Organisational Behaviour - Tesco Assignment

UNIT 12
ORGANISATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Analysis of an organisation's culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance.........................................................................................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P2. The various motivational theory and techniques helps an organisation to achieve its goal 6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P3. Various team and group development theory ......................................................................9
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................11
P4 Application of concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour..............................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Organisational Behaviour is the observation or study of human behaviour applicable in the
organisation. It observes the relationships and inter relationships existing in an organisation
(Organizational Behavior Explained: Definition, Importance, Nature, Model, 2016). Tesco is
supermarket retail giant of UK established in 1919 and is the third largest grocery store operating
in the United Kingdom and in various other countries. This report highlights the Organisational
behaviour of the Tesco Company and various other aspects and attributes affecting an
organisation. Further, it describes the motivational theories and processes applicable in the
organisation and the formation of effective or ineffective team in an organisation. Finally, the
various philosophies applicable in the organisational context and in an organisation are discussed
and recommendation are made regarding what more should be adopted.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Analysis of an organisation's culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance.
An organisation's culture and the various attributes of it are very dynamic in nature. Tesco being
the supermarket giant is a very old company. It has gone through a number of significant
changes in all its years of operations and still undergoes. Not only culture but power and politics
are also highly dynamic elements of any company.
Culture :- Two models of cultural dimensions are Hofstede's Model and Handy's Model.
Hofstede's Model :- Geert Hofstede gave five basic cultural dimensions in a versus construction.
They are :- Low power v/s high power which shows the inequality in power holding;
Individualism v/s collectivism where strength of the ties between individuals and community is
evaluated; Masculinity v/s femininity where an organisation's compliance to different male and
female roles is evaluated; Low uncertainty in avoidance v/s high uncertainty in avoidance where
the degree of anxiety which a society member feels if faced with an uncertain situation is
evaluated; Short term orientation v/s long term orientation where traditions and their following in
the society is evaluated (Miner, 2015).
In Tesco, practices low power distance, encourages collectivism, lower difference in
masculinity and femininity, has lower uncertainty avoidance and scores lower in short term
versus long term. At Tesco, the culture is given a priority and the management always strives to
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keep its employees happy by motivating them through their cultural practices. Although, Tesco
gives more importance to the senior management in the company relying on their experience and
trust their instincts regarding business trends as they have been in the industry longer than other
less experienced employees. This benefits the company as a team immensely but sometimes it
also brings redundancy in the organisation and demotivate the employees on an individual basis
as they fail to incorporate new or innovative practices which would have benefited the company
in a better way. While some practices like lower difference in power given to the employees
encourage them as an individual, it presents itself as a problem while dealing in a team when two
individuals with conflicting nature work together (Kanfer and Chen,2016.). Similarly, attributes
like collectivism encourage the employees to work as a team and enhances a sense of
belongingness in the organisation but on an individual level, lack of recognition often creates a
negative impact.
Handy's Cultural Model – Four types of cultural model are as follows -
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Illustration 1: Hofstede's Model
Source :- Hofstede's National Cultures, 2017

Power culture- there are some people in the organisation who take decisions. They are known as
the most important people in the organisation who enjoys the special rights or advantages. they
are the major decision makers. In Tesco, employees have freedom to share their views and ideas
as they have to follow their supervisor's instructions. In this culture Tesco can made quick
decisions and respond quickly to every events.
Role culture- it is a culture where every employee assigned their roles and responsibility
according to their specialisation and qualification. In Tesco employees are willing to accept
challenges. here employees wants more stability and security as role culture is based on rules and
it also determines the employees position in Tesco.
Task culture- in this culture, teams are formed for specific task and projects. Here task is more
important thing. so power in the team can shift within the members according to the status of the
project. in Tesco people with common interest and specialisation forms a team and complete task
in more innovated way.
Person culture- it's all about the people who worked in an organisation. it is a collection of
people who worked in the same organisation. Here various activities are conducted in order to
keeps the employees motivated and this ultimately leads to the success of the company.
