Organizational Development and Change at BHP Billiton - Case Study Example

Organizational development and change Name Institution Date Organizational development and change Section 1 BHP Billiton is a mining and petroleum company that is located in Melbourne Australia, but has its main management office in London, United Kingdom. As per 2011 revenues, the company is the largest mining company and the third largest when measured by market capitalization. This mining conglomerate was created in 2001 when Australian Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) merged with the Anglo-Dutch company Billiton Plc. From 2001 to the present, the company has embarked on an expansion strategy aimed at buying out competitors in the mining industry. In 2005, the company acquired WMC Resources, the owners of Olympic Dam copper, uranium and copper mines in southern Australia, fertilizer manufacturing in Queensland and nickel mining in Western Australia. In 2010, the company acquired Athabasca Potash, and then it followed the purchase by trying to acquire Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. This move was opposed by the government of Saskatchewan (Thompson & Macklin, 2010). In 2011, it paid Chesapeake Energy Corp to operate its assets that includes mineral right leases and a pipeline in northern Arkansas. The company’s values are governed by ensuring safety and health of its employees and the immediate communities in their areas of operation. The Company focuses on respect and integrity, and it measures it success by the value that employees, customers and suppliers attach to their relationship with them. The performance of the company is determined through perception surveys. Its community development programs aim at improving the quality of life for communities that are in their areas of operation. Environmental sustainability is another key feature of the company’s development. Since it is a major consumer, exporter and producer of energy, it aims at lowering carbon dioxide emissions world wide. Key to the company is the BHP Billiton charter which aims at aligning all aspects of the company through clearly articulated values applicable to each employee. The company emphasizes its commitment to health, safety, environment and community (HSEC). Environmental responsibility and community development remain the main challenges to the company because its main business is the extraction of natural resources, which is a process that can significantly affect the environment and the immediate community. BHP Billiton Limited and its British subsidiary BHP Billiton Plc have distinct shareholder bodies and are listed separately, but they carry out business as one company with the same boards of directors and a single management structure. The main headquarters of BHP Billiton limited and the combined BHP Billiton Group are in Melbourne Australia, but it is expected to move to Perth, upon completion of a new building (Thompson & Macklin, 2010). The company has corporate centers in Houston, USA, Johannesburg, South Africa, Santiago, The Hague, Perth, Singapore and Shanghai (Corbett, 2004). Its shares are listed in the following securities exchanges: United Kingdom (LSE: BLT), South Africa (JSE: BIL), U.S (NYSE: BBL), U.S (NYSE: BHP) and Australia (ASX: BHP). The company is headed by a chief executive officer. BHP Billiton is a massive company that operates in many countries. This increases the complexity of managing the organization and ensuring that all branches work as one entity. To ensure that the company delivers on its corporate strategy, it strategy is executed through clearly articulated management standards and protocols. These standards are reviewed on an annual basis in order to align them to changes in priorities. The main objectives of the standards are: provide a risk-based HSEC management system that is compliant with international standards, define the expectation soft the group in development and implementation of precise HSEC management systems, promote the implementation of the charter across the group, provide a consistent auditable standard against which HSEC management systems across the entire group can be audited and provide a foundation of driving continuous change. The company must introduce a change process that will enable it address challenges facing it in its area of operation. These challenges include: ensuring safety and health, recruiting and developing employees, lowering climate change impacts, managing water use, understanding and managing human rights impact and efficient management of material risks. Section 2: development/change plan and processes Organizational change is a field of study that attempts to address change and how it impacts organizations and individuals within the organization. An effective organization change can aid organizations to management change and its effects (Huffington et al, 2005). Several strategies can be introduced to enhance organizational functioning. Since change may be turbulent at times, organizational development helps companies thrive in this turbulent environment by introducing planned change efforts. It is hard for change to occur unless there is critical need for it. In most cases, individuals and organizations resist change efforts by failing to embrace it unless circumstance dictate otherwise. For an organizational development consultant, pain is the main driver of change (Shani et al, 2012). Individuals embrace change when they realize that they are in a precarious situation due to a missed opportunity. They will only embrace change in order to relieve the pain. Introduction of change entails careful planning of strategies and expectation of potential challenges. By using force-field analysis, one is able to understand behavior within an organization. There are two opposing forces: driving forces and restraining forces that determine change in an organization. Driving forces are those that enhance the desired change while restraining forces are those that oppose the desired change. If the forces are at equilibrium in an organization, it will remain static. Identification of the problem The main health issues faced by the company in the recent past include mobile equipment and vehicle interaction, lowering potential exposure to harmful substances especially carcinogens, and adherence to isolation and permit to work procedures. The company has realized the importance of ensuring the health and safety of its employees because it is vital for its success. The company’s group level document (GLD) articulates the measures that the company is taking to: identify, evaluate and mitigate fatal risks that are associated mainly with handling equipment and exposure to harmful substances. Employment and development of employees is another problem facing the company that requires organizational change in order for it to realize its strategic objectives. Identifying, recruiting, developing and retaining skilled personnel with values that are aligned to that of the company is critical for company success (Anderson, 2012). Since the business nature of the company is long-term, it must deliver on growth today by employing the right people. Because the company is focused on mining natural resources, its activities are bound to cause harmful environmental effects. Part of the company’s corporate social responsibility is to constructively engage in climate change issues. A clear understanding of climate change issues and its impacts on the company will enable it reduces its impacts on the environment. Water is a key environmental resource that can affect the operation soft the company in terms of its quality and quantity. Mining utilizes water for a wide range of purposes. Just like climate change, water management is beyond total control of the company. Risks that are associated with water also vary from one area to another, and