Analyzing Ryanair's Organizational Behavior: A Case Study Report

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Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................2
2.0 Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
2. a) Its organizational culture and the nature of power and political behavior of its
management.................................................................................................................................3
2. b) Effect of the culture on the feelings and behavior of staff and ultimately the performance
of Ryanair....................................................................................................................................6
3.0 Task 2:.......................................................................................................................................7
3. a) Evaluation effectiveness of content and process theories of motivation in enabling
individual and team performance that can help Ryanair to succeed............................................7
4.0 Task 3.......................................................................................................................................10
4. a) Identification of different types of teams, which operate within Ryanair and the
importance of this range of teams for the success of the organization......................................10
4. b) Betterment of the Ryanair’s team to perform better..........................................................12
4. c) Evaluation of the effectiveness of path-goal theory in team performance and productivity
improvement in Ryanair............................................................................................................13
4. d) Main barriers to implement a new organizational structure in Ryanair............................14
4.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................14
5.0 Reference List..........................................................................................................................16

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3ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
1.0 Introduction
Pinder (2014) depicted that the study of employee's activities within an organization is
termed as c. The study has occurred so as to run the business operations smoothly and
effectively. Wagner IIIand Hollenbeck (2014) stated that this study is important as it allows the
business leaders to develop a better conceptualization of organizational life for the employees
and they can serve their best for maximum profitability of the company. The primary objective
of the organization behavior is to provide job satisfaction to the working personnel, develop
positive working environment, finding the appropriate candidate for the company, getting a
better understanding of the people, developing an effective team within a project, implementing
good leadership and conflict management system along with motivating greater productivity.
This very specific study has provided an in-depth overview of how organizational culture
and behavior leave a significant impact on the overall success of the business. Ryanair is the first
European airline, which adopted a low-cost approach for grabbing the attention of those
customers who belong to average income status. After conducting the overall case study of
Ryanair has been observed that low-cost fare is not the only factor that can fulfill customers'
needs and demands. Apart from product facility, an airline industry should provide superior
quality of services to the customers based on which they tend to show their interest in traveling
through Ryanair. This specific study has identified major issues that Ryanair has faced while
running their organization. The most effective issue has been identified in their organizational
culture and behavior. As a result, the customers have shown their immense dissatisfaction level
in using the services of Ryanair again. This business report thus critically evaluates the nature of
power and political behavior of the management of Ryanair and discussion about how culture
affected the feelings and behavior of staff and performance will also be illustrated. In addition to

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that, the description of theory and models will also be included so as to it can be justified how
the chosen strategy will benefit Ryanair. Furthermore, the report also showcases the process of
identifying different types of teams which operate within Ryanair and how the teams will
promote effective operational functionality for the concerned organization. This section of the
report will be followed by a discussion regarding being a better team at Ryanair. The entire
discussion in the report will be followed by a conclusion depicting all the major findings of the
report.
2.0 Task 1
2. a) Its organizational culture and the nature of power and political behavior of its
management
In order to understand the corporate culture of the Ryanair, Handy's four classes of
culture are appropriate as it demonstrates all the crucial aspect of an organization that is power,
role, task, and person (Nikcevic 2016).
Figure: Handy’s four classes of the corporate culture
(Source: Nikcevic 2016)

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Power Culture: Malik, Azizand Hassan (2014) stated that power culture demonstrates the
control section that radiates from the center and had taken by a few personnel. In the case of
Ryanair there is no such responsible powerful person. As per the organizational culture followed
by Ryanair, the business experts are very much autocratic in their overall professional behavior
which highly becomes the reason for dissatisfaction among the customers. On the other hand, it
has also been observed that the customer service providers do not follow proper professional
approach at the workplace. They show their negative attitude while helping the first riders during
the journey, which also left a wrong impact on the overall image and identity of this brand. In
addition with that due to their domestic power, they called a strike on sudden occasion resulting
in dissatisfaction among the users (Independent.co.uk.com2019).
Role Culture: Nikcevic (2016) depicted that the aspect of role culture demonstrates the people,
who are the delegated authorities and aware of the highly defined structure or hierarchical
structure of the company. In Ryanair, there is no structure followed in the organization resulting
no one is aware of their specified rule. The target audience of an airline is from different cultural
backgrounds and geographical boundaries. In case of dealing with the people from diverse
cultural backgrounds, the customer service providers have to be very much liberal in their
attitude and behavioral approach to the customers do not get hesitated in using any services from
the airline crews. However, in a real business scenario, it has been observed that Ryanair is not
very cordial and participative towards its customers. The service providers are not possessed
with multilingual competency with the help of which they can easily deal with the customers and
resolve their queries. As a result, most of the service users feel hesitated in communicating with
the cabin crews.

