Understanding Stakeholder Needs at Marks & Spencer

This assignment explores how Marks & Spencer effectively manages its business by understanding the needs of all stakeholders. It delves into motivational theories like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Acquired Need Approach, demonstrating their application in encouraging employee performance and fostering positive relationships with various parties involved with the company.

Organisational
Behaviour

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Organizational behaviour is a study of employees nature and enterprise culture in order to
take necessary changes at workplace. Their main objective is to take action for improving the
performance of an enterprise by assisting employees towards personal and professional
objectives. Therefore, assignment is going to highlight the major policies which is used by an
enterprise for encouraging their staff members to attain their similar targets in a minimum time
period. Although, organizational culture is totally influenced by various factors it is important
that each one of them are analysed in detail so that their impact can be examined.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................2
A) Trend of workplace................................................................................................................2
B) Implication of chosen trend for changing nature of employee or employer relations...........3
C) Implication of trend for employee motivation.......................................................................4
D) Critique of two OB theories of motivation............................................................................5
E) Recommendations for improving employee motivation........................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Organizational behaviour is all about studying the nature of employees by which they are
engaging in interaction process within a business entity. Its all about understanding the human
behaviour for making suitable policies and strategies in order to attain organizational goals or
objectives in a desired time frame (Wood, and et. al., 2012) . Marks and Spencer is one of the
most famous or familiar organization which engaged in offering best suitable products to their
clients such as; clothes, grocery items and so on. However, entire assignment is focussing on
improving the knowledge of employees by encouraging them towards set goals. Along with this,
Maslow hierarchy theory and acquired need approach is also outlining this project for motivating
staff members towards their job role. Main objective of report is to throw lights on methods used
by organization to reduce cost by promoting knowledge.
TASK
A) Trend of workplace
An organization growth is depended on its trends, as how it behaves with its employees,
as much as the employees get encouraged they will put their efforts to grow more. Marks &
Spencer is one of the leading business organization of the United Kingdom, which deals in
clothing, home product, food items, it does not reach on hike by only making investment, of
course business needs to spend money, but it also requires invest in its workers. The positive
trend of workplace is fuel them up with s power to work with enthusiasm. A firm can collaborate
with flexible working hour, for example, if a person is can only work in day shift, then the
mangers can allocate them a day shift timing, and work arrangements should be limber, so that if
there are any need to assist with each other, then the colleagues can easily help them (Creed,
2011) . For instances, if some employees are working on same task, then they need to cooperate
with each other and they can help in the group if there are an y hurdle. It is obvious that all the
workers and management have their cultural life too, along with corporate too, there is need to
manage work life with their own life, so sometimes they can request for a leave because there are
so many occasions when they want to be with their family or friends, so when an organization
approves their appeal, it means a lot to them, and when they come back after the break, they will
work with a open mind, cause now they are feeling relaxed. In a company, there are some works,
that needs to hire the outsourcing, like in Mark & Spencer, they need to outsource designers, to
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increase the sales, because there is no certain designer in the firm who can fulfil the the desires,
so they have to outsource for it and it will also reduce the pressure of employees. Sometimes it
becomes necessary to make staff casual, a continuous working hours make them rigid, so to over
come the stress it is important to give them some unplanned task or activity, that improve their
confidence to go forward by crossing the obstacles.
As many of the employees are well experienced as they are working with the
organization from a such a long time, then they are having a good knowledge about the market
scenario, and the working procedure of the company,when there are so many rivals in the present
market, then they need find out problem solving patterns, as through which they can move ahead.
They will gather the information about the product of the rivals and then they can select the one
solution (del Mar Alonso-Almeida & Rodríguez-Antón, 2011) . The main hurdle for the
customer is the price of the products, because there are so many brands which are offering
affordable price, so employees knowledge contribution makes a huge difference. There
knowledge can lead to big decision for the company benefits, involvement of workers improves
their efficiency and company too.
B) Implication of chosen trend for changing nature of employee or employer relations
Marks and Spencer is trying to enhance their productivity by taking various measures for
improving the knowledge of employees at workplace. It is not easy to motivate staff members
towards their specific job role because they always want flexible environment to accomplish
their business job in effective manner. Along with this, wanted to balance their life by managing
each or every activities in proper way. However, every organization wanted to maintain the
positive relations between supervisor and subordinates for maintaining the positive environment
at workplace. As a result company can easily attain their set goals or objectives in a minimum
duration. Moreover, changing in nature automatically create a positive relations between
employee and employer which resulted in minimization of misunderstanding (Christina and et.
al., 2014). Every employees dream to work in a cooperative business place without facing any
major problem as well as wish to enjoy their life in perfect way. Apart from this, some of the
major implication which must be done for creating positive connection between employer and
employees is described as under:-
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 Telecommunication :- As per this factor supervision and subordinates can easily interact
with each other for sharing viewpoints between them which helps in reducing any
confusion. Along with this clear all the major points.
