Shell Oil Company’s Organizational Culture Research Paper

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the nature of managing cultural diversity. A number of research papers have over and over talked about the effects of cultural diversity through its economic, political, financial and social market effects like Allison, 2001, Arthur, 2000 and Box-Steffensmeier, 2004. Thus the fundamental aims of the paper would be the nature of cultural diversity in Shell, the nature of active HRM in Shell and how Shell Oil manages their culture strategically in different geographical areas.

We would perform literature reviews and methodology studies with the purpose of evaluating strategies from these mentioned parameters so as to compare them with each other. However, this evaluation of the above strategies will differ according to their theme, size and audience.

For example, different variables would be age, gender, colour, culture and management levels. We would also use various questionnaires for analyzing the strategies and to understand their accomplishments and failures by gathering important data from the participants and it would be mainly done through qualitative method. Interviews and online questionnaires will be used in all locations, SPSS software to analyse results. The basic hypothesis indicates that Shell oil uses well formulated strategic human resource approach to negate cultural differences among employees.

Background

In the modern world both national culture and organizational culture is very important for both society and an individual. (Ackoff 2004) This brings about the importance of management and social environment. Such a circumstance provides different social system modes that are basically dependent on our dynamically developing and constantly changing society. Social evolutions can be negotiated for devising systems which could assist researchers in monitoring important areas. Organizational culture can be viewed as an unusual phenomenon since it does not comply with familiar dimensions, allows connections among national cultures and is more manageable. (Rubington 2001)

Organizational culture, significantly, determines the interpretations and actions of the people when provided with information that is supplied by the means of controls process. (Box-Steffensmeier 2004) Since, culture can decide the success and failure of a corporation, poor organizational culture, which fosters dissatisfactory and laughable behaviour, could cause bad judgments.

Shell Oil is an internationally recognized organization has an adopted HRM. A properly managed workforce is thus, greatly recognized by even globalization as there are interventions of different cultures and the function of human resource management has evolved from being merely a support to that of strategic significance. (Mason 2004) In accordance to Rubington (2001) we can characterize organizations as a cultural phenomenon, its influence could emphasize on the ways through which opposition can be suppressed by cultural assumptions and ideologies and management propagandas can be reproduced.

It is incorrect if one believed that the involvement of the stakeholders are reflected through the cultural engineering of an organization or that only a particular culture is present in every organization. (Beardwell and Claydon 2007) Rubington (2001) suggests that complex organizations may have multiple cultures (as in globalisation) and that they have familiar features (having a homogeneous working policy), thus basically contradicting each other, is completely logical. What is important is that an organization’s culture which includes its artefacts, values and norms should not be viewed as management planning. (Ackoff 2004)This questions the fact as to whether an organization can properly train its employees so that they can fulfil the requirements of a multicultural corporation. (Rigby & Porges 2005)

As a result, key issues of the dissertation would be:

• The nature of cultural diversity in Shell
• The nature of active HRM in Shell
• How Shell Oil manage their culture strategically in different geographical areas.

Research Aim and Objectives

The aim of this research is to explore the effectiveness of a management system within a culturally diverse workforce environment within the parameters of How Shell Oil manage their culture strategically in different geographical areas. To conduct this research the following objectives are defined:

1. The changing nature of people management
2. Key aspects of SHRM
3. Generating and evaluating SHRM options
4. The future of people management strategy

Literature Review

Various researches and studies that have been carried out on national culture and organizational culture with respect to the area of Shell Oil and its various uses are almost infinite and also distinct in their methodology and subject. Some are purely quantitative (Box-Steffensmeier 2004) while others are quantitative (Kagle 2001). There are also studies that followed a mixed method (Riddell 2006).

Among the various individual studies that have been found, only a few cover a span of more than a decade. The majority of the studies which stress on the addition of technological and theoretical developments actually concentrate on the entire sections through social levels. (Armstrong 2006) The following mainly focuses on the fact that there are not many papers which discusses their national culture and organizational culture.

