Organizational Behavior Case Study: B&M Global Services Manila

This case study analyzes the organizational behavior of B&M Global Services Manila (GSM), focusing on the changes implemented to improve its culture and productivity. The study examines the dimensions of organizational culture, including decentralization, transparent governance, open communication, individual autonomy, outcome orientation, and employee participation. It also explores motivational theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McClelland's need theory, and Herzberg's motivational theory. Furthermore, the case study investigates the leadership styles employed, particularly transformational leadership, and its impact on the organization. The analysis highlights how GSM fostered a positive work environment through initiatives like removing biometrics, promoting employee autonomy, and encouraging open communication. The case study provides a detailed overview of the strategies used by GSM to enhance employee motivation, improve organizational culture, and achieve its business objectives. The paper explores the impact of these strategies on employee engagement, performance, and overall organizational success.

Running Head: Organizational Behavior
Organizational Behavior
Case Study

Organizational Behavior 1
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Case Summary.............................................................................................................................................3
Question 1: Dimensions of Organizational Culture.....................................................................................5
1. Level of decentralization.................................................................................................................5
2. Transparent governance...................................................................................................................5
3. Open communication.......................................................................................................................6
4. Individual autonomy........................................................................................................................6
5. Outcome oriented............................................................................................................................6
6. People Oriented...............................................................................................................................7
7. Participation.....................................................................................................................................7
Question 2: Motivational Theories..............................................................................................................7
1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs...........................................................................................................7
2. McClelland’s need theory................................................................................................................8
a. Need for Achievement.................................................................................................................9
b. Need for Power............................................................................................................................9
c. Need for Affiliation...................................................................................................................10
3. Herzberg’s Motivational theory.....................................................................................................10
a. Work place environment............................................................................................................11
b. Constructive feedback................................................................................................................11

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c. Achievement..............................................................................................................................12
d. Growth:......................................................................................................................................12
e. Responsibility............................................................................................................................12
f. Trust..........................................................................................................................................12
Question 3: Leadership Styles...................................................................................................................12
Transformational Leadership.............................................................................................................13
1. A Clear vision............................................................................................................................13
2. Courage.....................................................................................................................................14
3. Self-Motivation..........................................................................................................................14
4. Inspiration..................................................................................................................................14
5. People Management...................................................................................................................14
6. Participation...............................................................................................................................14
References:................................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Organizational behavior is simply the study of behavior of individuals in a team setting. How
members of an organization behave with each other largely goes to define the culture at that
particular organization (Alvesson, 2015). Immense efforts are put in to study this behavior and
put that knowledge for the betterment and growth of the organization. It is a detailed subject and
aims to understand, predict and eventually manage human behavior in various organizations.
Human resource experts consistently strive to maintain a productive culture in their firms. And
organizational culture is extremely important for the employees. A culture that encourages
transparent communication, innovation, team work and hard work can motivate employees to
work better towards the main goal of the firm (Hogan, 2014). Whereas a culture that encourages
self-growth, vague communication and unfair rewards and practices can foster demotivation in
employees eventually leading to failure in achieving the goals of the company (Helms Mills,
2017). In this report we will be discussing a case of the company B&M Global Services Manila
or GSM which has just witnessed a major office and cultural shift in the organization. The case
addresses three important questions regarding recommended dimensions of organizational
culture, motivational theories and leadership styles which are answered below.
Case Summary
The case throws light on the growth and success achieved by B&M Global Services Manila
(GSM) in a span of a short while. Baker McKenzie is one of the top five law firms by revenue as
well as headcount. GSM is Baker McKenzie’s largest insourcing facility employing over 900
people from across the globe whose job is to provide support to 77 Baker McKenzie offices
spread over 47 countries around the world.
The year 2000 begins with opening an office in Philippines which will be the firm’s 14th office in
Asia Pacific. The growth of the company was commendable and by 2014, from a crew of 5
document processors, GSM’s business units occupied several floors across 4 different buildings.
This fast pace of growth left little time to plan offices.
In the year 2015, GSM went through a major change with an idea to bring about a change in the
office space as well as in organizational culture followed by GSM. Project Convergence was

