Impact of Organization Culture, Politics, and Power on Behavior and Performance

This report discusses the impact of organization culture, politics, and power on individual and team behavior and performance. It explores various motivational theories and the characteristics of effective teams. The case study focuses on A David & Co Limited, a small and medium-sized company in the United Kingdom.

ORGANISATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................4
P1 Impact of organization culture, politics and power on individual as well as team behavior and
performance.............................................................................................................................................4
P 2 Contribution of content and process theories of motivation..............................................................6
P3 What makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team......................................................7
P4 Concepts and philosophies of organizational behavior within enterprise...........................................9
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Organizational behavior can be simply defined as a study of the method in which a
person communicates or interact with other one in an organization having the intention of
achieving some goals and objectives (Salin and Hoel, 2011). Commonly, it represents the smooth
way in which a firm is going to run its business by taking care of micro as well as macro factors
and its impacts. In addition to this, the performance of venture is also affected by culture, power
and politics at greater extent. Thus, it can be said that organizational behavior is the overview of
both workers as well as company itself. The report is based on the culture and politics of A
David & Co Limited which is a small and medium sized company in United Kingdom. It offers
good quality of food and beverages to their customers and are earning an income of around
£10M to £20M per annum. In this report, the impact of organizational culture, power and politics
has been described in detail. In addition to this, various motivational theories such as process and
content theories has also been explained so that the cited firm can use this and improve the level
of motivation in their employees in order to increase their overall performance.
P1 Impact of organization culture, politics and power on individual as well as team behavior and
performance
Organizational culture is nothing but a set of experiences, expectations, philosophy as
well as values that provide guidance to the staff members’ behavior. And it can be expressed in
the internal working, self-image, interactions with the outer world and the future expectations of
workers. Corporation can elevate their enactment by following and enforcing these values which
are discovered or founded on the respect and interpretations (Lumley, Tladinyane and Ferreira,
2011). The culture of organization also highlights values, symbols, visions, rules, legislations,
language, beliefs, habits and assumptions of a company. It also impacts greatly on the
performance level of an individual as well as group and influences community on a larger extent.
The influence of culture can be clearly understood by following points :
 Behavior of each and every person working in the venture is largely affected by the rules
and regulations of the management as it provides shapes to their working capabilities in
various manner. For instance, if some personnel are following the policies of A David &
Co Limited in a given way then it spontaneously forced them towards attaining additional
income as well as prevent an individual from any kind of punishment and compensations.

 Secondly, culture impacts on the presentation or working of employees by inspiring them
towards their professional as well as personalized goals without abusing the policies of
venture.
 Moreover, it also polishes the skills and qualities present in every worker within
organization by providing them good training and development programs so that they do
not face any type of problems while working in company (Odetunde, 2013).
 Culture also promotes them towards maintaining politeness and decency so that any
disputes will not arise among employees and employers and harmony would remain
maintained in working environment.
 It also maintains healthy relations between supervisors and associates making clear their
all complaints which is proved to be very advantageous for eth whole association.
 It aids in creating a positive atmosphere which seek the attention of large number of
consumers as well as employees.
 Intimacy and togetherness is the key of achieving success for A David & Co Limited as it
assists in acquiring their aims and objectives as fast as possible.
In addition to this, culture is classified into some elements which are :
 Power culture : In this type of culture, power is segmented in the hand of few people
who control whole work force.
 Task culture : Here specific task is allocated to personnel as per their skills and
qualifications.
 Role culture : This culture state that management give different roles to persons so that
the goal and targets of venture can achieved in a given time frame.
 Person culture : In this type of culture, Person understand itself superior than
organization and do not give importance to their work and go to work place only for
earning revenue.
Coming towards organization politics, it is a term that is referred as an unofficial,
unceremonious and sometime it acts as an obstacle for whole corporation as it generates
misperception between employees that give a negative impact on work of every staff member of
firm. Power and politics plays a very important role in the A David & Co Limited because all of
the decisions taken by governing bodies and the team members of management influence on the
performance of whole workforce and its behaviors (Kitchin, 2017). Therefore, it can be said that
these two terms are interconnected with one another due to their good and bad affects. Generally,
it has been recognized that politics and power are affecting in negatively or positively manner
due to their roles and duties towards overall organization. The impact of power and politics can
be better understood by following points :
Positive affects :
 Strict rules and norms build equality among the staff members and no one will be
discriminated on the basis of age, sex, color, race, caste, religions, etc. For instance, if

