Importance of Organisational Behaviour in Marks and Spencer

This report analyses the impact of culture, politics and power on individual and team behaviour and performance in Marks and Spencer, and discusses theories of motivation and philosophies of organisational behaviour. It also includes a critical analysis of how these factors influence behaviour and performance, and applies Hofstede's dimensions of culture to the organisation.

Unit-12

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Effect of culture, politics and power of organisation on individual and team behaviour and
performance............................................................................................................................1
M1 Critically analyse how the culture, politics and power of an organisation can influence
individual and team behaviour and performance...................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Discussion of theories of motivation which implies effect on the achievement of
organisational goals................................................................................................................4
M2 Critically evaluate how to influence the behaviour of others through the effective
application of behavioural motivational theories, concepts and models................................7
P3 Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team.......................7
M3 Analyse relevant team and group development theories to support the development of
cooperation within effective teams.........................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational
context and given business situation....................................................................................10
M4 Evaluate how concepts and philosophies of OB inform and influence behavior within a
given business situation........................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
References:.....................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Offering several guidance to the organisation is the main task of organisational
behaviour. Making prediction of the activities related to the corporation is the only result of
studying all the aspects of OB. In order to measuring the stability in an organisation, OB plays an
important role. Motivation is also found an essential factor at work place as it leads to the
improvement of work performance of employees. It is the responsibility of management to create
interrelationship among the organisation and employees. For the same purpose they make and
develop various strategies in the organisation. The main objective of this report is to analyse the
importance of organisational behaviour in the context of Marks and Spencer which is a
multinational retailer of clothing, food products and home products having headquarter in
London, England, United Kingdom. This report also include the affect of power, culture and
politics of organisation on OB, theories of motivation, several ways of cooperating with the
employees and philosophies of organisational behaviour.
TASK 1
P1 Effect of culture, politics and power of organisation on individual and team behaviour and
performance.
The culture of work place of Marks and Spencer is not constant and change in culture
always result in the change in organisational behaviour. Sometimes these changes leads to bring
changes in the complete organisation (Sievert, H. and Preisinger, M., 2021). As a coin has two
side, this change also effect the organisation negatively as well. Various aspects of organisational
culture have been found in the context of Marks and Spencer: Power Culture: Under this culture, a few people are allowed to enjoy the power of
position. A few people have the right to take any decision in the organisation. The
responsibilities of all the employees of organisation is on the shoulders of the people
having decision making rights. The employees working in such work culture do not have
right to present their views. Task Culture: In order to achieving the goals and objectives of organisation, various
teams are made so that the management can bring effectiveness in the tasks performed by
the employees. This culture of work implies the offering of equal opportunities to
contribute in the achievement of organisational objectives.
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 Person Culture: This culture bring the attention on the importance of employees. The
employees working in such work culture give the attention only on the individual benefit
not on the profit of complete organisation.
 Role Culture: This working culture majorly focus on the assigned roles to the employees
on the basis of several factors such as experience, specialization and many more. Such
type of working culture help the employees in selecting the job role for the purpose of
achieving all the opportunities in the future.
It has been found that the corporate culture of Marks and Spencer get influence by the
external power and political scenario of United Kingdom. The political scenario has been
affected by the cultural norms. Hence it can be concluded that the UK political scenario get
remove by applying cultural norms and organisational cultural models at the work place.
Several alteration in the political scenario in UK result in the modification of
management of Marks and Spencer. Organisational culture can be improved by the addition of
creativity in the organisation (Shah, S. and Ganji, E.N., 2019). The top level management of
Marks and Spencer has developed several policies which they use to connect the general public.
It also leads to the improvement in the relationship of employees in the organisation.
Bureaucratic approach brings several changes in the management of business organisation.
The impact of culture, politics and power effect the operations of Marks and Spencer and
it's result can be seen on the decision making strategy of the organisation. All these effect focus
on the establishment of interrelation of employees. These factors plays an important role in
bringing huge changes in the productivity of the organisation. In the context of Marks and
Spencer, changes of organisational behaviour and culture take place only because of change in
culture, power and politics of UK which directly affect the organisation. It result in the some
changes in the performance of employees along with the working environment of organisation.