Power and Politics :- In an organisation, power and politics is a key factor which influences
every single employee attached to the organisation (Stewart, Courtright and Manz, 2019). There
is always an ongoing war present in the organisation for power and politics. Power indicated the
measure upto which an individual can control another individual's actions and order them.
Politics is the measure upto which they can influence another individual to operate in their
favour. There are various kinds of power like Coercive power, Legitimate power, Reward power,
Referent power and Expert power.
At Tesco, all kinds of power are exercised. Coercive power is exercised when the
employees are terminated due to their bad performance; legitimate power exercised when
employees are given directions by their managers or BOD's. Reward power is exercised when
salary is incremented or bonuses are given to the employees. Praise and recognition encourages
their motivation and makes them responsible (Punnett, 2019). Finally, referent power arises
where leaders acts as role models for employees and expert power is evident where in case of
any problem the employees know the person who has solution.
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Sometimes, the different kinds of power which benefit the employees on an individual
basis, impact them negatively while in a team and vice – e - versa. Like, in reward power;
appreciation of an individual impacts negatively other team members who have contributed
equally and this acts as a promotion of biasness in Tesco company. Similarly, in case of
legitimate powers, the whole team is directed where they are given instructions regarding what
work is to be done and how to do it. But, many times the task assigned to an individual is not his
forte thus reducing the quality of work performed.
Politics has always played a negative role in any company or organisation. If politics exists in an
organisation, that itself means manipulation of people and facts. At Tesco, Due to its large scale
operations, politics is present and impacts negatively. When an employee is favoured over
another employee by a leader or manager, it created mistrust and disrupts their working. This
paves way for increase in conflicts in the whole team which leads to reduction in productivity as
well as profitability of the company. This has also led to increase in employee turnover.
However, at Tesco, the leaders and mangers try to control the situation by implementing politics
in a positive manner where they motivate the employees to work in unison and encourage
innovative practices (Boiral, Talbot, and Paillé, 2015).
After going through all the above attributes present in Tesco Company, it can be summarized
that despite all the negative issues arising in the company and increasing redundancy of some
practices, the large scale at which it is operating in so many countries at an international level,
the leaders and mangers have been successful in maintaining the organisation's culture and the
practices adopted. Some of the improvements that the company can incorporate to further
improve the working are :- discouraging the spread of biasness by practising positive politics and
Tesco should reflect a positive working culture. The company should undergo a process to adapt
all the innovational practices and accommodate such changes.
LO 2
P2. The various motivational theory and techniques helps an organisation to achieve its goal
Content theory of motivation: Change in the human needs with time is explained in this concept.
It mainly deals with what keeps the individual motivated.
Maslow's Theory:It mainly deals with the needs of the people. Abraham Maslow initiated this.
According to Maslow human needs are basically divided into five categories in a hierarchy.
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Tesco follows the Maslow's theory in order to keep its employees motivated (Ryan and Deci,
2017.).
Physiological needs - This includes the needs by which humans can survive like air, clothes,
food, water and shelter. These are the basic needs which are required in order to survive in
the world. Tesco provide proper salary and other benefits so that the employees can easily
fulfil their basic needs.
Need of security and safety – When the physiological needs are fulfilled, then comes the need of
being safe and secure. This includes a safety of house, income security which can be met if
the company provide some job security, health related security and also gender related
security. Tesco provide health insurance to all the employees. Security plays the most
important role in Tesco (Miner, 2015). Tesco take necessary steps in the security of its
employees like provision of House rent allowance.
Social needs – When the physiological and safety needs are met then the social needs arises.
Being a social animal, humans have various feelings, affections and love for belongingness.
In a work culture social relation with the other employees plays a major role. In Tesco
various social activities are conducted like festival celebrations in order to keep employees
motivated. A healthy work culture results in satisfaction of employees which ultimately
leads to success of Tesco.
Esteem – Respect and recognition always help in the motivation of employee. It always leads to
increase the efficiency of the employees(Osabiya, 2015.). In Tesco this aspect is always
taken into consideration and they keep appreciating employees which results in efficient
working of employees.
