Organizational Behavior: Influence of Culture, Politics, and Power

This document discusses the influence of culture, politics, and power on behavior in an organizational context. It explores how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve goals.

Organizational Behavior

Table of content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 1 Organizational culture, politics and power & Motivating teams and individuals.................3
Task 1:.............................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Analyze the influence of culture, politics and power on the behavior of others in an
organizational context......................................................................................................................3
Critically analyze how the culture, politics and power of an organization can influence individual
and team behavior and performance................................................................................................4
Task 2:.............................................................................................................................................4
LO2 Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal........................................4
Critically evaluate how to influence the behavior of others through the effective application of
behavioral motivational theories, concepts and models..................................................................5
Critically evaluate the relationship between culture, politics, power and motivation that enables
teams and organizations to succeed providing justified..................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Part 2 Effective cooperation within teams and concepts and theories of organizational behavior. 7
Task 3:.............................................................................................................................................7
LO3 Demonstrate an understanding of how to cooperate effectively with Others.........................7
Analyze relevant team and group development theories to support the development of dynamic
cooperation......................................................................................................................................8
Task 4:.............................................................................................................................................8
LO4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organizational behavior to a given business situation...8
Explore and evaluate how concepts and philosophies of OB inform and influence behavior in
both a positive and negative way.....................................................................................................9
Critically analyze and evaluate the relevance of team development theories in context of
organizational behavior concepts and philosophies that influence behavior in the workplace.......9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference List................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
One of the most important section of any organization’s activities is the organizational behavior
where the basis of the organization lies in the hands of understanding and influencing the work
of an individual thereby predicting their behavioral changes that may take place and the effect
that those changes may bring in the future developments. It acts as an essential human tool to
apprehend what each individual is doing and acting in accordance with the changes and how
their behavior affects the organization both in positive and negative ways. To improve the
effectiveness of the organization, the employees are made to understand the potential risks and
consequences and use their innovative ideas to find solutions to it.
Part 1 Organizational culture, politics and power & Motivating teams and
individuals
Task 1:
LO1 Analyze the influence of culture, politics and power on the behavior of
others in an organizational context
One of the main sections of any organization involves the cultural, political and behavioral
approach towards the employees which plays an important role in influencing the developments
within. In our chosen organization BBC, it was seen that in order to carry out the management
better, the organization has used the methods of campaigning and proper collaboration in order
to raise their voices and bring out their point of view to everyone to make a suitable condition for
work. Acknowledging the good work results in a better collaboration between the teams, thereby
simplifying the complex processes to have a significant impact on their culture. Freedom of
speech and to raise their voices for any matter is given due important and recognition to
understand the main concerns that associate with the organization and work to improve them
better (Pinto, 2016). The BBC has made the commitment to provide about 50% job roles to
people based outside London as well and relocate the specialist HR teams to Birmingham. Each
and every member in the organization are given due importance based on their cultural
perspectives and included in any political decision taken. The organization has taken special
steps to eradicate child abuse from their area and taken steps against the two long serving
presenters, Seville and Hall. However several independent reviews have shown several failings
in the BBCs culture and their lack of communication between their employees and staffs thereby
creating a form of mismanagement in the system. Several reports have been filed against the
concerns of bullying and harassment cases where no steps were found to have been taken by the
higher authority. Besides this, there has also been seen a form of discrimination arising in the
work pay between the males and females in the organization, all of which are the main flaws
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noted which need to be taken special care of if the organization needs to develop. Thus the
cultural and political situation if remains unchecked can have a serious effect on the behavior of
the employees thereby hampering their work.
