Organisational Behaviour: Culture, Power, Politics, and Motivational Theories

This report analyzes how an organization's culture, power, and politics affect individual and team behavior and action. It also examines how motivational theories help in achieving goals and how they affect employee behavior within the organization. The report uses Sainsbury as a case study to illustrate the concepts and theories discussed.

Organisational
Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power affects individual and team
behaviour and action....................................................................................................................3
M1. Examine how the culture, power and political of an organisation influence performance
and behaviour of employees........................................................................................................7
P2. How motivational theories helps in achieving goals.............................................................7
M2. Measure how motivational theories, concept and models affects the behaviour of the
employees....................................................................................................................................8
D1. Measure the relation among culture, politics, power and motivation that helps the
companies in achieving success...................................................................................................9
TASK – 2 ........................................................................................................................................9
P3. Explain what makes a team effective as opposed to an ineffective team..............................9
M3. Examine the theories for team and group development in order to have an effective team.
....................................................................................................................................................11
P4. Concepts and philosophies of organisation behaviour. ......................................................11
M4. Measure how concepts and philosophies affects the behaviour of company employees...12
D2. Evaluate the relevance of team development theories, concepts and philosophies that
influence behaviour in the workplace to enhance organisational performance and productivity.
....................................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
Books and Journals....................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
The study which helps an individual in understanding the psychological behaviour of the
employees working within the organisation is considered as organisational behaviour. The
behaviour and attitude varies for person to person, this is why it is important for the management
to understand their behaviour individually (Aderibigbe, Nwokolo and Oluwole, 2019). This
understanding could be developed with the help of organisation behaviour study. By
understanding the behaviour of employees organisation can provide an effective working culture
to employees, which helps in enhancing satisfaction level of employees. The selected
organisation for preparing this report is Sainsbury. It was a Public Limited company which was
founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury. The headquarter of company is in London, United
Kingdom, serving across UK, with a workforce of 180,000 employees. This report includes the
affect of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of employees working within the
organisation. The techniques or strategies used by organisation in order to keep employees feel
motivated towards their work. The ways through which employees starts working corporately
and lastly the philosophies of organisational behaviour.
TASK 1
P1. Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power affects individual and team
behaviour and action.
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
The organisational culture can be stated as behaviour of employees used by them in order
to interact with each other (Alblooshi, Shamsuzzaman and Haridy, 2020). The good behaviour of
employees helps in improving the working culture of organisation as this will develop the feeling
of collaboration in the behaviour of employees. The good organisational culture leads enhancing
performance of employees and this is how the over all productivity of organisation increases.
The employees of Sainsbury feels motivated to share their opinion with senior management. The
higher level authorities also appreciates their views, ideas and suggestions with this, they provide
rewards to employees sharing effective solution of problem which is faced by management. The
model of 'Handy Culture' has being used by Sainsbury is order to understand the organisational
culture more clearly.

Handy Culture Model
In 1996, Charles Handy made efforts in order popularise the Handy culture model which
was given by Harrison in 1972 (Birkett, 2022). There are four types of culture which exists
within the organisation. As per the employees behaviour the management of organisation keeps
on switching culture which they wants to follow. The various organisational culture in context to
Sainsbury are as follows -
 Role culture – The organisation where the roles and responsibilities which the employee
have to follow is being clearly defined to it's employees are considered as role culture.
The management of Sainsbury is well managed that they delivers all the necessary and
required information or message to employees on timely basis. With this they use to
assign them the appropriate roles and responsibilities as per their qualification and skills.
 Person culture – When the employees are more centric towards accomplishing their self
goals instead of focusing of organisational goals is considered as person culture. The
management of company Sainsbury feels that whey the employees are able to achieve
their self goals then they will feel motivated and this is enhance their satisfaction level.
This is why the management of company makes the employees feel to perform the
activity which makes them satisfied.
 Task culture – In order to accomplish the specific task the group of individual
employees comes together for achieving the task successfully given to them. The
management of Sainsbury divides the major projects into different tasks. With this, for
each task a team of employees are also being divided as per their capabilities. This
improves the quality of output that is being produced by the employees.
 Power culture – When the power to take decision is in the hand of higher level
authorises is considered as power culture. The higher level authorises of Sainsbury are
only involved at the time of taking major decisions of company. The involvement of
employees working at middle level and lower level are not considered, as they believes
that some decisions are quite confidential and cannot be shared which each and every
employee working within the organisation.
As per the situations, the management of Sainsbury keeps on adopting different
organisational culture. This improves the efficiency of organisation as they are flexible in
adopting different strategies as per the problem faced by them.

