Organisational Behaviour: Culture, Power, Politics, Motivation Theories and Strategies

This report discusses the impact of culture, politics, and power on the behaviour and actions of individuals and groups in an organisational context. It also explores motivational theories and strategies for effective achievement of goals in the organisational context. The report uses Morrison, the largest chain of supermarkets in the UK, as a case study.

Organisational
Behaviour

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Analyze how an organization’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team.......2
Behaviour and performance........................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques............5
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context...........................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team.................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
Apply concepts and philosophies of organizational behavior within an organizational context
and given business situation........................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
1

INTRODUCTION
Organisation behaviour is the learning of behaviour and presentation of a person and a grouping
inside the administration. Organisational behaviour is very important in all the administration as
it provide a road map of how to survive in the organisation and helps the manager to understand
and manage human resources effectively. The chosen company for this report is Morrison which
is the largest chain of supermarkets in UK founded in 1899 by William Morrison at England,
UK. The chosen company for this report contains the determinant of culture, politics and power
on a behaviour of others in an organisational, content and process theory to inspire individuals
and teams to accomplish a goal. This file also covers effective and ineffective team by using
tuckman’s theory and path goal theory (Lau, Park and McLean, 2020).
TASK 1
Analyze how culture, politics, and organizational forces influence the behavior and actions of
individuals and groups.
Organisation Culture -
Organisation culture refers to the criterion, utility, beliefs and assumptions which are practiced in
an organisation which helps in bringing the stability, solving all issues, tackling risks and
barriers. It is a bit complex as every company has their unique personalities which differentiate it
from other organisation. Handy’s culture model is applied to analyse the behaviour and
performance of Morrison) (Thangamani, Sivaranjani and Yumatov, 2017).
This model has four types of organisation’s culture- Power culture: This culture means when an individual has a control over everything
which goes in the organisation. In case of Morrison, if a manager is very powerful and
fast in decision making then it makes an organisation very quick and responsive. Role culture: This culture is known for the organisation which contains various roles and
responsibilities to increase the effectivity and productivity. In context to Morrison, if
employees decide what they can do according to their speciality and accept the challenge
by completing their tasks the it helps in the productivity of Morrison.
2

Person culture: In this there is a complete focus on every individual working in the company.
These individuals are highly educated and expertise in their own field. In relation to Morrison,
manager guides everyone to work in their specialised field like a marketing manager is working
and supervising for all the marketing departments (Mousavi and Kumar, 2019).
 Task culture: This culture depicts the concentration on a particular task and projects. It is
formed to achieve all targets and solve the typical issues in the organisation by forming a
team of common interest people. This will result in solving a problem very easily and
fastly. In case of Morrison, manager will form a team of four to five members and every
member will contribute equally in achieving all tasks in a very creative manner. This is
not only helping the Morrison to solve the problems and functioning better but also
improves the effectivity of company.
According to this model, Morrison should choose role culture because this will provide a lot of
stability, continuity and confidence in completing all the projects because everyone are assigned
with the work they are interested in and they can do it fast without requiring a lot of thought
process.
Organisation Power –
Organisation power is referred to as the capability to make things happen according to the one’s
point of view by getting someone else to do it (Harrison and Carroll, 2021). In this, manager
assign tasks and guide everyone to achieve the success of organisation.
Ravens’ model has described five bases of power is applied on Morrison which describes
different level of effectiveness with different people is described below: Coercive: This power is a capability of an individual to force the employee to an order by
frightening them with punishment if workers are not following their order. It will give
rise to low job satisfaction and conflicts at workplace. In case of Morrison, if manager
use this power then it will enforce the policies of organisation, maintains discipline of an
employee etc. This will be possible only by threatening the workers through punishment
from their salary or from not giving bonus. Reward: It is the power or an ability of a leader to influence workers by giving rewards
to them. In context to Morrison, if an employee is doing a good job or finished an
important project, then their manager is offering rewards like bonus, promotion etc.
3

