Organizational Behavior at Accenture Essay

1. aditThis paper gives an overview of the presidential termal behavior (Organizational social organization, Culture, and runwayership) at Accenture the last organization I worked with. Accenture is an international management consulting, engineering science services and outsourcing organization, with approximately 0.25 million nation and guests in more than 120 countries. It has generated net revenue of US$ 27.9 billion for last fiscal year i.e. 31 st August 2012. (Accenture,2012)2. Organizational Structure2.1 Accentures Structure At A GlanceOrganizations structure divides the organizational activities and co-ordinates them to achieve the aim of the organization. Accenture is unionised into various partially overlapping pains aras that allow the guests to choose from a variety of integrated consulting services. It upholds quadruple global operations mens 1. Consulting 2. Servicing 3. Solutions 4. Enterprise circuit board 2.1 talllights five operating groups and their r espective 19 industry groups within the organization. (Accenture Facts,2012) Financial services Banking Capital Market Insurance wellness & Public Services Health Public Services Communications , Media & Technology Communication Electronics & High Tech Media & Entertainment Product self-propelling Air, Freights & Travel Services Consumer Goods & Services Industrial Equipment Infrastructure & Transportation Resources Chemical Energy Natural Resources UtilitiesTable 2.1The figure below displays the organizational chart of Accenture and explains how different sub-units interact with individually other.Exam Number B031449 page 3 of 11 recruit 2.1 Accentures Organizational structure ( start Official board, 2012)2.2 Analyzing the Structure of AccentureBuchanan and Huczynski (2010) defined vii key elements of organizational structure and in this section, we will see how they relate to Accenture as an organization. It sight be comfortably inferred from the organizational structure (Figu re 2.1) and Work group division (Table 2.1) that Accenture is a large complex organization that requires its employees to be exceedingly specialized in the tasks allocated to them to view that quality work is delivered. In order to actualise sure that all the employees are highly skil guide with respect to their tasks, an intense induction takes place in the beginning of their journey in the organization. Accenture follows a tall organizational hierarchy structure due to its assorted workforce and workgroups where Span of Control for a theatre director depends on the size of the pop out. Within the solutions workforce, in a single puke, following hierarchy existsFigure 2.2 Hierarchies in a project For example, Span of Control for the project in which I worked was a 96 Designation Programmers (10) Senior Programmers (8) Analyst Programmer (6) Team Lead (4) Manager Span of Control One Team lead , supervises 24 resources One Manager supervises 4 team-leads. So total Span of Cont rol = 96The tasks in severally project in the Solutions workforce are departmentalized into different submodules i.e. Analysis, Design & Build, and Testing. Department of Analysis is responsible for creating business artifacts that detail out clients requirement and proposed solution to achieve it. These artifacts are then passed to the Design & Build Team who bring about the high-level design documents and develops the products which client has asked for. Once the product is delivered, it is then passed on to the testing team to image that the final product is as per the business artifacts and there are no issues encountered. Accenture is highly formalized organization, where each project while working on a clients requirement has to adhere to the policies, procedures and norms pay back by Accenture as well as the clients. This is one of the key approaches to gain the clients trust. Since project managers have the authority to take decision related to their respective projects, we can call Accenture as highly centralized organization.3. Organizational CultureCulture is embedded and reflected in every aspect of an organization. As verbalize by Ravasi, D., Schultz, M. (2006), organizational culture is a lay down of shared intellectual assumptions, which guide taking into custody and action in an organization by defining suitable behavior for diverse situations. Figure 3.1 is a three-layer model for organizational culture developed by Edgar Schein (2004).Figure 3.1 Scheins three levels of culture Source (Bohine, Markham, 2003) Insight on Accentures Culture 1. Scheins three levels of Culture a) The first level i.e. manifest level is the well-nigh visible layer. Table 3.1 highlights few of the Surface manifestation of culture at Accenture demonstration Ceremonials Course Norms Slogan Symbol Accenture Fun Fridays, sporting events, monthly birthday celebrations, quarterly awards Greenfield training for the peeled employees where the number of days varies from 1 week to 6 weeks depending on the employees Code of Business conduct led by multiple policies High Performance DeliveredAccenture has six core value (Accenture Core set) Stewardship Fulfilling our obligation of expression a better, stronger and more durable fraternity for future generations, protecting the Accenture brand, meeting our commitments to stakeholders, acting with an owner mentality, ontogenesis our people and helping improve communities and the global purlieu Best People Attracting, developing and retaining the best gift for our business, challenging our people, demonstrating a can-do attitude and fostering a collaborative and mutually supportive milieu Client Value Creation Enabling clients to become high-performance businesses and creating long-term relationships by being antiphonary and relevant and by consistently delivering value.One Global Network Leveraging the power of global insight, relationships, coaction and learning to deliver exceptional servi ce to clients wherever they do business Respect for Individual Valuing miscellanea and unique plowshares, fostering a trusting, open, and inclusive environment and treating each person in a room that reflects Accentures values. Integrity Being ethically unyielding and honest and inspiring trust by maxim what we mean, matching our behaviors to our words and taking responsibility for our actionsRewards and Recognition in Accenture Accenture has various ways of acknowledging an employees contribution towards achieving the High Quality work. In addition to promotion, few of the awards given by Accenture (specific to solutions domain) are ACE honor Accenture Celebrates Excellence is an award given on quarterly basis to the employees who show outstanding performance during a quarter in their respective industrial groups. The nominations for these awards are forwarded by the project manager along with the reference to justify the nominations. Innovator for the quarter This category of award is held at different project levels and is awarded to an individual or group of people who have innovated something to either add value to the client or helped in increase automated work to save on efforts.Star of the month This category of award is also held at project