Analysing Ryanair: An Organisational Behaviour Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of organisational behaviour within Ryanair, a major airline company. It begins by defining organisational behaviour and its impact on various aspects of a business, including job structure, productivity, and leadership. The report then delves into the influence of culture, politics, and power on team and individual behaviour and performance within the organisation. It explores different cultural types (Role, Power, Task, and Person culture) and their suitability for Ryanair, along with the impact of organisational politics and power dynamics. The report also evaluates various methods of motivating individuals and teams to achieve goals, discussing content and process theories of motivation, including Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the Expectancy Theory. Finally, the report examines the characteristics that define effective and ineffective teams and applies organisational behaviour concepts and philosophies to a given business situation, offering insights into Ryanair's operational strategies and employee management.

ORGANISATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
ACTIVITY 1....................................................................................................................................3
(a). Influence of culture, politics and power on team and individual behaviour and
performance in organisation........................................................................................................3
ACTIVITY 2....................................................................................................................................6
(a). Evaluating manner to motivate individuals and teams for achieving goal...........................6
ACTIVITY 3....................................................................................................................................9
(a) What makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team........................................9
(b). Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour to a given business situation
...................................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour is defined as study of performance and behavioural characteristics
of both the team as well as individual member towards a business activity within an organisation
workplace. Such behavioural aspect helps in determining impact as made on job structure,
productivity, profitability, leadership, motivational factors etc. The present report is on Ryanair
which was set up in 189984 and operating its business in different nations. This firm
headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and operating its business with the help of 17500 employees.
This report will define influence of culture, politics and power on individual as well as team
behaviour, performance. Further, explanation related to motivation and its techniques as useful in
attaining defined business goals. Also, emphasis is made related to concept which defines
effective team in comparison of ineffective team. At last, the report will shed light on evaluation
of core concepts, philosophies related to organisational behaviour and business situation.
MAIN BODY
ACTIVITY 1
(a). Influence of culture, politics and power on team and individual behaviour and performance
in organisation.
The organisation culture is related with the manner in which employees perform, interact
or complete their own business related activities and task as allotted, assigned. Cultural aspects
of organisation deal with values, beliefs, thoughts which form base for better performance of
individual as well as group. By making use of these beliefs, values, ethical norms it makes
communication process easy which in turn helps in defining roles, responsibilities and functions
in much better effective manner to all the individual and group members. As per Handy's
concept, there are four different types of culture viz.
 Role Culture – It is related with culture, beliefs, thoughts and concepts which has been
followed by the employees of organisation. With role cultural aspect it lays emphasis on
the roles, performance, action, responsibilities which has been delegated and assigned to
the individual employees and group as well. In Ryanair, roles and responsibilities are
assigned as per their knowledge, skills, educational qualification, specialization if any of
the employees for more better and effective performance and productivity (Helms Mills
and Mills, 2017). With the help of such classification done, employees enjoy

opportunities in context of decision-making related to job assigned, challenges related to
such role and undertaking measures for achievement of set defined business goals.
 Power Culture – It is defined as power or authority as granted to the employees in the
business firms related to their business roles, responsibility as assigned. With the help of
power culture, it provides control, power to only a limited number of personnel and
employees for the betterment of business and company as a whole. These power,
authorities help them in making crucial decisions in line with the business objectives as
defined by the company. Under this culture, authority has been assigned which helps in
making delegation of responsibilities, job designations to other individual employees of
Ryanair. Such culture don't provides freedom to employees for expressing their point of
views and thoughts.
 Task Culture – Such cultural aspect of organisation is connected with performance and
action as undertaken by group and team members. Teams are formed accordingly for
better performance of task and achieving the target specified. Under this cultural aspect
of organisation, it allows employees of Ryanair to take active participation with equal
contribution opportunity with the aim of achieving assigned task and activities in more
efficient as well as innovative manner. It helps employees in having clear vision related
to their task, role and responsibility and manner to achieves these goals.
 Person Culture – In this model, emphasis is made more on importance of employees and
workers. Under person culture, focus is made mainly on attainment of individual goals
rather than emphasizing on organisational as a whole. Individuals are mainly concerned
with their profit maximization aspect and efforts are made on attaining it first before
providing benefits at the organisational level (Osrecki, 2015.).
Organisational culture provides influencing impact on employee’s motivation,
satisfaction and performance level. By having different organisation culture in its departments, it
can impact performance of both the team as well as individual as everyone will follow own
beliefs, values which will result in conflict. For Ryanair, the most suitable culture is Task culture
as in this type focus is made on development of different teams as per the qualification and
experience which all the members of the team are having. Such culture helps employees in
having clear vision and knowledge about their task, role and responsibility and manner to
achieves these goals.

