Group_02_DWO

2018

DESIGNING WORK ORGANISATIONS

LARSEN & TOUBRO

Buildings & Factories IC

Group No. 02 PGPSM03002
Akshansh Rana PGPSM03010
Gowtham D PGPSM03018
Nikita Wankhede PGPSM03025
Rabin Thakur PGPSM03026
Devanand S PGPSM03032
Vibha Gajbhiye

Table of Contents

Executive Summary................................................................................................................................. 2
The Specific Environment of Larsen & Toubro Construction.................................................................. 3

General Environment.......................................................................................................................... 3
Specific Environment .......................................................................................................................... 5
L&T’s Organisation Structure - Its Strengths and Weaknesses............................................................... 7
Strengths............................................................................................................................................. 9
Weakness ............................................................................................................................................ 9
The Culture of L&T Construction ..........................................................................................................10
Artifacts ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Values................................................................................................................................................ 10
Trompenaars & Turner’s (1997) ‘Seven Dimensions of Culture’ ......................................................12
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 13
References ............................................................................................................................................13

Table of Figures and Tables

Figure 1 Comprehensive Organizational Structure of Larsen & Toubro................................................. 2
Table 2 Uncertainty Framework for Construction Industry.................................................................... 4
Table 3 Resource Dependency Analysis.................................................................................................. 6
Figure 4 Organizational Structure of Buildings & Factories Individual Company ................................... 7

List of Abbreviations

L&T - Larsen & Toubro
B&F IC - Buildings & Factories Individual Company
SBG - Strategic Business Group
CBA - Commercial Buildings & Airports
RBF - Residential Buildings & Factories
BU - Business Unit
LLC - Limited Liability Company
MEP - Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing
EHS - Environment Health & Safety

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Executive Summary

This report aims to understand the organisational structure, the environment an organisation
operates in and the culture that is imbibed in an organisation and its employees. We are well aware
of the challenges that the individuals in the construction domain experiences. Be it the long working
hours or the work pressure that overwhelms the individual’s identity. With the motivation to
understand the same we have selected the construction as our area of study. The organisation under
the microscope shall be Larsen & Toubro. Larsen & Toubro is a major construction, engineering,
technology, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, with global presence. L&T addresses
critical needs in key sectors - Building, Hydrocarbon, Infrastructure, Process Industries, Power and
Defence - for customers in over 30 countries around the world. For the purpose of this study we shall
be studying the Buildings & Factories Individual Company (B&F IC).

Larsen &
Toubro

L&T Reality L&T L&T Infotech L&T Etc.
Construction Equipments

Buildings &
Factories IC

Metallurgical & Scope of this study
Material

Handling IC

Power
Transmission IC

Water and
Effluent IC

Smart
World IC

Figure 1 Comprehensive Organizational Structure of Larsen & Toubro

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The Specific Environment of Larsen & Toubro Construction

L&T having business interests in a wide array of subjects namely, engineering, construction,
manufacturing goods, information technology and financial services, operates in an environment that
is complex. The general as well as specific environment of the industry is an interesting study
therefore.

The following paragraphs thereby are intended to understand the general environment in
which L&T Construction operates. In line with the same, PEST analysis will help to analyse the external
environment. To understand the specific environment of L&T, there is an analysis done on Resource
Dependency Theory of the company. All the information is based on primary information received
from contacting Mr. Manish Chawla (Project Manager, Delhi), Mr. S. K. Garg (Project Manager, Delhi),
Mr. Malaya Satyaketu (Assistant Manager, Delhi) & Ms. Monica Shrivastava (Senior Engineer, Delhi)
from Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

General Environment

The general environment is a study of forces that shape the specific environment and affect
ability of all organisations operating in that particular space to obtain resources and continue with
their business operations. PEST analysis serves the purpose of studying these forces.

PEST (Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological) Analysis of Construction Industry

The following text examines at the PEST conditions within which any company from the
construction industry operates in. Examples to understand the factors have been quoted from the
interaction with L&T representative mentioned above.

Political Scenario: The concurrence between state and central governments play a major role
in allocation of construction projects to states. Thus, new construction projects for companies working
in this space depends a lot on the political scenario of the region. As shared by the L&T representative
during an informal meeting, projects from Gujarat where the ruling party is same as that at the centre,
has been free flowing in terms of funds vis-à-vis Uttar Pradesh where there was a different
government party ruling the state prior to 2017.