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introduced and started with an aim to change the office land and culture. The project commenced
by building a new office for the employees and designed by the employees. The major changes
in the new structure included:
1. Getting rid of biometrics: this was done to instill a sense of trust in employees and
ensuring that their performance is measured by results rather than minutes spent in the
office (Rao, S. 2013).
2. Reinvented in house leadership: Offering lesser leadership more and encouraging
employees to manage and take responsibility for their own work was done to motivate
employees to track their own performance and work in accordance with it.
3. Exerted constant feedback: 360 degree reviews were conducted in order to keep the
employees on their toes and help them be aware of their performance. This helped in
motivating employees when they lacked and guiding them upon ways to perform better
(Lazaroiu, 2015).
4. Rating free performance evaluation: This system was brought into practice to make the
performance evaluation much healthier. Every employee was now only competing with
himself and no ranks were given. This ensured that people are only concerned with their
own performance and are working towards improving them. This helps as bad performers
don’t feel demeaned and insulted and good performers do not become lazy knowing that
they are doing better.
5. New channels of communication: Newsletters, Town halls, leaders’ forums, coffee talks
and employee hotlines were installed and in place to encourage more communication
among employees and create a sense of transparency in the organization (Marsick, 2015).
6. Furniture: Seats were now configured to encourage impromptu meetings with clients and
team meetings. This was done to encourage and instil team work among the employees.
This created an open plan structure which enforced free communication among teams.
This was not just a change in the office structure or office policies, this brought about a change
in the mindset of employees. This ensured their organizational behavior changed and worked for
the betterment of the firm. Transparency, integrity, accountability, trust and collaboration were
the values stressed upon this new setting at GSM. This new office hence infused a new life in the

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organization and has yet been efficient in building a more positive and productive organizational
culture.
Question 1: Dimensions of Organizational Culture
Organizational culture predominantly includes a system of shared values, beliefs and
assumptions that define how people behave in an organization (O Reilly, 2014). This culture is
very important and shapes the future of the organization. There are various dimensions to the
organization’s culture. A combination of these different dimensions create the culture in an
organization and it is very important to note that no cultural combination can work for every
organization (Alvesson, 2015). The given case has paid attention to, changed and promoted the
following dimensions in order to attain the culture that currently exists at GSM.
1. Level of decentralization: Decentralization is the amount of decision making authority
given to people of the organization. In a centralized organization the right to make
decisions and formulate strategies lies with one person or team at the center. While in a
decentralized organization, this responsibility shifts to all the employees of the
organization (Mahmood, 2014).
GSM has been promoting a decentralized organizational culture where employees are
trusted and given authority to make their own decision. Leadership roles have been
minimized so that employees are responsible for their own performance and can take
charge of the responsibilities given to them. This instills a sense of ownership in the
employees and helps them remain motivated and loyal to the firm (Appu, 2015).
2. Transparent governance: GSM has also been actively involved in governing transparent
procedures, meetings, reviews etc. Their furniture is meant to include impromptu
meetings with clients and within teams. They have adopted an open plan, no one is given
any cubicles to sit and yet every employee is able to focus on his work. The management
is always willing to help and they too have adopted an open door policy. This cultural
change helps employees remain more informed about the organization with which they
work and this in turn instils a sense of ownership and motivates them to work harder
(Vaast, 2013).

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3. Open communication: GSM employees believe in open communication. There have been
an introduction of newsletters, town halls, coffee talks, leaders’ forum and employee
hotlines. This is done to promote open communication. When employees communicate
freely with one another, it is easier for them to work together in teams. Grievances are
addressed properly and a team spirit is developed leaving no scope for
miscommunication. Open communication also helps in letting employees know exactly
what is expected from them (Kim, 2013). This makes sure that the employee is clear and
can deliver as per expectations. Lastly, open communication also helps in creating the
office environment more relaxed, people do no fear to voice their opinions and this
makes them more confident and accountable.
4. Individual autonomy: Individual autonomy is the best way to show an employee that the
firm trusts them. This means giving an employee the freedom to decide the roles he
should perform and take decisions for himself. Every employee is given the idea to
perform without any pressure. This autonomy prepares employees and increases their
productivity (Siegrist, 2016). It helps employees take responsibility for their actions.
Many times employees don’t work under pressure. Individual autonomy solves that
problem and helps employees take their own decision and responsibility for their actions
and performance in the organization. This also builds a level of trust in the minds of
employee for the employer and with increased trust, everyone aims to work harder
towards the shared goal.
5. Outcome oriented: A firm can be outcome oriented or process oriented. Outcome
oriented organization believes that ends justify the means whereas a process oriented firm
throws light on the process rather than the outcome. GSM’s culture is that of outcome
orientation. This is a more result oriented approach. And it is adopted when employers
when trust in their employees and don’t feel the need to check every move that they make
(Fiske, 2013). As long as employees are helping the firm win cases, it does not matter
how they do it. This is why GSM removed biometrics from their office because they
realized that employee’s productivity is best measure by his outcomes and results and not
by the number of hours he or she spent in the office. This makes employees more
responsible. This also helps to provide employees with a work life balance and this is one
of the biggest motivation factors for the employee.

