann and Wu (n.d.), smart city is defined as the concept which varies differently from one city to another and one nation to another. In broad level, it is defined as the aspect that depends on the level of progress, desire to bring transformation, required modification, appropriate allocation of resources and ways to meet the demand and need of the citizens residing there. For instance, people living in UK have different requirements than those living in the UAE (Anthopoulos & Reddick, 2016). Thus, connotations of the people differ from one place to another. According to Anthopoulos & Reddick (2016), aspects associated with the smart city are inclusive of infrastructure, information and technological development and thus similar layers that add up to give and promote the concept of smarter city.

As per the viewpoint of Al-Jenaibi 2017), the concept of smart city sets an objective where there is amalgamation of various components are included. These are inclusive of core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment   and   application of ‘Smart’ Solutions (Ibrahim & Morsy, 2016). Therefore, the while efforts are induced so that an umbrella can be created for the people residing in different parts of the nation so that they can be connected well in the sphere where the connection and relationship with each other sounds to be more effective in leading a big change (Kaur & Maheshwari, 2016). That big change refers to the huge transformation that enlightens the platform of opportunity for many people which ends up towards the development and success. With the small proportion of initiating that small change in one city with an objective of transforming into smart city is a step towards the creation of various components which are inclusive of providing sufficient and adequate supply of water resource, providing assured and regular supply of electricity, service provisions of sanitation which is inclusive of solid waste management, mobility of efficient urban system, affordable and available housing facility, public transportation, IT digitalization and connectivity, good governance system, sustainable growth and progress, health, security and safety of population, robust system, facilities and ample of services to the senior citizens residing over different places and many more (Efthymiopoulos, 2016).

In a streamline to the discussion made above with respect to smart city, it can be stated that main objective of smart city is to drive growth of economy and bring revolution to bring improvement in the quality of life of various individuals. This is planned and programmed through enabling the development of local areas and harnessing the technology which is completely based on smart resultant outcomes (Rahman, Albaloshi & Sarker, 2016). On undertaking the concept of area transformation towards the making of smart city, this comprises of redeveloping and retrofitting the existing areas so that better and planned accommodations can be made available to the people who are facing deprived or average situation and are intended to improve their livelihood (Ramaprasad, Sanchez & Syn (2017.). With the application of smart solutions provided, it has been regarded as the package of solution that make city available with the accessibility to make bring modification in  quality of people’s life, create opportunities to work through employment, increase level of income and earnings, etc.

In reference to the present study which is undertaken on smart city work of UAE, there was successful incorporation of technology and internet in facilitating the transformation to its people (How Dubai is becoming a smart city, 2013). There were efforts laid on examining the various issues and problems which are discussed openly by business firms, government and people residing over there. The government comes up with different applications and software based functions which have led to SMART city revolution and up gradation. SMART government programs are recommended which includes the effective leadership plan and program. As suggested by Efthymiopoulos (2016), the citizen-centric e-government laid focus on enhancing the faith and belief of agencies and citizens who are working for the government. This central idea behind this blend is to present the correct need and requirement of the people.

Another research that has been undertaken by Almuraqab & Jasimuddin (2017) concludes the role of using smart phones everywhere in contributing global level advancement. The proposed apps are medium to connect people with the fulfillment of their need and desires. In completely making Dubai as the smart city, innovation has been regarded as the overall project that affects the overall growth of the city. This further includes highly planned deadlines that at times also get failed.  From the research, it has thus been noticed that involvement of high highness in planning designing and executing things is very dominant.

In the very early times in 1990, smart city has been viewed as the highlighted subject to all governments and stakeholders. Later, in 2008, the IBM has introduced the Smarter Planet Project which intends to provide various perspectives to view smart city as a concept. Gradually, the subject changes into initiating the transformation into interconnected, instrumented and excellence city (Government.ae., 2017).

In the words of Al-Jenaibi (2017), smart city is a concept that is about bringing broader change into mobility, living, governance, people and environment. However, there are various definitions that have been given to state the smart city as a project that is developed and programmed by various nations on their own ways.

