ADNOC Strategic Management and Leadership

This assignment delves into the strategic management practices of ADNOC, a leading oil and gas company in the UAE. It examines the company's leadership structure, visionary goals, and strategies to achieve them. The analysis considers ADNOC's alignment with the UAE's national objectives while highlighting potential challenges and opportunities for future growth.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION
Management and Operation: ADNOC
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note
Executive Summary

1MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION
The organization that has been chosen to do this report is ADNOC, as one of the leading
Oil and Natural Gas Company, the management and leadership styles in this organization is an
important insight on the theories. The company is responsible for the development and growth
of the economy of Abu Dhabi as well. The company has a good reputation both with internal
and external stakeholders. This report contains a detailed description about the company and
the objective along with the philosophy and vision that the company follows. This will provide the
reader a brief idea about the way the company operates. This section is followed by defining
and differentiating in between the roles of a leader and manager in an organization. This section
has all the examples and reference form the selected company backed up by concepts and
theories. This is followed by explanations of the Chaos theory and the theory of Management by
Objective and how is it is applied in the organization. The conclusion has an explanation of the
leadership skills portrayed by the leaders related to the organization as well as future
recommendations.

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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
About the company....................................................................................................................3
Vision of the company............................................................................................................3
Aims and objectives of the company......................................................................................3
Management structure...............................................................................................................4
Leader and Manager..................................................................................................................4
Difference between a leader and a manager.............................................................................5
Chaos theory..............................................................................................................................6
Management by objectives........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................7
Reference list:................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
About the company
Operating for the past 45 years, ADNOC also known as Abu Dhabi National Company is
one of world’s leading energy producing companies in the world. Founded in 1971, the company
is responsible for the generation of maximum percentage of oil and gas in the UAE, the
organization has over the years been responsible for the employment and boosting the
economic growth of the country. The production capacity that has been stated by the company
is 3 million barrels per day. The organization is in control of 95% of the oil reserves that are
present in UAE as well as 92% of the gas reserve. ADNOC is also playing a key role in the
development of a varied knowledge-based economy, as well as putting Abu Dhabi’s in the
global arena. The company is focused on the three pillars of modern day management of
business that is the price, planet and people. Innovation in term of technology to meet the
requirements of the dynamics in the oil and gas industry as well as new and better means to
improve the internal management of the organization is the route taken to grow in the business
(adnoc.ae 2017).
Vision of the company
To have a positive impact on the future generations as well as the economy of Abu Dhabi
Aims and objectives of the company
The company follows the contemporary triple bottom line approach of business model
that gives equal priority to the Price, people and the planet. The company realizes the
responsibility it has towards the society and environment and acts accordingly. The company is
the 12th largest producer of oil in the world. The objectives of the company are:
 To expand maximize the value of the assets that the company already owns in
the oil and natural gas industry
 To have a positive impact on the economy of Abu Dhabi
 To maintain a sustainable growth in the industry
 To be a reliable global energy supplier for the long-term benefit of Abu Dhabi and
the customers (thenational.ae, 2017)

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Management structure
The Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council was founded in the year 1988. This body
was set up as an authority to guide and set rules regarding the policies that are related to the oil
and gas industries in Abu Dhabi. The activities that are undertaken in this industry are all
regulated by this council. The board of directors of ADNOC is the part of this council and is
responsible to formulate business as well as financial strategies of the company as well as the
industry in Abu Dhabi.
The council is headed by the president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu
Dhabi Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This group also consists of several other important
personalities, who with their visionary nature and modern perspective of business lead the
company towards the objectives. The higher management of ADNOC includes a group of
prominent personalities who are responsible for operations and the business development of
the company. Any decisions or any policies that is formulated on the behalf of the company are
made by the people who are in the executive management. This policy has to be back up and
supported by the Supreme Petroleum Council (adnoc.ae, 2017).
Leader and Manager
The definition of a leader can be referred to as an individual who inspires and
encourages a committee or council of people so that a common purpose or objective can be
achieved in a way that exhibits optimum performance and productivity.
The leader of a group is mostly a person who is selected by the group, this person
guides and regulates policies and takes decisions on behalf of the council. This person has a
certain degree of control over the people so that the members are able to conduct the assigned
task in a way that is high quality and highly efficient. The factions of a leader are to inspire,
regulate, synthesize and review the objective and direct a route for the subordinates to follow.
Integrity and honor are the two values that are mostly related to leadership. The position of a
leader commands respect and the attitude of a subordinates are be justifiable and is expected
accepts the guidance in a rightful manner (Northouse 2015).
ADNOC is guided by the secure and rational support from the far sighted and visionary
leadership of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The position of a manager is offered to a person who is skilled and qualified to be a
manger and is an expert in handling situations; he or she has to go through an academic