Legitimate: This is a power which a person receives as a result of position in the official order of
an organisation (Muhsin and Saeroji, 2021). It enables the whole organisation to recognize that who has authority over whom. In case
of Morrison, manager can assign a work of social media marketing to some employees. Referent: This power is all about building trust, respect and credibility with people
around in the work environment. It is a time taking process but at the same time it is very
useful for the organisation to create positive and trusting relationship at workplace as in
case of Morrison, if manager had earned and maintain trust of others then workers are
inspired to be committed to their job which leads to productivity of an organisation.
 Expert: It is a perception that a particular individual has a specific level of knowledge or
some set of skills which other organisation or members do not possess. In case of
Morrison, the manager can use expert power in guiding its subordinates in order to
complete the desired tasks. This kind of power is basically used as a guide for motivating
the employees of the respective company to achieve the organization goals.
Organization Politics –
It can be defined as an practice which is considered as an integral part of every
organization and its business operations. It basically involves the application of power and
social networking to complete the business process of the organization. The outcomes of
organizational politics at the workplace can be positive as well as negative because this
concept generally consists positive as well as negative influence on the organization’s
business operations (Carlén, 2017).
Impact of organisation politics on Morrison are as follows:
 Decrement in the level of productivity: If politics of Morrison is in a bad state then
employees will give little attentiveness to their task more than chitchat, comments.
The outcome is workers are not able to achieve targets in the company, work will get
delayed and postponed which leads to manage effect on the whole productiveness of
an organisation.
 Negative work space: Politics in an organisation ruin the relations between
employees in the work environment. In case of Morrison, employees who are
involved in all these politics will make the work environment harmful which creates
negativity and impact efficiency of employees.
4

Critical Evaluation:
All the three components namely power, politics and culture are considered as an
important part of an organization. Considering the type of culture that Morrison should
adopt the task culture because it is goal oriented and will help the organization and its
people to achieve the end objective of the company. In case power, expert power should
be given consideration in context to Morrison because it will help in developing the
support system for the employees with the help of leaders and the expert skills. In case of
politics, Morrison should keep a check on the overall environment of the business and its
culture with an aim to focus only on the positive aspect of politics. This will help in
bringing out positivity in the organization along with healthy relations among the
employees (Lukes and Stephan, 2017). This will ultimately encourage healthy
competition in a business.
TASK 2
Discuss the content and explore motivational theories and strategies for motivation which allow
for effective achievement of goals in the organizational context.
Motivation is a process of guiding or inspiring the individuals to actions to achieve a goal. It is a
phenomenon of needs and wants of a people which have to be tackled by constructing a plan.
This is very important for all the employees working in the organisation to achieve speed, quality
and productivity of work.
Motivational theory is a learning of understanding of what an individual can manage to work
towards a specific target or result which is very important for the business or management.
There are two theories of motivation discussed underneath:
Content theory-
This theory is defined as a subset of motivational theories which highlights on the reasons for
altering the needs of human on a regular basis (Hady, 2018).One of the content theories of
motivation is chosen to describe the needs and behaviour of Morrison is explained underneath:
Maslow’s hierarchy:
This theory is given by Maslow which is a total set of human requirements and important for an
individual to accomplish development and self-actualization. It is explained as:
5

 Physiological needs: This is the lowest level and first basic need for the survival of
human which includes food, water, clothes, shelter etc. that every person can’t survive
without these needs. In case of Morrison, they provide a proper café and restaurant
facility and a private locker to each member of staff which fills their basic requirement. Safety needs: This means the safety and security needs for an individual which is a
natural desire of very individual that includes job security, health security, financial
security etc. In context to Morrison, they provide various health related schemes like
health insurance, some formal contracts of employment to provide security and stability. Social needs: This need is related to emotional relationships which manages the
behaviour of human. This includes love, acceptance and belongings. In case of Morrison,
they provide discounts, special offers, gym membership and theme parks for its staff to
work as a team which leads to sustain wellbeing and a quality of life (Bohinská, 2019).
 Esteem needs: It is a upper level and a very important hierarchy which comes when an
individuals have met their all the lower needs satisfactorily and now they can start feel
positive for their self-worth. It includes self-respect, esteem, confidence, achievement etc.
In context to Morrison, they adore the hard work of employees, celebrate achievement,
prioritise self-respect and respect for them.
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory:
According to Herzberg, there are certain aspects of work that result in satisfaction while there are
other aspects of work that prevent dissatisfaction.
Herzberg has divided the job factors in two factors:
 Hygiene factor- Hygiene factors are those aspects of work that are important for
motivation in the workplace. This does not lead to long-term satisfaction. In case of
Morrison, they are offering salary, a friendly work environment, supportive partners
which are some of the most important aspects of hygiene.
 Motivation factor- According to Herzberg, motivational factor brings positive and good
satisfaction. These natural features and factors motivate employees to do excellent work.
In context to Morrison, increase their satisfaction level of job and make sure about the
level of dedication and commitment for the firm.
6