Self-Actualization – When all the other needs are fulfilled human reaches to the self-
actualization stage. It leads to the desire of growth and development of the individual. In
Tesco, the employees are so motivated that they reaches to this stage like getting promotion,
increase in authority power.
Herzberg motivation theory
Herzberg theory of motivation : It is also called as two-factor theory as it contains two
aspects which leads to employees motivation level. These are motivators and hygiene factors.
Motivators - These are the indicators which keeps the employees motivated in order to work
more efficiently. They keep the employees satisfied with the job. Recognition for the good work,
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growth opportunities, feeling of importance, work as the motivators in Tesco. In Tesco
employees are appreciated for their achievements and they provide challenging work which help
in the growth of the employees (Ryan, 2016).
Hygiene factors – Encouragement of employees does not totally depended upon these factors but
if these factors are absent then it may result to the discouragement of employees. These factors
include security of job, insurance, salary and other benefits. Tesco provide health insurance,
allowances, bonus and other benefits which result in the motivation of employees.
Process theory of motivation – Process theory mainly deals with how the human needs can be
fulfilled.
Vroom's Expectancy Theory - Victor Vroom initiated this theory in 1964. It is assumed that the
employee's behaviour depends upon the expectations of the individual in return of performing
any task. In Tesco tasks are allotted according to the expectations of its employees so that the
efficiency of employees can be maintained (Pepper, Gosling and Gore, 2015). It contains the
following concepts-
Valence: It means preference of the employee on expected outcome. For instance, if promotion is
valued more by certain employee then incentives and bonus will not serve the purpose of
motivation.
Instrumentality – It is a thought that valuable outcome will be achieved if performance is up to
the mark. Its a belief and trust on the employer that the performance will be assessed honestly
and good work will be rewarded.
Expectancy – Increase in efforts is expected to have enhancement in performance. This will be
achieved if right job is allocated to the right person with required support of supervisor.
Tesco follows this theory by providing jobs according to the expectancy of employee and also as
per the strengths of the individual in order to keep employees motivated.
Adams equity theory – Sense of equality and justice is mainly focused according to Adams.
Employee's work may get adversely affected if the employee faces any discrimination in the
company. As it is human nature that they keep comparing themselves with other employees of
the same company and also with the other companies. So this theory plays a important role in
motivating employees (Kiatkawsin and Han, 2017). Tesco applies this concept by treating
employees fairly in terms of salary, job role, work culture as per their position in the company.
Fairness in Tesco also helps in maintaining a healthy atmosphere which keeps employees
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motivated. Tesco provides fair atmosphere to its employees which results in their motivation and
ultimately results in the achievement of targets.
LO 3
P3. Various team and group development theory
Team:Team is defined where a group of people are formed work together in order to achieve a
common goal.
Effective team: Effective team means where more than two people work in a group to achieve a
common goal by utilizing their skills, knowledge and personality this defines the team
effectiveness.the companies which do not form groups suffer a lot, for example it leads to
decrease in companies productivity, quality of work and efficiency.
 Open and clear communication opens the door for solving problem. In Tesco the top
management interacts with the team members of lower level management so that they
can share their ideas thoughts and it is easy for making decisions also. So communication
brings a great effectiveness of a team (Kozlowski, Mak, and Chao., 2016).
 Clear work matrix is defined.
 Mutual accountability should be there among team members for example if a success is
celebrated all members should participate it is not that kind if someone effort is less so
they will not celebrate.
 Good trust between employees
Factors affecting team effectiveness:
Leadership: leadership is the quality of leading or showing path to a group is leadership. A
leader has the quality of influencing and motivating the group in order to bring effectiveness in
achieving a goal. A leader can change the situations and has the ability to face competitive
challenges. Their personality leads to advancement of top management. Tesco’s leaders have
transformational leadership quality, and the transformational leaders are those who focuses on
innovation, , make the norms, focus on organization culture etc which leads to achieve a goal.
