Organisational Behaviour Structure and Culture Assignment - Capco

Introduction:

Organisation and behaviour, also known as organisational behaviour refers to the study of both individual and group activity and performance in an organisation. It is concerned with assessment of behaviour of employees in an organisation. The culture and structure of an organisation are the vital factors that play a crucial role in motivating the employees at all levels of the organisation. This assignment focuses on organisational behaviour from the perspective of CAPCO and Burberry. CAPCO caters to the international consulting and technology solutions for the financial services sector. It has 20 offices across the globe and employs around 2000 people. On the other hand, the British luxury fashion group Burberry has its headquarters in London and distributes fashion accessories and ready-to-wear outfits.  These two organisations have been considered to depict the contrasting differences between their structure and culture. This assignment lays stress on understanding the relationship marketing between organisational culture and structure. Moreover, it focuses on comprehending several approaches to leadership and management. In addition, it deals with the usage of motivational theories and mechanism for effective teamwork in organisations.                 

Task 1:

1.1 Comparing and contrasting the organisational structure and culture of CAPCO with Burberry:

According to Buckley and McKenna (2013, p.191), a hierarchical structure is inappropriate with Capco’s entrepreneurial and creative structure. The organisational structure of Capco is non-hierarchical and flat structure. Malik and Naeem (2013, p.1034) observed that its structure is driven through team efforts. It is worthwhile to note that the team driven flat structure of Capco is involved in creating an empowered and highly motivated workforce as all the employees have access to coaching and advice. In addition to that, the organisational culture of Capco is able to create a group of employees who can freely ask questions and suggest necessary recommendations. In addition to that, the organisational culture of Capco is able to create a workforce that boasts of creativity, flexibility and elements of risk taking capabilities. Moreover, the organisational culture of Capco enables the employees of Capco to meet challenging and changing needs of the financial industry. The organisational culture of Capco is in form of a team of workforce who are involved in using their creativity to the fore to facilitate success in the organisation. Capco encourages open communication channels facilitates the wider span of control and intelligence to inculcate new ways of thinking (Refer to Appendix 1).

On the other hand, the organisational structure of Burberry is a matrix structure. According to Thomson and Niekerk (2012, p.45), the main aim of a matrix structure is to draw together employees with a range of necessary traits so that the employees of Burberry can draw together a range of necessary skills. The main advantages of a matrix structure in Burberry are in form of the fact that employees of Burberry are in contact with the top management. This translates to the fact that employees can share their views with the top management of Burberry. It also depicts the fact that matrix organisational structures can facilitate relationships within the several departments of Burberry as they are set up as a grid as compared to traditional hierarchy.    

1.2 Explanation of the impact of relationship between the structure and culture of CAPCO on the business performance:

Narman et al. (2016, p.560) observed that since the organisational structure is concerned with determining the responsibilities of they are entirely dependent on the goal of Capco and the way it wants to achieve them. As discussed above, the structure of Capco is a flat structure. This type of organisational structure facilitates the views of the workforce in Capco. In addition to that, Capco has little or no supervision on its workforce. This implies the fact that the employees do not have to worry much about nose poking managers. They can undertake their decision with complete freedom. In addition to that, the flat structure followed in Capco ensures that their employees are at freedom in expressing their views so that it can contribute to the prosperity of the organisation. Moreover, as Capco follows a flat structure and incorporates the views of its employees, it makes the cultural environment of Capco easier to share common objectives. It depicts that the organisational culture of Capco has positive impact on the motivation of an organisation. As their views are increasingly being recognized, the employees feel motivated to take Capco to a new level of prosperity and success.

On the other hand, Alavi et al. (2014, p.627) observed that if an organisation is sound in its performance, it generally leads to the birth of a strong organisational culture. The same applies to the case of Capco. It has a sound success rate that is evident from the fact that major international clients have faith on its performance. It is evident that when an organisation like the stature of Capco is performing well, there will be high rate of moral views and ethics within the organisation. On the other hand, the organisational structure of Capco promotes the growth of organisational culture and hence the employee relation are able to contribute effectively towards its growth. Therefore, it is evident that there is a clear connection between organisational culture and structure of Capco.       

