Organisational Behaviour Report

This report examines the organizational behavior of Capco, comparing it to Investtech Systems Consulting. It analyzes Capco's flat organizational structure and its impact on communication and performance, contrasting it with Investtech's hierarchical structure. The report explores leadership styles, comparing Capco's participative approach with Investtech's delegative style, and discusses the application of motivational theories like Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Vroom's expectancy theory. Furthermore, it investigates the role of formal and informal groups in Capco, the factors influencing teamwork, and the impact of technology on team functioning. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of aligning organizational structure, culture, leadership, and motivational strategies for optimal business performance.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
STUDENT NAME:
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UNIVERSITY:
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Executive Summary
In this report, the organisational behaviour of a company is explained in various
aspects. By taking Capco as an example, the organisational structure and culture was
analysed in the first part. The analysis was based on the comparative evaluation of
Capco and Investtech Systems Consulting. In this comparison, it was found that while
Investtech followed a hierarchical organisational structure, Capco followed a flat
organisational structure. It was also studied how the relationship between the structure
and culture of the organisations can have an impact on the performance of the
organisations. Several factors were discussed that are effective in influencing individual
behaviour at work.
The second part of the report studies the role of leadership styles in enhancing the
performance of the organisations. By comparing the two organisations, it was found that
while Capco follows the scientific management and human relation approach whereas,
Investtech follows the bureaucratic and administrative approach of management.
The third part of the report discusses the implication of leadership style in regards with
the appropriate theory of motivation. It explains that by incorporating the effective
motivational tools, Caoco has been able to extract the best performance of the
workforce. Thus, it was found that the motivational theories can be effective in ensuring
steady growth of the organisation.
The fourth part of the report discusses the different formal and informal groups
prevailing within the organisation. The importance of working in a group to derive the
positive result for the organisation has been explained in this part. It was found that in
order to make sure that the employees are able to coordinate with each other; the
managers are taking ample steps and measures. The implication of technology in
making the teamwork more efficient is described in this part as well.
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Table of Contents
Introduction:..................................................................................................................... 4
LO1: Relationship between Organizational Structure and Culture [M, M2, M3]...............4
Task 1.1: Comparison of Organizational Structure and Culture.......................................4
Task 1.2: Relationship between Organizational Structure and Culture and its Impact on
Business Performance.....................................................................................................6
LO2: Approaches to Management and Leadership [M, M2, M3]......................................8
Task 2.1: Effectiveness of Leadership Styles on Organisations......................................8
Task 2.2: Organizational Theory and Practice of Management.......................................9
Task 2.3: Comparison between Management Approaches of Capco and Investtech
Systems Consulting [D3]................................................................................................10
LO3: Process of implementing motivational theories in organisations [M].....................11
3.1 Effect of different leadership styles may have in periods of change in organisations
....................................................................................................................................... 11
3.2 Comparison of various motivational theories within workplace................................12
3.3 Evaluation of usefulness of motivational theories for managers [D3].......................13
LO4: Comprehending the process for developing effective teamwork within
organisations [M, M2].....................................................................................................14
4.1 Explaining groups and group behaviour nature within organisations.......................14
4.2 Factors promoting or inhibiting development of productive teamwork in
organisations..................................................................................................................15
4.3 Evaluating the effect of technology on team functioning [D3]...................................16
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 17
Reference List:............................................................................................................... 18
Appendices.................................................................................................................... 21
Appendix 1..................................................................................................................... 21
Appendix 2..................................................................................................................... 22
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Introduction:
This report aims to understand the concept of individual and group behavior in
organisations, by the application of various theories and approaches. In this report, the
relationship between organizational structure and culture has been understood, followed
by an understanding of various theories, mechanisms and approaches in managing
organizational behavior.
Capco was founded in 1998, by Rob Heyvaert and is based in Belgium. It applies
various strategies to make their organization work as a team. Teamwork in any
organization is influenced by the behavior of its team members, along with structure,
culture and management of the organization.
LO1: Relationship between Organizational Structure and Culture [M, M2, M3]
Task 1.1: Comparison of Organizational Structure and Culture
It has been found that as compared to other organisations such as Investtech Systems
Consulting, Capco has a flat structure. This has enabled the employees to have the
advantage of matrix groups to solve problems, as compared to other companies (Hatch
and Cunliffe, 2013, p.1). Multinational companies like Capco, have thousands of
employees, following hierarchical structure, prohibiting direct communication of problem
with the management (capco.com, 2016).