Thus, Marks and Spencer is trying to implement various programmes and changing
environment of an enterprise to create an effective relations with employee or employer. Hence,
major benefits from this implication is described as follows:-
 Encourage staff members towards their specific job role for enhancing the performnace
of an organization (Walsham, 2012) .
 Increment in company productivity.
 Increase employee retention as friendly and flexible environment is loved by every
individual to live their personal or professional life more comfortably.
 Reduce conflicting situations from workplace in order to reduce complexity.
 Strengthen the potentiality of employees.
Hence, it has been understood that implication various trends is very useful and
advantageous for organizational overall success or development. As a result company can easily
attain their set targets in a defined time period by gaining attention of employees as well as
customers.
C) Implication of trend for employee motivation
Employee motivation is one of the most indispensable aspect for company success
because it aids in improving the sales performance of an enterprise because staff members are
liable to manage every business activities in suitable manner. However, various trends are
implemented at workplace for encouraging workers so that they cannot get distracted from their
set objectives (Misra & Puri, 2011) . Thus, implication of various trend for motivating
employees are discussed below:-
 Flexible hours:- First or foremost motive is to offer flexible time period for entire staff
members so that they can feel free without having any work pressure.
 Knowledge management:- As per this element an individual can easily enhance their
learning for improving personality in order to reduce complicated situations.
 Technology:- Emergence of advanced technology is very much attractive which
automatically improve the skills of employees. Thus few employees work only for
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improving their general knowledge. It means technology is one of the major motivation
factor them as it helps in grooming.
D) Critique of two OB theories of motivation
Maslow hierarchy theory of needs: - The psychological theory was proposed by
Abraham Maslow in 1943 which is based upon human behaviour. Maslow focused on
continuously raise the idea of putting his observations of individuals innate curiosity. The main
needs of this theory are psychological, safety, belonging or love, self esteem, self actualisation
and self transcendence; it describes the pattern through which humans get motivated and move
ahead accordingly ( Gabriel and et. al., 2015) . This implies these necessities are stimulated in a
particular request from most reduced to most astounding, with the end goal that the least request
require must be satisfied before the following request require is activated and the procedure
proceeds. The prime objective this theory is to achieve sixth level, i.e. self transcendent needs of
individuals.
Below define brief description of Maslow's Hierarchical needs: -
Psychological needs – These are the needs which are based upon physical requirements
of human life. The main psychological needs are – air, water, shelter, sex, food. Thus if these
needs are not met properly then any individual cannot perform or functioned in well being
manner. Such needs are treated as most vital to be fulfil as every business association or
management should focus on how to satisfy psychological needs of employees as they can do all
working activities and tasks in the best possible manner.
Safety needs – Once psychological needs get satisfied then individuals tend to get safety
and security from an environment in which they lives. In addition, safety needs are taken into
consideration precedence as well as dominate behaviour. Along with this, in lack of safety and
security, like – natural disaster. Childhood abuse, higher authority violence etc. individual may
experience post traumatic stress disorder which can affect their working capabilities and skills.
On the other hand, due to lack of economic safety cause of less working opportunities and
financial crises then safety needs manifest themselves in ways such as a preference for job
security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings
accounts, insurance policies, disability accommodations, etc.
Social belonging – The third stage of human needs are – social belonging in comprises
with feelings of belongingness. Such kind of needs are raised due to neglect, hospitalise,
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ostracism and shunning, can have an adverse impact ability of human beings to manage
emotionally attached relationships.
Esteem needs – Such needs entails as ego or status needs which are created for a concern
in order to get status, recognition, importance, respect from others (Foy and et. al., 2011) .
According to this theory, every individual have right to get respect, prestige from the
environment in which they live. In addition, esteem provide human desires should be accepted
and valued by others. In context of business organisations, it supports to manage healthy and
positive working environment at workplace.
(Source:- McLeod , 2017)
Self actualisation – the theory is based upon – What a man can be, he must be. This level
of needs states that what are the potentials of an individuals and realization of the same. Self
actualisation needs defines that want to attain everything that one can to become the most that
one can be.
Acquired need theory:- According to David Mcclelland, every person's life experiences
changes over the time, in every age they have a different experiences. These experiences are
related with certain needs and these needs affects an individual more powerfully, than others,
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Illustration 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

and that also impacts on behaviours, these needs are fall into three categories,
namely,achievement, affiliation and power.