Critically analyze how the culture, politics and power of an organization can
influence individual and team behavior and performance
The organization has the supreme power to influence the work of the employees if taken care of
them in the right manner. The aggregation of culture, politics and power in an organization has
made the working in an organization haphazard thereby affecting the organization’s development
in the competitive market in today’s world. The employees working in the organization has a lot
to worry about besides their works which has created a barrier in their thinking processes. The
culture, power and politics in the organization has an influence in the operations and governance
of the atmosphere and behavior of the employees in the organization (Wenger-Trayner et al,
2014). The power and politics in the workplace has a direct influence on the formal and informal
culture of the organization. The responsibility of the executive heads lies in molding the
organizational structure in such a way so as to define the environment of the work culture. The
order in which the tasks are divided and coordinated in the organization shows the structure of
the organization and thereby the working environment which is an essential part for the
employees to work. There are six essential elements necessary to effectively design a
organizational structure which include the specialization of work present, process of
departmentalization, chain of command, different spans of control and the process of
centralization and decentralization (Michaelidou et al, 2015). Keeping all these aspects in mind
can help to mould the organizational culture, power and politics in an organization. However
forming a simple structure in the organization brings out the leniency at work resulting in
lowering down the potential of work thereby bringing out several problems such as
communication problem and management of the staff thereby bringing out problems of
harassment and bullying as is seen in BBC organization.
Task 2:
LO2 Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal
The most crucial part of any organization and in this case, the BBC, is the management of human
capital in order to improve the productivity, increase in the profits, motivation of the staff
members and their retention, and providing a better form of training in order to improve and
enhance the developmental process in the organization thereby providing them a standardized
position (Buonocore and Russo, 2013). The diversity of the workplace and the management of
all the employees can only take place in the organization when made a research of the identifying
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each person’s individual talents and ensuring a self and time management thereby creating a
suitable work environment and amiable climate to meet all the challenges that befall in the
human capital department. Motivating the employees help to increase their interest to work
thereby driving their energy to work at its best to help the organization develop and achieve
success. When an employee’s zeal to work increases, they tend t o work with full passion and
enthusiasm and the work automatically becomes productive as a result of the motivation
(Spedale et al, 2014). Performing the surveys, observations and research in the right manner
helps to manage the organization better by understanding their problems and helping to motivate
them in their respective fields to help in increase in the productivity of the company. Reaching
goals and objectives become even easier to achieve when the employees are motivated correctly.
Motivating them in the right manner helps to increase their self esteem thereby increasing their
qualities and skills to take up more responsibilities and help to advance in their career with
confidence and compete with the other bigger organizations on a similar level (Sinclair, 2014). In
BBC, it has been seen that a report says that the team has succeeded in maintaining the standard
of work through the constant motivations they have received thereby expertising in their
knowledge in the respective fields (Wilson, 2013). The manager has succeeded in solving more
than 90% of the queries raised within their company thereby solving the problems in the right
manner and motivating them to reach their targets. All of this has contributed to Hughes- D’
Aeth having succeeded in exceeding 20% of the cost reduction target thereby saving 30% off the
cost of HR. All the ups and downs that the company has gone through only helped them to
understand the problems better and work on them to improve the support system in the
organization thereby going through an absolute transformation.
Critically evaluate how to influence the behavior of others through the
effective application of behavioral motivational theories, concepts and models
Following the motivational theories help to explain how the different employees behave after
going through a motivational process. These theories when applied to the workplaces in the
various organizations help the employees to work better and make them more committed and
enthused in their performances. The managers must therefore play an important part in
motivating each employee to work at their best levels possible (Smith et al, 2013). They must
understand how the theories of motivation can help to enhance their leadership qualities by
enthusing his employees to work at their best thereby helping the work process to develop
drastically and as a result flourish the organization. There are four strategic methods followed to
enhance the behavior of the organization by implementing the motivational theories in the
organization. They include:
● Following certain effective strategies both traditional and compensational to edge up the
expectancy theory (Butler and Butler, 2017). This theory focuses on equalizing the efforts
of all the employees to put them in their own fields of expertise to alleviate their tasks
and also for those jobs where their contribution can greatly help in the overall
development of the process.
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● Providing incentives for compensation and monetary awards can help the employees to
fulfill their respective objectives and goals thereby engaging the employee’s commitment
level for the company on a greater level.
● Applying several employee development programs, employee recognition programs and
an open culture in the company by following the acquired needs theory. On the basis of
this theory, every employee focuses on their personal profits and achievements thereby
seeking social acceptance and power (Lindebaum and Geddes, 2016). The employee
recognition programs help to enhance each employee’s self esteem thereby helping them
to achieve. An amiable work culture helps to embolden the confidence of the employees
thereby developing long term friendships. Employee development programs focus on
providing the determined workers and employees to develop their work and help to
achieve their goals and providing them higher position of leadership.
