HR Values and Contribution to Organisational Success - A Tesco Case

This report evaluates the role of Human Resources in contributing to organisational success, focusing on Tesco as a case study. It examines the importance of organisational design theory in shaping Tesco's structure and fulfilling its strategic goals, highlighting the impact of its hierarchical structure on performance. The report analyses different approaches, including motivation theories and scientific management principles, used to attract, maintain, and motivate a dedicated workforce. It also touches upon the importance of adapting to change management within the organisation. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of aligning HR practices with organisational values to drive sustainable performance.

Human Resources –
Values and
Contribution to
Organisational Success

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Evaluate the importance of organisational design theory in the context of organisation
structure and fulfilling organisational strategy, using specific organisational examples............1
A critical analysis of two different approaches/techniques used to attract, maintain, motivate
and develop a dedicated workforce.............................................................................................3
Conduct research and use contemporary knowledge to support evidence for emerging HR
developments...............................................................................................................................3
Draw conclusions and make justified recommendations on ways to improve the delivery of
sustainable performance within the organisation........................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
References:.......................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Human Resources is a set of people who make up the workforce of a company. The
management of Human Resources in an organisation means working to employing, training and
compensating them. A good Human Resource management in an organisation often leads to
implementing values leading to contribution towards organisation's success. In this report, the
company considered is Tesco(Aslam, and et.al., 2018). Tesco is a British retail giant majorly
operating through supermarkets and hypermarkets. In this, the importance of organisational
design theory in context of Tesco's structure and fulfilling organisational strategy, using specific
organisational examples will be covered. Then the different approaches and techniques used for
attracting, maintaining, developing and rewarding human resources to create a skilled and
dedicated workforce will be learned. Then a research is conducted to use contemporary
knowledge to support evidence for emerging HR development. Then at the end of this report,
how organisational design has to respond and adapt to change management and the relationship
that exists between the two using a specific organisational situation will be observed.
MAIN BODY
Evaluate the importance of organisational design theory in the context of organisation structure
and fulfilling organisational strategy, using specific organisational examples.
The organisational design theory for setting a fulfilling organisational structure is of great
importance to a company. In the context of Tesco's organisational structure the organisation
design theory is key for its implementation. Tesco is a grocery and general merchandise store
from Britain operating across multiple countries. They have been expanding globally since the
early 90's and have diversified into areas such as retailing of books, furniture, petrol, software
etc. It is one of the biggest companies in the world in terms of stores and varieties and operates in
more than 12 countries across the whole Europe and Asia(Baharun, and et.al., 2021). It was
founded by entrepreneur Jack Cohen who used to sell cheap products at first but then moved to
selling premium commodities after understanding the demands of the customers. Since then he
and the company has worked towards the values and core purpose of serving their customers,
communities and planet in the best way possible. Even till now they are bringing diversified
products to the market which also includes products that are eco-friendly and are important for a
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healthy lifestyle. They have continuously used a different structure of their own to run the
company and have been consistently successful.
Organisational structure of Tesco
Tesco, being in retail sector follows a hierarchical organisational structure and have been
successful in implementing and running the organisation through this structure. This structure is
based on the positions and the responsibility to ensure that the work is efficient. There is a
business pyramid describing the structure of the company and the top-most of the pyramid have
the highest authority in the company. Their structure is also hierarchical because of the size of
the company. Their structure has as many as 4 layers of management in the company. The top 2
layers are of Regional manager and store manager respectively. Though this 4 layer system could
create a system of bureaucracy which could have negative impacts on the information flow
across the layers. This structure in general terms is based on the chain of command, usually from
a senior management up to the general employees(Diklic, 2018). In simple manner it could be
said that the employees in Tesco report to the manager and they report to the people managing
them. These are very helpful when the products sold by the company are in high volumes. This
structures helps in controlling the design, quality, production and distribution. For example, If
Tesco sells a product that is widely popular in UK then the top positioned people in the company
are going to take control of the fact that the product is bought at a very high quantity. The
hierarchical structure will be key in controlling all the aspect of production.
Evaluation of how the structure is effecting the performance of the organisation.
Organisation structure of a company is one of the most important feature because of
which a company fails or succeeds. Without a proper organisational structure the policies and
routines of the company will not be regularly followed and the objectives will become unrealistic
to achieve. It is already been discussed that Tesco follows Hierarchical form of structure. This
has highly impacted their performance in a positive way and because of this Tesco has been
consistently improving their work and revenues(Galli, 2018). Also their organisational structure
implies that change will be imminent in the company with time. The following are the ways by
which structure of Tesco is effecting the the performance of the organisation:
 Clear Reporting
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The Tesco's structure is so centralised that it is easy to figure out who to report and who the real
decision maker is. A hierarchical structure determines the positions of the people in an
organisation. This makes it very easy for Tesco's employees to do their work report to the right
authority.
 Control Oriented
A hierarchical system works well when the company is looking to employ control over their
products. Especially because Tesco runs a high volume consumer products, they need to have
control over their product's production and marketing. The structure of hierarchy allows them to
completely monitor the designs of their products.
 Becoming an expert
Their system also allows the employees to become more skilful and expert on their roles as the
structure of the company allows the growth of the employees in a linear way. If their quality is
