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BTEC HND IN BUSINESS (MANAGEMENT)

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

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NAME OF STUDENT REGISTRATION NO. UNIT TITLE ASSIGNMENT TITLE ASSIGNMENT NO NAME OF ASSESSOR SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Nguyn Vit Phong F05-173 Organisations and Behaviour Microsoft 1 of 2 (individual report) Mr. John Andre

I, __________________________ hereby confirm that this assignment is my own work and not copied or plagiarized from any source. I have referenced the sources from which information is obtained by me for this assignment.

________________________________ Signature

_________________________ Date

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FOR OFFICIAL USE (Course Administrator) Assignment Received By: Date:

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Evidence for the criteria Internal Verification

Unit Outcomes
Outcome Feedback Assessors decision
First attempt Rework

compare and contrast different organisational structures and culture

1.1

Understand the relationship between organisational structure and culture LO1

explain how the relationship between an organisations structure and culture can impact on the performance of the business discuss the factors which influence individual behaviour at work

1.2

1.3

compare the effectiveness of different leadership styles in different organisations

2.1

Understand different approaches to management and leadership LO2

explain how organisational theory underpins the practice of management

2.2

evaluate the different approaches to management used by different organisations Merit grades awarded Distinction grades awarded M1 D1 M2 D2

2.3

M3 D3

Assignment

( ) Well-structured; Reference is done properly / should be done (if any)

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Outcome Evidence for the criteria Feedback

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Assessors decision
First attempt Rework

Internal Verification

Overall, youve

Areas for improvement:

ASSESSOR SIGNATURE

DATE

NAME:.........................................................................................

(Oral feedback was also provided) STUDENT SIGNATURE NAME :..............................................................................

FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY VERIFIED YES NO DATE : ........................................................................... VERIFIED BY : ........................................................................... NAME : ...........................................................................

DATE

Organization and Behaviour Report

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Prepared for: Mr John Andre

Prepared by: Nguyn Vit Phong ID: F05-173 Number of words: 2950

Course: Organisations and Behaviour Banking Academy, Hanoi BTEC HND in Business Submit date: 21th November, 2012

Table of contents

Table of Contents

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Introduction
For the purpose of research on the subject "Organization and Behavior", I conducted some research this exercise to show my understanding of "Organization and Behavior. The content of this exercise is to determine the organizational structure and culture of the two companies as well as how they affect business performance of the company Microsoft and British Petroleum. Through reading on the internet and from the prestigious economic newspaper, I have to use some quotes to clarify the issue. Then, this exercise also shows the factors that affect individual behavior in the workplace and the effectiveness of different leadership styles on different companies with organizational theory to draw a picture overall different approach to the management of two different companies.

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1.1 Compare and contrast different organisational structures and culture: 1.1a Compare and contrast in organisational structures: Microsoft, with the information I found at microsoft.com (2012), Microsoft is a public limited company, managing more than 94,000 employees, owns more than 18 subsidiaries and operating in 25 countries. They work in areas such as Computer software, Online services and Video games. Microsoft has only 11 people in the board of directors and 17 senior leaders and manages eight business divisions and divides the work by function and product. From the information above, I can see that Microsoft has a relatively flat and decentralized structure. Indeed, Charles Hill and Gareth Jones (2008) also confirm this. Because of that, Microsoft is also decentralized. Steve Ballmer - most senior CEO, permission for his subordinates some of the decisions that suit with their ability. In British Petroleum, they employ approximately 83,400 people (including 14,600 service station staff) in more than 80 countries .The
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board is responsible for the direction and oversight of BP on behalf of shareholders. It comprised the chairman, nine non-executive directors together with the group chief executive; the chief financial officer and the chief executive of BPs Refining and Marketing segment (BP Annual Report 2011, p.31). According to BP.com, BP has 15 members in broad of directors, 13 people in executive management team and management of 3 main department of the company, which is Upstream, Downstream and BP Alternative Energy. From this it can be seen, BP also has a flat and decentralized structure. BP and Microsoft have the same organizational structure, they are flat and Wide span of control. This allows for information transmission as well as the decisions are faster, the company's activities become more flexible and members can link closely together. This structure really useful for group work and the work becomes more effective. Microsoft

