Sustainable transformation of Qatar oil and gas industry: An organisational cultural perspective

Abstract

Sustainable development and sustainability are concepts that are gaining a lot of popularity recently, mainly due to the increasing concerns regarding business and the environment relationship. Following the footsteps of the world, Qatar commitment towards sustainability was confirmed with the introduction of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and different National Development Strategies, where the Qatar leadership had outlined its development goals for the next generations to incorporate the concept of sustainable development. Such decisions induce changes within the country’s local, regional and national industry sector and especially oil and gas. The pathway for a successful implementation of sustainability strategies within organisations in the sector depends heavily on the alignment of the organisational culture with such change. Therefore, this paper provides a in depth view of the cultural changes the Qatar oil and gas sector underwent to manage the adaption of sustainability initiatives. The paper adopted a qualitative approach for the data collection process, interviewing 24 professionals from eight different Qatar oil and gas organisations. A thematic analysis was carried out to analyse the results and findings shows that important cultural changes had been experienced within the sector since the organisations’ decision to implement sustainability. Four cultural changes identified to be adapted in the Qatar oil and gas sector and are: behavioural change, leadership attitude, shareholders’ attitude and inter-organisational collaboration. Sustainability is not a stand-alone issue, but a dimension of management culture. As such, sustainability-related skills will have to reach further than personal relations skills.