Systemic Management - Ooredoo, Qatar - Case Study Example

SYSTEMIC MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF OOREDOO, QATAR OUTLINE Introduction 2. About Ooredoo 3. Ooredoo Key Situation Issues 4. Analysis of Metaphor Ooredoo as a Machine Ooredoo as culture Ooredoo as a Political Entity Ooredoo as a Brainy Organism 5. Organism Metaphor, Most Suitable Metaphor and Best fit for Ooredoo 6. System of System Methodology (SoSM) SoSM Analysis of Ooredoo System 7. Complex Adaptive System (CAS) Model 8. Conclusion Systemic Management: The Case of Ooredoo Qatar Introduction Systemic management framework is a process of decision-making where organizational challenges are identified, and solutions diagnose in a creative way (Cano, 2003). Systemic management is applied in an organization with complex situations. The paper analyzes the Ooredoo Qatar complex situation through Morgan Metaphors, Organism, Culture, Machine, Brain and political. The SoSM model is used to identify the problems and give solutions (Adrienne, 2006). The paper also uses CAS to suggest better management system for the organization (Holland, 2012). About Ooredoo Ooredoo is one of the world’s biggest multinational telecommunications company. The company was formerly called Qatar Telecom but did a rebranding and a change of name. Ooredoo is currently the largest telecommunications company n Qatar boasting of more than 2.6 million business and consumer customers. Ooderoo, like other telecommunication companies offers its subscribers mobile services, fiber services, digital and broadband. The company’s headquarters is based in Doha, Qatar’s capital. Ooredoo’s operations in Qatar can be traced back to 1949, when the very first 50-line telephone exchange of its kind was developed in Doha. Ooredoo Qatar was created in the 1987 Law No. 13. The company introduced the GSM mobile telephony almost immediately and two years later introduced internet services. In 2006, the company launched GPRS (high-speed data roaming for mobile), IP telephone, 3G multimedia services and mobile internet. In early 2010, the company continued to upgrade its services including the 3G services and the mobile money platform. The company embarked on rolling out the fiber network nationwide (Oman, 2012). The company also made a major milestone in 2012 by marking the beginning of change to the new ultrafast 4G LTE broadband services reaching a high download sped of 100Mbps. The company also launched Time Shift TV, HDTV, and Video-on-Demand. Despite the challenging economic and operational conditions, the company has experienced growth over the years to become of the best and better service offering companies in the region. Ooredoo Key Situation Issues Every year, Ooredoo receives millions of calls from the different call centers. The solution involves critical operational problems to ensure quality, high consistency, and availability of services where the products are increasingly becoming complex (Jackson, 2000). The call centers are manually managed where personal information, training documents, and hard copy manuals are the main sources of information. The processes are very costly and lack efficiency. The process is not accurate and has numerous discrepancies. The agents own the knowledge and store it in their heads. It is in the best interest of Ooredoo to solve all these challenges of the call center, reduce the related costs and improve customer satisfaction using a new database solution. The high levels of site access and security, optical delivery system automated redundancy, including the network proactive operations, and a short commissioning time window are the key challenges. In addition, quality of service, reliability, digital HDTV receivers, viewing experience (QoS/ QoE), analog/ digital TV services simulcast, rack space availability, and distances and redundancy including NMS network management system (Christopher, 2007). These are some of the problems of integration and design that resulted from Prime Minister and Emir distribution project and HDTV delivery. Ooredoo is one of the biggest telecommunications company in Asia. The company has been spreading its operations to all corners of the world. The vast areas of operations pose challenges like increase in demand for materials and resources. The shareholders develop high expectations in line to diversification in the telecommunications sector, shortages of experienced and skilled staff, high turnover as a result of stiff competition, and project delivery management failure (Adrienne, 2006). Additionally, Ooredoo is also characterized the by lack of clearly defined procedures, rules, responsibilities, and proper control system. While the company has suggested and outlined some answers to these problems, these suggestions are just in the documents but not implemented. The company has also employed so many staff due to the demand for better customer service at the call centers and unskilled staff (Paul, 2011). The company has also failed to handle the suppliers and the contractors professionally. The contractor and supplier complaints, as a result, have risen. There is no international standardization in how the company handles the suppliers and the contractors. Delay in milestone payments is one such major challenge. The suppliers are sometimes forced to quote higher to cover the rising costs due to delay in pay and delivery. Analysis of Metaphor: According to Jackson (2012), using the metaphor analysis enable one to identify a problem in the organization and then solve the problem