Organizational Behavior: Influence on Individual and Team Behavior and Performance

This article analyzes the influence of an organization's culture, politics, and power on individual and team behavior and performance. It also evaluates the effectiveness of content and process theories of motivation in achieving organizational goals. Furthermore, it explains the characteristics of effective and ineffective teams. The content is relevant to the subject of organizational behavior and is applicable to various courses and colleges/universities.

Organizational
behavior

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance..........................................................................................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context............................................5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P3 Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team.............................7
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational
context and given business situation............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Organizational behavior refers to the behavior of employee in group and at a workplace.
Organizational behavior refers to the study of human nature and behavior which does affect the
working and activities in an organization. Business culture and environment are the major factors
which puts impact upon the organizational behavior. Business culture refers to the norms,
structure, values, mission, and vision and so on which a company follows. Whereas business
environment refers to both internal and external environment which affect the working of
organization. Internal environment includes employees, customers, culture, structure and so on.
These factors can get control by the organization (Wagner and Hollenbeck, 2014). External
factors are the factors which a company cannot control they work independently for example
political, economical, social, technology, environmental and legal factors. For reference purpose
this report has taken an example of a company, Superdrug. Superdrug company is a British
multinational company which deals in health and beauty products. The company was founded in
the year 1964 by Ronald Goldstein and Peter Goldstein. The company is location in around 796
locations and serves the countries like United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Norway.
This report discuss about how an organization gets affected by polities, culture and
power. Along with it this report includes many approaches and process theories which an
organization can use to motivate its employees. Apart from this the report also includes now a
effective team can contribute into the objective of an organization.
LO 1
P1 Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance.
Organizational culture is a system which includes the assumptions, structure, inner
working, values, mission, vision and so forth which an organization inculcates into its business.
Organization culture has a great impact upon the behavior of employees. The organizational
culture has the following impact:
Performance of employees: An organization where the culture is strong, there employees feel
valued. They feel that the organization consider them as a big part into their operations and
business activities. For strong culture, the organization must have wide communication and
reinforcement (VanStelle and et. al., 2012. ). Through this the employees feels motivated also
and thinks that they have some control over their jobs. Superdrug is an organization which
practice the strong culture, it gives equal opportunities to every employee to grow by offering
them career development training and programs or any other orientation program to keep the
employees motivated.
Impact on happiness: The organization where the culture is very dull and biased there the
employee will be also very de motivated in performing their work. A positive and happy culture

implies an organization where the employees are very much satisfy with their work and performs
to their best, as in the case with Superdrug Company. The employees there love to perform their
jobs because of the positive culture the company has (Tankebe and Meško, 2015 ). An employee
performance can get improve through a strong and helping culture. It also reduces the burden for
recruiting, hiring and training cost of company.
Collaboration and growth: Collaboration here refers to the collaboration from the employees
sides. A positive and strong culture initiates the efforts and contribution from employee’s side
very much. They undertake all the opinions and idea which leads to the growth for the company.
Politics refers to the behavior in which people self- served themselves to increase the
probability for obtaining any kind of positive outcome in company. These people serve personal
interest only. Politics puts a bad impact upon the performance and behavior of employees in the
following ways:
Decrease in overall productivity: Politics lower the performance for organization. An
employee which thinks that any sort of discrimination has been done with him or he has been
witness any sort of politics around him then ultimately it would lead to de motivation among the
behavior of employees (Pinder, 2014).According to a common observation which was made
upon politics, it has been observed that the people who majority of them paid less attention
towards their work or job. Whereas the people who are more motivated in their work
performance become less motivated after experiencing any kind of politics.
Affects concentration: Politics affects the working culture and environment of an organization.
It also affects the level of concentration which employees used to perform their work. As in the
case with Superdrug, the company tries its best to not to exercise any kind of politics into the
work culture because they know the side effects of polities and they also know that the company
can face a huge loss from employees side when they would exercise any kind of politics into
their working culture.
Spoils the Ambience: Politics leads to a negative atmosphere into the work place. It also spoils
the relationship of an individual with others. The total ambience gets disturb from politics. The
employees then also not give 100% to their work (Ployhart, 2015)
Power refers to the ability of an individual to influence others. There are many types of
power which are exercised into an organization, some of them may include:
Reward power: In reward power, the organization motivates the employees by giving them
some king of reward for their performance. Reward can be financial and non financial. Financial
reward may include bonus, salary, allowances, prize money and etc. whereas non financial
reward may include appreciation, certificate, prize, trophy and etc. These are some kind of tactics
which an organization uses to influence or motivates the workforce.

