Organisational Behaviour Issues in Thames Valley Building Society

This case study revolves around the branch office of Thames Valley Building Society and the behaviour issues faced by the employees. Three organisation behaviour issues are identified - communication, personal variables, and behaviour. Relevant theories such as information theory and groupware theory are applied to address these issues. Recommendations include weekly meetings, clear set of expectations, and feedbacks.

THAMES VALLEY
BUILDING SOCIETY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Identify three organisation behaviour issues in the case study, apply relevant theories and
recommendation to each of these three issues.............................................................................3
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
This case study revolved around the branch office of Thames Valley Building Society
with the branch manager Mary Roger who employed Tony Jackson in the office as he seemed to
be a bright employee to her. Mary Roger also deployed Jane Taylor for the job position of Senior
Branch Assistant for the main job responsibility of quality and accuracy of staff work and look
after in the absence of the Mary Roger. After 2 months, Jane Taylor complained about the
behaviour of Tony Jackson that he does not accepts the job and tries to embarrass other staff
members. Jane Taylor also tried resolving the issue by communicating him the behaviour but
Tony Jackson just denied to accept the issues. After ten days when Mary Roger fell sick and
went for leave, Jane Taylor was being deployed as the person in charge in place of Mary Roger,
whenever she assigns any job to Tony, he just tuts and makes sarcastic comments (Alblas and
Wijsman, 2021). Jane Taylor also unpleasant atmosphere in the organisation and decides to join
the management courses which was suggested by Mary Rogers.
Identify three organisation behaviour issues in the case study, apply relevant theories and
recommendation to each of these three issues
The three organisation behaviour issues identified in the case study are as:
 Communication
 Personal variables
 Behaviour
Communication (Issue 1)
Definition of the Organisational Behaviour Issue
Communication is an important tool which is needed is responsible delivering the message of an
individual to other individuals. The effective communication ensures the interpretation of the
right message to the other individuals. Similarly, communication in organisation is crucial to
developing the understandings of the right organisational objectives to all employees in the
organisation. Effective communication is responsible for the flows of information to different
departments and individual in the organisation (Anagnostopoulos and Papadimitriou, 2017).
when employer do not deliver the right information or forget to address the objectives of the

message, it may lead to organisational conflict. Without communication it will results of
business failure and misinterpretation of the organisational objectives. Miscommunication can
lead to faulty interpretation and wrong judgements where it can lead to clash of opinions among
the employees. As employees in an organisation might not understand the real objectives and
understanding of the message by the individuals. Moreover, due to miscommunication
employees might not understand task that has to be perform and lead to chaos and faulty business
results. Thus, communication becomes essential part of an organisation which contributes
towards effective internal management and business success.
Relevant examples from the case study
As per the case study, the miscommunication between Jane Taylor and Tony Jackson lead to
clash of opinion between the both. Where one individual was not able to understand the feelings
of individual. Jane Taylor was not able to communicate properly and convey the real issue and
consequences of the clash of opinions. As she was having the ore authority and higher job
position, then Jane must have communicated and taken action for the bad behavior of Tony. It
was the duty of Jane to deliver how Tony was supposed to behave in the organisation but Tony
was repeating the same thing again and gain which reflects that Jane was not able to
communicate the ethical code of conduct and moral behaviour that employee have to comply in
the organisation. The case study reflects the poor communication between Jane and Tony, as
when Jane assigns him any work he either gets huffy or rudely responds her. Also when Jane
communicates the way to work properly, he starts arguing and making excuses which reflects the
poor communication and coordination between the both (Benuyenah, 2021).
Description of the Theory
Information Theory
Information theory focuses on passing on the right information of the communicational message.
Where the employer takes different measures to ensure the flow right information. When the
information is not rightly delivered it leads to poor communication which further to conflict in
the organisation (Bester, Stander and Van Zyl, 2015). Thus, information theory focuses on
structure and patterns that how the information is been delivered in the workplace. Using
information theory, the employer fixes the message in order to reduce the misinterpretation and

