Organisational Behaviour of Parkers Plc - Case Study Example

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour of the of the Number Organisational Behaviour Introduction The report is based on the study of the potential drawbacks of the team management and organisational culture of Friendly Bank, the online banking arm of Parkers Plc. Parkers Plc is one of the smaller high street bank and well known for its customer service. Due to poor financial performance it has to close down 60% of its branches. Therefore, they have established the phone and online banking operation which is known as Friendly Bank. This study is mainly focused on the performance evaluation and relationship management of one particular team of the organisation. This team is showing very poor performance over a period of time and most of the team members are feeling demotivated to work for the organisation. The performance of the team and the relation between team members have been evaluated with the help of organisational cultural analysis and organisational behaviour analysis. These analysis have helped the organisation to find out the weaknesses of the organisation. Therefore, the study has offered recommendation and suggestions to improve the performance of the team to achieve overall goal of the organisation. Structure of the organisation Friendly Bank has 300 employees out of which 60 are the past employees of Parkers Plc. It has 8 day shift customer service team which are supervised by Keith Elliot, the customer service manager. The main responsibilities of the customer service staffs are to deal with the customer queries and to encourage them to purchase additional products and services (“Organisational Behaviour: In Recent Years, Changes In The High Street Banking Sector Have Been Rapid And Dramatic.”). The performance of these teams is evaluated by weekly sales against target (SAT) figures. The underperforming team is lead by Sheila; a prior employee of Parkers Plc. Carl Evans is another employee who works as an assistant team leader for that team. All the members of the teams need to manage the accuracy in customer service as well as generate sales for the company. The structure of the teams is not logical as they are not focused on the specific skills of the employees. It does not put emphasis on the different capabilities of the team members. The performance measurement procedure is also not well structured. The weakly measurement of sales against target causes excessive pressure on the employees. Organisational analysis Organisational behaviour analysis helps in predicting, understanding, explaining and changing employee behaviour in an organisation. Its purpose is to improve the performance of the organisation at all levels and showing effectiveness in the business management (McKenna 6). Similarly, organisational culture analysis and comparison between the desired and existing situation is a useful tool to support the development of any organisation and achievement of the desired goal (Witte and Muijen 497). The thorough study of the current work culture of Friendly Bank has pointed out various loopholes and drawbacks in the team management procedure of the organisation. These loopholes are leading to demotivation within employees and hampering the timely achievement of organisational goal. The organisational work analysis has suggested that few teams are not focused toward the overall interest of the organisation. The team, which is lead by Sheila, is the proper example of the situation. Lack of inspiration and conflict within the team members are the main reasons of their low performance. Any team needs contentious motivation and inspiration in the form of appreciation or compensation from the superiors to maintain their work performance (Chiok Foong Loke 198). Sheila is more focused on the customer service program rather than the weekly sales target achievement. She does not inspire her team to achieve the monthly or weekly target. She does not follow any reward program to motivate the performers of her team. Most of her team members are not achieving their goals and they are missing their performance bonus over a period of time. This situation is demotivating the hard working employees of the team and causing employee turnover. The incompetency of the team leader is adversely affecting the monthly goal of the organisation. The team members are only following their individual goals and not displaying any team effort. The conflict within the team members is another major reason for the poor performance of the team. Work coordination within all the team members is very necessary for the achievement of the overall goal of the organisation. Each team members has their own skills and capabilities. The team leaders must focus on the proper utilization of all these skills to achieve the target (McKenna 89). The team has been divided into two different parts due to the different views of Sheila and Carl. Carl is very result driven and he is focusing on few members of the team who is achieving the weekly targets. This is generating conflict between the performing and non performing employees within the team which is hampering the team work spirit. The overall goal of a team should be same and must serve the purpose of all the team players. Different values and requirements of different team members can cause conflict within the team members. This also decreases team work performance (Thomas 268). Individual differences of the team players need to be utilized in such a way that it can positively contribute in the overall improvement of the organisation (Schein 234). Sheila wants to focus only on the customer service program of the team. So, she is less bothered about the target achievement of the team. She is also not bothered about earning the performance bonus. This attitude is also hampering the overall performance of the team and causing loss of efficient employees. Keith, the customer service manager, has loss all hopes