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Task Culture- According to Stanislavovand Ivanov (2014), effective task culture in an
organization makes the entire employee solve the developed problem of the organization and
absence of it results in the creation of new problem that might bring down the organization's
image. In addition to this adversity, when people try to compensate for the meal price from their
accommodation in case they have not availed the same, the system gets disputed
(Independent.co.uk.com2019). Mane believed that this might be their strategy to take money
from the users and not return the money. Another adversity that the organization is facing is that
according to the Travel annual airline survey, Ryanair comes last consecutively for the last six
years and consumers provide the airline services the lowest possible rating for seat comfort,
boarding process, cabin environment and food and beverages (Which.co.uk.com2019). Its main
rivalry is with EasyJet and here also Ryanair gets only 40% of customer score which is 63% for
EasyJet. Another problem that the concerned company is facing is dissatisfied cabin crews and
pilots. The scheduled flights do not have enough pilots and 400,000 reported that their flight had
been canceled (Which.co.uk.com2019). The cost of the baggage was also increased without
giving notice to the users. In January 2019, the passengers had to pay £5 for priority boarding in
case they want to carry luggage with them. However, the cost is not the same in all routes, some
had to pay £6 for priority boarding according to the policy. Additionally, £5 for luggage is
applicable to first 90 passengers only and the rest of them were forced to pay an amount of £8
(Which.co.uk.com2019). Moreover, the punctuality of the flights feels to 68%.
Person Culture: Nikcevic (2016) portrayed people when considered themselves to be the leader
of an organization and think about the benefit that they can attain for the company. However, in
the case of Ryanair, people are struggling to ensure their position within the organization. These
employees are also affected by the politics of the nation and their work gets affected. The

7ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
political impact on the airline service is so intense that union walkouts are common in Ryanair.
In the year 2018 also, Spanish unions USO and Sitcpla decided to conduct a walkout for 8, 10
and 13 January (Independent.co.uk.com 2018). The primary reason for the walkout is a failure in
reaching an agreement regarding the budget carrier. Thus, it can be said that the impact of
politics affects adversely on the satisfaction of the users and sudden strikes not only results in
abrupt behavior from the users but also impacts the profitability of the organization. The
employees' demands for a better workplace which is not provided by the concerned organization
resulted in this strike. This strike affects around 40,000 passengers across six European
countries, including the Netherlands (Independent.co.uk.com 2018). People those who have
flights in 2019 get noticed that their flight has been canceled at the end of 2018 due to strike.
According to the EU law, flights that have been canceled in such short notice by the company
need to pay a decent compensation amount of €250 to €400 but the company refused to pay out
(Which.co.uk.com2019). Thus, the company also does not adhere to the governing rules.
2. b) Effect of the culture on the feelings and behavior of staff and ultimately the
performance of Ryanair
Vasu, Stewartand Garson (2017) stated that positive company culture motivates the
employee to stay associated with the company and the absence of such culture leads to a
negative attitude of the employees. In the case of Ryanair, there is a lack of direction in
implementing leadership for getting the work done. The leading personnel of the organization are
not effective enough to motivate their employees to serve their best to the company resulting
which they often call strikes or walk out without considering the future consequence. This
careless approach is another sign that a company is lacking an effective organizational culture.
Lazaroiu (2015) depicted that lack of ethics is the main reason that the employee adopts a

