The Effect of Institutional Changes on Statisticians’ Excellence at a Government Organization in Abu Dhabi
Conference
64th ISI World Statistics Congress
Format: CPS Paper
Keywords: abudhabi, adaptability, collaboration, communication, innovation, specialization, uae
Session: CPS 14 - Official statistics: National offices
Monday 17 July 4 p.m. - 5:25 p.m. (Canada/Eastern)
Abstract
Statistics Center Abu Dhabi (SCAD) produces official statistics for Abu Dhabi Emirate, the capital of the federation of seven emirates forming the United Arab Emirates. SCAD has undergone some recent structural changes, which have led to the empowerment of statisticians and increased efficiency throughout the organisation. Prior to this structural change, statisticians were responsible for all stages of the GSBPM process, from specifying needs, designing, building, collecting, processing, analysing, disseminating to archiving. In addition, one statistician would be both the project manager and technical specialist in charge of the entire process. Since introducing these structural changes, which involve the methodology team, data sector, and field team among other teams playing larger roles within the projects, the statistician can focus more on processing, analysing and disseminating the indicators. There is additional time spent on improving and developing statistical products and innovation. There has been more widespread use of automation. A descriptive analysis of the effects of these changes on excellence within the organisation was conducted, particularly that of statisticians. A survey of statisticians as well as supporting roles to statisticians was conducted, including methodologists, data specialists, and field specialists in order to gauge the effectiveness of these structural changes to excellence. We primarily observed aspects such as statistical output quality, innovation, teamwork and collaboration, communication, specialisation and adaptability to change as measures of excellence.