Analysis of Organizational Climate and Communication at Saudi Aramco

This report provides an analysis of the organizational climate and communication strategies employed by Saudi Aramco, a prominent petroleum and natural gas company. It begins by defining organizational climate and its impact on employee behavior and productivity, then assesses Saudi Aramco's current climate, highlighting its values, employee perceptions, and the emphasis on safety. The report then identifies areas for improvement, such as addressing work pressure and enhancing communication. It further explores organizational communication, differentiating between internal and external stakeholders and analyzing Saudi Aramco's existing communication methods, including formal and informal channels. The report concludes with recommendations for new communication strategies, such as adopting more accessible platforms to facilitate upward communication and leveraging technology to improve stakeholder engagement.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND COMMUNICATION
ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND COMMUNICATION
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Organizational Climate
The organizational climate of a company is essentially determined from the perspective of
its employees. Thus it is essentially a psychological atmosphere. Organizational climate can be
broadly defined as the perceived features of the work environment. It denotes the facilities and the
challenges that the workers face in their daily life within the organization such as the relation
between the employer and the employees, quality of the work environment, job-related stress or
the support that the employees receive etc. Consequently, it affects the productivity as well as the
employee behaviour of the organization.
Organizational Climate in Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco is a nationalized petroleum and natural gas company, based in Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia. At present, it has been recognized as the largest and most profitable company in
the world in terms of revenue generation. Along with its attempt to economic enhancement,
Saudi Aramco also maintains a supportive and productive organizational climate.
As per the organizational report, the company upholds certain organizational values such
as citizenship, excellence, safety, integrity and accountability. The primary aim of the
organization is to enhance Saudi national spirit. Ratifying the contract of Saudization, the
company tries to recruit Saudi nationals over other nationals as far as practicable. It marks its
global presence by establishing a responsible corporate citizenship and accountability in meeting
their objectives in a holistic manner (Saudiaramco.com.).
Saudi Aramco emphasizes safety as one of their core organizational value. They aim to
provide a safe and secure work environment to all their workers, contractors and suppliers.

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Inasmuch they embed safety as a value, they incorporate a framework in their operational
strategy that ensures safety management and facilitates risk mitigation and operational
excellence (Saudiaramco.com.).
The employees recognize Saudi Aramco as an employee-friendly organization. They
opine that the work-life balance and scope of career advancements are well- maintained in the
organization. Besides, it provides impressive salary and benefit package. It also provides
accommodation and food for the full time employees. Overall, Saudi Aramco is viewed by the
former as well as existing employees as a desirable employer brand for the career opportunities
and benefit and compensation packages, not to forget the provision of workplace safety
(Indeed.com).
Recommendations
In spite of all the positive features in Saudi Aramco, there are issues with the
management that may be addressed by the organization. Besides, several employees report
adversely on the huge work pressure and stress ensuing from the load of work. To mitigate these
challenges, the company could undertake some of the recommended strategies as mentioned
below:
1. Revising the working schedule and making provisions for necessary leaves and
breaks
2. Revising the apparent top-heavy structure of the management and making them more
approachable
3. Promoting team-bonding activities to facilitate the employees with entertainment and
relaxation, so that they do not cave in from stress.
4. Arranging flexible work hours as much as practicable

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5. Handling conflicts within the organization with empathy
6. Making provision to employees express their grievances and difficulties
7. Maintaining a unified organizational culture within all the strata of the organization
Organizational communication
Organizational communication can be defined as the exchange of information,
knowledge and ideas within or outside of the organization. The communications that take place
in a business environment encompass both interpersonal and mass communications. As a matter
of fact, these communication can be formal or informal. Formal communication within a
company can be downward, upward or horizontal, whereas informal communication are usually
involves grapevine channels. Formal communication can be employed both within and outside of
the organization, while informal communication generally is interpersonal and takes place within
the organization. Organizational communication plays an instrumental role in knowledge
sharing and development of the employees, as well as expressing the company’s vision and
operations to the external stakeholders and customers (Mumby and Kuhn 2018).
Organizational Communication of Saudi Aramco
Internal and External Stakeholders
Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabian-American Oil Company), formerly known as Aramco, was
overtaken by Saudi national government in the late 1970s. Operating as the largest hydrocarbon
network, Saudi Aramco reported a record amount of $12 billion of bonds in order from foreign
investors, as well as it employs an estimated number of 65,266 workers. Besides, the company
has a large supply chain involving offshore and onshore vendors (Saudiaramco.com.). Apart
from the suppliers and investors, Saudi Aramco caters to a large customer base both in domestic

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and international regions. Considering all these partners of Saudi Aramco, the internal and
external stakeholders of the organization can be categorized as listed below:
Internal Stakeholders:
i) Government of Saudi Arabia
ii) Management
iii) Employees
iv) Suppliers
External Stakeholders:
i) Customers
ii) Community members
iii) Investors
Saudi Aramco’s existing communication strategies
In the light of the previous discussion of Organizational communication and
identification of internal and external stakeholders of the organisation, it can be summarized that
the company deploys formal communication with its external stakeholders, whereas utilize both
formal and informal styles of communication to reach the internal stakeholders. Being a
government organization, however, Saudi Aramco has a top-heavy management, i.e. the
hierarchical dominance over the employees and thus usually have a downward flow of
communication. Due to an effective knowledge sharing practise within the organization, the
horizontal or lateral communication flow is also observed. However, there is a serious lack of
upward mobility and access of communication. To elucidate, due to the structural hierarchy, it is

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difficult for the employees belonging to the lower strata of the company to reach the higher
officials.
New Communication Strategy
It can be recommended that the company should adopt more accessible and open
platforms for employing informal communication. Also, it should ensure the upward flow of
communication. This will help the employees communicate with the management more easily, as
well as will facilitate the authority with accurate employee feedbacks. Saudi Aramco already
uses an e-marketplace platform provided by SAP Ariba. This platform is used for
communicating with the suppliers all over the world. Similarly, the organization could use
communication systems such as Blockchain or any other cloud-based networking system to
maintain the communication flow within the company.

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References
Indeed.com. (2019). Working at Saudi Aramco: 227 Reviews about Culture | Indeed.com.
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Mumby, D.K. and Kuhn, T.R., 2018. Organizational Communication: A Critical Introduction.
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Saudiaramco.com. (2019). Living our values. [online] Available at:
https://www.saudiaramco.com/en/who-we-are/our-corporate-governance/living-our-values
[Accessed 19 Sep. 2019].
Saudiaramco.com. (2019). Overview. [online] Available at:
https://www.saudiaramco.com/en/who-we-are/overview [Accessed 19 Sep. 2019].
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