OPRIC LMP and CSR

Introduction

Orpic suffers a lack of effective social responsibility and a holistic approach in dealing with the community and the environment and this lead to problems in profitability as a result for passive reputation of the company that has been affected by such a situation. Issues related to oil wastes are neglected by the company and although there is a department for corporate social responsibility in the organization, there is a big shortage in the application and activities of that department. Challenges facing ORPIC growth include the proper application of the policies of corporate social responsibility and to have a holistic approach that ensures the right CSR application in the organization. There are pressures practiced by shareholders to urge the company take serious steps in the field of CSR. The current paper is discussing the problem of Orpic through reviewing and investigating the literature and the relevant theories such as the institutional theory that depends on going beyond the integrating of CSR into the company's behavior and realizing it historically and politically in addition to discussing tools for solving such a problem in ORPIC and techniques such as engaging shareholders in CSR activities or stakeholders' management, neutralization, scientific solutions and doing researches on the organization's current integrated management systems and discussing the business processes optimization. The research aims at discussing leaders' roles in taking serious actions to solve such a problem and suggesting strategies to be followed in order to applying CSR effectively in order to help the community and the environment and to raise the company's competitive advantage in the market and among all stakeholders. 

Problem statement

Corporate social responsibility is a term that has received much interest in the past decades as a result of the global trends towards having a clean world and a safer environment in local and national and international areas especially in developing countries where there are many passive practices in that regard as giving much interest to CSR in developing countries raises the effect on reducing poverty and pollution rates that are high with an absence of the governance observation in many of these countries. Spence, (2010) explained that the danger of the lack of enough CSR practices and activities increases in oil and gas companies that have passive behaviors regarding wastes, oil extraction processes and other relevant activities that are harm to the society and to the environment in general; he added that in many developing countries CSR activities and practices need more care due to the political conflicts and social problems these countries may suffer but Oman is a country that is advantaged with stable political conditions and high economic degree which make it a good place for initiating corporate social responsibility practices but there isn't enough knowledge and applications in this issue which makes it urgent to make different various researches in how to apply CSR in business organizations especially in oil and gas companies such as Orpic. Orpic has a corporate culture that gives interest to CSR and the company has a special department for it but there is need for applying different activities related to CSR and participating in the different social events in the local and the global levels. Orpic needs to have much more understanding for its role in CSR practices in addition to realizing methods that enable it to have strong CSR roles. Orpic practices of oil extraction and refinery works may affect the Omani society and environment as a result of not proper getting rid of wastes that lead to many complaints from shareholders and clients and other stakeholders which made the company in a critical situation that requires instant solutions that can be managed by the CSR department and by the company's leadership that can study the problem dimensions and identify methods for facing it with the help of many theories and investigations. The current research is trying to define the main problem Orpic company is suffering and states how it affects the general profitability of the company in addition to understanding the need for CSR to oil companies and to countries such as Oman and to find solution to face such a challenge that leads to reduced profitability of the company. The research is trying to review the past literature in relation with the problem of oil and gas companies and compare the case in different countries and then to suggest how CSR can be developed and sustained in Orpic in order to help the company reach a solution for its problem that is suffered in the community of Oman and perhaps in the global community.

