sohar leadership change management

Having considered the theory, research and science, characteristics of organizations identify and assess:

1. The seven structures and systems present in your organization
2. Analyze and describe how the present Leadership Value Systems and Structures in your organization impact on leadership, management and staff.
3. Consider and analyze differences to your competitors (local or global)
4. Consider to what extent are these differences positive points of differentiation or negative traits of the organization

In Sohar Aluminum, the leadership system has used the seven structures and vMems in a way that suits the needs and demands of the organization and the market of Oman and the Arabian Gulf. According to Reitter, (2014) Grave's theory has presented the vMemes in order to be in many fields of life including leadership. The purple is used in Sohar Aluminum for focusing on group work and employees relationships in order to maintain safety and protection of a one unit working together for presenting the best work for the business organization. The red structure is used for power and maintaining a stable level of business that can compete effectively with other rivals in the market. The blue structure is applied in order to ensure the organizational conformity, obeying authority and orders to meet the organizational values and goals. The orange system is used for meeting effectiveness and achieving the work as it should be done and using many ways to make it entrepreneurial and pragmatic. The green structure is applied in order to ensure communication between employees and leaders in order to assert the work as one community that work according certain goals whatever cultural diversity is there. Sharing ideas of others and showing true care is important and confirmed by the leadership using this system. Yellow system is applied through focus on learning via training employees and raising their awareness and educating them. The turquoise system is used and applied through the leadership holistic approach in including global ideas related to the aluminum industry as well as giving much care to the environment and relevant issues.   

In Sohar Aluminum, there is a focus on specific leadership value systems and structures which are the red and blue with tendency towards orange and green, this leads to many consequences as focusing on these two systems mainly make the leadership less communicative with employees and this reduces effectiveness of performance of many employees who suffer some problems and are in need for communication with leaders. The leadership of the organization prefers the transactional leadership style which leads to many problems and challenges within the organization yet there are many tries of many leaders to apply changes and apply the transformational leadership lately but there should be more flexibility in changing leadership styles. Miller, (2012) discussed the need and importance of communication skills in order to ensure effective leadership, he discussed three important levels of communication important for leaders which are the core communication skills, the team communication skills and the strategic and external communication skills. The leadership focus on the red and blue via the transactional leadership style mostly makes it difficult for employees to find enough time for communication with each other and with their leaders, focusing on rules, adequacy, power elements and authority yet the tries of applying transformational leadership have proved success in bringing in more communication opportunities. Transactional leadership makes it difficult for leaders to assign time for employees' complaints, needs and aspirations and this also makes it difficult for realizing the needs of training related to each employee. The transformational leadership style proved help the leadership to use other value systems that can enable leaders to have more time for communication and discussions with employees and this reduces the efficiency of the staff and makes them lacking the desire and time for innovation and creativity.

The aluminum industry in Oman and internationally face huge development and there are many aluminum companies in Oman such as World aluminum, ORAC Aluminum and OAPIL. The company is always competing other companies in the region of the Gulf and Middle East and this raises the need for effectiveness and efficiency of performance in the organization. This means the need for more innovation and creativity. There is a tendency in the leadership of other companies to apply other new and more flexible leadership styles such as the transformational leadership style. This makes them focus on other value systems such as the orange and the green rather than other structures of the value system. Sabir et al, (2012) discussed the transformational leadership style advantages and its effect on communication in the business organization, applying changes and innovations that can develop the business's performance and improve productivity and profitability. This raises the levels of competition between Sohar and other competitors in the local and global market as most companies are applying many innovations and changes through new leadership styles such as transformational leadership styles.

These differences between Sohar Aluminum and other competitors may lead to negative results on the company as it is a leading company in that field,   one of a slew of operational improvements logged by the company last year. Aluminium production of the company has jumped from 363,528 tonnes in 2014 to 377,186 tonnes in 2015 and the company is in need to keep this level of success and develop it as well. Positive points of applying the current leadership structures and the resulting differences between it and other rivals in the market may be the systematic methods of delivering work, exact delivery times of different orders and this raises the reputation of the company in the market as employees are very keen to be adequate and following the rules and instructions of leaders exactly as they are and on exact times. (Bloxsome, 2016)  

Now that you understand your organizations structure, consider your organizations sector. Critically analyze:

a.      How has your sector evolved?

b.      In what way do they differ to your competitors (local or global)

c.       To what extent are these differences positive points of differentiation or negative traits of the organization

Sohar Aluminum leadership structure yet has evolved to apply different techniques for being a strong sector in the aluminum market. The sector grew with the growing of the industry in Oman. According to Beauregard, (2007) the sector theory made by Hoyt, (1939) focused on life and career in USA and how to change leadership patterns in order to suit development and evolution of business and market. He explained how the sector theory focused on planning as a main component for career and sectors  evolution. In Sohar Aluminum, planning takes important part of interest by the leadership and it is important to set different types of plans and a variety of them. The sector theory also focused on identifying the neighborhood quality and efficiency in order to measure the levels of success, methods and techniques used by competitors and how to face them. Sohar aluminum sector also focused also on cooperation as a main component for evolution through applying the transformational leadership style as according to Jiang et al, (2017) transformational leadership has great impact on employees' performance and cooperation and it ensures sustainable change and effective employees' performance. Because Sohar Aluminum is a private sector company in Oman, it is trying to apply many changes in its leadership and management but this needs much more effort and more space for transformational leadership. Sohar tries to apply the organizational citizenship behavior in order to empower employees and set them into more communicative work environment. Evolution of the sector depended on the team work and team management by effective leadership, this was alongside with the development of the private sector in Oman as development of the private sector tended to apply transformations and changes in its leadership and management styles as many private companies have developed its leadership styles and applied complete transformational leadership in its organizations. This made the private sector play a very important role in developing the Omani economy. (Timesofoman, 2017)