POWER
The ability or capability to make work done by the other person or the employees
working within the organisation is considered as power (Gnanarajan, Kengatharan and
Velnampy, 2022). The power cannot be assign to anybody either it comes automatically with the
post or it is delegated by higher level of management who has capabilities to handle it. If the
power is being delegated in the hand of wrong person then, they can make misuse of this power
assign to them, which is not at all good for the organisation. There are different types of powers
with are used within the company Sainsbury, which are state below -
 Expert power – The expert power comes in the hand of employees when they are
expertise in a particular field. When the employees working within the organisation and
one of them is having a great knowledge in a specified field then that employee is having
expert power. The employees working within Sainsbury appreciates the knowledge and
tries to learn from the employee in order to enhance their knowledge.
 Legitimate power – The power that comes with the post and position that the employees
have is considered as legitimate power. The employees working at higher level of
management have more power as compare to the employee working at low level or
middle level of management. The power is delegated to employees of Sainsbury when
there is increment in their posts or positions.
 Reward power – For performing great task and accomplishing the goals successfully the
organisation provides rewards to employees for enhancing their productivity and boosting
motivation. This is why the human resource management of Sainsbury had made a
reward policy for appreciating it's employees.
 Coercive power – The coercive power is considered as the worst form of power that a
management can show to it's employees. As in this type of power the management
creates threat in the mind of employees such as fear of loosing job, deduction in their
salary or demotion in the post of employees could take place. This power is not
appropriate to use but then also the company Sainsbury uses it, in order to enhance the
productivity of poor performing employees.
 Referent power – There is a very popular saying give respect and take respect, so this
power works on same phenomenon. The employee having a goods behaviour and attitude
towards other are being respected by other. This provides them power as all other

employees follow the instructions given by them. The management of Sainsbury
emphasises on hiring employees having good attitude because this leads in maintaining
good environment within organisation.
In case of power, the management of Sainsbury keeps on adopting different
organisational power. This improves the efficiency of organisation because as per the individual
capabilities powers are being delegated to them accordingly.
POLITICS
Organisation Politics comprises of formation of two types of groups that is formal group
and other one is informal group (Harry Gnanarajan and Kengatharan, 2022). With this, they are
performed at two levels of management that is at individual level and at organisational level.
There are certain activities which are performed within the organisation that is of no use but
these activities affects the working of employees either positively or negatively. The organisation
politics is being further classified into four different quadrants, which are stated below -
 Weeds – Weed means unnecessary, here the weed implies the formation of unnecessary
or informal groups. The group of individuals working working within the organisation
comes together and forms a group which affects the performance of employees. The
formation of weeds group in Sainsbury is someone creates good working culture as they
feel free to share opinions and providing solutions to each other.
 Rocks – The employees working within the same organisation along with the same post,
designation or title are considered as rocks. They are basically formal kind of groups so
this is positively affecting the environment of Sainsbury. The employees working at same
post communicating with each other at formal level discusses about the improvement that
can be bring out within the organisation.
 High ground – The group which is created to take some major decisions of organisation
at organisational level in a formal manner is considered as high ground. The management
of Sainsbury takes crucial decisions such as regarding organisational structure, policies &
strategies formation and so on by forming such kind of groups.
 Woods – There are certain hidden facts with in the organisation about which higher level
authorises are aware off. This woods groups are being formed at organisational level at
individual level, so the employees of Sainsbury discuss the pros and cons of the
organisation and tries to find out the ways though which it can be improved.

It has being evaluated that by the formation of polities within the organisation of
Sainsbury, the company is getting benefit. As the groups involves in supporting each other with
this, collectively they takes decision which is beneficial for organisation.
M1. Examine how the culture, power and political of an organisation influence
performance and behaviour of employees.
As per the situation the organisation Sainsbury keeps on adopting the appropriate
organisational culture, power as well as politics. The organisation uses certain types of culture
but it's main aim is to create a healthy working culture within the organisation. The power used
by company such as coercive power is not an appropriate way, but company uses it in order to
enhance the productivity of employees. The polities used within the organisation is creating a
positive impact within the performance of employees.
P2. How motivational theories helps in achieving goals.
The motivation theories helps in boosting the moral of employees and hence this
increases their productivity. In total there two types of motivational theories which are
mentioned below -
 Extrinsic motivation – The employees feels motivated when they are provided with
some sort of award this type of motivation is considered as extrinsic motivation (Sinding,
Kreitner and Kinecki, 2018). Intrinsic motivation – In order to enhance the self skills and make self improvement
from within to build bright future is considered as intrinsic motivation (Susomrith and
Amankwaa, 2019).
CONTENT THEORY
Maslow's need hierarchical theory
For understanding the behaviour of employees so that the organisation can take action to
boost their satisfaction level is considered under Maslow need hierarchical theory which was
given in 1943 (Nguyen, Ngo and Gregory, 2021).
 Basic need – The company Sainsbury is taking care of all the basic needs of employees.
They are providing salary to employees along with the meal facility.
 Safety need – The Sainsbury is also taking steps for fulfilling safety needs of employees.
During the situation of Covid-19 pandemic when each and every organisation is firing it's
workforce, Sainsbury provides full salary to it's employees even they are not working.