Theoretical platform

Devin, (2014) discussed the institutional theory in relation with CSR and companies that try to apply CSR principles as he referred to the traditional techniques of business organization in following CSR old practices that depend on the history of the organization and its old means of dealing with the community which results in a resistance in change of the old traditional means of dealing with the world and the community and within the current age and the need for developing criteria followed in CSR, it become urgent to apply new techniques in CSR and look to the world not from an institutional perspective but within a holistic approach that focuses on a wider world and a better environmental globe. Jackson and Rathert, (2015) discussed how business organizations may not be able to understand how and why to communicate CSR in its proper place and what implications can be applied to prove that the company is reflecting real interest in such a policy and not only just pretending to the public that it has a CSR strategy as they confirmed on the need to be professional in presenting CSR to the local and global society and that this policy should be integrated within the organizational mission, values and corporate strategy; this may lead to complaints from the community that regard that the company is not giving the needed care to it through its programs and practices of CSR and then there must be a change in the organizational strategy dealing with corporate social responsibility. Buldybayeva, (2014) discussed how oil organization may neglect that they have to be more careful regarding CSR practices because the society is usually looking at them and considering them a main cause of pollution and are only interested in profits which raises the need to deal with those problems by the oil companies in order to be able to meet the social needs and add new dynamic dimension to the community as oil revenues can be shared with local governments or with the community where oil is found and people see that this oil is already owned to them; he referred that the different levels of corporate strategies in the organization result in different CSR models that may include the participative, hierarchical, exogenous, hybrid, endogenous or minimalist and each of those models can be used by the company's management to address the local and international community but the model should be selected carefully by the company's managers and researchers who can decide what model can be used to apply different CSR practices that can satisfy all stakeholders as each model has its own applications and these applications are what decide if the community is satisfied or not with the CSR type of the organization. Traditional approaches of CSR consider it a type of participation in the society of business without regard to the industry, products, society, the community or the economy of the country where the company is based.  

Eweje, (2007) explained how good CSR practices can raise the company's profits and improve its image in the society because it is then considered as a responsible member of the society with a legal standing that supports its position in the society due to the applications of corporate conduct that reflects the company's serious responsibility that is assured with its legal commitment; he also referred to the voluntary corporate conduct that is involved within the company's social responsibility as he asserted its importance to the company and to the society and they should reflect both local and international corporate social responsibility values in order to provide diversity of activities and provide a wider image of CSR that can be accepted locally and globally with a great variety of relevant activities to different attitudes, values, cultures and systems. This was affirmed by Gulbrandsen and Moe, (2005) as they confirmed that oil companies in particular should raise its interest in CSR practices as this type of business has long term dimensions that may really affect the society and harm the world and the environment in addition to addressing a very wide number of people from the industry and the public so there should be special regard to CSR of the company and to update the different practices and applications of the company's CSR. They explained that the government should also be careful from such types of industry by setting laws and legislations that control the process of production of oil and refinery in order to ensure general CSR to be applied by the company and set punishment on companies that are not following rules regarding wastes and production; they asserted that those who should deal with the practices of CSR in the oil companies shouldn't be among engineers, managers or low experienced professionals but they should be high experienced CSR professionals who are able to provide successful CSR projects and develop the different activities related to it in addition to recognizing the degree of social acceptance to the company's CSR participation locally and internationally as those high experienced professionals are able to conduct research and use different tools to assess the public acceptance of the company's share in CSR and can suggest new innovated solutions for any problems that may appear in that regard. Another important thing added to that is that oil companies' corporate culture such as Orpic is mainly focusing on technical skills of solving an identifiable problem which may be quantifiable and this limited focus lead to delivering limited community involvement and participation which in turn leads to great public dissatisfaction with the company's CSR projects in addition to a lack of sustainability. It is not important for the oil company to insist on the ‘business-case’ model that is applied as an approach to CSR as it leads to give interest to only relevant CSR issues to oil but the CSR activities need to be more social related and should be characterized with sustainability and accountability.  