The term organisational politics is related with different activities which are connected or
associated with use of influencing as well as determining tactics and strategies for making
improvement in both the personal as well as organisational interest. With change in political
aspect of the economy, company is also required to make changes in its management and
administrative functions (Keshavarz and Karami, 2016). With introduction of new policies and
frameworks in Ryanair as per the changes taking place in the political factors of the country there
can be increase in more productivity and profitability level. By implementing strict and hard
policies and rules related to adoption of any unethical practices by employees can help in
mitigating risk as associated with wrongful and unlawful business practices.
Power is related with the ability of an individual to influence or encourage other person
of the organisation. It is defined as the capacity to create impact on the behaviour of team
members by having control or power over other resources. Power culture focuses on
interpersonal relationship in between managerial personnel and individual employees within
business organisation. It has been divided into following types according to French and Raven:
 Legitimate Power - Is formal power which provides outlines about responsibilities of
company's managers. They are having right to provide direction regarding to employees
behaviour and actions. Power and authority has been awarded to manager of Ryanair for
making crucial business decisions.
 Reward Power – Is related with the ability of an individual to influence behavioural
characteristics of other person by granting them reward and returns as per their behaviour
and performance level (French and Raven's Five Forms of Power. 2019). Reward in form
of praising, promotions etc. helps employees in increasing their motivation level thereby
making them satisfied and willing to work with more efficiency for attainment of
business goals.
 Coercive Power – Such power is based on ability of individual to influence behaviour of
others undesirable behaviour by punishing them for performing in better and more
efficient manner.
 Expert Power - It is Ryanair manager's influence which is personnel based and depends
solely on the knowledge, expertise, skills and ability they are having. Such type of power
helps in better performance and achieving of productivity at higher level.

 Referent Power – Is influencing ability of an individual working in Ryanair related to
other behaviours which arises as a result of respect, admire, liking provided (Olejarski,
Potter and Morrison, 2019). It is based on interpersonal attraction and is based on concept
of making ideal thereby behaving as per the ideal selected in different stages. Thus it
helps company in maximization of profit level and eradicating of all unnecessary cost
expenditure as associated with unproductive business processes.
Relationship between culture, politics, power and motivation
Ryanair is required to adopt one of the culture within their business working environment
as it helps in increasing motivation and satisfaction level of employees which in turn provides
positive impact on organisation behavioural aspect. By adopting sound and effective business
strategies and plans in line with business goals can help Ryanair in achieving it. Making relevant
and desirable changes in strategies formulated as per the political framework of country or
marketplace in which company is undertaking its business operations, helps in gaining
competitive advantage, market share as well.
ACTIVITY 2
(a). Evaluating manner to motivate individuals and teams for achieving goal.
Motivation theory is related with identifying all factors which drives individual to work
towards attainment of business goals. Motivated and satisfied employees perform with more
efficiency and effectiveness for betterment of business productivity and profitability aspect.
There are different types of motivation theories named as Content theory, Process theory which
determines factors providing high motivation and helps in improving performance.
Content Theory – It helps in assessing measures providing motivation and satisfaction to
employees i.e. needs, desires which are giving a sense of motivation to Ryanair employees. It
focuses on evaluating features which is acting as a base in fulfilment of such needs. It has
following parts:
 Maslow's Needs Hierarchy – This theory defines five basic needs requisite for every
individual employee including physiological, safety, social belonging, self-esteem and
self actualisation needs. On satisfaction and achievement of lower needs, individual
wants to pursue towards attainment of higher need. It covers different needs:

