This is a Organizations Behaviour Understanding Workplace Assignment that describes about organization structure and culture. You can explore your leanings by case study of effectiveness of KBR’s leadership style to a similar organisation.

Task 1

LO1: UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE

Q1.1 Compare and contrast KBR’s organizational structure and culture to that of a similar organization.

The organization follows a matrix structure and the hierarchy is respected across the verticals of KBR. It employs some 57000 people and hence maintaining the whole team in the right manner is very critical for the organization. The company has maintained the whole culture in the company in the right manner (Kirkley, 2011). As an organization where the nature of the work is very monotonous and hence the objective of KBR has been to foster culture in the right manner. This will result in proper development of the workforce of the company. As ultimate accountability for achieving any improvements rests with the business owners of the relevant activities, the business stakeholders should have the final say on realistic improvement expectations.

On the other side if we see any organization which is into product development like Apple, we can see that organization has the culture to foster creativity in the organization. Culture management has been critical function and APPLE incorporation has worked on the creativity part while KBR has worked on building the culture of geography where people try to make every day work easy in the right manner. The culture of the organization is to work together in the right manner and then foster the same to develop the organization.

Q 1.2 Explain how KBR’s organizational structure and culture affects the performance of the business.

KBR has created a strong team and work culture for the people in the company and this is where it scores over most of the other organization. Companies that are successful in using a high-quality KBR to gain differentiable competitive advantage do so by augmenting staff, cultivating new skills, changing processes, and incorporating new tools and technologies to support changed processes (Shelton, 2011). However, these are necessary, but not always sufficient for success.

Culture can be simply defined as "this is the way we do things around here." Culture defines what the organization values — for example, new ideas, people and relationships, openness, diversity, honesty, and accountability. Culture guides and shapes the behaviours of individuals and groups. New employees receive the standard orientation training that probably includes value statements, but they also obtain informal inputs from their peers about acceptable and unacceptable behaviours, and positive and negative attitudes.

The consequences of a negative workplace culture include staff that only carry out the minimum work required, lost productivity as energies are directed toward negative behaviour and higher staff turnover.

An important success factor is the role of design culture, which is an aspect of the organizational culture. Business improvement culture comes from the top down (senior management articulating priorities), as well as from the bottom up (an influx of KBR-oriented staff, with their world views and affinities), and it leads to a broad awareness of the importance of KBR throughout the organization (Montgomery, 2011).

Q1.3 Give examples and discuss factors that influence individual behaviour at work.

Individual people at organization have worked on the organizational behaviour and this is where it has scored over the other organization. The individual workers in the company have worked on the overall behaviour of the organization and this has helped the company in working on building the user experience of the company. World over the companies have worked on similar model which has helped in shaping the overall behaviour and culture of the organization as a whole. Often, the real differentiated value, the source of success of a business, is in its interactions with customers. In an increasingly digital world, those customer interactions and expectations are more and more related to information and technology, including technology in products and the use of digital channels like mobile, social and the Web (Green, 2012). The individual behaviour of the organisation helps in shaping up the company in the right manner.

As cited earlier, most midsize enterprises have flatter organizations than larger organizations, and therefore have a clearer line-of-site to customers. Take advantage of the opportunity to intimately understand customers' needs and preferences. Make your customers a core part of your strategy. Know what they want next and position your organization to delivery it quickly (Measurement CMS experiment, 2011).

Motivation: The individual works for the team and the team management works on the behaviour of the members which shapes up the organisation.

Task 2

LO 2: UNDERSTAND DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Q 2.1 Using the case study provided, identify which leadership style is used by KBR and compare the effectiveness of KBR’s leadership style to a similar organisation.

KBR selects a leader who has the necessary skills, authority and esteem to manage the new initiative, and who can provide "cover" for the program participants, keep management quality informed and ensure that the program is properly marketed. The leadership style for KBR has been that of autocratic leaders who work on the core strategy of KBR. When compared with other organisation or leadership strategies like that of Al-Latifia, one can see that they follow the charismatic kind of leadership which is not the case like KBR.

Successful new initiatives — like all enterprise programs — also need passionate and committed supporters, and external stakeholders. The working group must find, train, support and nurture these supporters and keep them involved on an ongoing basis. Programs thrive when there's a close relationship between national and local health organizations.