Transformational leader and their followers account on trust ,job satisfaction , performance of
individual and organizational level. If the leader criticize and dominate, the employees suffer due
to their behavior then a company losses the production and the growth is decreased. Thus for
achieving success a leader must be autocratic ,benevolent, democratic, bureaucratic ,pacessetting
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and should not posses a narcissistic leadership quality because narcissistic leadership includes
short tempered, selfish , dominating, etc.
Organizational communication: communication is defined as exchanging of information ideas
thoughts opinions by face to face communication . it is the understanding of thoughts and
feelings of one another and the transfer of this takes place by gesturing facial expression writing
etc. Effective communication leads to organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal
intragroup organizational or external levels. The improvement which takes place by
communication are quality of teamwork amount of management and level of productivity.
Focusing on communication is the difference between your team success and failure. A poor
communication leads to causes tension and anxiety where as effective communication eliminate
the stress and negative feeling it is significant for mangers to perform basic functions of
management such as planning staffing leading controlling etc (Taplin and et.al., 2015).
Organizational culture: organizational culture defines the working environment of an
organization that an employee is satisfied or not and that satisfaction defines by an organizational
creative culture i.e, in Tesco the balanced form of creative culture leads to feel loyalty ,
Collaborative culture; if this culture gets imbalanced then the decision making and group
thinking takes a lot of time. Competitive culture; In winning they cross the limits and boundaries
and controlled culture; unbalanced culture leads to decrease in employee motivation as they can
be discriminated on basis of caste, color ,race, etc.
Tuckman's theory: This theory was proposed for team development. where an individual can
show their skills to be in a group for achieving a goal. For group development Tuckman's
introduced four stages named forming, storming, norming, performing.
Forming: In this phases, people are not aware with their job and responsibilities. They feel no
nervous and has lack of clarity. In such condition leaders of Tesco always develop healthy
relationship with employees and make them understand their task. This make them feel
comfortable and they start their job accordingly.
Storming:This the second stage of development where an individual trust each other and when a
problem arises they solve at their on basis. But sometimes conflict arises due to the assigned
power and status. Leaders of Tesco teaches that how to behave in a group and to deal with the
problems. And they also analyze employees patience level.
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Norming:In this stage responsibilities are assigned so Tesco employees are focused in achieving
goal. They start tolerating and they give their best to move on (Van Knippenberg. 2017).
Sometimes they get too busy in solving the conflicts so they forget sharing controversial ideas.
Performing:This is the final stage where established roles and norms are followed therefore this
results in achieving success for Tesco. By this period of time Tesco employees get motivated and
knowledgeable so easily they can take the decisions.
LO 4
P4 Application of concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour.
Path Goal Theory :- This theory is basically used to determine the leadership style or theory
which should be adapted and applied in any organisation. It is developed on the basis of Vroom's
Expectancy Theory. There are predominantly four major styles that have been identified in this
theory :- Directive path goal clarifying leader is a leadership style where leaders direct the
employees about what they expect from them and how employees should achieve the tasks
assigned to them. Achievement Oriented Leader are the one who challenges their employees
and judge their ability to meet their expectations (Miner, 2015). Participative leader Behaviour
is the leadership style where leader consults their employees and their suggestions thus involving
them in decision making. Lastly, Supportive Leadership Style, the leader works towards
satisfaction of employees and their welfare i.e. the leader is employee oriented and works for
their benefit. These four are the leadership styles explained in the Path Goal Theory.
Out of three major leadership styles, at Tesco Autocratic style of leadership should be the
chiefly applicable leadership. Autocratic Leadership Style basically means one individual or a
group of them are given all the exclusive rights and powers for decision making and they solely
govern all the employees in the organisation. All the creative decisions also originate from the
leaders only. But, in Tesco; the Autocratic Style of Leadership can be adopted but only the
positive aspects, i.e. the leaders can do the decision making but they should also consult their sub
ordinates. This style of leadership enhances the decision making in the company and the large
scale operations of the company require swift decision making. This style also improves the
overall communication patterns in the organisation as the employees are directed straight from
the managers and this removes any ambiguity in the mind of employees. They get a clear idea of
the duties they are required to perform (Borkowski, 2015). This leadership style will also
enhance the productivity of Tesco Company as delay in decision making leads to reduction in
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productivity level. But, in Tesco autocratic decision making will lead to improved work
practices.
