Analyzing Barriers to Change in Radian Using Established Theories

This document analyzes the barriers to change at Radian, a company involved in energy production. It identifies issues at individual, group, and organizational levels using diary entries as primary data sources. The analysis leverages three established management theories: McKinsey 7S model for structural alignment, Lewin’s theory of planned change for strategic implementation, and Kotter's eight-step process to manage transformation effectively. Through these frameworks, the document outlines strategies to improve collaborative working practices and overcome socially constructed barriers. It concludes with a series of procedures designed to facilitate successful organizational change within Radian.

Running head: PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATION
People and organization
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Problems experienced at individual, group and organisational level..............................................3
Socially constructed nature of organisation.....................................................................................5
Evaluating the theories and ideologies that can influence the current organisational practices......6
Designing plans to improve collaborative working nature............................................................12
Innovative approaches to overcome socially constructed barriers................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................18

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Introduction
The report is developed to focus on the people and organization where various business
activities are managed. The business organization chosen here as the case study is Radian Oil
and Gas company in Saudi Arabia. The company manages its engineering solutions properly and
allows its customers to conserve energy. This will further help in making the organization
operate efficiently through a wide range of products and services’ solutions and reduce the
emissions of Carbon dioxide that can harm the ecological balance in nature. The business
activities at Radian Oil and gas company have also led to the saving of fuel, electricity and water
(Radian.com.sa 2017). The major issue that may be faced by the business organization is
illustrated and how it can affect the business functioning at the individual, group and
organizational level. The socially constructed nature of the organization is also understood along
with the identification of various factors that can influence the organizational practices (Abedin
et al. 2013). There are certain plans that will be constructed, based on the theories, to promote
collaborative working and overcome the socially constructed barriers too.
Problems experienced at individual, group and organisational level
The motive of the company is to conserve energy and so sustainable approaches have
been followed to make sure that energy conservation is possible and ecological balance in nature
is maintained.
Organisational level
One of the major issues faced was that a huge amount of energy was produced and
electricity was also used largely, which increased the operational expenditures too. Radian Oil
and Gas company started its business operations and processes in the year 2010 and since then it

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has been committed to the deliverance of excellence in terms of services provided to the
customers. The company also operated trough a wide range of products and services that reduced
the carbon dioxide emissions and even saved the fuel, electricity and water largely (Abraham
2013). The functioning of the engineering instruments and machineries incurred a lot of energy,
because of which the costs for implementing those were also high. The issue was though
negligible, still it posed to be a threat, because it delayed the construction project and even could
have reduced the capital of the organization, furthermore creating more problems like being
unable to improve the infrastructure of the organization through necessary investments. This is a
major issue at the organizational level for Radian Oil and Gas Company in Saudi Arabia (Baines
et al. 2013).
Individual level
There are lots of questions related to the industry fundamentals including macro
environmental factors, maintenance of balance between supply and demand, regulatory
mechanisms for managing the cost components and influence created by geopolitics. The prices
of oil and gas are reduced, which has created a huge adverse effect on the oil and gas industry of
Saudi Arabia. Crude prices reduced, which resulted in complexities related to the trade flow and
other traditional suppliers’ concerns. Depending on just energy is not favourable, because it
could result in less market share and even create difficulties to gain enough profit in business and
provide the right amounts of wages to the employees of Radian Oil and Gas Company, Saudi
Arabia (Barnaud and Antona 2014).
Group level

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At the group level, the issues faced were identified as lack of communication between the
employees and lesser wages paid to the team members when involved in smaller projects within
the oil and gas industry. It is often seen that the group members find it difficult to interact with
each other due to different backgrounds or cultures from which they belong. Discrimination is a
major issue that can create issues for the workers of Radian Oil and Gas Company at the group
level. This not only could hinder the successful accomplishment of tasks but might also prevent
the organisation to obtain the outcomes that were assumed at the earlier stages during the
management of a project. This might even delay the progress of a project and prevent the
completion of the project on time (Basu 2014).
Socially constructed nature of organisation
The socially constructed nature of the organisation means the theory of knowledge in
communication and sociology that can identify the development of jointly constructed
understandings and make shared assumptions about the reality and origin of the organisation.
The social constructionism theory enables to focus on the human beings perception related to the
environment where they are working. The conservation of energy is related to the performance
of the organisation, which shows that with the management of construction project activities,
there will be production of large amount of energy as well as many investments. As the
performance of the organisation is excellent, there has been production of huge amounts of
energy too, which is considered as a major issue, because energy conservation is important for
business sustainability (Baumeister and Peersman 2013).
Radian Oil and Gas Company has helped the customers to conserve energy and function
more efficiently by delivering a wide range of business solutions to reduce the emissions of

