Exxonmobil Essay Example

Introduction

ExxonMobil is an American multinational company that engages in oil and gas exploration, production, transportation, and marketing. The multinational has two divisions: the upstream, downstream and chemical division. The upstream division constitutes of oil exploration and extraction wholesale and shipping operations. The downstream division, on the other hand, entails refining, marketing, and retailing functions. Lastly the chemical division dwells on the production of basic chemicals, polymers, solvents, synthetic rubber and plastic products. The company is headquartered in Irving, Texas and has over 800,000 global labor pools. The company is credited as the largest refiner globally with over 30 refineries in various countries (ExxonMobil, 2015).

Organizational Structure

The company has a governing board that is currently headed by Rex W.Tillerson, who also doubles up as the CEO of the corporation. The board of directors at ExxonMobil constitutes of twelve members with ten of whom are independent. The boards functions are actively supported seven enjoined committees. These committees range from audit, compensation, board affairs, finance, contributors, public issues to executive committees. The company further has a functional organizational structure that enhances supervision, coordination and task allocation across the multinational corporation.
The functional structure sees to it that all enterprises under ExxonMobil have their own well defined leadership and human resource. Every company under the ExxonMobil Corporation operates within the greater vision and mission statement established by the top brass leadership which is the board of directors (ExxonMobil, 2015). The shared goals are carefully arrived at to ensure that all the corporation’s operatives deliver on a plausible mandate.

Tools and Skills Needed For Effective Goal Setting and Superior Team Performance at ExxonMobil.

There are various tools and skills required in the establishment of organizational goals as well as attaining superior team performance at ExxonMobil. The first skill needed is the ability to harmonize or partner in establishing shared goals. Goal setting is ideally a collaborative process which requires an array of suggestions and opinions. The collaboration ensures that all sides of a goal are taken into consideration as well as concerns across the leadership. The employees’ opinions are also factored in to ensure that their responsibility and performance mandate is fully comprehended.
Incorporation of SMART skills and tools is essential to the goal setting process and attainment of superior team performance. Any leader should be able to set goals that are SMART-Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. A leader should have the analytical skill to identify a specific goal that may be integral in elevating the corporation’s performance. Establishment of measurable and attainable goals is essential for any progressive leader in an organizational setting. This allows room for realistic expectations on the part of the leadership and the personnel’s expectations. Relevance and time bound aspect of the goal setting process by the management allows for setting of viable objectives that can be attained within a stipulated time-frame.
The third skill needed is the ability critically to analyze competence and commitment of the corporation's employees. Leaders in various segments of the corporation in order to enhance effective goal setting and superior performance should have this tools and skills. The leadership must understand that just because an individual to be a veteran in a certain are a does not ultimately translate to competence or commitment. Through the analytical assessment of individual employees, the leadership can easily pinpoint the competent and committed individuals that can be able to oversee the actualization of the organizational objectives at ExxonMobil.

Roles and responsibilities of ExxonMobil Employees and Supervisors

The roles and responsibilities of the supervisors at ExxonMobil mainly centers on leading and offering guidance to the employees. The supervisor acts as a top overseer of the organizational department or segment assigned to him. He or she ensures that the subordinates under him deliver the expected results within the time frame assigned for their various tasks. He also analyzes and evaluates the employees output to ensure that it is up to par to the ExxonMobil’s standards in terms of costs, quality and quantity (ExxonMobil, 2015). Due to their direct contact with the employees, the supervisors can easily convey the organizational decrees and policies to employees and alternately voice the employees’ concerns to the top brass management. The supervisors are also integral in formulating programs that directly touch on employees i.e. occupational safety, orientation and also job training. He or she is also tasked with the role of motivating the employees with the intent of positively impacting on company performance.
The ExxonMobil employees are the key pillars of the organization. This is due to their pivotal role in implementing the organizational mandate. The employees are integral in the attainment of the organizational goals that are based on their competencies and expertise. The first role of an employee is to offer technical or expertise input in their assigned duties. Using their requisite competencies and skills, employees are able to undertake various tasks that are in line with the corporation’s expectations, goals, objectives and mission. The next role and responsibility of the ExxonMobil employees is team playing. True to ExxonMobil’s culture employees are part of a global family that is focused providing plausible energy solutions to the world (ExxonMobil, 2015). The employees are also tasked with the responsibility in exercising management in their assigned tasks. The company encourages employees to be self-driven in carrying out their duties with minimal supervision.

