Understanding the Culture of Soloni Oil Gas Company

Pacanowsky and O'Donnell-Trujillo argue that organizational cultures differ due to the varying interactions among members, making generalization about life in organizations nearly impossible. The report focuses on Soloni Oil Gas Company's organizational culture, characterized as individualistic and macho, which emphasizes workforce safety behavior and personal interests. This cultural influence affects communication and employee identification within the organization.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................1
1) The driving and restraining forces for change in Soloni Oil........................................1
2) Kotter’s eight steps to transforming organizations could have been used by leaders to
manage the transition to virtual teams..............................................................................2
3) Explain resistance to change and the reasons why the Nigerian Team are resisting
change...............................................................................................................................4
4) Nigerian Team’s resistance to change be viewed as ethical.........................................5
5) Explanation of the term “Individualistic and Macho”..................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Soloni oil is a gas and oil Exploration company headquartered in London, UK. This
company wants to expand its business in Nigeria. This company’s aim is to minimise the
effects of all its operations and reduce the emissions developed from carbon dioxide (CO 2).
Therefore, in order to expand its business Soloni Oil has to restructure its operation by
developing virtual teams. This change is going to prove beneficial for small team which are
present at Nigeria, who needs to have regular visits from UK. But, this change has created
difficulty for Ben Smith and Tim Fennell. The reason behind this is that senior staff is not
attaining the virtual meeting conducted by the company.
TASK 1
1) The driving and restraining forces for change in Soloni Oil.
Soloni Oil is one of the growing oil companies who want to expand its business to
other countries in lieu of which certain changes have taken place. Some of the change proves
to be driving forces and rest proves to be restraining change.
Driving forces of the change are the factors which prove to be beneficial for the company
in order to increase its productivity (Bhatnagar, 2010). In simple words, it can be said that
driving factors are those factors which increases productivity of the company. Similarly,
restraining forces of change are those factors which creates problem in the company. In
simple words, it can be said that, restraining factors are those which decreases the level of
company's productivity. Therefore, according to this case study some of the driving forces of
changes in Soloni Oil are as follows:-
Reduce the cost of travelling: - UK Company has been restructured in order to reduce its
size. After the reduction of UK firm, UK and Nigeria firm have become the sole team i.e.
they are now the smallest and least productive teams. Due to the reduce size of both the firm,
company can now easily organise virtual meetings between both the firms.
Increases the value of its shareholders: - At the time of expansion of two firms in North-
West Territories of Canada and Saudi Arabia, Company aim to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions(Burnes, 2003). This proves to be one of the driving forces for the company.
 According to Swot analysis changes developed by the Soloni Oil are beneficial for the
small teams present in Nigeria. These changes are effective, efficient and help in
profit maximization.
Similarly some of the factors which prove to be restraining forces of change are:-

 Soloni Oil aims at restructuring its UK business into small and less profit generating
firm in order to conduct virtual meeting easily. But, at the time of organising the
virtual meetings many problems were faced by the company especially to Ben Smith
and Tim Fennell. Many staff members did not arrived at the meeting on time
(Cameron and Green, 2015).
PESTLE
Factors Affects
Political
Political factors are those factors which influences the working of the
company due to the imposition of government policies and norms. Thus, this
factor can affect the company while expanding its business to Nigeria.
Economic
Economic factors are the factors which affects the investment decision of the
company. Therefore, it is analysed that economic condition of the Soloni oil
is good. Large amount of capital is present.
Social
Social factors include the various aspects related to culture. It includes health
consciousness, population growth rate and emphasis on safety. Thus, Soloni
oil should make efforts to expand its business considering the health and
safety of customers.
Technologica
l
Soloni oil company should use latest technology by undertaking the research
and development activities which in turn will aid the company to easily
expand its business and reduce the emission of carbon dioxide.
Legal
Legal factors include the various law related to culture, discrimination,
health and safety and so on which Soloni oil should consider will performing
its various operations.
Environment
Soloni oil company is an oil manufacture company. Therefore, it should
make the continuous efforts to reduce the emission of the carbon dioxide in
order to save the environment from the pollution.
2) Kotter’s eight steps to transforming organizations could have been used by leaders to
manage the transition to virtual teams.
Kotter's eight steps model help the company to transform all its operations. Therefore,
Kotter's eight step change model with reference to leadership skills is as follows:-

