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Tribune News Network
Doha
THE US-based Reputation Institute has published on its website 'www.reputationinstitute.com' a report granting Qatar's Ministry of Interior (MoI) a certificate for integrating reputation management systems in its operations.
According to the report, the MoI of Qatar is the first interior ministry in the world to do so through a series of stage-wise specialised processes, wherein the ministry identified its primary stakeholders accurately and analysed the public trends and impressions about the services provided by the ministry in various areas internally and externally.
The institute explained in its report that the certificate was granted in the first week of December at a special ceremony held at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Civil Defense in the presence of a number of security leaders and the team in charge of following up the project, consisting of the departments of Public Relations and Strategic Planning.
As per the report published by the Institute, the project focuses on how to ensure dissemination of correct and adequate information from the ministry to the beneficiaries including workers regarding its services and activities when multiple sources of information have become the most important challenge faced by institutions in image building and reputation.
The project, which lasted for more than two years, included a variety of methodological and research programmes targeting stakeholders that have been identified accurately as the most influential in building a mental perception and reputation of the ministry of interior, namely, citizens, customers, tourists, employees, the media and human rights organisations.
The Reputation Institute carried out the scientific research employing manual and electronic questionnaires, interviews and media content analysis.
More than five specialised workshops were conducted with a targeted model for measuring the reputation of the MoI among the relevant stakeholders, with the participation of representatives of all competent departments at the ministry and experts from the Reputation Institute.
The model of image building and institutional reputation management of the ministry was adopted in accordance with six main themes including development, service, leadership, citizenship, governance and business environment as well as emotional aspects like respect, admiration, feeling and trust. Each of the above mentioned themes are denoted with specific measurement points linking performance measurement with the general impression among the targeted people.
Speaking at the ceremony, Nicholas Trad, executive partner of Reputation Institute Middle East & Africa, lauded the achievements of Qatar's MoI for making noticeable progress in building its reputation.
He pointed out that it has made a giant leap in this area becoming the first interior ministry in the world that assimilated modern reputation systems in its operations. Nicholas added that the modern reputation management theory is based on the management of relationship between the 'reality of the institution' and the 'impression of the public about it'.
For his part, Brigadier Abdul Rahman al Sulaiti, director of Strategic Planning Department at the Ministry of Interior said that this project was designed in line with the strategic plan of the ministry, which constitutes 'building an image' as one of its most important features.
During his remarks on the latest developments in the field of public relations due to the evolution of the communication media, Brigadier Abdullah Khalifa al Muftah, director of Public Relations Department at the MoI, pointed out that the multiplicity of information sources and the difficulty of controlling the flow of information have grown to be the most important challenges that the decision-makers face in the world. He added that this has resulted in making significant impact on the image building and shaping of impressions and attitudes.
He stressed that the MoI was keen to keep its communication channels open to the public in order to promote the principle of transparency and credibility.