Organisational Behaviour Report: Ryanair's Culture and Teams

This report provides an analysis of organizational behavior within Ryanair, a budget airline. It begins with an introduction to organizational behavior, defining it as the collective behavior of individuals and teams within an organization and their interactions. The report then delves into the influence of culture, power, and politics on individual and team performance, applying Handy’s model to identify Ryanair's power-based culture and discussing French and Raven’s power types. It examines organizational politics and its impact. The report further explores motivation, comparing content and process theories like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Vroom’s expectancy theory, and suggests motivational techniques. Finally, it differentiates between effective and ineffective teams, highlighting characteristics such as open discussion formats and shared goals. The report aims to provide insights into how these elements affect Ryanair's organizational dynamics and team performance.

Organisation
Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3
PART 1..............................................................................................................................3
Influence of Culture, Politics and Power on individual and team behaviour and
performance...................................................................................................................3
Individual and Team Motivation.....................................................................................7
PART 2..............................................................................................................................8
Difference in Effective and Ineffective teams.................................................................8
Concepts and Philosophies of organisational Behaviour............................................12
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour can be defined as collective behaviour of people
working in an organisation. This is also a study of individual and team behaviour and
performance in an organisational setting and how they interact with each other as well
as how they interact with organisation. This report will discuss about organisational
behaviour in context of Ryanair. This is a Irish budget airline founded in 1984 and is
headquartered at Dublin Airport, Ireland. Route network of Ryanair serves around 40
countries in Europe, North Africa and Middle East. Ryanair employs around 17800
employees but has always been criticized for condition of employees in the company.
Ryanair also faced criticism on refusal to recognise unions and conflict within the
organisation. This report will discuss some of the aspects of organisational behaviour
such as culture, power, politics and their influence. Motivation and its theories in
organisation along with organisation cooperation in teams and making them effective
will be also discussed in the report. Later on the basis of condition of Ryanair some
organisational behaviour theories will also be discussed in the report.
PART 1
Influence of Culture, Politics and Power on individual and team behaviour and
performance
Organisational culture has been defined as a set of shared assumptions that
guide what happens in the organisation by defining appropriate behaviour for different
situations (Ravasi & Schultz, 2006). There are several definitions of the organisational
culture in some of them it has been considered as a set of values, beliefs and
assumptions of the organisation. Some explained it including further elements such as
vision, values, norms, symbol, language, system, habits are also part of the
organisational culture.
Several theories have been developed for organisational culture. Handy’s model is
being discussed here to identify culture of Ryanair.

Handy’s Model of Culture
In this model of culture developed by Charles Handy, culture of the organisation has
been divided into four classes. These classes of culture are-
Power Culture- This culture of organisation radiates control from centre and power is
concentrated among few people (Ritala, Vanhala and Järveläinen, 2020). In this culture
rules and regulations are less and organisation does what is decided by those with
power.
Role Culture- This culture is based on rules and they are highly controlled. Everyone in
the organisation is aware of their roles and responsibility. The structure of the
organisation is highly defined. Power in this culture is determined by the position of the
person.
Task Culture- This culture is mainly based on teams as this forms when teams are
formed in organisation to address specific problem. In this culture power within teams
will often shift on the basis of mix of team members or status of the project and problem.
Person Culture- This is the culture of organisation in which all people think themselves
as superior (Brenyah and Obuobisa-Darko, 2017). This type of culture mainly exists in
the organisations which are based ion professional services.
The above discussion about organisational culture suggest that o the basis of
Ryanair their culture is power culture and power in the organisation is limited to some
key people in the organisation.
Organisational Power
Employees in the organisation greatly affected by type of culture in the organisation this
affect power in the organisation, autonomy that employees get in the organisation is
also depends on the type of culture in the organisation.
Power in the organisation has been defined as determination of the behaviour of
others following on the one ends by Davis (Wu, Kesa and Ko, 2019). Among all the
theories of organisational power one of the theory is of French and Raven’s power

