Using HRIS in helping managers store and retrieve data

Applying HRIS in business organization needs to study the current needs of the organization, how employees are reacting to HRIS and how far the organization can make benefits out of such application as this analysis gives the organization better idea about the proper methods of applying HRIS effectively in the business organization.  HRIS can be applied in banks effectively as it can help managers manage human resource activities more effectively. HRIS can help managers control data by providing better options for data storage as ample data of employees can be easily organized in organized files and folders which facilitates human resources planning snail's pace escalation; HRIS can also share in managing the strategic activities related to HRM such as making succession planning, tracking applications, recruitment and selection and training and development. Data can be better arranged by the managers and head departments as all information about the employees can be recorded and updated easily such as names of employees, their addresses, their qualifications, certificates, phone numbers, history of employment, training courses they receive and they need and any other information that need to be clear to managers. Using high information and computerized systems can enable human resource managers deal easily with huge numbers of employees in less time and less effort. Managers can also use it in keeping administrative records such as employees' contracts, meeting records, reports about work and employees and finance records. Managers here do such data processing operations more accurately and more effectively especially in banks as bank mangers need HRIS due to the huge number of employees in the bank and the need for the continuous update of data in addition to the organized filing and reports. (Wei and Feng, 2013). This can help also in reducing the number of employees dealing with data storage and the time consumed in storing such data. This also leads to better analysis for employees' files and reports which leads to better decision making related to employees' careers and succession. HRIS can be applied by managers on different levels including operations, executive and middle management as they have their own automated business systems that can use electronic data processing (EDP)that can help managers replace all paper works with electronic documents which helps banking managers in particular to make transactions easily and process different banking deals in a better way as it helps in summarizing reports and storing them to managers efficiently. Managers can also use Management Information System (MIS) that can help managers focus on making employees used to activities relevant to information systems and integrating them in the plans set for training them to use these systems effectively. HRIS can help managers in decision making processes through the different applications set for such a purpose such as Decision Support Systems(DSS) that are prepared for helping top managers and major decision makers as they help them analyze and mine data effectively in addition to enabling them to have easy and accurate access to any data and information that can help them take decisions as DSS depends on data warehouses that deal with collected data from a different number of databases within the business organization. (Nawaz, 2014)

Using HRIS in helping managers do different operations

Applying HRIS can help managers in different areas such as personnel administration as HRIS is encompassing the employees' personal information that is important in decision making processes and in deciding many things related to the employees. HRIS is also important in salary administration as it facilitates issuing reports that have information about employees' present salary, the increases they received and proposed future increases or any fares that affected their salaries. HRIS enables managers to control employees' leaves and absence rates through maintaining each employee's leave history. They are also useful in skills inventories as these inventories record the different skills of employees and the data relevant to such skills which helps managers recognize employees and setting them exactly in the proper positions they deserve. HRIS helps manager get the needed occupational health data about employees in order to ensure industrial safety and health insurance programs to employees. HRIS can also be helpful in performance appraisal as they are helpful to make a full idea about an employee as it saves the data required for employees appraisal such as appraisals due dates, promotion opportunities available for the employee,  scores of different performance criteria and other measurements. HRIS is responsible for providing factual data that can be combined with the textual information in order to state training requirements for employees and promotion. HRIS is also useful in manpower planning as it helps in keeping the different requirements of employees' positions in the organization. HRIS can also be applied in setting the employee progress path by suggesting the required steps that an employee should follow to be promoted such as training and progression programs. HRIS can be useful when it is applied in recruitment as it makes the different procedures of the recruitment process easy and take less time and effort than the traditional methods of recruitment as it helps in saving details about the various activities employees pass in a recruitment process beginning from the way the job is online advertised till the selection and recruiting processes.  Recruitment passes many stages such as career planning that is the stage when employees need to have future plans for their careers and HRIS makes it easier to help employees in succession as it helps in declaring the current position of an employee and the potential progression plans possible for the employee. (Bedell, Canniff and Wyrick, 2016)

Using HRIS in helping the individual employee

HRIS can be helpful when it is applied by all the employees in the business organization as it can be an interface where employees can make self service through a web portal that can be used by any employee who has certain information for accessing with codes and password to get information about the employee's current position, promotion and requirements of promotion or any needed training courses or programs the employee can join and receive promotion through them. According to Arthur, (2007); web portals and internet interfaces can be well applied in business organizations in order to facilitate the communication processes with employees and to guide them towards achieving better performance through easy access to their information and recognition programs and there are different types of web portals that can be used by the business organization and the most appropriate tools should be used to satisfy employees needs. This can be applied in banks where there is a big number of employees who need to access different types of information easily and fast as this makes employees more satisfied and more confident when they read their annual reports and understand how to take more programs for training themselves to be promoted soon. Self-service applications can be accessed all times a day during the week. Employees have the needed information to log on to the system as their identity is then authenticated and verified. Then the proper change options are provided to the employee according to some basic measurements that control the areas that the employee is permitted to change in to the HRIS—such as updating personal information, reading job postings, or required training programs.