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6. People Oriented: People oriented organizations value their human resource as one of their
biggest assets. GSM has adopted this structure and ensured that their employees are
valued, trusted and cared for. They have provided employees with a relaxed work
environment where they can come and go at their own will as long as they are delivering
results. Employees are also given open feedbacks so that they can improvise and better
their performance. They have worked hard in letting employees know that they are
valued by removing leadership roles and giving them their own responsibilities. This is
one of the ore difficult tasks for a company to accomplish. This increases employee
loyalty and makes them work towards achieving common goals for the organization.
7. Participation: Encouraging participation is very important in every organization. It is a
way of involving everyone to take decisions and instilling a sense of ownership and team
work. This is very important as employees work together through better communication
channels and stay motivated. If employees are not allowed to participate in team
decisions, it can lead to a level of frustration in their minds as they will feel that they are
not trusted or they are not competent enough (Martinez, 2017). To remedy that, allowing
employees to participate, helps them feel more connected to the organization and they
become more dedicated towards accomplishing goals. This also makes communication
more transparent and clear and helps to avoid any misunderstandings as they might exist.
Question 2: Motivational Theories
1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: This is the most well-known theory of motivation used in
various organizations in order to motivate employees. This theory throws light on various
needs of an individual. Maslow has hierarchically classified all the needs of human
beings (Lester, 2013). There are five important aspects to human needs as given below.

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Figure 1: Maslow's theory of need hierarchy from Simplypsychology.org
Maslow suggests that the physiological needs of humans take precedence over all other
needs. Once the need for water, warmth and rest is fulfilled, an individual aims to acquire
a sense of safety and security in his life. Post that the need for relationships, friends and a
social life comes into the picture which provides an individual with a feeling of
belongingness. Over that comes individual’s needs for a feeling of accomplishment also
known as esteem needs. These are at last followed by self-actualization and self-
transcendence (Cao, 2013).
In an organization, GSM has focused on satisfying all these needs of their employees.
a. Employees’ physiological needs are satisfied by the salary that they receive.
b. Safety and security needs are satisfied by providing job security to employees.
c. A relaxed culture of open communication in the office and team work within the
organization helps employee’s fulfill their belonging and love needs.
d. Rewards, appreciation followed by a 360 degree feedback of the employees provide
them with a sense of accomplishment hence fulfilling their Esteem needs.
e. Lastly, providing employees with the freedom to make their own decisions and
holding them accountable for their actions helps employee’s fulfil Self-actualization
needs.
2. McClelland’s need theory: Also known as Need theory identifies that individuals have
three needs, and they can remain motivated if these needs are continuously fulfilled.
McClelland justifies that every individual has these three needs irrespective of their age,

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caste, gender, location or creed (McClelland, 2015). These three include need for
Achievement, Need for Affiliation and Need for Power:
Figure 2: McClelland's need theory
The organization GSM has actively worked towards fulfilling these three needs of its
employees. The employees remain motivated and try to work harder once these three
needs are predominantly fulfilled in an organization.
a. Need for Achievement: By giving employees the responsibility of their own work and
giving consistent feedbacks has helped fulfill the need for achievement. Employees
remain motivated once they feel a sense of accomplishment. All the employees at
GSM are working to fulfill goals and tasks. The environment at office motivates them
to work harder and achieve goals and this fulfills their need to achieve (McClelland,
2013). Since GSM’s culture is very goal oriented and not process oriented, it becomes
increasingly important for employees to accomplish their tasks and achieve their
target.
b. Need for Power: This need for power helps employees feel powerful and in control.
This power can be levied over other people or on oneself (Holmes, 2015). Especially
in the law industry, employees of GSM are winning cases every day and this instils in
them a sense of power over other. Besides this, reducing leadership roles at GSM,
provides employees a sense of power as compared to the earlier culture where they
were reporting to supervisors and their time spent in office was checked.
At GSM, the need for a leader-follower relationship and influencing power over
others is NOT fulfilled. The company is promoting more team work and open culture.

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A few more leadership positions for experienced employees should be created to
fulfill this need.
c. Need for Affiliation: This need comes with a desire to establish and maintain good
and positive relationships with those around us. It throws light on establishing a good
social circle and is accompanied by a need to be accepted in a group (Thrasher,
2015).
At GSM, team meetings and behavior is highly propagated. New communications
channels that have been introduced like coffee talks, employee hot lines, town halls
and team meetings are all encouraging employees every day by involving them in a
team and helping them fulfil the need for affiliation in their lives. Even the furniture
and seating arrangement at GSM is built with the aim to conduct impromptu meetings
so that people can work together, achieve together and instil a sense of team work.
3. Herzberg’s Motivational theory: Herzberg established a theory of motivation by
understanding exactly what are the factors that keep individuals satisfied in an
organization and what keeps them dissatisfied. He called these satisfiers, motivators
while he called the latter maintenance or hygiene (Miner, 2015). What organizations must
aim to accomplish is changing these hygiene factors into motivation factors and involving
more and more motivators in their work place.

