People are key assets and resources for any institution for they enable it to achieve its objectives. Hence, it is important to empower human resources, develop its skills and knowledge, and help it acquire new skills that fit its job requirements. This emphasizes the role of leadership and the importance of preparing youth to become future leaders in various fields and enriching and developing human thought while harnessing the latest creative methods and techniques. In line with Saudi Vision 2030, the KSA has made remarkable efforts to empower the youth as the most essential and largest segment in Saudi society. In fact, the percentage of Saudi youth (between 15 and 34 years old) constitute 36.7% of the total Saudi population.
In its pursuit to achieve the Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom has launched numerous programs and projects aiming to empower the youth as part of the national transformation programs and projects to boost youth participation in society and the labor market. An example is the Human Capability Development Program, launched by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud to develop basic and future skills. These skills are based on human knowledge and scientific and technical development in qualifying human resources in various fields of knowledge based on innovative and modern programs aimed at improving the productive and competitive capabilities of institutions and thus enhancing the status of Saudi citizens.
The constant changes faced by institutions nowadays have forced them to make fundamental changes to ensure success and achieve development and growth. Many studies in administrative science have revealed that leadership is one of the most pivotal factors affecting youth empowerment. Hence, there is an urgent need to encourage creative work through the proper organizational structure, identify the problems or factors that hinder creativity, and find solutions that can help overcome or at least mitigate the effects of these factors.
Empowering young leaders is a planned process that aims at making the best possible use of human and material resources and promoting their determination and perseverance in order to meet the needs of institutions and their employees, according to a development program for all the workforce studied by senior management to meet their future job needs and achieve leaders career ambitions.
Empowerment is at the heart of decision-making, as it allows team leaders and members to be responsible for their business decisions to achieve personal and institutional objectives in accordance with the institution's shared vision. It enables task leaders to make independent decisions about their business without the need for supervision for leaders will manage themselves.
This is driven by several factors that encourage institutions to empower their leaders as an essential step in achieving organizational justice. Effective empowerment should be objective, transparent, and non-biased. This means that there is no discrimination between employees for any reason as every individual in the institution and work teams are capable of contributing by developing their work and creativity.
Empowerment came as an inevitable response to the management philosophy based on believing in the capabilities of the youth. The success of empowerment in any institution depends on the individuals who believe in their skills, experience, and ability to assume more work responsibilities and trust the management's seriousness in implementing empowerment.
The empowerment approach is adopted due to the need to leverage all available resources, especially human resources, and promote competitiveness, and the importance of swift decision-making and the adoption of innovative ideas. It unleashes the creative capabilities of leaders, provides more job satisfaction and motivation, and boosts the sense of belonging. It replaces the traditional ways of communicating with the institution, reduces operating costs by eliminating unnecessary levels of management, gives people greater responsibility, and enables them to gain a greater sense of accomplishment in their work. Empowerment also comes as a result of the institution's need to meet the market needs and enable the senior management to focus on strategic issues. (Zainab, 2018)
Empowerment develops a workforce able to provide services and goods exceeding the expectations of internal and external consumers. The employees become more loyal to the institution when they are more empowered. A leader who feels empowered and independent knows that this independence is part of a positive and healthy relationship between management and employees. Accordingly, each member devotes full energy and capabilities to serve its purposes and sacrifice for its sustainability, success, and bloom. (Zainab, 2018)
The types, levels, and methods of leadership empowerment are:
Leadership Empowerment: It lies in the ability to express one's opinion and point of view on the business and activities with the aim of participating in decision-making.
Behavioral empowerment: It refers to an individual's ability to work in a group to solve and identify problems and gather data on work problems and their solution. It is about teaching the individual new skills that can be used in work performance.
Result-oriented work empowerment: It includes the individual's ability to identify and resolve the causes of problems as well as improve and change work performance methods to increase the organization's efficiency. (Zainab, 2018)
These programs should be designed to develop the youth cognitively by assuming leadership roles in their work, giving them opportunities to discover and learn effective leadership tools and skills and influence others, and encouraging initiatives to prepare leaders by motivating them and involving them in decision-making processes. Unique training programs target enabling human resources to face new challenges to empower these resources to renew their energy across institutions and boost their competitiveness. This ensures quality and performance excellence and achieves success and excellence in managing work teams and overcoming the difficulties and challenges facing leaders. It is necessary to adopt the training methodology based on selection, evaluation, qualification, assignment, empowerment, and impact measurement.
The impact of preparing future leaders is remarkable in supporting institutional excellence for the institutions where they work. Institutional excellence is an intellectual pattern that relies on an approach related to how to achieve tangible results for the institution to achieve balance in meeting the needs of all parties, whether stakeholders or society as a whole, within a culture of learning, creativity, and continuous improvement. (Jumaa, 2018)
The process of empowering young leaders has three pillars: the scientific pillar, which is related to increasing knowledge and theoretical information; the practical pillar, which is related to acquiring skills and working methods; and the psychological pillar, which is improving work behavior in addition to developing the ability to face difficulties, analyze problems, and choose between proposed solutions.
Institutions need to empower their leaders for many reasons. Institutions should maintain their human resources as it is the driver of their excellence and strength with their innovation and creativity that ensure institutional excellence. Therefore, institutions should provide the appropriate environment for young leaders to unleash their powers and capabilities, encourage them to avoid stereotypes, and push them to engage in high-risk businesses. Institutions seek to maintain their intellectual capital since it represents their wealth and contributes to increasing their market value. Institutions spend large amounts of money to develop their human capital and constantly refine their knowledge and skills to enable them to adapt to rapid changes. Empowerment allows institutions to maintain the knowledge, expertise, and skills of their intellectual capital as the driver for their business sustainability. (Jumaa, 2018)
An example of empowering women leadership and activating their role in all activities and fields is Ms. Adwaa Abdul Rahman Al-Arifi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Sports for Strategic Planning and Investment, who earned this position with the passion of capable Saudi youth in the world of sports that befits her and her empowerment.
I suggest, in the regenerating Saudi, that ministries and institutions increase their programs for young leaders that aim at upskilling and empowering them. Leaders' capabilities should be continuously developed by acquiring knowledge and skills essential to implement the empowerment strategy and ensure its success. In addition, the experience of senior administrators should be transferred using the information on the performance of the institution and communication among work teams to ensure timely and direct transfer of information that enables leaders to make decisions independently and confidently, thus holding them accountable for the results. Young leaders should be motivated and empowered to become more ambitious in leading institutions by providing more opportunities for advancement and development in their work and to be effective, influential, and capable of creating positive change.
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