alteration in the objectives of the message. The employer also takes different measures in order
to evaluate the quality and accuracy of the information, these measures involves like directly
communicating to the specific employee rather than indirectly communication, reducing the
mediators while indirectly communicating the message, crosschecking with the specific
employee to ensure the right information been delivered and so on.
Groupware Theory
Groupware theory suggest that the old communication must be replaced by new medium of
communication. Where employees must communicate with other employees using modern
approaches of communication. With the advancement in the technology, different organisation
can implement technological medium as the source of communication between different
employees. The technological sources like computer, mobile will helps not only deliver the right
communicational message but also improve organisational communication network. Where the
employer can just a message or personalised message directly to the specific employee which
reduces the redundancies or misinterpretation in the message (Boddy, 2015). It also reduces the
issues of poor and ineffective communication in the workplace and contributes build strong
employee relationship in the workplace, where employees can directly communicate to their
employer and express his/her concerns and opinions without any hesitations. Through modern
technological medium it become easier for employer to engage with the specific employees and
promote effective communication in the workplace.
Application of the Theory to the Case Study
In accordance to the case study, Jane can apply information theory in order to promote effective
communication with all the employees in the workplace. Where she can directly or indirectly
communicate to the employees by ensuring the accuracy and quality of the information delivered
in order to check whether right information is being passed on which reduces conflict and cash of
opinion in the organisation. Jane should directly communicate to Tony and deliver the right
information, about how should comply with the pre-determined code of conduct in the
organisation. In case if he denies to behave in accordance to the ethical conduct of the business,
Jane must also determine about the negative consequences of the violation of the organisational
norms and policies (Boehe, 2016).

Applying Groupware theory in the case study, will also contribute effective communication in
the organisation. Where Jane can replace the traditional or in person conversation with the
employees with the technological tools. Jane can communicate using technological tools like
office computer or through personal mobile phones. Which reduces the chances of faulty
interpretations and miscommunication with the employees in the workplace. It also helps to
contribute efficiencies in the business functions, as it saves time and efforts to directly
communicate with each employees. Jane can also communicate to Tony using these
technological tools which will reduce the communication and clashes of opinions and talk only
which is professional and pertaining to the work. Thus, applying groupware theory in the above
case study, will contribute to effective communicate and reduce the clash of opinion between the
employees in the workplace. Using groupware theory, Jane would be able to manage her work
and promote effective communication without misinterpretations and faulty judgments (Burlea
and Remmé, 2017).
Recommendation
In order to resolve the issues of ineffective communication as per the case study, here are some
recommendation that will improve communication in the workplace, these are:
Weekly meetings
Jane should take weekly group meeting in order to ensure effective communication with each
employees. Group meetings helps employees to out across their views and opinions. It also
reduces the reduces the misinterpretation of the message where each employee and listen to the
exacts objectives of the message at the same time. Jane does not need to specifically
communicate o each employee which leads to clash of opinions. Moreover, group discussion
creates a sense of team spirit d team work among the employees the further promotes
cooperation and coordination among the employees and reduce conflicts and clash of opinion
among different employees. Group discussion will also help to address the issues and concerns
faced by each employees and make certain judgements and solutions regarding different
identified issues (Canning and Found, 2015).
Clear set of expectations

