A Report on Organizational

Behaviour

COMPANY PROFILE

The Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) was amongst the first to

receive an 'in principle' approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a bank in

the private sector, as part of the RBI's liberalization of the Indian Banking Industry in

1994. The bank was incorporated in August 1994 in the name of 'HDFC Bank Limited',

with its registered office in Mumbai, India. HDFC Bank commenced operations as a

Scheduled Commercial Bank in January 1995.

HDFC Bank began operations in 1995 with a simple mission: to be a "World-class

Indian Bank". They realized that only a single-minded focus on product quality and

service excellence would help them get there. Today, they are proud to say that they are

well on our way towards that goal.

It is extremely gratifying that their efforts towards providing customer convenience have

been appreciated both nationally and internationally.

HDFC bank has been showered with a number of awards, consisting of The Best

Employer Award in 2007-2008.

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ABOUT THE SUBJECT

Organizational studies, organizational behavior, and organizational theory is the

systematic study and careful application of knowledge about how people - as individuals

and as groups - act within organization..

Organizational studies encompasses the study of organizations from multiple viewpoints,

methods, and levels of analysis.

Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. Modern

organizational studies attempt to understand and model these factors. Like all modernist

social sciences, organizational studies seeks to control, predict, and explain.

A HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT

The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the essence of leadership. Aristotle addressed the topic of

persuasive communication. The writings of 16th century Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli

laid the foundation for contemporary work on organizational power and politics. In 1776, Adam

Smith advocated a new form of organizational structure based on the division of labour. One

hundred years later, German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational organizations and

initiated discussion of charismatic leadership. Soon after, Frederick Winslow Taylor introduced the

systematic use of goal setting and rewards to motivate employees. In the 1920s, Australian-born

Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his colleagues conducted productivity studies at Western

Electric's Hawthorne plant in the United States.

After the First World War, the focus of organizational studies shifted to analysis of how human

factors and psychology affected organizations, a transformation propelled by the identification of

the Hawthorne Effect. This Human Relations Movement focused on teams, motivation, and the

actualization of the goals of individuals within organizations. Prominent early scholars included

Chester Barnard, Henri Fayol, Mary Parker Follett, Frederick Herzberg, Abraham Maslow, David

McClelland, and Victor Vroom.

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MAIN CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FIELD

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915):

Taylor was the first person who attempted to study human behavior at work using a

systematic approach. Taylor studied human characteristics, social environment, task,

physical environment, capacity, speed, durability, cost and their interaction with each

other. His overall objective was to reduce and/or remove human variability. Taylor worked

to achieve his goal of making work behaviors stable and predictable so that maximum

output could be achieved. He relied strongly upon monetary incentive systems, believing

that humans are primarily motivated by money. He faced some strong criticism, including

being accused of telling managers to treat workers as machines without minds, but his

work was very productive and laid many foundation principles for modern management

study.

Elton Mayo:

Elton Mayo, an Australian national, headed the Hawthorne Studies at Harvard. In his

classic writing in 1931, Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, he advised

managers to deal with emotional needs of employees at work.

Mary Parker Follett:

Mary Parker Follett was a pioneer management consultant in the industrial world. As a

writer, she provided analyses on workers as having complex combinations of attitude,

beliefs, and needs. She told managers to motivate employees on their job performance, a

"pull" rather than a "push" strategy.

Douglas McGregor:

Douglas McGregor proposed two theories/assumptions, which are very nearly the opposite

of each other, about human nature based on his experience as a management consultant.

His first theory was “Theory X”, which is pessimistic and negative; and according to

McGregor it is how managers traditionally perceive their workers. Then, in order to help

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managers replace that theory/assumption, he gave “Theory Y” which takes a more modern

and positive approach. He believed that managers could achieve more if managers start

perceiving their employees as self-energized, committed, responsible and creative beings.

By means of his Theory Y, he in fact challenged the traditional theorists to adopt a

developmental approach to their employees. He also wrote a book The Human Side of

Enterprise in 1960; this book has become a foundation for the modern view of employees

at work.

CURRENT SCENARIO:

Organizational behaviour is currently a growing field. Organizational studies departments

generally form part of business schools, although many universities also have industrial

psychology and industrial economics programs.