Taxation: Introduction of new taxation schemes like the very recent GST has direct
implications in the price of building materials. The same also reflects in the price of the construction
and thereby affects demand of the projects. Under the new GST tax regime, building materials have
been rated between 18-28% and thus they tend to raise overall cost of the projects.

International Markets: Any Indian company wanting to expand its reach to global markets
shall have to work within the ambits of local regulations. For example, L&T during the expansion phase
in 2010 entered different world markets with different business propositions. Indian companies are
free to operate in Gulf, so L&T transformed their West Asia arm as a fully independent divisional unit
(L&T Oman LLC, L&T Saudi Arabia LLC). On the other hand, L&T entered African, European and Brazilian
markets, mainly through sales outfits.

Economic Growth: Rising economic growth fuels confidence in governments to come up with
new infrastructure and building projects. Thus, rising GDP and other economic factors which describe
health of an economy contribute a lot in newer projects to come up. In turn, companies operating in
this space are relaxed with their order books rolling. For example, after global financial crisis of 2008
hit Indian markets, real estate demand went low and thus, L&T aggressively expanded its business
operations in the Middle East markets.

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Education: Construction works generally involve a high level of technical expertise. Companies
working in construction industry keep coming up with challenging works every now and then.
Expansion of railways in the higher altitudes of Jammu & Kashmir and difficult terrain of North-eastern
states is a testimony of the challenging works construction companies are submerged into. The need
for this technical expertise is thus fed by good education levels of the society. Technically sound, well-
educated in the subject and better equipped construction engineers, design engineers, architects,
draughtsman, etc thus help construction companies achieve difficult milestones.

Labour/Social Mobility: Construction companies depend a lot on physical labour of its
workforce. There is thus a huge cadre of labour that a company working in this industry has to deal
with. Local laws and labour unions impact the way work is done in these companies.

Technological Interventions: Though, broadly speaking construction companies follow a very
mechanistic approach in executing infrastructure works so there is little scope of a technological
intervention. However, recently there has been a need to incorporate sustainability factors in
construction. This calls for a greater technological intervention in terms of making construction green
and energy efficient. Overall, industry focus on Research & Development is low and new
developments/innovations have traditionally been a dormant thing in construction industry.

Digitalization: In line with the movement of “Digital India” initiated by Indian Government,
the construction sector is also going through a revamp. Companies are “going digital” by adopting
practices like, online progress monitoring, Digital safety and Quality monitoring platform, Tools and
Tackles management, Workmen connect (Messages of Labour requirement is circulated to every
workmen/sub-contractor through mobile SMSs).

Overall, the construction industry has been explained as an industry that has deep impacts from
political and economic factors of the region it operates in. Indian construction industry, in particular
has seen little innovation in terms of execution and size and complexity of construction projects are
high thereby needing high educational standards from society to meet up with those challenges. With
so many factors affecting the business decision making, the external environment of construction
industry can be assumed to be unstable.

Moreover, the companies working in this space are usually multi-product delivering
companies. For example, L&T has operations in building diverse structures ranging from mountain
tunnels to bridges, highways to residential buildings, etc. Also, companies are operating in diverse
geographies dealing with a number of suppliers. This demands different set of skills and expertise from
different department of the company. All this adds up to the nature of operations being quite
complex.

Uncertainty Framework for Construction Industry

STABLE

DYNAMISM Complex + Unstable
High Uncertainty For
UNSTABLE
Construction Industry

SIMPLE COMPLEX

COMPLEXITY LEVEL
Table 2 Uncertainty Framework for Construction Industry

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Specific Environment

The forces that shape up the organisation’s ability to secure resources are studied under the
specific environment. These forces come from outside stakeholder group which may include
customers, distributors, unions, competitors, suppliers and government. Unlike the general
environment where study is focussed on a particular industry, study of specific environment is
targeted at a particular company working in that industry. This study holds importance as an
organisation continuously engages with outside stakeholders to obtain resources for its survival.

To study the specific environment of L&T, following forces can be identified namely,
customers, suppliers & sub-contractors and finally, competitors.

