Influence of Organizational Culture, Politics, and Power on Behavior and Performance

This document discusses the influence of organizational culture, politics, and power on individual and team behavior and performance. It also explores motivational theories and techniques used in organizations. The case study focuses on Uber Technologies Inc.

Organizational
Behavior
By
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Table of Contents
Contents.................................................................2
Introduction............................................................3
Main Body..............................................................4
P1 Influence of organization's culture,
politics and power on individual and team
behavior and performance..............................4
P2 Motivational theories and techniques....14
Conclusion...........................................................23
REFERENCES...................................................25
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Introduction
organizational behavior is a
multidisciplinary field that seeks the study and
application of knowledge of how people
behave in an organizational setting. It is
undertaken to make business process and
operations more effective (Chou and et.al.,
2019). It is not only concerned with a particular
organization but incorporate societal behavior
as well. It relates to the expected behavior of
an individual in comparison to expected
organizational behavior. It includes research
areas such as improving job performance,
promoting innovation, enhancing job
satisfaction and motivating leadership.
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This booklet includes organizational
behavior, culture, power and politics in context
of Uber Technologies Inc. (herein after
referred as Uber). It is company that facilitates
on-demand transportation through network in
many countries of the world. This booklet
discussed its transformation from toxic culture
to healthy work culture. This report will also
touch upon the motivation and the needs for
motivation in employees to excel. Various
motivational theories that are applied by Uber
management have also been discussed.
Main Body
P1 Influence of organization's culture,
politics and power on individual and
team behavior and performance
Background of company
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Uber Technologies, Inc. (commonly
referred to as Uber) is an American
multinational on-demand transportation
networking company. It has its headquarters in
San Francisco, California. It offers services
such as vehicle for hire, peer-to-peer ride
sharing, food delivery, micro mobility system
with electric bikes and scooters, etc. It offers
its services through its mobile applications and
websites. Its main business of operation is
providing vehicle for hire. It does not provide
transportation services itself rather works as a
facilitator determining the terms between
independent drivers and customers. For it,
Uber uses dynamic pricing model i.e. prices
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vary according to demand-supply traffic at the
time of service.
A company's mission statement is what
drives it i.e. core objectives of the business
(Cosenz, Qorbani and Yamaguchi, 2020). It
also shapes the company's culture. Uber's
mission is to bring transportation for
everyone and everywhere. They believe in
igniting opportunity by setting world in motion.
Vision statement of a company is the
statement that gives it direction and purpose
as to what and how it wants its direction to
future is. Uber's vision is smarter
transportation with fewer cars and greater
access. Transportation that's safer,
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cheaper and more reliable; transportation
that creates more job opportunities and
higher incomes for drivers. Uber is primarily
in transportation so their mission is perfectly
actionable. Their vision dives deeper into their
insights as to how they want transportation
services to create greater good to everyone.
Impact of culture, power and politics on the
motivation for team behavior
organizational Culture - It is defined as
the collection of shared values, beliefs and
behavior that acts as guide to employees'
behavior in an organization (Junaid and Haar,
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2015). It is inspired from company's vision and
mission statement and the systems and habits
decided by leadership of the company. It helps
leaders forming cohesive teams which prove
as asset for the organization. Such teams
comprises of members which are given
operation flexibility which helped them learn
accepting responsibilities. Performing
responsibility with authority increases their
confidence and help them develop into skilled
and competent professionals. Every
organization is different and operates
differently. Charles Handy defined four
different kinds of culture which are listed
below:
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 Power culture – In this kind of
organizational culture, power is
concentrated among few individuals
(Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2015).
They decide what will happen within the
organization. Employees are judged on
their achievements rather than the
process with which they achieved. This
culture is suitable when quick decision-
making is needed but in long run, can
lead to toxic organizational culture just
like the case of Uber.
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 Role culture – Organizations with this
kind of culture work as per the laden
rules (Hayward, S., 2015). Such
organizations have hierarchical
bureaucracy within a highly defined
structure. Employees have delegated
authorities and derive their power and
work scope from that authority. Long
chain of command results in slow
decision-making. This also leaves little
scope for employees to develop
creative expertise in their job. For
example, Waitrose.
 Task culture – This culture is formed in
organizations when teams are formed
to address specific projects or tasks.
With primary focus on completion of
project, power keeps shifting within the
mix of the team members depending
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upon the expertise required. Its success
depends largely on team dynamics.
Team formed with a right mix of skills,
personalities and leadership are more
likely to succeed. For example, NASA.
 Person culture – In organizations with
such culture, individuals consider
themselves superior from the
organization (Morgan and Barden,
2015). They believe as if organization
exists in order to work for them. In other
words, an organization with a person
culture is really just few professionals
who are working together for same
organization. For example, lawyers,
architects, etc.