Flat Decentralized Wide span of control

British Petroleum Flat Decentralized Wide span of control

1.1a Compare and contrast in organisational culture: Microsoft's culture affected when Steve became CEO, and it is affected by two factors tasks and roles. The foundation of this culture is hard work and a desire to succeed. People work hard, because they believe that Microsoft adds value to the end user (Mark, 2011). Leaders in Microsoft want its employees to work with the highest performance and compete with their colleagues, rather than rival companies. Moreover, they want to keep the creativity of the company for the product and focus on revenue. Microsoft may have 'lost a decade' of market domination, as Vanity Fair says, but don't count the software giant out (Gillmor, 2012). Yes, Microsoft is losing its position as a technology kings, because they are forgotten and innovation and instead by pressure. In contrast to Microsoft, BP has a different culture for their employees. Because specific work of the majority of employees in BP is
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very dangerous, they work with chemicals or drilling on the ocean, so the most important thing is the safety. And at work, BP always appreciated the creativity of each employee. The whole culture at BP glorified the people who worked in difficult places -- the geologists and the scientists and the explorers (Fitzgerald, 2011). However, BP employees are always placed in the working state very seriously since the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, they are not allowed to make the same mistake. Mr. Dudley said. Weve now had this incident: we need to accelerate that change in the culture inside the company(2010). So, BP's organizational culture, which I considered quite innovative, safe and respectful Microsoft

Tasks Roles Pressure Non-innovative

British Petroleum Innovative Safe Respectful

1.2 Explain how the relationship between an organisations structure and culture can impact on the performance of the business: 1.2.1 Microsoft The revenue of them in 2011 is $69.94 billion, the net income is $23.15 billion, and the share price is $26.66 per one (Marketwatch.com, 2012). However, sales are showing signs of decline in recent years. Reason which explanation for this? As seen above, with a flat structure and wide span of control, Microsoft has chosen to divide power for their employees, which makes the business decisions become more active, was supposed to help them better growth. However, their cultural broke it. It creates an atmosphere of tension between the employees as well as with their superiors, suppressed creativity and innovative ideas from everyone. As a result, recently, Microsoft cannot make a breakthrough product, and they cause boredom to customers. 1.2.2 British Petroleum BP has a major crisis when the company for the occurrence of an accident and caused the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. However, with his efforts, BP is gradually regain its position in the market with revenue of $
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375,517 million in 2011 (BP.com, 2011).Like Microsoft, they also have a flat structure and wide span of control. But cultures of BP quite good, their staff are encouraged to create innovation for the company. Their innovative in petrochemical technology has reached certain success. Besides, with a pressure from the accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, BP employees are working in state care and effort to fix their mistakes. BP's leaders want to change the image of the company after. Mr. Dudley says the oil spill has been a "wake-up call" for his company (abc.net.au, 2010).

1.3 Discuss the factors which influence individual behaviour at work: Individual behaviour refers to how individual behaves at workplaces; behaviour is influenced by attitude, personality, perception, conflict, ability and aptitude... This also refers to the combination of responses to internal and external stimuli. So, without understanding behaviour will lead to result in conflict and frustration. The following are some factors that may affect individual behaviour at work:

Ability and Aptitude: abilities means things people can do or good at- largely believed to be inherited and aptitudes mean the capacity to learn and develop abilities of skill (BPP Profession Education, OB, p.127, 2010). With Microsoft, right from employer, if a person is capable, talented in the field of the company, he will be taken to a place where he can do what he can do best. When everyone in the company to do their tasks, make sure the company will be successful. And Microsoft's current success is a testament to that.

Conflict: is any personal divergence of interests between groups or individuals (BPP Professional Education, p.130, 2010). Conflict arises because of a disagreement. In an organization, conflicts between people in the company are normal and many people think its not good. Although, some types of conflict are helpful and encouraged to improve decision. The advantages of conflict are with conflict people can have a new solution for a problem and this can be helpful when to have good idea. Also conflict can encourage

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people to think deeper and clear to proof they are valid. However, when conflict is high and long-term, stress is consequence. According to Microsoft, conflicts often happened to them when they need to argue for a new product or an important decision and it is always under control before becoming negative.

Perception: is the psychological process by which stimuli or incoming sensory data are selected and organised into patterns which are meaningful to the individual. Perception includes the senses, and its help people decode the information from the surrounding environment. The way and the process discover environment is not the same target and situation so each people will have own distinctive view. Perception is cognitive process and appears whenever stimulate the senses. Both employees and managers should be aware of possible good to be able to perform his job. Such as Microsoft, Steve Ballmer has a good perception and talent in predicting the change trend of the world and organizes and directs the business to do what he wants to achieve good business results. In summary, there are many factors influence individual behaviour

at work. Because every individual can affect the organization, so these factors also affect the activities of the organization. Managers need to know how to control their individual behaviour and of the employees to be able to high efficiency work.