Because of these changes, the organisation is required to motivate the employees by providing
several rewards according to their work performance at the work place but on the other hand, it is
also found that the people can misuse the power in the organisation. Hence, it is concluded that
these factors have a negative as well as positive effect over the organisation.
Improvement in the working performance of employees of Marks and Spencer can be
consider as the result of use of elements of politics (Sony, M. and Mekoth, N., 2019). The
presence of these elements at work place result in the improvement in the performance of
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organisation but it also increases the involvement of employees in several unethical activities
(Schuster and et. al., 2020).
Hofstede’s dimensions of culture
According to this theory Hofstede’s has provided definition of culture as that kind of
collective programs of mind that leads over distinguishing with the members of one category of
people from other. As per the theory six dimensions is covered which is related to instance,
individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. Further explanation has been given in
relation to M&S as follows: Power distance index: These dimension has been dealing with various elements which
makes less power member attained in proper place in an organization. Further it removes
those issues that makes working pattern of an organization disturbed in more affective
way. In relation over organizational culture of M&S such dimension is responsible for
promoting those ideas that makes inequality reduce which directly makes organization
achieve its cultural goals and objectives. Further this dimension makes working patterns
more diverse in nature. Individualism versus collectivism: This dimension deals with individualism defining
about loopholes existing within social framework of an organization that is required to be
taken care. In context of organization like M&S it leads upon promoting better social
framework formed within an organization. This makes employees self-motivated through
which productivity and performance is improved within them (Mahmoud, Ahmad and
Poespowidjojo, 2021). Masculinity versus Femininity: In this dimension masculinity side of dimension has
been explained which makes various aspects in relation to male been covered. This is
used within an organization to make male employees achieve material rewards for
success. Femininity deals over standard preferences that is related to female employee of
an organization. This makes organization achieve cooperation and modesty within its
working patterns. For an organization like M&S it makes both male and female employee
compete with each other in healthy manner. This gives best outcomes for the organization
in relation to its working culture achieved as positivity is introduced within its working. Uncertainty avoidance index: This dimensions deals over various aspects dealing over
those requirements within which uncertainty is avoided over making ambiguity
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developed in an organization. As per this rigid codes of belief and behaviour is covered
making organizational patterns of employees understood in proper way. M&S with the
help of such dimension is able to check behaviour of employees making cultural
improved of an organization in positive direction. Pragmatic versus normative: The dimension is based upon developing relation over
social aspect leading towards growth of organization from future perspective. In this
Corporate Social Responsibility makes social goals achieved in more effective manner.
An organization like M&S through CSR is able to help society grow by making issues
solved existing within it. Further it makes goodwill and image of organization improved
in affective manner (Kumasey, Delle and Hossain, 2021).
 Indulgence versus restraint: The dimension is based over those aspects which is based
over free spirit of working while maintaining social norms. Also it makes those standards
developed which is based upon social norms existing in society. This is related to culture
of M&S in a way that employees will be having satisfaction attained form the position
over which they are working.
M1 Critically analyse how the culture, politics and power of an organisation can influence
individual and team behaviour and performance.
All three culture, power and politics plays an essential role in influencing the team and
individual behaviour as well as performance as the role culture of M&S helps in motivating the
employees so that they can perform their level best as well work in the team. The influence of
power is also high for employees as the negative use of power can place negative impact on
behaviour and performance of people as well as the positive use of the power can help in moving
ahead to the achievement of business goals. The bad politics can affect the working of employees
while the good politics can motivate them to give their best.
TASK 2
P2 Discussion of theories of motivation which implies effect on the achievement of
organisational goals.
Motivation can be defined as the collection of activities which are performed in an
organisation for the purpose of developing goal oriented behaviour at work place as it will result
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in the performance improvement of employees. Motivating employees towards the organisation
so that they can contribute their best efforts to achieve the objectives of organisation. In order to
know about the process of motivating employees, motivation theories help the management a lot.
