ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Organizational Behaviour

Organizational Behaviour

Introduction

Major organizational change disrupts the fabric of organizational life in terms of interpersonal relationships? reporting lines? group boundaries? employee and work unit status and the social identities associated with group memberships (Paulsen et al.? 2005; Terry and Jimmieson? 2003:52). Even though change is implemented for positive reasons (e.g. to adapt to changing environmental conditions and remain competitive)? employees often respond negatively toward change and resist change efforts. This negative reaction is largely because change brings with it increased pressure? stress and uncertainty for employees (Armenakis and Bedeian? 2009; McHugh? 2007:66). One of the main reasons why change efforts fail is employee resistance to change; the significance of resistance is compounded by the high rate of change failure. Thus? building positive employee beliefs? perceptions and attitudes is critical for successful change interventions (Armenakis et al.? 1993; Eby et al.? 2000:46). In an effort to identify how organizational change can be managed more effectively? researchers have focused on the processes underlying employee resistance. Critics of resistance studies have argued that researchers need to address employees' subjective experiences of change in order to understand what resistance to change actually entails (Nord and Jermier? 1994; Oreg? 2006:85)? particularly when theoretical models of resistance underscore the fact that it is a multi-faceted construct (George and Jones? 2001; Piderit? 2000:75). Examining employees' subjective experience of change may reveal that employees are not necessarily resisting the change itself? but rather perceived undesirable outcomes of change (Dent and Goldberg? 2009:99) or the process of implementing the change. Thus? the current study aimed to examine employees' subjective experience of large-scale planned change.

The aim of the paper is to describe the organizational change held at Saudi Aramco in 2004. the paper further describes the overview of the organisation? analysis of the forces? the process? and the outcomes of the change in terms of one or more models or theories of organisational change? problems encountered in the process of managing the change and discuss them in terms of one or more models or theories of organisational change? recommendations for solving and then it concludes with a summary of key points and implications.

Overview Of The Organisation

Saudi Aramco is the state owned oil company of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia with headquarters in Dhahran in the eastern province. It is currently the world's largest oil corporation in terms of crude production and reserves (Wikipedia, 2010). Daily oil production averaged 8 million barrels in 2009, while proven reserved totaled 264 billion barrels (Salameh, 2009). The companies' history dates back to 1933 when Standard Oil of California (SOCAL) secured a concessionary agreement with the Saudi Arabian government to explore for oil in the kingdom. SOCAL created a subsidiary named California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) to manage this concession. After the discovery of the first oil in 1938, the company's name was subsequently changed to Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in 1944. The Saudi Arabian government gradually increased its stake in the company from 25% in 1973 to 100% in ...