Analysis of Team Dynamics and Motivation at Ryanair

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Organisational Behaviour

Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Task 1................................................................................................................................................................. 4
a. Ryanair’s organisational culture and the nature of power and political behaviour of its
management................................................................................................................................................. 4
b. How the culture in (a) have affected the feelings and behaviour of staff and ultimately
performance of Ryanair............................................................................................................................ 6
Task 2................................................................................................................................................................. 8
a. Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation could be used to enable individual
and team performance and help Ryanair to succeed..........................................................................8
Task 3............................................................................................................................................................... 11
a. Identify and explain the different types of teams which operate within Ryanair and why
this range of teams is important to the success of organisation.....................................................11
b. Using relevant team theory, analyse what would make the teams at Ryanair more effective
...................................................................................................................................................................... 12
c. Evaluate how the use of path-goal theory could improve team performance and
productivity in Ryanair........................................................................................................................... 14
d. Identify and explain what you think will be the main barriers to implementing a new
organisational structure in Ryanair.....................................................................................................15
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 16
References....................................................................................................................................................... 17
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Introduction
Organisational behaviour is the process of studying the behaviour of the people in an
organisation in different states such as – individual behaviour, group behaviour and team
behaviour. It is noticed that an individual behaves in different manners when he works alone
and when he is part of a team. Organisational behaviour also describes the team dynamics in
an organisation. This assignment would use the example of Ryanair Holdings PLC to study
the organisational behaviour concepts.
Ryanair Holdings PLC is an organisation that operates in aviation sector and the company has
4 subsidiaries – Ryanair DAC, Laudamotion, Ryanair UK and Ryanair Sun. Ryanair was
established in 1984 and company operates through more than 300 destinations in Europe and
UK. David Bonderman is the Non-Executive Chairman of Ryanair and Michael O’Leary is
the CEO of the company. These 2 has taken the company to a next level and now company is
planning to adopt an organisational structure which might be similar to IAG as company
would have a senior management team to oversee the operations of the 4 subsidiaries. The
company has approximately 13,654 employees and company showed €7.151 billion net
revenue in 2018
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Task 1
a. Ryanair’s organisational culture and the nature of power and political
behaviour of its management
Edgar Schein defines organisational culture as – “A pattern of shared basic assumptions that
the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that
has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members
as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems”. It could be
explained as the internal values and beliefs of the people working in a team of group in an
organisation.
Deal and Kennedy Model
Deal and Kennedy model on organisational culture is shown in below image which is
developed on the basis of the risks an individual takes and feedback on the decision.
Image 1: Deal and Kennedy Model (Bakotić, 2016)
1. Tough Guy (Macho)
When an individual in organisation has complete power such as CEO or Chairman of
the company, he could take risky decisions and rewards or feedback also follow the
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decision very fast. At Ryanair, Michal O’Leary decision to start the “Be Nice”
campaign with a slogan of “Always Getting Better” gives him the tough guy image
2. Work Hard / Play Hard
When people in a group or team have high responsibilities and expectations from
them are also high, they work hard to fulfil these responsibilities and expectations
while competing with each other to provide better results (Bakotić, 2016).
3. Bet Your Company
When organisations decides to bet all of their resources on a new idea or business
segment, the risks increases and it also takes time to receive the feedback on the
decision. Decision taken by Ryanair to become a low fare organisation was such
decision.
4. Process
In this type of organisational culture, a systematic process is followed in the decision
making. Proper environmental study and impact analysis is done before any decision
is made.
French and Raven's Power Model
The behaviour of a leader is defined by the power he possesses and his use of that power.
a. Reward Power
If a leader in a group has the power to reward the subordinates, he has sufficient
power overt the subordinates.
Image 2: French and Raven Power Model
b. Coercive Power
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If a leader has the power to penalise the subordinates, he generates the power over
them and use that power to get the work done.
c. Legitimate Power
Individuals at the top of the management such as Michael O’Leary at Ryanair has
legitimate power which is provided to him by his designation in the organisation –
CEO of Ryanair
d. Expert Power
If a leader of the group has superior knowledge, experience and necessary skills to
lead the group then he possesses expert power in the group.
e. Referent Power
A charismatic leader has referent power as people follow him and considers him their
role model and believes in him.
b. How the culture in (a) have affected the feelings and behaviour of staff and
ultimately performance of Ryanair
Ryanair initial days were not good as company faced many losses during the first few years
of operations. The employees in the company did not have much experience and company
lacked the ability to provide excellent services to luxury class customers. But, Ryanair then
decided to go into the economic mode and declared itself as first Low Cost and Low Fare
airlines. This was a big change for the employees of the company as well as for the
customers. As air fare dropped a lot, company started to generate higher revenue and
company profits also increased. Since company was operating on low margin model, the
employees of the company were ready to work for the organisation on low compensation.
With time, Ryanair continued to grow but the company management did not pay much
attention towards the employees of the company (Brown and Woodland, 2016). The
employees at Ryanair are not involved in the decision making process, their wages are low;
they are overloaded with work and stressed with the working environment. Ryanair was
ranked as one of the worst places to work. The management of the company and its CEO
have been using their power to dominate the rights of the employees which is being shown in
increasing number of strikes by the company employees – Cabin Crews and Pilot Unions.
Because of the use of the Coercive Power by the top management, the employees at Ryanair
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are not happy and its impact could be seen on the poor customer service offered by the
company.
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Task 2
a. Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation could be used to
enable individual and team performance and help Ryanair to succeed
Motivation is a state of mind that drives an individual to perform. There are 2 main types of
motivational theories that organisations adopt for employee motivation
1. Content Theories
A content theory focuses on the fulfilment of the various needs of the employees to
motivate them. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory, Herzberg 2 Factor Theory and
McClelland Achievement Motivation theories are the examples of content theories.
