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Whether Organisational Culture can be Managed

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Introduction

The main aim of every organisation is increase demand for the goods and services it offers. To achieve this goal, organisations employ certain ethics that control their attitudes, beliefs, experiences and values. This ethical characteristic of an organisation is known as its 'organisational culture'. In their book Strategic Management, Hill and Jones (2001) define organisational culture as the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organisation, and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organisation. In their opinion, it also includes beliefs and ideas about what kind of goals members of an organisation should pursue, and ideas about …show more content…

To optimise the processes of drilling, refining and transporting its products, Saudi Aramco has employed over 500 scientists and engineers that specialise in different aspects of the hydrocarbon industry (Saudi Aramco 75th Anniversary, 2008).

Figure 1 below is a representation of the Saudi Aramco organogram:

Figure 1: Saudi Aramco Organisational Structure.

The organogram above shows that Saudi Aramco has a single president and six separate operational Business Line hierarchies. The six separate Business Line hierarchies are controlled by Senior Vice Presidents, each with six identical vertical levels in operation: finance, exploration and production, engineering, industrial relations, and refining, marketing and international. Within each level there are grade codes, and the number of grade coded is commensurate to the number of employees in a particular level. For example, the subordinate level is made up of 8 grade codes, while the next vertical step up, that of supervisor, has 5 grade codes.

Saudi Aramco is made up of 1 CEO, 7 Senior Vice Presidents, 30 Vice Presidents and 161 Managers (who are distributed throughout the organisation). It also consists of over 600 General Supervisors and has a grand total of 52,000 employees. As mentioned above, the company uses grade codes for the hierarchal distribution and specification of its employees.

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