● Following the theories of X and Y helps to develop and implement the motivational
strategies to advance in their work process of the employees in the organization.
Critically evaluate the relationship between culture, politics, power and
motivation that enables teams and organizations to succeed providing justified
Recommendations
In any organization, maintaining the culture and politics is a very crucial part to keep the
working environment safe and amiable. A proper collaboration is necessary between the higher
authorities and the staff members to understand and evaluate all the problems together thereby
forming certain strategies to develop the organization better. The freedom of speech and to
portray their own point of view is necessary to make a free environment where the employees
can tell about their queries and further rules and strategies can be implemented to keep the work
culture healthy (Page and Nilsson, 2017). The managers must be responsible enough to
acknowledge the works of their employees and provide compensations and rewards if done
correctly and effectively.
Taking severe steps against bullying and harassment cases can solve many problems in the work
environment and make a healthy environment for the employees thereby determining their
behavior and work development accordingly. Thus the culture, power and politics has a big
influence on the operations and governance in the atmosphere and behavior of the employees.
There is a direct influence on the power and politics in the workplace thereby influencing both
the formal and informal cultures. It is the utmost duty of the manager to reshape the structure of
the organization thereby defining the environmental culture at work (Komaki and Minnich,
2016). Several factors are responsible in arranging the structure of the organization such as the
chain of command, different spans of control, process of centralization and decentralization and
so on thereby determining a standardized position of the organization. A diverse workplace and
proper management of the employees ensure identification of the individual employee’s talents
thereby motivating them to work even better in future. Several theories when applied in the
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workplace helps to make the employee more determined and committed to their work and
enhancing their performances all of which help achieving success of the organization.
Part 2 Effective cooperation within teams and concepts and theories of
organizational behavior
Task 3:
LO3 Demonstrate an understanding of how to cooperate effectively with
Others
In order to achieve success in any organization and in this case the BBC, appoints several teams
and groups for an effective working. The groups can be divided into two types, the effective and
ineffective teams (Smith et al, 2017). The effective teams focus on supporting on the points
which they disagree upon with the use of a healthy conflict to induce creativity and innovative
ideas in the planning processes. Any forms of conflict are seen from a positive point of view by
the effective teams and they can therefore be identified by the following:
■ All the members in the group take an active participation in their contribution to the
group followed by an open discussion. The deliberations that are involved are always
reasonable and every member in the group is open to learning new things and take in new
ideas from other groups if found effective for the development of their organizations.
■ Logical arguments are taken into consideration while taking any decision and any form of
obscene votes are discarded.
■ Usage of circumstantial leadership qualities lead the different groups to come into various
conclusions by involving various circumstances and applying several effective leadership
qualities.
■ All the members in the group seek for the common goals headed by their leader.
■ In order to improve their performance better, the progresses that have already been made
in the group need to be thoroughly scrutinized and the changes made in the required
places to achieve further success in attaining the objectives.
In contrary to the effective groups, the ineffective group focuses on an agreed perspective in a
much faster rate thereby defending them against any new or innovative ideas from being
implemented further or changing the already existing ones in any manner. The output is achieved
in a much quicker process than the effective groups where the problems or flaws are only treated
but not changed in order to carry on the work process at a much faster rate. They can be further
characterized into the following:
■ Due to lack of a certain set of goals, the environment turns into a more tense one leading
to future conflicts and strife (Glisson, 2015). These results in several clashes turning up
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where no conclusion can be properly conducted in an organized manner where members
fail to listen to each individual’s point of view thereby making it a hotchpotch.
■ Every decision is made on the basis of a majority voting process but no effort is done to
include the minorities or compensate them in any way. No form of scrutinizing takes
place in this case, therefore the progress gets limited.
Analyze relevant team and group development theories to support the
development of dynamic cooperation
BBC being a dynamic corporation is independent and impartial in nature. The presence of
honesty and trust within the employee's makes the dealing processes easier. All the decisions
made are based on the values and a moral code of conduct. Quality services are provided thereby
focusing on the value for money of their customers (Einarsen et al, 2016). Following the theories
for motivation and group development has therefore enhanced the working of the employees by
ridding all the evil aspects in the environment and providing a healthy environment for work.
