Ryanair Case Study: Impact of Organisational Behaviour on Performance

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ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1:...........................................................................................................................................4
P1: Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and
team behaviour and performance..........................................................................................4
M1: Critically analyse how the culture, politics and power of an organisation can
influence individual and team behaviour and performance..................................................5
LO2:...........................................................................................................................................8
P2: Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context.....................................8
M2: Critically evaluate how to influence the behaviour of others through the effective
application of behavioural motivational theories, concepts and models..............................9
D1: Critically evaluate the relationship between culture, politics, power and motivation
that enables teams and organisations to succeed in providing justified recommendations.
............................................................................................................................................10
LO3:.........................................................................................................................................11
P3: Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team...................11
M3: Analyse relevant team and group development theories to support the development of
dynamic cooperation...........................................................................................................12
LO4:.........................................................................................................................................14
P4: Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational
context and a given business situation................................................................................14
M4: Explore and evaluate how concepts and philosophies of OB inform and influence
behaviour in both a positive and negative way...................................................................15
D2: Critically analyse and evaluate the relevance of team development theories in the
context of organisational behaviour concepts and philosophies that influence behaviour in
the workplace......................................................................................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
References................................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Organisational culture is the thoughts and beliefs, values and assumptions and ways of having
interaction in an organisation which plays an important role in forming social and
psychological environment. Organisational culture includes the behaviour of the members
and the expectation of the organisation. It also includes the interaction with the outside world
and the future expectations of the organisation. It relates to the values, norms and systems of
the company. Organisational culture is also important in the aviation industry but it is
important to adopt a strong structure which is accepted by the employees. The company’s
financial performance is depending on the performance of the employees so their satisfaction
is an important aspect. Ryanair the airlines' company is one such company which has come to
a long way of success after facing downfalls at the start. This company has also worked to
implement certain changes in the cultural environment of the organisation so that there is
changes in the working methods and the organisation proceeds towards success.
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LO1:
P1: Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and
team behaviour and performance.
Ryanair airlines have faced drawbacks for some years after its formation and this is mainly
due to lack in managing different cultures. The organisational culture characterises the
differences in culture in any organisation which includes the behaviour of the members. In
Ryanair airlines, the pilots are from different backgrounds, for example, some are from
military practice while others are from computer operations. Hence, there is diversity seen in
the organisation but this has resulted in non- coordination amongst the members which in
turn led in company’s harm.
The prime object of any Ryanair airlines is to meet the market demands and create an excess
of income. The basic concept of political behaviour in a company is to use power and create a
social network within a company. This strategy involves two aspects namely authority and
power which is adapted to implement certain changes in an organisation. Ryanair airlines
have also implemented these changes with regard to their effect on the organisation itself. On
the other hand, organisational politics upsurges effectiveness and productivity. It also
promotes healthy relationship amongst members and employees. But it can be highly
disparaging that there is politics seen in individuals as well as groups as this will lead to
making personal profits rather than focusing on the organisation.
The performance of the staff members and the employees and the adoption of distinct culture
initially proved to be unsatisfactory as the company has faced losses in the initial
development stage. But gradually implementing some changes in the cultural organisation
made the company compete with domestic as well as global market.
The drafting of landscape in politics is yet another aspect to be considered by the company.
This depends upon various factors like the primary objects of the organisation, the
availability of the resources, and the types of leaders having the responsibility of landscaping
(Rosen, et. al., 2017).
Hence, the company Ryanair airlines has also adopted for landscaping in the political aspect
so as to create and bind all the political players of an organisation together.
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M1: Critically analyse how the culture, politics and power of an organisation can
influence individual and team behaviour and performance.
Politics is a word which is misinterpreted in cases of organisational management as this word
is used in a negative sense. But in actual sense organisational politics is the business tactics
used to improve organisational and personal interest (Rosen, et. al., 2017).
Internal politics among members of Ryanair airlines lead to becoming self-centred and the
members focus on their own interest and benefits at the sake of the benefits of their company.
To handle this problem the leaders of the airline company need to adopt such a strategy that
this issue is resolved without hampering the company's objectives.
Culture is yet another aspect which influences the performance of the company.