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Theory
Maslow divided the needs of the people into five different segments and presented
them in a hierarchal format (Barbaranelli et al, 2019). Ryanair has to first fulfil the
lower level needs of the employees and then work on its way up to fulfil all the needs.
a. Basic Physiological Needs
These are the essential needs such as need to have a home, need for food and
water etc. Ryanair could fulfil these needs by providing good compensation to its
employees.
b. Safety and Security Needs
Ryanair is ranked worst airline to work for which the organisation needs to
improve. It has to provide a safe working environment to the employees.
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Image 3: Maslow’s Needs Pyramid (Barbaranelli et al, 2019)
c. Love and Belonging Needs
Ryanair needs to focus on developing good employee relations and implement
proper 2 way communication with the employee to fulfil these needs.
d. Self- Esteem Needs
Employees look for prestige and accomplishment at work place. Ryanair needs to
recognise the efforts and hard work of the employees and reward them for the
same. It also needs to work on the training and development of the employees.
e. Self-Actualisation Needs
Ryanair needs to recognise the potential of the employees who are performing in
an extra ordinary way and provide them opportunities to grow and expand their
skills.
2. Process Theories
Process theories focus on the behaviour and psychology of the individuals to induce
motivation. Skinner's reinforcement theory, Victor Vroom's expectancy theory,
Adam's equity theory and Locke's goal setting theory are the examples of Process
Motivation Theories
Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory
Ryanair needs to understand the behaviour of the employees to implement Skinner’s
Theory. The action Ryanair take on the behaviour of the employees would help it in
inducing the motivation
a. Positive Reinforcement
When an action by the employee fetches rewards it is called positive
reinforcement which would further promote good behaviour in employee and
motivate him (Chumg et al, 2016).
b. Negative Reinforcement
Prohibiting from giving a negative reaction to behaviour also works as
reinforcement for good behaviour.
c. Punishment
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Sometimes it becomes difficult for the managers at Ryanair to tolerate wrongful
actions from the employees and punishment has to be done to improve the
behaviour.
d. Extinction
Not appraising the employees for good work or not implementing a negative
reinforcement methodology for wrong action would result in demotivation of the
employees.
Skinner’s Theory of Reinforcement works on the principle of causality and it is essential for
the managers at Ryanair to react on the actions of the employees to manage their behaviour.
If a strike by the employees is not recognised as per the government laws, then it would have
to take actions against the employees to maintain discipline. Similarly, if employees are
doing their best and performing even in tough conditions at Ryanair, the managers need to
recognise their efforts and reward them for the same (Elsmore, 2017).
Ryanair Cabin Crews were supposed to go on strike in January 2019, but the negotiations
between the Ryanair management and Employee Unions resulted in calling off the strike by
the Cabin Crew. Some promises must have been made to the employees in negotiations and
Ryanair needs to fulfil these promises to avoid further conflicts with employees.
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Task 3
a. Identify and explain the different types of teams which operate within Ryanair
and why this range of teams is important to the success of organisation
Team dynamics plays an important role in the functioning of an organisation. Ryanair has
different types of team that it uses for different operations. There are functional teams at
Ryanair that are created to handle a specific function for example a marketing team that
conducts marketing and promotional campaigns for Ryanair.
Ryanair also has problem solving teams that are formed to address a specific problem. Most
of the times, these teams are formed when a sudden problem arises. For example, when Cabin
Crew Employee Union at Ryanair announced their strike to be held in January, a problem
solving team comprising the members from the top management, legal cell of Ryanair and
HR Managers was formed and the crisis was resolved successfully.
Project Management Teams are also integral part of the operations at Ryanair Airlines.
Whenever the management of Ryanair needs to make a significant change in the
organisational operations, it creates a new project and develops a team that is skilled and
experienced to handle the different aspects of that project (Kitchin, 2017). For example,
recently Ryanair decided to move all of its IT projects to cloud to minimise the expenditures
on data storage and also for the universal access of the data. Hence, a new project
management team was formed with a senior technical manager at the company as Project
Manager, a Project Lead, a Team Lead and a team of Developers. Members in a project team
work under the guidance of the Project manager and Project Lead provides the direction.
Team Lead is responsible for problem solving and works with rest of the team members to
manage the different challenges during the execution of the project (McKenna, 2015).
Since Ryanair airline covers more than 300 destinations, sometimes people from different
locations need to work together as teams. These people use information technology to
coordinate with each other and form a Virtual Team.
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b. Using relevant team theory, analyse what would make the teams at Ryanair
more effective
Ryanair has different departments such as marketing department, finance department,
customer service department etc. These departments have resources who have different skills,
personalities and talents. When a team is created, Ryanair should be able to use these
different talents and skills so that the team performance could be improved.
Belbin has defined 9 different roles that individuals in a team should have for the maximum
output from the whole team. Ryanair needs to implement these roles in its teams for better
results. These roles are categories into 3 different categories which are explained below:
1. People Oriented Roles
a. Coordinator
A coordinator makes sure that all the resources in the team at Ryanair works
together. He also conducts resource allocation and manages the team
b. Resource Investigator
Resource Investigator develops contacts outside of the team and manages outside
help
c. Team Worker
A team worker provides required support to the team whenever required
2. Thought Oriented Roles
a. Plant
This resource is responsible for problem solving, innovation and creativity in the
team
b. Monitor Evaluator
This resource is responsible for analysing the decisions taken by the team and
evaluates them.
c. Specialist
This resource is a subject matter expert and perform key role in handling specific
problems
3. Action Oriented Roles
a. Shaper
Challenges the assumptions, create deadlines and ensure that deadlines are met
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