The theories of motivation have been divided into two categories:
Content theories: These theories majorly focus on the internal factors which result in
directing the employees by satisfying their needs. By using these theories at work place, the
managers find the answer of “what motivate the human”. Several of content theories are
Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory, ERG Theory, Herzberg's Two Factor Theory, McClelland
Theory of Need and Porter and Lawler Theory. Some of them are given below: Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory: It is a five tier model of human need in the shape of
a pyramid, developed by Smith and Cronje. This theory state that by meeting the lower
needs, any human can make attention to their next need.
◦ Psychological Needs: These needs can be considered as the biological requirements
which are necessary for the survival of human such as food, shelter, air, sleep and
many more. These are the basic need of human which are necessary to meet, in the
case of not satisfying these needs, the human cannot function preferably.
◦ Safety Needs: After satisfying the psychological needs, the safety and security need
of human become the important factor (Raharja and et. al., 2019). Individual want to
predict and control their lives. These needs can be fulfilled by police, medical care.
◦ Love and Belongingness Needs: This level of human needs is social which also
include the feelings of belongings. Belongingness can be defined as an emotional
need for the purpose of interpersonal relationship. Friendship, trust, acceptance is
some examples of belongingness.
◦ Esteem Needs: This level involve respect, accomplishment and self-worth. Esteem
needs are divided into two parts i.e. Esteem for oneself which include mastery,
dignity, independence and second one is the desire for reputation or respect from
others such as status and prestige.
◦ Self-actualization Needs: This level includes the realization of potential of people.
At this level, individual look for personal growth and peak experience. Individual
work at this level only for the purpose of gaining self-fulfilment.
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 Herzberg's Theory: Basically this theory is known as two factors theory as it includes
two factors which state that how to motivate the employees so that they can improve the
work performance. Below mentioned are the two factors which comes under Herzberg's
Theory:
◦ Hygiene Factors: It include the factors which provide short term satisfaction to the
employees but the presence of these factors are necessary because absence of these
factors always result in the demotivation of employees. Salary, Health care policy
are some examples of these factors (Norlin, L.M., 2020). Higher the concentration
of managers on hygiene factors result in higher job satisfaction of employees.
◦ Motivating Factors: From the point of view of employees, it is not mandatory to
bring these factors in force but the presence of these factors leads to the
improvement of working performance of employees. Motivating factors always
result in the job satisfaction of employees.
Process Theories: For the purpose of achieving the goals and objectives of organisation,
these theories present the psychological and behavioural processes of individual which is
beneficial for the organisation. Adam's Equity Theory, Locke's Setting Theory, Skinner's
Reinforcement Theory, Vroom's Theory are some theories which comes under the process
theories of motivation. Some of these theories are explained below as:
 Skinner's Reinforcement Theory: This theory has been developed by BF Skinner. He
stated the nature of behaviour of managers towards the employees. This theory
basically concerned with the internal values of employees as the behaviour of
managers towards their employees is the only function of its outcome. It is necessary
for the managers to take care of the feelings of employees so that they can feel
comfortable and motivated in order to give the best result. The managers should
always behave in a polite manner.
 Vroom's Expectancy Theory: According to this theory, it can be said that the
performance of employees is depend on their skills and abilities. Any individual can
work on their skills if the management motivate them in an appropriate manner and
create a positive working environment (Nielsen and et. al., 2019). This theory also
includes some important factor which describe the motivation which are as follow:
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◦ Valence: Under this process the employees of organisation get motivated by
gaining various rewards which include promotions, time off and many more. It is
necessary for managers to know about the ways to motivate the employees. The
mangers have to do complete study in order to knowing about needs of
employees.
◦ Expectancy: Under this factor, manager properly communicate the expectations
of organisation from their employees and then provide complete training so that
the employees can get trained and feel motivated which result in the improvement
in the working performance of employees and reach to the expectations meeting
point of the organisation.
◦ Instrumentality: This factor state that the managers of organisation should
properly communicate the targets and rewarding system of their organisation to
their employees so that everything is clear to them and they can work according to
them.
