Company background & Project objective

Shell Eastern Petroleum (P) Ltd
(Insert Name)
(Institutional Affiliation)
Introduction
Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd. is based in Singapore and was founded in 1891. A network of service stations are operated in the country and the company operates as a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Shell plc. Shell Singapore is among the largest foreign investors in Singapore employing over 2,600 employees. The first oil refinery was set up in Singapore in 1961 and this made the government to award Shell Singapore with “Pioneer Certificate No. 1”. Currently, the Bukom Refinery is considered as the largest oil refinery internationally in terms of crude distillation capacity. Over the years, Shell Singapore has evolved to become an important player in controlling the growth of oil and petrochemical industry in Singapore (Moody-Stuart, 1998). Shell was recognized for the several invaluable contributions to Singapore and it was awarded with the first “Distinguished Partner in Progress” on its centenary in 1991.
In September 2000, the Singapore government awarded the company with the prestigious one-time Millennium Trade Award due to the major contributions Shell has made to the country’s international trade. In July 2006, the management of the company said that it will be proceeding with the development of the Shell Eastern Petrochemical Complex (SEPC). SEPC is composed of a modern world-scale ethylene cracker on Bukom Island, enhancement on the present Bukom Island, and a world-scale Mono-Ethylene Glycol (MEG) plant on Jurong Island (Cibin & Grant, 1996). The multi-billion investment is considered as the largest single investment by Shell in Singapore. This shows the commitment of the company and the confidence it has in the country. The management said that the project is currently underway and it is expected to be complete by 2009/2010.
Activities in Singapore
For shell’s businesses as a whole, Singapore has become a crucial hub due to the size of revenues raised in that country. The Bukom refinery in Singapore produces 500,000 barrels per day making it one of the largest oil refineries across the world in terms of crude distillation capacity. This implies that Singapore is an important center for supply and trading in the East for the company. Close to 90% of products produced by Bukom are exported to neighboring nations and beyond (Binnekamp, 2006). In the Asia Pacific Region, Shell is considered the largest petrochemical export and production center. Investment by the company in the petrochemical industry consist of two polyols plants, a joint venture styrene monomer and propylene oxide plants, and different other joint ventures.
Moreover, SEPC is an integrated petrochemical and refinery project whose completion will make Shell the biggest single-branded retail networks in the country, offering customers a wide range of services and products. Shell is the largest supplier of marine bunker lubricants and fuels in Singapore, having barges that service the global shipping customers who are ever present at the Singapore Port. Shell International Eastern Trading Company (SIETCO) controls the trading of exports which have been produced by Bukom refinery, LNG Trading and different oil products (Cibin & Grant, 1996). SIETCO is considered a crucial link in the global trading network of the company and a significant market player in the entire Asia Pacific.
For its Asian businesses processes, Shell Upstream International regional office consists of the management of an integrated business unit LNG terminals, exploration and production, natural gas pipelines, gas to liquid plants, and power projects in Asia. The international sector has activities in Pakistan, Japan, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, India Korea, Philippines, and Brunei (Moody-Stuart, 1998). The business strategy adopted by Shell is committed towards generating profits and at the same time enhancing the well-being of people and the planet as a whole. Since Shell is considered one of the largest investor in Singapore, the company management is committed to sustainable development, which integrates the three important elements of sustainability: social, economic, environmental. This also ensures that both short and long-term projects and priorities are balanced.
Organizational capabilities
For an organization to be productive and enjoy economies of scale, it has to ensure that all its training needs are meant and employees are conversant with the evolving technologies. Training of employees must be a continuous process to ensure that skills, talents and innovation are nurtured for the long-run benefit of the company. In addition this strategy should focus on both junior and senior level management staff. The strategy at Shell Eastern Petroleum (P) Ltd consists of competency assessment leading to gap analysis and interventions (Binnekamp, 2006). This helps to identify the current leadership capabilities of the organization and thus bridging the gap with those skills needed in the future. Moreover, potential leaders are given the opportunity of occupying senior management positions through consistent education and training.
Leadership development and talent management at Shell Singapore is clearly aligned to satisfy the strategic processes and business needs of the company. To focus at issues positively and different, the management has learnt to realign its mind-set. This enhances inculcation of a spirit of experimentation and capacity of making difficult and bold decisions (Lye, et al 2010). The diversity of the workforce, working in a multidisciplinary teams, socio-cultural issues, and gender sensitivity are important perspectives which are often practiced in Shell Singapore. This also includes creation of learning aspirations and a strategic mentoring framework harness that can collect and exploit tacit knowledge in the company. This leads to effective use of innovation and modern technology as well as creative ideas to organizational issues.
