Organisational Behaviour: Analysing Sainsbury's Culture, Politics, and Power Dynamics

This report examines the impact of organisational culture, politics, and power dynamics on individual and team behaviour at Sainsbury's, a leading UK supermarket chain. It explores how these factors influence employee morale, performance, and decision-making processes within the organisation. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of Sainsbury's organisational culture, its political framework, and the dynamics of power within the company, drawing on relevant theories and examples to illustrate the key concepts.

Organisational Behaviour
Activity 1
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Table of content
Activity 1:...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the chosen organisation:..............................................................................3
1.2 Define the terms organisational culture organisational politics, power dynamics and
motivation..................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Analysis how organisational culture influences individual behaviour, team behaviour and
performance................................................................................................................................4
1.4 Analysis how organisation’s politics influences individual behaviour, team behaviour and
performance................................................................................................................................5
1.5 Analysis how organisation’s power dynamics influences individual behaviour, team
behaviour and performance........................................................................................................5
1.6. Apply the analysis to the chosen organization giving examples.........................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
Reference list..............................................................................................................................7
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Activity 1:
Introduction:
Organisational behaviour is a division of management concept, which is concerned with the
understanding, influencing behaviour of an individual in the system of an organisation. It is a
branch of social sciences that helps to predict, understand and control the behaviour of an
organisation. Sainsbury, a largest super market in United Kingdom, consumes 16.9% share in
supermarket. Apart from that, the holding company split into three divisions such as
Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, Sainsbury's Bank and Sainsbury's Argos. The successful team
management and effective analysis of organisational behaviour is the reason behind the
success of Sainsbury.
In this report, the organisational culture politics and power that influences the organisational
behaviour and team performance of Sainsbury will be analysed. Apart from that, the
organisational culture of Sainsbury, team behaviour and performance and the political factor
will also be discussed in this way.
1.1 Background of the chosen organisation:
Sainsbury is a largest super market in United Kingdom. The company consumes 16.9% share
in supermarket. Founded in 1869, the company became the largest retailers in grocery in
1922. The holding company split into three divisions such as Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd,
Sainsbury's Bank and Sainsbury's Argos (Sainsburys.co.uk., 2018). In February Sainsbury
became the largest shareholder in the industry of supermarket. Apart from that, Sainsbury is
in terms with Walmart in order to build collaboration with Asda.
1.2 Define the terms organisational culture organisational politics, power dynamics and
motivation
Organisational culture:
Organisational culture shares the value of an organisation and behaviours that contribute to
the social and psychological environment of an organisation (Elsmore, 2017). Organisational
culture includes the expectations, experiences and philosophy, which helps to express the self
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image of an employee, inner workings and communication outside the world. Apart from
that, the shared values, beliefs and rules are three important aspect of organisational culture.
Organisational Politics:
Organisational politics are unofficial and informal way to sell ideas increase the power of an
organisation and influence the organisation. An organisation requires relevant skills to handle
the conflict situations and the inside political factors (Cacciattolo, 2014). Effective politics of
an organisation helps to sustain the relationship while achieving results. It is important to
note down the political aspect of organisational politics in order to minimize the negative
impacts.
Power dynamics and motivation:
Power dynamics and motivation inherent many interpersonal interactions and create dynamic
influences of power in the process of interaction. In the hierarchy of an organisation, an
individual with higher power management needs to interact with the individual with lower
power management (Samendinger et al., 2018). This helps to build up the effective
relationship within the organisation and also motivate employees in this process.
1.3 Analysis how organisational culture influences individual behaviour, team
behaviour and performance
Each organisational culture differs from their values, expectation of an employee and the
results. Sainsbury as a largest super market in United Kingdom consumes 16.9% share in
supermarket. In the era of globalisation, it is difficult to maintain the organisational culture
and values and also maintain the relationship with the employee (Al Saifi, 2015). Therefore,
it is necessary to analyse the organisational culture that influences the behaviour of an
individual, team behaviour and the performance of a team.