M2 Critically evaluate how to influence the behaviour of others through the effective application
of behavioural motivational theories, concepts and models.
When the right application of the motivation theory can influence the behaviour of the
employees as motivation plays an important role in the influence of others. There have been
many forms of theories being developed which is considered regarding operations and the
compulsory characteristics of business. when there is absence of the motivation at workplace,
there is less work productivity and efficiency people will not be influenced from it. For instance,
Maslow’s theory concentrates on the human effects in company as the people desire for the
dissimilar goals.
P3 Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team.
Efforts of an effective team can only result in the successfully completion of assigned
tasks. Effective team is also leads to the improvement of quality by completing all the tasks in an
effective and efficient manner (Mirga, A., 2021). In the organisation of Marks and Spencer, the
management has made several teams so that the work can be done in an appropriate manner
which also result in the proper utilization of resources along with bringing the skills and talent in
each and every individual of a team.
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The features of effective teams can be listed as better understanding of mission and
objectives which result in preparing the complete action plan. All the employees can easily and
clearly see the purpose of organisation. Effective team also result in the formation of informal
working environment under which the employees feel comfortable with their tasks and each
other. All the members of an effective team get the equal chance to participate in the activities
and operations of organisation. All the team members listen to each other. In order to know about
the various explanation, team members prepare summary, paraphrase or ask question. In simple
words, this characteristic of an effective team comes under open communication. Each member
of the team has a special emphasis. The team includes members who emphasize the quality of
the document, the setting of objectives, the process of investigating alternatives, and building
consensus, and the administration of the team.
Difference between effective and ineffective team
Basis Effective Team Ineffective Team
Atmosphere Informal atmosphere has been
developed in the organisation
which provide comfort zone to
the employees.
The environment of
ineffective team is full of
stress and tension.
Clarity All the important tasks,
objectives and procedures are
to be made cleared to each and
every team member.
The manager of such teams do
not provide the complete
information regarding tasks to
their team members.
Decisions Agreement or consensus is the
bases of these teams while
taking any decision in the
organisation.
Decisions are mainly taken by
the majority which may be not
acceptable by the minority or
other members of team.
Expression of ideas Exchange of ideas has been
done in a very open way so
that the members can freely
share their ideas (Kutnjak
The ideas and feelings under
these teams are hidden or not
clear to anyone.
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Ivković and et. al., 2020).
Discussion The participation and
involvement of all the team
members is the characteristic
of effective team.
There is lack of discussion in
these teams as all the decisions
are taken by the selected
members of team and
everybody have to follow the
decision.
M3 Analyse relevant team and group development theories to support the development of
cooperation within effective teams.
Tuckman Model of Team Development
Through a research it is found that the managers of Marks and Spencer are require to
learn about completing the tasks in an effective manner which can be consider under the concept
of team development (Li and et. al., 2019). Bruce Tuckman a great psychologist has been
developed a process of team development having five stages in it i.e. forming, storming, norming
performing and adjourning which are as follow: Forming: This stage for a team member is the stage of orientation and getting
acquainted. Each and every team member show their best behaviour. Because of
presence of higher uncertainty, the organisation is required to give more concentration
on the leadership and authority. Storming: This stage shows the most difficult time in the organisation because all the
team members and get busy in building and gaining the trust of each other. Under this
stage, the entire group task has been divided in several small tasks. Because of this, it is
necessary for all the employees to develop the skills which are required to complete the
task in an appropriate manner and remove the conflicts of management. Norming: For the purpose of improvement in the productivity of organisation, this
stage is helpful as norming implies to do the focus on both individual as well as
collective work (Weber and et. al., 2019). Along with this, the time period of this stage
helps in performing the evaluation of productivity and team processes.
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 Performing: After passing the stage of norming, the process of development of entire
team has been prepared in order to achieve the organisational goals and objectives. For
the same purpose, all the members of team work on developing the skills as per the
tasks in order to giving their best performance at work place. It also includes the
constant work on the development of skills as they are directly related to the work
performance of employees. This step is the last step of Tuckman model of team
development. Now all the employees work in the organisation and performance has
been measured in order to analysing the success.
