Leadership Differences and Organizational Behavior in XYZ Training Consultants

This report analyzes the leadership differences between Tim Redkin and Fiona of XYZ Training Consultants, their implications on employees and productivity, and recommends organizational behavior theories to improve staff engagement and motivation.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Executive Summary
This report will discuss about the leadership differences between Tim Redkin and her
daughter Fiona of XYZ Training Consultants, and their approaches, their implications and
effects on the life and work of their employees and level of productivity of production of the
organization. The behaviors of the employees or consultants of the organization will be
analyzed in this report and proper recommendations based on different organizational
behavior theories will be discussed.

2ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Identification and Discuss of Motivational Elements................................................................3
Understanding the Theory......................................................................................................3
Identification..........................................................................................................................4
Behaviors of Training Consultants.............................................................................................5
Understanding the Theory......................................................................................................5
Analysis..................................................................................................................................5
Leadership Style and Its Implications........................................................................................6
Leadership Style.....................................................................................................................6
Cultural, Ethical and Social Concerns...................................................................................7
Recommendations......................................................................................................................8
Organizational Behavior Theories.........................................................................................8
Implications and Advantages of Theories..............................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................11

3ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Introduction
This case revolves about the high turnover of consultants in the organization of XYZ
Training Consultants which was formed by Tim Redkin in the mid-1990s. He spent many
years in the region of Africa as a training consultant and returned to Malaysia to start up his
business own. Fiona, daughter of him, took charge of the organization of this family business.
The firm is a medium-sized organization, which offers management training as well as
leadership development services in the region of Malaysia. There are 80 full-time employees
who works in this organization.
Identification and Discuss of Motivational Elements
Understanding the Theory
In this context, the theory of employee engagement need to be used to identify and
discuss the different various motivational elements that existed in the old organizational
element and the elements which were removed in the fresh business environment which was
formed by the new leadership style and approach of Fiona, who took over the reins of the
organization after her father was diagnosed with a serious heart condition and became the
managing Director of their family business. Employee engagement theory helps to state about
the procedures which helps an organization to achieve the strategic goals of that organization
by creating the favorable conditions to motivate the employees to full focus on their
respective jobs and deliver their best efforts in the interest of that organization. According to
this theory, the leaders or the senior management of a particular organization need to assure
about the full engagement of all of the employees of that organization. Full commitment is
required from the employees (Lăzăroiu 2015).

4ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Identification
The same could be found in the organization of XYZ Training Consultants, where an
open management style was followed when Tim was the Managing Director of the consulting
firm. The employees were free to walk into the room of the Managing Director at any time in
order to discuss certain issues. The working space of Tim as well as the consultants were
locate on the same floor, and they also a shared a common washroom and dining area
facilities, where the consultants were felt motivated to discuss certain issues related to work
along with informal interactions between them. The issues were resolved in those informal
communication, and all these motivated the consultants to give their best and engage into
their work and fully focus on their jobs specified by Tim (Osland, Devine and Turner 2015).
He also encouraged open communication between him and the consultants, where the
employees were free to discuss anything, which acted as an encouragement for the
consultants to give their best and achieve the strategic goals of the business firm. All the
decisions related with recruitment, dismissals and allocation of tasks were taken by Tim
himself, as he did not believe in structured policies and procedures. The decisions were fully
based on the personal relationships and bonding between the consultants and Tim. The
personal and family commitments were respected by him, which further encouraged the
employees to focus on their jobs efficiently. Employee engagement theory was fully followed
under the leadership of Tim in his organization (Zhu 2013).
Under the leadership of Fiona, certain changes were made within the structure of the
organization mainly due to increased competition and legislative alterations that were made
in recent times. She created three different departments according to the type of training
provided by the consultants, thus dividing the employees from one department to the other.
She appointed three head of the departments who would directly report to her, and the
consultants, who previously reported directly to Tim, were guided to report to their respective

5ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
head of the departments now. The meetings were held on every Friday, like the time of Tim,
but instead of the meeting between him and his consultants, now the meetings were held
between the consultants and their respective head of the departments, where Fiona did not
take any active part. She attended the meetings only with the head of the departments. A
consultant needs to take an appointment prior to any kind of meeting with Fiona, and most of
the times she referred that consultant to one of the three head of the departments and did not
attend that consultant. All these put a negative impact on the motivation of the consultants,
which hampered the workflow of the business firm. Apart from all these, a brand-new
grading system for training consultants was introduced by Fiona, and no one was involved
during the time of performing this system. She also removed the system of performance
bonus along with the merit pay increase incentive, and replaced these with across-the-board
increments which would be calculated annually. They also paid minimum attention in the
performance appraisal results, which demotivated the employees, which was almost never
happened during the time of Tim (Metcalf and Benn 2013).
Behaviors of Training Consultants
Understanding the Theory
Organizational justice refers to the perception of fairness of employees in a business
workplace. It states in this theory, that the employees view themselves as fairly treated by the
director or senior management of an organization. It can be stated as a personal evaluation of
managerial conduct in the context of ethical and moral standing. It refers about judging the
behavior of a business entity by its employees along with their resulting behavior and attitude
that arrives from this (Pentland and Hærem 2015).

6ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Analysis
In the context of the case study of this report, it has been seen in that there is a huge
difference between the leadership and its values under the leadership of Tim and Fiona.
While Tim treated all the employees equally when how was the Managing Director of the
organization of XYZ Training Consultants, Fiona divided them into three departments and
started to treated them unequally. The consultants who were on the good books of Fiona and
the respective head of the department spoke highly of them, were used to get better database
of clients to work with while others who challenged the decision of Fiona ore action taken by
her used to get either less-appealing work schedules or little or no promotion (Swaminathan
and Jawahar 2013). The good booked consultants were used to better work schedules and
opportunities for training and promotion. The consultants who were loaded with huge tasks
used to get little or less time to impress Fiona and often get angry, which ultimately
hampered the performance of those employees. All these lead to usage of older training
packages and spending less time in preparation of the training packages and meeting the
needs of the clients. Another relaxation which were introduced by Tim was yoga session for
the consultants on weekly basis, to make the wellbeing better of the consultants. Fiona
stopped this practice, as she believed that all it only wasted the time, which resulted in the
increase of the stress factor among the consultants who were overloaded with tasks. The
inputs of the consultants were not matching with the outputs which they were getting from
Fiona, which misbalanced the work-life culture of the consultants. Apart from these, social
considerations, long-range benefits and ethical considerations were missing under the
leadership of Fiona in XYZ Training Consultants (Ruggieri and Abbate 2013).

7ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Leadership Style and Its Implications
Leadership Style
After thorough analyze of the given case study, it has been found that the leadership
style followed by Fiona is autocratic style of leadership, where the leader takes decisions
without consulting with anyone and without taking any inputs from them. None of the
consultants were consulted before taking any decisions. She used to take inputs from only the
three head of departments to take ultimate decisions. She even did not entertain those
consultants who had an issue and wanted to meet her by taking a prior appointment
(Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy 2014). These hampered the connection and
communication between Fiona and the consultants of the organization of XYZ Training
Consultants. Apart from these, she totally rearranged the structure of the office. All her
approaches helped to build a wall between her and the consultants, and limited the flow of
communication which was very much common in the organization under the leadership of
her father, Tim Redkin. The consultants had no time for professional development under the
leadership style of Fiona. This led to resentment between the consultants, and affected the
productivity level of XYZ Training Consultants (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider 2015).
Cultural, Ethical and Social Concerns
The leadership style followed by Fiona had an adverse impact or effect in ethical,
social and cultural concerns of the people who worked there. While her father had no
limitations in meeting his employees, or consultants to be more precise, whom he treated like
his friends and had no exact time in meeting them and always had his door open for them, the
opposite things happened under the leadership of Fiona. He divided the cultural values
between the employees of the organization. It hampered the balance between the working and
personal life of the employees who worked there (Renko et al 2015). The ethical values were

8ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
also not mentioned by Fiona, as she did not even want to meet her consultants even for a
minute or two. She only had time for three head of the departments appointed by her. This
increased a negative impact on the mind of the consultants, who often used to get angry by
her decisions. This lowered the performance level of some of the consultants, and lost to
work with high profile clients or customers due to their performances. Each and every
employee of all the organizations perform to get a minimum amount of recognition from their
leaders or seniors. This thing deteriorated under the directorship of Fiona, who used to praise
only those consultants who were on her or head of the departments’ good book. Manu junior
training consultants who joined XYZ Training Consultants with high professional as well as
academic qualifications used to get lesser salaries, though working as same time as the
tenured consultants (Gonos and Gallo 2013). The consultants who used to had young
children, family commitments or ageing parents were deprived of training on evenings and on
Saturdays. The social values also started to decrease under the leadership of Fiona, as
negative feedbacks started to come from the clients of the organization, which had never
happened under Tim. The customer complaints gradually started to increase which minimized
the social values possessed by the organization of XYZ Training Consultants. Back-biting
and arguments between the employees increased on daily basis, which hampered the training
facilities that were provided to the clients, which resulted in negative feedbacks. Due to the
resentment among the employees, 50% of the tenured consultants resigned from their
respective posts within the first two years of the leadership of Fiona and 60% of the fresh
recruits resigned within the first year itself, through which it can be stated that the
organization lost its attractiveness to work along with losing the social, cultural and ethical
values (Fiaz, Su and Saqib 2017).

9ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Recommendations
Organizational Behavior Theories
The term organizational behavior means studying the different ways of acting of the
people within an organization through academic approaches. The theories or principles
related to it helps to make the business operations more effective as well as efficient. It
enhances the job performances, job satisfaction and encourages the employees best.
Implications and Advantages of Theories
Fiona need to take help of different organizational behavior theories and approaches
to make immediate changes within XYZ Training Consultants to improve staff engagement
and motivation among the consultants. One of such theory is Informal Organization Theory,
which would help to bring back the friendship and relationship between Fiona and her
consultants, which were very much present and acceptance under the leadership of her dad,
Tim. It would help to understand the problems of the consultants, whether personal or
professional, so that they could be resolved and felt motivated which would improve the
performance of that consultant as well as increase the productivity of the organization
(Bolino et al 2013). It would help to decrease the customer complaints and customer retention
could be achieved effectively. Another theory which Fiona need to follow is Decision-
Making Behavioral Theory, which would help her to take decisions properly by going
through the information and processes of evaluating the performances of the consultants
accurately and not only relying on the head of the departments and on their good books
(Cartwright and Cooper 2014). Proper evaluation of the performances of the consultants
would further motivate them to improve their performances, which would, in turn, increase
the customer satisfaction level and revenue generation of the organization. Apart from these,
the most important theory or approach would be Human Relations Behavioral Theory, which

10ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
would help to value and empower the consultants. This theory states that the employees
would increase their efficiency and productivity if and only they feel satisfied and validated
at work. Fiona need to mix with her consultants and understand their various issues which
were followed by her father, so that the consultants would feel free to share anything and
relaxed, which would improve the production level of them along with XYZ Training
Consultants. All these would reduce the complaints from clients and employee retention
would increase within the organization (Morgeson et al 2013).
Conclusion
From all the above discussion, it can be concluded that leadership style and proper
selection of management style and following of organizational behavioural theories and
approaches would help to enhance the level of performances of the employees and decrease
the employee turnover along with increase in the satisfaction level of the customers. Proper
leadership style helps an organization to achieve their business aim or objective, and it is very
important in this modern competitive world that as ingle piece of mistake would help the
competitors to gain the competitive edge over that organization, and would result in decrease
of market share and fall in the revenue generation.

11ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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12ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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