So, Morrison strives to provide both hygiene and motivation features so that employees can fully
realize their workplace support and strive to achieve the best possible result for them whenever
needed.
Process theory-
This theory is also defined as a subset of Motivational theories which is a psychological and
behavioural part that inspires an individual to act in a specific way. One of the process theories is
chosen to describe the attitude of Morrison is explained as:
Vroom’s expectancy theory:
This theory is given by Victor Vroom which says that motivation of an individual is impacted by
their expectations about the future. The purpose of this theory is to decrease the pain and
increase pleasure in a person. It is explained as: Valence: This refers to the emotional direction which an individual hold to receive the
outcome as a reward. In case of Morrison, manager give bonus to each employee for their
extra work which they expect to accomplish the goal (Nguyen,Yandi and Mahaputra,
2020). Expectancy: This refers to the belief that increment in effort that is an additional effort of
an individual will result in increment in the performance. In context to Morrison,
employees of the company share one belief with each other that they will work hard and
perform better and as a result they got a good result in return.
 Instrumentality: This refers to the belief that if a person will perform good then there
will be definitely a good ad valid result. In relation to Morrison, employees know and
they are sure that their manager will deliver the reward which they had promised.
Attribution theory-
Attribution theory is used to explain the motivational differences between the most successful
and the lowest. This is the most successful ones will approach other than avoid success-related
tasks because they believe that success is due to the high skill and effort. In context of Morrison,
Attribute theory is an important for this selected organisation because it can help managers
understand some of the causes of attitude of an employee and can help employees understand
their perceptions about their behaviour.
7

Critical Evaluation:
Both the theories namely, Maslow’s hierarchy needs and vroom theory are very
important. The reason behind that is the application of these theories play a major role in
inculcating the value of motivation amongst the employees. This will help the employees of the
company to work efficiently towards the organization goal. Maslow hierarchy theory will be
creating a sense of fulfilling different kinds of needs an individual may have while on the other
hand Vroom’s Theory will help these employees to gain reward g=for their effective
performance. Also, both of these frameworks will act as a key tool in the process of
subordination of individual interest towards organizations goals.
TASK 3 Discuss what makes a successful team rather than an inactive team. Effective team: These teams are the basis of every successful organisation. All the
members of this team are integrated with each other with similar motive to accomplish
the goal and productivity of an organisation.
 Ineffective team: These teams are filled with conflicts, distracted, do not mix well,
involved in politics of organisation and negative motive. This will result in harming the
work environment and productivity of an organisation (Jeong, 2017).
Characteristics of Effective team:
 Common goal- This team has an ability to work for one goal in which every member of
team is working toward an unclear goal and has a clear path to accomplish that objective.
 Time management- Effective teams work effectively as they have various tasks to
achieve which is possible by deciding a proper time for that.
 Open communication- In this team, communication is very important to build a
fellowship between each other. The more freely they talk with their team members, the r
comfortable they are in sharing thoughts and ideas.
 Team trust- Trust is a supplement of an effective team which allows them to trust on each
other. This is the main reason organisations tackle team building exercises that put all
members of team in trust.
Difference between Effective and ineffective team:
8

Effective Team Ineffective Team
It is goal oriented and structured
cooperatively.
This team has no goals, filled with conflicts
and structured competitively.
Atmosphere of this team is informal, open,
relaxed and comfortable.
Atmosphere of this team is formal, full of
tension and underchallenged.
Members of this team are full of trust,
respect, supportive and collaborate with each
other.
Members of this team are very competitive,
not supportive, poor leadership and direction
less (Brunelle, 2017).
Tuckman’s theory:
This theory is given by Bruce Tuckman which describes the path that follows their way to high
performance. This results in tackling a task from initial formation of team to the completing of
project.
This theory contains five stages in context to Morrison which is used to achieve top results, solve
conflicts and depicts the ability and maturity to develop the team.
Forming: – In this stage, team is set up and everyone will display their good thoughts.
Here, employees are eager and present to each one of them. In Morrison, managing director is
behaving well with individual person and undoubting completely on every individual by giving
the positive environment.
Storming – Here, employees of team are aware about the actual thing and load of work.
In case of Morrison, there can be many arguments and efforts between the team members and try
to mention here by apologising and making relations with everyone.
Norming – This stage is categorized by knowing the team. In relation to Morrison also if
critical decisions are made by the team, then they may work in various projects and there is a
unity in entire team by declaring the ability of workers and respecting each and every team mate.
Performing -This stage is accomplished when team mates are motivated to work with the
group. It is a stage where Morrison makes every effort to achieve the objective but now it is
easily resolved by the workers in a positive way.
Belbin’s 9 team roles:
9