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Under the reign of former CEO, Travis
Kalanick, Uber prioritized growth over ethics,
and doing whatever it took to win, even if that
included sacrificing morals and ethical values.
It became company's organizational culture as
well in the nature of toxic power culture. Such
negative outlook of management resulted into
poor workplace culture in the company and
invited negative outlook of media and people
all over world. Employees were either indulged
in organizational politics or were leaving
organization on being at the receiving end of
the power politics. Uber was once considered
a prime example of toxic company-culture. It
was colored by misogyny rooted in the “Bro
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culture” which was deeply entrenched in the
company. Bro-culture refers to preferring men
over women in workforce. Women were
promoted less and faced more discrimination
and harassment even of sexual nature, as
reported by whistle-blower Susan J. Fowler.
After the change of leadership, new CEO
developed new values with improved and
healthier mindset. New flexible dimensions
helped company develop a better work
environment, it operates in today.
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organizational Politics – It is unofficial and
informal effort to influence an organization and
increase one's own powers to achieve
personal objectives. Companies have limited
resources which have to be allocated to all the
employees. All employees have different
aspirations and ambitions so they may
naturally seek to gain those resources for
themselves or their preferred groups. It gives
rise to organizational politics (Mittendorf,
2017). It can have multiple reasons such as
unclear goals and authority, autocratic
decisions, power tussle, biased performance
appraisal, etc. Politics is not all about winning
at all costs but about maintaining relationships
while achieving personal objectives.
Organizations often indulge in conflicting
agendas. When rational decision making is
unable to achieve results which are mutually
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agreed, political behavior and influence tactics
arise. It creates a situation which is beneficial
for both the sides. Thus, politics need not
necessarily only bad for company. Although,
engaging in political behavior all the time can
waste both employee as well as organization's
time and resources.
organizational Power – Power is
defined as the ability with which an individual
can have influence over decisions of others
(Villiers, 2019). Leaders have power over their
subordinates in respect of organizational
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operations. They influence others on the
following basis:
 Rewards – Manager's control rewards
of their subordinates and are able to
influence their performance on the basis
of same.
 Coercion – Employees have to work in
cooperation with manager to excel in an
organization. Otherwise, they may face
unpleasant situations such as
suspension or demotion. It is this
requirement of employee that managers
use to threaten them.
 Legitimate – It is the correct used of
authority, position and power to
influence others. Managers often
delegate their authority to their
subordinate on mutually agreed
responsibilities.
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Uber was once in the media reports for
its toxic culture. It was alleged that they use
technology illegally to evade taxes, sideline
law enforcement, poach drivers of competitors
and spy on user. It was also accused of
sabotage against competitors, journalists and
critics. Last nail in the coffin were the
accusations that company doesn't present a
full picture when it comes to the sexual
harassment charges levied by its employees
(UBER sexual harassment and sexual assault
claims, 2020). When Uber investors realized
the politics in the company and power it wields
on the operations of the company, they formed
pressure over board to change senior
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management and implement the necessary
recommendations suggested to it by experts.
New management at Uber has changed
the power dynamics in the company. Now, it
uses rewards not to influence employees to
work for them but as a motivational tool to
encourage them to work hard and fair in
achieving company's goals and objectives.
Company developed new set of values and
instead of forcing employees, now follow
delegation of authority and sharing of
responsibilities as its work culture. It now
promotes its “hustle statement” with better
intention, structure and clearer goals.
P2 Motivational theories and techniques
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Motivation – Motivation is a word
derived from motive which means needs and
wants within an individual that drives them
(Waddell and et.al., 2019). It could be any
stimulating factor such as desire for success,
money, recognition or job satisfaction, etc. that
prompts people to act. That factors drives the
behavior of an individual in an organization. It
helps employee innovate and develop
personally while contributing towards
organizational goals and objectives (Miller,
2020). It increases trust of employees towards
leaders and commitment towards organization
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which helps in retention of employees and
reducing employee turnover. Thus, it becomes
important for organization to understand the
process of motivation for its employees.
There are two types of motivation
theories – content and process models of
motivation. Content theories focus on “WHAT”
factors of motivation i.e. things that drives the
need of people while process theories focus
on “HOW” factors of motivation i.e.
psychological and behavioral process that
motivate people. Examples of motivational
theories are as follows:
Maslow – hierarchy of needs theory.
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Maslow believed that people feel
motivated when their needs are fulfilled
(Moore, 2016). He classified needs of the
people in five below mentioned categories
calling them hierarchy of needs according to
him.
 Physiological needs - According to him
most basic need for humans are
included in this level. They are the basic
needs of water, food, shelter and sleep
to survive. These needs are the most
dominant of all needs. If someone is
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lacking these in their life, they would not
think about anything else at first.