types. This theory of power classifies five sources of power within organisation. these
power sources are based on positional power and personal power.
Positional Power- Power on the basis of position has three sources that are;
Reward Power- Power based on the idea that the leader can and will grant valuable
reward in case followers carry out instructions of the leader.
Coercive Power- This is the power that comes from the idea that leader can and will
penalise in case instructions of the leader are not followed.
Legitimate Power- This is the power that flows from the job titles and position of the
person based on the organisational hierarchy. Position also gives them right to issue
orders.
Personal Power
Expert Power- This power comes from the superior knowledge, expertise or experience
relevant to task or challenge that a group or team in the organisation is facing.
Referent Power- This is the power that is sourced from the leader’s characteristics
traits, image, charisma and presence of the leader. Any individual who is respected
because of their personality can influence others through their power. This will influence
behaviour of team and all the individual working in the team.
Power in the Ryanair can be exerted from single source because in organisation
reward and coercive power exist (Murphy and Bratton, 2020). This is important because
members and employees of the organisation are rewarded. Another situation is the one
in which employees do not follow the orders and the rules or make any mistake which is
worth penalising, in such case coercive power is applied. Relatively in situation of
expertise knowledge individual with expertise influence decisions and actions of all the
members of the organisation. Positional power is also there in Ryanair.
Organisational Politics

Organisational Politics can be defined as informal, unofficial and sometimes behind the
seen efforts to sell ideas, influence and organisation, increase power or to achieve other
targeted objectives (Brandon and Seldman, 2004). Organisational politics is an activity
in which majority of time individual and teams in the organisation gets influenced and
they never realise that they have been influenced by any type of power and acts to
influence. The politics in organisation has four types and these types of organisational
politics are based on the source of power in the politics and place where organisational
politics takes place. These types are;
The Weeds- This type of politics in organisation is carried out at individual level and
source of power is informal. This means that individual in Ryanair is carrying out political
activity without any authority to do so (Jain and Ansari, 2018). This is a type of politics
that if carried out with good motives can be helpful for organisation but most of the time
this is carried out for individual motives of the person included in the activity.
The Rocks- This is another type of politics in organisation which is carried out
organisational level but important element is that this is sourced formally. This means
that individual involved in political activity have formal source of power. This means that
power of the individual in this source from role, expertise, access to resources and role
in the Ryanair.
The High Ground- This is another type of politics, in this source of power is formal and
political activity is carried out at organisational level. The political activities in this are
based on rules, structure, policy guidelines, and procedures. This is also known as
functional politics, in this type of politics control system, incentives and sanctions are
used to keep organisation in compliance.
The Woods- This political type is based on informal source of power and at
organisational level. In this organisation have implicit norms, hidden assumptions and
unspoken routines.
The rocks, high ground and woods is type of politics that are mainly concerned
with approach of Ryanair. The High Ground is the type which is applied in the Ryanair
so that they can keep employees and functioning in the compliance.

All these culture, power and politics are important and significantly influence
organisational team and individuals (Lam and Xu, 2019). This is because culture
includes rules, regulations, values and these are basis for working in the Ryanair.
Power includes to whom individual and team will require to follow and this influence
their actions. Politics also influence as what the individual carrying out politics will affect
actions and decisions of others.
Individual and Team Motivation
Motivation has been defined as a motive that is an inner state that energize,
activates, or moves and directs or channels behavioural goals. The definition can be
explained that motivation is a state of mind and feeling that energize a person to work
more and work hard so that they can achieve their desired objectives. Motivation is very
important for employees so that they can work more and work hard to achieve
organisational objectives (Soni and Soni, 2016). Various theories has been developed
for motivation of the employees and mainly they are divided in two types that are
content theories and process theories. Difference in content and process theories is as
follows-
Content theories are based on the concept of needs and what motivates an individual
and team in the organisation. on the other hand process theories are based on the
concept of behavioural patterns of individual in fulfilling their needs and the
requirements.
Content theories of motivation emphasize on reasons for changing the human needs
frequently whereas process theories of motivation focuses on the psychological
processes that affect motivation of the individuals and team.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s need hierarchy is important content theory. Need hierarchy theory of
Maslow is based on five needs and their hierarchy. These needs are physiological
needs, safety needs, social needs, self esteem and self actualization (Cherry, 2017).
This theory considers that physiological need is most basic need and once this need
gets fulfilled individuals need increase in the hierarchical order.