Coercive power: It is opposite of reward power. In this the manager makes his team work by
telling them about the consequences of failure (Miner, 2015). This works as negative influences
of power. Here the employees are get threaten by consequences which they may face in failure.
The Superdrug company uses this power when they thinks that employees are becoming lazy and
taking their work as granted.
Legitimate power: This power is based on position a person hold into an organization. The CEO
of Superdrug company holds the highest power and has the ability to influence anybody into an
organization as compared to the power hold by a manager. Here the position of an individual
decides about the power or degree to get people influenced.
Referent power: Here the organization takes someone as their role model and exercise like
them. For example the business owner is consider as a leader, so for employees their leader will
be taken as a referent power as they want to act like and as him (Nahavandi and et. al., 2013).
LO 2
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques enable
effective achievement of goals in an organisational context.
Motivated workforce helps an organization in achieving its goals and objectives. When
the force is enthusiastic then it will perform their task the best. Whereas as in the case where the
employees are not motivated and very much careless in performing their work then in that
environment the employees will hardly produce their best and will perform better (Nelson and
Quick, 2013). There are many theories and approaches which superdrug company can use for
motivating its employees.
Motivation theories
The motivated theories are as follows:
Maslow’s needs hierarchy: in this theory, maslow stated that there are stages for motivation
and an individual goes to the very next stage as soon as his present stage gets completed. These
stages are as follows:
Physiological: At this stage, an individual goes for the completion of his basic needs.
These basic needs may include clothes, food, sleep, shelter and the like. The Superdrug company
provides their employees with these basic needs by providing them with a basic pay. The basic
pay amount should be that much that an individual must live a basic life through it.
Safety: Safety stage includes the factor like protection from threat, security in work,
deprivation and the like (McShane and Glinow, 2017 ). The company, superdrug, provides the
employees safety by providing them with job security of their present and also of their future.
The company ensures their future through their provisional fund account where the company

every month detects some amount form employees salary and saves into PF account. The
employee can avail this amount when they would leave the organization.
Social: It includes the needs of a person for association, friendship, affiliation and etc.
humans are social being so they have to interact with other beings and likes to get social.
Superdrug company provides a social and interactive work culture where employees can feel
comfortable and motivated to talk to each other. A healthy and strong work culture is good for
employees.
Self- esteem: It refers to the need for respect and recognition. The superdrug company
gives the opportunities to each and every employee for promotion. Through promotion an
employee positions and recognition into an organization gets higher and the employees would
get respected.
Self actualization: At this stage a person has attain all his personal goals which he has set
for himself (Lai, Lam and Lam, 2013). As in the context with the company, here the employee
reaches at this stage when he feels that the goal and purpose of him for joining the company has
got completed.
McGregor’s theory X and theory Y: In this theory the organization uses two theories i.e.
theory X and theory Y. In theory X, the strong approach is being used by the manager to
motivate the employees who are lazy and self centered with their work. The managers use
coercive power to make these employees work. In this the negative approach has been used by
the company to motivate the employees. Whereas in theory Y, there are employees who are very
much eager to work into organization, they are very much determined and focused when it
comes to work. For this, the managers use positive approach has been used up by the managers.
These approaches may include the appreciation, certificate, promotions, prize money, bonus and
the so forth.
Process theory:
Equity theory: In this type of theory, an employee continuously evaluates the level of their
efforts against their fellow employees and the reward they receive from their efforts. If an
employee feels that there is a difference between the results of his and his fellow workers then
that the employee tries to measure the difference and the reasons for the difference (Huang and
Bond, 2012)In this the employee makes many ups and down to bring him at par with his fellow
members. Likewise, the relative rewards also gets calculated with it that how quickly and on
what basis an employee has been awarded for his work.
Expectancy theory: It is consider as an important theory for motivation. The theory states that
motivation is partly a process of decision making. In this the expectancy refers to the outcome
which an employee assume from the inputs he has put into his performance. The variance is the
next level which would get unlock for an employee’s which he would attain his assumed

outcome. And instrument is the input which an employee has put into work or job. From this an
employee can make an assumption about the input he needs to put into his work and from his
input the output which he will get, how it would get benefited from it.
The company, superdrug, uses these motivation theories approaches and process to
motivate their workforce because they know the benefits they would get when their whole
employees or workforce are motivated in their job (Klotz and Neubaum, 2016). It is also been
said that motivated employees brings major increase in the performance for the whole
organization. The organization can also motivate its employees by providing them with the work
and things which they have aimed for from this organization.
LO 3
P3 Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team.
An Effective team is foundation of every successful organisation. Companies with
effective team works and struggle together and also improve quality, productivity and efficiency.
Effective groups often encourage positive discussion on problems and use healthy conflict. They
take conflicts in a positive way.
Such groups are characterised by:
Open discussion:- Members participate in the discussion and contribute to the group in a
positive way and also listen to other members.
Uses strategy of convincing to reach a conclusion rather than voting which may leave a
minority disgruntled.
Using situational leadership:- People lead group under different circumstances, with different
leadership styles appropriate to the circumstances.
Pursuing commom goals.
They assess their own performance and take steps to improve its performance.
Whereas an ineffective team is one which do not mix well and do have skills to perform work
with competency. They often defend each other. Taks completion becomes difficult for these
groups.
Such groups are characterised by:
Disagreement on almost every objective and an atmosphere of tension:- There may be
conflicts and also clashes of personalities between people who do not listen to others.

