Multi National Companies
Gulf Oil International (GOI) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ((ADNOC) are two well known companies in the global industry of oil and gas. These are major multinational corporations which have specialization in the fields of oil exploration, oil production, oil supportive services, gas processing, oil refining, petrochemicals and other chemicals, refined oil products, maritime transportation as well as distribution of oil products (Hudson 367).
Gulf Oil International was formed way back in 1901 when oil was being discovered in quite a number of regions for instance at the Texas spindle top (Hudson 367). As it stands now, Gulf Oil International (GOI) is a well established oil and gas marketing company operating in many countries across the world.
The company has built its brand in the oil market as a leading dealer in oil and gas related products. Research has shown that the Gulf Oil International is envisioned with a sole mission of improving its oil brand and service delivery to all of its major markets across the world in a bid to have a sizeable share of the oil market (Bednar and lynn 59).
However, it is imperative to note that there has been tough competition in the oil and gas industry and subsequently, this has led to stiff competition. On the other hand, it is worth noting that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) was started in 1971 with a prime objective of nourishing itself in the gas and oil areas of the United Arab Emirates (Hudson 366).
Policy formulation, implementation as well as general overseeing of the Abu Dhabi oil companies are done by the leader who is in charge of Abu Dhabi. In addition, other key regulators of the oil and gas industry in United Arab Emirates include the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) and the UAE president (Hudson 367).
In order to saturate the vast UAE region with its products, ADNOC has established numerous subsidiary companies which operate under its umbrella from different destinations. These subsidiary companies include the Al Hosn Gas, Elixier , ADNOC Distribution, ADNATCO-NGSCO, BOROUGE, FERTIL, FERTIL, ESNAAD, IRSHAD, TAKREER, NDC, TAKREER, NDC, ADMA-OPCO, GASCO as well as ADCO (Maloney 129).
This paper is a detailed research finding done on industrial employment relations of the two aforementioned companies. It analyzes and makes a comparative study of the employee treatment in these two corporations namely the Gulf oil international and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Companies in relation to governments’ policies and rules in the United Arab Emirates.
Kay (137) describes industrial relations as a broad field that studies the relationships between employers and employees in myriads of ways. In addition, industrial relations can also be termed as employment relations since it keenly deals with employment. This field deals with three aspects of employment contracts.
These are ethics, solving problems in addition to social health. It seeks to improve the employment relationship between or among the concerned parties. Moreover, it instills policies and strategies to ensure high quality normative principles in the industrial and corporate sector (Seznec 100).
Different organizations have different and diverse working arrangements that shape their employment relationship such as from structural attributes to employee communicating mechanisms at the work place. On the same note, formulation and implementation of company and national policies in regards to various places of work against the safety of employees also form integral part industrial relations. Mohammed and Ingo outline that employment relationships are greatly affected by employees’ nationalities (36).
They point out that in most cases; foreign employees are not treated well as it is the case is with domestic employees (Mohammed and Ingo 364). Studies reveal that in certain nations, foreign workers are treated as lower citizens by the respective governments. They are forced to work without forming or joining unions that can champion for their rights.
As a result, they are directly denied many civil liberties. Different multinational and local corporations have various ways and means of treating their workers. Bryant and Trevor posit that in the United Arab Emirates, there are several organizations which are characterized by employee discrimination (450).
The authors are quite categorical that some workers who have foreign origins tend to suffer from abused terms of tenure while others are tormented by poor remuneration despite the fact that they work with successful companies (Bryant and Trevor 451).
Every government has a role of ensuring that there are good employment terms for all employees who work in any nation. The respective governments of countries which have full mandate on the labor force are supposed to cooperate to ensure that there are peaceful industrial relations among foreign employees (Bryant and Trevor 470).
As Bryant and Trevor point out, a government should make regulations that are realistic, monitor and enforce policies to propel ethical and universally acceptable relations between all employers and employees (449).
In terms of employee treatment at Gulf Oil International (GOI), Amatucci and Grant explain that multinational companies need to ensure that they put undivided efforts in ensuring that employees from other countries are not discriminated (100).
Research has shown that governments of UAE have embarked on ensuring that there are favorable job terms for all people from other countries as their numbers have continued to extrapolate (Amatucci and Grant 100). It is worth noting that so far, there have been no reported cases of abuse among laborers especially those who have foreign origin.