Competitors in Oman all try hard to develop their organizations and find out the best ways of developing the aluminum industry. They all try to apply transformations and innovations. OARC for aluminum, for example, is trying to be a green field company in order to produce clean products that do not harm the environment and to produce new products that can suit the Omani society and the international market as well in order to innovate new products and new relevant pieces of product. There is a high desire for developing aluminum kitchen tools and provide new products that can compete and boost international aluminum resembling products. According to Anh, (2016) competition makes the company try to find new ways to improve its brand and this can be applied by effective leadership and innovative strategy, the company should be aware of all techniques used by other companies and rivals in order to boost them and present new techniques as well. Competition according to Swamy and Wamy, (2014) should be based on many types of analysis and comparing the company's conditions and strategies to others and leadership is responsible for finding the differences in leadership styles among companies locally and internationally, They confirmed the need to understand changes in other companies and how to apply it. Global competitors also are trying to apply changes but they focus more on innovation and creativity in the field of aluminum industry. They are trying to add new features to products and they are applying this through leadership. Leadership has become a global interest in all business organizations, they apply transformational leadership styles that encourage innovation, creativity, change and communicative approaches, global competition has become very severe because international companies depend mainly on the leadership style as there are attempts to change between different leadership styles that can affect the employees' productivity and understand their needs, their ambitions, their problems and their career plan. This is very helpful for any business organization as it helps it improve the employees' performance and in turn improves the organizational performance.

These points are in fact to some extent positive points for the organization. When realizing competitors' planning and leadership. They are positive because they can give the organization the light for following the same leadership strategy or applying change in the organization. The organization can make use of many leadership theories in order to compete other rivals in the market and it can use different leadership styles and change them according to the needs of the organization. The organization can compare its strategy in leadership and apply different leadership styles. It can for example use transactional leadership in order to ensure adequacy and order in the organization as according to Omar et al, (2013) transactional leadership is used in order to maintain order and assure authority in the organization. The organization then can alter the leadership style to be transformational in order to make the work environment more flexible and achieve changes that other organizations have achieved as according to Aarons, (2007) transformational leadership is able to apply changes and transformations and can encourage employees to communicate more with their leaders and suggest their ideas and innovations in order to maintain more flexibility and compete other companies' innovations.

   

Having examined change and transformation critically assess and analyze how to ensure your organization’s  continued growth and success, organizations need to undertake transformation and growth.  

a. What kinds of changes are taking place in your sector and what do you believe the most successful organizations are doing to embrace the changes required to deliver continued success?

b. To what extent is your organization at the forefront of this transformation (or maybe it is trailing some of the best organizations in the sector). Give examples of specific actions and leadership behaviors you are seeing to underpin your view.

In Sohar Aluminum, there are many changes that are occurring such as changing the leadership style to be transformational, changing the work environment to be more comfortable and relaxing and to apply changes in the type of products in order to be innovated and updated and coping new technology locally and internationally. The most successful organizations are always trying to apply different frameworks and theories in order to apply new leadership styles. These organizations also change leadership styles based on the organization's needs, the market needs, clients' wishes and how far the current used leadership styles are effective and what the advantages and disadvantages of each leadership style. This should be through many different types of analysis. Champan, (2002) discussed frameworks for analyzing current and potential leadership styles, evaluating them and methods for improving performance using transformational leadership style. He referred to two levels of change that should be regarded in business organizations which are the first order change and the second order change, he also referred to the qualitative changes within the organization and adjustments that can be done within it. He discussed that the system core shouldn't be changed but changes should be made as a development step towards innovation and creativity that can improve products' performance as well as the organizational performance. This can be applied in Sohar Aluminum when the leadership is more flexible and transformational leaders are able to choose the most suitable changes and apply them with the help of employees. According to () transformational leaders are able to guide their followers to apply the desired changes that can be applied through effective employee leaders programs where leaders are more able to communicate change with employees and identify new innovative methods for applying change from the employees themselves. Motivation is very important for employees who are asked to apply changes as they have to know why changes are taking place and what benefits they and the organization can gain from these changes. Analyzing the different levels of leadership in the organization is very important to be done before applying change as according to Milar, Hind and Magala, (2012) analyzing the current situation in the business organization is very important to ensure success of applying change. Another important thing discussed by them and that is done by successful organization to apply change is ensuring sustainability and this should be done after applying change and evaluating the results and consequences of it, sustainable change can ensure higher productivity levels and more profits to be gained from the right implementation of changes. 

