Running head: MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

The Management Practices of HollyFrontier Refining and Marketing

Kristin C Graham
MGT 330: Management for Organizations
Dr. Danette Brown
October 19, 2015

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

The Management Practices of HollyFrontier Refining and Marketing

HollyFrontier Corporation is among the largest independent petroleum refiners in the United
States with operations throughout the mid-continent, southwestern and Rocky Mountain regions.
One level of the corporation is the transportation department. When it became obvious that the
transportation department customers were not receiving the top level of service that the company
strives to offer the management decided to form an offshoot of the transportation department that
would change the way our customers were being serviced. This was the beginning of the Crude
Acquisition Service Center. (CASC).
The development of this department was facilitated by the five functions of management.
The development of the CASC department utilized the five functions of management which
include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Planning
Organizing
Staffing
Leading and
Controlling

Here is how these functions were used to develop this department.

Planning
The first step to developing this new department was planning. According to the book
The Five functions of Effective Management (2014), Planning is a systematic process in which
managers make decisions about future activities and the key goals that the organization intends
to pursue. One primary element of this process, strategic planning, focuses on planning for the
future of the organization (2.1)
First, the developers looked at the changing environment of the business of transporting
crude oil and the greater level of service that the customers were expecting. Another aspect was

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to analyze the competitors services and plan for a better level of service than what they were
offering. Trying to forecast the future of the oil and gas industry was a difficult task with the
constantly changing regulations and environmental considerations. Gluck et al. (1980) defined
strategic management as "a system of corporate values, planning capabilities, or organizational
responsibilities that couple strategic thinking with operational decision making at all levels and
across all functional lines of authority in a corporation." (Gluck et al. 1980)
The organizational goal was quite simple really. To develop a department that was solely
devoted to customer service and keeping the customers happy.
A new computer program was designed to better coordinate the loads of oil that the
customers called in to be hauled. Considering the wide area that the corporation services, a
maximum time limit for pickup was determined so the customer would not have to wait longer
than necessary to have their oil hauled. Plans were made to hire more contract labor to
supplement the proprietary fleet to support the new time limit. Computer systems for all
company owned trucks were researched to more accurately deliver loading information both to
the lease operator and to the accounting department for payment. The corporations would expect
all contract carriers to also implement the same computer systems in their vehicles to provide the
level of service that the department expects.
Another aspect of planning is budgeting. Considering that this was a new venture it
would be difficult to create an accurate budget. Management considered all aspects of the
department creation, asset acquisition, program development and staffing. They tried to plan for
any contingencies and eventually completed the budget.
Organization

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Now it was time for the organization of the new department. Organizing may be
defined as the process of efficiently and effectively bringing people and resources together to
create products and services. Organizing establishes task and authority relationships that allow
people to work together to achieve the organization's goals (Baack, et al, 2014). This was the
time to implement the assets planned for, the programming needed, and to initiate contact with
several contract companies to develop relationships and solicit bids for the contracts.
Meetings were set up with other departments within the corporation that would be
affected by the new systems to discuss options for collecting and storing the data needed by
them. The departments also discussed ideas on how to interface the new programming with that
of the other departments existing programming for accounting and other purposes.
Next the equipment needed to implement electronic driver logs will be purchased and
installed in both the Southwest and Utah fleets.
Meetings were set up with the Permian are producers to share the companys plans and
solicit their feedback on the proposed processes.
Staffing
Staffing is the achievement of organizational goals through the effective and efficient
deployment of people. Staffing deals with people as a resource in the organization. It is more
than a department called human resources (Baack, et al, 2014).
At this point it was time to create a job design to facilitate staffing of the new
department. This would also be a difficult task as these tasks had just been created. Eventually a
job discription was written. The title for the office staff was created as the Crude Oil Customer
Service Representative. According the the HollyFrontier job listing, The basic function for the
CSRs is to provide crude order management services to crude oil producers, from whom the