Organisational culture shares the value of an organisation and behaviours that contribute to
the social and psychological environment of an organisation. In the case of Sainsbury, it
promotes high morale and common spirit to the enthusiasm. Therefore the culture of an
organisation introduce cultural framework with respect to the behaviour of an individual and
the performance of employees. Depending on the culture of Sainsbury, it creates some
positive effect also some negative effect on the performance of employees. The members of
Sainsbury are intentionally acculturated into the belief system of company’s culture. They
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often fluctuate from one culture to another based on their organisation’s size and complexity.
Initially Sainsbury started out as a communal, which is appropriate according to their size and
the clear vision, deep commitment and higher energy. The employees are working closely in
a fluid and in an intense environment. This creates a great impact on their organisational
behaviour and team performance.
1.4 Analysis how organisation’s politics influences individual behaviour, team
behaviour and performance
Political environment affect many decision in life. Organisational politics are an action,
which is not officially approved by the organisation but influence an individual to meet their
personal goals. Organisational politics is attributed as the field of growing principles and an
application for understanding various managerial processes. It also effects the way in which
an individual behaves and their performances (Boswell and Rodrigues, 2016). In the case of
Sainsbury, the organisational political framework is been followed. The shared information
of Sainsbury affects the overall performances of employees. The organisational politics of
Sainsbury is based on three dimensional typologies. Those dimensions are:
 The place of the political activity- inside or outside of Sainsbury
 The direction of political behaviour- vertically or horizontally
 The legitimacy of the political actions.
1.5 Analysis how organisation’s power dynamics influences individual behaviour, team
behaviour and performance
Power dynamics is another important factor which influences individual behaviour, team
behaviour and the team performances. Power dynamics of an organisation have the capability
to change the behaviour of an individual and team performances (Nolen et al., 2015). It
depicts the fact of organisational freedom in which, an employee has that freedom of speak to
express their ideas and desires and also plays a major role in decision making process. A
passive behaviour of an individual is created in this process which creates an impact in their
performances.
1.6. Apply the analysis to the chosen organization giving examples
The analysis of organisational behaviour of Sainsbury indicates the fact that, it is quite
difficult to make changes and adopt an inflexible culture in the organisation (U and GmbH,
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2018). The members of Sainsbury are intentionally acculturated into the belief system of
company’s culture. They often fluctuate from one culture to another based on their
organisation’s size and complexity. In addition with that, the shared information of Sainsbury
affects the overall performances of employees. This ensure the fact that, Sainsbury is
obstinate towards the change of the organisation
As a result, the organisational freedom of Sainsbury is also been analysed in this process. The
freedom of speak and the decision making process create a major impact in the organisational
behaviour and performance. A passive behaviour of an individual is created in this process.
Conclusion:
From above mentioned points, it can be concluded that, organisational behaviour is
influenced by three major factors, cultural factor of an organisation, political factor of an
organisation and power dynamics. The behaviour and team performances of Sainsbury are
also influenced by these factors.
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Reference list
Al Saifi, S.A., 2015. Positioning organisational culture in knowledge management
research. Journal of Knowledge Management, 19(2), pp.164-189.
Boswell, C. and Rodrigues, E., 2016. Policies, politics and organisational problems: multiple
streams and the implementation of targets in UK government. Policy & Politics, 44(4),
pp.507-524.
Cacciattolo, K., 2014. Defining organisational politics. European Scientific Journal,
ESJ, 10(10).
Elsmore, P., 2017. Organisational Culture: Organisational Change?: Organisational
Change?. Routledge.
Employee behavior and organizational change in Sainsbury, U. and GmbH, G. (2018). GRIN
- Employee behavior and organizational change in Sainsbury, UK. [online] Grin.com.
Available at: https://www.grin.com/document/269407 [Accessed 21 Jul. 2018].
Nolen, S.B., Horn, I.S. and Ward, C.J., 2015. Situating motivation. Educational
Psychologist, 50(3), pp.234-247.
Sainsburys.co.uk. (2018). Sainsbury's. [online] Available at: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/
[Accessed 21 Jul. 2018].
Samendinger, S., Pfeiffer, K.A. and Feltz, D.L., 2018. Testing group dynamics with a virtual
partner to increase physical activity motivation. Computers in Human Behavior.
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