Customers: Majority of projects L&T undertakes are huge infra-projects whose cost runs into
hundreds and thousands of crores. Such huge projects are usually owned by government only. Thus,
the major customer of L&T is the public sector of the country where L&T is executing the works.
However, private sector too accounts for a sizeable amount of customer base for the company.
Traditionally, L&T maintained that a minimum of 30% of business was supposed to be from private
sector while 40-50% shall come from government. Private sector projects are usually real estate or
land development projects while government projects include building highways, metros, railways,
etc.

Since the last two-three years, an unusual slow down in private sector has led to a strenuous
situation for the company in terms of procuring new projects and pressure on business units is to rely
acquiring more and more public-sector projects. While Middle-eastern markets had been a cash-cow
for the company, recent dip in oil prices have led innumerous projects scrapped or put on hold by
Middle-east governments as well.

Suppliers & Sub-contractors: L&T addressing wide array of construction projects, has to deal
with a wide range of suppliers. From machines to materials, L&T relies on a network of vendors, sub-
contractors and service providers for various tasks in a construction project. Also, these suppliers and
sub-contracting forms the largest cost-centre to L&T and thus managing them effectively becomes
critical for the company to remain in green with respect to finances. For ensuring better management
of the supply chain, each business unit has been given its own procurement department which well
manages sourcing and supplying. To ensure optimised costs, raw materials are sourced from local
regions and sub-contracting are given to local companies. This is the fundamental rule L&T practices
worldwide to manage the suppliers and sub-contractors.

Also, L&T ensures environment safety and green practices that they follow shall be reflected in the
supply chain as well. Specific clauses are added to the suppliers’ contracts regarding environmental
compliance, human rights, labour practices, etc.

Competitors: In the large infrastructure projects space, L&T has got limited competitors
because of the specialisation and expertise the company has achieved while operating since the last
80 years. Due to it’s large size and large number of running projects at any given time, L&T commands
great control on costs of execution which it’s competitors are unable to achieve. Also, L&T has control
over a large part of the suppliers serving the construction industry which helps to keep company stay
ahead of it’s competitors in terms of achieving supply chain support.

However, over the last few years companies like TATA Projects, J.Kumar Infra, Pratibha
Industries Ltd., AFCONS, etc have posed tough competition to L&T mainly because of associating
themselves with world players like China Rail First Group (CRFG), South Korea Engineering &
Construction (SKEC), Gulermark, FEMC, etc as JV partners. A similar approach of associating with JV
partners has been adopted by L&T to enter international markets, especially Middle-East.

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The above listed forces are to be managed by companies to create competitive advantage.
Resource Dependence Theory can be applied to understand how L&T is managing these forces.

Dealing with customers can be understood as a symbiotic interdependency which L&T
manages informally using their reputation and formally through strategic alliance. L&T maintains an
edge over competitors while bidding for many government projects through the tremendous
reputation it has maintained by completing innumerous projects for the government in time and with
great quality control. In case where a formal approach is needed to manage this interdependency,
L&T opts for strategic alliance with its customers. The bargaining power however remains more or
less with L&T because of the long-term associations they have with their customers. An example of
the same is the association of L&T with DLF Limited for developing real estate in the city of Gurugram.

L&T shares symbiotic dependency with their suppliers as well. Informally, L&T exercises their
bargaining power over the suppliers by reputation, just as they exercise the same on its customers.
Increased participation in supply chain network helps in regulating the suppliers using the reputation
power of the company. Apart from the same, competitive pricing and less of current liabilities towards
its suppliers help maintain the high level of command L&T enjoys. As a formal measure of managing
this interdependency, L&T acquires the suppliers as and when needed. Though L&T construction
doesn’t rely more on acquisitions, the other disciplines in which L&T operates relies heavily on
acquisitions to bargain control over its suppliers. Recently, L&T has been selling away its assets in order
to generate funds for acquisition of companies.

Managing competitors is a competitive interdependency L&T manages through strategic
alliances. The information technology wing, finance wing, oil & gas wing have strategic alliances with
Pegaystems, National Collateral Management Services Ltd. (NCMSL) and GE, respectively. L&T
Infotech has been aggressively acquiring firms in order to grow and compete at a level where its
competitors are already established.