creatively. The paper adopts the five Morgan metaphors to analyze Ooredoo’s challenges and then give the solutions accordingly. The five Morgan Metaphors used include Organism, Culture, Machine, Brain and political. Ooredoo as a machine: Ooredoo perfectly fits this metaphor in a few sectors to utilize the benefits of the machine metaphor particularly for repetitive and routine activities. However, most of the sectors are not adhering to the metaphor (Dalkir, 2005). The Ooredoo Qatar management responds very slowly to the change in the environment and the approvals in terms of hierarchy of the management. Te following table reflects this metaphor in Ooredoo Characteristics Argument Comments Closed System Due to the nature of telecommunications business, Ooredoo is open to its environment both internal and external but the management system seems to lack focus. There is the low-speed response to major changes that are required to happen faster Ooredoo’s headquarter is based in Qatar, most of the major decisions must be made from the head office, implying that there are likely to be delays that will reduce speed of implementations and actions (Shanley, 2007). The headquarters management explains the main reasons for customer complaints in certain regions of poor networks and services: Shareholders: Failure to design clear policies, rules, and responsibilities; Failure to hire the services of highly skilled workers, Ooredoo once employed to take advantage of the cheap labor from different countries. Project Team: Failure to train the already employed staff. Failure to retain the local staffs that are attracted by the major competitors. Ooredoo does not have a strong rewarding scheme (Shanley, 2007). Contractors/Suppliers: Failure to keep to the industry-specific standards. Failure to monitor suppliers for quality inventories. Failure to monitor the suppliers and contractors for timely delivery. Failure to pay the contractors on time (McMillan, 2008). Standardized Parts Procurement has a standard procedure, and every project have different requirements. Where there is complexity in procurement, it should be streamlined to ensure a smooth flow of the process. Only the major tenders should go through the tender board to make the process faster. The minor tenders should be simplified and only pass through minor tender board. Every part has its function In order to adopt the changes made, the pre-defined parts should be updated. - Not clearly defined responsibilities and regulations - Every project should have its procedures and requirements () Ooredoo Designed for Efficiency Management does not realize that they are existing to solve issues and monitor surrounding the environment - Improper allocation and management f resources - No proper planning - Not taking advantage of economies of scale - No standardization of routine jobs Routine operation Innovations are no longer huge There is a huge section for operations development Preset objectives and goals Goals, objectives, and business plan are in place but not properly managed or implemented - Failure to transform goals from the designed document to the real useful thing that benefits the company - Not including all staff members while implementing changes - Unrealistic goals (Zero LTI) Source: Author Ooredoo as Culture: Ooredoo has not been successful in developing a strong culture for the employees and amongst the customers. The staff has identified cultural issues to be a major concern that the management should look at keenly (Clarke and Lehaney, 2000). Some examples of cultural problems Ooroderoo is suffering from include: The employees taking unmonitored sick leaves, offs and absence Employees are not included in the process of ideas creation. No room for ideas innovation, creation or suggestion. There is a gross conflict of interest when MDBC and other sectors are dealing with suppliers and contractors There is no loyalty to Ooredoo since there is no loyalty The staff are not appreciated for their hard work, performance or achievements No accountability or ownership culture Staff are reported to engage in personal conflicts between them Character Argument Comments Shared reality Ooredoo does not have this in the vision The Ooredoo employees should work as a unit with a single vision Values and Beliefs Part of company vision Values and beliefs should always guide the employees every day and in everything they do. As long as the employees understand the company values and believe, they use them while working towards the common vision. Acceptable and Desirable Behavior Not included in Ooredoo rules and regulations The Ooredoo management has the duty to draw a common framework that will act as the path that every employee follows, ensuring that there will be minimal conflicts amongst the employees as currently witnessed (Jackson, 2011). From the analysis accomplished above, it is clear that this metaphor does not suite PDO environment. Ooredoo as a political entity; The political metaphor exists in the top management level o the organization (Clarke and Lehaney, 2000). The political metaphor should be existing in the Managing Director Board Committee (MDBC) (Adrienne, 2006). Characteristics Argument Comments Looks at how power is used in the organization MDBC must use their power appropriately to influence decisions - MDBC passing information without consulting with the necessary parties - Ooredoo employs family members into the top ranks. Some may lack the required expertise - Budget is altered several times in a single year - The MDBC members