Organisational culture and its management make members work in a healthy environment
and under organisational culture, there are many factors which influences it and the
company's performance. One such factor is leadership skill which put its impact on the
culture and environment of the organisation (Tubigi and Alshawi, 2015).
Other factors which influence the culture of a company is trust, faith and accountability and
every company is required to have faith and trust in their employees. Management of
performance shall be done by a trust rather than control and adopting for dominating
behaviour (Pelegrini and Marie, 2014). Ryanair airlines have also adopted such a strategy in
order to remove the management flaws and move towards better performance.
There are certain theories based on organisational culture on the basis of which Ryanair
airlines have succeeded in managing its staff issues and has also increased in customer
satisfaction. These theories are as follows:
1. Handy’s typology: Handy’s theory on organisational culture provides for four classes
of culture namely task, person, role and power.
 Task: Task culture is formed when the team members report on a specific task
or project. With the right decision in mixing the skill and experience, the
teamwork can result in increased productivity.
 Person: Under person culture, the organisation is merely a group of
individuals working under the same organisation.
 Role: The role culture is based on strict rules which are to be a follower as a
responsibility by every member. The power under this culture is exercised by
the person's position in the structure of the organisation.
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 Power: Under this culture power is under the hands of a few members whose
influenced is seen on the entire organisation. This culture is considered as the
strongest culture but there are still drawbacks in this as it may turn
contaminated sometimes (Babnik, et.al., 2014).
At the initial stage, Ryanair airlines lacked implementation of certain cultural theories and
hence, faced loses but in 1990 it adopted for some strategic changes which led it right to the
path of success.
2. Deal and Kennedy: Deal and Kennedy have also given a cultural framework of an
organisation. Under this framework six main points are seen which are:
 History: The company’s history shall be taken as a base to form organisational
culture as it is important to know the core values on which the company is
built.
 Beliefs and values: The company is required to have belief and faith in its
employees and the employees must also know the values on which the
company is standing.
 Routine ceremonies: These are those rituals which are followed by the
members of the company on a daily basis. For example, greeting one's
colleagues while leaving at the end of the day.
 Stories and heroes: Company’s stories are again values of the company on
which the company is established and the leaders who are well aware of these
values are the heroic figures and an inspiration for other company members.
 Network: This is where the most relevant and important information is
learned. There is a formation of an informal culture where the company's
values are guided (Babnik, et.al., 2014).
3. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: The national cultural model given by Hofstede
consists of six dimensions. These are:
 Index on power distance: This dimension is based on the social inequality
which is accepted and expected by the less powerful members of the company.
 Individuality and collectively: Under individualism the members take care of
themselves and under collectively the members take care of the society as a
whole.
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 Masculism and feminism: The masculine perspective represents heroism and
achievement. And the feminism perspective represents modesty and
cooperation (Taras, et.al., 2012).
Hence, Ryanair airlines faced certain staff issues at the initial stage and on the application of
these relevant cultural organisation theories the company was able to meet the market
demands.
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LO2:
P2: Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational
techniques enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context.
The process theory of motivation are those processes which are applied to the behaviour of
individual and it concentrates on developing healthy working psychology that motivates an
individual. The company's process encourages the members for a fair play game theory and
prepares their psychology for successful change management (Sokro, 2012).
Further, inspirational motivation is yet another process to be adopted to encourage members
in tough times. There are mainly two theories of motivation which are expectation theory and
fairness or equity theory.
Expectancy theory states that the effort initiated is for a desired and a particular outcome.
These outcomes are predicted beforehand and then the efforts are applied accordingly to
achieve the chosen result.
Equity or fairness theory is based on the relationship between giving and take. In this theory,
the employees and members put their skills to the fullest and in return, they expect some
benefits like increased salary and fringe benefits (Hammer, et.al., 2012).
Hence, Ryanair airlines shall also apply these theories of motivation in their management
process to encourage members and employees to achieve cooperation amongst themselves.
By applying equity theory in its management, the company can encourage staff to give their
fullest of efforts and this would also assist in managing staff cooperation issues.
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M2: Critically evaluate how to influence the behaviour of others through the effective
application of behavioural motivational theories, concepts and models.
