Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December

2017

Final Assignment: Organizational Behaviour

Submitted by:
Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali

24th December 2017

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
History ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Scenarios: Installation of a Linux Mail Server and backup power solution .................................................. 3
Problem ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
Resolution: ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
References .................................................................................................................................................... 9

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

Introduction
After completing my Bachelors (Honors) in Computing from England in early 2000s, I returned to
Tanzania and started looking for a job. I have over 17 years of experience in working with multiple
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Tanzania.

The assignment will be based on one of the leading Internet Service Provider in Tanzania at its time. I
would rather not disclose the name of the company for sake of the company’s reputation. Therefore, I
will call the company as Company X.

History
The company was bought over by one of the employees in late 1990s and therefore, changed its name.
In the late 1990s, the company was booming with many corporates and home users. Company X was the
leading internet service provider using CDMA technology. The investment was huge and the returns
were also great.

Due to poor management, the company ran into major crisis in mid-2000s. It had no money to invest
into infrastructure and started going downhill. Since the directors were two brothers, the other brother
took over the control of the company. However, he did not invest much into the company after taking
over.

After joining the company in mid of 2010, the company was in shambles. The infrastructure was old and
deteriorating. The network was not stable. The company X was losing customers on a day to day basis.
The electrical power from the grid was also not stable with constant power outages in the base stations
without backup power.

Since Tanzania is a third world country, it does not have cable connectivity such as fiber at many places.
The fiber that were there, were privately owned and run over ground at that time as getting permits to
run underground fiber was a task on its own. Moreover, since the fiber was owned by private companies
and expensive, unlike today, it was expensive to rent or laying your own.

Most of the Internet Service Providers till date use radio frequency equipment as the primary or
secondary source of connectivity between sites and base stations.

After I joined, within few months, the System Administrator resigned and moved out. My colleague and I
were the only senior specialists in the company.

During my tenure at Company X, there were many scenarios that occurred. I will discuss couple of them
here to illustrate the issues in regards to Organizational Behavior which had occurred.

Scenarios: Installation of a Linux Mail Server and backup power solution

Problem
The problem was, since the financial situation of the company was not great, we had to find alternatives
to minimize cost. The current servers were using Windows Server with licensed mail server which
needed to be paid every year. It was definitely a handsome amount on a yearly basis.

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

After sitting in a meeting with the technical department, we decided to offer an open source solution to
the problem by using Linux and mail server application which are freely available on the internet.
However, the problem was not completely solved. The small technical team at Company X was not
technically equipped to install and implement Linux. We had to outsource someone from outside to
install and train us. Furthermore, we needed a new server for this purpose to run with the old servers
simultaneously for some time with the new server with Linux.

We had to prepare a proposal to convince the management. We had to detail what the cause was and
the reason for the move to open source solution with the cost of server and trainer.

The directors did not see eye to eye on many issues regarding the company due to the financial issues
that had been caused by one of the managing director. There was a new chief operating officer who was
the child of one of the directors, who took over the daily operations of the company. There were many
leadership issues between the directors that was affecting the company technically and mainly,
financially.

The Chief Operating Officer was young and fresh from school and did not understand the technicalities
of the business. It was extremely hard to discuss issues and situations with the Chief Operating officer in
regards to the operation of the business due to zero background knowledge. Furthermore, the company
X also did not have a General Manager in the company due to financial trouble. Therefore, all the
reporting was done to the operating officer and the directors.

The leadership did not have a clear vision and mission about the company. There was no vision shared
by the management. Employees had to create their own vision. There was no information provided to
understand the vision of the management. The directors and Chief Operating Officer were dodging the
issues and situations on a day to day basis. The leadership did not rise to the occasion during the crisis
and confront the situations within the company or with suppliers nor with customers (WebFinance,
2017c).

Due to the small technical team, we were stretched thin and had to work overtime to resolve issues. We
also sometimes had to work during the weekends. Moreover, there was no appreciation from the
management for the amount of work employees had to put in, let alone any monetary compensation for
overtime.

Furthermore, there was no management structure for the employees. However small the technical team
was, we were all doing everything in the company. There was not designation or specialization. I was
personally doing everything from assisting to manage servers, routers, firewall, and switches to
supporting the network. I had to also perform installations at customer sites and base stations. We
always had hectic days without time to think about network management and infrastructure
development.