They are now more enthused to use their innovative ideas and styles of creativity to get hold of
the new technology and use it to scrutinize and develop their works better. Several groups and
teams are formed and each individual’s viewpoint and opinions are given due consideration. This
results in developing new opportunities to train and develop the roles of the individuals thereby
placing them in their own fields of expertise. Respect for all and safeguarding each member’s
rights are given due importance (Pettinger, 2013). The team development can be therefore be
divided into five stages for an effective functioning and delivering of the work process. They
include Forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning all of which if followed
correctly helps to develop the work in the organization better and more effectively.
Task 4:
LO4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organizational behavior to a given
business situation
The organizational behavior of BBC is complementing dependent on the retrieval of the concept
of character and virtue which has great interests in the political parties and other industries of
different aspects. The development of moral values in the individual employees does a great
help in improving the working condition better thereby sustaining their economy and cherish a
healthy democracy (Palmer and Feldman, 2017). The morality and value related to the decision
making process plays a significant role in influencing the decision making processes in the
business. The organization sets up certain goals in order to deter the behavior and decisions made
thereby getting hold of the attention of all. In order to identify the objectives, the values are
therefore given the maximum focus in the conducting of their services. All the ideas and
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viewpoints of all the people are taken into consideration and scrutinized and the final result is
made with the objective of fulfilling the company's goals and work for their betterment (Wegge
et al, 2014). Maintaining a proper relation with the public and communicating with them at all
level helps to understand the problems that befall on them and make efforts to develop them in
an effort to enhance the work of their employees and help in the development of the business in
all sectors.
Explore and evaluate how concepts and philosophies of OB inform and
influence behavior in both a positive and negative way
In any organization and in this case the BBC, it has been seen that the co workers and the
employees are not satisfied completely at all times. Several meetings are held in order to
understand and evaluate the problems faced by the employees and discussions made on the basis
of what changes need to be made to keep the employees satisfied. One employee’s bad mood can
affect the entire working in the organization and bring out a negative result as a whole. This
negativity in return can affect the company even if any form of good impact takes place. Thus a
constant emotional tumult takes place in the organization and taking care of each member’s
emotional conditions need to be taken care of. A bad mood is so contagious that it can have a
grave effect on the other employees as well. It is therefore the responsibility of the manager to
influence the emotions of the workplace. All the traits and emotions of the employees are given
due consideration thereby influencing the character of each employee and motivating them in all
respect. Therefore emotions are an integral part of every organization and need to be taken care
of carefully.
Critically analyze and evaluate the relevance of team development theories in
context of organizational behavior concepts and philosophies that influence
behavior in the workplace
In the developing of the working in the workplace and improve the behavior of all the
employees, two main team are made, the effective and ineffective group which focus on certain
issues that are related to understanding all the conflicts and problems that arrive or befall in the
organization and making efforts collectively to eliminate them. Innovative ideas and creativity
are emphasized of each individual’s thereby making a free environment to allow everyone to
speak and think freely. All the flaws of the organization are eliminated and the output received as
a result in properly scrutinized in order to keep all the employees and the customers satisfied at
all times (Butler et al, 2017). Every organization is thus needed to be independent and impartial
by nature thereby implementing honesty and respect among all. The quality of services provided
is also taken due care of. Maintaining a healthy democratic environment in the workplace and
eliminating all sorts of social problems such as bullying and harassments are avoided at all cost.
The moral code of conduct is thus maintained in order to make changes in the work process and
help in developments in the organization (Piszczek, 2017). All of which factors help to stimulate
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the economy thereby stimulating a healthy working environment. Maintaining the public
relations and developing the communication process further helps to enhance the work of the
employees thereby helping in the growth in all the sections of the business.
Conclusion
In the given report we can therefore conclude that the organizational behavior is considered to be
one of the important aspects of every organization and BBC has succeeded to a great level in
developing it. The culture and politics in the organization is essential to maintain a healthy
working environment for all thereby safeguarding the rights of all the employees and staffs.
Using the theories explained earlier, it can be seen that the motivational theories have a great
influence in determining the work of all thereby creating a zeal for work for all. In BBC, the
management and campaigning process has done a great deal of development in influencing the
work of all the employees thereby helping in development of their work in the organization and
helping them to achieve success.
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