1. Deficiency needs – Are those needs which are categorised as essential one from survival
and security perspective and includes:
 Physiological needs – includes general needs of individual which is essential for survival
such as air, water, food. On achievement of these basic needs, employees fill satisfied and
work will more dedication.
 Safety needs – It covers needs which every individual willing to be fulfilled such as
security of health, job, financial aspects. Also, it covers safety against accidents, illness
which is need of every individual. On having job security, employees in Ryanair will feel
secure and safe, also they will work without any tension of loosing job which will
increase overall productivity and performance level.
 Social belonging need – Being accepted among different social, business groups provides
individual a feeling of belongingness (Ryan and Deci, 2017). Ryanair can make its
employees motivated and feel part of company by seeking advice in form of feedbacks,
suggestions related to a business process. By inviting employees in decision making
process of company they feel attached and part of company, which will result in
increasing their motivation level.
2. Growth needs – Covers those needs which helps employee in achieving success, growth.
 Self-esteem need - This need is related with respect, dignity which every individual seeks
to acquire throughout their job role. By providing appreciation, value to work, Ryanair
can increase employee’s motivation level. On getting appraisal from seniors related to
work performance, employee’s of Ryanair feels highly satisfied about their work.
 Self-actualisation need – It deals with wants, requirements of an individual to grow,
develop and achieve success at higher position in business place. Maslow states that by
achieving such need, employee’s of Ryanair becomes satisfied and motivated which can
improve productivity as a whole.
The psychological and behavioural process are the one that motivate as to react in the
particular way is turned as process theories. In particular essence it means that how the persons
needs will affect its behaviours in relation to achieve the goal which are related to his needs.

There are several process theories which will impact in motivation of team and individual for
longer period.
The Expectancy Theory
The theory given by professor victor vroom as in result to make a particular conscious
choice which will either maximize pleasure or minimize pain. The expectancy theory pays more
emphasis on process as it integrates need, equity and theories of reinforcement. The basics
decision maker is this theory is that motivation stem from belief that decisions will have desired
outcomes (Pouramini and Fayyazi, 2015).
There are three factor on which the motivation activity is determined appraising 3 factors-
Expectancy- It is just one expectation of person that if he will work more harder than
result or outcome will be more better performance. There is more belief and expectancy of
person that his effort will lead to improve the performance. The individual should be motivated
as to work as to needs. A person who doesn't see any connection between efforts and connection
then there will be zero expectancy among individual (Saifi and Shahzad, 2017).
Instrumentality- As there is the belief in person that there is relationship between the activity
and goals. If there will be better performance so reward will be there. If a person can’t see any
connection between activity he want to peruse and goal he want to achieve then there is zero
instrumentality.
Valence- The degree of which an individual values the reward with compare to success. The
importance of that particular reward as comparative to his success will be measured as valence.
A person having importance of rewards comparative to success will be termed as valence. If a
person can’t see any importance of reward as compare to success then the person has zero
valence.
So in vroom s expectancy theory these three factor are multiplied to each other that is
expectancy, instrumentality and valence to determine motivation. So it can be interpreted that
any of these factor is zero then motivation will be zero.

Hence the expectancy theory highlight that there is difference in motivation between
each individual because of having difference in these three factor. So to motivate the team
members in a team there should be high understanding about these factors to motivate the
employees. There should be importance of equity and reward as well.
ACTIVITY 3
(a) What makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team
For the development and growth of organisation like Ryanair, there is major importance
for team building among employee as it provides opportunity to develop bond with one another
which improves relationship between them. With help of team building, every employee in
organisation has become accountable for work assign to them and liable to respect the command
in team work. There is ability of simultaneous performance of work together along with their
colleagues as to attain growth and success. There should be essential requirement for team to
achieves overall objectives and goals of the Ryanair.
There are different theories that has been developed by various researcher for
development of team building in an organisation. There is theory for team building given by
Bruce Tuckman in year 1965 which is applied in various situation of an organisation. There are
5 stages that are introduced for the origin of success. The stage are as follows-
Forming-
This is initial stage of formation of any team in an organisation. The members of team
use to meet each other and take an initiative to perform task assign to them. During the
performance of task, team member will try to have understanding between their colleagues. For a
project manager it is very difficult to give direction and structure to the management of team.
The manager will clearly define the goals and objective of Ryanair to each and every member
along with roles and responsibilities which will help in development of company.
Storming-
At this stage there are increase in interpersonal issues such as conflict related to attitude
and polarization. It is very common between team member to have challenging attitude towards
each other including manager of team. there will be more questing between team member about
what they are doing and how it has to be done. The skills required to build team at this stage will
be conflict management, relationship building and active listening. The manger should be
assertive, confident and optimistic even when team members turn out to be challenging.