TASK 4
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational context
and given business situation.
The concepts and philosophies of Organisational Behaviour is totally based on the two
key elements which are given below:
 Nature of People
 Nature of organisation
Nature of People
It can be considering as the basic quality of individual or the character of individual,
which may be same or different (Xiang and et. al., 2020). In the context of Marks and Spencer,
there are various factors have been analysed which affect the nature of people. Some of them are
given below: Individual Difference: It can be considered as the approach of management which
approaches the each and every individual employee. It is the one on one approach as all
the employees are different from each other. This idea has been discovered from the
psychology. For instance: the manager is not allowed to do partiality with their
employees. They should treat them equally and judge them only on the basis of their
work performance.
 Perception: It has been also found that the perceptions of different people are different. It
is in the hand of employees to show or present the same situation in different style as per
their thinking. Perception can be defined as the way of interpreting things and presenting
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them according to their point of view (Karem and et. al., 2019). For instance, the manager
of Marks and Spencer organisation think that Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory is the
best theory which they can use at work place for the purpose of motivating employees.
But the manager of Tesco thinks that by applying Two Factor Theory they can effectively
motivate the employees towards their work and organisation. Here, both managers have
different perception about the same thing.
Nature of Organisation
The objective or goal of organisation is defined by the nature of organisation. In simple
words, it can be defined as the mirror reflection of the organisation as it presents all the features
of organisation to the society. Below mentioned are the various factors which define the nature
of organisation: Social System: It is well known that each and every organisation is socializing with
other firms, simply the outer world, their customers along with their employees. Such
behaviour is majorly influence by the group and individual drives. Formal and Informal
are the two types of Social system (Adebola, S., 2019). The people who are working
together in a single firm or the group of people of same group comes under the formal
group and the group of friends, people socializing with others for the purpose of chilling,
enjoying, partying etc. comes under informal social system.
 Ethics: It is defined as the moral principles of an individual, group or an organisation.
Ethical activities play an important role in order to attract the employees which state that
the organisation should set some moral standard. Marks and Spencer has established
code of ethics training rewards for the purpose of notable ethical behaviour.
M4 Evaluate how concepts and philosophies of OB inform and influence behavior within a given
business situation.
Path Goal Theory
This theory states that the behaviour of the leader is contingent to satisfaction,
performance and motivation of the employees. It provides for four types of leader behaviour
which includes the following-
 Directive: In this, the leader just instructs and inform the followers as to what they expect
from them like telling them how to do or what to do and schedule their work. The leader
of M&S can use this behaviour when it has to make its work done by the employees and
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the environment of workplace is also need to be positive in this so that employees accept
the instruction of leader.
 Supportive: In this, the leader makes the working environment pleasant by showing some
concern to them and become approachable and friendly. This may be adopted by leader
of M&S when it has to launch the product so that support of employees is present.
 Participative: Under this, the leader consults the followers before taking any decision on
how to proceed further. It is may be effective when the subordinate is trained highly and
also involved in work. This may be opted by leader of M&S when it has to motivate the
employees to give their best.
 Achievement: Here the leader sets the challenging goals for the followers and expect
them to perform with highest capabilities and abilities. This can be used by leader of
M&S when it has to bring some change in management of business.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that the organisational behaviour is made only
because of the culture of organisation. For the same purpose, managers are required to develop a
culture of motivation at work place as positive work culture always result in the positive
behaviour among all the employees. Power and Politics have power to influence the work
performance of employees in a positive and negative way. Marks and Spencer is using the
motivation theory as per the requirements and needs of organisation. They also adopt various
ways through which they are maintain the interest of employees towards their organisation. For
the same purpose they are following reward system as it leads to the improvement of
performance of employees along with creating a positive working environment at work place. In
addition to this, it is also found that the effectiveness of any team is an important factor which
plays an important role in achieving the organisational goals and objectives.
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