organizational restructuring of Royal Dutch Shell PDF

Running head: MBA ASSIGNMENT
MBA Assignment
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1MBA ASSIGNMENT
Executive Summary:
The report aims at providing an insight into the organizational restructuring of Royal Dutch Shell
also known as the Shell. The report commences by providing an evaluation of the organizational
structure at shell, the approaches to the leadership and the dominant organizational behavior
theory at Shell. The report then goes on to critically analyze and evaluate the change within the
organization along with an explanation of the HR strategies that supported such transition. There
is also a discussion about 12 month personal development plan along with an explanation of how
the personal development objective influences employability within the workplace and the wider
society. The report also puts forward a critical awareness of the preferred method of learning
and the contribution it has in interacting with the others.

2MBA ASSIGNMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
1.a. Evaluation of Organizational Structure, Approaches to Leadership and the Dominant
Organizational Behavior Theory in Shell........................................................................................4
Organizational Structure at Shell.................................................................................................4
Approaches to Leadership at Shell...............................................................................................8
Organizational Behavior Theory at Shell...................................................................................10
1. b. Critical Analysis and Evaluation of Change within Organization and Explanation of How
HR Strategies Support such Transition..........................................................................................11
Change within Organization......................................................................................................11
HR Strategies that Support the Transition Process ........................................................14
2. a. Personal Development Plan Based on 12-month’s Development.......................................16
2. b. Explanation of how the Personal Development Objectives Influences Employability Within
Workplace and Wider Society.......................................................................................................23
3. Demonstration of Critical Awareness of Preferred Method of Learning and its Contribution in
Interacting with Others..................................................................................................................24
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................26
References:....................................................................................................................................27

3MBA ASSIGNMENT
Introduction:
The aim of the report is to provide an insight into the organizational restructuring of
Royal Dutch Shell commonly known as Shell (shell.com 2018). It is a British Dutch gas and Oil
Company incorporated in United Kingdom and headquartered in Netherlands. The Shell Group
is one of the unique oil major across the world found in the year 1907 through merging the
operations and assets of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company based in Netherlands and the Shell
Transport and Trading Company based in Britain (shell.com 2018). In fact, it one of the oldest
and the biggest joint ventures across the world. The company however underwent a restructuring
that involved shifting from the geographically based structure to a structure based on business
sector that included elimination of close to 1000 corporate positions, sale of London
headquarters and redesigning of the system of control and coordination. The restructuring of the
company is precipitated through realization that it required to bring about a change in the way it
contributed to business while retaining the position of the largest energy and the chemical
company across the world thereby ensuring a substantial return to the shareholders within the
turbulent environment of the industry. The restructuring not only increased the control and
coordination but it helped the organization in controlling cost, focusing on the capital
expenditure and pruning the portfolio of the business. The restructuring also marked the highest
Return on Equity (ROE) and the Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) in a span of ten years
(Bahree 1998). It also resulted in recovery of the prices of oil during a year thereby resulting in
recovery of the prices of oil across the year. The company also has a complex organizational
structure that the Shell refers as governance responsibilities. Besides, the daily management
activities of the Shell Group referred as the executive responsibilities of the group is complicated
and the structure of management of the group does not correspond to formal structure. The report

4MBA ASSIGNMENT
commences with the evaluation and analysis of organizational structure, approaches to the
leadership and the dominant organizational behavior theory within organization. There report
also puts forward a critical analysis and evaluation of Shell in terms of the changes within
organization along with a mention of how the HR strategies support such transition. The report
also helps in creating a personal development plan based on a 12-month development period
through explaining how the personal development objectives influence the employability in the
workplace and the wider society. The report even demonstrates a critical awareness based on the
preferred way of learning and the interaction with the others.
1. a. Evaluation of Organizational Structure, Approaches to Leadership and the Dominant
Organizational Behavior Theory in Shell
Organizational Structure at Shell
The uniqueness of Shell depends not only on the structure of the joint venture but also the
internationality (shell.com 2016). In fact, it is described as one of the most renowned
international organization after United Nations and Roman Catholic Church. Shell group of
Petrochemicals and Energy companies works with close to ninety thousand employees in close
to over 90 territories and countries. Shell represents one of the largest companies of the world
thereby holding the sixth ranking in the listings of top 2000 public corporations put forward by
Forbes Global. The strategy followed by Shell reinforces its position as leader in oil and gas
industry thereby providing competitive shareholder return that helps in meeting the demand of
global energy in responsible manner. The company primarily conducts its business from United
States and explores crude oil and the gas products either through joint ventures or independently
or through the subsidiaries of the parent organization (shell.com 2018). The internal

5MBA ASSIGNMENT
organizational structure of Shell is naturally tall that remains further divided based on the
geographical reasons, goods, services and functions. It is also a very centralized or formalized
organization that follows the hierarchical structure of plans with the most important being
mission to the other factors in sequence. In other words, Shell has a complex structure and wide
network outlet that allows it in functioning best under matrix structure (shell.com 2018). This
implied that the employees remained grouped based on the product and function simultaneously.
The Formal Structure:
From the legal perspective and the ownership, the Royal Dutch Shell or the Shell Group of
Companies includes four categories of companies. This includes(Mullins 2010):
1. Parent Companies: The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of Netherlands and Shell
Transport and Trading Company Plc of United Kingdom had an ownership over the shares of
group holding companies that enabled them in receiving dividends in proportions of sixty
percent and forty percent (shell.com 2018). Here each of the company had the shares listed
separately in stock exchange of US and Europe, each with different Board of Directors.
2. Group Holding Companies: Shell Petroleum of Netherlands and The Shell Petroleum
Company Ltd of United Kingdom had shares in service companies as well as operating
companies of group (Whiteside 1994). Besides, Shell Petroleum Netherlands owned shares of the
Shell Petroleum US that represents the parent of the operating firm in US, Shell Oil Company.
3. Service Companies: During the beginning of 1990s, there have been nine service
companies located either in Hague or in London (shell.us 2018). These included Shell
International Petroleum Company Limited, Shell Internationale Chemie Maatschappij B.V, Shell
Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij B.V., Shell International Chemical Company Limited,