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carbon dioxide and maintain a stable environmental condition. This would also save a lot of heat,
water and electricity and at the same time preserve the environment by fulfilling its corporate
social responsibility properly. The organisation has achieved success through the development
of a good relationship between the business and its customers and gain knowledge about the
preferences of the customers, furthermore gain motivation level to emerge as a successful market
leader (Bratton and Gold 2012). Radian Oil and Gas company is one of the most established
business engineering solutions provider in Saudi Arabia that has been specialised in the areas of
transferring heat, solar power and heating systems, conservation of energy and optimisation of
combustion. The improvement of deaerators' effectiveness has been possible with little
investments, the short shutdown has provided better capacity, high turnaround, and this was the
cause of reducing the operational expenses too (Brindley 2017).
Evaluating the theories and ideologies that can influence the current organisational
practices
Various kinds of theories and models can be used to create a positive impact on the
organisational practices and ensure that the issues such as lack of ability to conserve energy,
financial instability and low level of communication between the employees of the organisation
are overcome. Few of the theories used within the business organization Radian Oil and Gas
Company, Saudi Arabia have brought huge advancements and progress in the project
management, and some of these are McKinsey 7S model, Kotter’s Eight step model, Kurt
Lewin’s theory of managing changes, etc. (Broadbent 2013).
The issues faced by the company were lack of ability to conserve energy and poor
communication between the workers of the organization. Issues were also related to the industry

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fundamentals such as the inappropriate balance between the supply and demands, ineffective
regulatory mechanisms and other macro environmental factors creating an impact on the
organisation. Due to the lowering of the crude price, the trade flow activities were hindered, and
suppliers' requirements were not fulfilled, which was a major concern as well. The company
wants to overcome the issue of high amounts of energy production, which can also lead to the
high generation of heat. The main focus of the company is to conserve energy and make sure that
the energy and other resources are utilised properly to make the business function effectively
(Brounen, Kok and Quigley 2012). Therefore, it is evident that the utilisation of these kinds of
theories can influence the organisational practices and led to better productivity, enhanced level
of profit and even help the organisation to gain a competitive advantage in business.
Mckinsey 7-S Model
The Mckinsey 7 S model or theory consists of the various components that are needed to
be followed by the Oil and gas company to accomplish a project and obtain the desired positive
outcomes properly. The first element is the strategy that has allowed the company to implement
strategies for pursuing the growth, development and creation of value within a volatile
environment. To become successful in the present market, the price of commodities tend to
increase, which needs to be re-evaluated based on the middle and high level expectations of the
customers. Radian Oil and Gas Company has managed to confront strategic changes and made
decisions to enhance performance and enable supply of products and services according to the
demands of the market (Chin, Hambrick and Treviño 2013).
The structure of the organisation is maintained through the management of reports and
optimises the exploration portfolio for increasing the production volume, mitigate risks and gain

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good amounts of return both in the long and short-term. The systems include the everyday
organisational activities that the employees of the organisation are involved with to accomplish
the tasks properly. As the issue related to the lack of conserving energy was to be overcome, it
would be important for Radian Oil and Gas Company to identify areas of growth, find out
opportunities to reduce the costs of production and even enhance the productivity level largely
(Coleman 2012).
The shared values are the goals and objectives that have been developed according to the
sets of values and beliefs required to maintain a good culture within the business organisation.
The major values and beliefs are followed at Radian Oil and Gas company for the creation of a
good culture and ensure that the work ethics are maintained properly too. This could make the
employees of the organisation abide by the rules, regulations and procedures, furthermore
develop a cost for fulfilling the demands and preferences of the customers in different segments
of the market. The company aims for meeting the demands of people in the different market
segments and manage the costs at various supply levels, which can allow the development of a
project and ensure that economic impact is maximised (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown 2016).
Style represents the kind of leadership adopted by Radian Oil and Gas company to
overcome the issues faced by the company and even the socially constructed barriers with
efficacy. No one seems to bother about the issues faced by the company other than the leader of
the business organisation. It is the role and responsibility of the leader to check whether the
company has been performing properly or not and find out ways by which the issues can be
overcome. The transformational and democratic leadership styles are followed mainly to
consider the opinions and feedbacks of the employees and then make effective decisions in
business for the business benefits (Davis 2012).