Capco Investtech Systems
Consulting
Similarities ● Multidimensional
organization
● Lowest Employee is the
practitioner
● Workforce motivation
● Inclusion of females in
● Multidimensional
organization
● Lowest Employee is
practitioner
● Workforce motivation
● Inclusion of females in
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organizational structure
● Has group matrices
● Follows norms and values
organizational structure
● Has group matrices
● Follows norms and
values
Differences ● Flat structure
● No problem in
communication of problems
● Culture includes future
perception
● Hierarchical structure
● Problem in
communication of
problems
● Does not include future
perception
Table 1: Comparison of Organizational Structure and Culture at Capco and
Investtech Systems Consultancy
(Source: Created by Author)
The flat structure permits Capco’s employees to communicate easily with the
management, solving problems promoting teamwork and positive organizational
behavior. The organizational structure shows an arrangement from lower staff to
management, motivating the workforce, promoting the development of the team in
each department at Capco (Wilkinson et al. 2014, p.2).
It is not only the structure but the also the culture at the organization that influences
the behavior of its employees. Capco is a modern organization that employs masses of
people, especially the females, to work in the multi-dimensional services of financial
and IT sectors (information and technology) industry (DuBrin, 2013, p.3). As compared
to other organisations, it has been found that Capco follows a natural modern strategy
for promoting their work culture, through four basic pillars - experience and learning,
personal growth opportunities, performance and reward, and a challenging work
portfolio. This is done by motivating the employees to perform well as a team, which in
turn, helps to foster creativity, flexibility, long-term perception, risk taking and
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competency in their employees, leading to a positive behavior of the same at the
workplace (Schneider et al. 2013, p.361).
Task 1.2: Relationship between Organizational Structure and Culture and its
Impact on Business Performance
It is well known that the organizational structure and culture has an influence on the
behaviour of the employees. This, in turn, influences the business performance of the
organization. The flat organizational structure of Capco enables the employees to
directly communicate their problems to the management and other departments. This,
in turn, leads to better efficiency and performance of the employee, boosting positive
organisational behaviour of the individual. The reason behind this is the role culture of
Capco (capco.com, 2016). This enables the employees to enjoy the right to voice their
opinion with their innovative ideas and strategies, helping them to develop leadership
and competency skills to sustain in the company.
The culture of performance and reward motivates the employee to work as a team, as
they take up challenging tasks to prove their skills and abilities regarding their work
domain, helping them to learn new skills (Bock et al. 2012, p.179). Further, core values
of respect, integrity, knowledge, commitment and excellence help the employees
develop learning and technical skills, along with human and conceptual skills. This
enables them to communicate and discuss problems, collaborating their
resources and working as a team. This teamwork boosts the business performance of
the organization by collaborating their resources and working together as a team, so as
to fulfil their allotted target within a stipulated period of time. This leads to a positive
business performance providing Capco with a competitive edge (Rothaermel, 2015,
p.2).
Task 1.3: Factors Influencing Individual Performance at Work
It has been seen that the organizational behaviour of any individual is influenced by the
performance of the individual at the workplace. This depends on the personality of the
individual. It has been noted in a study that the individual’s decision to leave the
workplace, lead to self-employment is influenced by the personality of an individual
(Caliendo et al. 2014, p.787). At Capco, people with different personality work together
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as a team to achieve the target. Any clash in personality can lead to conflict at the
workplace, leading to lowered work performance of the employee. It is often seen that
the personality of the person influences their attitude towards the allotted work, which
influences their performance at work. The employee’s attitude is further influenced by
their communication with other employees and their skills and aptitude (Barrick et
al. 2013, p.132).
Figure 1: Factors Influencing Individual Performance at Work
(Source: Created by Author)
The attitude of the employee towards work, is further influenced by the difference in
values, lack of transparency and perception of discrimination in the organization.
Capco makes sure that all employees work under the same culture and values, by
practicing transparency and equality in their company (Braun et al. 2013, p.270).
Conflicts at workplace further impact individual performance at the workplace.
