Organizational Behaviour and Leadership in Coles Group Limited

This article discusses the challenges faced by Coles Group Limited in terms of organizational behaviour and leadership. It explores the different theories and models of organizational behaviour and leadership that can be implemented to overcome these challenges. The article also evaluates possible alternative solutions and provides a literature review of the topic.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Introduction
Coles Group Limited is one of the best retailers of Australia which has over 2,500
stores all over the continent. It is a hundred-year-old company with its head office in
Melbourne. It has turned into a super-market from a variety store, thereby becoming one of
the leading retail brands of Australia. The first store was inaugurated in the year 1914 on 9th
of April by G.J.Coles. In spite of the difficult times during the Great Depression, it did not
stop giving away a huge amount of their profit for charitable purposes to the hospitals and
even relief funds for the jobless. Also, after the Second World War, a lot of married women
joined the company. Gradually it started selling electronic appliances like irons and toasters
and even cosmetic products. By the 1950s, Coles had started becoming a self-service shop
which led it into the formation of a super-market. A series of retail outlets throughout the
country occurred in the 70s with more focus on value, innovation and convenience of the
customers. Moreover, in 1982, Coles implied the first electronic scanners to give a printed
receipt to the buyers for the very first time. In the upcoming years, Coles adopted
technological evolutions and modernized itself to begin the trend of online shopping. Over
the Time Coles group has engaged itself with various innovative ideas to expand the business
as well as to serve the shoppers with the best of the products. It also engaged into national
partnerships with various other brands like Secondbite, Little Athletics etc. Under
Wesfarmer’s leadership, Coles experienced a turnaround while regaining its pride and grew
certain value based strategies to serve the customers. At present and even in future also,
Coles is determined in consistency of delivering the best quality of fresh food, most
innovative products and a great value and service to the customers with trust. It is also
committed to make the lives of their buyers, partners, suppliers as well as team members
easier and better. Even after nine long years of cost deflation, it has succeeded in providing
value to the customers by offering more products on as low prices as possible. It ensures in

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investing in a wide range of shopping alternatives due to the fast change in consumer
expectations and demands. For this purpose, Coles has developed online and mobile shopping
applications and also several delivery facilities like Click&Collect, home delivery etc. Coles
will also continue to develop its extended national network of stores by focusing on buyer
insights, bringing up the latest technology and innovations to control the renewal programs
and also tailoring the variety of products and their costs based on the demands of the local
shoppers. The success of this company lies in the fact that it believes not only in making its
team members proud to work with, but also the customers feeling great to shop at Coles
Group. It acknowledges the importance and value of giving an inclusive surrounding for all
the team members and buyers through various self-organized programs. By adopting several
organizational behaviors, they have successfully become one of the largest and most favored
companies in the country. As CEO Richard Goyder rightly says that the key to success is
nothing but human capital. They bring a powerful performance culture which is again one of
their significant points. Organizational structure, human capital, leadership, stakeholders are
the chief features of the organizational behavior which leads to the success of companies like
the Coles Group (Burch, Dixon & Lawrence, 2013).
Organizational Issues
Coles, as discussed earlier is a retail giant who has to deal various people in the
marketplace and as a result of this, the senior level managers have to face issues related to
organizational behaviours as well as leadership. The managers of the organization are facing
a major issue in workforce diversity. It can be termed as one of the most important and
common issue or challenge faced by the organizations like Coles. They have to deal with a
lot of people who are different from each other. Organizations nowadays are becoming more
cosmopolitan or global oriented. Apart from this they are becoming more heterogeneous in
the context of race, gender and ethnicity. Workforce diversity is a wide term and possess a

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real challenge to the managers of many organizations. People from different races and
ethnicities work in this organization. There can be employees who can be physically
handicapped. Special need to be taken for these employees so that they can work peacefully
in the organization of Coles. The managers have to respect the diversity of all the employees
who are working in all the branches of Coles. They have to shift their philosophy, which is to
treat everyone alike, and instead of that have to recognize the differences and respond to
those differences in a structured way that will assure the employee retention forb the
organization as well as to increase the productivity so that revenue generation is not
hampered by the people (Zehir et al, 2013). An increasingly diverse workforce helps as both
opportunities and challenges for the organisation of Coles. To overcome this challenge, the
senior level management can use the theory of McGregor from the leadership background.
Here the managers have to motivate their employees, which will help to drive themselves to
perform at their best and help the company to earn more revenue so that they can be benefited
as their salaries will also be increased if the revenue generation of Coles increases
automatically, and will help the company to gain a competitive edge over others. A good
manager need to realize that leadership affects the behaviour of the employees, which will
affect the organizational behaviour as a whole. Motivation is needed because it helps to
increase the involvement and participation of the employees working out there. Diversity can
become a competitive advantage of Coles if the decision making as well as the team
performance on complex tasks is improved, and this can be done by the managers by
following and implementing the leadership theory of McGregor. It has been found in the
researches and studies that a diverse workforce is essential to provide better customer service
in the global market place. And Coles belongs from such an industry where customer service
is the first and foremost thing which needs to be followed in highest quality. Workforce
diversity can increase creativity as well as innovation in Coles if properly managed by their