The main concept behind the various events of the market structures is in becoming the major supplier for required materials. Also among the missions is to be completely responsible for utilizing best possible events in order to satisfy the most demanding area. (Yamaguchi 2003) Analysis of the success or failure of national culture and organizational culture results in the fact that these strategies make it the most evolved sector in all developed and social parameters. (Mortimer 2006) Also it has been seen that the organizers want to assume leadership in the realms of support and installation of various unified events by offering complete production satisfaction. These firm principles provide the base for the notion of business followed by these organizers. (Habisch 2004)

The most efficient manner for understanding and discussing the researchers that have been conducted on the social environment by including the technologies and theories would be by considering the fact that we need to first break down the entire process into controllable sections, and then further sub-divide them inside the related research. These sections contain individual divisions among the manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers by the means of organizational operations.

The time period of most of the researches is mainly focused between the years 2000 and the present time since it is more than probable that the various developments in our society and technology have been such that it has broken all the limits by being both available and affordable. This is the norm with almost all of the industries in the country and thus, it is quite evident that this will also be relevant for the whole industrial section, thus, directly linking the specified administrative industry. The research papers that have been focused on this writing refer to the period between 2000 to 2006 and hardly any literature would be beyond this frame.

The study also further focuses on the capability of developing a better analysis of national culture and corporate culture, concentrating on their strategies leading to their success and failure and for raising their marketing and production strategies through various settings that are both general and sometimes specific to the industry which falls under management administration. (Hedstrom 2003) Among the most identifiable differences in these research papers which refer to the time period near the beginning of this century would be the inclusion of the accessibility and speed of the entire evolution of system, including the characteristics of Internet itself.

Management needs to understand these different elements since they are to a greater extent being increasingly integrated with the everyday life of the employees and thus, should also be incorporated with the marking and administrative events and processes in order to maintain an up-to-date knowledge regarding related information of not only the employees but also the administration. (Ackoff 2004)

Methodology

Rationale

Among the major ways through which we can define organisation culture is through its differences from the alleged pure sciences which are biology, chemistry, physics, etc. This distinction is that which closely relates its theoretical use and also methodology. Nowadays it has become very obvious and even certain educators in the field of marketing often emphasize on the fact that the field of marketing sciences no longer has any certainty.

Due to this transient nature of marketing, which the marketing scientists have to consider, they need to utilize both the qualitative and quantitative methods for studying marketing. Thus, both these mentioned methods would be utilized while studying national culture and organizational culture and analyzing the success or failure of the applied strategies. (Kotler 1999)

Quantitative methods, which are used when studying pure sciences, are different from the qualitative methods since the later have a tendency of being much more subjective in nature, while the former is completely objective.

This is a pure contrast, but the research methods utilized in marketing employ a combination of these two methods. Since qualitative methods are also used wqhile studying marketing researches, social scientists get the opportunity of integrating non-quantitative data, like impressions, images, words and gestures, with their studies. As humans have a tendency to function according to non-quantitative data, and not simply through the use of their terminology in everyday sciences, it broadens the overall viewpoint as applied to studying and researching of social sciences.

The various methodologies that are applied in the study of marketing are used to devise theories that are used while adhering to the fact that these theories would not be relevant for all conditions. It is quite obvious that human events related to economics, history, psychology and political science will most probably influence the various rules and regulations that help in defining the fundamental theories of marketing. The only way to achieve victory in the realm of marketing research is to understand the fact that this subject has no place for and cannot be understood using impermeable theories, analysis and methodologies.

Qualitative research is almost always stated as a process which considers interpretative standards along with the various actions of theoretical assumptions. This definition can be based on its sustainable nature which highly depends on the experience of an individual with respect to communication. We can also consider the fact that the entire definition considers the fact that social formulations are responsible for the creation of reality.

Further, it is also important to declare that qualitative research basically targets the social context so that we are able to describe interpret and even decode the fundamental importance of such a phenomenon. Such a process is completely functional within the constraints of the interpretative standards which lessen its illusions by sharing subjectivity through conforming to the intricacy, genuineness and contextualization of such a study.

Qualitative measures have numerous fundamental advantages. Among the most important is that it can present us a totally natural view which neither numerical data nor statistical analysis, which are used in quantitative methods based researches, can provide. Further, qualitative measures have the advantage of being much more flexible with respect to interpretations of gathered information, collection of data and successive analysis. Qualitative measures also give us a holistic opinion regarding the investigation of the information. Last, but not least, this method of research also enables us to be at ease thus, making the research more accurate since it is conducted according to the individual terms of the researcher.

