BUS201: Phillips Financial Services Workplace Culture Analysis

This report analyzes the workplace culture of Phillips Financial Services, a financial services consulting firm experiencing organizational issues. The report proposes a functional organizational structure to address the company's growth and improve efficiency. It also explores the importance of fostering a positive workplace culture that embraces diversity and multiculturalism, recommending transformational leadership to promote ethical behavior and clear expectations. Furthermore, the report identifies workplace bullying issues and suggests implementing an anti-bullying program to improve employee morale and reduce turnover. The report concludes that a structured organizational structure and an ethical workplace culture are essential for the long-term success of Phillips Financial Services.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The main aim of this report, the aim of the discussion will be submitting a proposal to assist
Phillips Financial Services, who are facing some organizational issues. The proposal will also
help to identify the importance of having an appropriate organizational structure as the
company will grow in future. It will also help to discuss the ways of decreasing the bullying
behavior in the workplace of the company. It will also help to create a positive workplace
culture that will ep to embrace as well as respect the diversity and multiculturalism, which
will include the promotion of an ethical workplace in the marketplace.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Company.........................................................................................................3
Organizational Structure............................................................................................................4
Workplace Culture.....................................................................................................................6
Workplace Bullying Prevention Program..................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
In this report, the aim of the discussion will be submitting a proposal to assist the
company of Nick Phillips, named Phillips Financial Services, who are facing some
organizational issues. The proposal will also help to identify the importance of having an
appropriate organizational structure as the company will grow in future. It will also help to
discuss the ways of decreasing the bullying behavior in the workplace of the company. It will
also help to create a positive workplace culture that will ep to embrace as well as respect the
diversity and multiculturalism, which will include the promotion of an ethical workplace in
the marketplace.
Overview of the Company
Phillips Financial Services is a start-up financial services consulting firm, which is
just 1-and-a-half-year-old. The founder of the company is Nick Phillips, who has kept the
name of the company matching with the title of his own name. He is also the CEO of the
company and apart from a Marketing Manager and Chief Financial Officer, there is not any
formalized structure in the organization. Initially there were 25 employees nut the number has
eventually increased to 50 in the last six months, in order to expand the company rapidly.
There are no Board of Directors, and Nick Philips is the only owner as well as the
shareholder of the company, and he has to take all the decisions relating to the business
operations of the company. The company provides services in Business Advisory,
Accounting and Tax and Self-Management Superb Funds. Though the company is growing,
yet the employees are stressed out and the employee morale is low. It has also been observed
by Nick Phillips that there are some kind of bullying behavior between the employees of the
organization, like between the older and the younger employees as well as between female
and male employees.

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The range of the age of the employees is between 23 and 68, and there is a
multicultural representation of employees in the organization, who comes from different
religions and cultures. The employees also belong from various countries like India, South
Africa, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, China and Brazil,
though the maximum employees are from Australia only. 65% of them are men and 35% are
women. The age of the CEO is 42, and it is his first company. He loves to promote diversity,
though some of the staffs are not open-minded. There are gay and lesbian among the
employees of his organization. He dreams about the success of his company will be like the
big players in the marketplace like PWC, KPMG, EFS Strategic and Deloitte. But to achieve
that, there is a requirement about the right culture, and for that he has asked a Human
Resources Consulting Firm for a proposal to assist his company. He also has to face a lots of
challenges to control his diversified staff who are low in morale and stressed out due to the
ever increasing work pressure.
Organizational Structure
Organizational structure can be termed as the of a particular business operations
formal or internal framework which helps to show the process or the way in which the
management or the employees should be linked together and also suggesting a way for the
authority to be transmitted. This framework usually helps to define the hierarchy in a
company. Each and every business enterprise need to have a proper and own organizational
structure as it helps to identify the job role of the individual employees at every level
followed by the functions (O'Neill et al 2016). It also helps to obtain the individual aims and
objectives of the organization for self-development as well as the improvement of the
company. Every organization must possess an independent organizational structure, which
will help that business operations to maintain as well as sustain their operations in an
effective and efficient way, and also to guide them in a proper direction (Winnubst 2017).