Norming-
At this stage a sense of understanding develop among the team members and conflicts
become less intense and the sense of acceptability gradually come to norming stage of team. At
this stage team members start coming close to each other and focus more effectively to
completion of project goals and objectives (Liu, Zhao, and Sheard, 2017.). Through
communication and constructive feedback manager only have to focus that everything is moving
in right direction. There should be positive recognition to team members by arranging social
event which will help in team building in Ryanair.
Performing-
At this stage all the team members are conformable in working with each other along
with acceptance of norms of group. The interpersonal and structural issues which were raised in
storming stage has been settled and support task performance. Due to high synergy at this level
leads to high effectiveness of work in Ryanair. As the team is performing at high effectiveness
level, manager will be able to focus on more of leadership activities rather than supervisory
activities. Due to the level of synergy level of effectiveness is high (Moghimi and Moghimi,
2018).
Adjourning-
This is last stage where the project comes to an end. Till this stage of team building team
member are close to each other along with high level of understanding. Many of team member
start to feel a sense of loss so this stage also known as mourning stage (Lievens, 2017.). The
team manager has to organise the celebration as to make a recognition of team accomplished.
There is the end to the project but with a positive note. The manager has to understand that he
never knew that next project will be done along with same people in future. The team member
will always remember the sense of appreciation and recognition they have achieved of being the
member of this wonderful team (Neck, Houghton and Murray, 2015).
There are various factors that lead to ineffective team to move towards the growth and
development of effective one. Hence when the team will become effective, there is maximum
possibility of company become more effective and efficient to achieve the goals and objective of
organisation. So some ways in which the company turns out to be more effective from it earlier
stage of ineffectiveness-

Clarity in goals of organisation- The manager of team should clearly assign the goal
and objective of project to its team members and having assurance that they clearly understand
the expectation of Ryanair from them. The manger should translate the organisational goals into
individual, team and divisional goals.
Evaluation- There should be proper evaluation between individual, team and divisional
performance on continuous basis. There should be development of evaluation system and
process which designed and developed on scientific measurements.
Corporation but no control of management- The manger should support and nurture
the practice of getting work done by others with corporation rather than performing through
control and coercion.
Development of leadership—The manager of team needs to identify team members
who have quality of potential leadership. The team members should have the traits of honesty
and sincerity. The members of the team should be efficient and effective so that there could be
better communication between member and team mangers.
Feedback system – There should be effective team feedback work of all individual, team
workers and departments. It is better to be properly managed and continuous monitoring system
of individual, team work and organisation so that proper feedback and generate the loopholes of
efficient Brett or management (Devece, Palacios-Marqués and Alguacil, 2016).
Commination skill - For the effective team building there should be better communication
between team member and project manager. The team should have skill of active listening,
conflict management and presentation skill.
(b). Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour to a given business situation
In the organisation Ryanair is nowadays facing the issues in the development of team for
the project completion. In United Kingdom, Ryanair is one of the largest retailer started in year
1919. It is the public limited company working as general merchandise and global grocery
ranked as 3 Rd largest retailer as measured by reverses and second as per profit. But nowadays
company is facing issues in development of team building for the projects. The manager and
leader are trying various way stop resolve conflict between employee. There were several issues
that are coming in front of manager to resolve between team members. During the stage of
storming, there were increase in interpersonal and structural issues between team members.
There is the serious conflict between project team as they are split into two camp sitting on two

different sides for discussion. Manager and leaders are worried as it is effecting the productivity
and efficient of team to achieve organisational goal and objectives. From the last few meeting the
conflict are turned into disaster as all team member have felt that they were not heard in meeting
and there true consensus have not reached them (Desselle, 2016.). The members of team are also
feeling that there were pushed to further coming project without their concern. The member
were complaining about the last problem has not solved yet.. During the session of
brainstorming, team member feel that their ideas were discarded and no proper brainstorming
took place. Manager felt that social loafing is taking place in team as some worker are not taking
task seriously and this lead to poor quality of work which is hindering the goal and objective of
organisation. So there were many problems that were recognized by the company in the team
building process which can be solves through conflict management.
Path Goal Theory
This theory an concept is developed by Robert House to lead and guide employee,
offering rewards for attaining performance goals, clarifying the paths regarding goals and
removing obstacles to performance. This theory consist four leadership styles according to the
situations.
Directive leadership- In it, leader offer particular guidance of performance to
subordinates.
Supportive leadership- The leader is friendly and shows concern for the employees and
workers.
Participative leadership- The leader concern with the workers and consider their
suggestions.
Achievement-oriented leadership- In it, leader sets high goals and expects subordinates
to have high level performance.
Situational factors of the Path goal theory
Subordinates' personality
Locus of control- in it, participative leader is suitable for subordinates with internal locus
of control. A directive leader is good for employees with external locus of control.
Self perceived ability- Subordinate who perceive themselves as having high ability do not
like directive leadership.
Characteristics of environments