Jane needs to draw the clear set of expectations that is to be achieved from the organisational
objectives. Jane should set regular expectations from the task and deliver right objectives to the
employees in the workplace. She should also evaluate the performances of each employee, and
take actions to those who are performing below the working standards.
Feedbacks
Lastly, Jane should collect timely feedbacks from each employee, as feedbacks will help to
evaluate the employee satisfaction and measures that needs to be deployed in order to achieve
the working standards.
Personal variables (Issue 2)
Definition of the Organisational Behaviour Issue
Personality and value system of different individual are different, whereon e individual can be
outspoken or other individual can be introvert, these issues leads to conflicts in the organisation.
Personality and value are the factors which a person learns since childhood and continuous the
learnings the throughout different life stages. Every individual in an organisation may possess
different value set and personality, thus it becomes important to analyse the personality pf each
individual. When individual in an organisation know about the personality of the others in the
workplace in becomes easier for them to interact and communicate one’s message to others. It is
crucial to have a positive personality and value system in the organisation, bad behaviour and
arrogant personality often results to conflicts in the organisation (Chang and et.al., 2016). Good
value system helps to develop corporation and tem spirit in the minds of the employees and
motivates to smoothly conduct the functioning in the organisation.
Relevant examples from the case study.
In the light of the case study, Tony Jackson had the personality and value systems where he was
very outspoken and sneaky. Where Jane assigns any duty either he denies do or he makes
sarcastic comment. It also reflects the rude and stubborn personality of Tony, where he denies to
perform with the duty assigned and responds rudely to Jane. He also calls out other employees
by their nicknames which shows the negative value system of Tony. When Jane assigns the
works to Tony he does not accept it without a fuss and embarrass the other staff when they serve

this shows the personality clash between Tony with other staff and Jane, with leads to work
disruption and affects the organisation environment in a negative manner. Moreover, when Jane
came to resolve the issue the issue in the staff kitchen he rudely responded to her regarding his
behaviour (Chumg and et.al., 2016).
Description of the Theory
Psychoanalytic theory
This theory was termed by Sigmund Freud. He coined that the personality of an individual is
framed by some childhood experiences. He divided the theory in topographic model and psychic
model. In topographic model he defined that the mind of the human is like an iceberg, with
subconscious, pre conscious and conscious mind. Where conscious mind of the human beings
reflects the awareness and attention of the individual, the subconscious mind states the human
mind which an individual is not aware whereas, the pre conscious mind states the awareness but
an individual is not paying attention. Whereas, the psychic model of the theory states that human
mind is been divided into three different parts that includes Id, ego, super ego (Clay-Williams
and Braithwaite, 2015). Where Id works on the pleasure principle and starts pushing a human
mind for quickly acquiring something it gets impulsive and it is filled by immediate actions and
reactions, the super ego is the part of human mind which involves making judgement and draw
conclusion for every desired situation, it delivers what right action towards every situation, ego is
the reality part which takes the opinions of both Id and superego and implements the desired
actions.
Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory is coined by Albert Bandura which states that an individual learns and
gain new information by looking at other. Or in other words, an individual acquires social values
and learning by observing others, whereas on the same note it is not important that an individual
will have change in the behaviour until he/she himself wishes to. The learnings of an individual
also depends on that how she/he acquire the knowledge and pays the attention to the learnings
(Effron and Raj, 2020).
Application of the Theory to the Case Study

As different employees in Thames Valley Building Society acquire different cultural and social
values which helps the other employees in the organisation to acquire learning from different
individual. In light of the social learning theory, where Tony can learn different social value of
being polite, honest, productive, accountable from different employees in the organisation. With
the help of social learning theory, Tony will gain the knowledge and will be able learning will
help him to that how to behave in the organisation. Though it is not really important to bring
changes in the Tony’s personality but at least with the help of social learning he will get the idea
of how to behave professionally in a workplace.
With the help of Psychoanalytic theory, the personality of different individual can be studied and
analysed and accordingly each individual can be dealt with. By analysing the personality trait of
each individual, different measures can be applied like rendering motivational tools,
punishments, rewards or changing the seating arrangement in the workplace with individual who
possess similar traits. In accordance to the case study, through Psychoanalytic theory, the
personality traits of Tony can be determined and taken suitable measures which best suits the
traits of Ton. As Tony reflects more arrogant, outspoken, rude traits, thus, it can be determined
that Tony must have faced some childhood experiences and render effective motivation
techniques in order to improve or bring changes in his current behaviour (Gkorezis and Petridou,
2017).
Recommendation
In order to resolve the issues of ineffective communication as per the case study, here are some
recommendation that will improve communication in the workplace, these are:
In order to ensure the right value system followed in the organisation, Jane must ensure that
employees in the organisation does not disrespect other any individual in the workplace. As there
must be job security, equality, respect, positive working culture in the organisation.
Analysing right personality is important as it ensures the structure of employee engagement in
the workplace, as each employee possess different traits and personality. These can be
determined by applying Big five Ocean model, OCEAN defines Openness, Conscientiousness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. These factors helps to determine the traits of each
employee in the workplace. Where,