Figure 1Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
This theory is a process theory of motivation. Three variables are there in this
theory these are expectancy, instrumentality and valance.
Expectancy refers to belief of the individual that their efforts will lead to increased and
improved performance (Patil, 2020).
Instrumentality refers to belief of the individual that increased performance will lead to
desired outcome.
Valence in this theory has been considered as value which is given by individual to
desired or expected outcome.
This complete process affects the motivation of the individual and leads them to
perform better. In this it is important that value given by individual to outcome is strong
and positive.
Along with this there are some of the techniques through which individuals and teams at
Ryanair can be motivated. these techniques are-
 Effective rewards and valuable recognition for efficient performance

 Positive culture of organisation along with autonomy to the employees and teams
to share their views and opinion
 Required and reasonable monetary and non-monetary benefits to individual and
team
Individual performance is important for effective performance of team and properly
applied motivation techniques will lead to improved team performance at Ryanair
(Brunstein and Heckhausen, 2018). This is also important that for achievement of teams
they should be collectively rewarded.
PART 2
Difference in Effective and Ineffective teams
Teams is organisation consist of group of people who work together to achieve
team objective and this team objective is contributory to organisational objectives. There
are several types of team in the organisation and all are formed for completion of their
objectives and different teams in organisation carry out their different functions for which
they have been formed. For effective completion of the team objectives it is important
that teams in organisation are effective (Hughes and Albertyn, 2017). Effective teams
have several characteristics and features which differentiate them from ineffective
teams. This is important that teams that are formed within Ryanair are effective so that
objectives can be completed on time with financial effectiveness and ensuring that final
result of the task carried out are beneficial for organisation.
Some of the characteristics of effective teams which differentiate it from ineffective
teams are
 Format of Discussion as effective teams includes open discussion for discussing
problems as well as solutions.
 Leadership in both team is also important characteristics and effective teams
includes situational and competency based leadership as opposed to ineffective
team where leadership is based on power.

 Relationship of team members is also important to be positive and effective
teams’ member share friendly relationship and understanding opposed to
ineffective teams.
The difference discussed above states that effective teams are important for
organisation. effective teams also have effective cooperation that team members can
get benefit of expertise and knowledge of other teams members. Cooperation also
ensures that members of the team have positive approach towards other members of
the team and help other team members and this is why some of the theories have been
developed for developing effective teams. These theories are;
Tuckman’s Team development theory
This model of team development includes four stages of team development
and these stages are;
Forming- This is first stage of team development. This initialize the process and
members of the team come together (Peralta and et.al., 2018). In this stage members
are not aware about other members of the team and this is why they get to know about
each other. All the members of the team are enthusiastic and dependant on leader. This
is important that this stage complete effectively for strong basis of team formation.
Leader is required to be ready to answer several question that will be asked by team
members.
Storming- This is the stage where team members come together to discuss about
problems and objectives of the team. As members has been aware of other members
they put their thoughts and their thoughts are many times conflicting. Leaders play
important role in ensuring that conflicting view points of the members does not distract
them from the objective of the team.
Norming- This is the stage where team members come together for resolving their
conflicts. Leader plays role of facilitator and roles and responsibilities are cleared and
accepted. Big decisions in the team are made with group agreement and general

consensus is important and small decisions are delegated to small teams and
individuals.
Performing- Main focus of the team remains on completion of the tasks and
performance. Members in this stage work together cooperatively so that goals can be
achieved effectively and efficiently. Members of the team respect for leader and leader
delegate tasks to the members (Guttenberg, 2020). General conflicts still are part of
team but these are timely resolved and actions are taken that are favourable for team
objectives.
Adjourning- This is the stage in which team completes all the tasks and team gets
dissolved. This stage of the team development is last stage and all members get back
to their routine job.
This is a model which includes all the phases of the team and team development.
This also includes conflicts and what role is played by team leader in resolution of
conflicts and ensuring effective performance of the team.
Belbin’s Team Roles
Another model for team development is model of Belbin team development model.
Belbin in theory of team has developed nine roles in the team that are played by the
team members and leader. These roles of the team developed by Belbin are;
Action Oriented roles in team
Shaper- These are members of the team who extends them as well as others to
achieve results. These members of the team are dynamic and are able to motivate
others in the team.
Implementer- These members play the role of organisers in the team by maintaining
order of the team and teamworking and as well by structuring the processes.
Completer Finisher- These are those individuals and members of the team who
perform quality assurance during key stages of the project.