The organization is doing well in applying transformations as there are many signs and examples representing these changes but it still needs more work in order to apply full transformational leadership that is able to apply the desired changes in innovation, creativity and in the work environment. It is clear that some leaders are trying to get the followers' commitment through applying changes in the work environment such as those leaders who applied discussion sessions and open discussions with employees in order to understand their needs, ambitions and complaints. Other examples are found in leaders who tried to change the offices of employees and try to make open areas for having break, restaurants where employees can enjoy free lunch meals together with their leaders and changing old office appliances with new more comfortable ones. Changes have left great positive effect on employees and made them more communicative and more job satisfied. Changes are also occurring in the way leaders are dealing with employees as leaders began to encourage employees to present innovative suggestions and new ideas for marketing the company's products. Employees' innovative ideas have been studied by leaders and the good suitable ones have been implemented. This lead to the emerge of new aluminum products that entered the Gulf market and an increase in exporting the innovated products as they became more competitive and required locally and internationally.  

Every organization faces challenges and problems, which can be driven from rapid growth or serious decline. Identify and critically assess:

a. The top two or three big issues your organization is facing

b. Key actions your organization needs to take to put it on a path of future sustainable success.

Rapid growth of Sohar Aluminum locally and internationally has led to some challenges that the company is facing now such as the low customer service, human resource risk and leadership shortfalls. These problems made great challenges that stand against achieving the desired changes and maintain sustainable success. The low customer service resulted from the high demand on the new products and the innovated products and this high demand made the company in need for delivering the products at exact deadlines and without delaying them but many delays have occurred and many customers have complained. According to Hall, (2002) customer service is very important for maintaining the company's good reputation as he discussed many techniques in order to maintain the satisfaction of clients and customers and that there should be scheduling and rescheduling systems for ensuring exact time delivery of purchased orders. Another challenge is the human resource risk as the organization is suffering changes that occurred to many employees who are resisting change as there are also leaders who resist change and are still using one leadership style such as transactional that doesn't accept innovative ideas needed for applying change, those employees are not feeling well or satisfied with change implementation and are not aware of the high need for such changes to the success and development of the organization. Some of those employees are not cooperative with the organization and they don't participate in the community events and discussions the organization is doing and there are also leaders who don't accept change and are encouraging those employees not to accept it. This has led the organization to face the challenge of losing its human resources and this means more loss and lower productivity and profitability. Those employees are in need for having awareness about the changes and why they are being applied and what they have to do in order to cope with these changes for their own welfare and for the organization's welfare. The third challenge is the leadership shortfalls as some leaders are not able to apply change as required for success and they are not acknowledged of all areas of change, those leaders sometimes face hinders that prevent them from applying change exactly as needed and they then fail to achieve the needed results from implementing change. Leaders who fail to apply change are sometimes not able of the right techniques for choosing the leadership styles and what frameworks can be chosen to apply change. They don't have the proper education or knowledge about the best ways of applying change and maintaining its sustainability within the business organization and in the market locally and internationally.    

For maintaining future sustainable success, Sohar Aluminum should take some main actions as according to Batruch, (2017) sustainability of change can be gained by facing the difficulties and challenges and finding effective solutions for facing them and keep sustainable success. The organization is asked to provide the right training for both employees and leaders before applying any changes and transformations because training can help them be ready for applying the change and it can prepare them to apply changes and accept them. Leaders in particular are in bad need for receiving training before applying changes and transformation as they should be well acknowledged about the reason the organization is applying change. Education should be provided for employees and leaders in order to raise their awareness regarding the need for change and what suitable framework and theories that should be used to apply new leadership styles that can be effective and more suitable for change implementation. There should also be suitable climate for change and the work environment should be developed to suit the new changes and make employees more ready for communicating changes with their leaders.

References

1.      Aarons, G. (2007). ' Transformational and Transactional Leadership: Association With Attitudes Toward Evidence-Based Practice.' https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1876730/

2.      Batruch, C. (2017). ' Climate change and sustainability in the energy sector.' Journal of World Energy, Law and Business.' https://academic.oup.com/jwelb/article/10/5/444/4565586

3.      Bloxsome, N. (2016). 'Sohar Aluminium achieves new production record.' http://www.aluminiumtoday.com/news/view/sohar-aluminium-achieves-new-production-record

4.      Champan, J. (2002). ' A framework for transformational change in organisations.' http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/01437730210414535

5.      Hall, R. (2002). ' Excellent customer service: Don't try to practice without it!.' http://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/fulltext/2002/07000/Excellent_customer_service__Don_t_try_to_practice.5.aspx

6.      Millar, C. Magala, S. Hind, P. (2012). ' Sustainability and the need for change: organisational change and transformational vision.' Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 25 Issue: 4, pp.489-500, https://doi.org/10.1108/09534811211239272

7.      Miller, B. (2012). 'Leadership Communication: the Three Levels.' https://www.mcgill.ca/engage/files/engage/leadership_communication_miller_2015.pdf

8.      Omar, Z. Silong, A. Suandi, T. Mahdinezahad, M. (2013). 'Transformational, Transactional Leadership Styles and Job Performance of Academic Leaders.' https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1068712.pdf