Using HRIS by analysts

The bank should have analysts who can use HRIS more specifically as the analyst's role is acquiring as much possible information in order to use it after examining it for analysis and then provide the suitable alternatives for different business solutions which makes it easy for decision makers to take the right decisions in the right time. Analysts are the best employees to apply HRIS effectively in the business organization as analysts are considered power users because they are the most important persons dealing with HRIS as they are able to realize how far the organization is making use of HRIS and how to improve the current usage of the different systems and activities relevant to the HRIS in the organization. HRIS analysts are highly needed to realize what is meant by the data definitions in terms of the existed data, the data structure and the up-to-date data fields. HRIS can be applied to provide analysts tools that can be used for modeling new scenarios for analysis that suggest what if questions for example; the recruiting analyst can provide managers with a simple list of suggested internal candidates for a job position within the organization that is opened to old employees; the suggested candidates characteristics are then queried by the analyst and they may include (1) the last date of their promotion, (2) their level of development according to what they joined of development programs (3) what their undergraduate degree was, and (4) how far they are suitable to the new job. (Kapoor and Aggarwal, 2012)

Propositions

1. Identity cards

Identity cards can be used in the bank as a part of the work of HRIS as every employee can have an identity card that is issued for him in particular with a coded token number on the card as it can be used in each department and applied on all departments to be used by the employee everywhere in the organization as it can be used for entry and exit from the organization and in certain areas in the organization such as the department and other possible facilities and places where the employee can attend meetings, conferences and training courses. Cards can also be used in attending and leaving recording instead of the fingerprints devices as they reduce malpractice of these devices and raises trust rates in employees. Identification Cards should include the employee's name, identification number, recent picture and the employing Department where the employee works and it may include a number which is referred to the employee by. ID cards should be issued after making serious analysis about the employee and shouldn't be used in private places in the organization where there are secret data that shouldn't be accessed by any employee. ID cards can be issued after the governmental agreement on this and the bank can use them only inside the bank or outside in other relevant organizations. When an employee changes the department where he works at, his identification card must be given back to the human resource manager in order to receive a new one with the new data on it and new codes. According to Regis, (2008) the identity cards can save time and efforts consumed in manual recording of employees' attendance and it is more practical than using fingerprints devices as they are used in different fields and not only checking attendance but to be used in different areas in the organization.

2. Empowering HR professionals

HRIS can be used in empowering HR professionals as it can add strength to the informational background of HR professionals through the updated data computer terminals can provide them in addition to the accurate facts and pictures that makes collective bargaining an easy tasks for HR professionals so it is suggested that HR professionals in the bank not be afraid from depending on HRIS as it can't replace them at all but on the contrary; it can support them in their work saving time and effort and saving much time for making better relationship with employees and helping them to communicate better which increases the organizational success and competitiveness. According to Grobler, (2005); IT is not opposing the nature of HR professionals' work or it comes to threaten their positions but it can be used to serve the work of human resource professionals and to empower them more than working without it as it increases value and accuracy in the outcome of their work. Banks can apply the smooth convenient implementation plan that uses innovated programs relevant to the banking and financial tasks and to the needs of the human resources because HRIS is consisted of a number of different elements and they all should function properly or the function of the whole system may fail. When all elements of HRIS work properly and the system works accurately; the whole organization can gain benefits and competitive advantage. HRIS can help HR professional improve the organization's administrative efficiency as it ensures faster information accessing,  processing, better communications among employees and management, higher accuracy in all activities, lower HR costs and general better HR productivity and profitability which will return on the whole organization with better consequences resulting from employees' job satisfaction and customer satisfaction based on it.