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Figure 3: Herzberg's Motivational and hygiene factor
All these factors and dimensions depend on a simple thing, organizational culture (Band, 2016).
By changing the organizational culture at GSM, the firm has successfully accomplished more
motivators than hygiene in their firm. These factors are accomplished by GSM in the following
ways:
a. Work place environment: By making the work place environment relaxed and friendlier,
employees are motivated to work there. The environment instills a team work and this in
turn makes employees work together towards a common goal. This work place
environment is extremely critical for employee motivation as an average employee
spends most of his day at work. An unfriendly and strict work environment can lead to
demotivation in employees.
b. Constructive feedback: Every employee needs feedbacks to improvise, learn and grow in
an organization. GSM employees have focused on constructive feedback and hence
employees feel more motivated to work. They are exactly aware of their performance at
all times and can strive to improve according the feedbacks that they receive. If

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employees are not given feedbacks, they cannot know exactly where they are going
wrong and this in turn will impact the employee’s morale and the organization’s
productivity (Bok, 2016).
c. Achievement: GSM is a goal oriented organization rather than process oriented. This
focus on the accomplishment of a final goal helps employees feel a sense of achievement
every time they accomplish a task. This sense of achievement is not just accepted by
promoted at GSM. Achievement drives employees and it is a major source of motivation,
if employees don’t feel they have achieved something, they will soon lose the zeal to
work.
d. Growth: Leadership roles have been removed and constructive feedback is given to every
employee along with a sense of responsibility to perform their tasks. This leads to an
individual’s growth and development not just in an organizational space but in life. And
this is a very important source of motivation for employees.
e. Responsibility: when employees are given responsibility, it shows that the organization
trusts them to perform their tasks. This motivates employees to live up to the expectations
that the firm holds of him and hence leads to better and improved performance. If
employees are not given responsibility, they start feeling demotivated and incompetent.
f. Trust: By removing the biometric system of attendance at GSM, the organization has
established a new level of trust in its employees. GSM has made employees know that
they can use their time judiciously and the company trusts them. This is a motivating
factor for employees as now they feel responsible for delivering their targets. This trust is
very crucial between manager and employee and also between team members (Seo,
2016). Lack of trust can lead to a sense of frustration, incompetency and will eventually
adversely impact the employee’s performance In the long run.
Question 3: Leadership Styles
Leadership styles are an important part of every organization and are an important aspect in
defining the culture of an organization. There are various styles of leadership and no style is best
suited for every organizations. Most of the traits of a leader are owing to his personality and that
is why selection of a leader in any organization is a critically important task (Bryman, 2013).

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GSM is going to immense changes at the moment. Their office as well as organizational culture
have seen tremendous changes from before and this is why it is believed that a transformational
leadership style is best suited for the organization at the moment.
Transformational Leadership: In this leadership styles, leader joins hands with subordinates and
works to identify key areas in the organization that needs to be changed. Usually when any
company is going through major structural, cultural, or geographical changes, transformational
leadership style is the best way to go forward. This leadership style involves the team working
together to identify needed changes from the organization and they together decide upon a vision
and work to accomplish it (McClesky, 2014).
Figure 4: Transformational leadership
A transformational leader has the following qualities. How can these qualities help in GSM’s
organizational structure is defined below:
1. A Clear vision: A transformational leader has a clear vision about the organization. This
includes both long term and short term visions. When an organization is going through
changes like these it is imperative that the leader has a strong vision for the firm that can
be shared with employees.

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2. Courage: A transformational leader must have the courage to take on new challenges. In
the changing atmosphere at GSM, it is crucial that the leader is not resistant to change but
is rather willing to take up new challenges.
3. Self-Motivation: This is an important aspect because members of the organization look
up to leaders for motivation and positive energy, if a leader is self-motivated, that
motivation will automatically get inflicted upon the followers and inspire them to work
harder (Elliot, 2017).
4. Inspiration: In the changing office culture, it is possible that employees may find it
difficult to adjust to the new environment. This is where the role of the leader and his
ability to inspire his followers comes into picture. If the leader is able to inspire his
followers through behavior or communications, then it is a huge advantage for the
organization.
5. People Management: Not just a transformational leader but in every leadership style, it is
very important that the leader knows its people well and consistently aims to inspire
them. A transformational leader encourages one on one conversations, understands the
needs of the employees, gives them constructive feedback and in turn helps them in their
personal growth (Baruch, 2017). This will eventually lead to better performance and
organization’s growth at large.
6. Participation: A transformational leader encourages participation at a strategic level from
all the employees of the organization rather than taking standalone decisions. This
inspires and motivates employees as they feel a sense of ownership towards the
organization and work harder towards achieving company goals.
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