Openness defines that how willing an individual is to take new takes and challenges (Hosain,
2019).
Conscientiousness defines that how an individual is well behaved, punctual to work, reliable
and work in a determined organisation pattern, the employees who scores are most likely to be
irresponsible and are not accountable towards their work like Tony Jackson, such employees can
be render training and development opportunities in order to improve the productivity at work.
Extraversion defines the eagerness of an employee to make interactions with employees in the
workplace.
Agreeableness defines that friendly and sensitive behaviour of employees in the workplace. An
employee should possess agreeableness factors in order to develop social relationship where each
employees feels comfortable in the organisation.
Neuroticism defines the negative and emotional behaviour of an employee in the workplace.
Employees like Tony Jackson scores high in Neuroticism leading to negative behavior in the
workplace, thus Jane should render motivational tools to develop positive mindset or in extreme
cases should take stringent actions like taking his working records to Miss Rogers, punishments,
warnings, written answerability and other related actions (James, 2017).
Behaviour (Issue 3)
Definition of the Organisational Behaviour Issue
Behaviour is the way in which one individual behaves or reacts. Behaviour of a person can be
both negative and positive depending upon the given situation he can respond offensive and
defensive way. Where an individual find something unfavourable she/he may act offensive or
when an individual find something favourable he/she may positive respond. Behaviour of an
individual in a workplace defines that the workforce relationship it is important to have an
ethical behaviour of the employees in the organisation. Positive behaviour of employees
contributes the productivity in the workplace with easy flow of communication and deliver the
right organisation objectives. Ethical behaviour is an organisation is also crucial to develop
equality in the organisation in order to maintain the workforce diversity. Without god and

positive behaviours, it may lead to conflict and clash of opinions which negatively impacts the
performance and leads to business failure (Kitchin, 2017).
Relevant examples from the case study
Tony Jackson showed the negative behaviour in the organisation, as when Jane Taylor who was
the senior branch assistant in the office, called Tony and showed his mistakes and she told him
that his work is below the working standards, he rudely responded and said that he is human so
what does she expects from him? Rather than focusing on mistakes and improving the
performance he made an excuse. It reflects the careless an irresponsible behaviour of Tony
Jackson towards his work which negatively impacts the performance of the business. He also
disrespects to Jane Taylor who is his senior assistant as he gets huffy and responds to her very
rudely whenever she assigns any duty. Moreover, he passes comments which disturbs the other
working staffs in the organisation. Even when, Jane asks Tony or any urgent helps he gets huffy
and when Jane corrected him to not to behave in this manner rather acknowledging his fault he
responded that if she treats him like a piece pf dirt, he will behave like that, which is a very
wrong behaviour (Meriton, 2016).
Description of the Theory
McGregor’s X & Y Theory
X & Y Theory was being coined by Douglas McGregor, where he divided the managers in two
different parts that is X manager and Y managers, the managers who falls into the category of X
they are job centric, and all they want is to accomplish of task at any cost, so in order to achieve
deadline of the task they push hard employee to complete the assigned task. Whereas, on the
other hand, the manager who falls in the category of Y, they believe that employees want to
compete the task where they want to improve their learning and knowledge in order to develop
the professional and personal development, they also believe that employees need to be rendered
motivational techniques and tool in order to motivate them the accomplish their desired
objectives. Thus they set rewards and appraisals system in order to match the quality and
standards of the desire task. Douglas McGregor also stated that Y manager gets better results as
they motivate the employees to attain job satisfaction and build positive working environment
which further attain productivity at work (Miao and et.al., 2020).