1. Create urgency: - In this step Silicon Oil company should try to aid the people to
identify the need for the change and the importance of the change (Campbell, 2014.).
Therefore, Silicon Oil Company should try to inspire all its staff members to
understand the need for change. Company is required to make efforts to tell its staff
members about the importance of the change that is taking place in order to expand its
business to the Nigeria (Campbell, 2014). Hence, this in turn will motivate senior staff
members to attain the virtual meeting which senior staff members are not attaining on
time in lieu of which junior staff members are not to achieve the meeting objectives.
2. From a powerful coalition: - In this step, company should try to encourage the
individual employees to work together as a team. They should make an effort to
allocate the members into a group according to their skills. Therefore, Silicon Oil
Company should make efforts to place a person in team according to its skills. This in
turn will motivate the senior staff members to attain the virtual meetings on time in
order to achieve the desired target of the company. They should also attempt to
encourage the staff to work in a team.
3. Create a vision for change: - In this step, company should try to develop strategies in
order to achieve its vision for change In order to achieve the vision Silicon Oil is
required to develop the vision by taking into consideration the decisions and ideas of
various team members (Ford and D'Amelio, 2008). Therefore, company should
create the future picture and then compare it with past. And at the same time will aid
the company to understand how to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide from its
operations.
4. Communicate the vision: - In this step company need to communicate the new vision
and various strategies to all its members and staffs. Therefore, in order to achieve the
vision of the company (i.e. to reduce the emission evolved out of carbon dioxide)
Soloni Oil should communicate the essentials and benefits of the change to its
members (Pahl-Wostl, 2007). This will aid the company to establish the health
relation between various team members which in turn will force the senior staff
members to attend the virtual meeting on time.
5. Remove obstacles:-In this step company Soloni Oil need to identify those factors
which restrict the senior staff to attend the meeting on time. Therefore, after
identifying these factors company should try to remove the obstacles and motivate the
both senior and junior level staffs to attain the meeting on time in order to achieve the
organization objective.

6. Create short-term wins:-In this step company should set those objectives first which
are easily to achieve. Therefore, in order to achieve the constancy in the organization
and expand its business unit in Nigeria Soloni Oil should finish its current stages first
and then should move on to another stage according to its importance.
7. Build on the change: - In this step company should try to foster and encourage the
members in order to work properly and achieve the set goals and targets of the
company (Al-Haddad and Kotnour, 2015). It should make efforts to introduce new
and better change which in turn will help the company to expand its business properly
without any difficulties.
8. Anchor the changes in corporate culture: - At last company should make continuous
efforts to ensure that the changes are properly taking place in the organisation. At the
same time company should also check that company is able to expand its business
unit by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide or not. Therefore, it is also important
to note that these changes are expected by the existing and new staff members and
leaders in order to achieve the desired vision and objective.
3) Explain resistance to change and the reasons why the Nigerian Team are resisting change.
Resistance to change is the action taken by the individual and group of individual in order
to resist change when large magnitude of force is applied. Resistance to change take place in
two forms i.e. Individual resistance and systemic resistance (Sharma, 2006). This type of
change is usually found in within the business organisation. Resistance to change can be of
many types like active or passive, aggressive or timid, overt or covert, individual or
organised. There are various reasons why the Nigerian Team are resisting changing. Some of
them are listed below:- Misunderstanding about the need for change: The reason behind the resistance to
change could be that employers are not able to understand the changes that are taking
place within the organisation. Therefore, Soloni Oil should take the necessary
measures to tell employees about the need and importance of change. Low trust: Another reason behind this change could be low trust among the individual
members. The condition of low trust can arrive due to any past experience. Therefore,
Soloni should make efforts to build up the trust of the employees in order to easily
achieve the motive of change (Klarner, Probst and Soparnot, 2005). Poor communication: Another reason could be poor communication between top and
middle level management. At the time of change proper communication need to be

there between the managers and employees. Proper communication will help the
manager to tell the reason behind the change to its employers. Thus, Soloni Oil should
try to develop a health communication between the members of the organisation
which in turn assist to remove the fault behaviour of the senior staff towards the
virtual meeting. Fear of change: Fear of change could be one of the reasons for resistance to change.
Members of the Nigeria teams may have a fear about the change that is taking place in
the organisation (Soparnot, 2011). They may set their mind in such a way that
whatever change will take place will create problem for them.
 Loss of job security/control: This type of resistance arises when company announces
the restructuring or downsizing. This type of announcement can create fear in the
mind of the individual employees. Therefore, Soloni oil should take necessary steps in
order to provide guarantee to the employees that this changes will not going to affect
their job.
Therefore, these could be some of the reasons why Nigerian team is facing problem of
resistance to change.
4) Nigerian Team’s resistance to change be viewed as ethical
Ethical theories are the theories which suggest that action taken by the company are right
or wrong. These theories help to find out whether the decision taken by the organisation for
the change in the organisation is justified or not. Therefore, in order to justify the above
reason we have taken into consideration Deontological theory into consideration.
Deontological theory is the theory which states that individual should match its duties and
obligations with that of organisation needs (Steffens, Martinsuo and Artto, 2007). Therefore,
taking into consideration the Deontological theory we have tries to justify the above reasons
from the point of view of employers, whether they are justified or not. Misunderstanding about the need for change: - Considering the Deontological
theory it could be identified that this reason is not ethical from staff point of view. If
Nigeria team members are facing any problem relating to change they should talk to
higher authorities first before taking any wrong decisions. Low trust: According to the theory it is the duty of higher authority to create trust in
the mind of the individual person related to change. This approach should be made by
authority before implementing the change in the organisation. This in turn will assist