Justification of theory

Orpic considers the environment as a major interest to its priorities which makes the company aware to the way its products and operations are done but the efforts done by the company are not enough for coping with today's world demands in the field of CSR so there should be a holistic approach that adopts new ideas and new CSR projects. Although the company has launched some environmental initiatives that are meant for reducing the environmental effects associated with the company's operations; Orpic is still suffering the need to provide the local and global society with enough activities and projects to ensure its insist on new innovative ideas in CSR and to prove that the company is adopting new modern methodologies of CSR and not following traditional institutional techniques. Orpic is working hard for reducing the harmful emissions the company may add to the environment and thus it thinks that it complies with the global environmental requirements but there should be more efforts for keeping the environment cleaner and trying to use new scientific techniques to keep the environment away from such harmful emissions and wastes. According to Thomsen, (2012), the institutional demands of CSR shouldn't be neglected by the company but they should be aligned with the social demands and environmental demands as all stakeholders should be put into the company's consideration when thinking of CSR in order to achieve success in that field, he confirmed on making analysis for the company's institutional strategies in adopting activities and practices relevant to CSR and explained that CSR policies should be updated from time to time by the company management and all shareholders should be discussed in order to realize the methods the company can apply to achieve acceptable CSR activities and projects. This was also discussed by Anderson and Bieniaszewska, (2005) who confirmed the role of including CSR within the company's strategy and how this should be integrated as a part of the company's business strategy, they also added that CSR should meet the needs of the different interest groups including shareholders as this can maximize profits and enable the company to strengthen its name in the community locally and globally. Orpic has provided the Omani society with different CSR development projects estimated with million dollars including Falaj Al Qabail Maintenance 124,667,23 Quick Win – completed 2 Ramadan Campaign 129,861.70 Quick Win – completed 3 AIESEC Partnership program 19,479.25 On going 3 Eyidia Campaign 129,861.7 Quick Win – almost completed 5 Football Tournament 31,166.81 Quick Win – will take place soon 4 Kick worldwide Outreach Program 317,901.44 On going 5 Tailoring Project 52,983.57 On going 6 Farmers Project 168,820.21 On going 7 Professional Education (for Providing training programs for the employment of 90 technical Professional) 420,751.91 and current Cyber Café project but these projects were not all successful and the community still complained of the emission of gases and the pollution the company causes by wastes throwing in addition to its location near villages and people homes which requires instant solutions to satisfy the public and confirm the company's policy relevant to CSR. (Orpic, 2016)

Orpic has many refineries and plants for producing oil and relevant products and the company produces different chemical products that may affect the environment when the production processes are not safe enough but the company tries hard to keep the environment around it clean yet this is not completely done as there is criticism and protests from the community that the company has to take more precautions in addition to providing the society with more share of the helping projects and job opportunities to solve problems of unemployment of native Omani so it is important that the company find solutions to such a problem, there should be greater roles for leaders in the company who can discuss the validity of the CSR department and checking if it is doing enough research in the Omani community and in the international society and then to compare the measurements of quality to those of the company and leaders should encourage CSR department to compare the current strategies used by the company in this regard to those of other international companies and then to find out new solutions; shareholders should meet with the company's management in order to discuss the matter, the public claims and suggest new scientific solution for wastes keeping and safe production. Dando and Martin, (2003) asserted the need to have friendly relationship with the community and the oil companies and that can be achieved if the oil companies found effective safe ways to get rid of wastes without causing harm to the public as he confirmed the need to find natural ways for waste recycling or usage in order to reduce harmfulness to the environment and reduce the pollution hazards by developing suitable techniques for the last disposal of dangerous wastes with bad substances it has or wastes can be used as energy source without harmful effects. The company should also provide the community with enough explanations about its activities related to CSR and this should occur in public events, meeting and conferences. Scheel, (2012) discussed how oil companies can maintain sustainability when they apply CSR practices as he stressed to have long term plans and make use of time to get rid of the complexity of the CSR practices which makes them less valued and regarded by the society and he focused also on changing the different practices of CSR in the community to have a holistic approach that can be realized locally and internationally and this can be made with the help of international institutions and organizations that care for CSR and provide international frameworks that can be applied by many countries such as the activities presented by the United Nation conferences. Orpic can make use of its current projects relevant to CSR and upgrade them, develop them and make them coping with the international frameworks in that concern in order to provide innovative ideas to the public and should focus on new methods for using wastes and emissions of oil production.  