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According to the Human Resources Consulting Firm, Phillips Financial Services need to
follow the Functional Structure. This type of structure mainly aims on the functions which
are set up for each of the department of the company. In this case, Phillips Financial Services
has three departmental heads in the form of CEO, Marketing Manager and Chief Financial
Officer. Under them three other departments will be there in terms of the services provided
by them, like Business Advisory, Accounting and Tax and Self-Management Superb Funds
(Choo 2013).
It will help to segregate the work between the higher authorities, so that the load of
the work can be distributed and many more aspects of management knowledge can be
gathered from different levels of the organization. This kind of organizational structure fits
well for small and medium organizations like Phillips Financial Services, as each of the
department present is mail dependent on the skill, knowledge and talent of the other
employees to provide support to themselves. This will help in specialization as well as
increase in the efficiency. The work can be segregated among the three types of services
provided by the company, and one leader on each of the three kinds of services, according to
CEO
CFO Marketing Manager

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the performance level of that employee in this organization as well as his or her prior
experience to that field. But this kind of organizational culture have a negative effect also, as
it may lead to organizational conflict, because it will restrict the communication as well as
coordination between the employees of the organization in different departments, just
because of boundaries of working separately in their respective departments (Awadh and
Saad 2013).
Workplace Culture
The organization of Phillips Financial Services possess a multi-cultural work
environment. As stated earlier, the organization has employees from eight different countries.
So employees from all these regions will automatically have different representation of
culture. It can be said that culture includes values, behaviour, assumptions and norms. And
organizational culture can be defined as the expectations, values and behaviours which helps
tom hold the company together. It refers to the arrangement of the ideas and objectives made
by the employees of the company (Nica 2013). In this organization, power culture can be
followed by the employees of the organization. In this culture, the decision making power lies
at the highest level of the management, and it has been stated earlier that, Nick Phillips is the
sole decision making authority in the company. This kind of culture is mostly suitable where
there are small number of employees. The relationship between the employees is adaptive
and informal which helps to lead to good personal relations. The leader, on the other hand,
can transform and change the organizational culture (Büschgens, Bausch and Balkin 2013). A
successful leader can be a transformational one, who will help to create as well as
communicate a proper vision to construct a culture within the organization which can be
successful in near future. It will also help to promote trust, mutual decision making,
creativity, personnel development and two-way communication. Transformational leadership
can be followed by the CEO of Phillips Financial Services, so that it will help to have

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positive influences in the organizational culture (Giltinane 2013). It is the quality of an
efficient leader to share the policy development, stimulation of involvement and teamwork,
corporate vision and influencing flow of information among the employees of the
organization, which will help Nick Phillips to successfully achieve of his dream which is
discussed earlier. The company need to follow the following steps to create and sustain a
positive and ethical organizational culture (Azanza, Moriano and Molero 2013):
1. Clear Expectations
2. From the Top Down
3. Positive Reinforcement
4. Feedback Mechanisms
5. Training
Workplace Bullying Prevention Program
The type of workplace bullying faced in this company is between the female and male
employees and also between the old and new employees. It can be referred as the continuous
criticism and negative comments on the performance and personality of the employees
working out there. This is a major factor of the stress and low morale of the employees in the
organization. It also hampers the job satisfaction level of the employees. It may also increase
the employee turnover rate of the organization in near future. The cost will automatically
increase in this cases as Phillips Financial Services have to hire new employees and provide
proper training to them. It will also diverse the efficient efforts from the productivity of the
employees. Antibullying policies need to be implemented by the organization in order to stop
the bullying behavior by the employees. Strict rules must be made and must be implemented

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in the organization in order to stop the bullying behavior between all the employees, as it will
hamper the ethical work culture in the organization of Phillips Financial Services.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that to create and maintain a proper ethical
organizational culture along with a structured organizational structure is very much necessary
for the growth and sustainability of a business operation in this highly competitive world.
And it is the duty of an effective leader like Nick Phillips to lead from the front to run the
business of Phillips Financial Services efficiently and effectively.

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