This leadership style will also help in dealing with the situation of crisis effectively as the
leaders at Tesco are experienced and know which decisions will steer the company away from
facing crisis situation. Due to the unbiased behaviour of the managers and leaders with
employees at Tesco, the employees will be more satisfied and happy with the present leadership
style. They would know what is expected from them and they would also know what their
leaders and managers expect from them. This leadership style at Tesco will be hugely beneficial
for the employees as when they will work in teams alongside their leaders and managers, they
will be able to learn the various techniques and methods adopted by them and this will hone their
skills thus preparing and training them for the future leadership of the company. Thus, at Tesco
Company, if the style of leadership is Autocratic, it will be hugely beneficial and will prove to be
a strong backup on the operation and working of the company.
Along with leadership, motivating the employees is also necessary and to keep them
motivated, a dedicated approach needs to be adopted. Maslow's Theory also acts as a motivating
theory for individuals giving them goals and aims which the individuals strive to achieve. Apart
from the Maslow's Need hierarchy, there are certain other factors based on different theories like
Herzberg Theory etc. Collectively, they can be formulated into the following points :-
Monetary and Non – Monetary Benefits :- When the employees are given any kind of benefits,
they become motivated and try to achieve even more than the set targets (Vasu, Stewart and
Garson,2017). This motivates them to work harder trying to achieve more which will give them
even more benefits. Monetary benefits involve incentives, benefits, raise given in the salary and
non monetary benefits include praises, awards, prizes etc.
Work Place Environment :- At Tesco, the managers along with the Human Resource
Management personnel, should try very hard to maintain the work culture by improving the
policies and regulations applied on them. Understanding the mentality of the employees, their
problems and also their key expertise so that they can be tasked accordingly. This will increase
their efficiency and dedication level and they give higher results.
Hygienic working Conditions :- The workplace, where an employee spends maximum of his
time should always be clean and free from any unhygienic elements. Health of an employee
should be a major concern of the management because only a healthy employee will be able to
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work effectively and focus on achieving goals. Avoiding spread of any hazardous diseases keeps
the whole organisation healthy and also protects the company from getting involved in legal
problems.
Plan For the Tesco Company :-
In every organisation, ensuring that the strategies and plans formulated for the growth of
the company are effective and efficient in nature. They should be formulated with the view of
increasing the efficiency of the organisation and enhancing performance of individuals as well as
teams. Tesco, based on the Tuckman Theory, should create a healthy environment in the
organisation where focus is on integrating the individuals of the company in a team and
enhancing productivity (Gelfand, and et.al., 2017). Key expertise of all the employees should be
identified and then, taking the benefit of all the individuals' strength, strategies should be
developed in such a way that maximum benefit can be withdrawn in the company's favour. In
team, every employee should respect each other and try to collaborate with each other. This will
enhance performance of Tesco and Tesco being such a huge company can be effectively
managed only when the employees think of themselves as a team rather than competing with
each other. Also, giving incentives and other benefits to the team and its members motivates
them and increase the loyalty of their employees. The issue of rising conflict in the Tesco
Company have led to ineffective management and this can be resolved only when the employees
of the company feel a sense of belongingness and work towards achieving organisational goals
together.
Recommendations :- Tesco should adopt a strong business policy engaging it employees and
inculcating trust amongst them. It should also on focus on increasing the employees and their
problems and apply good communication practices and develop a workforce plan (Lăzăroiu,
2015). Tesco should also try to improve its image and performance in the market and formulate
strategies to capture it.
CONCLUSION
After going through the above report it can be concluded that organisational behaviour and
various other attributes related to it are an important aspect and should be managed efficiently.
Also, using various models like Hofstede's Model, Handy's Model etc; the importance of culture
and power and their influence was determined. Using Tuckman's Theory, effective and
ineffective team formation was explained. Lastly, different philosophies used in the
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organisational context were explained ad a plan formulated for improvement of the Tesco
Company.
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