Orpic is adopting many different projects that can prepare the company for the great changes occurring currently and till 2018 as the company is having three main projects that are supporting fuel Orpic’s transformation from being a national oil refinery to become an international integrated refining and petrochemicals company and in that regard the company is trying to expand its CSR practices and projects to cope with international measurements such as the company's current projects including beautification of Majees street and Al Mina Roundabout Street that is made by planting the streets' both sides in addition to making the construction works for their walkways and a forestation of Al Hilal Club playground that is existed in Auqda village in Liwa, as well as making a beautification project in the wilayat, in addition to other social projects that will be conducted by Orpic. (omanobserver, 2014) All the previously mentioned news is good and promising but the problem is that the company regards CSR as following laws, legislation and complying with the laws which is not true as CSR are those actions and events that are more and beyond the commitment of laws and legislations but this is a policy and a valued approach by the company and all stakeholders. According to Frynas , (2009)the oil and gas companies should have significant community development schemes to be implemented by them in order to help satisfy the public community as new projects such be more close to people as for example, development projects including schools, hospitals and employment programs in addition to participating in international partnerships with known trustworthy established development agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as well as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and at the same time they have to ask specialist consultancies and non-governmental organizations for implementing the needed development programs actually on the ground as this raises the company's reliability and the projects' validity. This was confirmed by Justice, (2016) who added that CSR should explain the industry practices and they should reflect a real value of the organization and not being just a pretended practice and oil companies in particular should show high CSR responsibilities and a big share in the community development. Witte and Jonker, (2006) referred to the nature of oil companies that raises the risks resulting from operations such as exploration of oil and gas, land clearance and the emissions and wastes from operations of gas refinery processes and that all these operations raise the public awareness and rag against such companies which makes it very necessary for them to develop a sustainable CSR program that is characterized with high biological protection systems and pollution related initiatives in order to prove its kind intention and hard work in that regard in addition to implementing practices against environmental risks and declaring the methods used by the company in protecting people and sharing responsibilities with them. Sustainability is important and needs to be stressed on while achieving CSR projects and this ensures future of these projects that is developed and promising and ensures safety for all stakeholders on local and international levels.

Conclusion

In conclusion, CSR is not only following the rules and legislations of the government in order to apply projects that prove the company is following those laws but it is broader than this as it should bear a value of the organization and a mission that ensures the existence of a holistic approach followed by the organization to participate in the social responsibilities including keeping the environment safe and clean and providing services to support the public in the community. Oil and gas companies in particular are always accused by the public community and organizations of keeping the world safe of being very dangerous on the world and the environment due to the harmful emissions and wastes those companies affect the world with and due to their existence besides villages and cities full of people so there should be high interest by these companies for CSR practices and activities that should reflect a deep awareness and understanding for the stakeholders' needs and the society aspirations from the company. Orpic has its own policy and strategy for CSR that are followed by the company to help the Omani society and keep the environment clean and safe but there should be more interest in reducing the harms and emissions of the company in order to have better reputation among local and international societies and this can be applied by the help of managers who should suggest new strategies for the company that are based on involving CSR practices and projects that are coping with the international measurements of international organizations responsible for world corporate social responsibility. 

Recommendations

It is recommended that Orpic should make deep analysis for the current practices and activities of the company relevant to CSR and to assess how far those practices, activities and projects reflect the real company's intentions in achieving helpful and cooperative approach that presents to the society help and safety regarding all the operations the company makes and the different intentions of improving the Omani society and its people in addition to proving the company is following a holistic approach that considers all global considerations regarding keeping the environment clean and safe and helping the world community. Orpic is recommended to change some of its current strategies in order to ensure the company is updating its corporate strategies and including CSR in all its practices. The company is asked to work with international organizations that give care to new updated and innovative ideas and suggestions regarding CSR practices and this can help Orpic follow international measurements of quality regarding oil emissions and helping the society programs. It is better if Orpic asks high professionals to implement the different CSR practices, analyze them, discuss how far they are successful and update them to cope with the international society and to be careful for declaring to the society how the company is careful to assure quality of its practices especially CSR practices.