Managing Through

FORCES Reputation Strategic Merger & Collusion &
Alliance Takeover Cartel

Customers    
Suppliers    
Competitors    

Table 3 Resource Dependency Analysis

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L&T’s Organisation Structure - Its Strengths and Weaknesses

L&T Buildings and Factories is an Individual Company, which branches out from the L&T
conglomerate Banyan. It focusses in construction of Residential Towers, Health Buildings, Public
Space, Factories, IT & Office Space, Airport and operates across 5 continents and 26 countries,
including India. The company has a complex organizational structure, having functional, divisional,
matrix and market structure at different levels, according to the nature of work.

At the top of the tree is B&F IC Head (Organizational Level), on whose close authority operates
a Coordination team, to communicate to the subsequent levels of hierarchy. The coordination team
operates closely with Strategic Business Groups (SBGs), which consists of two operational division,
namely Commercial Buildings and Airports (CBA) and Residential Buildings and Factories (RBF) and a
subsidiary which is a joint venture of L&T and The Zubair Corporation whose operations are majorly
based in Oman (L&T Oman LLC). Each of the SBGs consists of a coordination team and Heads of
Individual service functions namely, Mechanical Engineering and Plumbing (MEP), Environment Health
and Safety (EHS), Formwork, Procurement, Accounts & Admin, Human Resources, etc., Each of the
SBGs Have similar functions, but the area of operation being different, displays the attributes of a

Building &
Factories IC

Commercial Buildings Residential Buildings & L&T Oman LLC
& Airports (CBA SBG) Factories (RBF SBG)

Health
Business Unit

Public Space Locational
Business Unit Cluster

IT & Office Space (Delhi/Chennai/Hyd…)
Business Unit

Airports
Business Unit

Figure 4 Organizational Structure of Buildings & Factories Individual Company

Divisional Structure, till this level. Though the Infrastructure operations in these two divisions are
similar to each other, the divisional structure helps in the managing of two broad operational areas
which has different environmental challenges, opportunities and constraints, thus making each of
them accountable for their own individual performances. The Divisional structure also facilitates the

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organizations to make appropriate decisions regarding Product Differentiation or Cost leadership
strategies at a Business-Level. At the same time, in the divisional structure policies and practices are
uniform across the divisions but may not be consistent with the type of project involved so policies
like environmental health and safety, Quality, etc has to be tweaked according to the project.

Reporting to the SBG heads will be the Individual Business Unit (BU) Heads, who would be
managing Business units for Infrastructure operations in areas of Health, Public Space, IT & Office
Space and Airport. The operations of the Business Units under these BU heads is International and is
responsible providing with different technical expertise required during the construction of
multifunctional architectures like Hospitals, Malls, Airports and IT buildings.

Coordinating with the Business Units would be the Clusters where the infrastructure
operations are happening. The clusters are separated spatially, according to the geographical
placement of the projects that are undertaken. The projects are allocated to clusters and grouped
together based on geographical proximity to the functioning cluster heads and their ability to procure
and handle complex projects. The clusters will have individual projects that can be of any type (falling
in different BU ie Hospitals, Commercial buildings, Residential Complexes, Airports). The operational
members in the clusters, reporting to the BUs will also have to report to their respective individual
functional heads (MEP, EHS, Formwork, Procurement, HR, etc.), thus forming a Product Team
Structure, wherein the specialists from the BU will be supporting the members of each clusters
according to their particular area of operation. The individual clusters will be maintaining different
projects within them and owe the allegiance to the individual projects, and the involvement of BU
would be to provide with the technical expertise according to the type of the project. Such a structure,
being a combination between a Product Division Structure wherein the support structures are
centralised and a Multidivisional Structure, wherein each cluster has its own support functions. This
structure gives the best of both worlds, as it is more decentralised than a Functional Structure or a
Product Division structure, thus allowing experts from different Business Units to make quick
functionality related decisions, required for infrastructures customised for that particular function.
This grouping into self-contained clusters increases the integration because, each cluster becomes
responsible for all aspects of its operations. The collaboration with business units by the clusters
motivates the members to build the infrastructures catering to the market requirement and improves
their skill to operate in building that particular type of infrastructure. The expertise of the cluster
members is rich by the collaboration with the Business Units and thus enabling them to operate in
bringing up of structures for different functionalities, according to market demand.