influence the recruitment procedures - The company does not have a consistent promotion assessment. It differs from one department to another Source: Author Ooredoo as a Brainy Organism: The organism metaphor suits the Ooredoo more. The slow response of the management (MDBC) may have an adverse effect on the performance of the company (Brocklesby, 1995). A representation of the Ooredoo organism metaphor: Characteristics Argument Comments open system view Ooredoo system is open to change. Competition and rapid innovations in technology in the industry make it open for change. The hierarchy system requires that the major changes and decisions are done at the top level. The changes have to be done with the top management (MDBC) The elements have a complex structure and relationship There are a complex relationship and structure between the project teams, MDBC, project team, suppliers, contractors and the locals. Ooredoo should adopt a formal approval process for the relationship between project team and MDBC (Luis, 2009). There is a weak relationship between the MDB and the supplier/contractor which often leads to conflict. Homeostasis and self-regulation The company was established from the very first days to be self-regulated Sometime back, the company lost direction due to old procedures and lack of control. There is the need for improvement in the self-regulating. Focus on survival Ooredoo is a multinational firm, operating in vast regions across the globe. The company provides telecommunication services and pays huge taxes to different governments including Qatar government. The licensing took a very long time, more than a year. When it was awarded, the competitors were also given the licenses The license works for only 15 years. The management needs to look at the cost of operation licensing and other related costs. inputs from the environment and outputs to the environment They are linked from and to the environment, however, need improvement and dedicated team. According to the laid down procedures, almost all the information has to be approved by the top management. When information is collected and analyzed, it takes longer before approval, and implementation takes place. adaptation The management has to adapt to the operation environment, and decisions have to be made accordingly. The delays are eminent because the approvals have to come from the top management; top-bottom decision-making model an information system Being a telecom based business, the company has different information systems for recording and analyzing the information. And this depends on the sector. There is a huge data for evaluation. There are also different sub-surface and surface applications which require specifically experienced and knowledgeable staff to handle them. The system calls for technical support teams and program. a control unit Ooredoo has some control mechanism to control the programs and activities to help in the management of the scopes, budget, changes, and projects. The auditing system has to be efficient and should be reinforced through government auditing teams learning to learn Ooredoo has put in place several programs to aid in capturing the need for earning which will be essential for future use. To be more efficient, the programs need to be linked where necessary. For example, there is need to link the projects, change program management and the lessons learned from the project. Source: Author Organism Metaphor, Most Suitable Metaphor and fits Ooredoo: From the earlier evaluation, it is now possible to reveal the metaphors that have the ability to elaborate Ooredoo’s working system: While the Ooredoo system is open, the management is slow in response in terms of decision-making (Clarke and Lehaney, 2000). The MDBC brings in political bureaucracy in decision-making. No consultations are made when passing critical information The hierarchy system is very complex, the tendering system even more complicated. Delegation should be introduced to speed operation. The “brainy organism” suites the Ooredoo situation. Ooredoo is surviving because it is a huge company with the resources and beats its small competitors easily (Christopher, 2007). Ooredoo also enjoys the millions of consumers in the region it serves with bigger new interior markets yet to be explored. The political and cultural issues even complicate Ooredoos situation further. The Ooredoo structure needs o be streamlined to have a well-organized and managed organization without bureaucracy. The company needs to put in line a vision that creates a solid Ooredoo culture, ensuring that political interference from the MDBC is neutralized and allowing for better operation of other sectors like supply, contract, employee recruitment, etc (Stefan and Jonathan, 2012). System of System Methodology (SoSM) The SOSM as illustrated in figure 1 is adopted as a basis for an argument that the methodologies application can be better understood through problem determination contexts where they are put to use. Therefore, SOSM is a problem classification to the level through which they exhibit people complexity, from the unitary all the way to coercive. And the system complexity varied from simple to complex (Christopher, 2007). Jackson and Key introduced this model back in 1984, and he emphasized the fact that a problem in a system is determined by two main factors. The system nature which I simple or complex and the participants of the system which are unitary, pluralist or coercive. Figure 1: System of System Methodology Figure 2 shows the TSI process. TSI