9.      Reitter, N. (2014). 'Clare W. Graves and the Turn of Our Times.' Journal of Conscious Evolution Issue 11, 2014 http://cejournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Reitter.pdf

10.  Sabir, M. Javed, H. Chaudhry, A. (2012). 'THE IMPACT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL AND TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLES ON THE MOTIVATION OF EMPLOYEES IN PAKISTAN.' Pakistan Economic and Social Review Volume 50, No. 2 (Winter 2012), pp. 223-231http://results.pu.edu.pk/images/journal/pesr/PDF-FILES/7%20CHAUDHRY%20Motivation%20of%20Banking%20Employees%20in%20Pakistan_v50_no2_2012.pdf

11.  Swamy, R. Wamy, N. (2014). 'Leadership Styles.' Advances in Management. Vol 7. Feb. 2014. https://www.mnsu.edu/activities/leadership/leadership_styles.pdf

marketing

Introduction

Marketing has become different today than it was in past times due to the different changes in global business and new marketing strategies which raised the methods of trade worldwide and made business companies compete on high levels and try different innovative marketing trends in order to get a good position in the global market. The current report is discussing marketing and its segmentations in reference to an article which is peer reviewed and written by Goyat, (2011) about the basis of market segmentation as this report is using other articles to critically analyze the current article showing how it presents marketing issues such as the role of marketing segmentations, traditional segmentation bases, benefits of segmentation and the variables used for segmentation. The report is also evaluating segmentation using other two articles with reference to the Omani market segmentations and examples on this with a conclusion that gets an overall idea of the presented report.

Summary

The bases of marketing today is change as it is considered the most important element for ensuring success as this makes businesses try to find innovated marketing strategies to invade the market. An important market strategy is marketing segmentation which means to divide the market to segments of consumers with different needs. There are traditional segmentation bases for the market such as geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation. Segment analysis uses traditional dimension reducing techniques as cluster analysis for recognizing many segmentation bases. The main steps of the need based market segmentation are needs based segmentation, Segment Identification For each needs-based segment, assessing the attractiveness of the segments, evaluating segment profitability and making segment positioning for each segment.

There are benefits for segmentation of the market including the benefits companies gain such as the increased competition among market segments as segmentation diversify customers and business companies try to produce goods that are distinguished according to each customers category as they suit their needs and demands which raises competition and bring to the market many new brands. Segmentation can also suggest new trade trends to reach customers better. The study can suggest new segmentation areas such as the Enneagram technique that depended on studying customers behaviors and psychology in order to make new segmentations. Theoretical foundation of market segmentation can be useful in segmenting the market in a way that ensures competitive advantage. 

An evaluation of the article on segmentation using other articles

The current article of Goyat, (2011) suggests many things related to market segmentation such as the importance of the traditional techniques in identifying the segmentation bases such as the various categorical data analysis tests that can be applied to assess the surrounding environment and measure the customers' needs; these methods are effective in identifying the nature of the market, consumers behaviors and needs as according to Thomas, (2007), these traditional techniques have proved its effectiveness in realizing the way customers think and what needs are changing but Thomas, (2007) added some more techniques such as enlarging the area where the tests are made as this increases the scope of competition among companies and gives them more information, he referred to the geographic segmentation as a common way in market segmentation these traditional techniques depend on and mentioned that the geographic segmentation can be a way to other segmentation techniques. Goyat, (2011) didn't focus too much on the geographic segmentation and stated that it can be used with other segmentations such as the behavioral segmentation that can tell how to address customers through their behaviors. Lynn, (2011) also discussed segmentation bases and discussed the same segmentation techniques adding that the market should be segmented according to a wide range of variables that can depend on the business type, the market and the customer and that they can be changed when needed. Thomas, (2007) added other market segmentations such as media segmentation, time segmentation and price segmentation.

Goyat, (2011) referred to the steps in market segmentations such as choosing a product category for study and finding a basis for market segmenting as he referred to the importance of creativity and managerial insight to achieve that step and to how to make a segmentation plan for doing the third step which is selecting segmentation descriptors for variables identifying and after that the fourth step which is analyzing the segments to find risks and opportunities in each market to go to the fifth step which is selecting the target markets. Premkanth, (2012) explained these steps in a simplified way as he simply referred to the degree of customers satisfaction in deciding the steps by investigating a number of factors that tell how far customers satisfaction can decide the steps of segmentation as he referred that customer satisfaction is related to the marketing mix and they can decide the steps of segmentation. Lynn, (2011) discussed the same matter referring to a number of market attributes that can state the steps of penetrating the market and segmenting it according to the types of variables that identify the customers' needs and then to list literally hundreds of different variables, analyzing them, and gradually preparing the list to see which ones of those variables produce segments or groupings of consumers that are most useful.

