Change Management in Telecommunications Sector Omantel in Sultanate of Oman - Essay Example

?Evaluate Change Management in Telecommunications Sector Omantel in Sultanate of Oman 1 Introduction: Organizations are reflections of the presentsocial, economic and political landscape of a country. For example, a country with many international companies and businesses could be perceived as economically progressing organizations that employ highly technical and skilled employees. This indicates that the country is highly literate and privatizations of government owned corporations indicate a liberalization of government economic and trade policies. However, not all organizations keep up with the social, economic and political changes in the country, there are those who remain traditional and resist change. Change is inevitable if the organization wants to pursue progress and growth. Change in the organizational structure, management and use of technology indicates that the organization is moving towards better measures of effectiveness and industry standing. “Change will not disappear nor dissipate. Technology, civilizations and creative thoughts will maintain their ever-accelerating dive onwards” (Paton & McCalman 2008, p. 5). As with any process and change, this is often met with negativity and apprehension. Even if the change is for the greater good of the company, there will always be anxiety and tension that is caused by the process of change. The study is talks about the extent to which change management process are taken by the company Omantel. It is the first Oman based Telecommunication Company and also pioneer of complete solutions for communications in the Sultanate of Oman. The Omantel is established in 1987 and the target customer of the company includes government, residential and corporate. The company provides complete solution for all the communication related problems. Organizational change is brought about by a number of factors; this could be from mergers and acquisitions, a government take-over or the privatization of the organization. The anxiety provoking aspect in any organizational change is not actually the transformation of the organization or the change in management but the fact that the employees have to leave their old ways of doing things; it is the learning of new tasks, new protocols and new operating procedures that threaten employees to face the organizational change. By definition, change means discarding the old and embracing the new, the new may not always be accepted and appreciated by the employees. “Two underlying beliefs and their associated assumptions about how change occurs have shaped much of the development of organizational change models. First is the belief that organizational change can be planned and managed through an understanding of its sequential steps. The second belief which has largely evolved due to the criticisms of planned change has been the belief that change is an organic process which cannot be managed” (Turner et al. 2009, p. 27). But some form of anxiety and apprehension are actually natural reaction to any change, and it is welcomed by the agents of change as an opportunity to make the employees become aware of what is happening in the organization. It is the time when questions can be answered, when fears and doubts can be placated and when employees are engaged as advocates of the change process as they now have the knowledge and information that they can share to other employees who may have the same concerns. Change Management in organization is all about the actions necessary for an organization to recognize, organize, execute and take full advantage of considerable change. The ultimate aims of Change Management organizations are: The successful plan, execution, measurement and preservation of a change initiative of the organizations and improvement of their on-going ability for managing change. Here the study is talks to evaluate change management in Telecommunications sector Omantel in Sultanate of Oman. “The Sultanate of Oman is among the Region’s most progressive countries in the telecom sector in terms of liberalization and promotion of competition. The Telecom operators/service providers in Oman offer consumers a wide range of telecommunications services based on state of the art technology” (General Information on Telecom Sector in Oman n.d., p. 1). The Regulatory Authority of the Telecommunications is a body business founded under the Act of Telecommunications Regulatory issued in the Royal Decree No. 30/2002 as an outcome of initiative of the Government to liberalize the telecom division in Oman and change the monopolistic telecommunications marketplace into a competitive one. In order to carry out its aims, TRA tries progressively to get rid of all fences regarding market entry and permit interested shareholders to enter the Omani telecom market. It is important to take note that change can be an exciting and positive experience for the organization, and this should be communicated to all those who will be affected by the change and those are the employees. How well the transition from the old to the new organization can be measured by the extent to which the employees are able to embrace and live the objectives and goals of the new company. Thus, in any process of change, the focal point should always be the employees. This study attempts to determine the impact of the privatization of Omantel to its employees and to explore their perceptions, attitudes and feelings toward the changes brought about by the privatization of the company. Omantel is the Oman Telecommunications Company and it is the primary telecommunications business establishment in Oman and also a primary supplier of internet services in that nation. Omantel in Oman is the pioneer of entire solution for the communications related trouble in the Sultanate of Oman. And also the company has the widest option of state of the art services among the broadest system coverage. “Three exciting new Omantel products were launched at two one-day interactive workshops at the Grand Hyatt Muscat recently. Hosted by leading digital marketing experts, Infocomm, the workshops were attended by a select group of guests from Oman’s leading companies” (New Omantel Mobile Services