3. Corporate strategy

HRIS can be used in supporting the organization's corporate strategy as it is considered to be a strong strategic organizational resource and it can support the whole organizational strategy not only its human resources management as when it depends on strategic analysis, it can help in facilitating strategic planning that may be random or based on personal opinions. HRIS is according to Chanda, (2007) a very intelligent option for strategic analysis and strategic planning because it is able to provide an accurate strategic analysis for the organization management to be used in evaluating the corporate strategy in align with the HR strategy. HRIS can be used to analyze the HR strategy in order to help the organization management achieve strategic goals that are suitable for its human resources on the long term in order to be able to retain employees through the proper motivation and reducing their turnover ratios which reflects on the organization with success and higher productivity. Banks are large organizations where manpower planning takes long time to get the needed information that helps in achieving it as HRIS can reduce the cost of manpower via different programs that supports the work of human resources and reduce it to be achieved by less employees who are professional in IT and information systems. Intranets can be applied to enhance the corporate strategy of the organization as it provides better chances for communication within the organization and gives much opportunities to employees to express themselves, their needs, problems and complaints and this enhances corporate strategies of the organization. Strategic human resource technologies are effective in enhancing human resource management and set strategies for it based on the accurate data processing and easy accessing to it in addition to the different solutions for human resources problems such as the communication channels it provides to reach bosses and discuss problems with them easily.   

4. Database management system in each department

There can be a database management system in each department that can be used for providing each head department with the needed technological treatment of data and accessing the department employees' information easily as this helps the head department to provide better and more accurate reports about his employees which facilitates processes of promotion and succession as it makes succession plans easy and more valid and reliable. HRIS can be applied on each department in particular as it provides each head department with the means for easy access and utilizing for available data. The HRIS involves tools that gives users the opportunity to input new updated data and edit current data, HRIS programs enable users to select what they need from reports which are redefined and either to print or display them on a monitor. Reports can be used for addressing any of the various operations relevant to human resources including succession planning, equal employment, compensation planning, retiring or opportunity monitoring.

Conclusion

In conclusion, HRIS can be applied in business organizations such as banks and others in order to provide better solutions for the different organizational problems related to human resources as it saves time and effort and makes all operations related to human resources are more accurate and precise information about employees. HRIS can be applied for helping managers control date through storing them and retrieving them in less time and effort and on high levels of accuracy and security. HRIS can be used to help the individual employee access information related to his own promotion, training and other needed data through special portals and interfaces that are made by the organization and managed by both the organizational management and the individual employees through special codes, numbers and identities. HRIS can be applied by analysts who can use it to make managers more able to deal with human resources.

Factors Affecting a Business Organization Oman Case Study

Assessment Criteria 1.1 - Explain the importance of external factors affecting an organization. 

Oman Arab Bank is a financial organization that is affected by a number of external factors which are very important due to their impact on the bank and its profitability as these external factors can affect the activities of the bank such as the size of deposits and transactions in addition to their effect on the bank's stability and opportunities in Oman. Al-khawaldeh and Jaber, (2014) discussed different factors affecting banks and how important they are to be considered and analyzed, they referred to the annual inflation rate, ratio total assets brought by the deposits of customers to the bank, the country's GDP, the ration stock market, the country's political environments, types of technology and other factors. To realize the impact and importance of these factors on OAB, a PESTLE analysis can be made as follows:

PESTLE Analysis of Oman market

1.      Political

The political environment is of great importance because it enables the bank to invest in a safe environment without risks of loss based on wars and other political conflicts. Oman is a stable country that has a safe stable political life with strong government that supports business and investments.

2.      Economic:

The economic condition is of great importance to the bank as it helps it increase its investments based on the level of economic income of the country and the individual. Oman has a good economic condition on the national and the individual levels which makes it a good place for investment as it is considered a rich country with high GDP.  

3.      Social:

The social environment is an important external factor affects the business as it can guide the bank for providing customers with their needs based on their social life. Oman's social life is characterized with a modern connected one with a love for technology and family life. This makes OAB focuses on special services that are based on family support by loans and other projects in addition to presenting the latest technology in banking activities, transactions and other banking activities.

4.      Technological:

Technology is important for the bank as it specify how far the bank is coping with the customers' needs related to technology and if the bank is not advanced, this will affect customers' satisfaction and behaviors towards the bank's activities. OAB is characterized with high technology levels and adding new services that are of high technology to cope with the high demands of the Omani environment related to technology as most companies are changing their policies to include the latest versions of technology and development.

5.      Legal:

The legal environment has an important impact on OAB as in Oman, the legal system is clear and support business with flexibility in taxation systems that makes investments easy and successful.