Furthermore, the management did not trust its employees. When and if a customer stops using
Company X’s services, it was blamed on one or the other employee of either selling the customer to
another internet service provider (competition) or not doing enough to sustain the customer. The
management did not have any Human Resource management skills or knowledge. The leadership were
never ready to accept that network was in shambles and needed overhaul.

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

Additionally, the employees had no authority to make any decision in terms of network or customer.
Every petite decision had to be consulted with the management. It was really a frustrating employment
experience.

The management had never been the inspiration to perform and engage in achieving the objectives. It
was always the customers who were the inspiration for the employees and especially for me.

As soon as I had joined the company, there was constant power outages in the city of Dar es salaam.
From the time I joined, I had put forward multiple proposals and quotations for backup power system
using batteries and invertors. I had multiple discussions with the technical team with various analysis of
suppliers to offer the best backup solution at an effective cost. However, the cost was high but the cost
and benefit analysis was superior for a reliable network solution. At the time of my entry, the network
was unstable for many reasons and one of the major reason was with the regular power outages and
blackouts.

Multiple proposals were presented to the management on phase by phase installation and
implementation of power backup solutions throughout all the base stations in the city.

The leadership had poor communication skills. It always polarized away of meetings and discussion on
multiple and basic company issues such as network stability, investment, customer issues and
resolutions and many more. When it came to customer complaints, we as a technical team, were always
put into the corner and left to take the beating.

The directors always had a closed door policy. However, the Chief Operating Officer stated to have an
open door policy which was not true. Firstly, it was not true due to his knowledge and expertise in the
management field. Secondly, he had little or no knowledge in the technical arena. He had no ideas or
suggestions to direct or contribute to the network issues arising. He was not open and extremely
judgmental in situations. Thirdly, the Chief Operating Officer was egoistic. He wanted to be in charge of
discussions and never wanted to be told how to run the company. He assumed he knew everything,
which was a very bad leadership quality. (Doyle, 2017)

Due to his ego, relationship building with the fellow employees was very difficult. No one could trust his
suggestions and could not share any company issues.

Motivation is “Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually
interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal” (WebFinance,
2017d). There was no support in terms of motivation that was showed by the management by offering
investment, additional manpower or appreciation.

“Motivation is literally the desire to do things. It's the difference between waking up before dawn to
pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day. It's the crucial element in setting and attaining
goals—and research shows you can influence your own levels of motivation and self-control. So figure
out what you want, power through the pain period, and start being who you want to be” (Today, 2017).

The team were constantly demoralized since various proposals were set forth for the upgrade and
maintenance of the network. Less than 10% of the proposals were approved in my tenure. During major
network outages, we had to run around like headless chickens to sort out and fire fight the issues.

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

The office and working environment was pathetic in Company X. The furniture and setup was old and
falling apart. There were not enough chairs for the employees to sit upon. Company X did not have
enough funds to invest in new furniture. Additionally, there was no mineral water for the employees to
drink inside the office. Everyone had to get it from outside from its own budget. This was a distraction to
work and waste valuable time as we had to go to the shops and supermarkets to buy every time the
water depleted.

As discussed earlier, there was no job description and specialization for any employee especially the
technical team. We had to perform anything and everything in the company causing many tasks pending
as we could not concentrate in a task. Things were falling apart everywhere. If things were not falling
apart than the power outages would cause us running around base stations. Another reason for things
falling apart was usage of unlicensed frequency equipment in the city for backbone links and also for the
customer units (subscriber units - SU). Since, we were not the only company using similar unlicensed
frequency equipment, there was a lot of interference between point to point or multipoint links that
had to be dealt with on a frequent basis.

Job design is the “Work arrangement (or rearrangement) aimed at reducing or overcoming job
dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks. Through job
design, organizations try to raise productivity levels by offering non-monetary rewards such as greater
satisfaction from a sense of personal achievement in meeting the increased challenge and responsibility
of one's work. Job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, and job simplification are the various
techniques used in a job design exercise” (WebFinance, 2017b).