Goyat, (2011) was good in setting the bases of market segmentation strategy by referring to four major customers' characteristics which are the geographic, the demographic, the psychographic and the behavioral. He clearly explained and presented this issue by providing examples for the different variables related to those characteristics such as region, population density and climate related to the geographic segmentation, age, gender, family size, income and education and others related to the demographic segmentation, he referred to variables related to the psychographic segmentation including interests, activities, opinions, values and attitudes and to the behavioral segmentation such as benefits sought,  usage rate,  brand Loyalty,  user status,  readiness to buy and  occasions. Thomas, (2007) confirmed the previous segmentation variables of Goyat but he added the media segmentation, time segmentation and price segmentation as he tried to tell that using the media can be more helpful in segmentation the market as it can reach new areas of audiences, he also tried to focus on time segmentation which is less common but can be effectively used for making a brand image at a very certain point of time when feeling customers need that brand image, he referred to the price segmentation as it depends on people's incomes in different areas and how they can react to a product according to its price as there are segmentations that should be made for the luxury goods and brands for example and others for lowest income customers. Lynn, (2011)confirmed the opinions of Goyat, (2011) but had a different opinion that says that demographic and psychographic variables are poor predictors of brand choice although they are preferred by many businesses in market segmentation. 

Goyat, (2011) discussed how companies should be careful in identifying the suitable market for them and for their products as segmentation should be carefully made in order to raise profits and reach competitive advantage. This was also approved by Thomas, (2007) but he added that there are some mistakes companies make in segmentation such as segmenting a segment and overlooking the bases as this can lead to targeting people instead of profit. Lynn, (2011) also referred to that conclusion added that change is better than stability even there is a good level of success as stability may be dangerous so market segmentation should be liable for change.

An application of the evaluation to the Omani market

Oman is a Gulf country that has many different businesses beginning from simple trailers and to big oil companies and each business has its method in the market segmentation strategy. Oman's geographic is distinguished and can provide many opportunities for businesses to segment the market to areas as its capital Muscat is known as a tourist place preferred to begin business by many international companies.  Oman shares borders with the Republic of Yemen to its south-west, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the west and the United Arab Emirates to the north. It has sovereignty over a number of small islands in the Oman Sea and the Strait of Hormuz such as Salamah and Her Daughters, as well as Masirah and the Hallaniyat Islands in the Arabian Sea which makes market segmentation is easy by following the needs of the people in Oman. Its demographics also tell that it can be segmented as its population is big and they are of good income in addition to the different education segments the country has. People's behaviors in Oman can also provide good segmentation bases as most people like shopping which makes it a good place for trailer businesses and international luxury brands. People's behaviors are also referring to a high purchasing level as Gulf people prefer to purchase new innovated products and also using new shopping strategies such as online shopping and there are many shopping sites online where Omani people can online purchasing what they need. (Omandimographic, 2016) Oman is a country where businesses can make use of the psychographics in Oman such as people's interests, opinions, values and attitudes as people in Oman can be classified to traditional and modern people and this can be mixed with their demographic characteristics such as age, gender and others as when businesses target those age categories between 18 and 35 they can find new innovated ideas and modern life lived by the Omani youth where many new products can be marketed there and targeting those categories by providing them with new creative types of goods and products that suit the lifestyle they are leading such as mobile phones, tablet devices and their accessories as well as other relevant products that the Omani youth is seeking today. Other categories of segmentation bases include older people who seek traditional products and handicrafts that are very expensive today and they can be relevant to the Omani traditions and give people a touch of the past. According to the previous analysis, Oman is a country where new segmentation bases can be effective to be used such as price segmentation and time segmentation in order to target special society categories as there are different nationalities and incomes in that vivid country. (Omaninfo, 2016) 

Conclusion and Recommendation

In conclusion, it is good to refer to the different methods and strategies in market segmentation as there are traditional ways of analyzing the market and focusing on the different segmentation bases such as the main characteristics of customers which can be clear in the main four categories including the geographic segmentation with its basic elements such as area, place and space, demographic segmentation related to the different age, gender, income and education characteristics and the behavioral segmentation that relates to people's interests, attitudes, values, interests and tradition. There are other market segmentation strategies that can depend on time segmentation, price segmentation and media segmentation in addition to building a brand that suits the needs of the customers and attract them. It is recommended that business entities can make deep analysis t the market and customer needs in order to identify how to segment the markets they are trying to invade as the successful analysis can ensure a good strategic marketing plan based on the segmentation system followed by the company and this can in turn ensure success, profit and competitive advantage. It is also recommended that the Omani market should be studied deeply by any company that seeks success as the segmentation of the market needs continuous change and this can update the product types and present new segmentation categories to the Omani market.

Managing across cultures

It is important to realize the need for managing a work environment that is characterized with multicultural forces as this means to apply new leadership styles that can find solutions for the problems relevant to cultural diversity. The diversity of cultures in work environment can lead to different fights and misunderstandings as a result of the change in languages, religion and other issues. This means that communication may be difficult within employees and each other. Then management should be able to discuss the different problems with employees and focusing on what they really suffer and need to feel satisfied with their jobs. 