6.      Environmental:

Oman is a country of the Gulf that is characterized with a desert environment with moderate climate that encourage people to make projects such as farms and factories and others which makes a bank such as OAB support these projects and help people use the environment in useful profitable projects by the bank's support via loans and other banking supporting programs. (Valeri, 2009) 

Assessment Criteria 1.2 - analyze the needs and expectations of stakeholders of an organization

OAB stakeholders have different needs and expectations from the bank and in order to analyze these needs and expectations, a stakeholder analysis should be executed as according to Reed et al, (2009) stakeholder analysis is to be documented and delivered for the key stakeholders as it indicates their roles, their interest degree for the organization, their impact on other stakeholders and their relationship with each other and the other important information. Key stakeholders of OAB include the bank's managers, employees and board of directors, shareholders, clients of the bank, suppliers, the Omani government, the Omani media channels and the Omani society. The bank has to study the needs of those stakeholders such as the managers' needs for success, employees needs for job satisfaction, shareholders' needs of high profits, clients' needs of good revenues and support from the bank as well as high interests, suppliers' needs including adequate contracts and accurate activities, the Omani government needs the bank to follow laws and be obliged to stop any fraud in the bank as well as supporting the Omani economy and the Omani media channels need the bank to have more projects to advertise and the Omani society needs the bank to share in its special events and be a sponsor for social events. Expectations of stakeholders are connected with their needs as all stakeholders expect the best from the bank and expect the bank to develop itself in order to satisfy them and make banking services better.

 Assessment Criteria 1.3 - analyze the major changes taking place in the external environment that will affect strategy.

OAB is one of the most important financial institutions in Oman and it helps in improving the Omani economy and it is affected by the different changes occurring in the external environment such as the great change in technology related to banks and their activities as most banks today have changed to apply the latest approaches in money transfer such as electronic transactions, instant transactions, online banking and using ATM services in addition to the different credit and debit cards applications. The economic factors also affect the bank as the strong Omani economy makes the bank active delivering the market with rich projects and opportunities for investments. The political factors also give the bank an opportunity to invest as regulations and laws support the bank and give it facilities and opportunities for investments. (omanarabbank, 2016)

Assessment Criteria 2.1 - use appropriate tools to analyze the effects of current business plans

In OAB, the current business plans effects can be analyzed by a SWOT analysis as follows:

Strengths

OAB is a strong financial institution in Oman with high clients' deposits and providing a variety of different banking services including retail banking, loans, Islamic banking systems, supporting small projects' with loans, money transfer internationally, ATM services, credit and debit cards, online banking and instant transactions.

Weaknesses:

The bank's online services are not very developed as money transfer and instant transactions need to be improved.

Opportunities:

The bank has many investment opportunities based on the Omani economic, political and social environments in addition to the large variety of nationalities living in Oman. 

Threats:

Threats include the different market competitors especially international banks such as HSBC and City banks in addition to the new online banks used by the Omani youth such as Paypal.

Another analysis is the BCG as follows:

Relative market share

Stars The bank's specific services such as treasury services and investment banking. Digital and internet banking	Question marks Online services
Cash cows Customers' deposits and investments Islamic banking services Loans services	Dogs The bank's cards rewards ATM machines

Market growth

 rate 

Assessment Criteria 2.2 - Review the position of an organization in its current market

OAB market position in the market is stable and the total assets are yearly increasing as in 2015 the total assets were 1.982. 699 RO from 1.816.091 RO in 2014 with a net profit equals 29.011RO that increased from 28.400 RO in 2014. Growth in the net interest in 2014 is 5 million RO with a 12% rate which lead to make OAB a leader in the Omani financial and business market with a great market share as customers' deposits increased by 9% as a result of the market liquidity tightening. This proves a strong position of the bank in the Omani financial market. (Annual report, 20

Assessment Criteria 2.3 - Evaluate the competitive strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s current business strategies

Strengths

OAB is a leading bank in Oman with big total assets that are increasing yearly and the bank's deposits and profits are also increasing yearly. The bank is developing its services and is updating them yearly to cope with the latest technologies in banking services locally and internationally. The bank has strong ATM machines with a continuous system of maintenance to keep the service quality high and satisfy the customers' needs and exceed their expectations. Credit and debit cards of the bank are varied and inclusive for all different needs of customers. The bank includes many services such as retail banking, Islamic banking, corporate personal and investment banking. The bank has strong human resources with very supportive HR management strategies.

Weaknesses

The bank is still poor in applying the online services and instant services as although the bank is applying swift codes systems, it still needs to cope with online banks such as Paypal and others as these banks are more effective in online shopping processes and international instant money transferring. Online sites of the bank are still poor in communicating with customers and presenting services of online banking.

Although the bank has weaknesses in the digital banking, the bank has developed its services rapidly and added many new services lately to cope the changes occurring in the financial market locally and internationally and it can improve its current services and be able to compete different banks. The company has to make different researches to develop its online banking to cope with the competitive business environment. (Chong et al, 2010)

Assessment Criteria 3.1 - use modeling tools to develop strategic options for an organization.

There are many modeling tools for developing strategic options for OAB as for example, porter's generic strategy can be used to guide the bank change its strategy to a better one. One of these three strategies can be used:

Cost leadership

This strategy can be used by Oman Arab Bank in order to provide services with low cost such as low cost loans for example in order to make more profits and at the same time the service should be of high quality and benefits for the customer.