from the performance of the team. He is not taking any control of the team to motivate the employees. Carl Evans is very hard working and he is focused to earn the performance bonus but he is not capable of motivating the entire team to achieve the goals. He has created his own sub team with few achievers of the team which is not enough to achieve the overall goal of the team. Paul Harrington, one of the team members, is showing capabilities to handle the performance of the entire team. Rather than utilizing his skills in motivating and increasing the performance of other team members, he is involved in different types of office politics. This attitude is not only hampering his performance but is also affecting the image of the team in the entire organisation. The differences of values and work ethics within the staffs are creating problems in the team. The distribution of power is not properly done by the top management. A certain section of the team is focused on the accuracy of the customer services while the other part of the team is focusing on generating sales for the organisation. This ambiguous work culture is creating confusion within the team members. This situation is demotivating the workers. Work politics is also an important issue of the team which is causing problems in team motivation and work culture. Organisational politics causes the irrational behaviour of individuals to obtain the unethical advantages. It also leads to decrease in the overall productivity of the workforce (Salin 42). Paul is trying to get the position of team leader and he is playing office politics to create a bad image of Sheila. His gossiping attitude is also causing conflict within the team. Therefore, the workers are losing their interest from the team and its work and causing absenteeism and employee turnover. Deficiency in leadership and decision making capacity is one of the major cause of the poor performance of any team. Strong and effective leadership is essential to motivate employees and to create a uniform work culture (Chiok Foong Loke 202). The team leaders and supervisor are showing disinterest and incompetency to rectify and solve the problems within the team. Most of the team members are finding their works more monotonous and tiring. Keith, as a supervisor, is not taking any strong step to reduce the conflict within the team. He is also not focusing on motivating the team to work harder. Keith is also ignoring the fact that Sheila lacks leadership quality and fails to drive the workforce to achieve their target. His delay in decision making is causing loss in the overall team performance. Conclusion and recommendation The in-depth study of the work culture and the organisational behaviour of various teams in Friendly Bank help in understanding the loopholes within those teams. The team, lead by Sheila, lacks proper leadership and motivation from the supervisors. Differences in individual values is causing conflict within the team and hampering their performance. The practice of work politics in the organisation is also adversely affecting the work environment of the team. Therefore, it is causing increase in turnover and decrease in the profit margin of the organisation. A number of recommendations have been made which will improve the leadership quality and performance of the team. Keith needs to make some necessary changes as soon as possible that will improve the performance of the team and motivate them towards following ethical work culture. He needs to divide the team between two different parts. One team will consist of all the employees who are patient and good in solving customer queries and other team will have the members who are good in achieving the sales target. Sheila is working with this company for a very long time and she is very knowledgeable about the work culture. Keith must provide Sheila the position of the team leader for the customer service team and Carl the position of the team leader for the sales team. He needs to provide retraining to both the team leaders about the different activities of team motivation. He must monitor the team activities time to time. A panel of HR members need to be appointed to gather feedback from the employees about their performance and work satisfaction. Keith must follow some strict guidelines to minimize the work politics in the organisation. Paul is a good performer but do not have a good relationship with the team members due to his gossiping nature. He should organise a training procedure for Paul to educate him about the work ethics. Therefore, Keith should move him to any other high performing team of the organisation to reduce his conflict with the team and enhance his performance. The performances need to be evaluated on monthly basis. Proper execution and implementation of this recommendation will inspire the employees to use their skills for the betterment of the organisation. Work Cited Chiok Foong Loke, Jennifer. "Leadership behaviours: effects on job satisfaction, productivity and organizational commitment." Journal of nursing management 9.4 (2001): 191-204. Print. McKenna, Eugene. Management and organisational behaviour. New Delhi: Pearson Education, 2000. Print. Salin, Denise. "Bullying and organisational politics in competitive and rapidly changing work environments." International Journal of Management and Decision Making 4.1 (2003): 35-46. Print. Schein, Edgar Henry. "Culture: The missing concept in organization studies." Administrative science quarterly (1996): 229-240. Print. Thomas, Kenneth William. "Conflict and conflict management: Reflections and update." Journal of Organizational Behavior 13.3 (1992): 265-274. Print. Witte, Karel De, and Jaap Van Muijen. Organizational Culture. United Kingdom: Psychology Press, 2000. Print. “Organisational Behaviour: In Recent Years, Changes In The High Street Banking Sector Have Been Rapid And Dramatic.” Exquisite Essay Writings. Exquisite Essay Writings, 2014. Web. 7 January. 2015. Read More