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company purchases crude oil, and coordinate the scheduling of the owned truck fleet and hire
carrier fleets to pick up crude oil from the producers lease sites (2013).
After the job description was developed, the Human Resource department listed the job
posting in several venues including the company website, the New Mexico workforce
Connection and several employment websites that are available to prospective employees around
the globe. The job posting was also emailed to all of the current employees and office contract
staff. Interviews were scheduled and many people were interviewed over several days. After the
interviews and considerable screening, two initial employees were hired, with an ultimate plan to
expand the CASC team to six Customer Service Representatives.
The two initial employees were trained as new processes were initialized, making the
training process as painless and easy as possible. Being employed at the start of the development
of the CASC team gave the first two CSRs the opportunity to have some input as to the further
development of the department. This created a feeling of ownership which inspired them to
excel in the daily processes of the department and to think analytically about new processes to be
implemented in the future.
Leading
The leadership of the new department had been initiated at the beginning of the
development process so as to have a manager in place who would contribute to the planning
from the beginning. The manager would also be involved in the initial hiring of the office staff.
Leading in a business context consists of all activities undertaken to help people achieve
the highest level of performance. Leadership means influencing behaviors in organizations
((Baack, et al, 2014).

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The manager of the CASC department should not only manage the employees but he
should inspire them to excellence in their positions and to prepare themselves for future
promotions Traditional leadership development often focuses on individualized action plans,
which includes improving employee and manager productivity and effectiveness through training
and skill-building. The goals of these interventions often include improving communication,
conflict resolution, time management, and collaboration (Wilke, et al, 2015).
Controlling
There are different types of controls within any organization. There are constant controls
that govern the individual, the department and the entire organization. These controls are put in
place to allow the organization to succeed.
Controlling is the process of evaluating performance against established goals and
creating methods appropriate to take corrective action to maintain or improve performance in
any area of the organization. Control systems allow managers to analyze the state of the
organization and its various constituent parts to determine if the plan and structural system are
achieving expected results (Baack, et al, 2014).
Individual constant controls are the standards and behaviors that are expected of all
employees of any organization. Departmental constant controls have their own functions that
may differ depending on the department. These controls can include manner of dress and
interactions between employees and between employees and supervisors.
Periodic controls are carried out company-wide, departmentally and individually. An
example of individual periodic controls would be the employee performance appraisals. These
appraisals measure the results of particular goals set for the employee.

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In the case of HollyFrontier, they utilize the management by objectives program.

According to the book The Five functions of Effective Management (2014), In a quality
management by objectives program, the following steps are carried out at every level, from
entry-level employee to CEO:
Job analysis (states the primary emphasis of the job)
Employee preparation of an annual goal list
Manager preparation of personal and employee goal lists
Supervisor and employee meeting to negotiate a goal list
Follow-up (7.2)
Once a year each employee sets themselves a collection of goals for the coming year.
Some other goals will be set for them by their supervisor. These goals will be approved by both
the employee and the supervisor.
At the end of the year the employee will rate themselves on how they perceive their
successful completion of the set goals after which the supervisor will rate the employee. These
ratings will be discussed between the employee and the supervisor before being sent on to the
head of the department and to the human resource department. The rating of these goals will
determine the employees end of year bonus and possible raise in salary.
As a result of the use of the five functions of management the
development and continuation of the Crude Acquisition Service Center has
been a success. The customers are pleased with the changes this
department has made and their crude oil is being purchased in a more
efficient manner. Now there is a department whose goal is to take make sure
that their customer is happy to give them their business.

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9
References

Baack, D. Reilly, M. & Minninck, C. (2014) The five functions of effective management
(2nd ed) San Diego, CA. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Cavinato, Joseph L. (2015) A general methodology for determining a fit between supply
chain logistics and five stages of strategic management, Report Information from ProQuest
October 16 2015, p. 6
Gluck, F.W., Kaufman, S.P. and Walleck, A.S. (1980), Strategic management for
competitive advantage, Harvard Business Review, No. 80404, pp. 154-61.
Job Listings, (2013). Retrieved from hollyfrontier.com: http://www.hollyfrontier.com
Mission and Values, (2013). Retrieved from hollyfrontier.com:
http://www.hollyfrontier.com
Wilke, Stephen D., Wilke, Jared R., and Viglione, Donald J (2015) The Corporate Family
Model of Leadership Development, The Psychologist-Manager Journal, May 1, 2015