Differentiation strategy

This strategy can be used by the bank in order to provide a new innovative service for clients of the bank to be unique and distinguished from other companies in order to reach competitiveness and boost other rivals.

Focus strategy

This strategy can help the bank by focusing on specific service or services in order to develop activities related to it and attract customers to try this service in order to give it many advantages. Tanwar, (2013)

Assessment Criteria 3.2 - develop a comparative understanding of activity from organizations in the market.

In order to develop a comparative understanding of activity from OAB in the market, it is good to make a positioning map in order to compare OAB to its competitors as according to D'Aveni, (2007); it can help in mapping the key attributes of all competitors and their products or services and make it easy to evaluate the organization's position in the market.

Consumer Position Map

OAB is characterized with providing high quality banking and financial services with a wide diversity of services that are updated periodically and is characterized with high qualified human resources working cooperatively presenting a good image of the bank. The bank has very developed technologies applied on all its systems compared with other banks that are still using traditional methods. An example can be applied on the bank's personal banking services as they are inclusive for all available services in the market such as the accounts, loans, cards, bancassurance and digital banking services which makes the bank among the most efficient banks in Oman in adding and developing its services to satisfy consumers and meet their expectations. 

Assessment Criteria 3.3 - create options to form the basis of future organizational strategy.

There are options for forming the bases of future strategy for OAB and they can be clear through applying the Ansoff Matrix that is according to Fejza and Asllani, (2013) a good tool that can help in creating options for forming the future strategy suitable for OAB. The following figure represents the Ansoff Matrix for OAB:

Products

                                    Present                                                                       new

Market penetration	Product development
Market development	Diversification

Markets   P

N
 

The market Penetration

Currently, OAB is penetrating the market with its innovated services that can satisfy customers' needs and help them make successful investments. The bank has increasing total assets and profits. OAB is coping with the market needs and adding the new services added in the market.

Market development

OAB is focusing on marketing its current services in different market segments as it can attract new customers' scales and making businesses with other countries.

Product development

OAB can develop its services to innovate new services and market them in the current market.

Diversification 

OAB can innovate and develop new services and banking investments to market them in new markets such as other Gulf countries or other countries that can help it make good profits.

Assessment Criteria 4.1 - propose a suitable structure for a strategy plan that ensures appropriate participation from all stakeholders of an organization.

A stakeholder grid should be made in order to identify the interests of stakeholders in order to ensure the stakeholders' full participation in the bank's activities as follows:

Keep satisfied	Engage closely
Monitor	Keep informed

power

                                                Interest

OAB has key stakeholders such as the Omani government, customers of the bank, suppliers, investors, shareholders and employees.

The government: The Omani government interest in the bank's activities are not very high but the government is interested in the bank's activities that can help in improving the Omani economy and increase investments that help Oman.

Suppliers: Suppliers of the bank can be considered the shareholders and investors added to the shareholders of the bank as all provide the bank with financial assets, they are those stakeholders having the highest interest in the bank's activities, profits and projects and they need to be informed about any changes occurring in the bank. They also have to be engaged closely and kept satisfied.

Customers: The customers' interests of the changes the bank is applying are not high but they need to be satisfied with the interests rates and level of service quality.

Employees: The employees have high interest in the changes the bank is doing and they need to be informed about them but they have to be monitored as the work they do to apply change can affect other stakeholders' satisfaction. Employees also need to be satisfied.

Stakeholder analysis: According to Mathur et al, (2007) stakeholders are those people who are interested in the activity of the business organization and to analyze them in order to establish a strategy plan, there are a number of steps that can help in analyzing them and developing a suitable strategy plan that ensures full participation of all stakeholders such as:

Step 1.Identifying stakeholders: the bank has to identify all stakeholders and realize their interests and try to satisfy their needs.

Step 2.Prioritising Stakeholders: The bank has to prioritize the stakeholders based on their attributions as this can be very effective in involving them gradually in the strategy plan.  

Step 3.Develop an engagement strategy: it is important to develop an engagement strategy for stakeholders of OAB as it can make them practice their duties and commitments easily and effectively and this can occur via meetings with stakeholders, group facilitations, presentations, sharing the change plane and delegating it with them.

Step 4.Mapping stakeholders' profile: This depends on the stakeholders' levels of interest and effect on the bank as each group should have a mapped profile that shows how to engage them better.

Step 5.Optimizing their support: this means to make full use of the support of stakeholders' resources.