 Social need – The best possible efforts are made by the management of Sainsbury to
keep the working culture of organisation positive. This is why they conduct number of
activities to develop feeling of cooperation among employees.
 Esteem need – The management of Sainsbury provides a platform to it's employees
where they can showcase their talent. By doing so they will get the chance to get
promoted and hence will feel respected. Self actualisation – The full use of knowledge are being made at time stage of
motivational theory. The employees of Sainsbury are full of knowledge and are ready to
help each other.
PROCESS THEORY
Vroom Expectancy theory
The Vroom expectancy theory comprises of three factors that is expectancy, valence and
instrumentality (Ogbeibu, Senadjki and Gaskin, 2020). The explanation of this theory is stated
below -
 Expectancy – The management of Sainsbury analyses by pre determines the ability of
employees and by such abilities they start creating expectation on it's own.
 Valence – Valence is the reward that management of Sainsbury provides to it's workforce
for there better performance.
 Instrumentality – The motivation that arise in the mind of employees due to the rewards
provided by employees for better performance is instrumentality.
M2. Measure how motivational theories, concept and models affects the behaviour of the
employees
The motivation theories helps in boosting the performance of employees. The two
motivational theory such as extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation
arises when the organisation provides rewards to it's customers for their effective performance.
Where as, intrinsic motivation arises form within, when the employees wants to make self
improvement then productivity of employees enhances.
D1. Measure the relation among culture, politics, power and motivation that helps the
companies in achieving success.
The organisational culture of Sainsbury is positivity as the management makes efforts to
do so. The politics and power also enhances the productivity of employees. The motivation level

of employees needs to be remain high in order to enhance the productivity of employees. This is
why the company uses Maslow need hierarchical theory and Vroom expectancy theory.
TASK – 2
P3. Explain what makes a team effective as opposed to an ineffective team.
The output that is derived with the team efforts are more effective as comparison to the
output that is derived from individual efforts (Salto, 2021). This is why the organisations
emphasises more on performing team work. The result that is driven from the efforts made by
team helps the organisation in accomplishing goals faster. The process to build effective team
building that is used by Sainsbury is as follows -
 Set purpose – The purpose why the business was established and what are it's goals and
objectives that are necessary for employees to be aware off in order to achieving the set
target is done by the management of Sainsbury on timely basis.
 Team assembling – The team should be made in such a way that each and every team is
able to accomplish it's goals is team assembling. This is done is a very effective manner
by the management of Sainsbury.
 Deciding goals – The short term goals of the organisations keep on changing so it is
necessary for the management to delivers it's goals to each and every employee on timely
basis.
 Set expectation – Each and every employees have different level of capabilities, for this
the manager of Sainsbury assigns the duties. This makes the employees clear about the
work which they have to perform.
 Monitor and review – The employees can make some mistakes and their work may
contains many loopholes so the management of Sainsbury monitors them regularly and
provide necessary feedbacks. Rewards – When the employees are able to accomplish the task assigned by the
mangers then the reward in the form of promotion or incentive is being provided by
Sainsbury to it's workforce.
Tuckman Model of team development
The employees within the team have different behaviour and attitude so its bit difficult
for them to make adjustment, this effects their performance (Sethi, 2019). That is why the