The management team at GOI has been keen in treating all its employees equally. The company strives to keep all promises made to workers. In addition, they have established a chamber for all international workers to champion for their rights. This international union of gulf employees has the autonomy of operations and creates annual forums for employees to air their grievances to the company (Amatucci and Grant 100).
Moreover, the leading oil and gas company revises the employment terms of tenure upon an application done by an employee through respective regional offices. All employees of GOI enjoy permanency of employment and are entitled to reviews of salary which are done at different times in different regions where the company operates.
The company has been lauded for understanding the demerits of a high employee turnover. Therefore, it has embarked in the process of offers its employees training and a chance to improve their skills (Abdalla 875). This multinational company has an integrated health insurance scheme for all its employees.
This covers both domestic workers and employees from other countries. The scheme caters for employees in all levels of the organization namely the managerial, technical, consultancy, low income earners and part timers.
In general, just like one of the managers explained, GOI values all its employees and all the traces of foreign worker poor relations are being eliminated through the use of special committees. Seznec points out that if multinationals have to achieve success within and outside the United Arab Emirates, then they have to treat their invaluable foreign labor force with extreme professionalism (105).
In Abu Dhabi National oil company (ADNOC), it was found out that the company has a department of employee welfare. This wing of the company is a special tool for ensuring that all the employees can communicate easily and comfortably with their employer in all matters regarding the state of their employment.
Throughout the United Arab Emirates, the company has employee welfare units which are controlled by the subsidiary companies. All employees in this company enjoy quite a number of liberties regardless of their countries of origin. They have an opportunity to get credit services from any financial institution which recognizes their employer.
The company makes arrangements and pays the employees loans as it remits their salaries into their respective bank accounts. This research has revealed that Abu Dhabi Oil Company has an office that oversees the movement of all its workers who come from foreign countries. This office organizes and necessitates the flexibility of employee travel arrangements like flights in and out of the United Arab Emirates.
This is achieved by the issue of special identification which is recognized by all relevant government authorities. As Abdalla (876) pointed out, every commercial company has a prime role of ensuring that its employees are catered for in the health system, Abu Dhabi has a nationwide insurance scheme that covers the health risks of all its employees.
This health insurance plan has two broad branches namely the domestic policy for all people with an Arab origin and secondly, the international policy which caters for the workers from other nations and regions. The terms of tenure in Abu Dhabi are clearly outlined in the company’s policies for employees regardless of where they come from.
All engineers, chief executive officers, managers and company consultants have permanent jobs and enjoy retirement benefits. The company has a good and standardized remuneration scheme which functions according to the legislations of the United Arab Emirates territory.
In comparison, Bednar and Lynn depict that both the Gulf Oil International and the Abu Dhabi National Oil companies have put in place provisions to ensure that their employees are comfortable during their employment tenure (59). These companies are sensitive to the issue of immigrant employee discrimination.
Although studies prove that some nations treat foreign workers as second class citizens, these two companies have established special mechanisms to detect and eliminate employee discrimination (Seznec 105). The employees of GOI and ADNOC are treated with respect since the companies have an understanding of the fact that human resource is the most unique and important of the six major elements of a production system (Raven 134).
These companies provided worker welfare programs. These includes arrangement of travel for foreign employees, setting of accommodation destinations, tracking the health conditions of all employees and have departments which ensure that employees operate in clean and safe conditions.
On a modern technological note, Gulf Oil International and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Companies have online quality assessment which involves the participation of all employees. This site is attached to the respective websites of the organizations and enables employees to make input in the area of industrial relations.
It is a lee way for employees from all levels of employment to directly communicate to the executive boards. It is a government requirement that human civil rights and liberties should be respected irrespective of the location of an individual (Seznec 105).
The international community has instructed that all companies operating in different parts of the world should treat all employees in the most acceptable way (Seznec 105). Gulf Oil International and the Abu Dhabi National Oil companies are both lenient and portray optimal flexibility when dealing with immigrant employees.
In terms of the roles governments play in setting ethical policies and rules, Seznec (105) points out that all forms of corrupt practices hikes the overall cost of production and leads to wastage of too much time as companies and government officials make efforts to normalize situations.