Step 6.Monitoring changes: Changes that occur by the bank, market or activities should be monitored by the ba

Assessment Criteria 4.2 - develop criteria for reviewing potential options for a strategy plan.

For developing a criteria for reviewing the potential options for a strategy plan as options can be as follows:

Maintaining stakeholders' attraction: because the criteria is based on the stakeholders' engagement in the bank's activity and strategy plan, their interests should be important for the bank in order to attract them and keep them interested.   

Feasibility studies: OAB ha strong human resources who are well trained on the latest technologies in different dealings with customers in addition to having a team specialized in digital and online banking systems.

Effects on share and market position: the bank has to assess the effects of the criteria and the strategy plan on the share of the bank and the market position.

Risk assessment: The strategy plan has to identify the possible risks associating the criteria and find out any potential risks that may occur during applying the strategy plan.

Cost benefit analysis: A cost benefit analysis is needed for measuring, identifying and comparing the different costs the bank may afford in the investments against the gained benefits and the validity of the investments.

Assessment Criteria 4.3 - construct an agreed strategy plan that includes resource implications.

A strategic plan can be constructed including the resource implications of Oman Arab Bank and it should be SOSTAC referring to being situational, objective, strategy, tactics, application and control. The strategy plan with resource implications should include the following:

Objectives:

Achieve the best alignment of the bank's strategic priorities and corporate policies.

OAB strategies   

Estimating of the projects' lifespan, sustainability as well as the exit strategy

These strategies should be investigated by the bank regarding the period of implementing each strategy, the modifications that should be made on the strategy and how this strategy can be sustainable and reflecting the objectives of the bank.   

When the bank's projects and changes are being implemented, there are some main important issues to be regarded by the bank's management such as:

Real tests should be regularly made on the new implementations and changes of the bank.

Risk assessments as well as mitigation strategies should be made for realizing the existed risks and finding methods for addressing them.

Financial requirements needed by the bank for implementing the new management strategy should be made as well as recognizing the sources that will be used for funds and focusing on the funding gaps.

Preparing the different needs including the management structures and the internal systems, informing engaged partners and having a legal framework.

A workflow process should be maintained so as to achieve the required services.

There should be an authority process that ensures the bank's direct behavior and interests in addition to a reward and penalty process for introducing the required behaviors for people participating in the implementation process.

A perpetuation process is also needed to be implemented by the bank and the participants for maintaining the quality and the quantity of the resources either natural or social.

An identification process should also be applied for developing a wholeness concept that reflects uniqueness and signification of Oman Arab Bank and it should also include exerting efforts for defining the different factors working for clarifying the bank's uniqueness to both stakeholders and the society.

A communication process should also exist in order to give a chance for information exchange as well as values among all participants.

An evaluation process should also exist for setting a criteria and defining process for the activities and ideas to recognize what can rate them as well as allocating them to specific levels related to them.  Mathur et al, (2007) 

Daelim Oman leadership

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

Daelim Petroface Company has a leadership system that depends on research and practice in order to reach success and improve productivity and profitability. The company's leadership depends on using many leadership systems in order to reach different levels of improved performance. This system uses the vMemes and chooses some of them to focus on. According to Dawlabani, (2014) the theory of Grave can be very effective and helpful for helping leaders and business organizations as it has many levels to choose from. In Daelim there are many levels of leadership such as using the purple level to support team work, group participations and protecting employees in a safe work environment. The red level is used to assure power of leaders over employees in order to make them obedient and in order. The blue is used to for improving the employees' obedience through following rules and laws of the company as well as being adequate to the needs of the authority working to achieve goals of the organization. The orange is used in a way that ensures employees' motivation and in making them work in a balanced work environment. The green is used when the organization is trying to provide comfort and relaxation to employees in order to make them feel at one unit of work and cooperate together. The yellow is used when the organization is trying to develop the level of performance of employees and training them to reach higher levels of performance. Learning and education are focused on through the yellow system of mindset. The turquoise level is focuses on to show that the organization is working according a holistic approach that is interested in general concepts of cleanliness of the environment and general peace of the word.

In Daelim, the most dominant vMemes are the green and the orange as the organization is trying to apply new transformational leadership style that needs motivation, communication and comfortable work environment. There are many changes that the organization is trying to do through applying these Memes and these changes are meant to improve productivity and profitability. The organization leadership also focuses on the yellow meme in order to encourage employees to learn through training and educational courses. Transformational leadership is preferred for applying many changes in the organization and because it is flexible and effective in communicating change and applying it. According to Miller, (2012) communication is very important in order to apply changes in the business organization as it can help change employees' ideas about the leadership and about what can be done to achieve changes. He also added that communication should be applied by the leader through different levels. In Daelim, the transformational leadership is the dominant leadership style and there are main two Memes which are dominating as they are the orange where employees are motivated and encourage to innovate and create new ideas and the green one where employees are engaged and empowered in order to feel at ease in the business organization and comfortable and having high sense of belonging. There is also the yellow level as employees are trained and more learning and education is given to them in order to develop their performance and reach higher levels of success. Sometimes the red and blue levels are applied in order to maintain adequacy and make sure that rules and orders are applied in the organization. 