is recursive and iterative. Iteration means that the system is continuous instead of being a start-end method. The TSI recognizes the part taken by both the human and technical activities (Adrienne, 2006). TSI gives a framework that allows for choice and implementation of the available methodologies. An intervention is then carried out pluralistically. The context of the problem is viewed as a mess where creativity is adopted to surface the problems that should be managed. Creativity reflection then seeks to find out whether enough appreciation of the mess has been obtained. Figure: The Process of TSI (Total System Intervention) SoSM Analysis of Ooredoo System The Ooredoo as developed a complex system in nature due to the following reasons: The technological change in the industry is very fast (Brocklesby, 1995). The entity, therefore, changes continuously in telecommunications As explained earlier, Ooredoo system is open to the environment given the nature of the telecommunications business and activities It is not easy predicting the organization behavior Participants Nature I find Ooredoo to be unitary n its operations because of the following reasons: Decisions are made from the top organ of the organization, MDBC. The company employees and the suppliers/ contractors are selected to share the compatible believes and values. Viable System Model is used to identify the problems in the organization, referring to the SoSM due to the complexity in Ooredoo’s nature. Fur forked system is used; Operations, coordination, Control, intelligence, and policy. Ooredoo System Redesign Based on the Identified Problems OPERATIONS Exploration Human Resources Management Ensure proper recruitment system Ensure promotion on merit Training staff Recruit according to demand Operations Management Plan resources according to the demand and avoids wastages Production Call Center Management Use appropriate technology for data collection and storage Budget MDBC should approve all the budgets Any changes made on the budget must be documented and certified Project Management Simplify tendering process Audit the contractors Ensure proper planning to avoid project delay projects Human Resources Management Harmonize salaries with the industry standards. A different party can be given the job to do this professionally Design a recruitment plan Design staff appointment and evaluation criteria Tran staff to enhance their competencies Budget Budget should not be based on personal needs but the needs of the business Coordination The staff in every department must work as one and concentrate towards achieving any projective objective together A third party consultant should be engaged to help in reviewing policies and procedures and aid in minimizing conflict between staff Control Provide more resources and strengthen the internal audit Create a supportive and open environment Ensure the procedure is followed in promotion, training, staff appointment and budget phasing, etc. Intelligence Implement a feedback system, A third party should be engaged to enhanced the competency of low-performing directors Policy Ministry of Information and Technology should direct on procedure for selection of MDBC Changes be done on the MDBC following procedures Design decision-making criteria and better communication Develop a culture of company policy compliance Complex Adaptive System (CAS) Model According to Dalkir (2005), CAS system is appropriate for an organization that features high value of elements of self-organization, where every element is trying to maximize its objectives. CAS system has an open surrounding, there is a high level of communication within the system and includes smaller interconnected networks (Dalkir, 2005). A CAS system has a good control system to manage the different relations and connections between the system elements. The system also has a feedback mechanism to aid in capturing changes. The Ooredoo managers can, therefore, take advantage of the CAS system to help in finding solutions to the complex situations, for example, change, connection and uncertainty. CAS is helpful in analyzing a complex situation and then identify opportunities (Christopher, 2007). CAS guiding principle Managers focusing on the organization culture Create an organization with decentralized authority and harmonized procedure Improve the staff knowledge and skills and avoid top-bottom system of management Conclusion Managing an organization can be very complex especially if it a multinational corporation. Managers need to understand their complex nature of their organization to provide better direction for future progress (Brocklesby, 1995). Understanding the business environment gives the managers the opportunity to identify the problems and find the best-suited solutions to the problems. Some f the suggested methods that the manager can use to identify a problem and find better solutions have been suggested: SoSM, VSM, and CAS. The SoSM has been singled out as a way for managers to identify the best metaphor for their organization. In our case, Organism has been identified as the most appropriate metaphor for Ooroderoo (Christopher, 2007). The paper has conducted an analysis of the company and given solutions based on the identified problems. The CAS model has been briefly highlighted to show how the managers can use the model to approach changes in the organization. Reference List Adrienne C. ETER f. AND Ivan H (2006). ANAGING Information and Systems: The Business Pespective. 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