BrewDog Case Study: Organisational Behaviour Analysis & Solutions

This case study examines BrewDog's organisational behaviour, focusing on cultural issues, fear culture, and the impact of COVID-19. It highlights problems such as a toxic work environment, lack of employee engagement, and ineffective leadership. The analysis includes recommendations based on various management and leadership theories, such as adopting a clan culture, applying Adam's Equity theory, and implementing F.W. Taylor's management theory. The goal is to improve employee motivation, satisfaction, and overall brand image, ultimately fostering a more positive and productive work environment. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Organisational
behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CASE STUDY – 1...........................................................................................................................3
CASE STUDY – 2...........................................................................................................................4
CASE STUDY – 3...........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour refers to the overall study of the human behaviour relative to
organizational structure. It focuses on the connection between an organisation and the human
behaviour of its employee's (Patching., 2019). The primary objective of organisational behaviour
is to effective understand human behaviour and develop suitable strategies in order to ensure that
human resources of an organisation are effective in their operations. The following report is
based on BrewDog organisation which is a multinational brewery and pub chain based in Ellon,
Scotland. To following report will focus on various issues that the organisation has encountered
in its business operations. In addition to this the report will also provide suitable
recommendations to the organisation in order to solve the issues it has encountered.
MAIN BODY
CASE STUDY – 1
The following case study focuses upon the issue of cultural fear at the organisation of
BrewDog. The organisation was established upon the rotten work culture resulting in a toxic
work environment for the employee's. This form of work culture has a negative impacted not
only ther performance of the employee's at BreDog but their psychology along with behaviour as
well. The work culture at BrewDog forced many employee's to leave the organisation and voice
their concerns relative to how the organisation treats its employee's. The organisation lacked
effective engagement with employee's as well as failed in providing a harmonious work
environment leading to conflicts between the management and workforce. The situation force the
Co-founder of the organisation to issue an apology to employee's relative to their treatment and
addressing the issues of toxic work place environment. The case study further pointed out that
the organisation failed to address the issues of their employee's and directed their concerns under
the aspect of low employee performance in order to cover their tracks relative to a toxic work
culture and environment. This caused massive impact on the brand image of the organisation
along with its major stakeholders such as investors along with their loyal customers.
Recommendations
As per the reports, BrewDog has allegations of threatening their employees. It has been
claimed that they do not live up to the values , have fake marketing designs, and a culture of
hatred. This culture of organisation will result in poor decision making , lack of communication,

high attrition rate, lack of transparency etc. which negatively impacts the organisation. As there
are different types of corporate culture which a company can choose to maintain harmony in the
organization.
Adhocracy culture: It is a type of culture where each and every member of the
organisation participates actively. In this they accept challenges, take risks and come up with
their innovative ideas . It has a competitive environment at the workplace and welcome
suggestions of all the employees (Aktar and Pangil., 2020).
Clan culture: As per this culture, they focuses on nurturing the employees through
interpersonal connections and programs. This is all done to create a sense of belongingness in the
employees and built up their trust on the organisation. Here everyone's ideas and views are
respected. It is preferred by the organisations who want to work like a family.
Market culture: It is a type of culture which is market oriented, result driven and highly
competitive in nature. Here, in this employees are given challenges and pushed to achieve it at
any cost. In this type of culture their performance is closely monitored and achieving the goals is
a priority. They go to extra mile to achieve their targets and ready to react to the prevailing
situations to stay competitive (Hay, Parker and Luksyte., 2021).
Hierarchy culture: In this type of culture they focus on formulating rules and policies to
adhere, so, that organisation functions smoothly. It has structured work environment and has
terms and conditions to follow (Ahmed, Ishak and Kamil., 2021).
As per the analysis done, BrewDog should go for adopting clan culture. It is friendly approach
and make employees feel like a part of organisation. It is like a big family where everyone share
their thoughts and work together to achieve the goals of the organisation.
CASE STUDY – 2
In the following case study the organisation of BrewDog faced issues related to their
implementation of fear culture within their organisations. Various ex-employee's of the
organisation came forwards and provided information relative to their ill-treatment by the
company and how the organisation used culture of fear in order to bully their employee's and
treat them like objects. In addition to this the employee's issued a joint statement highlighting
concerns related to the organisation cutting corners on health and safety along with not living up
to their organisation value (Fowler, Fowler and O’Gorman., 2021). Moreover, the employee's
raised the issues of organisational harassment leading to mental illness among employee's. In