Design and proposed analysis

For a statistical method to fulfil its requirements it should properly interview the entire study at a particular location that is properly selected. The entire process should be closely observed to see to it that the specific variables are contained by the testable subjects. The existence of these variables is particularly important as they help in the evaluation of the fundamental data during the later stages of the investigation. Here adjustments may be made based on observations to the calculated data. These fundamental variables should be taken into account since they are extremely important and pertains to an individual’s religious values, ethnicity and positive support (Ackoff 2004).

The variables mentioned above should be considered as important and also significant qualities of the mentioned statistical method and should be basically suitable to the realistic world. Organizational culture and national culture complexes are such services which are significant manifestations or our social world and are, thus, worth mentioning. Due to this, if these investigations are conducted properly and in an orderly fashion by involving all of the subjects in the calculation, then there is no doubt that the end results will be both correct and rational. (Arthur 2000)

Ethical issues and how they will be addressed

Ethical aspects of the study are a significant feature of the study. The primary concern this kind of a study is the impact of racism. However the degree of impacts on the society and severity of the issues are important considerations of the study. The study looks at the administrations initiatives while dealing with refuges as to some extent it impacts the administrations attitude towards different cultures. In order to ensure that issues like these do not impact the outcome of the study the study must be carried out in a neutral environment with even representations of mixed culture in the research team. Thus, during the study an open mind and free approach without any personal cultural vice is necessary. (Box-Steffensmeier 2004)

Ethical consideration should be put into consideration and implemented always. In instances where officials are to be deployed to work in the community, they should not misuse the power and authority bestowed on them. This is because some officers by virtue of being in possession of power and authority; they can continue acting in a coercive manner towards the community. This may damage the public order, which in the first place they were supposed to maintain. Officials should not take positions and start protecting their employees even when they are on the wrong since this can lead to bad perception of the officials by the rest of the employees. (Rubington 2002)

Expected outcomes

Expected outcome of this research is to show that culture plays a pivotal role with Shell Oil and explore how they can overcome these differences and make them work for their own benefit. The purpose of the Human Resources Management or HRM is to handle numerous activities among which the most important ones include

1. Deciding on using autonomous contractors
2. Taking decisions for fulfilling staffing requirements
3. Appointment and guidance of the most outstanding employees and slowly improving their performance
4. Appointing service employees to meet various needs
5. Managing problems pertaining to performance
6. Assuring that the different administrational and HRM practices follow the various organizational laws

Actions also take account of supervising the steps taken towards employee benefits and reimbursements, employee accounts and personnel guiding principles. But everything should be done with compassion and understanding the basic psyche of the employee. (Mortimer 2006)

Thus it is obvious from the research that for a better working environment and healthy relation with other personnel the managerial levels of the HR management groups must take extra note to ease the conditions for the worker by using a better and more efficient well formulated HR policy. In this study it has been established that organizational culture and national culture sometimes collide and it becomes difficult to become aligned with the mainstream. Thus HR department must always study these types of problems of the employees and act immediately if help is needed. This only way that production of a company can be enhanced from the parameters of the HR department. (Allison 2001)

The fundamental tests selected can be used for stating that its probable outcome may be comparatively logical by keeping in mind that eventually Shell organization will adopt the courses of the social facilitation theory and consequently prepare a profitable organizational strategy which will be beneficial for the mentioned strategies of organizational culture since this would conform to the statistical method as well. But, since the statistical method could not explain some of the independent variables of the test, we would be left with them. Due to this the ethnic background and ethical concern of the employees become an important factor creating certain flaws.

However, these deficiencies can be managed while producing the final computations which would make the entire test appear to be perfect and it would be capable of proving and defining the statistical methods and financial expressions utilized.

However, in accordance to the basic computation it appears that Shell employs regular updates of employees and follows a benchmarking that is applicable to all employees of culture, race, religion, gender, colour or creed. (Habisch 2004)

Timetable

The total dissertation procedure would take 11 weeks. Literature Review would take three weeks, it would be followed by Conduct Interviews/Collect data, and it would take two weeks. Transcribe of Interviews would take another two weeks followed by Analyse Data would take one week. The Draft Final Report would be in one week and Feedback in another one week followed by Submitting Final Report. There would be an additional week to counter any unforeseen circumstances that may suspend the work.

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