Site level structure is where the major grass root level operations are carried out. The
organizational structure is quite similar to cluster and Strategic Business group level where each
project site has execution team assisted by other service functions like Mechanical Engineering and
Plumbing (MEP), Environment Health and Safety (EHS), Formwork, Procurement, Accounts & Admin
etc. The main function of execution team is liaising with clients, subcontractors and other professional
staff, especially quantity surveyors and the overall project manager. Subcontractors involve both
skilled and unskilled workmen who mostly do the ground level implementation of construction
activities. The various service functional team assist the execution team and act as coordinators
between the corporate office and project site team. They prepare the SOPs, Formats, Documentation,
and reports as per the organization requirement. Service functional team, therefore, report directly
to both site project managers and respective cluster functional heads as well but do not work under
their direct supervision. This is more similar to a matrix structure where there will dual reporting by
the functional team but the execution team directly reports to the project manager as explained
earlier directly reports to the cluster head. The dual reporting helps the organization to ensure
uniformity of execution process and practices across all the site though there will be a modification in
the process as per the nature of work and difficulty in implementation of a particular process at site
level but with the approval from the top management and project manager. Matrix structure also

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helps the site level team to seek guidance from their respective functional head at the cluster level
which in turn will be escalated further depending on the impact and severity of the problem.

Matrix structure also helps the site level team to seek guidance from their respective
functional heads at the cluster level which in turn will be escalated further depending on the impact
and severity of the problem. The lack of a clearly defined hierarchy of authority can also lead to conflict
between functions and project teams over the use of resources e.g., every process may not be
followed as per the corporate SOPs every time and has to be tweaked as per the site conditions with
the approval from the project manager. This creates an internal conflict between the project team.
Performance evaluations are done by both the managers they are reporting to - at the site level and
cluster level. At the time of appraisal, this may in turn, give rise to conflict of interest.

Strengths

 Though the Cluster level is reporting to the SBG level directly, bringing in the Business Unit in
between enables to reduce the work load on the SBG team by acting as a mediatory

 Business Unit team consists of SMEs, their skills are best utilized by giving them a specific
genre of work. Like, a personnel with Bio-medical degree will be there in the Health BU to look
after the Operation Theatre and ICU operations.

 With inclusion of multiple layers of hierarchy between the IC Head and the Site level, a more
refined and filtered information reaches to the top level. This enables better control from the
top.

 Segregating the organisations in clusters (based on their geographical location) helps in
catering to the spatial differences in culture more effectively.

 Departments like Plant & Machinery (P&M), Formwork (those have capital intensive assets)
are well knit and work beyond the cluster to achieve cost efficiency.

 Division of supporting functions (Like, EHS, Quality, P&M) throughout the organisation (Be it
Site, Cluster or SBG) enables to make the department visible throughout the organisation.

 Multi-level approvals for work orders ensures better scrutiny, and keeping the quality and
safety measures at check.

Weakness

 Too many levels makes the decision making a lengthy and time intensive process.
 With 5 different bosses for a Cluster Head, decisional conflicts are bound to happen.
 Reporting (Functional or Divisional) to several bosses makes the employee confused and may

lead to a conflict.
 As the work never stops, having 2-shifts becomes tiring for the employees, and employees

drop their efficiency.
 Being part of such behemoth of an organization, an employee may lead to feel insignificant.
 Frequent transfers within the same function are common practice in L&T, this has a negative

impact on the employee, as they are not able to internalize the culture effectively.

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The Culture of L&T Construction

“Machinery may be there, building may be there…
But without people, it’s all nothing.
People are our only assets”
- Henning Holck-Larsen Founder

This is the vision of the founder of the L&T which led to form the base of the culture at the
organization.

Organizational culture is set of shared values and norms which help and guide the employees
of the organization to worthy and rewarding behaviour.

Artifacts

Visible components of the culture in any organization which are easy to formulate. Following are the
various artifacts of L&T

a) Rituals and Ceremonies: It includes induction of new joiners, their training programs, various
conferences held at organization, and reward system for the employees etc. which are very
important for building the confidence of the employee and make him feel as an important asset
of the organization. L&T provides two week for the technical training of the employees and also
L&T celebrates various occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. which increases
employees involvement in the organization.

b) Symbols and slogans: These shows the reflection of the organizational culture, their intrinsic
behavior. “Employee of the month” shows the example of the symbols the organization has and
“customer first” is an example of the corporate slogan. L&T being a highly professional company
emphasizes on providing best quality to the customer which is also mentioned in the company’s
mission and vision statement. L&T strives for “Right person for Right Job” and encourages the
reward system “Employee of the Month”, and provides bonuses to the star performers as a part
of the organization’s culture.

c) Stories: It includes the stories of the leaders of the organization, the challenges faced by them
and how they tackled them. This might help in solving the current problems by taking the
references of the past events and these stories carries the legacies of the organization. L&T is
not the family owned business in India and provides equal opportunities to all employees. The
current chairman of L&T had joined the organization as GET and reached to this height by
performing and committing to the organization’s goal throughout his career. This example
encourages other employees to perform to the best of them.