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training or in the job training in order to be in the post of a manager of any kind. The factions of
a manager can be widely segmented under the following: strategizing, organizing, leading,
policy and decision making and monitoring of the daily operations of the business. In a business
enterprise there are managers at every level and every dimension in order to channelize the
power evenly. For example: in ADOC there is an array of executives who deal with different
divisions like: finance, administration, marketing as well as human resource. The appointment
and the role of a manager depend upon the scale and nature of business. For example in a
large scale organization a manager is appointed at various levels and with various hierarchies in
order to administer the operations of various departments of the organization. A manager looks
after the balance in between the employees of an organization and the executives’ interest of
the organization (Tourish 2014).
Difference between a leader and a manager
There are some of the basic differences in a manger and a leader though the essence of
the position is similar. A leader is focused on the overall success of an endeavor; where as the
focuses of a manager is limited and short term. Managers can be divided in term of the nature
of job into project manager and people manager.
A leader exhibits optimism in his behavior and encourages, motivates the subordinates
to strive towards success, whereas a manager delegates task and directs the subordinates to
work accordingly and deliver the assigned work in time.
Leaders are responsible in creating changes in the organization so that both the
productivity of the subordinates improves as well as it leads to the betterment of the project. A
leader is always focus on building, maintaining and encouraging team work rather than just
focusing on one person. A manager acts in response to the dynamics that are being
implemented by the hierarchy of the company. The responsibility of a manager lies in directing a
group of people who are a team towards a delegated task (Hornstein 2015).
Roles of manager and leader in different organizational situations
A business organization is a dynamic entity that has to grow with the changing factors
that impact the business on a daily basis. The management is usually divided in hierarchy as

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top level management: which includes the personalities who are regarded as the executives of
the organization as in ADNOC the CEO, Upstream Directorate, Downstream Directorate,
Marketing, Sales & Trading Directorate etc, most of the decisions taken by a company is by this
group. Middle level management: the managers in the mid level are the ones who are
responsible for guiding other managers in departments and on site locations they are
responsible for devising operating decisions and then pass them for approval from the top level.
Next is the first-line management or supervisory management also known as junior
management – these people are responsible for implementing the policies and rules of the
organization that is formulated by the top two tiers, the managers deal directly with the
resources who are responsible in the daily operations of the business (Wang et al. 2014).
ADNOC is an organization that is at par with changes and the type of leadership that is
expected form a manager in the organization is a mixture of both transformational and
transactional. Motivation and encouragement along with creative innovations in terms of
development is way the organization wants to grow in the future. The company is focused on
the betterment of the organization as well as the people who are associated and in order to do
the managers adapt to the changes and makes an effort to understand the dynamics of the
industry. Hence transformational leadership is appropriate. According to the MARS theory of
organizational behavior Motivation rate is dependent of the capability of the resource. The
managers and the leaders are expected to understand the rate of motivation that the resource
under him or her requires and hence the leader should have a transactional approach as well
(Hill et al. 2014).
Chaos theory
Chaos theory can be defined as a concept of the process that describes development of
a company that justifies how and why to expect the unexpected this also gives a scope to
accept surprises and changes in the process of operation. There are two main aspects to the
concept the butterfly effect and the feedback. The mechanism of this theory is based on by
looking for organizational sketch that directs towards a particular type of behavior within the
organization.
The oil and gas industry works on heavy risk and crisis situations, the industry has been
under several negative radar of environmentalists and councils of human rights. Hence the
managers have to be ready with contingency plans and policies to deal with any situation that

7MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION
may arise. Accidents are not under the control of anyone but organizations should maintain
safety measures and full precautions to avoid accidents (Cassidy 2016).
Management by objectives
This model explains how an organization can improve its productivity and performance
by focusing on the objectives that are set by the company. The MBO theory states that, the
leaders and the managers who are associated with an organization should come up with
common goals and objectives for example: the objectives of ADNOC are aforementioned.
According to this theory, the employees play a key role in the growth and development
of the organization and they should be responsible enough to set their own target and with the
help of the managers achieve them. Some of the functions of this theory are: enhancement in
the employee motivation process, build commitment towards an organization; it also assures a
improved communication in between the employees and the managers to attain the objectives.
As ADNOC is one of the leading companies in the oil and natural gas industry that has
goodwill of delivering the needful in the right time, the company is set to achieve all the
objectives the strategies that are implemented in attaining the objective are. According to the
CEO of ADNOC, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber the company aims to achieve the objectives by
concentrating the resources on four specific criterions: improving the performance and
productivity o the company, maximizing the profitability of the organization, maximizing the
efficiency and investing time and resource on the people who are directly or indirectly related to
the organization (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
Conclusion
The leadership of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE and Ruler
of Abu Dhabi, and H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has always been valued by the
ADNOC as the steady uphold and constant support. The farsighted visionary leadership of the
CEO has lead the company in building its reputation and coming up with new and innovative
ways of management.
The company in order to maintain the sustainability and ethical standpoint can
implement more employee friendly policies so that the commitment towards the company is

8MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION
grown reducing the employee turnover. In order to deliver the commitment the organization
should employee more skill improvement workshops for the employees. Safety and risk
management is another area that has a lot of scope and improvement, the industry deals in
hazardous items hence efforts should be directed towards innovations in technology that
ensures minimum depletion of environmental resources as well as safety for the people who are
working on site.

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Reference list:
adnoc.ae. 2017About us. [online] Available at: https://www.adnoc.ae/en/about-us/who-we-are
[Accessed 25 Oct. 2017].
Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated
approach. Cengage Learning.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-
298.
Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
thenational.ae. 2017. Adnoc to build new refinery and cracker. [online] Available at:
https://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/adnoc-to-build-new-refinery-and-cracker-1.629911
[Accessed 25 Oct. 2017].
Tourish, D., 2014. Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the
role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), pp.79-98.
Wang, D., Waldman, D.A. and Zhang, Z., 2014. A meta-analysis of shared leadership and team
effectiveness.