Introduction

The essay will incorporate the basics of organisational life and focus shall be given on four main areas of organisation such as groups, structures, processes and individuals. The purpose is to enhance workplace-related understanding and ways in which employees within an organisation behave. Theoretical perspectives on organisational behaviour shall be explored and real-life practical examples shall be considered. UK-based examples will be outlined and private as well as public sector organisations shall be considered for the study. A case study will be considered for the essay and realistic ways to improve the condition of the organisation shall be outlined as well. The essay shall be written by assuming the role of a consultant. The purpose is to develop a report for the HR Director of the organisation. After identifying the challenges, it would be possible to specifically outline few recommendations on the basis of analysis. The company has been operating in the UK and it is one of the leading technology firms, specialised in offering software development services. Hence, as a consultant, the impact of groups, individuals, management and structural processes of the company’s operations shall be identified. Thereafter, few business solutions shall be outlined and justification to the HR Director would be given for choosing the business solutions.

Identified issues and challenges

Individual employee behaviours

HRM practices within an organisation tend to have a positive impact on the citizenship behaviour of employees and job role plays an influential role (King and Grace, 2012.). The company in the beginning recruited a huge number of graduates. The university graduates fairly demonstrated their interest and ability in software related matters. They have faced issues such as tight deadlines, design processes that are time consuming as well as a fast pace of working. They were satisfied with the organisation’s behaviour towards them. However, issues started to develop and a sense of dissatisfaction also developed among the employees. Employees felt difficulties due to excessively specialised work and absence of genuine care for employee’s wellbeing or growth. Thereafter, communication issues emerged as well because employees were unable to communicate with their supervisors or foreign colleagues. Even when opportunity to communicate was created, the employees were hesitating while speaking their minds. Moreover, the young staff seemed to lack patience and will that is required solving software related issues. The experienced designers also claimed that it is impossible to always guide the team and everything cannot be explained in words.

Team-related employee behaviours

The behaviour of a team depends on a range of factors. Different aspects such as leadership communication, job content, recognition, professional opportunities and job content plays a vital role in satisfying the employees (Kumari and Rachna, 2011). However, in the given case study company, it has been noted that all these factors were not in place. In order to resolve the challenges faced by individual employees, the organisation created the matrix structure so that issues can be resolved. However, team-related issues still prevailed. Firstly, the team consistently missed the deadlines and it led to the failure of the matrix initiative. They were unable to deliver results that were expected from them at every stage of the project. Again, the practice of team formation and re-formation was prevalent and confusion was created. The functional role of the team members was not clear enough. The individuals also felt uncomfortable with their assigned roles. Teams were operating at the business units; however, managers were excessively focussed on benefits or costs instead of the team’s wellbeing. The company also broke down its bureaucratic structure and created eight Business Units so that more autonomy can be ensured. However, as soon as BUs grew rapidly, teams became possessive about their clients and they were no longer willing to share any information that they used to share for cross-selling purposes. Moreover, the team members felt that they are working individually rather than in a group. With increasing size of the team, the members gradually lost their commitment and the team leaders were also unable to handle the team. The team leaders failed to handle expectations of both the new members and the existing members. As a result, the senior managers were informed about the issues related to team performance.

Organisational structure

The overall project performance is likely to be affected by organisational structure as well as organisational culture (Stare, 2011). In order to resolve issues related to team performance, the HQ and the regional managers decided to get rid of the bureaucratic structure and introduced the matrix structure. The latest IT-technology has been introduced as well. However, new issues started emerging due to the use of matrix structure. The managers expected that the matrix structure would resolve operational and economic issues. However, team members started disagreeing with one another regarding the use of right software programme while they should have been involved in the implementation stage of the project. Consequently, the heads of the BUs felt a sense of lack in their business structure. Confusion prevailed because all of them were unsure about the type of project they are responsible.

Organisational processes

In a typical organisation, support as well as operational processes has an impact on the delivery of performance, however, managerial processes is responsible for sustaining performance (Bititci et al., 2011). Since the organisation has been consistently facing costs related issues due to the sudden economic recession, the managers decided to relocate BUs in the Asian nations and hired local managers and IT engineers for running the BUs. Communication issues were prevailing because employees were unable to communicate with non-English speaking members. However, despite introducing English as the corporate language, the communication barrier prevailed. The overall processes of the organisation were hampered because the US staff started complaining about the English proficiency of Asian staffs. On the other hand, the Asian employees complained about the challenges associated with speaking English, a foreign language. On top of that, cultural barriers created further complications. The Americans complained about the quietness of the Asian colleagues and the Asians complained about the excessive opinion-oriented communication style of the American colleagues. Consequently, the aim of managers of building and sustaining a virtual team at a global level failed terribly.