addition to this the case study highlighted the major issues such as the organisation paying
emphasis on profitability rather than employee's welfare leading to conflicts with the
management. The organisation and its management is also accused of using punishment relative
to their current employee's in order to avoid any other such situations for the organisation as its
negatively impacts their brand image (Sofyan,De Clercq and Shang., 2021). This situation has
caused concerns among their customers due to the values of the organisation not being aligned
with their business operations along with investors being concerned about the future of the
organisation in the long run.
Recommendations
It is crucial for the management at BrewDog to understand the importance of employee's
motivation along with satisfaction in order to ensure that they provide high level of perforce
along with high levels of productivity. This is crucial for the organisation relative to the case
study as the management is encountering highly demotivated employee's who are not satisfied
with the work environment of the organisation resulting in high turnover. In addition to this the
organisation is also encountered with negative brand image due to the situation of employee's
dissatisfaction (Fenwick., 2021). In order to negate this situation and have positive relations with
their employee's the management at BrewDog can utilization Adam's Equity theory.
Adam's Equity theory:
The theory states that the employee's must receive a balance and fair rewards relative to their
input to the company in the form of their particular skills, enthusiasm and hard work. The
application of this theory will help the management at BrewDog to eliminate the high levels of
exploitation at their organisation which has been a core aspect in reducing the overall
performance as well as productivity of employee's. The theory has three types of exchange
relations the organisation must understand. Given below are the three types of exchange
relationship (Fenwick., 2021):
Overpaid inequity:
This refers to when the employee's perceive that there outcomes are more compared to
their input.
Underpaid inequity:
This aspect refers to when an employees perceives that their outcomes are less as
compared to their input.

Equity:
This aspect states that the employee's perceive that their outcomes are equal to that of
others.
The management of the organisation must focuses on ensure that the outputs of their
employees are recognized effectively in order to ensure that they are motived and effective in
their performance. The application of this theory will help the management at BrewDog to
eliminate the high levels of exploitation at their organisation which has been a core aspect in
reducing the overall performance as well as productivity of employee's. Moreover, the theory
will allow the organisation to keep its employee's motived and help in elimination of a rotten
work environment (Fenwick., 2021). This will allow the organisation to keep its employee's
satisfied on the bases of their positive performance and ensure that all needs of the workforce are
being met. In addition to this the organisation will be able to establish a positive relation with its
workforce which will result in highly motived as well and engagement with employee's. This
will further help the organisation to again establish its tarnished brand image relative to its stake
holders and ensure that further business operations run smoothly relative to the behaviour of
employee's and their overall treatment at the establishment in the long run.
It is also recommended that the organisation focuses upon its management through
evaluation of management theories which will enable in enhancing its management act ivies
effective and provide employee's high level of motivation. Given below are two management
theories:
Management theories:
Henry Fayol:
This management theory focuses upon on the top level management and has a top to
bottom approach. The theory is focused on delivering managerial efficiency and based on
personal experience.
Fredrick Winslow Taylor:
This management theory focuses upon love level management and has the approach of
supervising the viewpoint of bottom to upward approach. The theory pays emphasis on increase
the productivity of employee's and is based on observation and experiment.
It is recommended that the management at BrewDog should implement F.W Taylor
management theory in order to understand their employee's effectively and have an effective

channel of communication starting from boot level to the top. In addition to this the management
theory will allows in development of effective teams which will have high performance as well
as productivity.
CASE STUDY – 3
The following case study highlights the various issues face by the organisation of
BrewDog due to the situation of COVID – 19 which has negatively impacted the overall
operations of the organisation due to restriction of pubs to remain open in the situation of
pandemic. In addition to this various current and ex-employee's of the organisation have come
forwards and reviled toxic work culture and utilization of fear among employee's in the
management of BrewDog. This has caused the organisation to issue multiple statements and
apologies to not only their employee's but their customers as well. The case study highlights the
various issues that the employees had to face while working for the organisation which included
excessive work along with no crucial support from the management. The organisation lacked any
form of employee engagement programs along with strategies to keep their employees positively
motived to perform their specific duties. In addition to this the organisation implemented a rotten
work culture in its business operations that focused upon punishing the employee's rather than
providing essential support to keep them motived and avoid mental strain. These aspect caused
employee's to face mental harassment along with development of a negative behaviour relative to
the organisation.
Recommendations
The management of BrewDog has ineffective leadership as well as management. This
results in low level of performance and productivity from their employees along with decreased
level of motivation as well. As per the case study the organisation has encountered issues due to
their ill treatment of employee's especially during the situation of COVID – 19 which has
negatively impacted their overall brand image along with raised concerns from their investors. Its
is recommended to the organisation to pay emphasis on altering its leadership in order to ensure
that the employee's are lead by a capable and well experienced leader who can relate tot he
employee's and provided them with high level of motivate to perform their specific duties. There
are various leadership theories that the organisation can use in order to promoter positive
engagement with their employee's (Carlisle and Ramudu., 2019). These theories will allow the
management and the leaders to understand the perception of their workforce and provide them