mobilizing Orpic

Introduction

Orpic is a company that tries to reach success and competitive advantage which makes it gives care and interest to innovation and creativity as being basic elements of success today for any business organization. Innovation and creativity are very important for helping the organization achieve its organizational success and goals as creativity and innovation can work as shortcuts for many long tiring tasks as they can provide instant easy solutions for many problems and can provide new methods for achieving missions and tasks of the work. Management and leadership require creativity and innovation for changing the organizational behavior to reach better high working performance levels and apply new technologies and new techniques in the business and production as this can lead to better outcomes related to the business, production, customers and human resources of the organization. The organization suffers different blocks to the proper achievement of creativity and innovation as there are barriers that work against achieving creativity and innovation and they represent great challenges to the organizational development so there should be effective solutions to face such barriers and challenges including individual blocks to creativity such as social and cultural blocks, concepts, beliefs and ideas that work against innovation and change as well as fears form change and the criticism resulting from applying it or the lack of effective communication within the work environment, individuals and employees and their leaders. (Gomez, 2007) This case study aims at analyzing the climate of Orpic and investigates its ability to provide creativity and innovation to be applied by employees in the organization effectively and checks the management's abilities in doing this and in encouraging human resources to be creative and innovative using different techniques and methods for developing the organization. This is done by discussing the relevant literature and referring to the most important evidence based experiences in relation to how to face the blocks to creativity and innovation. 

Analysis

Orpic is an oil company that is based in Oman and has an Omani business that is prevailing in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf representing a developing leadership and a modern organization that has different plants for aromatics as well as polypropylene in addition to the company's refineries that produces oil products for being marketed inside and outside Oman. (orpic, 2016) Creativity and innovation are two main important concepts that the organization is trying to apply currently in order to reach higher performance levels and to save much effort and cost as they are inserted within the strategies and styles of management and leadership in addition to production and marketing operations and the organization is doing well in spite of some challenges resulting from the different blocks that hinder the way to creativity and innovation achievement as they are either social, cultural or individual blocks. Davial, Epstein and Shelton, (2007) discussed how business organizations can apply innovation and creativity in spite of the different blocks found in the organization and they referred to the ability of leaders to adapt the work environment to face such barriers and how leaders can encourage employees to face their individual blocks to creativity and to use the different structured techniques for being dare enough to apply innovative ideas and creative suggestions. In orpic, the leadership is wise enough to realize the blocks to creativity and has effective teams that do different researches and apply different models and structured techniques for facing such barriers.

In our organization, there are many successful and failing attempts to apply creativity and innovation and by referring to the literature, this can be seen according to Proctor, (2010) as he confirmed that any organization that seeks effective application for innovative transformations should at first analyze and assess its organizational creative climate and find out how far it is able to apply creative ideas and make full use of them without being hindered by the different blocks, they depended on a category element attribute model that can be used by business organizations for assessing the business environment and climate and evaluate it to check and identify the different blocks to creativity and innovation; they explained that the model is based on eight categories to assess the creative climate of the organization and they are the characteristics of the work, the support of management, co worker support, safety levels, different resources, risk taking, processes, diversity and the systems. This view was confirmed by Isaksen, (1993) as he asserted the idea of the creative climate but in a different way as explained that achieving an innovative change in an organization can be done when the leadership style is innovative and has a large area for accepting change as he referred to an example which is the transformational leadership style. Orpic is advantaged with a transformational leadership style as employees are encouraged to provide and apply creative ideas and innovative projects as the company is able to take risks after deep studying for it and leaders focus on facing social and individual blocks by applying new technologies and new structured techniques such as brainstorming and computerized techniques. An example is the new petrochemical products the company produces and encourages employees to innovate in them as those employees receive great encouragement from leaders and are motivated in a good way by appreciation, recognition, promotion and prizes.

Orpic is trying to be innovative but in fact the obstacles and blocks to creativity in the organization are too many and they work against the efforts done to raise the innovation level in the organization according to Isaksen, (1993), there is a framework that can be used for business organizations creative climates and this framework includes different concepts for creativity that explain the real meaning of creativity, relevant concepts, how to reach it and how to develop it within the business organization. In Orpic, creativity needs development and the blocks to creativity including the attitudes of some employees against it make it hard to apply any creative idea, in Orpic, there is a shortage in understanding the nature of creativity and employees have great fears about taking risk and implementing it as employees are not sure the results will be good and effective so they hesitate in suggesting any new project, product or a marketing idea and there are some managers who themselves have individual blocks to creativity and don't encourage employees to be creative or innovative. In Orpic, there is also a lack of proper motivation climate that provides enough encouragement for those employees who do well and provide effective creative ideas as the transformational leadership still lacks transformational motivation that focuses on better motivation styles and methods that can raise the morale of those creative innovative employees as they can for example receive special grants and scholarships to increase their educational background or to be trained on a higher level on innovation and creativity in the field of oil production. Cropley and Cropley, (2015) discussed the psychology of innovation in business organization and how the organization's human resources management should focus on spread that innovation culture and raise the employees' morale to be innovative by encouraging the good innovative ideas and apply them in order to make innovation a culture and a value that human resources have.    