The field is highly influential in the business world with practitioners like Peter Drucker

and Peter Senge, who turned the academic research into business practices. Organizational

behaviour is becoming more important in the global economy as people with diverse

backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently. It is also

under increasing criticism as a field for its ethnocentric and pro-capitalist assumptions

During last 20 years organizational behavior study and practice has developed and

expanded through creating integrations with other domains:

Anthropology became an interesting prism to understanding firms as communities, by

introducing concepts like Organizational culture, 'organizational rituals' and 'symbolic acts'

enabling new ways to understand organizations as communities.

Leadership Understanding the crucial role of leadership at various level of an organization

in the process of change management.

Ethics and their importance as pillars of any vision and one of the most important driving

forces in an organization.

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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational culture is a concept in the field of Organizational studies and management

which describes the attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of an organization. It has

been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are

shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with

each other and with stakeholders outside the organization

Strong culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of their alignment to

organizational values.

Conversely, there is weak culture where there is little alignment with organizational values

and control must be exercised through extensive procedures and bureaucracy.

Where culture is strong—people do things because they believe it is the right thing to do—

there is a risk of another phenomenon, Groupthink. "Groupthink" was described by Irving

L. Janis. He defined it as "...a quick and easy way to refer to a mode of thinking that

people engage when they are deeply involved in a cohesive ingroup, when members'

strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternatives of

action." This is a state where people, even if they have different ideas, do not challenge

organizational thinking, and therefore there is a reduced capacity for innovative thoughts.

This could occur, for example, where there is heavy reliance on a central charismatic

figure in the organization, or where there is an evangelical belief in the organization’s

values, or also in groups where a friendly climate is at the base of their identity (avoidance

of conflict). In fact groupthink is very common, it happens all the time, in almost every

group. Members that are defiant are often turned down or seen as a negative influence by

the rest of the group, because they bring conflict.

Innovative organizations need individuals who are prepared to challenge the status quo—

be it groupthink or bureaucracy, and also need procedures to implement new ideas

effectively.

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ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Organizational effectiveness is the concept of how effective an organization is in achieving

the outcomes the organization intends to produce. The idea of organizational effectiveness

is especially important for non-profit organizations as most people who donate money to

non-profit organizations and charities are interested in knowing whether the organization

is effective in accomplishing its goals.

An organization's effectiveness is also dependent on its communicative competence and

ethics. The relationship between these three is simultaneous. Ethics is a foundation found

within organizational effectiveness. An organization must exemplify respect, honesty,

integrity and equity to allow communicative competence with the participating members.

Along with ethics and communicative competence, members in that particular group can

finally achieve their intended goals.

Organizational effectiveness is an abstract concept and is basically impossible to measure.

Instead of measuring organizational effectiveness, the organization determines proxy

measures which will be used to represent effectiveness. Proxy measures used may include

such things as number of people served, types and sizes of population segments served,

and the demand within those segments for the services the organization supplies.

For instance, a non-profit organization which supplies meals to house bound people may

collect statistics such as the number of meals cooked and served, the number of volunteers

delivering meals, the turnover and retention rates of volunteers, the demographics of the

people served, the turnover and retention of consumers, the number of requests for meals

turned down due to lack of capacity (amount of food, capacity of meal preparation

facilities, and number of delivery volunteers), and amount of wastage. Since the

organization has as its goal the preparation of meals and the delivery of those meals to

house bound people, it measures its organizational effectiveness by trying to determine

what actual activities the people in the organization do in order to generate the outcomes

the organization wants to create.

Activities such as fundraising or volunteer training are important because they provide the

support needed for the organization to deliver its services but they are not the outcomes

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee engagement is a concept that is generally viewed as managing discretionary

effort, that is, when employees have choices, they will act in a way that furthers their

organization's interests. An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and

enthusiastic about, his or her work.

Engaged employees care about the future of the company and are willing to invest the

discretionary effort. Engaged employees feel a strong emotional bond to the organization

that employs them.

FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT:

Employee perceptions of job importance.

