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The purpose of this study was threefold: to trace the extent to which digital transformation strategies are being implemented in organizations; to statistically measure, validate, predict and examine how digital leaders perceive a synthesized digital transformation model (DTM); and to explore whether leaders with different demographic characteristics perceive the DTM similarly.

The study authors surveyed 778 leaders/managers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to assess the synthetized DTM consisting of four dimensions and nine perception constructs that represent how leaders manage employees in a digital environment. The survey questions were adapted from the 2014 Westerman leading digital book published in Harvard business press.

The general findings revealed that UAE organizations that were already in the digital transformation stage before COVID-19 reacted and responded extremely quickly to speed up the implementation of their respective digital transformation strategies. We concluded that our proposed and synthetized DTM is valid and predictable, and can be adapted to trace the stages of digital transformation by leaders. A positive relationship was found between the DTM’s four dimensions and their related constructs as perceived by the leaders, regardless of differences in their demographic characteristics.

The synthesized digital transformation model is unique in that the authors believe there is no other research that purports to synthesize, validate and correlate using the digital transformation campus dimensions and its related constructs, reflecting leaders' perceptions toward adopting this campus. As well, this is the first UAE study to explore and compare the perspectives of leaders on their digital practices after COVID-19 in a country that has an established IT infrastructure.

The importance of modeling digital leadership in quickly digitizing countries, like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is inevitable for building leadership capabilities to lead, engage and motivate remote employees in the digital environment. Using Blake and Mouton Grid, the current study examines the behavioral approach used by the leaders from both public and private sectors while managing their workforce digitally in the period of the pandemic, when 70% of the workforce worked remotely for the first-time in the region.

An online survey was conducted by the managerial employees working in different firms using self-administered questionnaires and adopting the snowball sampling technique. In total, 476 respondents participated in the study from both the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The analysis using IBM SPSS and Smart PLS software reported that 9 out of 10 leaders positioned their digital leadership style well above the middle-of-the-road management style (5,5) oriented towards team management (9,9); with 7 out of 9 displaying high team management leadership style, while managing remote workers. However, millennials displayed higher task orientation when compared to generation-x leaders, who concentrated more on their relations with the workers.

The findings have implications for practitioners in technology driven regions. Also the results highlighting the task-oriented approach of millennials digital leaders have implication for owners and board of directors of the firms that seniority is not the only credible approach for leadership positions.

The study reveals the behavioral styles beneficial for digital leaders to develop their leadership capabilities and increase their effectiveness while managing the workforce digitally. Black Mountain Grid and its two-dimensional leadership matrix has been found to be a useful conceptual approach for understanding digital leadership behaviors, and based on study findings, recommendations have been provided to effectively improve its utilization for leading teams. The findings have implications for practitioners in technology driven regions as well as digital leadership field scholars.

This paper proposes a Web-based patient portal based on the electronic medical record. Such a portal can allow patients to manage their own health care, reduce health-care visits and significantly improve the quality of their health care.

A patient portal prototype and an accompanying online survey were distributed to assess the adoption readiness among a group of people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results from 470 survey participants demonstrated an enhanced awareness of this technology, and support the study hypotheses indicating that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors are important when considering the implementation of a patient portal in the UAE.

This study adds value to the few research studies undertaken in the Middle East discussing online health information technology and its adoption and usage among the population at large. The extended technology acceptance model, which contains two additional constructs, had not been previously validated in terms of a patient portal in the UAE, according to the author’s knowledge, adding more value. The UAE’s health-care system must use the benefits from the available IT infrastructure to provide a user-friendly online portal to encourage patients to manage their health care and health information.