In developing any business organization, there should be a great role for creativity and innovation as being the same all the time can leave passive impressions on customers and can reduce sales and reduce the quality of services in comparison to other companies. Hogan, (1995) related organizational development to creativity and innovation as he discussed how to achieve organizational changes to develop the business and make new successes in the market. This was also confirmed by Flaherty, (2008) but he added that to reach effective innovations and apply creative ideas, there should be deep analysis for the organizational ability to generalize such innovations and how human resources management is able to drive creative change and urge employees to apply it; he discussed how behaviors of the human resources should include creative idea generation and he referred to a model for rephrasing the mechanism for generating creative ideas via leaders who can make sure that the organizational climate is suitable for creativity by ensuring that risk taking is well studied and success is ensured. Orpic is well doing in achieving studied risk taking analysis as well as in human resource management that ensures engaging most employees in innovation and creativity climate as budgets and resources are well measured in relation to the business abilities and potentials but there should be stronger plans based on applying a variety of structured techniques for facing any possible challenges to creativity and innovation. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, creativity and innovation are basic elements for the success of any business organization; they can achieve any required changes that can help the organization reach higher levels of success and competitive advantage as there are some innovative ideas and projects that make the work go better and save much effort and cost to achieve what costs higher using traditional methods as creative ideas can distinguish the business in the market and help employees provide the company with the best they can do. This is good but there are usually blocks to creativity that hinder it.  Orpic is a company that is trying to do well on the innovation paths and tries to apply new creative climate through choosing the transformational leadership that can engage the company's human resources within the creative and innovative business climate but the company is hindered by some blocks to creativity and innovation that may be resulting from some employees or leaders who resist changes and fear risk taking but the company is following different structured techniques to face these challenges such as brainstorming, training and using computerized techniques to develop the business and help human resources provide creative ideas that can be applicable.  

 Recommendations

Orpic is highly recommended to do more researches in the field of innovations and creativity of oil production and marketing as the company is still in its first steps of innovation and creativity but it has made good successful innovations. The organization needs to apply new frameworks and new structured techniques that are able to face the blocks to creativity and enable employees to take risks and apply innovative ideas. Transformational leadership in Orpic needs more understanding as transformations require a suitable climate for creativity and a work environment that encourages effective communication between leaders and employees in order to ensure that employees can discuss their ideas without fears with their bosses and that they can be encouraged to apply that ideas and add benefits to the business organization they belong to; this can raise the employees' morale and retain them to the organization that they have positive ideas about its future in business as business future is related to creativity and innovation.

Operation Management

Introduction

Operation management is very important for any company that needs to improve its position in the market as it has many areas that requires to be focused on by the organization. The current paper is a critical analysis and discussion for three areas of operation management in ORPIC company which are quality, location and human resources and job design. The paper also provides a critical analysis of the relevant activities of ORPIC to the three operation management areas suggesting ways for improving performance. The paper also provides a critical evaluation for how the five performance objectives will enhance the company's competitive advantage. The case is ORPIC Oman which is a great Omani company in the oil filed in Oman and in the Arabian Gulf. The company has different refineries in Sohar and Muscat in addition to the plants related to the company for producing aromatics and polypropylene and for producing chemicals, plastic and petroleum products that are used in Oman and in other countries. (orpic, 2016)

Discussion

Orpic gives much interest to quality in all the activities of the company; this applies on the products the company delivers to the oil market related to the way they are performed and the last materials delivered to customers as there are quality specifications and measurements that need to be cared for when manufacturing and delivering such products. The quality standards Orpic follows are always identical with international standards of quality as the company is keen on ensuring high quality levels in all its plants and refineries so as to ensure a high quality product and high quality levels of safety and efficiency in manufacturing processes. Contracts, delivery dates and energy usage are all under high quality specifications known and agreed internationally as working in petroleum and oil products make it important to raise the levels of safety and quality in all the activities of the business. Local and international relevant laws and legislations are all regarded by the company in production processes because general and particular safety measurements are highly considered and followed by the company through a very precise quality control. Inspection operations are always done over products before delivery to ensure quality as unneeded or poor products are not delivered to the market and discard. According to Hiraishi and Nyenzi (2016), quality is a main business component for success and managing quality should be made by special teams who understand methods of quality assurance. This was confirmed by Brennan, (2012) who added that all activities related to production have to be set under high levels of quality to ensure competitiveness. In Orpic; this is really done and the quality teams always ensures quality in all production and delivery procedures in addition to a supervision team that compares levels of quality to international standards such as ISO and SQ systems to ensure the date of validity and accurate data and specifications about each product.

The second operation management area in Orpic is location, the company considers it very important in order to reach competitive advantage as locations where the company's activities are done are highly carefully chosen and this includes the work environment and the different facilities needed to be existed in these locations. According to Kumar and Suresh, (2009)location is very important for business organizations that seek success and high levels of competitiveness as location decision should be made after studying the locations where the business is going on and identifying the conditions that make it a good location for successful businesses. In Orpic, the company depends on a specific location strategy and sets a number of conditions and specifications for these locations in order to ensure safety and comfort of all stakeholders. The company also chooses vivid places for building its plants and at the same time to be away from harm others such as its Sohar plants and refineries in Muscat and in Mina Al Fahl. The company also chooses these locations in a way that reduces cost and ensures profits. Wild, (2002) confirmed that the location should be well chosen to suit the type of business and should be equipped with the needed facilities for making the business easy and effective. In Orpic, the location strategy of the company ensures enough and suitable facilities to be existed in all its locations as equipments are always to be ensured and existed at the time of needing it. The company also gives interest and care for delivery locations and transportation used in it in order to deliver products in the correct locations agreed on in the contracts with clients. Locations in Orpic are chosen based on its location strategy for finding locations that can reduce in costs of delivery and transportation as the company's plants and refineries locations are connected in an intelligent way that ensures this. The company's supply chain locates the best materials and stores them in the most suitable locations to ensure their safety and quality. Location is also regarded in distributing the products of Orpic as the company chooses Oman and other areas in the world where the company's products are highly needed. 