1.3 Discussing the factors that influence individual behaviour in CAPCO:

According to Pinder (2014, p.78), there are several factors that are responsible in influencing individual behaviour in Capco, The notable factor among all of them is reinforcement of activities. This refers to the fact that the employees of Capco are encouraged to perform a less preferred behaviour as compared to the preferred one. In addition to that, as Capco’s organisational structure is flat in nature, the employees have a say in the decision making process of Capco. The preferred activities generally comprises of an assignment that the employee likes, party passes and listening to music while working in the office.

In addition, contract is another form of factor that influences the behaviour of employees in Capco. Alfes et al. (2013, p.848) observed that a contract is an agreement between an employer and the employee. The content that exists in the contract is created mutually and plays a crucial role in specifying the behavioral expectations of the employer and employee in Capco. In this context, it is worthwhile to mention that contracts play a helpful cameo in clearing the air over conditions and expectations. 

Moreover, Capco reprimands its workers if they are found indulging in inappropriate behaviour. A reprimand basically refers to an official scolding for offence that is termed potentially dangerous to self and others. Hence, the employees of Capco have to make sure that they establish eye contact and deliver their expressions freely.Further, the top management of Capco utilises the method of interest boosting to ensure the fact that the employees are able to find interest in their current roles. In this process, the top management of Capco ensures that they offer help and praise the employees if their performances plummet into negative values.          

Task 2:

2.1 Comparing the effectiveness of the several leaderships at CAPCO with Burberry:

According to Strom et al. (2014, p.81), the leaders of CAPCO possess transformational quality and flexibility to influence the employees for fostering the servicer process in order to strengthen the USP. CAPCO has implemented various leadership styles with the passing of time. They once adopted autocratic style that was proved to be hazardous for the organisational performance and thus CAPCO eventually transformed their leadership style to democratic for allowing the employees to suggest and incur with innovative techniques and theories to provide more aptness and sustainability in the consultancy services. This leadership style was effective to incur new possibilities but there were also some shortcomings that resulted in miscommunication and improper information sharing chain (Renko et al. 2015, p.73)

CAPCO thus embraced transformational leadership technique to procure effective communication among the managers and employees to subsequently generate an easy flow of information. CAPCO has availed the perceptual benefits of this leadership style by making every stakeholder of the organisation about their specific roles and responsibilities to obtain the organisational goals. Transformational leadership style even helps CAPCO to identify and eliminate the potential risk factors of the service provision that is detected and gathered through integral communication process with each and every employee of the organisation (Renko et al. 2015, p.73).On the other hand, Burberry follows some systematic guideline about their leadership style as they do not change their style with time, the management just modified the leadership policies in compliance with the market preferences. This company follows democratic leadership style from its birth and subsequently democracy inside organisational practices enables them to avail perpetual chances of advancement and progress through spontaneous participation of the employees in the implementation plans. This style enables Burberry to gain more apt innovativeness through collective and collaborative work process for taking unanimous decisions in the aid of the service provision. The fair and smoothness of democracy in Burberry leadership style provides transparency in the business provision that eventually generates more market popularity and embracement to them (Wilson and Thompson, 2014, p.101).

2.2 Explaining the organisational theories influences management practices:

The organisational theories of CAPCO impose deep influence upon the management practices to formulate new concept and idiosyncrasies that can be effective to boost the service process. The organisational theories enable the management and leadership styles to formulate effective measurements that can help in advancing the organisational workforce and service quality. CAPCO mainly incorporates modern and classical organisational theory to address the diversified workforce for forging a sustainable control on the employees.  The classical organisational theory enables the CAPCO management to focus on scientific and technological upgradation that can enhance the service quality by procuring definite ease in the process (Wilson and Thompson, 2014, p.101).