Unveiled 2012). Moreover, the report would also like to determine whether the employees have been involved in the change and to compare their perceptions to those of management. In this process, the effectiveness of the change process can be measured in terms of diffusing negative attitudes and feelings towards the privatization of the company. The privatization of Omantel has been a long process and it has caused a number of changes in how the organization fulfills its objectives and what are required from the employees in terms of their job performance and productivity. “Oman’s efforts to privatize the telecom sector are motivated by its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to liberalize the industry by 2003. According to Omantel sources, the delay for privatization is the result of the global economic slowdown and lack of interest on the part of international telecom operators” (New Regulatory Body to Accelerate Privatization of Oman Tel 2002). Since the change in Omantel was concerned with the restructuring of the organization from a government owned company to a private company and this entailed a complete revamp of the job descriptions, the organizational structure, the line of communication, the salary scale and even the job qualifications and requirements. Thus, it is obvious that the changes in Omantel are exhaustive and far-reaching that all employees from the top management to the rank and file are affected by the privatization. “Oman’s Ministry of Telecommunications has established a regulatory agency to oversee the long-awaited privatization of the state-run telecom firm, Omantel. The new watchdog dog body will manage the first phase of the company’s partial sale to private investors” (New Regulatory Body to Accelerate Privatization of Oman Tel 2002). A study about the employees of Omantel therefore would provide current information on how employees perceive the changes in the organization which is invaluable to the management in terms of cultivating the management-employee relationship. Processes of change management may consist of creative marketing to facilitate communication among change audiences, but also at the same time deep social understanding regarding group dynamic and leadership’s styles in the organization. “To be effective, it is critical that change management involve senior level leadership from all areas of the business. It can not be a program led by the human resources (HR) department” (Change Management Tools Key to Winning Internal Acceptance 2004). The results of this study will be very helpful to the management of Omantel as well as the human resource department of the company as it would provide data that they can use as basis for intervention and program design and that would ensure that the employees will welcome and embrace the changes in the company. Moreover, this study is relevant to the practice of management in an international setting, where cultural factors are always present in any organizational change; this study would contribute to the growing body of research on change management and also would lend insight as to how change is introduced and implemented in Oman, a middle eastern country where work ethics demand obedience and respect for authority. The rest of the documents present and discuss the research focus, objectives, research questions, and provides a brief outline of the entire research study. This chapter provides an overview of what the study is about and its relevance to the practice of management. 1.2. Project Focus: This research is concerned with how the changes in Omantel have affected the employees and to determine their perceptions on the change process. The focus of this study is two fold; Omantel and the changes that has undergone since the inception of the decree for the privatization of the company and the Employees of Omantel, who have been the most affected by the by the privatization of the company. “Telecom sector is one of the most important sectors of the economy. Over last year, the sector has witnessed significant changes such as competition in mobile that helped in bringing efficiency and good quality of services at competitive prices” (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Sultanate of Oman 2005, p. 10). Omantel comes out of one of the old Government Companies of the Telecommunications, division of the Ministry of Telecommunications. It’s still the one of the monopoly providers of fixed telephony in the Sultanate, but subsequent to dividing off Oman Mobile as a distinct operating body last year; mobile communications are nowadays subject to competition. Omantel has an authoritative infrastructure in Oman, enveloping the entire state consisting of many distant rural areas. Changes in Omantel affect its entire functioning, so proper change management process is necessary. The main focus of this project is to evaluate change management in Telecommunications sector Omantel in Sultanate of Oman. Omantel has been the major player in the telecommunications industry in the Oman thus it has employed a large number of people and invariably, they will be affected by the changes in the company and they are also the one who will carry out the changes and deliver it to the company’s clients and to be able to represent the new Omantel. That’s why the employees must have the correct information of the changes in the company. “Omantel, the first telecommunications company in Oman, is the main provider of Internet services for the country. The government holds the majority share of stock in this company, totaling 70%, and is helping to provide the lion's share of Internet access for their people. The famous Omantel Power net is the only Internet service in Oman providing broadband access” (The Oman Telecommunications Company Censorship Effort 2007). The concept of change management is not new to the study of organizations and human resources but somehow it has not received the same scientific inquiry into its nature and functions like compensation and performance evaluation have. (James Michael Stewart, 2011). “Change is not the same as transition. Change is situational because of the new technology, the new boss, the new team roles, the new policy, etc. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation” (Notes on Change, Transformation and Transition 2002). Thus, within the context of change management, Omantel’s management actions in terms of addressing the changes in the company brought about by privatization and the reactions and perceptions of the employees towards the change are assessed and measured in this study. In doing so, the chances of success and integration of the employees to the new Omantel can be predicted. In totality, this project would also determine whether the change management concept as espoused by western authors and practitioners are also true to the organizational climate in Oman. “Anyone with experience in change management knows that efforts can succeed or fail based on communications. Experience consistently teaches that it’s almost impossible to over-communicate when leading change” (Schuler 2002). Research Objective: 1) To identify the perception and experiences of employees in Omantel in terms of the privatization of the company. 2) To identify the change management process that the company has taken and the extent to which the employees became agents of change or as participants in the change process rather than the recipients of the changes. 3) To identify change management process in Telecommunications sector in Oman. 4) To identify extent to which the changes in the organization have beneficial to the employees. 1.4 Research Questions: 1. How did the employees of Omantel felt about the privatization of the company and how it affected the employees working at Omantel? 2. How did the employees participate in the change process in the organization? Omantel: It is termed as an Oman Telecommunications Company and also it is the first telecommunications business establishment in Oman. This company is the pioneer of complete solutions for communications in the Sultanate of Oman. The Company has the widest alternative of state of the art services by way of the broadest system coverage. Main customers of the company include customers, Enterprises & Government in addition to Wholesale customers. This Oman based company gives attention on operating, preserving services of fixed and mobile telecommunication. The main target customers of the company include government, residential and corporate. Residential services consist of worldwide and nationwide calls and prepaid cards, at the same time it also offers internet services consist of surf and internet log as well as broadband wireless service. “Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), established in 1987, is the largest telecommunications company in the Sultanate of Oman. Omantel is 70% government owned. In April 2008, it acquired a 65% share in World Call Pakistan. The company’s vision is to be a highly innovative telecommunications company providing high quality telecommunications services at reasonable prices in order to satisfy the needs of its valued customers” (Omantel Secures International Gateway and Server Farms with Tipping Point Intrusion Prevention Systems n.d., p. 1). Main challenge of the Omantel’s was to defend its server farms from most recent intimidation for example attack on un-patched schemes and zero-day attacks on patched scheme. The organization also required to generate a time-window for holding with the policy of patch management. Omantel pursues a strict patch and policy of change management with every patches tested prior to deploying on manufacture systems and this required adequate time. With a lessening timeline among every patch and make use of release, there was a risk to these manufacture servers of continuing “unpatched” at the same time as the safety team followed the patch organization steps.” Omantel (as both Omantel and Oman Mobile) has offered the full spectrum of telecommunications solutions to the people and businesses of Oman since the dawn of the Renaissance in 1970. Over the years, as the pioneering telecommunications supplier, we have striven to connect even the most remote communities to each other and to the rest of the world. As a pillar of the Omani economy, Omantel has been a leading player in Oman’s progress and national development” (System Architect 2004). In order to cope with the emerging trends in telecommunication industry, it is very much necessary for the Omantel telecommunication industry to change its functions. Change management is one of the most important steps that must be maintained by the organization to manage the changes in the organization. The privatization of Omantel will create a main splash in the Omani marketplace, as it is one of the principal and most recognized companies in the state. Reference List Change Management Tools Key to Winning Internal Acceptance. 2004. Out Sourcing Center. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. General Information on Telecom Sector in Oman. n.d. Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. Omantel Secures International Gateway and Server Farms with Tipping Point Intrusion Prevention Systems. n.d. Omantel: FVC Case Study. Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. New Omantel Mobile Services Unveiled. 2012. IRAQ Daily Journal. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. New Regulatory Body to Accelerate Privatization of Oman Tel. 2002. Al Bawaba. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. Notes on Change , Transformation and Transition. 2002. The International Child and Youth care Network. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. Paton, RA & McCalman, J 2008. Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation. 3rd Edn. Sage Publication Ltd. Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. Schuler, AJ 2002. Change Management Communication. Schuler Solutions, Inc. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. System Architect. 2004. GulfTalent. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Sultanate of Oman. 2005. Annual Report 2005. Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. The Oman Telecommunications Company Censorship Effort. 2007. Vpn Accounts.com. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. Turner et al. 2009. The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture & Change Management. Common Ground Publishing LLC. Available at [Accessed on 27 February 2012]. Read More