There are many local and international companies that work in the gas and oil industry and the competition in this field is very high and strong. Competition is high because there are differences between companies in the leadership styles and techniques used and followed by leaders, these differences can make the company in need for making comparisons with other companies and try to apply new techniques and systems that are applied by other companies in order to achieve success, differences can also be effective when the company tries to avoid them and deliver new techniques and systems for being followed. The company's current leadership styles are important because it raises the effectiveness of the company when dealing with customers and meeting their needs and international measurements of oil and gas products. The company is located in the Sohar Industrial Area, 230 km North West of Muscat, the scope of work encompasses engineering, procurement, construction, start-up and commissioning services at the refinery.  The contract includes improvements at the existing facility as well as the addition of new refining units.
The refinery was originally constructed and commissioned in 2006 and ORPIC is now investing in improvements at the site to enhance the current production capacity.  When complete, it is anticipated that the revamped facility will increase current output by more than 70%.(Petroface, 2017)

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

Daelim company has a leadership style that evolved to be transformational but it was before transactional and it focused more on applying rules and focusing on authority roles more than innovation and creativity. Currently it evolved to include many concepts that are applied such as employees' empowerment, engagement and compensation systems instead of reward. The oil and gas industry has grown largely in Oman. According to Kruger, (2008) discussed the sector theory and the relationship between leadership and productivity as he mentioned the structural change and the effect of applying it using effective leadership styles as when using the transformational leadership style to apply change, this ensures change sustainability and effectiveness, he discussed the driving forces to structural change such as planning, motivation and employees' compensation. He explained how to reach the sectoral shifts through the organizational development and how to identify competitors' qualities and presenting new ideas to develop the business and gain better qualities than competitors in the market. 

The sector of Dealim has focused on many factors that helped it evolve and develop such as employee compensation that includes many elements such as recognition, monetary rewards, non-monetary rewards, social relationship, fringe benefits and job satisfaction. Ahmed et al, (2014) Explained how transformational leadership can ensure employees' satisfaction through its strategic planning that can present effective compensation system that is based on the external and internal factors in the organization. They also referred to the organizational citizenship behavior and how it can be focused by the transformational leaders who motivate employees and encourage them to participate in the business with real motives and intentions. The company hence is trying to apply change on its structural planning as the plans include short term and long term goals of achieving organizational goals. Because the company is a joint venture, competition in the oil and gas field is very strong and requires many development steps in order to boost the market.

Competition in oil and gas field is very severe in the Gulf area and worldwide, this makes Daelim work hard and try hard to have the best human resources and leadership in order to reach competitive advantage and success in the field of gas and oil locally and internationally. Many companies in Oman are competing Daelim such as Oman Oil Company S.A.O.G, PDO, Oman Gas Company and others. All are trying hard to reach competitiveness through innovating new products and providing new solutions for customers by products that are clean and friendly to the environment. They make different transformations and changes to boost the local Gulf market and internationally especially in the Middle East area, the MENA area and worldwide. Competition is very important to encourage any company to work hard and find out effective solutions for its customers, Kumar et al, (2013) discussed how leadership activities can affect the organization and its success when they try to complete the chain of knowledge creation by getting the required data about other competitors and employ it in order to provide effective processes of decision making and they referred to the importance of employees know their roles in the knowledge creation process.     Swamy and Wamy, (2014) explained the need to comparison between different rivals in the market in order to compete them and reach competitive advantage. They stressed the need to be well acknowledged by all leadership activities and styles applied by other rivals in the market and they also discussed the need to find new business strategies in marketing, distribution and other activities. Oil and gas field in Oman faces competition with many companies in the Gulf and Middle East area and this made the company present new products and other updated products that are not produced by other rivals.

All business organizations around the world have found that leadership is a key for competitiveness and it is important to focus on it in order to succeed. According to Cavazottee et al, (2013) transformational leadership is a style that can help the company find new ideas for implementing change and achieve success in the field of business. Daelim focused on transformational leadership for these reasons and for raising the flexibility in dealing with employees and talented who can find out new innovations that help the company succeed. Competition with other rivals and comparisons are in some ways positive points for the company because they help the leadership of the company understand how other rivals work, plan and apply leadership strategies and this is effective in implementing new leadership styles such as the transformational leadership style. It can also be passive for the company if the company is not able to apply changes in leadership style or facing very difficult hinders in the way of achieving transformations as according to Aaroans, (2007) transformations can be applied if the leadership style is supportive to them and if it is well applied by leaders who are in need to have full awareness for means of implementing this leadership style and making full use of it.