Values

These are the guiding principles that people use to determine which types of behavior, events,
situations and outcomes are desirable and undesirable by the organization. Following are the values
of L&T

a) Commitment: L&T views its employees as a great assets for the organization and it intends to
keep long term relationship with its employees. It encourages its employee’s development and
always strives for Right Person for Right Job.

b) Ethics: L&T always encourages the culture of providing service to its customer and also to the
nation. Their tagline also explain the same “We make things that make India proud”.

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c) Empowerment: Talking about the empowerment, L&T is the organization which provide its
employees; control and responsibility that any employee could want to foster and show his
performance in the organization.

L&T provides lots of opportunities to employees to prove themselves and at the same time
expects high level of dedication from them. This high level of positivity in the organization also
encourages its employees to perform their best and even the entry level employees feels encouraged
to give their 100%.

The culture observed in L&T B&F IC is a hybrid mix, as it exhibits attributes of entrepreneurial,
clan, market and bureaucratic cultures. The complex nature of L&T culture can also be attributed to
the different styles of organizational structure dominant at various levels.

The organizational culture at top management level is more of market type with heavy focus on
market share, profitability and achievement of goals. Whereas the culture at the lower managerial
level and site level is entrepreneurial with focus on innovation at work balanced within the purview
of standardized processes, risk taking to ensure getting work done right the first time, every time. Each
individual is a decision maker to execute the day to day tasks and it uses autonomy and power coupled
with high sense of ownership to achieve the same which is encouraged and rewarded by the
organization.

The way the new members in the organization are inducted also facilitates in inculcating the
behavioral and decision making styles in conjunction with the terminal values of the organization,

The newcomers are made to undergo 15 days of formalized training session post which they are
delegated the specific functional responsibilities thereafter which one is expected to learn the ropes
of the business on the go while working on the job. The ability to learn and execute the tasks at hand
opens up plethora of options with no bounds on the level of responsibility being delegated to a person.
Say a newcomer at site level displayed exceptional coordination skills, can be offered a coordination
role at the cluster level. Although the payroll won’t be affected much with the increment in
responsibilities but adds rich experience to one’s skill-set.

The newcomers also have the option to choose a mentor from its preceding hierarchy but the
value of guidance that one could derive from this alliance depends solely on the interpersonal
relationship between the mentor and the mentee as well as the pro-activeness of the mentee. Also
the style is investiture by design with mentor is aimed at nurturing the mentee with positive feedback
and giving time to learn the nuances of the job at hand but its dominantly divestiture in nature with
use of harsh tone language to get work done and exert authority. This can be attributed to the nature
and criticality of the work that demands use of harsh tone and instills a sense of dread for every
mistake made perpetuating a habit of “Doing things right the first time, every time”.

Although the process is standardized new employees are expected to work in a certain style that
depends on who is the reporting manager with level of tolerance towards mistakes on job is very low
as criticality of job is high and each person is responsible for high investment. A mistake by any one
functional unit will result in sub-standard or faulty work that would culminate in high cost of rework.
In a work environment that functions on tight budget constraints such mistakes prove expensive -
monetary as well as safety of employees at site. An employee is thereby expected to be proactive in
taking ownership of responsibilities and learning swiftly with minimum mistakes. Since its a
continuous on-the-job learning process there are no fixed timelines for completing each stage, it solely
depends on the capability and capacity of an individual. The faster and more precise one is in executing
its tasks at hand with maximum quality and minimum cost of rework, is exposed to more challenging
yet diverse opportunities that aid in personal growth of the individual.

To have a better understanding of the culture within L&T B&F IC, we can look at it through the
lens of Trompenaars & Turner’s dimensions of culture.