the company to gain the trust of senior and junior level staff members. Therefore,
creating the trust among the Nigerian team members will aid the company to easily
expand its business and achieve the set target. Poor communication: According to the Deontological theory it is the duty of higher
authority to communicate all the information related to the change the staff and
members of the organisation. Therefore, Ben and other members of the organisations
should communicate all the necessary information related to the change to the
Nigeria team members in advance. This in turn will aid the Nigerian team members
to easily adjust with the team members after knowing the objective of the expansion.
 Loss of job security/control: - According to this theory fear of the employees
towards change is justified. Every individual will have the fear to lose its job after
listing about the restructuring. Therefore, Ben and other higher authorities member
should attempt to take necessary steps in order to provide job securities to every
employee. This in turn will aid the Nigerian team members to work confidently
without the fair of loss of their job.
5) Explanation of the term “Individualistic and Macho”
Organizational culture Theory: Organizational Culture Theory is one of the most
theoretical encouraging theories. The appeal of the theory is burned by its critical analysis.
Firstly, Eric Eisenberg and H. L. Goodall (1993) observe that Organizational Culture Theory
depends heavily on the shared meaning among the various members available in the
organisational. Secondly, Organizational Culture Theory undergoes problems from
inflatable boundaries.
For instance, cultural performances represent a critical part of an organization's
culture which represent that organizational life is too unique. Pacanowsky and O'Donnell-
Trujillo argue that organizational cultures differ because the interaction among the members
differs in lieu of different culture. Therefore, generalizing about life in organizations is nearly
impossible.
Organizational culture: It is concerned with the values and behaviours that contribute to
the social and psychological environment of the organization. It includes the organization
vision, values, norms, assumptions and beliefs that help in achieving the business goals and
objectives (Todnem By, 2005). It tends to vary from one organization to another and very
much depend on the leadership and members.

Organizational culture of Soloni oil gas company: A prime assumption of oil gas company
is prevails around the workforce safety behaviour. The organizational culture of Soloni oil
Gas Company is termed as Individualistic and macho. It is masculine and mail dominated
culture that describes that workers will take more risks. Moreover, they are the rule breakers
also keeping in view the business objectives. For making such culture, proper training and
development programme are organized by the Soloni oil gas company (Barnard and Stoll,
2010). This in turn, the workforce is willing to take more risks so as to achieve set business
targets. In addition to it, the individualistic describes the personal interest of the employees
inside the organization. It can be seen in capitalist economy market such as oil Gas Company.
Moreover, it is related to the development of the workforce. In every company, workers
wanted personal freedom so as to develop themselves and increase their efficiency.
Therefore, it is clear that culture influence the workers to a great extent. Moreover, it affects
the way in which the workers communicate with each other and that how employees identify
within an organization.
CONCLUSION
This report emphasises on various factors which Soloni Oil Company has taken into
consideration at the time of expansion of its business unit in two different geographical areas.
In this report, various driving and restraining forces for change which take place due to
expansion and restructuring of the Soloni oil company are also discussed. In this report,
Kotter's eight step of change are also taken into consideration in order to apply it to virtual
teams (Creasey, 2007). It is also concluded that how resistance to change affects the working
of the organisation. In this report Deontological theory is also taken into consideration in
order to find out whether the change that take place are ethical from Nigerian team point of
view or not. Therefore, at last it is concluded that how these organisational culture has
affected the virtual teams.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Campbell, H., 2014. Managing Organizational Change: A Practical Toolkit for Leaders.
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Online
Barnard, M. and Stoll, N., 2010. Centre for Understanding Behaviour Change. [Pdf].
Available through:
<http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/cubec/migrated/documents/pr1.pdf>.
[Accessed on 18th November 2015].
Creasey, T., 2007. Defining Change Management. [Pdf]. Available through:
<http://www.change-management.com/Prosci-Defining-Change-Management.pdf>.
[Accessed on 18th November 2015].
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