In Western Australia, the oldest historical sites in Australia, including a 46,000-year-old aboriginal cave, were destroyed, provoking anger and spite among the citizens and traditional aboriginal owners. As the residence say, the caves presented a rich culture of the people they highly valued. Rio Tinto, the mining company responsible for the blast, legally reached out for iron ore worth 135 million dollars that could not have been available under alternative mining plans that would avoid the cultural site. The act spiked condemnation from the shareholders and the public (“Mining firm Rio” 2020). This caused the suspension of the CEO, Mr. Jacques, and other senior executives. The chairman of Rio Tinto acknowledges that no individual was responsible for the destruction of the shelters, but there were various opportunities missed, and the company failed to uphold its core values, among them being to ‘respect local communities and their heritage.’
Among the major issues presented in this case, one is that the company fails to uphold its core values. Core values are essential within an organization because they are the support vision and influence the culture of the company. These are competencies that allow a company to run smoothly without glitches. As an international manager, it is an essential step in ensuring that the company’s employees understand and can implement the company’s core values in all its endeavors. Corporate values are a strategic initiative on its own that ensures and dictates how the company operates. Integrating them into the company policies and procedures governs the situation and, in the future, will promise that other devastating situations like this can be avoided for the company. As a manager, it is also essential to consider that the corporate values permeate every aspect of life in the company. For instance, transforming the culture of Rio Tinto into one that puts community respect of culture and heritage at sight requires that the employees be thinking this value in their daily process of work. Therefore integration is vital.
Managing also a multinational enterprise requires a clear understanding of the company’s cultural backgrounds that the company seeks to undertake its production. Understanding companies’ culture aspire to venture into requires mutual understanding that fosters respect and effective communication. Effective communication guarantees that both the community and the company will come to harmony on the grounds upon which they can operate. The company should be able to see through the lenses of the home’s traditional thinking and value. A company creating a negative image can become hard to shake off. In this case, Rio Tinto applying the same concept of cultural background integration into its operations; it should listen to the people of Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura and visited the site with them to understand the significance of the caves to the people. The people would also be ready to listen to them on the blast scale, the various option plans available to approach the issue, and the value of the minerals below the caves, and a conclusive agreement on how to go about it would have been reached without much scandal.
Another notable problem within the organization is the management and operational plans of the company. During his interview, Mr. Jacques says that there is a need to review the plans of operation in other mining sites within the area. He further says that there was a miscommunication between them and the community’s people and the plans of how the blow on the caves was not properly communicated to the people. This is an evident lack of managerial organization within the company that has not clearly aligned its plans. As an international manager, I would ensure that I go through the management plan for the mining areas’ operations to ensure that they do not create doubt and considerable mayhem both for the community and the people. This means reviewing the company’s organizational management. One of the management practices for businesses is to seek clarity. The management should share a clear vision with the employees, primarily on the operation side on the delegations of responsibilities, the best practices, and how things are to be carried out. This gives a purpose and a clear sense of direction. Meetings are also essence forehand before executing plans to ensure all factors are in place and also for resolution of final agendas that might come up at the last minute. All these management practices are essential in dealing with some issues.
Beyond it, all communication is a vital factor when it comes to running a multinational enterprise. Communication enables one to secure information that guides the management in the best directives to take. This is one of the issues that has been spotted within the company. Flaws in communication within the company and its environs are detected when there is no clear conscience between the local residence, the state laws, and its management. In this case, proper communication was essential to improve on leadership, control, and organizing of the whole operation carried out by the company. Communication is the foundation of planning ad organizing. All essential information should be communicated to the management to ensure that they understand all aspects of the operations they are to undertake. Communication is the source of all information, and therefore its essence cannot be undermined. For instance, getting information about the mining sites and having proper communication with the locals is essential in directing the ideas of operations that the company is about to take and having the opinions of the people in the area of the best cause of action. This limits the possibility of future disagreements and bad blood.
It is worth noting that what the Rio Tinto company needed most in terms of the case that has enveloped them is better management techniques. Essential management practices and understanding the considerable responsibility that companies have towards the community guarantees that such issues as the one that erupted could have been dealt with beforehand. Sometimes consultation with affected parties, such as consultation with the local archaeological specialist, could have given the company significant insights that they could have considered in their plan for the best course of action. One thing to learn about is that sometimes the company’s will be faced with problems not legally defined because, for this case, no one was at fault. Situations will erupt that the management had not anticipated for. In such cases,a company need to be readily armed with critical thinking and decision making that will give them the best possible outcome of the situation.
REFERENCES
Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying aboriginal caves. 2020. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52869502