Organizational Behavior at Accenture Essay

1. IntroductionThis paper gives an overview of the ecesisal behavior (Organizational Structure, last, and lead) at Accenture the decease organization I manoeuvreed with. Accenture is an international management consulting, technology services and outsourcing organization, with nigh 0.25 million multitude and clients in more than 120 countries. It has generated net taxation of US$ 27.9 billion for last fiscal year i.e. 31 st imperious 2012. (Accenture,2012)2. Organizational Structure2.1 Accentures Structure At A discernOrganizations structure divides the organizational activities and co-ordinates them to achieve the aim of the organization. Accenture is form into various partially overlapping industry beas that allow the clients to choose from a variety of integrated consulting services. It upholds four global operations representforces 1. Consulting 2. Servicing 3. Solutions 4. attempt control board 2.1 highlights five operating groups and their respective 19 industry groups indoors the organization. (Accenture Facts,2012) Financial services Banking Capital Market Insurance Health & normal operate Health Public Services communions , Media & Technology Communication Electronics & High Tech Media & Entertainment Product Automotive Air, Freights & Travel Services Consumer Goods & Services Industrial Equipment Infrastructure & Transportation Resources Chemical Energy inbred Resources UtilitiesTable 2.1The figure below displays the organizational chart of Accenture and explains how opposite sub-units interact with from each one other.Exam Number B031449Page 3 of 11 fig 2.1 Accentures Organizational structure ( cite Official board, 2012)2.2 Analyzing the Structure of AccentureBuchanan and Huczynski (2010) defined cardinal key elements of organizational structure and in this section, we volition see how they bushel to Accenture as an organization. It can be slowly inferred from the organizational structure (Figure 2.1) and study group voic e (Table 2.1) that Accenture is a large complex organization that requires its employees to be highly specialized in the parturiencys allocated to them to ensure that tonus work is delivered. In order to make sure that all the employees are highly apt with respect to their toils, an intense induction takes place in the pedigree of their jaunt in the organization. Accenture follows a tall organizational pecking order structure call backable to its diverse workforce and workgroups where Span of Control for a Manager depends on the size of the brook. Within the solutions workforce, in a single confoundion, 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) group Lead (4) Manager Span of Control oneness Team lead , supervises 24 resources One Manager supervises 4 team-leads. So total Span of Control = 96The tasks in each project in the Solutions workforce are departmentalized into incompatible submodules i.e. analysis, Design & Build, and Testing. Department of Analysis is responsible for creating business artifacts that detail out clients unavoidableness and proposed solution to achieve it. These artifacts are indeed passed to the Design & Build Team who create 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 ensure 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 operative on a clients requirement has to adhere to the policies, procedures and norms set by Accenture as well as the clients. This is one of the key approaches to gain the clients trust. Since project music directors grant the authority to take decision related to their respective projects, we can call Accenture as highly centralized organization.3. Organizational CultureCulture is engraft and reflected in every aspect of an organization. As stated by Ravasi, D., Schultz, M. (2006), organizational subtlety is a lay down of shared intellectual assumptions, which behave understanding and action in an organization by defining adapted behavior for diverse situations. Figure 3.1 is a three-layer model for organizational flori cultivation 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. Observable level is the to the highest degree visible layer. Table 3.1 highlights hardly a(prenominal) of the Surface manifestation of culture at Accenture Manifestation Ceremonials frame Norms Slogan Symbol Accenture Fun Fridays, sporting events, monthly birthday celebrations, hindquartersly apportions Greenfield training for the new employees wh ere the number of days varies from 1 week to 6 weeks depending on the employees Code of Business conduct led by eight-fold policies High Performance DeliveredAccenture has six marrow squash values (Accenture warmness Values) Stewardship Fulfilling our tariff of mental synthesis a better, stronger and more durable company for future generations, protect the Accenture brand, meeting our commitments to stakeholders, acting with an owner mentality, developing our population and helping better communities and the global environment Best People Attracting, developing and retaining the best genius for our business, challenging our people, demonstrating a can-do attitude and education a cooperative and mutually supportive environment Client Value Creation alter clients to become high-performance businesses and creating long-term relationships by being responsive and applicable and by consistently delivering value.One Global Network Leveraging the violence of global insight, rel ationships, collaboration and learning to deliver exceptional service to clients wheresoever they do business Respect for Individual Valuing diversity and unique components, fostering a trusting, open, and inclusive environment and treating each somebody in a manner that reflects Accentures values. Integrity Being ethically unyielding and good and inspiring trust by saying what we mean, matching our behaviors to our words and fetching 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 humans) are ACE Award 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 citatio n to unspoiltify 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 increasing automated work to save on efforts.Star of the month This category of award is likewise 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 etc. Celebrating Performance Celebrating performance is a mother fucker through which Team leads and above acknowledges the work of an individual by natural endowment them some points. These points can be redeemed via a shopping catalogue holding a range of different things.c) The third level i.e. radical assumption is invisib le layer. It is the perception held by individuals concerning human behavior. As mentioned earlier, this cannot be seen but felt by the individuals and hence is difficult to be exposit in words for any organization.2. On analyzing Accenture based on different Cultural framework and Cultural typologies it can be said that Accenture waterfall into Role culture and Communal culture. The justification for this goes below Accenture is very much(prenominal) 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 top of the hierarchy work as per their roles and specializations that make Accenture a highly centralized organization and hence move it into a Role culture. However, if we deep dive to the lowest variant 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.T he 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 clock 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 entry criteria and employees who suit the working environment are selected.Once the employees are in the company, another level of assessment happens to tote up the skills to identify which project who the employee be best suited for. During an initial variety 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 expect ed to have a degree of flexibility to drop 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 inhalation, create, design, and build the near wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality (Disney, 2011) Accenture groups skills, competencies, and personality traits of effective leaders into three lively 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 circumvent things done. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard (1998) described the concept of situational leaders hip. Situational leadership is an approach of identifying the most effective way of motivating, directing, and supporting employees 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 supervisory program 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 baby carriage and councilor supports the employee at the same time. Supervisor and the Councilor are not the same pe rson and it is the councilor who remains the same throughout the journey in Accenture where as supervisors prevent of changing as when an employee progresses. Once an employee displays the ability and the skills required to tasks assigned (i.e. loosely at Analyst Programmer level), the work is then delegated where very few directions and support are required. At no point in Accenture, you would pay off a leader portraying the directive leadership. Support and mentoring is always provided until an employee is unfastened to work on his own.5. SynopsisAccenture is an organization on the move, one that is prosecute in a good range of projects in various fixs. 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, peculiarly for extended periods, find themselves following clients culture as well as Accentures. It has a youthful environment that helps in do contac ts, which lasts as an employee moves from project to project. In spite of the youthful, work-hard/play-hard atmosphere, employees 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 social 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 interview 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 sound judgment and at the same time its ensured that employees professional aspirations are also met. I would definitely say a great 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 26th October 2012 2. Accenture Core Values Living Accentures Core Values online Available at http//careers.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 exceptional online Available at http//www.enterprisemanagement360.com/company/accenture-uk-l imited/.UIqNsm_Mjsw Accessed on 26th October 2012 6. Bohine, Markham, 2003