It is a common scenario for the ownership of KBR in general, and the external-facing Web channel in particular, to change hands as the initial version of the company Web presence evolves from simple, static brochure-ware site to a complex, transaction-oriented, multi-channel system. What begins with corporate communications and information can be handed over to the organization, and possibly later, once the technology has stabilized, back to the non-business side of the business (senior marketing staff that have online and digital technology backgrounds) (Green, 2012). Leadership style followed in KBR is that of democratic nature which the case in any matrix organisation is typically. Democratic type of leadership hears the points of all individuals in the company and then work on the methods which are best for the common goal of the company.

Q 2.2 Explain how organisational theory including the work of F.W. Taylor underpins management practice.

The whole organization of KBR is based on the fact of having a good feedback loop and that is where they have adopted F.W. Taylor Management practices. This process of control optimization depends on the presence of feedback mechanisms that assess control effectiveness and identify environmental changes that alter the risk environment and requirements for security controls. KBR on based of organisational theory is vivid and an open organisation.   From the bottom-most process to the top, there needs to be a clear, unbroken chain of governance that ties all aspects of the digital initiative to business goals and objectives. When this chain breaks, the online presence is cast adrift in the organization. Lack of governance underlies most project failures, even though that gap is not always visible, and the extent of the failure is often obscured by missing metrics. On the other hand, an enterprise may have a sophisticated online presence that includes a large volume of e-commerce transactions across multiple channels (including mobile), with significant support for customer self-service and tight integration with complex back-end systems, such as ERP. In this case, the owner should have a strong technology understanding, in addition to business acumen. In these situations, the owner usually is not part of the corporate communications department (Montgomery, 2011).

Successful high-end online channels evolve via a process of continuous improvement based on objective data about user behaviour, derived from instrumented analytics. This is the top-level change management process. Below this top level can be an aggregation of smaller processes or pipeline stages, each of which can have an owner. Governance is essential for defining measures of success, linking project goals to organizational priorities and strategies, engaging with stakeholders, enforcing adherence to best practices and marshalling coherent responses to changing market requirements.

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Q 2.3 Evaluate different approaches to management used by KBR and one of its   competitors.

Traditional, hierarchal leadership structures foster an environment of accountability focused on risk mitigation, resource optimization and linear, incremental improvements. In large-scale organisation like KBR, there are one or more individuals per role. This is the management style adopted by KBR at large. In smaller projects, each individual may be responsible for various roles. Whether small or large, it is rare to have all these diverse roles under the direct supervision of one manager. That is, the person who is ultimately responsible for the success of the Web presence will have direct authority over some of the roles and only indirect influence over others. There will often be a matrix-style organization, with some individuals "on loan" from other departments in the organization. This means that the person who owns the external Web presence cannot just be a manager or supervisor, but instead has to be a politician, negotiator, thought leader and persuader to effectively coordinate human resources that cross organizational boundaries.

The owner often directly supervises a central team, which is variously called the e-commerce team, digital team or Web team. However, this core team depends on the good will and support of other departments in the organization to accomplish its goals.

A successful digital operation requires the coordinated activities of people with diverse skills and roles that combine business and information technology. The ultimate owner is often on the business side. That is, the external-facing online presence is owned by the manager who owns all the customer touch points: the CX as it is delivered through the Web channel, the direct-mail channel, the in-person store visits, the call-centre and the interactive voice response (IVR), which is an automated self-service phone system. That person should come from the business side, but he or she must be supported by people with technical backgrounds who understand the evolving capabilities of modern technology. That is, the owner may be part of the marketing department hierarchy, but should have sufficient technical background, or be working closely with technical staff.

Task 3

LO3: UNDERSTAND WAYS OF USING MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES IN ORGANISATIONS

Q 3.1 Discuss the impact that different leadership styles may have on motivation in KBR and on one of its competitors during an economic depression

Leaders of one can be seen as an extreme approach to team-based, collective leadership in KB. It is similar to "holocracy," which distributes leadership into each individual's role — everyone is expected and empowered to lead and be an entrepreneur in his or her own right.

In collective leadership instead, the leadership role can shift from one individual to the other as the team's task or challenge changes. It is unrealistic to assume that the same individual is the best possible leader in all situations. Hence, collective leadership leverages the diversity of expertise among team members to make leadership more effective.