CAPCO systematically was benefitted with the administrative approaches of classical organisational theory that helped the business management to execute proper and authentic administrative control over the work process. This organisational theory embodies bureaucratic approach of management that proved to be futile for the activities of CAPCO due to its complexity in practical implementation (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2013, p.108). Thus, CAPCO determines modern organisational theory as the most applicable trait of purpose for the organisation to support their transformational leadership and management style. The systematic approaches of modern organizational theory enable the managers to take unanimous decisions by including the employees in the decision making process. The socio-technical approach of modern theory is eventful for the management of CAPCO to undertake crucial and complex projects with immense ease with the cooperation of the employees and other stakeholders. The most vehement effectiveness of modern organisational theory is the advancement in contingency factor that helps the management of CAPCO to deal effectively with the situation crisis of the service provision (Belbin, 2012, p.98)

2.3 Evaluating the several approaches to management used by CAPCO with respect to Burberry:

According to Strom et al. (2014, p.80), management in an organisation is influenced by multidisciplinary aspects and generally demands high skills to handle its affair. It is interesting to note that Capco follows a classical approach of management. According to the classical structure of management, it is concerned with improving organisational structure as a means of increasing organisational efficiency. Hence, the organisational structure of Capco is flat in structure as the classical approach of management lays stress on the fact that the employees have to be included in the decision making process to increase efficiency in their operations.

The classical approach to management in Capco also stresses on the fact that the workers have to be motivated at high levels to ensure that their work productivity remains top notched during their working years. In addition to that, the classical approach of management also focuses a great deal on the rolec and responsibilities of employees in ensuring productivity of Capco. On the other hand, Burberry practices the scientific approaches of management in its organisational premises. This management practice is followed in organisations that employs skilled work force in their departments to ensure that the quality of produced goods are flawless. It is basically applicable to the case of Burberry as it has also a reputable international client base. This implies that this management practice is involved in the creation of a highly motivated workforce that translates to the fact that the line managers have the responsibility of exercising their authorities on employees working under the supervision of them. It also suggested the fact that it allocates unlimited power to the managers to exercise power in the supervision of workers. However, one notable disadvantage of this theory lies in the fact that the managers of Burberry often behave in an autocratic fashion that disturbs the work culture of Burberry (Refer to Appendix 2).

 Task 3:

3.1 Discussing the impact of leadership styles on motivation within changing period:

Leadership style and quality impose direct impact on the upsurging of organisational motivation through the changing period and time and CAPCO has also evaluated the importance of efficient leadership style that can help in organisational advancement of motivational factors to achieve the objectives. Both formal leadership and nonfunctional managerial activities enable CAPCO to bring aptness in work process through motivational emanation of the employees.

CAPCO used to follow the autocratic leadership style to bestow the leaders with absolute authority to impose control over the activities of the employees. This style of leadership was not much effective to obtrude motivation and inspiration among the employees. Thus, in recent years, CAPCO has embraced the democratic leadership style to provide sustainability to the organisational work process. This style of effective leadership takes the opinions and concerns of all the employees that work as a definite boost for the motivational aspects. The effectiveness of including the employees in the process of decision making through democratic leadership style has helped CAPCO to persuade and propel the employees for ensuring flawless and apt achievement of the organisational objectives. CAPCO has successfully incorporated the aspect of leadership roles in their democratic leadership style to value the employees by making them aware of their specific roles and responsibilities. The competitive and ruthless market of modern consultancy market demands more effectiveness and precise sustainability in leadership quality that compels CAPCO to change their leadership style to transformational style. CAPCO is benefitted with the transformational leadership style that motivates the employees to hike the quality and service process through a perpetual mode of effective communication between the managers and the workers. The leaders of CAPCO have sustainably performed high visibility in the managerial processes to motivate the employees for ensuring the growth of service quality to ensure the subsequent achievement of objectives (Strom et al. 2014, p.80).

3.2 Comparison of application of two motivational theories within organisation (Maslow Theory and Herzberg Theory):

CAPCO has undertaken specific measure to implement motivational theories in their organisational service provision to relieve the employees from stress for procuring perpetual advancement in the service provision. The executives and leaders of CAPCO have focused on the Hierarchy of Needs Theory of Abraham Maslow and the Motivational Theory of Herzberg in order to compactly inspire and motivate the employees for enhancing the strength of the organisational capability.