Achievement : The need of achievement is a strong desire for those persons who have a
zeal to excel in everything. The individuals who seeks for achievement, they only focused on
success, they don't care for power, or approvals, they only work hard to get success. These kind
of achievers are smart enough because they move to the way where the possibilities are higher to
get prosperity. Individuals avoid the path of low risks, even they own a lane where the perils are
having similar chances, as they believes that the road which goes with low risk may not reach to
the destinations and they will loose the probability to get the success. They avoid the high risk
situations, because of the fear that success comes with luck (McLeod , 2017). Achievers can
work alone or in a group with their knowledge and skills to get the task done with in effective
manner.
Power : The personality which have the power, has the agreement and compliance, and
approval. For example, manager has the power to assign a capability to manage others, but they
need to pay the attention to what kind of power seeker they are. The power seekers have the
desire to control others.
Affiliation : People like to get motivate from others, if they have something better, then
they would like to affiliation from other. They get motivated in group environment, so it is better
to give them a team rather than work alone, this will reduce in security and raise in in
confidence. They don't like to be in jeopardize situations, so before assigning any task to them
try to save the risks. The feedback is crucial, so give them feedback personally, but try to be
optimistic, because this will give them a zest and guidance, so enlighten them with knowledge
that can help them. One need to show trust in them, so they will be open to hear instruction and
can also easily their points of view, and so remember that they are often don't want to stand out
so praise them in private rather in front of public.
E) Recommendations for improving employee motivation
After going through the above report this has been suggested to the enterprises that
change should be made in the working styles so that the present scale of efficiency in operations
can be raised. It can be done using different concepts like motivating the work force using
different modes depending upon the needs of employees. There are range of theories which were
discussed above like Maslow’s and acquired need theory which can be implemented in the
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business premises to influence the behavior of work staff. They help in establishing a better work
place where importance is given to every individual and feeling of belonging among the staff is
developed. It has a direct impact on the results and hence growth can be experienced in long run.
Apart from this by sing these concepts the referred enterprise can also reduce the labor turnover
ratios and can bring flexibility in the way of doing work. When employees are motivated and
happy with their work they show less resistance to changes and give their maximum contribution
towards the development of overall business. The other option which M&S can use to bring a
positive change is through promoting employee engagement in decision making as this helps in
receiving innovative ideas which can be used to deal with daily issues that take place.
After analyzing all the above three major suggestion which must be followed by an
organization is described as follows:-
 Implement various useful motivational theories for encouraging employees such as;
Maslow hierarchy need theory and Acquired need theory.
 Implement several trends for enhancing the performance of an organization such as;
knowledge management, work balance, flexible hours and so on./
 Create positive relations between employees and employer for maintaining the peaceful
environment at workplace.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarised that understanding of organizational
behaviour is highly indispensable for company success or employees development because it
aids in improving complicated situations. Along with this main objective is to run a business
entity in appropriate manner by understanding the need or requirement of each or every person
engaged with Marks and Spencer. As a result it helps in creating a positive business relations
with various stakeholders which is beneficial in future. Consequently, above assignment is full of
motivational theories which is adopted by company to encourage their employees towards their
set objectives and goals. For example; Maslow hierarchy theory and acquired need approach was
used in this project for enhancing the performance of an overall organization.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Wood, J and et. al., (2012). Organisational behaviour: Core concepts and applications. John
Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd..
Creed, A., 2011. Organisational behaviour. OUP Catalogue.
del Mar Alonso-Almeida, M., & Rodríguez-Antón, J. M. (2011). Organisational behaviour and
strategies in the adoption of certified management systems: an analysis of the Spanish
hotel industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19(13), 1455-1463.
del Mar Alonso-Almeida, M., & Rodríguez-Antón, J. M. (2011). Organisational behaviour and
strategies in the adoption of certified management systems: an analysis of the Spanish
hotel industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19(13), 1455-1463.
Christina, S and et. al., (2014). How organisational behaviour and attitudes can impact building
energy use in the UK retail environment: a theoretical framework. Architectural
Engineering and Design Management, 10(1-2), 164-179.
Walsham, G. (2012). Are we making a better world with ICTs? Reflections on a future agenda
for the IS field. Journal of Information Technology, 27(2), 87-93.
Misra, S. K., & Puri, V. K. (2011). Indian economy (p. 174). Himalaya Publishing House.
Gabriel, A. S., Daniels, M. A., Diefendorff, J. M., & Greguras, G. J. (2015). Emotional labor
actors: A latent profile analysis of emotional labor strategies. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 100(3), 863.
Foy, R and et. al., M. (2011). The role of theory in research to develop and evaluate the
implementation of patient safety practices. BMJ quality & safety, 20(5), 453-459.
Online
McLeod , 2017. [Online]. Available through<https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html>.
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