Analysis and justification

The contemporary workplace is defined by people and the existing relationship among them. The overall strategy of an organisation should be responsive with the needs, functions, dealings and desires of the people of the organisation (Creed, 2011). Managers can use communication theories in order to be more responsive to the needs of the employees. A global organisation is always facing increasing levels of complexity and it leads to conflict and unethical decision-making as noted in the given case study. While operating in the software industry, the company faced challenges due to the sudden economic recession. Moreover, despite changing structures and processes, it was not possible for the organisation to meet its objectives. It has been noted that the individual employee behaviour, team behaviour, organisational structure and organisational processes has been affected and despite making attempts, these challenges could not be resolved. Analysis of each of the challenges in the organisation shall be outlined and theoretical background shall be analysed as well.

Individual behaviour of employees

It can be stated that individual employee behaviour is affected due to the lack of motivation in the team. Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory can be outlined and applied in this case. The Expectancy Theory is based on the idea that cognitive processes tend to affect the level of motivation among people (Parijat and Bagga, 2014). Expectancy theory has outlined four variables that affect the motivation levels of employees. These variables are individual effort, individual performance, personal goals and lastly organisational rewards or outcomes. In the given case study, it has been noted that employees felt that their morale has been affected as they were unable to communicate with their foreign counterparts. They felt a lack of recognition and lack of opportunities for personal growth. Naturally, the individual behaviour of employees was severely affected. This in turn, resulted into low organisational performance. Using Victor Vroom’s theory can be useful here because employees would be motivated to work only when they feel recognised or rewarded for their efforts.

Figure 1: Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

(Source: researchgate.net, 2020)

Team-related behaviour of employees

The team role theory that came into existence in 1981 suggests that one person’s behaviour is influenced by another person’s behaviour in the team and this relationship can facilitate the team progress (Belbin, 2012). It would be effective to allocate tasks and responsibilities based on the personality types of individuals. The management of the company in the given case study realised that an integrated and holistic approach would be effective to increase the global competitiveness of the company. However, despite making efforts to develop its global virtual team, the company failed to create a positive teamwork environment. Conflict between the Asian team and the American team seemed to increase constantly. It can be stated that cultural background has played a vital role in shaping the behaviour of the Asian team and the American team. On one hand, the Americans found their Asian colleagues as too slow and incapable. On the other hand, the Asian team highlighted that the American team is too loud and opinionated. Hence, it is evident that individual teams were behaving on the basis of their interrelation to other as highlighted in Belbin Theory.

Organisational structure

Organisational structure plays a vital role in the generation of new ideas or creativity among employees. The organisational structure should be designed in such a way that employees feel that they possess a decision-making authority and their colleagues are supportive as well (Foss, Woll and Moilanen, 2013). Moreover, an organisation’s structural dimensions play a crucial role in increasing the innovation capacity of employees. Factors such as communication level, formalisation level and most importantly job codification is likely to have an impact on the work environment (Gaspary et al., 2020). In the given case study, it has been highlighted that the bureaucratic structure is no longer showing effective results and therefore, the HQ and the regional managers decided to use a matrix structure. Research shows that the matrix structure is effective because it does not interrupt the existing structure. Rather, it helps in the creation of large and efficient teams that incorporates many members. The matrix structure has been developed because managers comprehended that based on the degree of progress of any assigned task, it would be feasible to form a project team. The progress can be continuously monitored using an online dashboard. The approach was innovative and had the capacity to improve organisational performance. Despite that, issues occurred because team members were not fully efficient. They missed deadlines consistently and disagreed with each other instead of completing every stage of project development. Employees were unable to understand their functional roles and due to constant changes in the team structure. As a result, reshuffling occurred at a consistent basis. The problem could have been addressed if the team would have been given a decision-making authority. Appropriate job codification along with an optimum degree of formalisation could have prevented the issue. Due to lack of a systematic form of job, the BUs operated inefficiently.