2.1 Compare the effectiveness of different leadership styles in different organisations: 2.1.1. Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft Steven A. Ballmer is CEO of Microsoft Corporation; But seems he is not fit for the CEO of a technology company like Microsoft. Since he took over the position of CEO in 2000, Microsoft seems to be going down. Microsoft peaked at $60/share in 2000, just as Mr. Ballmer took the reins. By 2002 it had fallen into the $20s, and has only rarely made it back to its current low $30s value (Adam, 2012). In my personal opinion, I think that
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Steve's leadership style has caused this. Due to the capacity of him is business, so his interest is only in sales. So he's not interested or not fully capable to help Microsoft create breakthrough products such as the time of the Bill. Steve almost drove Microsoft to the business, rather than a company specializing in technology development. Meanwhile, Microsoft is only interested in sales, marketing, advertising forgetting what customers expect, which is the top of technology. Moreover, Steve Ballmer is also a leader who is willing to stand up and hear the feedback of his audience and monitor the needs of them closely (Carter, n.d). As coming from the business side, Ballmer does not know how to interact well with the technical person, but to some extent, he stills can inspire these people by his bubbly characteristic as he defined himself. However, the leadership style of Ballmer is also strongly influenced by his behavior. He is wellknown for using his gross exaggeration to judge the competitors business plan as well as running Microsoft. It can be seen more than once that Ballmer has had a disrespectful evaluation for the competitors. It can be seen that Balmer is Coercive leader. 2.1.2. Robert Dudley, the CEO of British Petroleum Robert (Bob) Dudley became Group Chief Executive of BP p.l.c on 1 October 2010. Anyone can see that Bob qualified and worthy as CEO of BP. And BP's board also sees that. They select the Bob and hope he can help BP rose after the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.According to an article, the BP board decided to Bob for this important position because Bob was born and grew up side coast Mississippi, where experienced heavy influence from carpet caused by the BP oil spill. Perhaps because of compassion for where I grew up that Bob tried our best to remedy the oil spill. Chairman of the board of BP is really smart when making this decision, because, with Bob this becomes a personal matter. And Bob really do this well, BP reports profit even after upping oil spill cost to $40B, and get a good image in the this eyes of customers has much (neworleanscitybusiness.com). Perhaps responsibility

impact on Bob's leadership style throughout the years so he is always enhanced the safety criteria to staff; Bob apply safety criteria to the company to ensure there will not be any accidents. Moreover, the most attention of him, over the years is training human resources highly
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specialized to BP, Bob also encourages its employees to use up all their creative abilities to give the optimal solution for the production as well as to overcome the consequences of the accident. So, can be said his leadership style is Coaching. 2.2 Explain how organisational theory underpins the practice of management: Classical administration: theory was initiated by Henri Fayol (1841-1925). His idea of all organization could be structured and managed according to certain rational principle which means the structure of the organization. (BPP Professional Education, 2010). Besides Fayol, the sociologist Max Weber (1947) developed the idea of bureaucracy. This theory is similar to Fayol in its concern with hierarchy but also have a new idea to secure administration is to design procedure to reduce individual initiative. This theory helps the manager analysis his experience to improve the performance efficiency in line. However, the biggest drawback is the organization loss out on an important source of energy and creativity. (BPP Professional Education, 2010) Scientific management: F.W. Taylor (1856-1917), a father of scientific management, recognized and defined scientific management in the early 1900s. Scientific management focuses on the process of working and the best work method is possible to perform. And then, motivation is needs concept that managers should do. It is useful to get workers working more efficient, soon increase the volume of productivity. Has an overview of BP's business, as well as the structure and culture of their organization, we can see Scientific management organizations theory is being applied to this company. Because of the particularity work on BP's oil and gas industry should work be split up in several steps to leadership can manage them in a scientific way. According to BP.com, the whole of BP is divided into three main parts, which is: Upstream is finding, producing and transporting oil and gas to market, Downstream is converting crude oil into useful products and marketing them around the world, BP Alternative Energy is investing in the low-carbon energy sources of the future. Based on that, the leaders of BP are divided into independent and parts management, information as well as their decision to switch quickly. Moreover, when a parts having

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problems, it does not affect the other parts or other processes of the company.