same legislations or policies is followed by each and every worker then it automatically
minimizes discernment at the working place (Norton, Zacher and Ashkanasy, 2014).
 Accomplishment of assigned projects and services is done in before the dead line without
wasting time because of strict rules.
 As products and services are manufactured in given time frames, therefore maximum
amount of revenue get generated in very less time period by attaining the targets and
aims.
Negative impacts :
 Some of the politics played in venture creates conflicts among employers and employees
which greatly influence success of firm as well as creates disturbance in peaceful
surrounding of workplace.
 Due to stricter rules and regulations, there is lack of effectual communication between
lower and higher level of authority.
 The workers feel more stress and pressure due to high work load which might result in
migration of employees as it adversely effects on health of personnel.
As a HR manager, I think that higher authorities of A David & Co Limited should pay
more focus on their power, culture and politics as these all terms laid a great impact on
performance of workers as well as whole corporation. They should also create a positive
relationship with their employees so that they would not migrate to other companies and helps
them in achieving their own aims and objectives of manufacturing high quality goods and
services.
P 2 Contribution of content and process theories of motivation
Presence of motivation is very important in every organization as it improves the
performance of workers and in turn productivity as well as profitability of venture gets increased.
Thus, A David & Co Limited should follow some motivational theories in order to encourage
their employees for achieving their aims and objectives (Creed, 2011). Content theory is one of
the motivational theory that explains why human being requires some change with time. This is
also known as need theories as it generally focusses on the importance of determining what
motivates an individual. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes under the content theory which is
described below :
 Psychological needs : This states the basic need of human that is food, clothes and
shelter.
 Safety needs : After meeting psychological requirements, an individual deserves safety
of themselves at work place. For example, every employee wants to work at safe and
danger free place so that they do not hurt.
 Social needs : Workers wants some social relations like love, friends, family members,
etc. so that they remain emotionally strong and give focus on their work.
 Esteem : Workers wants to be respected as well as appreciated by their colleagues at
work place so that they feel good and give their best in achieving targets.

 Self actualization : It is the top most level of hierarchy where by employees get success
in attaining all above needs and wants.
Herzberg’s two factor theory : This theory was given by Fredrick Herzberg. This concept
differentiated between factors that provides satisfaction to workers and factors that creates
dissatisfaction on them. Herzberg stated that job satisfaction is related to five factors that are :
 Achievement
 Recognition
 Work itself
 Responsibility
 Advancement
On other hand, he stated that job dissatisfaction is related to following factors :
 Supervision
 Working situations
 Company policies and administration
 Wages
 Interpersonal relationships
Process theory attempts to describe how behavior is energized, continued, focused and
stopped. Some of the process theories are described below :
 Vroom’s expectancy theory : This concept assumes that behavior result from sensible
choices among options whose purpose is to increase pleasure and to reduce pain. Vroom
stated that performance of workers depends on individual factors like skills, personality,
experience, capabilities, knowledge, etc. He said that determination, performance and
motivation are associated with inspiration of person. He used variables like Expectancy,
Instrumentality and Valence in context of this (Chirasha and Mahapa, 2012). Expectancy
can be simply referred to improved effort that would lead to increased performances. This
is impacted by resources available, skills, etc. Instrumentality is the belief that if someone
do well then a good outcome would be received. This is affected by clear indulgent of the
relations between performance and consequence. Valence can be defined as the
importance that a person places upon the expected outcome.
 A theory of goal setting by Locke & Latham : As per this theory, individuals who have
more problematic but achievable goals give better performance in comparison to those
people who have less difficult goals. Goals can either be directional or accuracy goals.
The former one are those goals whereby individual work towards achieving that without
knowing any precise steps and thus are motivational. Whereas Accuracy goals on the
contrary are those which are attained by someone by doing proper planning. Goals can
encourage people towards achieving them based on the extent to which they have
challenge, feedback, clarity, commitment and task complexity.

P3 What makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team
As a HR manager of A David & Co Limited, it is important to give more concentration
on team spirit because team work is the key to success in various manners. The cited venture is
conducting its business across whole world and because of this it need proper cooperation among
all the work force so that they can achieve their specific goals and objectives within a given time
frame. In fact, an effectual team needs proper management and cooperation among team
members in order to attain targets of group as well as personal goals which in turn aids in
achievement of whole objectives of enterprise. Different types of team members are present in
the cited firm which are described below :
 Functional team members : These are set of members who plays different roles and
conduct some special task. Members present are of different qualifications and
characteristics but work for achieving common goals.
 Problem solving team : These are temporary and cross functional group of person who
are from different departments, skills and interest and also possess different roles and
responsibilities (Carlström and Ekman, 2012). The priority of this team is to give fast and
permanent solution to a given problem of venture.
 Project team : Such people are assigned for doing a particular type of project and helps
in removing problems. They are signed for a specific time period as are removed after
completion of a project.
 Virtual team : This group is formed with the help of modern technology. These people
are not physically present at workplace but are connected with each other as well as
venture through internet and that is why known as virtual teams. They do communication
via online or many conferencing technologies and solves particular issues present in
company. By this way, they contribute in the development of corporation without
presenting at official sites.
Tuckman has given a model whereby he described different stages of building an efficient
team. The impacts of its development stages on individual development are discussed below:
 Forming : This is the first stage where by roles and responsibilities of team members are
not described or clearly explained. So, team leader plays a vital role in this stage. Here
group members act politely and positively and try to know each other by working
together on a common project.
 Storming : The is the second stage and created when conflictual situation emerges within
members of team as people work in different ways and their this different style of
working build some unpredicted issues and this causes feeling of frustration among all.
 Norming : This is the third stage and started when people gradually attempts to resolve
their differences. All person appreciates other workers for their good work and also give
respect to their team heads (Bissell and Dolan, 2012). As team members are now familiar
with each other, they can ask for help to others and provide positive feedbacks.
 Performing : At this step, group member become serious about their task and perform
efficiently for attaining goals and objectives of organization without any friction.