It is an important aspect that in a company there is an application and implementation of
motivational approaches in order to cheer the employees to work for more productivity. The
leaders can take a step forward to become an inspiration for others rather than showing them
a dominant side. This will make employees look at the positive side of their employment and
prevent them from the feeling of being suppressed.
There are many models given by experts which can be adopted by the leaders to frame their
strategy on culture. The leaders must also consider the viewpoints of the employees. This will
give the employees a feeling of security and hence, there will be complete employee
satisfaction in the company (Babnik, et. al., 2014).
Ryanair airline shall also adopt the same strategy so that the employees get a feeling of being
secured. This would prevent unsatisfaction and unpleasure feeling in them. There shall be
more coordination amongst them and instead of having ill feelings for others they will strive
to work positively in a team.
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D1: Critically evaluate the relationship between culture, politics, power and motivation
that enables teams and organisations to succeed in providing justified
recommendations.
It is well-accepted facts that motivation is the key component of the organisational culture.
This is because motivation is linked to culture through the sources and origin from where it
comes. These sources are a mission to accomplish, control over the agenda, value creation
sharing and fame and reputation. All these sources are connected to the culture of the
company and hence, there is a link between motivation and organisational culture.
Further, culture is something which immediately gets affected when there is internal politics.
If there is an unpleasant environment of work it shall be very challenging for the employees
to give their best efforts.
It is the duty of the leader to exercise his power at the right time and up to the right extent. If
the power is misused by the persons in authority again it shall become challenging for the
employees to meet their targets (Sokro, 2012).
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LO3:
P3: Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team.
An effective team is one which is able to easily achieve their target and goals in due time.
Also, an effective team is one which manages cooperation among the team members and
avoids conflicts in views amongst them (Pelegrini and Marie, 2014).
Ryanair airlines have also achieved to manage and cooperate amongst members and
employees. This is because it has adopted the theory of distribution of work. Instead of
creating confusions among employees regarding work it has distributed the company's tasks
among various different teams. The very first team is of project management which decides
as to which project is to be taken first in consideration and how much time is to be utilised in
one project. In short, this team is the projection and virtualising team which is responsible to
manage the company's tasks.
The next team is the functional team which looks after the functions which are to be carried
out in furtherance of the project. This team manages the functions required to accomplish the
projects in time. It looks after the work of the employees who are assigned the task of
accomplishing a particular project.
Lastly, there is the problem-solving team which provides a suitable remedy to those who face
problems and challenges while accomplishing their tasks. This team also take feedbacks from
the customers regarding the service provided by Ryanair and in cases of dissatisfaction of the
customer, it takes necessary steps to fulfil their demand.
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M3: Analyse relevant team and group development theories to support the development
of dynamic cooperation.
Teamwork is the achievement of an assigned project by a group of individuals who are
effective and efficient in doing so. There are many theories given by various scholars
regarding teamwork theories which demonstrate how teams are formed and how their work is
managed.
One such theory is the Tuckman theory which was developed in 1965. It is a base for an
effective team building and it describes the work of the team in four different phases which
are as follows:
 Forming: This is the first and the initial phase where even the team members are not
aware of the question as to why they are here and what they have to do. This is the
phase where the individuals are not bound together in a team.
 Storming: this is the stage where the employee sees himself as the part of the team
but at this stage, there are chances of conflicts and lack of cooperation which may
lead to poor performance.
 Norming: this is the phase where the team comes together to achieve their target and
there is the formation of acceptable rules and it is seen as to what and how things will
be done.
 Performing: This is the last stage where the entire focus is on the teamwork and the
assigned task. There is the development of a sense of togetherness among the team
members (Eubanks, et.al., 2016).
Another theory is Belbin’s team roles theory. Belbin has suggested under his theory that in
order to maintain teamwork it is important that every member of the team understands their
own role within the team. This will enable them to enhance their strengths and point out their
weakness. This will also make them improve their contribution to the team in a better way.
Belbin has characterised the team roles in three main groups which are further categorised
under nine sub-groups. The classification is as follows:
1. Oriented by action
a. Drafters- They are the one who drafts and shape the action
b. Implementers- They have a role to implement the action after its drafting.
c. Finishers- This is the group which gives the final touch and removes all flaws
from the action.
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