management of Sainsbury is using Tuckman Model to build a good and effective relationship
among employees. The explanation of Tuckman model of team development in context to
Sainsbury is as follows -
 Forming – This is the starting or initial stage of team development this is why the
employees do not communicate with each other. They discusses all their queries with the
manger of Sainsbury.
 Storming – By reaching at this stage the employees starts knowing each other can starts
communicating in a formal manner. The support of manager of Sainsbury is being
provided to them as they are not fully aware about the working of organisation.
 Norming – The employees of Sainsbury become familiar with each other and start
communicating with each other in a informal manner. The manager guide and monitors
them continuously.
 Performing – The employees feel free to share their view and opinions with each other
by reaching at this stage. When a employee faces some issue they discusses with each
other and tries to find out an effective solution. The manager of Sainsbury also make
them free to take decisions on it's own.
Difference between effective and ineffective team
Basis Effective team Ineffective team
Decision making power The decision making power is
in the hand of authorised
employees but the decision is
being taken by discussing it
with other employees.
When the decision making
right is only in the hand of
higher authorities and before
that decision the middle and
lower level of management is
not involved then it is
ineffective team.
Distribution of power The power is being delegated
to the one who deserves it and
will not make any misuse of
those powers. As per the
capabilities the power is being
The power is when not
distributed by seeing the
capabilities of individual
employee, then that team will
be ineffective.

distributed.
M3. Examine the theories for team and group development in order to have an effective
team.
The organisation Sainsbury had started following Tuckman model for team development
in order to enhance the cooperation among the employees. The team working collectively
produces better output so certain actions are being taken by the company in order to build
effective team.
P4. Concepts and philosophies of organisation behaviour.
To understand the behaviour of employees working within the organisation is very
crucial in order to increase the satisfaction level of employees and also for achieve the goals of
organisation (Shah, Khuhro and Bakari, 2021).
Situation – The situation taken in consideration in order to get clear understanding about the
circumstances faced by Sainsbury. The path goal theory is being used by Sainsbury in order to
show the correct path to it's workforce on which they can move.
Path Goal Theory
The path goal theory emphasises more on showing the accurate path on which the
employees can move and make self development (Sharma, Prakash and Singh, 2022). It is
necessary of the management to show correct path to employees so that they moves of correct
path through which aims of Sainsbury can be fulfilled. Their are certain steps which which are
involved in Path Goal theory which are mentioned below -
 Employee's characteristics – The behaviour and attitude are considered under
characteristics of employees. It is crucial to maintain the attitude of employees keep
positive for increasing employee retention rate. The management of Sainsbury monitors
the behaviour of continuous basis.
 Task and environmental characteristic – The tasks performed within Sainsbury are
divided among all the individuals as per their skills and capabilities. The productive
employee is also always ready to help of the other employees, this is how the
environment of organisation remains positive.

 Leadership behaviour style – The leaders motivates other employees to perform work
and this how the employees are able to understand the correct path on with they have to
move (Simmers and McMURRAY, 2019). The leadership style is the way that the leader
follow to lead the team, some of the important leadership are mentioned below - Directive – The leaders present within the Sainsbury provides full direction to it's
employees, so that they can always remains productive. The management leads the
employees in their tough time when the situation of Covid – 19 was occurred. Supportive – The management and leaders of Sainsbury had provided a hand full of
support to it's employees when the Covid – 19 arises, with this they are ready to support
them at any point of time.
 Participate – The leaderships wants that the employees are able to accomplish their get
goals on time and effectively this is why the leaders of Sainsbury participates in all the
activities that is important through which goals can be achieved.
M4. Measure how concepts and philosophies affects the behaviour of company employees.
The employees are required to be guided by the management so that they found easy in
achieving the goals of the organisation. For performing this activity the Path Goal Theory has
being used by the management of Sainsbury. With the help of this theory certain steps are being
taken by the management this is how goals of organisation is accomplished.
D2. Evaluate the relevance of team development theories, concepts and philosophies that
influence behaviour in the workplace to enhance organisational performance and
productivity.
With the team efforts made by the employees, the productivity of organisation enhances.
The organisation Sainsbury also wants to take actions in order to create an effective team
building. For this the model used by management of Sainsbury is Tuckman Model of team
development. With this, it is also crucial to boost the motivation of employees and keep them
feel motivated. The motivation of employees enhances when their efforts are being made on the
right path or direction. For this the Path goal theory is being used by the management of
Sainsbury.

CONCLUSION
From the above file it can be concluded that, organisational culture, politics and power
affects the performance of employees. For enhancing motivation of employees Vroom
expectation theory and Maslow need hierarchy theory has being implemented by Sainsbury. By
working in team the productive of employees enhances. The Tuckman model of team
development helps in enhancing it. Lastly, the Path Goal theory shows the correct path to
employees on which they can move and achieve success.

REFERENCES
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Sinding, K., Kreitner, R. and Kinecki, A., 2018. Organisational behaviour. McGraw-Hill.
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