Key Concepts
The key concepts of this presentation are organizational change and change management. Harvard business school defines organizational change as actions in which a company or business alters a major component of its organization, such as its culture, the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes. In other words, the definition demonstrates that when we are speaking of an organizational change, we are speaking of a major change in the way a company operates.
Harvard Business School defines change management as a “method of leveraging change to bring about a successful resolution.” In other words, change management is a structured process meant to help a company achieve a desired outcome. It can be understood as a set of tools that are designed to facilitate the transition from the current state to the desired state in different aspects of the business.
Types of Change
There are several types of changes. First, organizational change can be either managed or unmanaged. Managed change is an organizational change that has a clear purpose and implementation plan carried out by a designated manager. Unmanaged changes are spontaneous without a clearly established purpose or plan that happens as a reaction to alterations in the external or internal environment. The results of unmanaged change are always unpredictable, which implies that managed organizational change is preferred.
Managed change can be either adaptive or transformational. When we are talking about an adaptive change, we mean a small-scale change required to fine-tune business operations. Transformational change is a laborious endeavor that may affect mission and strategy, company or team structure, people and organizational performance, or business processes. Transformational changes are significant alterations in the company’s operations to achieve better performance.
The change in Qatargas operations associated with the pandemic is a managed transformational change, as it affected all the aspects of the operations activities.
Now we will turn to the case itself. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Qatargas activated a ‘Tier 3’ Crisis Management Team, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Qatargas COVID-19 Taskforce. The task force adopted a risk-based strategy for Qatargas, which is aligned with the Qatar government and QatarEnergy regulations. In particular, the Qatargas COVID-19 task force developed a robust approach for the identification, evaluation, mitigation, and action tracking of risks. This approach was meant to provide the Qatargas Management Leadership Team and shareholders visibility and assurance that the most critical risks faced by the company were being adequately addressed and mitigated.
The plan was implemented effectively, which allowed the company to achieve its goals, which included the safety of employees and the community, stability of business operations, minimal impact on financial performance, and low concern of shareholders.
Change Plan Details
The change plan consisted of several aspects. First, the company ensured the continuity of its business through the development of the containment and isolation model provided in this slide. The model included a series of prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery activities. Second, the company engaged with stakeholders to communicate the efforts of the company concerning the pandemic. Third, Qatargas supported the communities by establishing a vaccination campaign and developing a testing facility. Fourth, Qatargas established a work-from-home policy to take care of the health and safety of the employees. Fifth, the company launched a long-term environmental strategy. Finally, Qatargas digitalized all the corporate training sessions to protect its employees from possible contamination.
Company Background
Qatargas is a unique global energy operator in terms of size, service, and reliability. Since 1984, Qatargas has been developing, producing, and marketing hydrocarbons from the world’s largest non-associated natural gas field.
The company’s vision is to be the world’s premier LNG company.
Qatargas describes its mission in aspects. First, Qatargas aims to provide quality LNG and other hydrocarbon products to the global market. Additionally, Qatargas protects its people, assets, and environment.
The company outlines six central values. They include:
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