CAPCO has maintained a strict guideline in implementing the motivation hierarchy of needs theory of Abraham Maslow for ensuring the systematic balance of motivational factors inside the organisation. CAPCO focuses on the employee satisfaction and needs in the application of this theory to create motivational workforce in the organisational setting. CAPCO emphasises on the hierarchy of human needs for addressing the diversified requirements of the employees for motivating them in an orderly manner. The management of CAPCO has taken initiatives to provide basic human needs like food, water, shelter to the employees for quenching the primary demands of human life. The employees are offered with insurance policies and health and safety measurements for injecting moral and motivational boost in their work processes. CAPCO has ensured effective management activities to quench the need of brotherhood, love and emotional belongings of the employees to motivate them. The employees are given priority and value to raise self-esteem in them that can lead the employees to self-actualisation. This last stage of hierarchy of needs by Maslow possesses great importance for CAPCO to incur great motivational aspect in the employees by making them aware of their actual capabilities and shortcomings (Strom et al. 2014, p.80).

CAPCO has implemented Herzberg’s motivational theory by focusing on both hygiene and motivational factors. This motivational factor enables CAPCO to arise satisfaction among the employees for motivating them to ensure spurs of service process. The management focuses on enhancing the salary and wages of the employees by maintaining equity and transparency in the organisational policy that will be eventful to motivate the employees to deliver more apt services. CAPCO has provided job security and integral interpersonal relationship for the employees to satisfy them for triggering motivational aspects. CAPCO has managed to incur the chances of personal achievement through the provision of stimulating tasks for the employees that can enable the employees to advance their traits of skill for gaining recognition among the stakeholders of the organisation. Thus, CAPCO has evaluated their systems and policies to apply the motivational theory for propelling the employees to deliver more improved and flawless service (Refer to Appendix 3).

3.3 Explanation of the essensity of managers to understand and implement the motivational theories inside an organisation:

The psychological and physiological channels of motivation are generated through the managers of CAPCO. The managers are immensely responsible for evaluating and implementing the motivational theories inside the workplace of CAPCO for ensuring the break out of inspirational motivation among the employees that can be vehemently helpful in determining the achievement of organisational objectives (Strom et al. 2014, p.80).

The managers of CAPCO need to make out the variables of motivational theories, as a little misinterpretation can cause severe peril to the entire organisational culture and atmosphere. Proper evaluation of the motivational theories can help the managers to incur a sense of willingness among the employees through building integral relationship by effective communication policies. The managers need to stimulate the work process and project plan management to arouse the perpetual needs of the employees for addressing the issues that can bear satisfactory feelings. The managers of CAPCO essentially need to implement the motivational theories to incur smoothness in the process of project management plan that can provide immense competitive edge to the organisation. CAPCO managers can introduce incentive policies by properly evaluating the motivational theories that will indulge the employees to act more compactly in order to achieve the organisational objectives.The managers of CAPCO cannot use the full potential of the employees to foster the workforce unless they execute a systematic apprehension of the motivational theories. Proper understanding of the motivational theories can help the managers of CAPCO by injecting ease in the complex tasks of the work place through performing a motivational boost upon the potential employees.

Task 4:

4.1 Explaining the nature of groups and their behaviour within CAPCO:

Group is comprised of people who are working together for a common purpose. Groups are formed so that organisations can achieve the objectives of an organisation. Group behaviour is the nature of behaviour of employees within business organisations. In order to achieve specific results of an organisation various groups are formed. Employees interact with each other and tend to form groups based on the closeness of individuals. According to Wilson and Thompson (2014, p.101), groups are formed based on balance theory. The similarity of attitudes and values results in formation of group. The exchange theory of group formation explains that groups are formed because of reward-cost outcomes. An individual becomes a member of group and fulfil their needs of association. Groups can be classified into two types, formal and informal.

The group that is formed so that organisation can achieve specific goal is formal group. Examples of formal group are command group and task group. Command groups are permanent in an organisation while task groups are formed for specific tasks and are temporary in nature. Informal groups are groups that are formed by the employees themselves. Employees who have common goal and interest tend to form formal groups. There are mainly two types of informal groups which are friendship group and interest groups. Employees who have friendship with each other are part of friendship group while people having common interest are a part of informal groups. Such types of group are present in business organisations such as CAPCO.According to Thomson and van Niekerk (2012, p.45), five stage model explains the model of group development. The first stage is the forming stage where members tend to identify the nature of acceptable behaviour within the group. The storming stage identifies the leader of the group. The norming stage increases comradeship in members of the group. In the performing stage, members show their performance so that the aim identified in norming stage can be achieved. The adjourning stage is the last stage for groups that are built for specific tasks.