Employee clarity of job expectations. "If expectations are not clear and basic materials and

equipment not provided, negative emotions such as boredom or resentment may result, and

the employee may then become focused on surviving more than thinking about how he can

help the organization succeed."

Career advancement/improvement opportunities. "Plant supervisors and managers

indicated that many plant improvements were being made outside the suggestion system,

where employees initiated changes in order to reap the bonuses generated by the

subsequent cost savings."

Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors. "Feedback is the key to giving employees a

sense of where they’re going, but many organizations are remarkably bad at giving it.

"'What I really wanted to hear was 'Thanks. You did a good job.' But all my boss did was

hand me a check.'

Quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates. "...if employees'

relationship with their managers is fractured, then no amount of perks will persuade the

employees to perform at top levels. Employee engagement is a direct reflection of how

employees feel about their relationship with the boss."

Perceptions of the ethos and values of the organization.

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Effective Internal Employee Communications - which convey a clear description of

"what's going on". "'If you accept that employees want to be involved in what they are

doing then this trend is clear (from small businesses to large global organizations). The

effect of poor internal communications is seen as its most destructive in global

organizations which suffer from employee annexation - where the head office in one

country is buoyant (since they are closest to the action, know what is going on, and are

heavily engaged) but its annexes (who are furthest away from the action and know little

about what is happening) are dis-engaged. In the worst case, employee annexation can be

very destructive when the head office attributes the annex's low engagement to its poor

performance... when its poor performance is really due to its poor communications.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objective of the study is the purpose for which the study is conducted and it is

undertaken. The objective decides the procedure and the path which will be taken for the

study. The objective is the base on which the foundation of the study is built. The objective

should be decided with utmost concentration and due consideration.

The objective of our study is:

To analyze the organizational culture in HDFC Bank

To analyze the employee engagement in HDFC Bank

To analyze organizational effectiveness in HDFC Bank

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METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

Methodology refers to more than a simple set of methods; rather it refers to the rationale

and the philosophical assumptions that underlie a particular study. This is why scholarly

literature often includes a section on the methodology of the researchers.

For the purpose of this study, the type of research undertaken was primary research, which

comprised of collecting information through questionnaires from the selected sample.

Primary research is more detailed and it involves getting close information from the

sample directly.

PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY:

The study was conducted by getting questionnaires filled by HDFC Bank employees. Then

the data collected was tabulated and various tools like SPSS and Microsoft Excel were

used for the quantification of the data collected.

INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN `TO SAMPLE INDIVIDUALS:

The employees of HDFC Bank, who were selected as a part of the sample, were told to fill

the questionnaires with legitimate details in the questionnaire. The sample individuals

were also requested to give the true and fair picture of the organization and the working

environment of the organization, as this would help us in getting a fair picture of the

organization and help us get the true findings from the study.

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DATA COLLECTED, QUANTIFICATION AND INFERENCE

QUESTIONNAIRE – 1—EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

QUESTION -- 1

Does your work group plan together and coordinate its efforts?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

indifferent 1 10.0 10.0 10.0

Agree 8 80.0 80.0 90.0

strongly agree 1 10.0 10.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

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INFERENCE: From the above findings of the question, the inference that can be drawn is

that most of the employees think or consider that there is planning and coordination among

the various workgroup of the organization. 80% of the total sample agree that there is

planning and coordination among the various workgroups in an organization.

QUESTION-- 2

Does your work group make good decisions and solve problems well?

Freque

ncy

Perce

nt

Valid

Percent

Cumulati

ve

Percent

Indifferent 1 10.0 10.0 10.0

Agree 6 60.0 60.0 70.0

strongly

agree3 30.0 30.0 100.0

Total10

100.

0100.0

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INFERENCE: The inference drawn is that a majority of the employees feel that their

workgroup makes good decisions and solves problems well. but there is no one who is

against this statement.

QUESTION -- 3

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Is information about important events and situations shared within your workgroup?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid disagree 1 10.0 10.0 10.0

indifferent 2 20.0 20.0 30.0

Agree 3 30.0 30.0 60.0

strongly agree 4 40.0 40.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

IIINFERENCE: The findings of this question show us that information in the

organization is shared in the organization to an extent. 40% strongly agree. 30% agree, and

there is also a major part(30%) of the employees who disagree or are indifferent.