Often uses method of voting to make a decision which may leave a minority section
disgruntled.
In essence, we can look at these characteristics for effective and ineffective group with regards to
certain elements.
Underlying goals:
Effective team- The task and objectives are well understood and accepted by the members.
Ineffective team- It is difficult for them to understand and accept the task and objectives.
Members contributions:
Effective team- They participate in the tasks sincerely which contribute in a positive way in the
growth of the organisation.
Ineffective team- They do participate in the task but noy sincerely which may take the
organisation backward.
Listening:
Effective team- People listen to each other. Every idea is given a hearing.
Ineffective team- People do not really listen to each other and all the idea are given a hearing.
Conflicts Resolution:
Effective team- They resolve conflicts through a positive discussion and making everybody
comfortable.
Ineffective team- conflicts are often not dealt with effectively. They are often suppressed by the
leaders which some times create grudges between the members.
Decision making:
Effective team- Most of the decisions are made by agreement of almost all the members.
Ineffective team- Decisions are taken prematurely.
Leadership:
Effective team: The leader of the group do not dominate it. And maintain a healthy relationship
with his team mates.
Ineffective ream: The leader usually do not pay attention to the team and offen dominate them.
Self-evaluation:

Effective team- The team members are capable of evaluating themselves and take necessary
steps for improvement.
Ineffective team- The team have to be told where they are standing and need supervision to
improve themselves.
Division of labour:
Effective team- Actions and responsibility are clearly divided amongst the labours. They know
what they are required to do. There is no overlaping of work.
Ineffective team- There is no proper division of work by the members which lead to ineffective
and inefficient performance of the people. There is usually overlaping of work.
Seeing the above statements we can say that we need an effective team to:-
 To increase the efficiency of the organisation .
 To increase the productivity of the organisation.
 To complete the work fast.
 To increase the profitability in long run.
 To maintain a healty atmosphere in the organisation.
LO 4
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational context
and given business situation.
Different organization has different beliefs and culture which leads to the organizational
behavior. There are many kinds of philosophies related to organizational behavior within the
context of organization, these philosophies are as follows:
Mutual interest: The organization and employee should have the mutual interest between them.
The organization should try its best to link its employee objective with the objective of the whole
organization. The company, Superdrug, asks the employee at the time of interview only about
the career plan of him and acknowledge the employee about how this organization can help him
in the attainment of goals and objectives. Here the goals and objectives for both the organization
and employees are getting fulfilled. From this mutual interest the objectives of both are fulfilled
and achieved. The organization with this can achieves its objectives and goals which it has set
for itself.
Social system: An organization is a social system because it is run by human beings and humans
are social beings. It is taken as a need for all humans to get social with others. It is assume that
the organizational culture and system should be such that it encourages the employees to
communicate with each other (Effelsberg and Solga, 2015). Organisational behavior is the study

of the human nature and behavior into workplace. Therefore it is the duty of the company,
Superdurg, to make the culture of organization healthy and strong. The strong and healthy
culture would create a social system which can get enjoyed by the employees or workforce and
also motivates them to work to their fullest into organization.
Ethics and values: The ethics and values of organization does plays an important role in
determining the organizational behavior. The ethics are the norms, rules and regulations which
an organization follows. Whereas values are the assumptions and standards which an
organization follows into its structure. Through ethics and value the employees motivates
themselves. If the ethics and values of a company is favoring the benefits to the employees then
the motivates will feel valued. But if, the values and ethics are totally with respect to the benefits
of organization then employees might feel devalued or left out. Involvement of employees is
very much necessary into organizational decisions (DuBrin, 2013). Here, the decisions are taken
after consulting and taking the opinions and ideas from employees. The organization takes care
that every employee participates into the decision making process.
CONCLUSION
From the report discuss above, the factors related to organizational behavior has been
discussed. Organizational behavior is the study of individual behavior in group or at work place.
There are many factors which affects the organizational behavior. These factors may include
culture, polities and power. Culture refers to the assumptions, mission, vision, values and etc
which an organization inculcates in its system. Polities refers to the self served behavior of an
individual to obtain something positive from organization. And power refers to the power of
influencing an individual or a group. All these ( culture, polities and power) has their impacts
upon the working into organization and the behavior of employees. There are many motivational
theories and process such as Maslow’s motivational theory, theory X and theory Y, Expectancy
theory and equity theory which helps an organization in motivating its employees to perform
better in their works. The report also includes the benefits of effective teams over ineffective
team along with some philosophies which are related to the organizational behavior.
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