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 Daelim Petrofac Company, changes are occurring for the purposes of development and competitiveness. Changes cover many areas in the organization such as in products, work environment, distribution areas and in leadership. Leadership focuses on changing all areas of the business in order to provide new products that are presented to the customer in many innovative means. The competing organizations are also using new innovative techniques in all areas of the business and Daelim is trying to provide the market with different products and different production lines in order to surprise the market locally and internationally with these products. Changes are also made in the human resources management area in order to invest in human resources in order to prepare them to apply the changes and not to be low effective in applying changes. The company is also using frameworks and models for change in order to evaluate its current situation, needs and future aspirations and to meet the market's needs and meet customers' expectations. According to Zhang et al, (2016) there are many frameworks for applying change such as that of Zhang et al, (2016) as they confirmed the need for a framework that supports sustainability when implementing change and they presented a framework which is the integrated diagnostic framework that is mainly based on diagnosing the defects of the current leadership style in the organization and how to find new means for applying changes and what changes are most suitable and can be more effective according to the field of business, the market and the customers' needs. This framework is based on identifying the internal and external growth management systems and how to employ all resources of the company in order to implement the change desired for competitiveness.

Daelim can also find suitable frameworks in order to apply them in the organization such as those presented by Zhang et al, (2016) as the company has to evaluate its current situation and measure its capabilities compared by other companies in the same field in order to meet the market's needs and then to apply the framework according to these needs. Zhang et al, (2016) discussed the GMM model that can be used by the business organization to implement change as the model is based on measuring the systems and sub systems of the organizational managerial proficiency and those sub systems are Organizational Purpose systems, Structure systems, Relationships systems, Helpful Mechanisms systems, Rewards systems, Leadership systems, Environmental systems and Attitudes Toward Change systems. The company can focus on developing all systems and then to maintain sustainability for this development and then to measure the outcomes by measuring the quality of best practices that the organization  has conducted. The model also presents a support for analyzing the company's stages of operations in order to state what areas that need support and change will affect better. It uses internal organizational diagnosis that states how far the internal environment of the organization is in need for change and how to apply it. Daelim can apply such model in order to assess, analyze and support its internal organizational system and find out the areas that need changes to be applied.

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.

The organization can also support its leadership by encouraging leaders to innovate ideas and changes within their areas of work in order to encourage employees to present change and innovations. The work environment can also be changed in a way that can support critical thinking, freedom and relaxation in order to encourage employees think and present effective ideas. Communication is also very important and leaders should encourage employees to communicate with each other and with leaders as changes can be communicated within he team that is cooperating to achieve change. There should also be frameworks for change management and how to face any challenges that may hinder the challenges face them.  

References

1.      Ahmed, F. Abbas, T. Latif, S. Rasheed, A. (2014). ' Impact of Transformational Leadership on Employee Motivation in Telecommunication Sector.' Journal of Management Policies and Practices June 2014, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 11-25 ISSN: 2333-6048 (Print), 2333-6056 (Online) https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ace7/fa04bb99a701b43c079c0a35cd91253e67fc.pdf

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

3.      Cavazotte, F. Moreno, V. Bernardo, J. (2013). ' Transformational Leaders and Work Performance: The Mediating Roles of Identification and Self-efficacy.' http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bar/v10n4/07.pdf

4.      Dawalabani, S. (2014). ' VALL]E, SYSTE,MS AND THE FUTURE OF LEADERSHIP.' http://www.memenomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Leader-to-Leader-SED.pdf

5.      Kumar, K. Jain, K. Tiwary, R. (2013). ' LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON CREATING KNOWLEDGE IN ORGANIZATIONS.' https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol8iss1/2kumar.pdf

6.      Kruger, J. (2008). ' PRODUCTIVITY AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.' http://www.vwl.tuwien.ac.at/hanappi/AgeSo/rp/Kr%C3%BCger_2008.pdf

7.      McCleskey, J. (2014). ' Situational, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership and Leadership Development.' Journal of Business Studies Quarterly 2014, Volume 5, Number 4 http://jbsq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/June_2014_9.pdf

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

9.      Zhang, J. Schmidt, K. Li, H. (2016). ' An Integrated Diagnostic Framework to Manage Organization Sustainable Growth: An Empirical Case.' MDPI.