Safety culture
To ensure that both company employees and contractors are in a safe working environment, Shell Singapore has adopted and integrates policies enacted by its parent company. In addition, Shell Singapore considers safety at any of its working environments, whether office or field areas, as the most important issue. For safety to be enhanced, the first step is to focus on compliance and managing cultural aspects that can cause unsafe working behaviors. The Ground Zero program plays critical roles in enhancing company-wide initiatives which leads to continuous strengthening of the safety culture (Binnekamp, 2006). Ground Zero is based on the belief that the company can operate without fatalities or severe occurrences despite of the plenty difficult conditions they are exposed to. To ensure that this aim is achieved, the management team continues to roll out strategies that strengthen the safety culture.
Some of these initiatives involve simplifying employee and work requirements, enhancing the safety leadership skills of employees and rewarding successful performance. Although much work is yet to be covered, the company is making a positive gradual process. Thus is supported by the fact that Shell achieved in 2010 the best ever safety performance implying that employees are paying close attention to safety. Safety in the company is enhanced due to the tradition of providing written documents with advise on the employees should react under different conditions (Shell Companies in Singapore, n.d). Shell has implemented the mandatory 12 Life-Saving Rules which define what contractors and employees must be familiar with so as so as to curb serious injuries or fatalities. Some of the rules include do not smoke in undesignated smoking zone, do not speed or use your phone while driving even while hands free driving. These rules are show in the diagram below:


Shell’s mandatory Life-Saving Rules (Cibin & Grant, 1996)
When the rules are broken, workers face disciplinary actions or job termination while contactors are forced out of the working site and may be banned from working with Shell in the future. There are three golden rules which clarify how workers and contractors are expected by the company to behave. First, everyone should comply with the law, procedures and standards. Second, employees can intervene in situations which are unsafe or non-compliant. Finally, respect your neighbor. Cibin and Grant (1996) say that these rules focus on individual responsibility and persuading employees to intervene and assist their colleagues and respect their neighbors. The company holds annual global safety days where both workers and contractors come together to share and strengthen their safety culture. The theme of the 2010 Safety Day was “Do the right thing” and employees made personal pledges to change their actions to make the workplace safer. Creative ways were also established to reinforce the implementation of the 12 Lifesaving Rules, such as through posters, songs and games.
Training analysis to change behavior and culture
Shell Singapore was undergoing several organizational changes in the 1980s and 1990s but the changes were one dimensional since they mostly focused on formal organizational structure. For the company to enhance its financial and operational performance, and improve the way it responds to several external forces which impact on its business processes, changes had to be moved beyond formal structure (Shell.com. 2011). Shell Singapore had for many years been criticized for being slow, bureaucratic, unresponsive and inward looking and most of attributes were based on attitudes and behavior. When any form of organization change takes place, the right context can be provided by the new structure, but what matters most are its effects on a person or group behavior.
Between 1996 and 1997, the management development function at Shell Singapore went a notch higher with changes being made on consultancy firms and internal management. This led to significant rise in the company’s organizational and developmental activities. According to a report from the Fortune magazine, the new army put Shell managers through a series of workshops (Bergh, 2000). The training strategies in the workshops taught people how to effectively track their time by analyzing if the actions directly contributing to growth of both returns and gross margins. 100 top Shell executives were asked to undertake a revealing test known as Myers-Briggs personality test. This is a management tool which is widely used to classify individuals into 16 psychological categories.
Among the 100 managers who took the test, 86 percent were considered “Thinkers”, individuals who make decisions according to logic and objective analysis. 60 percent were on the opposite scale, considered “feelers”. These are people who make decisions according to values and subjective evaluation (Shell.com. 2011). The need for a change in an organization setting is enhanced when the management implements different training programs according to the needs of the organization. Organization analysis of a company leads to both personal analysis and task analysis of different processes adopted by the management. In addition, structural analysis of an organization cannot be left out in the process in the analysis of the training needs of a company.
Organizational analysis: restructuring and cost cutting
Significant reduction in Service Company staffs is one of the major short-term changes on reorganization. As 1995 was coming to an end Shell management began to reduce the size of its head offices in London and Hague as it planned to introduce new organizational structure in 1996 (Bergh, 2000). The company also accelerated to downsizing process of both administrative and central services within Service Companies. For instance, one of the tow towers which are located at the London Shell Center was disposed by the management in 1996.
The process of cost cutting was not concentrated on the Service Companies but it was extended to operational companies such as Shell Singapore. Unit costs form 1995 to 1997 was reduced by 17% in real terms. In addition, savings in procurement costs from 1994 to 1997 was close to $600 million annually (Moody-Stuart, 1998). Restructuring of Shell’s business operations led to creation of a more effective and efficient management structure. Shell’s chemical business has performed well and this portrays the clear benefits of global integration. For instance, cost cutting was up-to 7% and the general investment decisions were better coordinated and more profitable.
Cor Herkstrot...