Soft Skills

Analysing organisational dynamics

Amitava Sengupta explains why it is necessary for companies to understand the behavioural patterns of its employees.

In today’s world it is imperative to understand the dynamics between an organisation and its most important asset—the employees. An indication of the growing importance that an organisation places on its employees is evidenced by the fact that newer terminology like ‘associates’, ‘stakeholders’, etc, are increasingly being used to refer to them. Hence it is extremely important for an organisation to understand the types of behavioural pattern of its employees and for the latter to understand the type of organisation they work for.

In this article, both employees and organisations have been categorised into three bands—the ‘Navigator’, the ‘Operator’ and the ‘Interfacer’—and some insights have been provided to help understand the dominant trait in an individual employee and an organisation. This understanding will help companies plan their employees’ career paths according to their dominant trait. These will also help employees analyse their own behavioural pattern and the dominant trait of their organisation and help them make long-term career decisions.

Why theories fail

All generalisations are partially incorrect, including the ones made in this write-up. There are several theories that talk about being successful in an organisation and how one company succeeds where others fail. What most of these theories fail to address is that just as there are different kinds of employees, organisational culture also vary widely—it is this interaction between the individual and the company and the dynamics therein that lays the ground for how an employee will fare within his organisation.

It needs to be emphasised that there are certain lessons that can be learnt if an individual’s natural temperament differs from the organisation’s pattern. Also, just by categorising a company as a particular type does not mean that all employees doing well are necessarily of an aligned type—this just means that people of an aligned type (or those willing to align themselves) have a greater probability of success. There is nothing negative about being in either of the bands either for the organisation or for the individual; there are distinct advantages and disadvantages in each.

It is extremely important for an organisation to know the primary behavioural pattern of each employee in order to help him/her chose a proper career path.

For employees planning a long-term career in the organisation, it is also equally important to understand the primary behavioural pattern of their company and make suitable changes in their own behaviour.

Employee behavioural pattern

We begin by categorising all individuals into three bands and define each of them:

Navigators: They are skilled in navigating the organisation. They understand the main ‘power’sources within the company and navigate towards them with ease. Once they navigate to their destination, they find a way for propagating and implementing their ideas within a company by leveraging these power bases.

Operators: They make the organisation ‘tick’ on a day-to-day basis. They are focussed on ‘getting the job done’, often extremely skilled people within their own domain, operators derive their primary job-satisfaction from what their work achieves.

Interfacers: They identify more with the customers and employees they work with rather than the management. They are the people who try to provide the ‘voice of the customer’ and the ‘voice of the employee’ within the organisation.

Typically, the response to the same situation will be different from each of these groups. Let us assume that there is a hypothetical opportunity for coming out with a new product in the market. This is how the thought process for each of these employee types would work:

Navigator: This seems to be an excellent idea … lets take it to the VP, R&D first and sound him out. Once we get his go-ahead, we can drive this and work on the details.

Operator: This seems to be an excellent idea … let me work out the logistics of how we will come out with the product, prepare a project plan and then discuss with my boss, we can take it up from there.

Interfacers: This seems to be an excellent idea … lets do a survey on the intended market segment and get more inputs on whether this is what is required or not. Once we have this, we can set up discussions on how to take it further.

Organisational behavioural pattern

Just as there are different kinds of employees in an organisation, similar patterns exist in the industry as well. Organisations will also be any one of the types— Navigator, Operator or Interfacer. This does not mean that they will not have traits of the others as well; it implies that there will be a dominant trait in a company.

Navigator: In such organisations, there exist powerful figures that centralise the decision-making authority of the company. These ‘father figures’ are the management people in the organisation who need to provide ‘executive sponsorship’ for all initiatives. A typical example of a ‘navigator’ type organisation would be a medium to large-sized law firm.

Operator: In such organisations, the work content is the most important mantra. The most important people here are the operators who come up with and implement ideas. Navigators and interfacers play peripheral support roles. Typically organisations highly dependent on research-related products and innovations fall in this category.

Interfacer: In such organisations, customers are the kings, and employees are treated importantly. The employees who thrive best in these kinds of companies are usually the interfacers who can understand and articulate the requirements of the customer and the employees. Often, these organisations do not have a differentiated offering and do well by being more open to all stakeholders. Decision-making authority is usually decentralised in such firms. Advertisement agencies would be a typical example of this category.

Typically, given the same scenario, reactions of each of these organisations will be fundamentally different. Consider the same situation as above where the idea of a new product has come up by an individual employee in the organisation. This is how the management of each of these types of organisations would react:

Navigator: If such an idea exists and the person wants to bring it forward, let the interested employee bring this idea forward to the VP, R&D. If the VP feels that this is a feasible and a good idea, we will appoint an executive sponsor for the initiative who will have overall responsibility for the idea’s development.

Operator: Let the concerned groups form plans and run a pilot. Once the plan is ready and agreed upon and the pilot is successful, we will arrange for the necessary budget.

Interfacer: What is the customer segment for this product? Did the group run this idea with the customer segment? What was their feedback?

What would be the key benefits of such a product to the customer? We would like the group to work closely with the marketing and market research departments to examine this idea closely.

In this scenario, there will be an employee ‘A’ who thought about the idea, employee ‘B’ who is driving it within the organisation and employee ‘C’ who is looking at the market for the product. If the initiative materialises successfully, all these employees A, B and C will earn credit.

However, in a Navigator organisation, employee B will walk away with the main kudos, in an Operator company employee A will be the most recognised and in an Interfacer firm, employee C will earn the maximum appreciation.

Employee organisation dynamics

An individual needs to understand his/her primary behavioural pattern as well as the type of the organisation that he/she is currently working for. An employee is best suited to succeed in a company that aligns with his primary behavioural pattern.

For an organisation, it is important to position different types of employees in different kinds of roles for maximum benefit to both the individual and the company. The primary skill profile of an employee type can be summarised as follows:

Navigators: Networking, good communicators, ability to adapt quickly, good understanding of employee behaviour.

Operators: Experts in their own domain, firm believers in hard work, usually low profile.

Interfacers: Good communicators, lateral thinkers, ability to grasp new/ different ideas quickly.

The right fit

From an organisation’s point of view, placing the right kind of person for the right kind of job is of paramount importance.

Employees who wish to rise to the top of the organisation should also understand its primary behaviour pattern. By doing so and understanding their own pattern, they can effectively take long-term career decisions based on the compatibility and acceptability of the two behaviour patterns.

Organisations need all three types of employees in order to function as a harmonious whole.

Amitava Sengupta is a Global Relationship Manager with Tata Consultancy Services