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managers. And on the other hand, it can lead to create more problem in the communication in
all the levels of the organization, high employee turnover and more interpersonal conflicts.
The managers need to follow the proper organizational behavior and leadership theories in
order to minimize these challenges (Ludwig & Frazier, 2013).
Another major challenge faced by Coles is to improve the quality and productivity of
the company. Due to the advance pace of the globalization, more intense competitions are
faced by the companies. In these situations, managers have to think seriously about
improving the quality and productivity of Coles in order to compete and sustain in the
marketplace. In order to cope up with this situation, the management of Coles need to follow
the Supportive Model of organizational behaviour. The main objective of this model is to
possess leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in this model are
oriented towards their job performance and participation. The employee requirement that is
met is status and recognition. This model is dependent on leadership aim. It will help to
provide a climate to assist the employees to grow and conclude the job the each and every
employee are performing in the organization. The role of the management is to assist the job
performance of all the employees working in Coles, so that they can feel a sense of
participation (Hauser, 2014).
Coles also have to deal with the ethical issues faced by the company. Ethical changes
help to promote organizational management and this can be initiated by the improvement of
appropriate and organized work culture. There is a set of principles, values and beliefs within
the organization which helps to review the employee behaviour within the organization. The
managers of Coles can promote the ethical changes by establishing ethical behaviour, which
includes department openness, workplace respect and conformity to policies. Globalization
and technological arte also two issues which has been faced by the organization of Coles.

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Literature Review
There are many organizational behaviour and leadership theories which can be
discussed under this context. Organizational behaviour refers to the study of the human
behaviour given in a particular organizational environment. It means that this theory asks
questions about the different ways a human behave in their respective work environments.
This theory dates back to the early 20th centuries which developed out of classical
management theories of Frederick W. Taylor. There are three basic theories of Organizational
Behaviour: Classical Theory, Neo-classical Theory and Modern Management theory.
Under the Classical theory, the theory of Bureaucracy by Max Weber which refers to the
management of big organizations featured by hierarchy. The characteristic features of this
theory are that the norms and job duties are clearly jotted down; hierarchy of power is
focused among some high-ranked managers and the process of appointing and promoting
officers are totally formal. The Theory of Scientific Management by Fredrick Winslow
Taylor believes in understanding exactly what an organization wants from its men and what
can be done to bring the best of them in the cheapest way possible. It follows four main
principles (Lu, 2014):
 Establishing a scientific approach for every element of a person’s work,
 Selecting, training, teaching and developing each employee in a scientific manner,
 Cooperation with the employees to assure that the plans and principles are matched
with the job, and
 Providing equal and proper distribution of work labour.
This can be used by Coles in order to possess a proper organizational behaviour and to
meet up the issues related to workforce diversity and to maintain the productivity and
quality of the organization.

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Under the Neo-classical Theory, falls the Human Relations Theory by Mayo and
Roethlisberger and Behavioural Science Theory by Maslow and McGregor of Theory X
and Theory Y. The Human Relations Theory was based on the principle that personal
behaviour and sentiments are inter-related. An individual’s behaviour is clearly affected by
the group influences. Also, the individual output is built with the standards of a group.
Money, on the other hand, was a less determining factor for individual outcomes. The
standards, sentiments and security given by a group was chiefly responsible for larger
productivity. In Theory X, the workers need close supervision, they may avoid responsibility
and work, demand only money and they must be pushed to bring out their performance.
While in Theory Y, people work independently with utmost responsibility. They are self-
motivated to work and are naturally driven to produce their best performance. Speaking of
Modern Management Theory, Re-engineering is an important aspect. It is the fundamental
rethinking and redesigning of business procedures to obtain dramatic advances in critical,
recent measures of performance like price, quality, speed and service. It includes the total
process of redesigning a job with a clear and efficient planning from the very beginning till
end. It aims to improve the all over performance level, efficiency level and total production
(Blader & Tyler, 2013).
A leader, on the other hand, may be defined as someone who influences others to achieve
some goals of an organization. A leader aims to be successful and that is where the theories
of leadership in organizational behavior come up. There are certain leadership models or
concepts that give a better understanding of this theory. Some of these are mentioned below
(Graham, Ziegert & Capitano, 2015):
 The Trait Theory of Leadership
 The Behavioral Theory of Leadership
 The Functional Theory of Leadership

7ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
 The Transformational Theory of Leadership
 The Transactional Theory of Leadership
 The Environmental Theory of Leadership
There are also a variety of Leadership styles such as Autocratic Leadership, where the
manager holds the utmost power and he is the ultimate decision making person; Democratic
Leadership, also known as, believes in sharing ideas and decision building capabilities with
the workers and encourages them; Participative Leadership, which develops a cohesion
within the workers and helps in reducing work related stress; Achievement Leadership, where
the goal is high performance, thereby building a high confidence level in the members to
pursue their goals; and Laissez-Faire Leadership, where the leader gives very little or no
direction to their employees and give them full freedom, but this requires highly trained and
capable workers (Al-sharafi & Rajiani, 2013).
Evaluation of Possible Alternative Solution
A proper leadership or organizational behavior can help to solve the issues and
challenges faced by the organizations. The same thing is meant for the organization of Coles
too. The profitability as well as the productivity of Coles will depend on the strategic
decisions and their effective implementation and the management of Coles have to focus on
the strategy development for growth of the organization. The Mintzberg Managerial Roles
can be followed by the managers of Coles, in order to increase the productivity level of the
employees as well as to sustain in this competitive marketplace, to enjoy a competitive edge
over others. It is divided into three categories. They are (Pentland & Hærem, 2015):
Interpersonal
These involves the roles of the managers through which they can interact with the
employees in order to achieve the goal and objectives of the organization.

8ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
Figure Head – The manager need to perform some symbolic and ceremonial duties by the
virtue of their position, through which they will be able to guide the employees of Coles to
perform at the highest level possible in order to sustain in these competitive world.
Leader – It can be termed as one of the major responsibility of the managers to establish a
proper communication with the employees of the organization at all levels, in order to
motivate and encourage their employees to treat the customers at a superior level so that
customer service is properly maintained and keep the employees effective at work.
Liaison – It is another major duty of the managers to remain connected with the outside
world, so that any changes in the marketplace in terms of news about the competitors and any
other innovative and external factors changes, so that Coles can plan accordingly and
structure the plans and programs effectively and efficiently.
Informational
These are concerned with the information related to the duties of the managers.
Monitor – The managers of Coles need to seek all the external as well as internal information
which can affect the company and help to access the internal workings within the
organization and meet the aim and objectives of Coles in order to gain a competitive
advantage over its competitors.
Disseminator – It is another important role of the managers where they need to share the
information gathered with their peers and colleagues.
Spokesperson – This includes the transfer of the important and required information to the
outside world from within the organization. This will help the customers to know about the
important features that the company is going to introduce into the marketplace so that the
people will be attracted to Coles rather than going to its competitors.

9ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
Decisional
This includes the making the choices by the managers.
Entrepreneur – Here the managers need to inject different entrepreneurial roles like an
imitator, designer and supervisor for the improvement of the company. This role will help to
guide the employees of Coles and feel them motivated and safe to work in an organization
like Coles.
Disturbance handler – Another major role of the managers of Coles will be to tackle all the
issues and challenges faced within the organization and are able to take immediate, corrective
and peaceful actions accordingly in case of unexpected difficulties.
Resource allocator – The manager of Coles has to take care about all the resources available
within the company as well as outside the company and to assure their optimum utilization, in
order to help the company to grow and maximize its profits.
Negotiator – The senior level management also as to negotiate different things in context of
the company. This will help to have an ethical organizational behavior among the employees
of Coles.
The managers of Coles possess all these qualities and implement them into the
organization effectively and efficiently in order to manage the employees, customers and the
sales of the organization.
Recommendations
As discussed. the Mintzberg Managerial Roles can be implemented in the
organization of Coles. Apart from that, proper leadership roles are required for the
organization of Coles. All the required skill set is required in order to have an effective work
culture within the company. The success of the company not only depends on the managerial

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roles, but also about the roles of his peers and colleagues. The interest of the employees need
to be taken care of so that they can feel motivated and encouraged as well as dedicated to
their work. Proper organizational behavior of all the employees along with the correct
leadership styles can only help Coles to compete with its competitors and sustain in these
competitive marketplace. Every challenges and issues need to be faced with proper care so
that a competitive work culture can be followed and maintained within the company so that
the competitive edge can be enjoyed in the marketplace which is full of competitors.
The internal as well as the external factors need to be analyzed and interpreted by the
management of Coles. The external factors will help to identify the environmental and threats
that will determine the impact of environmental factor on the decision making process of the
company. The internal factor will help to analyse and interpret the organizations deals with
people, finance and services. Coles also need to improve the IT cells which will help them to
manage and safeguard the data which will, in turn, help to improve the employee
administration within the company. The emerging technology is also facing some challenges
as the employees of Coles are unable to handle the situation. For this, proper training is
required so that the organizational behaviour is properly maintained.
Conclusion
From the above discussed essay, it can be concluded that organizational behavior and
leadership are the basic pillars of an organization which helps to have a proper structure
within the organization and possess power to face the issues and challenges within as well as
outside the company. This will help to maintain sustainability within as well as outside the
organization. A proper leadership or organizational behavior can help to solve the issues and
challenges faced by the organization of Coles. The profitability as well as the productivity of

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Coles will depend on the proper strategic decisions and their effective implementation by the
management of Coles.

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