Belbin identified nine group roles and divided those roles into three groups: Action, individual,
and thought Oriented. Each role of the group is associated with normal moral and personal
strength.
 Shaper: Shapers are people who challenge the team to improve. In case of Morrison, they
are flexible and ordinary outsiders who enjoy inspiring others, questioning habits, and
finding the best ways to solve problems.
 Implementer: These are the individuals who do things when they turn the ideas and
group into practical actions and plans. In context to Morrison, they are usually old-
fashioned, well-mannered, well-organized and well-organized and turn them into
practical work.
 Complete finisher: These are individuals who see that projects are successfully
completed. They make sure there are no errors or omissions and pay attention to the
smallest details. In case of Morrison, they are very concerned about the deadlines and
will push the team to ensure the work is completed on time.
 Coordinator: These individuals are the ones who take over the role of traditional leader
and are also called chairpersons. In relation to Morrison, they guide the team to what they
see as goals. They are usually very good listeners and naturally can see the amount that
each member of the group brings to the table.
 Team worker: Team members are people who provide support and ensure that people in
the team work effectively. In case of Morrison, these people fulfil the role of negotiators
in the group and are flexible, interactive and aware.
 Resource investigator: These are relatively new and curious. They explore available
options, develop contacts, and discuss resources on behalf of the group. In context of
Morrison, they are active team members, who identify and work with external
stakeholders to help the team achieve its goals.
 Plant: It is an innovator who comes up with new ideas and approaches. They thrive on
praise but the most difficult criticism to deal with. In relation to Morrison, these are often
imported and prefer to work outside the group.
 Monitor evaluator: These are best at analysing and evaluating the ideas other people
come up with. In case of Morrison, these people are intelligent and purposeful, and they
carefully consider the pros and cons of each option before making a decision.
10

 Specialist: These are people who have the special knowledge needed to get the job done.
In context to Morrison, they take pride in their skills and abilities, and work to maintain
their professional status.
Critical Evaluation:
It is critically evaluated that every organization needs a set of effective teams which can help to
achieve the organization goals in the most effective manner. While on the other hand, an
ineffective team will deplete the resources, time and money of an organization. This will result
into heavy losses which will ultimately affect the profitability of the company (Li and Jones,
2019). In context to Morrison, the company should hire an effective team with a proper process
using the Tuckman’s theory. This theory will be helping the company to build a team which will
always be motivated as well as goal oriented for the company.
TASK 4
Discuss the idea of organizational behavior within an organizational context and given business
situation.
Path goal theory is affiliated to behaviour of person which is casual to a satisfaction, inspiration
and performance of their workers. This theory means an individual must clear up the path to the
objective and modify how to make the everything successful.
This theory has different kinds used by the individual in different situations are: Directive leadership: This style is ascertained when subordinate of the team are
unskillful and leader is giving direction and schedule the work accordant to the
capability. In context to the Morrison, leader of the firm is leading their workers and give
directions to team by giving work to them. Participative leadership: This refers to other assistant workers, confer with the followers
before making any conclusion. In case of Morrison, employees are highly disciplined and
participating in their work so they all are experts in giving their data in the decision-
making process. Supportive leadership: These are very friendly and obsessed with the employee’s benefit
and treat all members of team equally. In relation with the Morrison, leader is very
endurable with all the workers and started interpersonal relationships with the employees
11