Further to the discussion, during my tenure, I do not believe being very productive at Company X as we
were just putting out fires and not really developing the network infrastructure. We actually never had
the time to really sit and discuss about network optimization or infrastructure development. The
network had very little changes from the time I entered the company to the time I completed my
employment with the company. There was also no personal development while working at Company X.
And this was the major motive for quitting my position and moving on after only sixteen months.
Neither was the company benefiting from my employment as I was hired to stabilize and manage the
network with further development. But due to less technical people, I was dragged into managing and
fixing the network and moving from customer to customer and base station to base station for fixing
issues. Therefore, the organization’s requirements were not being met.

The position I held had no scope of the job. The job was not challenging my knowledge and expertise
but rather performing melodious and firefighting tasks without investing in the stability of the network.
Company X was also not fulfilling the interests of the individuals or employees. We were rather
destroying our health by working in such a stressful environment. Furthermore, the company had no
structure and was not ready to hire more employees due to funding. Therefore, no job specialization.

I have to accept that Company X had diversity. In terms of mixed workforce, the company was diverse
with different ethnicities, genders and religions working together under one roof.

“Two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode-
decode) information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning. In general,
communication is a means of connecting people or places. In business, it is a key function of

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

management--an organization cannot operate without communication between levels, departments

and employees. See also communications” (WebFinance, 2017a).

There was no respect and communication between management and employees. The company did not
want to hear about employee concerns such as drinking water, working environment and many more.
Additionally, the management was also not ready to invest in the projects and improve the network
availability and stability.

As discussed in the definition, communication must be two way. This was not the case at Company X.
Management would only order and blame. They were never ready to understand or contemplate on
how situations turned in such a way.

Resolution:
Finally, we sat with the management to discuss the issues regarding new mail server and we were told
that we will be informed on the decision and outcome of the proposal. After many weeks and with
consistent follow up with the management, the proposal was denied due to budget.

We had to create another proposal to use an old and free desktop lying around in the office by
increasing memory on it and insist for a trainer to assist in the implementation of the project.

Another meeting was set with the new proposal. With a lot of convincing the project was accepted.
However, the funds were not available. Therefore, we had to wait for more than a month before the
project started implementation.

Furthermore, the power grid was not in our favor either. We had power cuts almost every day in one or
the other base stations. Due to no power backup systems, we had to run to the base stations with a
power generator to supply power to those base stations. We only had one generator making us run
around from base station to base station for supplement power source.

During this time, a General Manager was appoint who was again fresh from completing his Master in
Business Administration from England. With my tenure in the company and with his support, one power
backup solution was approved for a small base station as a pilot project with one battery and an
inverter.

Conclusion
Company X was the worse employment in my career so far. The management had no leadership skills to
manage the company and situations. It also needed to train and trust its employees. Furthermore, the
company demoralized its employees. In my tenure, I had seen many employees quit their jobs due to
lack of trust, motivation and challenge in the job. The employees did not have a Human Resource
manager to assist in offering job design and specialization to employment and further, provide job
satisfaction.

The main purpose of working so hard for the company and keeping myself motivated was due to the
suffering of the customers and trying to make sure we do not lose any clientele.

Additionally, the company should have improved its office and working environment. It was the first
impression for customers who visited the office for sales and technical meetings.

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

The company should have hired an experienced and trusted general manager or chief operating officer.
Therefore, the directors should have stepped down and not interfered in the management of the
company on the day to day basis.

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Ayaz Bahadurali Bandali, MBALN-701 - Organizational Behavior Assignment 2, University of Nicosia, December
2017

References
DOYLE, A. 2017. List of Leadership Skills [Online]. Available: https://www.thebalance.com/leadership-
skills-list-2063757 [Accessed 19th December 2017].
TODAY, P. 2017. Motivation [Online]. Available: https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation
[Accessed 20th December 2017].
WEBFINANCE, I. 2017a. communication [Online]. Available:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/communication.html [Accessed 21st December
2017].
WEBFINANCE, I. 2017b. Job design

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job-design.html [Online]. Available:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job-design.html [Accessed 20th December
2017].
WEBFINANCE, I. 2017c. Leadership [Online]. Available:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/leadership.html [Accessed 19th December
2017].
WEBFINANCE, I. 2017d. Motivation [Online]. Available:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/motivation.html [Accessed 19th December
2017].