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Trompenaars & Turner’s (1997) ‘Seven Dimensions of Culture’

Universalism vs. Particularism: The rules and procedures are followed as hard as set concrete. The
stringency in the freedom of operations is attributed to the tight schedule to finish the project on
time, and the tighter constraints laid by the budget. The rules are given more importance than
individual relationships as sticking to the rules lay the roads to timely completion of the project, within
the planned budget. Also since the workplace involves the environment affecting individual health
and safety, the adherence to rules becomes very crucial.

Individualism vs. Collectivism: When a new entrant to the company is to be trained, the 15 day
training program will have a collectivistic approach towards the knowledge transfer process, training
the new employees with adequate skills required for taking up the functional responsibilities. But once
the employee is placed at a site, the skills acquired on job is purely individualistic and is developed
across the years of experience in the particular line of work. The learnings acquired from the switching
of responsibilities and promotion along the vertical hierarchy is also completely individualistic and the
scale of the acquired knowledge and skill reflects in the performance of the employee, and
subsequently in appraisals.

Neutral vs. Emotional: The emotions play a vital role in the authority executed by the superior
hierarchy. Due to the frugality in time and available budget for the project, the deviation from the
planned values of either of the components causes turbulence across the different executionary levels
and expression of emotions is not uncommon. At times, after any unplanned deviations from plans,
the emotional outbursts might as well work as a push to make things fall in place.

Specific vs. Diffuse: Attributing to the extensive work hours and the occasional additional attention
required in some of the projects, the work life balance is usually not adequate enough. Though no
employee is forced to stay and work beyond the working hours, the tangibility in the output of work
and the motivation to deliver pushes the employee beyond work hours. Every project lifecycle has a
peak duration, when the employee might be pushed to even stay at the site, because of the
accountability of deliverables. So practically, there is minimal attention given for Private lives of
employees.

Achievement vs. Ascription: L&T B&F IC is not a family owned company and is also not known to
function with favouritism. Hence, the Performance appraisal and promotions are always a function of
the individual’s performance and expertise, thus attributing the company’s culture to both individual
and collective is achievement, and not ascription. Also, if the project is delivered with a better
efficiency, achieving a better margin than previously planned, the additional profit is distributed
amongst all the employees worked for the project, thus motivating the employees to achieve highest
operational efficiency.

Sequential vs Synchronic: Although there is a particular sequence in which the work has to be done
at a given instance multiple activities are carried out at a site simultaneously. There is no set time
frame when one activity finishes and then only the next will start. Say painting will happen only after
the brickwork is done, so when internal painting is happening at level 0 then brickwork would be
happening at the level 8 so the site manager would have to oversee all the activities along with quality
and safety compliances for each of these activities simultaneously.

Internal Control vs External Control: Construction industry, which is influenced by multitude of
external factors, the control over the project is dependent on the degree of potency of the external
factor on the project. Some factor can be controlled internally like organization has higher bargaining
power over the supplier and distributors. But the organization has to modify their company policies in
line with the changing labour policies so the organization has to comply with the minimum wages,
insurance and safety policies of the employees and they must customize the buildings according to
the customer requirement

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Conclusion

To conclude, we understand that the strategy of construction industry as a whole revolves
around achieving Cost Leadership and L&T being a pioneer in the industry has reached the pinnacle.
But there are trade-offs for that, employees are feeling detached to the organization and low family
involvement. Consequently, It is our suggestion for the organization to shift its focus from being Cost
Leaders to more employee centric organization.

 Newcomers shall be exposed to a more elaborate training program (1 month + duration),
wherein he/she should be put at different sites/projects to understand the work culture.

 Increasing the number of family interaction program.
 Annual CEO meet shall be arranged.
 Inter-cluster and department gathering shall be arranged.
 Making the 2-shifts a day to 3-shifts for better work life balance.
 With aid from digitalization, a bottom-up feedback system can be put in place where even a

entry-level employee can punch in his/her suggestions. A quality circle shall be formed to
scrutinize this making the employees more visible in the organization.
 There shall be a minimum cap on duration on transfer from one project to another, this will
enable them to internalize the culture.

References

L&T Construction. (2018, Mar). Lntecc. Retrieved from Lntecc: www.lntecc.com
Larsen & Toubro. (2018, Mar). Larsen & Toubro. Retrieved from Larsen & Toubro:

www.larsentoubro.com
Mathew, G. R. (2017). Organizational Theory, Design and Change.

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