Human Relations Management Theory
Human relation management theory came after Hawthorne Studies which defined the
relationship between the employees and the mangers. It defined that employees must be rendered
effective motivational tools and space for social interaction in order to attain the productivity at
work. In Hawthorne experiments it was defined that employees needs to be given required
leaves, break while the office hours, promote social interaction, fair remuneration, financial and
non-financial incentives and other motivational tool in order to develop the employee
engagement in the workplace. Moreover, the manager must address the concerns and views of
the employees so that employees feels and valued and comfortable in organisation. Thus, human
relationship management theory defines to attain employee satisfaction in the workplace in order
to attain productivity at work.
Application of the Theory to the Case Study
In the light of the case study, McGregor’s X & Y Theory can be applied in order to motivate the
employees and bring positive changes in the behaviour of each employees. Jane should apply the
Y Theory which determines that employees must be given effective motivational tools which
satisfy and thus contributes to productivity at work. Where Jane must render effective
motivational tool like financial and non-financial incentives to the Tony and other staffs in
accordance to the performances of each employee, which further brings a positive change as
employee will compete with each other in order to get recognition in the workplace thus will ring
a good change in employee behaviour towards their work. Jane must also apply the best behaved
employee rewards will stimulate other employees, especially Tony to behave in accordance to
the determined polices of the organisation in order to get appreciation and recognition in the
office (Oishi and Kesebir, 2015).
On the other end, applying Human relation management theory will help Jane to build positive
relationship with each employee in the organisation. Where Jane needs to develop social
interaction among employees in the workplace, so that employees are able to build strong bond
and relationship which reduces the conflicts and clash of opinion. Moreover, measures like social
interaction, breaks in the office hours will reduce the stress and frustration and promote easy
communication among the employees. In accordance to the human relationship theory, an
employee productivity and focus towards can only be attained when his/her needs and desires are

met and achieves satisfaction at work. thus, Jane needs to take different measures in order to
attain quality and accuracy at work, she must develop strong employee relationship and use
rewards and punishments system in order punish employees like Tony for non-compliance of the
organisational policies and ethical code of conduct (Schyns, 2015).
Recommendation
In order to resolve the issues of personal variables as per the case study, here are some
recommendation that will resolve issues of personal variable in the workplace, these are:
Communicate the desired behaviour
As per the case study, Miss Roger and Jane should communicate the employee behaviour that is
to be complied with the all the employees in the workplace. The employees need to behave
ethically in an organisation in order to promote smooth unction in the workplace.
Be observant
The manager must observe the behaviour of each employee in the organisation, in case of
nontolerant behaviour of any employee, the manager must ask employee apology and
answerability of the bad behaviour of an employee (Taylor, 2018).
Reinforce right behaviour
Manager must ensure that right behaviour of employee in the organisation, by taking timely
feedbacks to determine the reason of unethical behaviour of any employee, rendering right
direction to employees, taking sever actions such as termination of employees of non-compliance
of the ethical code of conduct by the employee in the organisation and practicing discipline in the
workplace in order to attain positive working culture in the organisation
Understand cause and motive
Manager must identify the reason behind the bad behaviour of any employee that if he/she haves
any personal reason or lack of skills and knowledge to perform the assigned job or any other
reason which is troubling him or her, in such cases an employer must take corrective measures
like giving leaves, training and development or delivering the desired solution through effective
communication (Thompson and Glasø, 2015).

CONCLUSION
The above discussion reflects the importance of employee relations and ethical behaviour
of the employees in the workplace. In a workplace there must be effective communication and
ethical code of conduct which every employee must comply with in order to maintain positive
working environment in the organisation. Poor communication may lead to clashes of opinion
and conflicts in the organisation which disturbs the organisational objetives. Thus, an employer
must ensure to take effective measures to improve the business functioning and effective
communication to develop the understanding of organisational objectives which further
contributes to productivity and business success.

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