the essential needs along with necessary direction and guidance to perform their task in a
situation such as the pandemic.
Leadership theories
The great man theory : As per this theory, leaders are born and not made. They are
inherently born with all the traits of a good leader and possess all the qualities such as
intelligence, courage, confidence and so on.
Behavioural theory : this theory focuses on that success of any leader is based on their
behaviour instead of their natural traits. This focuses on observing and evaluating leaders
behaviour under various situations.
Situational theory : As per this, leaders choose the best style as per the prevailing
situations of the organisation. These leadership styles are chosen after considering various
factors such as nature of followers, risk, and many more.
Trait theory : This theory focuses on, that all the great leaders have certain qualities
which differentiate them from others. The qualities which leaders possess are self confidence,
courage, discipline and so on.
The situational leadership will allow the management of the organisation to understand the
situation of employee's relative to the work culture of the business and develop suitable strategies
along with solution to help satisfy the workforce (Murswieck., 2021). In addition to this the new
style of leadership will also all the management to bring alterations in the inter workings of the
business which can help the organisation to develop positive employee engagement resulting in
establishing effective brand image and a structured management of the organisation functions.
The effective leadership will also enable the leaders in enhancing the management
functions. Given below is the impact of situate leadership on the management functions of the
organisation:
Planning:
The leader will be able to effectively plan new strategies for the organisation and involve
employee in the development of strategies to enhance performance.
Organising:
The leader will be able to effectively organise the resource of the organisation ot provide
effective support to employee's in their tasks.
Staffing:

The leader will have effective ability to retain employee's and attract potential employee's
through situational leadership.
Directing:
The leader within the organisation will have the ability to direct the employee's towards
organisation goals and objects as well as keep employee's motived through optimal guidance.
Controlling:
The leader will be able to have effective control over the employee's and have the ability
to work with them in an effective manner. This will result in enhanced performance as well as
productivity of employee's.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that, the organisation can face various issue
due to ineffective management of its employee's and along with improper organisation culture.
This negatively impacts the relation between the management and employee's. It is crucial for an
organisation and its management to focus on having a optimal leadership along with
implementing appropriate motivational techniques to ensure that the employee's are satisfied
with their work. In addition to this the business should focus on altering its organisation culture
in order to provide employees with positive and harmonious work environment which will keep
them motived and promote positive brand image for the business.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Patching, A., 2019, December. Stress impacts on organisational culture and personal behaviour–
a construction industry perspective in Australia. In 16th Australian Conference on
Personality & Individual Differences: Advances and Challenges in Personality and
Individual Differences–Theories and Applications.
Fowler, J. L., Fowler, D. S. and O’Gorman, J.G., 2021. Worth the investment? An examination
of the organisational outcomes of a formal structured mentoring program. Asia Pacific
Journal of Human Resources, 59(1). pp.109-131.
Fenwick, J., 2021. Power and Control. In Organisational Behaviour in the Public Sector: A
Critical Introduction. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Carlisle, J. and Ramudu, R.B., 2019, September. Enhancing organisational citizenship
behaviour: The impact of training effectiveness and employee attitudes. In British
Academy of Management Conference: BAM 2019 (pp. 2-33).
Sofyan, Y., De Clercq, D. and Shang, Y., 2021. Detrimental effects of work overload on
knowledge hiding in competitive organisational climates. Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources.
Fenwick, J., 2021. Ethics and Values. In Organisational Behaviour in the Public Sector: A
Critical Introduction. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Murswieck, R., 2021. Studies on Organisational Innovation Performance Related to Cultural
Dimensions, Leadership and Employees. In Innovation Performance in the 21st
Century (pp. 95-127). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Aktar, A. and Pangil, F., 2020. HRM practices, employee engagement, organisational
commitment and work-related social support. Journal for Global Business
Advancement, 13(6). pp.688-705.
Hay, G. J., Parker, S. K. and Luksyte, A., 2021. Making sense of organisational change failure:
An identity lens. Human Relations, 74(2). pp.180-207.
Ahmed, O. M., Ishak, A. K. and Kamil, B. A. M., 2021. Academics' life satisfaction: the role of
perceived stress, organisational justice and self-efficacy. International Journal of
Management in Education, 15(1). pp.1-22.