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careless approach and does not pay attention to customer service and duties. This can be
witnessed from the incident that the employee often charges high for baggage system and also
deny for monetary compensation even if the customers are eligible for getting compensation.
Carpenter, Berryand Houston (2014) furthermore stated that lack of effective organizational
culture also results in less self-confidence and the company also does not feel an obligation for
providing quality training and development opportunity. This promotes unethical actions and low
esteem to get associated with the company. The most important factor that ineffective
organizational behavior leads to is lack of growth of the company (Lu2014). The organizational
Ryanair established in 1984 and even in the year 2019, the airline service ranked last in terms of
customer service. One of the probable reasons is that the company that is not empowered by a
positive organizational culture often fails to boost their employee’s morale to develop new skills
and suggest new ideas. All these factors are the main reason that describes how the poor culture
in their business environment affects their performance and profitability.
3.0 Task 2:
3. a) Evaluation effectiveness of content and process theories of motivation in enabling
individual and team performance that can help Ryanair to succeed
The process theory that is applicable is here is Porter-Lawler Model which is considered
to be the most comprehensive theory for motivating the employees in an organization (Miner
2015). The various elements of the models are- effort, the value of the reward, perceived value of
rewards, performance, reward, and satisfaction.

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Image: Porter and Lawler Model of Motivation
(Source: Miner2015)
Effort-Brewer (2014) stated that this aspect resembles the employee's effort that a person put in
their job. In the case of Ryanair, the entire employee needs to align their effort and knowledge
for the betterment of the service of the organization. They must answer to the user's query
properly and in case any person does not understand the organizational policies, these employees
must take initiative to clear their queries. Moreover, these employees are also liable for
suggesting new ideas so that their company can prosper.
Value of reward- This aspect is equivalent to valence in Vroom’s theory, where the leading
personnel of an organization are responsible to provide rewards according to employees need
(Yıldızand Alpkan2015). Culibrk et al. (2018) stated that some employee has the desire for
monetary rewards; while, some have the desire for getting designation appraisals and

10ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
recognition. In this case, the manager of the company should take feedback from their employees
along with their expectations from the company so that they can reward them accordingly.
The perceived value of rewards- In order to make people/employee motivated to perform work
and ensure them having a reward on achieving the work, it is important for the company to show
them the proof of the same (Miner2015). In this way, the employee will be encouraged to get the
job for the company. Thus, in the case of Ryanair, the company needs to formulate policies
mentioning the reward system in achieving the desired target. These published reward policy will
act as a proof for an assured reward if an employee achieves the set target.
Performance-Tosten, Avciand Sahin (2018) stated that after convincing the employee regarding
the assured reward, employee molds their performance according to their designation. Ryanair,
in this case, need to ensure that every level of employee has a clear perception of their duties. In
this way, the cabin crew members assist the users effectively, the pilot will know the importance
of being on time and the leaders will also become responsible for not entertaining sudden
walkouts.
Reward- Extrinsic rewards and intrinsic rewards are the two classifications in this aspect and
motivate the employees based on their requirement (Carpenter, Berry, and Houston2014).
Extrinsic rewards are provided by the company like monetary benefits and recognition; while the
satisfaction that comes from inner self is intrinsic like the sense of competence and self-esteem
to do a good job. Ryanair must develop a positive work culture by introducing effective
strategies like friendly behavior from managers, appraising in front of others, implementation of
training and development programs and incorporation of designation enhancement assessments
within the organization.

11ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Satisfaction-Vasu, Stewart and Garson (2017) highlight the aspect that when an employee
achieved a certain level of the desired job and also get rewarded, the individual must compare
the actual rewards with the perceived rewards. Thus, Ryanair needs to follow their developed set
of rules and policies strictly so that they can get assured that the company with which they are
associated with is ethical towards their employee. This sense will help the employee to remain
associated with the company for a longer time.
4.0 Task 3
4. a) Identification of different types of teams, which operate within Ryanair and the
importance of this range of teams for the success of the organization
In this aspect, it can be stated that the T7 Model of Team Effectiveness can be applied for
defining the need of the required team in Ryanair.
Image: T7 Model of Team Effectiveness
(Source: Bates2014)