4.2 Discussing the factors that inhibits or promotes the development of effective teamwork within CAPCO:

In opinion of Thomson and van Niekerk (2012, p.45), diversity in the culture of different employees facilitate the need of effective teamwork in the organisation. It helps to increase respect among the employees that affects their business operation. The managers of CAPCO have focused on providing cultural awareness among its employees to improve the business performance of company. Thomson and van Niekerk (2012, p.45) has stated that clear communication between workers assist t6o derive effective teamwork in the organisation. Effective managing communication between employees help to build strong relation between them that affects the business performance of organisation. Therefore, CAPCO works on enhancing the social skill of their employees to increase their communication to derive effective team work from them. It helps the company to improve the business performance of the company. Strong connection between the team members assist to increase the sales growth of company. Thomson and van Niekerk (2012, p.45) has deciphered that effective leadership of managers aids to facilitate the teamwork in a company. Leaders help to motivate the employees to attain the desired objectives of the company. Therefore, leaders of CAPCO have focused on introducing collaborative teamwork among its employees to improve their business. It is followed that the leaders encourage the team members to express their opinion to improve the business of the organisation.  

Thomson and van Niekerk (2012, p.45) has mentioned that shared experience of employees help to build strong team to enhance the growth of business. It is observed that the office tours and conferences help to increase the communication between employees that assist to build a strong relation between the employees of the organisation. It is observed that leaders of CAPCO have worked on introducing team-building exercises that assist them to improve the business performance of company. It helps to increase the communication between employees to derive effective team work from them that helps to attain the desired objective of organisation (Refer to Appendix 4).     

4.3 Evaluating the impact of technology on team functioning within CAPCO:

Organisations such as CAPCO introduce new technology in the workplace as it can be a new source to increase profits and maintain a competitive place in the market. CAPCO being a financial services businesses and technology consultant requires the use of technology in conducting its business. New improved technologies will result in increased job satisfaction of employees as a result of better communication and improvements in the role and responsibilities by providing employees with opportunity to take active participation in tasks. New technologies focus on the impact of how employees can be trained and updated. CAPCO uses online technologies as it helps in providing better information to the employees and the employees can be updated with new research.

Technologies such as e-mail, mobile phones and computers are used by businesses to improve their performance.  Email enables employees in communicating with each member and performs their tasks effectively within a limited period of time. The employees of CAPCO are able to communicate with each other with the help of improved technologies such as video conferencing. Team meetings can be conducted at any time with help of technologies. IT plays an important role in the functioning of CAPCO. IT system enables CAPCO in delivering quality services within a stipulated time. Mobile phones enable employees in contacting with every member and they can solve any problem over the phone. Improved technologies help in keeping track of employees. Implementing new technologies might not always yield good results. It can sometimes hinder team functioning. For example people in a specific group formed for a particular task might not be skilled to use a specific technology and in some cases team members are not cooperative in helping other members. The change in technology must be followed by updating and training of members of the team.

Conclusion:

In executing the study on organisation and behaviour of employees and employer within the organisation, it is seen that Capco has good hold on their employee-employer relationship. This has enabled them to achieve better outcome in their business as involvement of employees have proved to be effective for the organisation. This organisation takes into consideration the choices of its employees in decision-making process and has been beneficial in motivating staffs that enhanced their performance. In comparison to Burberry, Capco has been making changes in their leadership style and adopted transformational leadership that helped them to make better progress in business with satisfaction from employees in their job. By adopting flat structure, Capco has enabled to become successful in overcoming risk factors as better decision and strategies are developed by involving employees. In addition, Capco has positioned itself successfully in the competing market as it focused on motivating its employees by adopting Herzberg theory and Maslow’s motivation theory.       

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