QUESTION -- 4

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Does your workgroup feel responsible for meeting its objectives successfully?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid indifferent 2 20.0 20.0 20.0

disagree 6 60.0 60.0 80.0

strongly disagree 2 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE: The inference that can be drawn is that the workgroup does not feel

responsible about achieving its objectives successfully, but there is also a combined chunk

of employees(40%), who think that the workgroups do feel responsible to meet the

objectives successfully.

QUESTION -- 5

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Is your workgroup able to respond to unsual work demands placed upon it?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid indifferent 6 60.0 60.0 60.0

Agree 4 40.0 40.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE: the inference is that, if unusual demands are placed upon the workgroup,

the

group is either unsuccessful or any type of unusual demand is not placed on it.

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QUESTION –6

Do you have confidence and trust in the persons in your workgroup?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Disagree 2 20.0 20.0 20.0

Indifferent 3 30.0 30.0 50.0

Agree 2 20.0 20.0 70.0

strongly agree 3 30.0 30.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE: The answer to this question came as a mixed response. Same proportion of

individuals agreed strongly and were indifferent about it. But, the difference between those

who agree and disagree is only 10%, which shows that there is distrust among individuals

in the workgroups.

QUESTION -- 7

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Overall, are you satisfied with the persons in your workgroup?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Indifferent 3 30.0 30.0 30.0

Agree 4 40.0 40.0 70.0

strongly agree 3 30.0 30.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE: Majority of the people in the organization are satisfied with the persons in

their workgroups. But 1/3rd of the employees are indifferent towards this.

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QUESTION – 8

Overall, are you satisfied with your boss?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid indifferent 2 20.0 20.0 20.0

Agree 6 60.0 60.0 80.0

strongly agree 2 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE: Most of the employees (80%), are satisfied with their bosses.

Set 3

(a)

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The dominant belief here is that things don’t happen, you make them happen

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Accurate 1 10.0 10.0 10.0

good description 4 40.0 40.0 50.0

not so true 1 10.0 10.0 60.0

least true 4 40.0 40.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization some employees believe that you have to work to achieve the desired goals

while an equal number of employees agree that goals can be achieved automatically without putting

any hard work.

(b)

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The belief here is that most things depend on the top management.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Accurate 5 50.0 50.0 50.0

good description 1 10.0 10.0 60.0

not so true 4 40.0 40.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization employees strongly believe that a lot many things such as promotions, pay

hikes, incentives and so on depends on the top management.

(c)

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People believe that the major constraints are managerial.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

good description 5 50.0 50.0 50.0

not so true 5 50.0 50.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization 50% of the employees believe that major constraints are managerial and 50% of

them think that they are not managerial, they depend on other factors.

(d)

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People believe there are too many external constraints, which are difficult to

fight

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

accurate 3 30.0 30.0 30.0

least true 7 70.0 70.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

During our survey we found out that the employees of HDFC Bank believes that it is not difficult to

fight external constraints, they can be easily overcome.

Set 4

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(a)The leaders here expect to be implicitly obeyed.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

accurate 1 10.0 10.0 10.0

good description 1 10.0 10.0 20.0

not so true 5 50.0 50.0 70.0

least true 3 30.0 30.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization there is a friendly and informal environment the leaders here don’t expect to be

implicitly obeyed.

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(b)The leaders here are role models for their people

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

good description 2 20.0 20.0 20.0

not so true 5 50.0 50.0 70.0

least true 3 30.0 30.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

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INFERENCE::

In the organization employees believe that the leaders are not role model for their people.

(c)

People are expected to follow the proper channels that have been laid down.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

accurate 5 50.0 50.0 50.0

good description 2 20.0 20.0 70.0

least true 3 30.0 30.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

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INFERENCE:

In the organization people are required to follow the channels that have been laid down for smooth

and effective functioning of the organization.

(d)

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The leaders set the standards of performance.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

accurate 4 40.0 40.0 40.0

good description 5 50.0 50.0 90.0

least true 1 10.0 10.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization the team leaders set the standards of performance and subordinates follow them

it can be observed that only 10% of the people don’t agree to this fact.