 Adjourning : Most of the team would reach this stage ultimately. This is the last phase
where workers bind up their work. For instant, project is allocated for a given time frame
and after completion of that team is disappeared.
P4 Concepts and philosophies of organizational behavior within enterprise
Some of the concepts and philosophies are present that should be followed by A David &
Co Limited. Path goal theory of leadership is one of them. It highlights the impacts of behavior
of leaders on the job satisfaction, effectiveness and motivation of employees. This theory
provides four leadership behavior which are explained below :
 Achievement oriented behavior : This behavior of leadership concentrates on
encouragement of performance excellence by making some goals that would challenge
workers. Targets of subordinates are formulated for promoting high level performances
and the task of leaders is to develop confidence level in employees so that they get
motivated and acquire the goals and objectives.
 Directive path-goal clarifying behavior : This type of behavior is having the aim to
minimize job ambiguities. Here, supervisor gives specific expectations to personnel in
terms of performance of task. The clarification of work functions of employees is done
here for providing high degree of conviction or faith in context of rules, regulations,
policies and procedures (Adeniji, 2011). Leaders make clear job schedules and
management of work so that confusion can be removed from the mind of team members.
Team heads also provide some rewards like increment in wages, etc. for achieving any
target.
 Supportive leader behavior : The main concern of this type of behavior is to provide
psychological support to an individual is that they do not feel pressurized every time. The
primary task of team leaders is to reduce stress and frustration from the mind of workers
so that they can work freely and aids in attainment of goals.
 Participative leader behavior : This leader behavior includes supervisor consulting with
group members regarding preferences in performing job requirements. In this method,
associates directly participate in process of decision making. This lead a positive impact
on the organization as this provides a good feeling in workers as they also think
themselves as a part of venture.
 Social capital theory : This is another philosophy which is concerned about making
social connections with workers within an organization. Social capital resources consist
of trust, network and norms of association representing any team which gathers steadily
for a mutual purpose. This norm of culture high in this theory is reciprocity, which
promotes compromise, bargaining and pluralistic politics. One another norm is belief in
equality of civilians that promotes creation of cross cutting groups. Thus, it can be
concluded that this theory focuses on accomplishment of task by creating mutual
understanding and a social network where people help each other in doing their duty.
Some of the contemporary barriers to effective behaviors are listed below :

 Lack of communication between superior and lower level staffs : There is a large gap
seen in lower and higher levels of workers in A David & Co Limited which adversely
affects the performance of venture (Braccini and Federici, 2013). Decisions are made by
supervisors without consulting or taking vies of workers due to this conflictual situation
arises in company that as a result hinders working capability of their work force.
 Negligence of issues faced by workers : Employees are not satisfied by their job as well
as working hours and they had complained for this many times. But no action is taken by
the management of organization towards well-being of workers.
 Lack of motivation : Employees do not feel any kind of motivation while working and
that is why they are migrating to other ventures in the search of better job. So, HR and
management should design some motivational activities like incentives programs,
increment in wages, etc. in order to encourage workers towards their duties.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it has been concluded that maintenance of organizational
behavior is very important in each and every corporation as it impacts greatly on the
performance of work force as well as whole company. So, A David & Co Limited should also
maintain a good and positive relationship with their employees. If they will not do so then it
adversely effects on their productivity as workers would not contribute in achieving their aims
and objectives. Therefore, managers have to implement some motivational programs in order to
inspire their employees so that they can give their best while achieving organizational targets and
aims. This would help in increasing the turnover of venture per year. Some of the motivational
theories such as process and content theories has been explained in this project. A David & Co
Limited should also focus on working of team member as this helps in gaining more income and
profitability. Some of the important team members are virtual team, problem solving team,
functional team, etc. which are described in more detail in this assignment.

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