Figure 2: Matrix structure of product industry

(Source: researchgate.net, 2020)

Organisational processes

Organisational processes are a sequence of task that should be followed in order to achieve a particular goal. Different types of variables play a role and the variables should be administered so that management of the organisational processes can be effective. The process theory of organisation also states that the world is in a constantly changing state and connectedness is more necessary than size, flow is better and crucial than stability and the nature of the organisation is always temporary (Hernes, 2014). The technology company has been operating since last 10 years and due to increasing levels of competition, the overall profit margins of the company significantly decreased. It has been noted that the organisational process is not effective enough and therefore, the company decided to replace its CEO and even started investing in R&D. It has been done because the management wanted to enhance the company’s global competitiveness. The design process of the company was time-consuming. Hence, after giving their best performance, the newcomers felt that they are unable to execute tasks freely. Hence, it can be interpreted that despite seeking stability in the organisation, the regional managers were unable to achieve the aim. It clearly proves the process theory and shows that change is inevitable in all organisations and a range of variables are responsible for bringing change.

Conclusion

The essay has been written by considering the case study of a leading software firm. Organizational life is influenced by structures, processes, groups as well as individuals. It has been noted that employee behaviour and organizational performance can be understood by exploring the existing theoretical perspectives and applying the perspectives for the given case study so that the prevailing issues can be understood based on appropriate literature. At first, a brief introduction has been outlined and following that the prevailing challenges and issues in the organisation have been stated. Issues related to individual employee-related behaviour, team-related behaviour, organisational structure and processes have been noted. In the first section, only the challenges have been identified. However, in the first section, only the issues were discussed. In the second section, a detailed analysis of the issues has been done in the light of organisational theories. Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, Belbin’s theory, Organisational Process Theory and lastly an overall view of the Matrix structure has been explored in the paper. After analysing the issues and challenges of the organisation, the implications of these challenges were discussed. The basis of the analysis was the aforementioned theories.

Recommendations

Few recommendations or action points have been outlined by considering the justification and analysis of the challenges that occurred in the case study organisation. The action points are as follows-

Enhancing employee engagement- The behaviour of the team leader plays an active role in engaging employees and therefore, their behaviour should be one of the top priorities (Xu and Thomas, 2011). Team leader can focus on collaboration and development of new ideas. It would positively affect the behaviour of employees as collaboration leads to engagement.
Improving team effectiveness by appropriate intervention- Continuous quality improvement (CQI) and most importantly team-based training could be effective type of intervention (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2010). Focus should be given on increasing the satisfaction levels of customers as well as employees. This in turn, will enhance the quality. CQI would be effective because it helps in evaluating the overall process of the organisation.
Process improvement by focussing on quality- In order to improve the overall process of the organisation, it is necessary to use a holistic approach. Quality and organisational change go hand-in-hand (Smith, 2011). Process improvement essentially means organisational fitness. It would be possible by enhancing quality and ensuring effective management. Change initiatives must involve managerial toolkits as well.

Reference List

Belbin, R. M. (2012). Team roles at work. Routledge.

Bititci, U.S., Ackermann, F., Ates, A., Davies, J., Garengo, P., Gibb, S., MacBryde, J., Mackay, D., Maguire, C., Van Der Meer, R. and Shafti, F., 2011. Managerial processes: business process that sustain performance. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Buljac-Samardzic, M., Dekker-van Doorn, C.M., van Wijngaarden, J.D. and van Wijk, K.P., 2010. Interventions to improve team effectiveness: a systematic review. Health policy, 94(3), pp.183-195.

Creed, A., 2011. Organisational behaviour. OUP Catalogue.

Foss, L., Woll, K. and Moilanen, M., 2013. Creativity and implementations of new ideas: Do organisational structure, work environment and gender matter?. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 5(3), pp.298-322.

Gaspary, E., Moura, G.L.D. and Wegner, D., 2020. How does the organisational structure influence a work environment for innovation?. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 24(2-3), pp.132-153.

Hernes, T., 2014. A process theory of organization. OUP Oxford.

King, C. and Grace, D., 2012. Examining the antecedents of positive employee brand‐related attitudes and behaviours. European Journal of Marketing.

Kumari, N. and Rachna, M., 2011. Job Satisfaction of the Employees at the Workplace. European Journal of Business and Management, 3(4), pp.11-30.

Parijat, P. and Bagga, S., 2014. Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation–An evaluation. International Research Journal of Business and Management, 7(9), pp.1-8.

Smith, I., 2011. Organisational quality and organisational change. Library management.

Stare, A., 2011. The impact of the organisational structure and project organisational culture on project performance in Slovenian enterprises. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 16(2), pp.1-22.

Xu, J. and Thomas, H.C., 2011. How can leaders achieve high employee engagement?. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 32(4), pp.399-416.

Understanding Organisation and Organisational Behaviour