Dubai has been chosen for the research study due to its fastest growing business hub and tourism growth over the last four decades.  There has been observed that the population of Dubai is growing from 0.6 million in 1993 to 2.2 million in 2013 with the annual growth of 6.5% (Hielkema & Hongisto (2015). Mohammed of the Dubai has introduced a separate office for smart city project developments which is sorely responsible for developing plans, strategies. This has been made with the help of IT and infrastructure initiatives (Zawati & Dweiri (2016).  

In the words of Zelda Bronstein (2009), there has been worked upon legal and structural framework which is unique model based on managing cities and its various locations. On global ground, this needs to be made on effective utilization of resources that are modern and sustainable. The Sheikh of Dubai has planned to create single platform where both private and public working firms come together as a single team and work to serve the future of nation and its citizens.

Conclusion

Innovation has been thus regarded to be the most essential yet vital need of today’s modern era. In this competitive market where every one nation wants to pioneer itself with other in various dimensions, strategy of innovation proves to be a platform that acts as a major provider of how things are managed and worked out. 

References 

Al-Jenaibi, B. (2017). Upgrading Society With Smart Government. Smart Technologies: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice, 272.

Almuraqab, N. A. S., & Jasimuddin, S. M. (2017). Factors that Influence End-Users’ Adoption of Smart Government Services in the UAE: A Conceptual Framework. The Electronic Journal Information Systems Evaluation Volume, 20(1).

Anthopoulos, L. G. (2017). The Smart City in Practice. In Understanding Smart Cities: A Tool for Smart Government or an Industrial Trick? (pp. 47-185). Springer International Publishing.

Anthopoulos, L. G., & Reddick, C. G. (2016). Understanding electronic government research and smart city: A framework and empirical evidence. Information Polity, 21(1), 99-117.

Efthymiopoulos, M. P. (2016). Cyber-security in smart cities: the case of Dubai. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 5(1), 11.

Efthymiopoulos, P. M., (2016). Cyber-security in smart cities: the case of Dubai. Journal of innovation and entrepreneurship A system view across time and space.

Fietkiewicz, K. J., Mainka, A., & Stock, W. G. (2017). eGovernment in cities of the knowledge society. An empirical investigation of Smart Cities' governmental websites. Government Information Quarterly, 34(1), 75-83.

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Hielkema, H. & Hongisto, P., (2015). Developing the Helsinki Smart City: The Role of Competitions for Open Data Applications. J Knowl Econ. 4(2). p.195

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Kaur, M. J., & Maheshwari, P. (2016, March). Building smart cities applications using IoT and cloud-based architectures. In Industrial Informatics and Computer Systems (CIICS), 2016 International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Kwang, W. T., (2016). A look into Dubai’s smart city initiatives. [Online]. Accessed through https://www.enterpriseinnovation.net/article/look-dubais-smart-city-initiatives-1141254266. [Accessed on 24th August, 2017].

Lasar, I., (2015). Dubai’s smart city ambition is a complex project. [Online]. Accessed through https://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/dubais-smart-city-ambition-is-a-complex-project. [Accessed on 24th August, 2017].

Lee, J. & Lee, H., (2014). Developing and validating a citizen-centric typology for smart city services. Government Information Quarterly. 31. pp.S93-S105.

Rahman, M. H., Albaloshi, S. A., & Sarker, A. E. (2016). From E-Governance to Smart Governance: Policy Lessons for the UAE. Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, 1-13.

Ramaprasad, A., Sanchez, A. D., & Syn, T. (2017). Ontological Review of Smart City Research.

Yaghi, A., & Al-Jenaibi, B. (2017). Organizational Readiness for E-governance: A Study of Public Agencies in the United Arab Emirates. South Asian Journal of Management, 24(1), 7.

Zawati, O. A. L., & Dweiri, F. (2016, December). Application of Quality Function Deployment to improve smart services applications, Dubai public entity as a case study. In Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 2016 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 881-885). IEEE.

Zelda Bronstein, (2013). Industry and the smart city. Dissent. 56(3). pp.27-34.