level where the work of an employee performing extraordinary is acknowledged. Propel Awards This category of award is held at industrial group level where the employees are awarded against different criterias e.g. Adding Value to Client, Organizing quality work and anticipating critical situations etcetera Celebrating Performance Celebrating performance is a tool through which Team leads and above acknowledges the work of an individual by giving them some points. These points can be redeemed via a shopping catalog holding a range of different things.c) The third level i.e. basic assumption is invisible layer. It is the perception held by individuals concerning sympathetic behavior. As mentioned earlier, this cannot be seen but felt by the individuals and thus is difficult to be described in words for any organization.2. On analyzing Accenture based on different Cultural framework and Cultural typologies it can be said that Accenture move into Role culture and Communal culture. The justification for this goes below Accenture is very more than driven by its policies, procedures, and rules, which makes it high on formalization aspect. Figure 2.1 clearly shows the level of hierarchy that Accenture has. Managers at snuff it of the hierarchy work as per their roles and specializations that make Accenture a highly centralized organization and hence putting it into a Role culture. However, if we deep dive to the lowest division i.e. the Projects, the task to be achieved is allocated at the Managerial level and is then cascaded down to different team members based on their expertise.The aim of the team is to ensure the task is delivered on time and with a high quality. For example, in my projects, there were times when a task demanding high expertise on specific domain were assigned to the senior programmers instead of the team leads. This clearly displays that the project division is on to the Task culture i.e. high formalization, low centralization where people are acknowledged based on their expertise and not just position. Accenture has very strict door criteria and employees who suit the working environment are selected.Once the employees are in the gild, another level of legal opinion happens to check the skills to identify which project who the employee be best suited for. During an initial phase in the project, the employees are giving an intensive training about the core values of Accenture as well as the client that they are working for. The roles and goals for each individual are made clear right from the beginning and each employee is expected to have a degree of flexibility to switch the roles as and when required. All these characteristics make Accenture falls into the category of Communal culture i.e. High Sociability and high solidarity.4. leadingWalt Disney said, You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality (Disney, 2011) Accenture groups skills, competencies, and nature traits of effective leaders into three vital pillars (Accenture Leadership) Visionary Evangelist- They see possibilities and inspire others with their vision they know where the company is headed and what its customers will value in the future. Relationship Builder-They enlist the support and capabilities of others by building loyalty, motivating and engaging. Manager of Execution- They provide structure, discipline and a sense of priorities to get things done. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard (1998) described the concept of situational leading. Situational leadership is an approach of identifying the most effective way of motivating, directing, and supporting employe es to get the work done. Whether it is the leaders at the top of hierarchy (CEO) or the leaders at the lowest division (project managers), leadership style in Accenture varies depending upon the situation.Figure 4.1 Situational Leadership Model (Source Davidmerzel, 2012) How Leadership style works in Accenture When an employee is new to a project or the organization, it is ensured that a counselor and a supervisor are assigned to him. It is supervisors responsibility to ensure that the employee understand the norms and the working culture of the project and Councilor helps the employee with the career aspirations and issues (if any) faced by him while working in the project.In other words, it can be said that supervisor acts as the coach and councilor supports the employee at the identical time. Supervisor and the Councilor are not the aforesaid(prenominal) person and it is the councilor who remains the same throughout the journey in Accenture where as supervisors keep of changing as when an employee progresses. Once an employee displays the ability and the skills required to tasks assigned (i.e. generally at Analyst Programmer level), the work is then delegated where very few directions and support are required. At no point in Accenture, you would chance a leader portraying the directive leadership. Support and mentoring is always provided until an employee is suitable to work on his own.5. SynopsisAccenture is an organization on the move, one that is engaged in a tidy range of projects in various locations. Its culture varies from one extreme to another depending on the client and the geographical location of the office in which one reside. Employees, working at the client site, particularly for extended periods, find themselves following clients culture as well as Accentures. It has a youthful environment that helps in making contacts, which lasts as an employee moves from project to project. In spite of the youthful, work-hard/play-hard atmosphere, e mployees strictly adhere to Accentures high standards, which require dedication and discipline on behalf of the employees.People at Accenture genuinely respect and admire each other. Willingness to help others and strong interpersonal skills are more common that being self-centered. This can be easily seen by the prompt responses of peers in different cities and countries towards any technical query being raised at the companys portal. To summaries, Accenture surely is a strong cultured and centralized organization where the core values of the organization and clients both are kept in mind and at the same time its ensured that employees professional aspirations are also met. I would definitely say a cracking place to work6. References(Arranged alphabetically) 1. Accenture, 2012 About Accenture Available at http//www.accenture.com/gb-en/company/Pages/index.aspx Accessed on twenty-sixth October 2012 2. Accenture Core Values Living Accentures Core Values online Available at http//car eers.accenture.com/gben/working/overview/values/Pages/index.aspx Accessed on 26th October 2012 3. Accenture Facts,2012 Q4 Fiscal 2012 Available at http//newsroom.accenture.com/fact+sheet/ Accessed on 26th October 2012 4. Accenture Leadership Why Leadership and Culture Matters online Available at http//www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture_Why_Leadership_and _Culture_Matter.pdf Accessed on 27th October 2012 5. Accenture Logo Accenture UK Limited online Available at http//www.enterprisemanagement360.com/company/accenture-uk-l imited/.UIqNsm_Mjsw Accessed on 26th October 2012 6. Bohine, Markham, 2003