Set 5

(a)

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In meetings, people sit wherever they can find place.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

accurate 4 40.0 40.0 40.0

good description 1 10.0 10.0 50.0

not so true 4 40.0 40.0 90.0

least true 1 10.0 10.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

It can be observed that during meetings among same level of managers people sit wherever they can

find place whereas during meeting with senior mangers people sit according to their post.

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(b)

People are indifferent to meetings and try to avoid them.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

accurate 1 10.0 10.0 10.0

good description 6 60.0 60.0 70.0

not so true 1 10.0 10.0 80.0

least true 2 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization 60% of the employees try to avoid meeting and are indifferent to meetings.

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(c)

There ia an implicit hierarchy in the seating pattern at meetings.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Accurate 3 30.0 30.0 30.0

good description 1 10.0 10.0 40.0

not so true 4 40.0 40.0 80.0

least true 2 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization a majority of employees believe that during meetings there is no implicit

hierarchy in the seating patterns.

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(d) meetings, seats for those at top are fixed. Generally, meetings are not held

without top managers.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

accurate 2 20.0 20.0 20.0

good description 2 20.0 20.0 40.0

not so true 1 10.0 10.0 50.0

least true 5 50.0 50.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

INFERENCE:

In the organization basically there is an informal environment. For example during meetings no

fixed sitting plans are formed.

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CONCLUSION

We see that nearly all the employees of the firm feel that there is employee engagement ,

organization effectiveness and organization culture .This means that the employees feel

that they have a shared set of values ,beliefs and thought. Apart from this we even see that

the employees feel that there is good team spirit among themselves.

SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENT:

Although we see that majority of the employees feel that the organization has an effective

culture and the employees even appreciate their teamwork but if we analyze the

questionnaires deeply we see that some of the employees are still not satisfied with their

organization. Thus in order to improve the present situation the organization needs to

fulfill all the employees aspirations. This the firm can do in many ways:

Recommendations

A career path that provides opportunities for advancement.

Better management and effective communications.

Reasonable workload .

Engage by concentrating on four areas- selection, expectation, motivation and

development.

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CONCLUSION

On the basis of the survey done by us we have come to the following conclusion.

Organization Culture

In HDFC BANK, culture plays a significant role. The firm already has a good organization

culture according to the survey done by us. Organization culture is the unifying and shared

patterns of thoughts, freely value and action that serve to bind together organizational

members and distinguish them from non-members. Thus we see that in HDFC, the

organization takes care of most of the employees.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a two way communication process between the employees the

organization. After scrutinizing the questionnaire we see that HDFC BANK has an

effective employee engagement. The employees in this firm can readily relate themselves

to the organization. The employees in this organization feel more engaged when they make

unique contribution to the organization. The employee structure of HDFC BANK, is very

loyal to the firm (according to the calculation done). There is little among themselves and

we see that the employees perceive themselves as being unified with the organization.

Organizational Effectiveness.

By organizational effectiveness, we mean how effective an organization is to achieve its

goal. In the context of HDFC BANK, we perceive that the firm has a sound management,

strong governance and a willful dedication to achieve its specific goals. Most of the

employees agree with the fact that the organization is effective to accomplish its target in

time.

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METHODOLOGY

The sample study was conducted on sample size of 10. Samples were employees from all

managerial level Of HDFC BANK.

Aim

To find the deviation in the responses given by the employees and interpreting and

analyzing their responses to questionnaires on the above mentioned parameters.

Parameter of analysis

1. Organizational culture

2. Employee engagement

3. Organization effectiveness.

PROCESS

1. Review of literature

2. Employees personal interview and getting fixed questionnaires.

3. Sorting and classification of questionnaire

4. Creating database using excel sheet, SPSS.

5. Calculation of MODE of individual data.

6. Analyzing interpreting and graphical representation of the collected data.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=employee+blogs+on+hdfc+bank&meta

2) http://www.cuil.com/

3) http://www.wikipedia.org/

4) www.blackle.com

5) Organizational Behaviour Textbook-- ICMR

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