Conflicts are of three types - positive-positive (such as promotion vs. pay rise),
negative-positive (example, promotion vs. discrimination) and negative-negative (such
as discrimination vs. termination). Each of these conflicts arises due to heavy
workloads, and stress creating, often leading to decrease in performance of the
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IndividualPerformanceatWorkPersonalityAttitudeStressHeavyWorkloadConflictsLackofTransparencyAptitudeandSkillsInteractionwithColleaguesPerception

individual. This can lead to absenteeism and decrease in retention of manpower for the
promotion of business performance (Moreland et al. 2013, p.11). Therefore, Capco
makes sure that even though they are given challenging tasks, it does not create
unnecessary stress among their employees, lowering their work output.
LO2: Approaches to Management and Leadership [M, M2, M3]
Task 2.1: Effectiveness of Leadership Styles on Organisations
Capco believes in the catch line of "Coordinated Teamwork is King", where the team
leader has to implement various theories, mechanisms and approaches to utilize the
available resources and allocate tasks to the team members, in order to achieve the
assigned target. It revolves around a role culture environment, where every employee is
provided with a specific role, which is allocated by the leader (Bryman, 2013, p.6).
Capco is seen to implement the participative leadership style, which is also known as
a democratic leadership style. Participative leadership style is that in which the
employees are allowed to discuss the problem with the leader, coming up with various
innovative and diplomatic practical solutions, but the final decision is taken by the
leader itself (Men and Stacks, 2013, p.171). Not only this, it also helps them to learn
and develop creativity, flexibility in the application of strategies, take the risks whenever
required, as well as perceive the implications of their decisions on a long-term basis
(Girma, 2016, p.35).
Investtech Systems Consulting, on the other hand, follows a delegation leadership style,
which gives the management the power to take the decisions and leave their team to
implement the same via tasks. This influences the organization at times, by the lack of
job satisfaction due to lack of participation in decision-making, which may decrease the
organizational performance as a whole (Miao et al. 2014, p.2796). It is due to this, that
Capco uses democratic leadership style since it helps the organization to boost its
performance by discussing any barriers they may face in the implementation of the
strategy. This enables the employees to voice their opinion and not feel stress creating
a negative influence on the attitude of the workers, which may hamper the progress of
Capco. This lowered performance of Capco Company can lead to a perception of
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decreasing productivity amongst its clients due to not up to the standard performance of
the employees, hampering the reputation of Capco.
Task 2.2: Organizational Theory and Practice of Management
Different theories are implemented by the leaders in order to manage the workforce to
fulfil the allotted target. There are two main theories - are used at Capco - the scientific
management approach as proposed by Frederick Taylor as per the classical theory,
and the Human Relations approach proposed by Elton Mayo under the behavioural
theory (Shafritz et al. 2015, p.8). The scientific management theory of Frederick Taylor
states that the employees have to be allocated to tasks as decided by the leader. It is
often seen that this leads to a feel of dissatisfaction and decrease in employee
efficiency and performance, which can hamper the work output and reputation of
Capco. The Human Relations theory as proposed by Elton Mayo, states that every
employee can participate in the decision-making and activities of the organization
(DuBrin, 2013, p.3). The application of this theory helps the employees to work together
as a team.
As noted in the leadership style followed at Capco, it has been seen that the
organization follows a participative leadership style, where every employee participates
in the decision-making and activities of the organization, but the leader or the
management takes the ultimate decision. This clearly supports the fact that Capco
implements both of Taylor’s Scientific Management theory and Mayo’s Human
Relations theory (Shafritz et al. 2015, p.8). The implementation of scientific
management theory, as well as the human relations theory, has proved to be beneficial
for Capco. Capco's employees have been seen to foster their personal and career
growth by fulfilling the challenging allocated tasks on time.
It has further been seen that it has helped the employees of Capco to foster creativity,
flexibility, practicality, long-term perceptibility along with leadership and
competency skills in the employees, helping them build their scope for career growth
(Armstrong and Taylor, 2014, p.12). These factors have further motivated the
employees, to work together as a unified team, achieving their allocated targets within
the stipulated time frame, boosting the performance of the organization. This has led
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Capco to achieve a competitive edge in the financial and IT industry, earning
themselves a good reputation (DuBrin, 2013, p.3).