Regarding the third area of Orpic's operation management; it is human resources and job design. Orpic gives this area great care and interest as the company considers its human resources and job design as a basic asset that deserves to be invested in. Talents and special employees are usually sought by Orpic to ensure having the high efficiency workforce and this begins from selecting to recruiting. According to Wild, (2002), any business organization that wishes to succeed and reach competitive advantage is in need for having motivation for its human resources and should ensure that its human resources are on the right and proper jobs where they can feel satisfied and appraised as this can help the organization reduce the conflicts and turnover rates in it and retain the employees who can benefit the organization more than others. Wilson et al, (2013) confirmed this and added that there should be specific strategies for retaining and motivating employees as jobs should be well designed and roles should be well portrayed to each position in order to ensure effective operation management. In Orpic, human resources and job design receive a great part of interest as the company gives much care to interpersonal issues, satisfaction and motivation in addition to making the proper analysis that enable management to choose the most suitable employees to be recruited in the company and then there is a retention plan that depends on motivating and recognizing employees. Job design issues include making the needed analysis for requirements of recruitment such as analyzing the shortage after retirement or quitting and preparing the layouts related to each job to state clearly the requirements of the new jobs and who is best suiting them. Orpic management tries to find creative solutions for different conflicts and encourages effective communication between its human resources and their managers in order to maintain high retention of employees.  

Orpic can improve its organizational performance by many ways such as focusing on its decision areas and identifying each of them deeply in order to improve it and reach better level of performance in this area. According to Shaheen et al, (2013), Orpic can improve performance if different analysis are made to operation management areas such as analyzing quality and deciding its real level and then to compare this level and details of quality application with levels of quality in other organization working in the oil field and producing the same products and try to find out weaknesses in the current quality level in order to improve them. This can be applied on other different areas of operation management such as human resources and job design and location and others. Improvement of performance can also be applied on different areas of the business such as packaging, delivery, distribution and promotion as the company has to develop its operations and encourage employees to improve their performance which in turn improves the organizational performance as well. Employees also need to be trained in order to gain more skills and experiences that enable them to be more efficient and effective which improves performance.  

The five performance objectives can enhance the company's competitive advantage as according to Greasley, (2007) when a business organization defines its operational performance objectives; this helps it recognize them well and find measures to check if they are met and then to identify methods to  improve and accomplish them in is working environment based on each operation management area. The five objectives are quality, speed, dependability, flexibility or costs.

Quality Performance Objectives

Quality performance objective can help the company improve its quality levels not only based on quality measurements and specifications but on seeking quality in all details and activities of the business as products should meet the functions they are manufactured for and should meet and exceed customers' expectations. Orpic should make investigations about its products and find out customers' expectations in its products in order to improve the quality of the products and meet them. Quality should also cover service such as delivery and durability of the products and should be of good value to their prices to reach competitive advantage in the market.

Speed Performance Objectives

Speed objectives are those objectives representing the rate that sales quotes of the company are generated with and the rapid the company delivers its products at. Speed can also refer to any operations and activities that are timed and needed in specific deadlines as these deadlines should be exactly met by the company and it also refers to times of producing and manufacturing certain products and the time needed to achieve each procedure of manufacturing. Opric can apply this through time management schedules included within its operation management systems.

Dependability Performance Objectives

Dependability here as a performance objective refers to the degree of the company's ability to manage its operation in an dependable way which means to keep all the business operations to be done dependably such as time of delivering products, following certain set procedures, achieving goals, working according to the set objectives and follow designed missions in order to meet expected performance and exceed it as well.

Flexibility Performance Objectives

This refers to the different operations of the organization and how far it is flexible in dealing with clients, requirements of different products and in making the products adaptable and adjusting to the markets' needs as change can help in improving the company's performance. For example, in Orpic, the company can check the market needs and be flexible in adding new oil products and making them suitable to the needs of the market and customers as this level of flexibility can raise sales and increase customers' trust in the company.

Costs Performance Objectives

Cost performance objectives represent the unit cost variations as a result of the change occurring in the volume of products based on the variety of delivered products in the market and on the demand on products as the company has to produce more varied products to boost the market and should be able to manage cost with price units in order to achieve reasonable success and profits. Neely, (2007)

Conclusion

In conclusion operation management is a very important part of any business organization because it can help the organization succeed and reach competitive advantage if all areas are properly dealt with by the management. Orpic company in Oman can deal with its operation management areas such as quality, human resources and job design and location in a way that ensures success and competitiveness. Organizational performance can be improved by focusing on the different areas of operation management and making the required analysis for them and to compare them with other competitors in order to improve any weaknesses in them. Performance objectives can help the business succeed and can enhance the organization's ability to reach competitive advantage if each of them is well managed and met.