 Safety and Security - Once
physiological needs are fulfilled, new
needs arise in people. These are needs
of safety and security. These are need
of security of income and employment,
residential place, health, etc. These
needs are called first-line motivators of
an employee.
 Belongingness and love - As soon as
above needs are also fulfilled, need for
love, affection and belongingness
comes to the forefront. Humans are
basically social animals and love to
belong to a group or community. They
need to love and be loved. Depending
on the pressure of peer group and
person's own mental state, this need for
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belonging sometimes surpasses the
physiological and security needs.
 Esteem – This is need for the stable
respect in the society. Once people feel
belonged to a group, they long for
respect and appreciation from others,
especially the people with low self
esteem. This low self esteem is divided
into two types by Maslow – lower and
higher. As per Maslow, people with
lower version of esteem, need respect
in the form of attention, status and
prestige for themselves in other's
opinions. People with higher version
need self respect in the form of
independence and self confidence.
 Self actualization – It is described as
individual's desire to grow and develop
to one's complete potential. Maslow
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describes this level as the 'need to
accomplish everything that one can, to
become the most that one can be'. All
the above levels are to be completed
before coming to this level of growth.
With the help of Maslow need theory
pyramid, management of Uber can identify the
needs of employees which can make them feel
more attached to the organization. Some
employees are driven by security needs while
others feel the need of recognition from others.
Correct motivation can help them achieve their
personal objectives as well as organizational
targets.
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Mintzberg theory of management
Henry Mintzberg recommended this
theory (Ellis, 2019). He divided organizational
structure into 5 namely – simple or
entrepreneurial structure, machine
bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy,
diversified form and adhocracy. He added that
there should be a maximum of six basic parts
of any organization namely – strategic apex
(which includes senior management), middle
line (which links strategic apex to operating
core), operating core (which handles
operational processes), techno-structure
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(includes analysts of various sorts), support
staff (which supports and offers services to the
organization) and ideology (which includes
company's norms and values).
Mintzberg noted that even though every
manager is different and follow distinct style of
leadership, all managers shall practice and
master few basic interpersonal, informational
and decision making qualities (Ludike, 2019).
Interpersonal qualities as figurehead (face of
company), leader (guide and support to
workers) and liaison (responsible for
networking). Informational qualities such as
monitor (identifies issues that needs change in
a company), disseminate (delegate information
and assignments internally to employees) and
spokesperson (for the brand of company).
Decision making qualities such as
entrepreneurial (manager to inspire change
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and innovation), disturbance handler (handling
any internal and external roadblocks),
resource-allocation ( manages optimum
allocation and utilization of resources) and
negotiator (responsible for initiating and
directing negotiations within the organization)
Management of Uber can transform
themselves into leaders as suggested by
Mintzberg. They can establish clear
responsibilities for employees, direct
communication channels and inspire them to
innovate technology and process of working of
Uber Inc. They shall be provided
responsibilities and given authorities to fulfill
those responsibilities. Management shall
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eliminate all kinds of power politics in company
to allow level field to all employees.
Theory of management by Mayo
This theory was proposed by Elton
Mayo. He observed employee productivity
levels under varying environmental conditions
(Klein, 2015). He drew a number of
conclusions about sources of employee
motivation, approaches to team building and
group dynamics. He observed that employees
being social beings, are motivated more by
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psychological factors such as attention and
camaraderie than by monetary rewards. He
developed a matrix to illustrate the likelihood
that a given team can be successful, making
varying combinations of group norms and
cohesiveness. Following are the four
combinations of Mayo Theory and their effect
on team dynamics:
 Those groups which have low norms
and low cohesiveness are rather
ineffective. No member is motivated
enough to excel or making any
impact.
 Groups which have low norms and
high cohesiveness saw negative
behavior encouragement from fellow
group members. Such groups have
negative impact over society.
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 Groups with low cohesiveness and
high norms encourage individual
members to accomplish. They make
some degree of positive impact on
each other.
 Group with high cohesiveness and
high norms show maximum positive
impact as all the group members
encourage one another to excel.
Management of Uber can with the help
of knowledge and experience develop a matrix
that is unique according to their environment.
They can choose best set of sources of
employee motivation. It can be both formal and
informal in operation. It can be monetary as
well as psychological in nature. Motivated
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employee can take goodwill of Uber to new
heights again (Astakhova, 2020).
Conclusion
From the above, it can be concluded
that organizational behavior is the study of
process of understanding behavior of people
and their role in organization. It helps in
analyzing performance and factors driving
performance of the employees. Organizational
culture is the environment, values and ethics
being practiced in an organization. Various
types and effect of power and politics on
organizational culture has also been
discussed. Motivation is the willingness to do
things. It increases commitment towards
organization. It is also discussed above that
multiple theories of management and
motivation can help management determine
the factors that can increase the capabilities of
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employees to perform and achieve company's
set objectives.
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assault-claims/>
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