People Oriented roles in team
Co-ordinator (chairman)- These are mature members of the team having excellent
communication and interpersonal skills (Lynch, Lynch and Clemens, 2018). These are
often in managerial position and prefer democratic approach to open communication.
Teamworker- These are good listeners and adept to getting a team to function well
together as a unit. They help and assist team members when find that ant member of
the team is not able to cope up with the team.
Resource Investigator- These members of the team are talented and experts in
networking. These members are also keen to explore new opportunities and
developments.
Cerebral roles in the team
Plant- These members in the team are free-thinkers and creative in their approach and
produce original idea and suggest innovative ways in which team members can
complete achieve their goals.
Monitor Evaluator- Makes decision on the basis of rationale thinking and facts.
Members of the team playing this role are able to plan strategically and think critically.
Specialist- These members in the team are experts in the field and are specialist of
their subject having in-depth knowledge. These members contribute in task requiring
expertise.
These are the roles that effective teams have in themselves and all these roles
also help teams becoming efficient (Cockburn, 2019). These roles are not just important
for team but these are also important as individual get opportunity to utilise their skill
and expertise in different context of organisational functioning. Ryanair should ensure
that members of the teams are able to play these roles according to their capabilities.
Above discussed theories of team dynamics suggests that Ryanair can excel in its team
performances by ensuring their effectiveness. This requires that team are properly
developed. this means that in stage of storming teams are likely to get distracted from

their objectives this requires that they are resolved effectively and members are helped
for future.
Like team development, team roles are also important this means that Ryanair should
ensure that all the members are able to perform their roles effectively and roles to
members are assigned based on their competency (Hughes and Albertyn, 2017).
Ryanair also need to train and develop team members so that they can excel in their
roles in the team.
Concepts and Philosophies of organisational Behaviour
Several concepts have been developed in context of organisational behaviour.
Some of the concepts are;
Path Goals Theory- This is a theory in which leader can select specific behaviour on
the basis of certain factors. These factors are task and environmental characteristics
and employee characteristics. On the basis of this leader can determine their behaviour
which lead to achievement of organisational objectives.
Figure 2Path Goal Theory

The above figure explains path goal theory and leadership style based on employee
and task characteristics can be directive, supportive, participative and achievement
oriented (Farhan, 2018). The leader plays important role in linking employee and work
with the goal and designs path through their behaviour in managing and leading as well
as focusing on right way of motivating employees to achieve employees.
Some of the barriers that can affect application and implementation of this theory at
Ryanair are;
Individual style of leadership that resist leaders to change their leadership behaviour.
Another constraint is organisational culture of Ryanair. This is important factor to
consider in this because of which leaders cannot implement required style of leadership.
This is really important for Ryanair that they change their leadership style
according to employees and environmental factors because employees at the Ryanair
are not satisfied and this leads to several problems with the airline (Bickle, 2017).
Employee satisfaction is very important to ensure that employees are able to perform to
their best potential.
Barriers in implementing this theory can be resistant to change and lack of
support from management because these changes are concerned with leadership
behaviour in Ryanair and make it essential that management supports the changes.
Organisational Change
Changes are integral part of improvement in existing processes of the
organisation. Ryanair also requires implementing changes so that it can improve its
existing performance and bring efficiency in these. But changes in organisation comes
with several problems and among all the problems resistance to change is most
significant and critical to deal with (Krasnorutskyy and Gryn, 2018). This is because
changes disturb the equilibrium and cause discomfort in organisational functioning and
this is the reason that changes are resisted. This is very important regarding this that
Ryanair take measures to overcome resistance to change. This can be done through
implementing change in organised manner. One of the models for this is as follows-

The model includes-
Unrelated Concerns (Addressing and avoiding unrelated changes in Ryanair to avoid
any type of difficulty which does not result in any type of improvement)
Personal Concerns (This means that Ryanair should ensure that all the personal
concerns are addressed so that it does not affect effectiveness of the performance)
Task-Related Concerns (to do this all the employees should be provided proper
training so that task related issues can be solved)
Impact-Related Concerns (This are concerns related to impact what changes will
make on the Ryanair and also should ensure that negative impact are properly focused
in order to reduce their influence)
This way implementing changes will ensure that resistance to changes can be
effectively overcome (Krasnorutskyy and Gryn, 2018). This also ensures that
employees at the Ryanair will also cooperate in implementing changes in Ryanair and
this will improve profitability and performance of Ryanair.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that organisation behaviour
reflects behaviour of the employees and teams in the organisation. This is why
organisations should take proper measure in all aspects and factors of the organisation
behaviour so that organisational behaviour contributes in effective achievement of
organisational goals and objectives. This report discussed about organisational culture,
politics, power, motivation, team effectiveness and leadership of the organisation and
theories were discussed to suggest and explain the concepts in more detail.
Organisations can benefit themselves in order to increase profitability and performance
of the organisation.

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