Task 2.3: Comparison between Management Approaches of Capco and Investtech
Systems Consulting [D3]
Different management approaches have been used by Capco and Investtech Systems
Consulting, which have proved to be both beneficial as well as a demerit for its
employees. These approaches have been influenced by the leadership style and the
organizational structure of the organisations. Capco has a flat organizational structure
and follows a participative leadership style. This has to lead Capco to follow the
scientific management approach and human relations approach. The company
follows an interpersonal managerial role, where both the management and the
employees enjoy the right to participate in decisions making and activities of the
organization (Stokes, 2016, p.34). It has been seen that it has helped the employees
of Capco, to develop leadership and competency skills, helping them to fulfill the
tasks on time, as well as helping the company to prosper in the industry.
On the other hand, Investtech Systems Consulting has a hierarchical organizational
structure and follows a delegative leadership style. Unlike Capco, they have been seen
to follow an informational managerial role. As compared to Capco’s managerial
authority of responsibility, Investtech Systems Consulting has delegation authority
of managing their activities (Stokes, 2016, p.34). Further, the company follows
bureaucratic and administrative approaches of management. This has made its
employees follow a specific framework of work approach. However, it has its
demerits since the employees do not enjoy transparency as in the case of Capco.
They also do not enjoy the right to voice their opinion and have to strictly adhere
to the decisions made, making the organizational system of Investtech Systems
Consulting rather too formal.
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LO3: Process of implementing motivational theories in organisations [M]
3.1 Effect of different leadership styles may have in periods of change in
organisations
In order to make sure that the organisation is able to make successful progression in
the market, Capco engages in motivating the employees. The leadership style that is
followed by the business leaders in the organisation holds key importance in deciding
whether the employees are able to feel motivated within the organisation or not (Chumg
et al. 2016, p.435). The behavioral pattern of two employees is most unlikely to be the
same, hence, during the time of change, it may happen that certain employees are not
able to adjust to the change in a smoother manner. Hence, Choudhary et al. (2013,
p.439) state, it is required for the managers/leaders to follow various leadership styles to
address different situations.
The company leaders may follow the appropriate motivational theory to figure out the
most suitable leadership style to address a certain situation. Mcgregor's X and Y
theories can be taken into consideration to analyse the different management styles
that can be adopted by the business leaders in Capco (Zhang et al. 2013, p.219). While
the X theory stresses on the authoritarian management style, the Y is more inclined
towards participative management.
It may happen often that the leaders have to follow certain coercive or autocratic style
to impose certain decision which is mandatory to follow by the employees. In cases as
such, it can be said that the X theory is being followed to motivate the employees
(Chaudhry and Javed, 2012, p.37). For instance, while implementing certain legal
policies the managers employed at Capco require to make it mandatory to be followed
by every employee in the organisation.
On the other hand, the organisation understands the requirement of employee
participation to ensure a smooth working atmosphere. In majority of the times, the
company follows the Y theory by ensuring that the employees get the opportunity to
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participate in the various organisational activities and to ensure that they feel motivated
by providing them the scope of feedback and suggestion which can be beneficial for the
organisation (Du et al. 2013, p.159)
3.2 Comparison of various motivational theories within workplace
Naylor et al. (2013, p.90) explain, in order to ensure that the organisation is able to live
up to the reputed image in the market and to ensure having a competitive edge, the
managers try to follow certain theories which can be effective in motivating the
employees. Some of the most effective theories that are implemented by the managers
of Capco are as follows-
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Looking after the social needs and requirements of the
employees can be a key driver for any organisation. It is realised by the company and
hence, it looks after the requirements of the employees in an efficient manner. It is
ensured that the employees are able to feel the belongingness while serving in the
organisation in an effective manner (Anderson, 2014, p.7). If the needs of the
employees are fulfilled in different levels, the feeling of belongingness is sure to
increase which can make sure that the employees are providing their complete
dedication towards the company. (Refer Appendix 1)
The organisation looks into the physiological needs of the employees by providing
them with facilities like the basic salary and added benefits like increment and bonuses.
It is also considered as the responsibility of the managers to ensure workplace safety of
the employees. Hence, it is looked by the managers that the condition of the workplace
is safe and secure. Apart from that measures to handle any crisis are also taken in
advance to fulfil the safety needs of the employees ((Anderson, 2014, p.7).
The company has an open organisational culture. It is ensured by Capco that the
employees have proper chances to interact with each other and are capable of work as
a strong team. Thus, the social needs are also fulfilled. By receiving facilities as such, it
is actualised by the employees that their responsibility towards a company as such is
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