these characteristics of water management are a challenge that the company must tackle effectively to ensure that it realizes its goals. Adhering to human rights is also a challenge to the company considering that it carries out its operations in diverse regions that may have different rules and regulations. A company with global mining interests may come across governments and partners that have limited regard for human rights. Ensuring human rights adherence is part of BHP Billiton’s charter, and is central to the realization of its mission. Effective management of risks to employees, equipment and environment is also a challenge to BHP Billiton because its code of conduct and charter values stipulate unqualified commitment to ethical business practices. Its code of business conduct is applicable to all its employees, but this becomes a challenge for a large conglomerate with thousands of employees. Approaching these change tasks As a change consultant, the first approach to these change tasks will involve a visit to the company’s operation sites to familiarize with the current practices that the company is using in managing these challenges. This will be followed by writing a report on the field tour by utilizing notes that were taken during the visit. The next step will involve interviewing managers and site supervisors to get their point of view regarding their current practices and how they would like them to change. The above steps will help in the assessment of the current scenario (Bradford & Burke, 2005). The next approach is the development of the proffered scenario. This is the most challenging part of the change process because it will involve conducting research on the best practices in the industry. An organizational consultant will also consider new practices in the industry to inform his knowledge of how to introduce change. This stage will also involve a through examination of alternative practices to current ones. The third and last step of devising a plan of moving to the preferred alternative is challenging because it is more of a political process that requires individuals to utilize the strengths of power. Failure to consider politics associated with implementation can derail the whole change process. Support for change must be gathered throughout the company by using both informal and formal networks. This is important in rallying sufficient support for the desired change. Planned change processes The first challenge of ensuring health and safety can be approached from the viewpoint of an organizational consultant through implementation of business and operation systems that identifies, manages and responds to foreseeable problems and emergencies. This will encompass return to normal and full operations after a disaster. Measures that can be instituted include: 1. Identifying potential emergency situation sand their impacts; this will enable the company put in place measures to mange the situation in case of occurrence 2. Defining response plans, roles and responsibilities 3. Training employees, suppliers, contractors and visitors on safety measures 4. Identifying, recording, sharing and carrying out follow-up on information derived from safety drills. The challenge of recruiting and developing employees can be approached by encouraging work force diversity, identifying new and innovative ideas, developing and enhancing mutually beneficial employee relationships, managing employment on a local basis, investing in graduate development to tap new talent from learning institutions and developing employees through training. Solving the problem of climate changes can be approached through active engagement in policy development regarding climate changes and the role of human activity. Lowering green house gas emissions is also another approach of organizational change that will lower environmental impacts. Developing alternative sources of energy and instituting practices that ensure efficient energy use will make sure that company activities have minimal impact on the environment. The challenge of water management can be approached via alleviation of water stress through reduction of water use in areas where it competes with human and environmental needs. Other water management process will involve identifying ways of recycling water and developing new water accounting standards. Approaches to managing human rights will involve assessing countries on the degree of risk in terms of visiting, exploration and operations. Another approach is by completing a human rights impact assessment for any business activity before commencement. Provision of armed security in extreme circumstance is necessary to ensure safety of employees and equipments. The challenge of risk management can be approached through assessment of risk severity according to a matrix that outlines the degree of harm, injury or loss from the most extreme impacts from that risk. Managing aviation risks, reviewing underground mine methods and managing fatigue are other approaches that can be used in handling risk management. Management of resistance to organizational change Resistance to change is an obvious process of the change process. People and organizations tend to resist any efforts of changing the usual ways of doing business. For a company that is involved in mining, organizational change is unavoidable because it is affected by new and efficient practices of mining and processing materials. Several mechanisms can be instituted to limit resistance to change. The first is by clearing communicating the changes and the need for the changes to the affected employees. Empowering employees is necessary to ensure that employees are equipped with the necessary skills that will be required by the new changes (Yaeger & Sorensen, 2009). Anticipating resistance to change is necessary to facilitate early preparation on coping mechanisms. Identifying the root cause of resistance is also vital to facilitate response to the causes of resistance instead of the symptoms. Involving senior managers and supervisors is also another strategy of managing resistance to change as they are influential in determining employee behavior. Evaluation of change Change can be evaluated by use of measurable outcomes. This may involve adopting government regulations and safety standards such as U.S Government Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. Recording and communicating potentials health and safety exposures in accordance with HSEC standards is another way of ensuring that instituted change is yielding the desired results. Conducting regular audits that monitor implementation of new health and safety controls will be effective in evaluating the new changes. Gathering feedback from members of management and supervision is effective in evaluating the suitability of new requirements. This feedback confirms if the changes are well positioned and need no additional changes. Unexpected outcomes can be forestalled by reviewing the likely scenarios after implementation before commencing the change process. Unexpected outcomes can also be important lessons that can be used in implementing change processes in the future (Jones & Brazzel, 2012). For a company like BHP Billiton, change is part of its operation strategy and unexpected outcomes are important learning points that will guide future changes. References Anderson, D. L. (2012). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Bradford, D. L., & Burke, W. W. (2005). Reinventing Organization Development: New Approaches to Change in Organizations. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Corbett, M. F. (2004). The outsourcing revolution: Why it makes sense and how to do it right. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Pub. Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2009). 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