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Staffs and skills are the other two major components of the McKinsey 7 S model that
represents the employees of the organisation and their skills, competencies and expertise level.
The workers have been trained to strengthen their abilities so that they can perform to their
potential. This would also make the staffs informed about the issues experienced by the
organization and then work as an unit to deal with the issue perfectly (Eisenberg et al. 2013).
Figure 1: Mckinsey 7-S Model
(Source: Eisenberg et al. 2013)
Lewin’s change management theory
The theory proposed by Lewin was also utilised by the organisation to implement
changes to the organisation and ensure that the business operations and processes are managed
properly. The various stages included unfreezing, movement and refreezing.
The unfreezing stage allows for creating awareness of the issues among the staffs of
Radian Oil and Gas Company and enhances their level of acceptability to respond to the changes

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with ease and effectiveness (Gorran Farkas 2013). The people, processes and structures of the
company should be assessed to examine how changes should be possible, and the company could
gain competitive advantage in business.
The movement or changing stage allows for moving towards a new state and improve the
existing structure, processes and culture of the organisation. This would make the staffs adopt the
changes made by the company and learn the new ways of thinking, behaviours and processes that
could be advantageous. The changing stage could also resolve the issues related to lack of
communication and other cross-cultural barriers by promoting effective communication between
the employees and become familiar with the changes and improvements that were made
(Haddington, Mondada and Nevile 2013). The refreezing stage enabled reinforcements and
stabilised the new state of the organisation soon after the implementation of changes. This helped
in making changes to the organisational processes, structure and a perfect culture was also
established, which facilitated team work, coordination and acceptance of new behaviours and
attitudes. Acceptance of changes would bring more productivity, create a sense of urgency,
develop a vision and empower the staffs of Radian Oil and Gas Company, Saudi Arabia to
become successful within the business environment (Hayes 2014).
Kotter’s eight-step theory
This theory is equally important as the other two models or theories for managing
changes within the organisation and enhances its capabilities to overcome issues and establish
itself as a successful company within the marketplace.

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Figure: Kotter’s eight-step theory
(Source: Järvenoja, Volet and Järvelä 2013)
At first, a sense of urgency is created to demonstrate the problems to every member of
the organisation. The issues included the high production of heat and energy with very little
amounts of energy that had been conserved. Due to the immense heat generation, the cost of
operations and business activities also got higher along with a reduction in capital. Another
major problem was the emissions of carbon dioxide in large amounts due to the energy
production, which not only deteriorated the organisational functioning but also created negative
effects of the environment (Järvenoja, Volet and Järvelä 2013). The issues were needed to be
addressed to create urgency among the staffs and make them know how to deal with those.

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The organisation has developed a team consisting of skilled workers with proper
guidance by the leader to coordinate the activities and communicate important information about
the issues. It could be understood that, at the individual and group level, there was lack of
communication, which had been identified quite easily by developing a guiding coalition. After
this, a strategic vision is formed, and initiatives are taken to clarify certain things to the
employees and link the initiatives with the vision and mission of the organisation (Kenney 2012).
A volunteer army is enlisted to enable large-scale changes and allow them to discuss the effects
of these kinds of issues and furthermore identify opportunities to ensure that the changes are
successful and noteworthy.
The next stage of the Kotter’s model has facilitated the capabilities of the organisation to
overcome the barriers and created a positive impact on the business functioning. This has also
created enough scopes for Radian Oil and Gas Company to generate short-term wins and keep
track of the progress of the project. Kotter’s theory is used by the organisation to improve the
credibility of systems, structures and policies and initiate changes consistently until the vision
gets turned into reality and the goals and objectives are accomplished (Love, Lopez and Kim
2014). Lastly, the changes are made with the focus on accelerating the production and business
processes efficiency through the development of communication between the new behaviours
that have been adopted and organisational success. By understanding these issues, the company
would be able to implement high-efficiency energy saving cooling tower to reduce high amounts
of heat generation and even conserve a lot of energy. The staffs could understand the urgent need
for making changes and even implement various effective regulatory mechanisms for creating
positive effects (Okfalisa et al. 2012).