and make the surrounding more interesting when employees are more in tension to do in
a stress free environment.
 Achievement oriented leadership: These leaders set objectives and evaluate from their
workers to do work with their maximum proficiency. In case of Morrison, these mentors
motivate their employees and build confidence in them to put their all capabilities which
is very prominent for a leader, leader of a form is responsible for giving them guidance
by allotting projects (Lee, Hiatt and Lounsbury, 2017).
Contingency theory-
This theory suggests that the effectiveness of a leader depends on whether leadership style is
appropriate or not. According to this view, a person can be an effective leader in one situation
and a non-working leader in another.
In relation to the Morrison, managers are changing their leadership style to adapt to the current
situation or delegate one of their leadership responsibilities to a co-worker. Factors like size of the team,
the scope of a project and the expected delivery date for a result etc. used by different leaders, each with
unique styles of leadership, will respond to these factors in various ways.
Critical Evaluation:
It is critically evaluated that path goal theory can be an effective way of choosing a leader for the
company based on the organizational needs. There are various kinds of leadership which an
organization should adopt to achieve the desired goals. In context to Morrison, it should use
supportive leadership. The reason behind using this leadership is that it will help in motivating
the employees toward the organization goals. Supportive leadership is basically a type of
mentorship provided to the employees of the company. This will be acting as a guide that will be
directing people towards the ultimate objective of the company to achieve success in the long
run.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that organisation attitude is the learning of the way in
which individual interact with each other. It also tells culture, politics and power of the selected
organisation who use task culture which is goal oriented, expert power which helps in the
development in the support system for employees. This also contains content and process
theories of motivation which helps in the need and behaviour of an organisation. This report also
conclude that effective teams play an important role for accomplishing goal of an organisation by
12

applying tuckman’s theory and path goal theory which depicts that a leader must clarify the path
goal and inform the way of making journey successful.
13

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Lau, P. Y. Y., Park, S. and McLean, G. N., 2020. Learning organization and organizational
citizenship behaviour in West Malaysia: moderating role of team-oriented
culture. European Journal of Training and Development.
Thangamani, M. P. and Sivaranjani, A., Organization Citizenship Behaviour Determinants and
Effects.
Yumatov, E. A., 2017. To the theory of the systemic organization of the brain psychic
activity. physiology, 1, p.4.
Mousavi, M. Z. and Kumar, S., 2019, February. Analysis of key Factors for Organization
Information Security. In 2019 International Conference on Machine Learning, Big Data,
Cloud and Parallel Computing (COMITCon) (pp. 514-518). IEEE.
Harrison, J. R. and Carroll, G. R., 2021. Culture and demography in organizations. Princeton
University Press.
Muhsin, W. R. and Saeroji, A., 2021, May. The Effect of Learning Organization and
Organizational Tenure on Innovative Behaviour through Work Engagement as a
Mediating Variable. In ICE-BEES 2020: Proceedings of the 3rd International
Conference on Economics, Business and Economic Education Science, ICE-BEES 2020,
22-23 July 2020, Semarang, Indonesia (p. 304). European Alliance for Innovation.
Carlén, M., 2017. What constitutes the prefrontal cortex?. Science, 358(6362), pp.478-482.
Lukes, M. and Stephan, U., 2017. Measuring employee innovation: a review of existing scales
and the development of the innovative behavior and innovation support inventories
across cultures. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
Hady, T., 2018. The Effect of Organization Culture on Organizational Affiliation Field. Journal
of University of Babylon for Pure and Applied Sciences, 26(6), pp.184-205.
Bohinská, A., 2019. Compliance program and ethics program: Does an organization need
both?. Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(2), pp.1-9.
Nguyen, P. T., Yandi, A. and Mahaputra, M. R., 2020. Factors that influence employee
performance: motivation, leadership, environment, culture organization, work
achievement, competence and compensation (A study of human resource management
14

literature studies). Dinasti International Journal of Digital Business Management, 1(4),
pp.645-662.
Jeong, M. S., 2017. The effect of success factors of corporate knowledge management on
business fidelity and organization performance: focusing on the mediating effect of
organizational learning. Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation
Society, 18(11), pp.381-389.
Brunelle, P., 2017. Time in organization studies: An overview of the literature on the state of
theory, research and practice.
Li, M. and Jones, C. D., 2019. The effects of TMT faultlines and CEO-TMT power disparity on
competitive behavior and firm performance. Group & Organization Management, 44(5),
pp.874-914.
Lee, B. H., Hiatt, S. R. and Lounsbury, M., 2017. Market mediators and the trade-offs of
legitimacy-seeking behaviors in a nascent category. Organization Science, 28(3), pp.447-
470.
15