All governments have a duty of setting procedures that promote the respect of the rule of law all over the world (Maloney 129). They should set well established bodies for ensuring efficiency and integrity in organizations. The United Arab Emirates community upholds the respect of employment terms and calls for competitive wages for all its workers.
Governments also have a duty of encouraging all civil servants and citizens at large to participate in the fight against corrupt actions in the corporate world. The governments in the United Arab Emirates have established authorities which have oversight duties of monitoring all forms of policy breaches and proposing appellate solutions to problems in its economy (Seznec 98). These authorities have been protecting foreign workers from any form of mistreatment.
In monitoring and enforcing policies and ethical regulations in UAE, governments have committees and special officers who enforce ethical standards and embody a sense of national trusteeship in the industrial society. They have a duty of receiving and analyzing all complaints from the members of the public in order to be able to assist them accordingly.
The international community stipulates that governments should work directly in the business world in order to make it possible for it to smoothly monitor the enforcement of employment ethical policies and regulations (Kay 137). A government is supposed to be the demonstrator of the standard code of ethics that should be upheld in all industries.
The government therefore should take all initial actions of protecting all employees from the policies and terms set by their employers. In order to enforce order and morality at work places, governments should influence enterprises without allowing them to influence them backwards.
Abdalla identified the fact that some large organizations manage to manipulate the functioning of government (877). This happens in cases where there are biased civil officials who seek their own financial gains at the expense of the nation. Some offices give licenses which benefit some organizations over others. It is a government duty to identify and get rid of such flawed ways of doing work.
In pointing out distinguishing and common characteristics and practices, it was found out that in Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), there are several attributes and practices that make the big brand which has been achieved by the Abu Dhabi Oil Company. The company has undivided focus on being a leading service and goods provider in the oil and gas industry. This company has an aim of stimulating economic growth.
This is being pursued through the pioneering of educational and research instructions in different parts of the region it operates. The company has established numerous institutions across the United Arab Emirates (Hudson 368). The company is also known for a culture of doing operations in a standard order which outsmarts other competing companies. They use a management style which has reengineered hard work across all subsidiary companies in the Middle East (Bednar and Lynn 59).
In Gulf Oil International (GOI), Maloney (129) elaborates that Gulf oil international has fostered success and exemplary stability in the global oil and gas industry due to several factors. He points out that the culture of displaying international business agility by the organization has a great influence of the excellence and success it has so far recorded (Maloney 129).
The organization is well endorsed with the top and famous engineers and professors of the industrial exploration, harvesting, production of oil, gas and other petroleum products. On top of all these, Gulf oil international has portrayed efficient use of modern information technology in all the nations they inhabit. The company has bought Maloney’s (129) idea that information is the key to commercial success in today’s digital age.
These two companies have several common characteristics and practices
In adherence to the international labor laws, both the Gulf Oil International and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company have put in place policies to cater for the welfare of their employees. Studies prove that international employers in UAE have become more sensitive to the demands of their migrant workers (Maloney 129).
The two companies have periodical revisions and reviews of their employee’s salaries. They cater for the primary employment needs of each and every individual foreign worker (Maloney 129). The Gulf Oil International has constructed special residential places for its employees while Abu Dhabi on the other hand has agents which arrange for the accommodation of its workers. Both Gulf Oil International Company and the Abu Dhabi National Oil company have prioritized the wellbeing of all employees they work with.
They have a chief goal of keeping their workforce mentally, physically and psychologically fit in order to obtain optimum services from them. These multinationals have intentionally set forums for workers to bring out their compliments, complaints and recommendations. An open and healthy relationship between employer and employee is the fuel needed for the efficiency and profitability of a company to be profitable (Mohammed and Ingo 364).
These oil and gas companies have a lot of foreign workers. They have developed a culture of executing random investigations and evaluations to gauge the state of how different offices treat all employees. All the claims of exploitation and discrimination are abruptly done away with through professional resolution of all misunderstandings at the work place.
In conclusion, this theoretical research study brings out a clear picture on how GOI and ADNOC operate as multi nationals in the oil and gas industry. It is quite evident that these two companies have done relatively well as far as immigrant employee treatment is concerned. They have incorporated the governments’ specified standards of industrial employment relations. This has been a key factor for the success they have attained.
Works Cited
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