Supervision skills necessary for effective communication, motivation and leadership

There are several essential supervision skills necessary for effective communication, motivation and leadership. The first skill is emotional balance. This comes in handy when handling different problems, individuals and work related pressures. An emotionally balanced supervisor can be easily manage conflict situations which would otherwise veer him or her off from right focus. Creativity also helps a supervisor establish new responses to scenarios that may arise in his engagement with employees. Creativity allows the supervisor to adopt to various scenarios in the organizational setting when it comes to offering leadership, communication or motivation. Interpersonal skills are also integral in effective communication, motivation leadership (ExxonMobil, 2015). A supervisor with proper interpersonal skills can easily interact with various stakeholders and in the process convey information, offer motivation or guidance.

Key Areas of Employee Performance Achievement and Necessary Improvement

The employees at Exxon particularly the administrative section have performed well in ensuring the corporation retains its global leader status. The employees have managed to coordinate the corporation’s functions in its various divisions. The upstream, downstream and chemical divisions have managed to coexist due to the effective strategies and policies formulated the administrative section to foster co-existence. It is these policies and directives that have maintained the three divisions as independent entities of ExxonMobil. The other area of achievement is the establishment of 37 refineries globally. Through adept organization controls, the corporation has managed to support its globalization mandate which falls under the administration section. The other area of achievement is the public relations management of the corporation in the face of controversies. The public relations team that falls under the administration section has managed to diffuse emerging issues such as oil spillage, government takeovers et cetera that would have impacted on the company negatively.
The areas in need of improvement surrounding employee performance are a few. The first area is the social media use. ExxonMobil is yet to take up social media seriously in its endeavors. This can largely be blamed on employees who may not be keen enough on enhancing their customer interaction platforms. The next area in need of improvement is the establishment of a uniform global employee appraisal system. There is need for the company to standardize its HR functions in order to boost its globalization mandate.

Legislation affecting workplace health, safety, and labor relations; implementation of strategies for effective labor relations

The Occupational Safety Health Act of 1970 has over the years guided the ExxonMobil employee safety, health and labor relations. The law is very instrumental in that it offers foundation for the corporation’s internal policy dubbed as operations integrity or Safety, Security, Health and Environmental (SSH&E) performance. The internal policy enhances ethics and integrity among the ExxonMobil employees and other stakeholders. It also highlights the need to carry out energy-related operations with much consideration on the environment, communities and employees. The employees, for instance, have attractive health covers that are aimed at enhancing safety as well as performance.
The workplace safety however can only effective if labor relations are taken into consideration when it comes to employees. There is need to allow more space for labor unions within the organization. This will allow employees to easily make collective bargains as well as air their opinions using the right platforms (ExxonMobil, 2015). The company further has to have effective human resource policies that will ensure that the company standardizes its labor management globally. This will ensure that no personnel is discriminated on the basis of their locality, gender or ethnicity. The standardization of the HR functions will also enhance due diligence on the part of the employees when it comes to disciplinary measures.

Present the creation of the business

ExxonMobil as established in this essay is an American multinational company that engages in oil and gas exploration, production, transportation and marketing. The multinational has two divisions: the upstream, downstream and chemical division. All these divisions of the company operate independently under a functional organizational structure. The company has managed to evolve from an original American company to a global phenomenon with its presence in almost every regional hub. Summary of the management plans and proposals.
The management plans and proposals at Exxon are all geared towards environmental and corporate sustainability. These plans and proposals are aimed at ensuring the ExxonMobil brand continues to thrive in the global platform while factoring in various elements that surface within the corporate world and the environment. The environmental sustainability plans and proposals are ideally based on the need to mitigate the corporation’s operations’ impact on the environment. Issues such as environmental degradation and climate change have been of particular concern to the ExxonMobil management (ExxonMobil, 2015).
The management has made proposals which are keen on efficiently restoring and remediating lands affected during the corporation’s exploration expeditions. There are also integral proposals that detail the preventive measures that are key in the avoidance and rapid response to oil spills. ExxonMobil’s management has also laid out various proposals that will enhance the company’s profile as a responsible employee, neighbor and business partner. Through progressive HR practices, the corporation hopes to retain and grow its current labor pool. It also hopes to enhance its corporate image in the society by increasing its funding of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) docket.

References

ExxonMobil. (2015). ExxonMobil Corporation:Corporate Citizenship Report. Retrieved from corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/community/corporate-citizenship-report/environmental-performance