In this answer we have compared the leadership style at KBR compared to other organisation at large. At the other end of the spectrum are top-tier, consumer-oriented Web-centric companies, such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon. These organizations have achieved their dominant positions in their markets due in large part to KBR quality. Their investment level has been and remains high. The most successful organizations attract and retain individuals with multiple talents that span technical skills, design skills, research skills and social skills.

By contrast, in top consumer-oriented companies, one can say that nearly 100% of the staff has some awareness of the principles and practices of KBR and customer experience (CX), even if their formal jobs may not require applying these directly.

Q 3.2 Compare the application of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to Hertzberg’s hygiene and motivational factors within the workplace.

The main motivation for the employees has been to rise on the growth curve. As per Maslow hierarchy of needs KBR places its employees on general category where motivation exist on the top segment. There is no glass ceiling in the company and hence people can grow to any level. This is when people have worked hard in the organization and the main motivation for the people is to work and grow for the company. The more important the need, the more we care about it, the more rapidly and aggressively the development finds acceptance and, thus, market penetration. Hertzberg talks of minimum motivational factors which needs to be implemented and KBR has done the same, On the other hand most of the competitor of KBR are lacking in this space.

 The personal growth curve is not very steep and hence people can work on their attributes in the right manner. Motivation is very critical for employees in the organization and hence working on it in the right manner is important for overall growth of the company. The degree to which this is important depends on the scale and scope of the online channel, which drives the technology requirements. For example, a brand-centric, "brochure ware" site with no transactions, a modest scale of operations and limited interactions can be handled entirely by nontechnical managers in the corporate communications department that outsources the enterprise Web presence to an external Web design firm.

Kellogg, Brown and Root is an organization based out of United States and this paper will look into various aspects of organizational structure of KBR. The paper will look into various aspects of organization which actually shape up the organization in the right manner. The critical aspects of the organization are structure, people, culture, human resource management policies and the way organization is behaving with the system. Most midsize enterprises have less diversity of products, services, business units and locations (Green, 2012). This amplifies the benefit of simplicity even further. These factors allow midmarket CIOs to centralize decision making, assets and personnel, especially for commodity business structure and processes that don't need to be differentiating in order to win.

For example, while applications like financials and email are mission-critical, they are not market differentiating. It is unlikely that your organization will win new customers with an extraordinary accounts receivable process. However, you can lose customers if it's not as good as the general marketplace (Kirkley, 2011).

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Q 3.3 Evaluate how useful motivational theory is for managers in the 21^st Century.

Employee recognition programs is one of the motivation method used by KBR — initiatives centred on rewarding employees for service longevity, retirement, achievement, outstanding performance, suggestions/ideas, wellness milestones and other motivated behaviours — are almost ubiquitous, with 88% of U.S. organizations supporting an average of four types of recognition programs. The ideal answer is that there should not be a dichotomy; there should be a single unified team. That's the situation at successful, consumer-oriented companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple. However, this type of organization is generally not realistic for the average enterprise.

The more pragmatic answer is that two departments fighting over who owns the process is a misdirected effort, because ultimately it does not matter who has formal ownership of the process. This is because whoever owns it will end up with the formal responsibility, but not the true direct authority, over all of the resources necessary to make the online presence successful. In the case of internal-facing systems, the ownership is often less clear-cut.

There is a sense in which ownership does matter, in terms of the specific individual who has formal ownership. That person must balance business priorities and technological know-how. In general, it is the business side of the organization that understands content, while the technology side understands the processes and infrastructures that enable and deliver digital content.

Task 4

LO4: UNDERSTAND MECHANISMS FOR DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK IN ORGANIZATIONS

Q 4.1 Explain the nature of groups and group behaviour within KBR and one of its competitors.

The process should also be based on objective data about user behaviour, rather than the subjective opinions of a few. Group behaviour study has taken the things forward for KBR. Even as technology-based security controls continue to improve, human behaviour remains the weakest link in the information security chain. Access to an ever-increasing range of technologies, productivity tools and media increases the risk of unwanted consequences of inappropriate user behaviour. Hence, understanding how humans react to risk and controls to mitigate risk is becoming increasingly important for security and risk managers.

This will depend on the nature of the site. If it's primarily static content, then, in a stable business climate with non-volatile market activity, it may be handled by management in one part of the enterprise. On the other hand, a business that is striving to use online channels and digital media for strategic competitive advantage in a market that is dynamic will have an operation with many more "moving parts" and more-sophisticated processes involving cross-functional relationships.

