Unit 3 - Organisations and Behaviour

HND IN BUSINESSORGANISATION AND BEHAVIOUR
UNIT 3: ORGANISATIONS AND
BEHAVIOUR
1.1
Organisations are becoming increasingly complex and take many different forms of
structure and culture, depending on their business and surrounding market environment.
The structure of an organisation should be tailored in a way to allow the successful use of
corporate strategies, thus enabling the smooth completion of their tasks, objectives and
overall end goals. An organisations structure shapes the lines of authority and channels of
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communication, defining group and individual responsibilities and tasks, such as in the span
of control. An organisations culture could be defined as its system of shared assumptions,
norms, values, morals, beliefs and traditions that influence the way that the business
behaves.
Handy identified four Greek Gods to illustratethe organisational culture of fourgroups. This
could be used to help resolve or prevent conflicts that result from clashes between different
cultures (Handy 2009).Handy depicts different organisational cultures byassociatingfour
different structures with the fitting culture.
Power Culture -Illustrated as a Spiders web with a spider in the centre that portrays the
power in the organisation. This represents how centralised it is, the closer you are to the
centre of the organisation the more influence you have. This makes decisions quicker but
mistakes can be made at the top, suffering the whole organisation. They attract people who
are risk takers, and driven by power and success. This organisational culture relies heavily
on individuals. An organisation that operates as a dictatorship can be considered as part of
the power culture.
Role Culture -Illustrated as several columns, all that have a specific role in the organisation.
These can have specialist areas that function together as a whole, usually overseen by senior
management. This makes operations predictable, as roles are obvious, defined and
predetermined. Staff can gain expertise in their positions. However creativity is likely to be
discouraged, as people stick to tight rules and regulations. People might not outstep their
job description, performing well but not their best.
Task Culture -This can be considered as a team culture where influence is widely dispersed.
It uses a group effort that uses all available expertise to get the job done. This can be
considered democratic. Since everyone is involved this can increase motivation since staff
will likely feel valued.
Person Culture - Although this is not very common, another culture identified is structured
to serve the individuals within it, rather than having any overriding objectives.
Even similar businesses can be dramatically different in the way they chose to present,
produce and promote their product or service, taking different forms of cultures that change
regularly.No one type is considered better, just some better suited for different situations.
1.2
Since an organisations culture governs how people act, behave and feel it is an important
determinant into the success of their goals and the overall performance of any business. The
people in the organisation will alter their behaviours (e.g. how they dress, speak or perform)
dependant on the guidelines and boundaries that are determined by the unique culture and
structure of the organisation. These determine the way that customers and other
stakeholders view a particular company, shaping the brands image, respect and loyalty.
Some structures, such as Power culture, may leave the organisation vulnerable to changes as
decisions are not flexible and instead are reliant on centralised decisions. Successful
organisational structures are designed to provide employees with appropriate levels of
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motivation. This will increase their likeliness of meeting their targets and not leaving
company and improve staff turnover, absenteeism, productivity, efficiency and therefore
profitability.
Organisational structures that are not created with consideration for the organisations
culture can have problems with communication, flexibility, staff morale or efficiency in the
operations of their business. A good structure should provide a framework of managing
change through being flexible and adaptable. The structure should be developed to create
better coordination and cooperation amongst all lines of the business, in order to encourage
an efficient economic and business performance.
1.3
One factor that influences behaviour in the workplace is their motivation dependant on
many elements, financial and non-financial. The type of incentives in place can affect how
much effort is put into each task. Some staff will behave better with financial incentives
such as commission, and some are happy on normal wages, it depends on the individual.
Workers performance can be affected by how aligned their individual economic goals are
with the companies. For example, if their interests are in different to what the business
wants to achieve then there may be a conflict of interest and the worker may not perform to
their best ability. Workers are affected by how much influence they have, if they feel they
wont make a difference then they may not work hard. Their level of understanding affects
their productivity, since if they are confused for a task then they may not be very good. The
relationship between the company and each worker can affect their behaviour. When
workers feel valued as a part of the team then they may put more effort in. An organisations
culture can affect the way that a worker conducts themselves with colleagues, customers
and other businesses. As does thelevels of control on staff behaviour. The levels of
technology can have both a positive and negative impact on employee behaviour. It can
make their work more productive and easier and therefore increase morale for the worker. It
can also act as a distraction, such as using mobile phones.
Employee behaviour canbe affected by external factors, outside of the control of the
business. Economic factors can influence the way that a worker views and performs his job.
The competitive environment can alter the way people in organisations behave. E.g. in a
highly competitive environment ethical standards may fall to compete on sales.
2.1
Leadership is where one person influences the behaviour of another one person or group of
people. Lewin wrote about how the choice of leadership depends on their need or ability to
make decisions. He and his colleagues identified three leadership styles in terms of how
they make decisions (Lewin et al 1939). They were;
Autocratic: This is a style where the leader has strong personal control. They do not involve
others in the decision making process and expect that their followers obey the rules as
given.
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