2.3 Evaluate the different approaches to management used by different organisations: The human relations approach: Elton Mayo (1975) is the inventor of this approach. The human relations approach emphasized the importance of human attitudes, values and relationships in an organization (BPP Professional Education, 20010). The earlier models not account for emotional impact of work. This theory helps to satisfy and motivate employees to improve productivity. However, this theory only mentioned the way to encourage employees but without money this theory is not adequate. The system approach: this system approach was initiative by General Systems Theory in the 1930s but was developed at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in the 1950s. This theory can be defined as an entity which consists of interdependent parts. Besides there is a theory named the socio-technological system developed by Trist and Bamforth (1951), emphasized on three sub-systems: structure, technological system and social system. (BPP Professional Education, 2010) Contingency approach: this theory organization as a reaction to the idea that there are universal principles for designing organizations, motivating staff, etc. Moreover there are three basic demands that have to best fit: tasks, people and environment. (BPP Professional Education, 2010).This theory made the most of effectiveness in encouraging manager which situation they need to manage and how to manage them approximately Microsoft System approach British Petroleum Contingency approach

According to the culture and structure in organization, Microsoft use scientific management as the approach to management the organization. In order to maintain the development of new system, Microsoft uses this
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approach to be stricter in management to manage the employees. Many employees of Microsoft have quit because of this issue. Furthermore, when Microsoft apply this scientific management, the employees do not feel comfortable to work because the boss decides everything. However, it may cause a stressful environment at workplace for employees. Microsoft just focus on working, they do not care about the personal life of employees much. Therefore, the employees do not feel really want to work in the company and are not willing to work for the company in longterm. Unlike Microsoft which is scientific approach, BP is having a Contingency approach. With this theory, its all depending on the internal factors like people and task; and external factors: environment.

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Conclusion
After studying and evaluating various aspects of the two organizations, I can conclude that, BP and Microsoft get results commensurate with their business strategy. BP with their good relationship in the culture, structure, and leadership in the right direction to develop and expand their business. While Microsoft, mistakes in business strategy as well as false leadership, they are losing their faith fame and respect from society.

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References
1.

Abc.net.au (2012) BP's new boss vows 'change of culture' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). [online] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-07-27/bps-new-boss-vowschange-of-culture/921750 [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

2.

Beyourfuture.net (2011) Work Culture at Microsoft | Be Your Future. [online] Available at: http://www.beyourfuture.net/2011/05/27/work-culture-at-microsoft-3/ [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012]. Bp.com (2012) BP Global | BP. [online] Available at: http://bp.com [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012]. Clark, A. (2010) New BP boss Bob Dudley 'doesn't need to fake his empathy for the Gulf coast' . [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/27/bob-dudley-deep-southprofile [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

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Community.seattletimes.nwsource.com (2012) Business & Technology | Microsoft CEO wants company to broaden its reach, burnish its reputation | Seattle Times Newspaper. [online] Available at: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030224&slug=microsoft24 [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

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Forbes (2012) Oops! Five CEOs Who Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft) Forbes. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/05/12/oops-5-ceos-that-should-have-alreadybeen-fired-cisco-ge-walmart-sears-microsoft/3/ [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

7.

Friedman, M. (2010) Robert Dudley, BPs New CEO | TIME.com. [online] Available at: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/07/27/robert-dudley-bps-new-ceo/ [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012]. Microsoft.com (2012) Microsoft Home Page | Devices and Services. [online] Available at: http://microsoft.com [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012]. Microsoft.com (2010) Steve Ballmer: Chief Executive Officer. [online] Available http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/steve/default.aspx [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012]. at:

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10. New Orleans CityBusiness (2010) BP reports profit even after upping oil spill cost to B | New

Orleans
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[online]

Available

at:
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http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2010/11/02/bp-reports-profit-even-after-upping-oil-spillcost-to-40b/ [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

11. Reed, S. (2010) Why Robert Dudley's BP Could Be Even Riskier. [online] Available at:

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2010-07-27/why-robert-dudleys-bp-could-be-even-riskier [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

12. Sohoa.vnexpress.net (2012) Doanh s bn Xbox gim 48% - S Ha VnExpress. [online]

Available at: http://sohoa.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/san-pham/do-choi-so/doanh-so-ban-xbox-giam-481499420.html [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

13. the Guardian (2012) Microsoft needs to get back to the future of innovation. [online] Available at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/microsoft-back-future-innovation [Accessed: 24 Nov 2012].

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