It also leads to a deeper understanding of the product supported. In KBR, once the project is done, any models of the business process, the way the software is used, or the technical implementation of the software are lost. The next project documents much of the same processes and use cases all over again. In a product world, the documentation lives on and is reused in the next iteration. Any changes to the processes or use cases are made incrementally. This enhances the ability of an organization to maintain a core knowledge base around the product, which in turn leads to more agility.

In some smaller organizations, or where there is insufficient funding, it may be necessary to form teams for shorter periods of time. In these cases, a new set of product capabilities would be funded for a few sprints, then the team would move to other work.

Q 4.2 Discuss factors that may promote or inhibit effective teamwork within KBR and one of its competitors.

KBR work on the model of virtual team. Organizations that are currently effective environments for collaboration are more likely prepared for a broader and faster movement toward a KBR’s culture. Frequently, organizations that show strength in this area are relatively new and, out of necessity, have had to pull together to get things done in an environment that lacked structure or established standards. One question that is often asked in inquiries to analyst is, "How large should our KBR team be?" The answer depends on many factors, including how one defines the KBR role and its relationship to the rest of the team, as well as application requirements, business goals, target audience, process rigor, platform complexity, delivery time frame, available shared resources and tools, and budget constraints.

It is possible to identify organizations along a spectrum of staffing ratios — i.e., the ratio of the number of KBR professionals to the total number of development staff. At one end of the spectrum are organizations that are just starting to embark on a process of KBR improvement, have an engineering-centric staff mix, and often the ones posing the question to Gartner about staffing the KBR team. In these organizations, their self-reported ratio is 1:100 (one KBR specialist to 100 technical staff).

There can be grey areas when one is categorizing staff. For example, in a traditional corporate development environment, there may be software engineers who are programming the UI, but lack any awareness of user interaction design principles (which is why many internal corporate systems have such user-hostile or user-oblivious designs). In that scenario, there might also be business analysts who have some ownership of the KBR, but lack training, skills and awareness of KBR principles and practices. The only identifiable resource in a room of 100 technical staff might be one individual with KBR credentials and a KBR job title, entrusted with the formal role of improving the KBR design (Speroff, 2010).

Q 4.3 Evaluate how technology affects team functioning within KBR.

Although three distinct approaches are mentioned, it appears that successful organizations, especially high-profile, consumer-oriented websites that are outside the enterprise sector, adopt a hybrid model that embeds KBR specialists into small agile teams, supplemented by shared resources — centres of excellence (COEs) — in a particular discipline such as mobile or analytics and occasionally use external agencies, all within a corporate culture that validates the importance of design and of a high-quality experience for users and customers. This is not an approach that can be easily and immediately adopted by the average enterprise, but one that is only achieved in an evolutionary fashion (Green, 2012).

By effective KBR, we mean an experience that meets user requirements and delivers business value to the organization. Essential to achieving this goal (a high-quality product or service) is the notion of a mature effective process — user-cantered design that applies well-known design patterns to key scenarios tied to business goals with measurable outcomes. This process of continuous improvement is guided by objective data about user behaviour, obtained by analytics and instrumentation. The key factor in establishing a technology approach at KBR is not the selection of individual methods. Rather, it understands how and when the tools should be used and, most importantly, how they will relate to one another.

In many organizations today, IT is viewed as a cost centre. As such, the goal is to manage costs, and that has led to a dysfunctional funding process for applications. In most businesses, the planning for application spending takes place at budget time; typically beginning in June or July of the previous year for organizations on a calendar-year budget (or the equivalent if on a fiscal year planning process).

References:

"Measurement of the inclusive W and Z production cross sections in pp collisions at root s= 7 TeV with the CMS experiment." (2011). Green, T. J. (2012). TQM and organisational culture: how do they link? Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23(2), 141-157. Kirkley, C., Bamford, C., Poole, M., Arksey, H., Hughes, J., & Bond, J. (2011). The impact of organisational culture on the delivery of person?centred care in services providing respite care and short breaks for people with dementia.Health & social care in the community, 19(4), 438-448. Montgomery, A., Panagopoulou, E., Kehoe, I., &Valkanos, E. (2011). Connecting organisational culture and quality of care in the hospital: is job burnout the missing link? Journal of health organization and management, 25(1), 108-123.

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