Supporting Organizational Change - of Qatar Telecom - Case Study Example

Introduction Qatar Telecom (Qtel) was established in 1949, now d as Ooredoo. Qatar Telecom owns the major portion of the company, its share is 87%, and meanwhile around 10% of the shares are held by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The remaining part of the shares is under the hold of the Qatar’s Government. The company deals in range of products and services including mobile, fixed broadband Internet and corporate managed services. Ooredoo is among the leading telecommunication service providers that encompass Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Ooredoo has over 2.5 million consumers in these regions (Ooredoo Qatar, n.d). The current Revenue of the company is $ 9.3 billion, with assets of over $ 25 billion. The net profit of the company for the last year was $ 800 million. Why Ooredoo needs to change Competition: Ooredoo has to face a tough competition from companies like Emirates Telecommunication Corporation, Orascom Telecom Holding S.A. E and Saudi Telecom Company. The company only deals in mobile, internet and corporate managed services, meanwhile Ooredoo’s competitors have launched digital cable television services for example EVision by Emirates Telecommunications and inVision by Saudi Telecom Company (Hoovers, n.d.). All these companies along with Ooredoo serve Middle East in particular. Moreover, most of the customers prefer buying services from one company and the consumer selects cheaper company. Transformation in organization’s policy: Ooredoo own witribe, a company that provides wireless internet services to people in Pakistan, meanwhile, its competitor Orascom not only provides internet services in Pakistan, but it also own mobile networks. In this regard the company needs to think about changing its policy while serving in Asia; moreover it should look at broadening the list of services that it could provide to the people (Ooredoo Qatar, n.d). Internal Factors: Last year’s year on year decline in assets was 8%, for the company (Hoovers, n.d.). To amend the loses in assets, the company will have to bring changes in the organisation. External factors forcing demanding change are competition, w hile internal factors that drive Ooredoo towards change is the drop in the company’s assets. Effect of Change Operational Change: If Ooredoo plans to expand its list of services by including digital cable television, it will be going through an operational change. To initiate this new endeavor, the company will have to make new investment, it will have to recruit skilled people who know how to operate and manage digital cable television services. The total number of consumers may increase, if the company decides to introduce the new service along with old. (CIPD, 2013). Strategic Change: if the company decides to expand its area as a service provider, it will undergo strategic change. The company will have to devise a new working strategy, especially for new markets (CIPD, 2013). It will need to design new marketing campaigns, and new dialect to deal in. furthermore, the recruitment of new staff and establishment of offices in new area will put pressure on the investor’s pocket. Transformational Change: if Ooredoo decides to buy shares or own a previously working telecom company, it will undergo transformational changes that will affect the organisation by adding new dimensions regarding client base, service provision and amendments in policy of the organization in regards to the merger of a smaller company. Thus change can affect the strategy of any organization; it may demand operational modifications/alterations in the policy. Recruitment of new members will increase the energy level of the team; meanwhile, experienced campaigners will have to work hard to cope with the competition laid by the new employees (CIPD, 2013). Change Models There are several change models proposed by theorists at an organizational level, however, only two of them are discussed here in regards to Ooredoo; they are Lewin’s model and Beckhard’s model. Lewin’s model deal with the transformation, it involves a transitional phase, where the organization enters a flexible state that helps it to gain a new form without any damage. It’s more like using the existing sources and changing the outlook. Lewin’s model is much more structured and streamlined; it demands the assessment of organization’s future goals in regards to its existing capacity. The analysis are followed by proposing the objectives and the work strategy for obtaining them (CIPD, 2013). Approaches Under present circumstances Ooredoo needs expand its client base, and it also needs to add new dimensions to its list of services, if it has to cope with the competition posed by rival companies. For example if the company decides to own a digital cable television network, it will have to hire professionals who know how to operate this technology and managers who could administer the task. For this purpose the company will have to look out for a team that could carry out the hiring and deliver its manifesto to new employees. Capacity Building and Teamwork: Teamwork is imperative for every kind of organization, and especially in the instances when the company is planning to bring some changes (CIPD, 2013). Positive attitude coupled with unity and innovations are required by a team to tackle with changes. Keeping these perquisites in mind the organization should select a team of employees to lead new projects and other matters related to change in an organization (CIPD, 2013). Selection and Assignment of Tasks: Selection of team members is based on their previous records, selected team must be provided with the idea and strategy to cope with the varying conditions. Employees must be provided with professional coaching, but they required carrying out the new task. From professional training onwards, the next requirement is to establish a healthy network among the employees. Members should be united into a single unit, to perform the required tasks and objectives (CIPD, 2013). Outlining the Objectives: The objectives assigned to a particular project should not be restricted to the decision makers. It should include the opinion of consumers and employees. In case of Ooredoo it must consult all the shareholders of the company, including Qtel, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the Qatar’s Government. Human behavior that needs to be considered Commitment is shown by those employees who want to bring the change; they propose it and the stick to this motive. There may several reasons for this behavioral response, and it is not restricted to their loyalty to the organization (CIPD, 2013). This change may have some personal incentives such as job promotion, increase in salary or interest. Compliance: Genuine compliance and formal compliance come by members of the team who accept the propose changes and direct themselves towards obtaining the desired outcomes (CIPD, 2013). Non-compliance: There is also a group that shows noncompliance towards a change, this may be due to their professional or academic limitations, or it may include factors like jealousy. Neutral: The tussle between the two blocs may create friction towards the growth of an organisation. Among the two extremes there lies a group of individuals that remain neutral, for them change means nothing and they are ready to stick to their normal routine (CIPD, 2013). HR Role Human Resource management is important when a company or an organization is looking to bring changes into its policy and operations. HR can perform three vital roles that are providing advice, administrating the operations and functions, and play a supporting role. Advisory: As advisory, the role of human resource department is to give advice to the management staff regarding employee dealings. They may design methods exchange and modes of conducts. Moreover, they may provide regulations on different activities that affect the performance efficiency. Monitoring and Professional Skills Development: Human resource department can also perform administrative tasks like monitoring the progress, tracking the developments associated with change and evaluation of employee’s performance. It can also raise questions regarding job fulfilment in relation to change (CIPD, 2013). Emotions Management: It aims at establishing comfortable environment for the employees, so that problems like emotions do not hinder the organization’s growth. They keep a regular check on the people in the organization, and devise techniques to cope with problems of subjective nature (CIPD, 2013) Conclusion Ooredoo is a Middle East based company that deals in mobiles, broadband internet, and also provides corporate services. The company serves throughout Middle East, North Africa and south Asia. It has to face tough competition from other companies that are based in Middle East. The company has margin for operational and strategic change. It may introduce its services into countries that are not encompassed by its services, or it may decide to bring an operational change by adding digital cable TV to it its list of services. In doing so the company will bound to recruit more professionals and invest larger sums towards expansion, therefore, Ooredoo needs to form a committee of individuals that could chalk out the plan for new ventures. Moreover, before taking any practical step it is imperative to evaluate the current skills of employees and other factors that may cause the change to become problematic to cope with. References CIPD, 2013. [Online] Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/ [Accessed 26 March 2014]. Hoovers, n.d.. [Online] Available at: http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/competition.Ooredoo_QSC.b65466b3e00304dc.html [Accessed 26 March 2014]. Ooredoo Qatar, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://www.ooredoo.com/en/company/who-we-are/our-global-team/ooredoo-qatar.html [Accessed 26 March 2014]. Read More