used effectively then the company can employ expert employees in as many departments as
possible.
 Defining a clear purpose
The structure of Tesco has also determined a purpose to succeed for the employees since
everyone's objectives are specific and even for the management the steps to evaluate the
employees performance also becomes clear as the structure defines the purpose.
A critical analysis of two different approaches/techniques used to attract, maintain, motivate and
develop a dedicated workforce.
It is important for the organisations today to take different approaches to maintain a dedicated
workforce. Tesco has always used out of the box approaches to attract new employees and to
develop the ones who are already in the company. These approaches have been successful not
just for Tesco but for all the successful companies that are employing thousands of employees.
For big companies like Tesco it is quite a challenge to be in proper consideration with all the
employees since there are so many of them that too from several countries(Galli, 2019) .
There are many approaches or techniques that can be used by Tesco to attract, maintain, motivate
and develop a workforce. 2 of them are discussed below in detail.
Motivation Theories
The motivation of a person can be described as the intuitive forces coming from within an
individual that helps in making proper efforts and accomplishing the objectives. From
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organisation's point of view it is important to have motivated employees as they will be more
productive than a demotivated person(Gonzalez, Gasco and Llopis, 2020). Tesco usually
conducts workshops to motivate the employees consistently but these could sometime
demotivate the person if the right technique is not used. There are different approaches of
motivation theories:
Content Theory
This model is based on the things which people feel they require in their lives. The deciding
factor of content theory is knowing the 'what' of motivation.
Mclelland's Theory of needs
The Mclelland's Theory of needs focuses on the emotional needs of the people. According to this
theory, there are three types of needs and they are discussed below:
 Need for achievements
According to this factor of Mclelland's theory, employees in an organisation wants to accomplish
goals and want to have their names considered for those achievements. For example- A Tesco
sales person would want to sell a specific number of products to achieve his objectives.
 Need for power
According to this factor of Mclelland's theory, people usually have a desire to gain authority over
others. This theory describes that people with this need are quite suitable for leadership roles.
And hence, Tesco should make sure that they use this motivation technique.
 Need for affiliation
This theory states that there is need felt by people to develop social connections with specific
people. These people get motivation form the fact that others that others are welcoming and
collaborative towards them.
Process Theory
This theory of motivation is based on the the fact that there are few actions which set the thought
process of people's behaviour. There are many types of process theory of motivation. On of them
is Goal setting theory.
Goal setting theory
The goal setting theory states that the goals assigned to the employees should be realistic. It
describes that only specific and measurable goals can be effectively achieved by the people. Five
principles of goal setting theory are:
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 Clarity
Unambitious goals could lead to misconceptions for the employees. And so, the goals set to the
employees should be clear enough for the employees to be able to do it precise.
 Challenge
Not only should the goals be clear but it should always be able to challenge and excite the
employees in doing it(Lebastard, 2022).
 Commitment
The employees should feel that the goals they are going to accomplish are accepted by them or
else they will never be fully committed.
 Task complexity
The management needs to make sure that the goals set are not so complex that the employees get
confused and get demotivate towards working.
 Feedback
Tesco needs to make sure that they take employees feedback of their goals once they accomplish
it or fails to do so. Feedbacks are the best way to be aware of employees capabilities and
expectations.
Scientific Management Theory
The scientific management theory is the theory developed by Frederick Taylor and is used to
evolve the performance of the employees with science. The theory says that if the performance
of the employees in the organisation is bad it is due to the bad working conditions that is
responsible for the it(Malik, and Sanders, 2021). The theory believed that the traditional way of
supervision of the employees should be changed with the scientific ways of how people do their
tasks which will make sure that the individuals are working efficiently. Though this theory
comes with its weaknesses it has eliminated the negative elements from their performances.
Tesco should also use some scientific observations to make their evaluations better and accurate.
Principles of Scientific management
 Science, not the rule of thumb
This approach says that the efficiency of an organisation is to be observed through the scientific
methods and not the rule of thumb. It states that even the smallest of work can be planned
through science though which much time could be saved.
 Harmony, not discord
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This theory states that the relationship between the employees and the management should be
harmonious. Any discord between the management and the employees is likely to disturb the
aura of the organisation.
 Mental revolution
Mental revolution means that a change in attitude is required in the employees and the
management. Until they have a sense of togetherness in their minds they cannot effect the
company in a positive way.
 Cooperation, not individualism
To improve the performance of the company and not just the individuals, Tesco needs to indulge
cooperation in their employees behaviours and not individualism(Mansouri, and et.al., 2018).
 Development of every person to his greatest efficiency
The organisation's overall performance also depends upon the efficiency of the individuals.
Hence it is important to develop the skills and capabilities of the employees so as to increase the
overall productivity.
Conduct research and use contemporary knowledge to support evidence for emerging HR
developments.
An organisation like Tesco can make the use of effective HR for the betterment of their
employees. But to stay relevant in the current scenario and be aware about the changing trends
there is need for the company to use the emerging HR developments in their organisation. These
new HR developments are very important since the employees today are more centred towards
their own satisfaction and their proper management is a need for the companies to work well.
The following are the emerging developments that are needed to be used by Tesco:
 Hybrid work culture
Tesco needs to create a work culture where the working is permanently on a hybrid mode.
During the pandemic almost every organisation changed their working from the traditional to the
online mode. But now after the situation is sorted the companies including have started to bring
back their employees to work from office and because of that many employees are finding it hard
to adapt to it after working from home for so long. Tesco needs to convert their working style to
an hybrid mode so that they could retain the employees as they want and the productivity of the
organisation also doesn't go down. The hybrid working culture have been a success in many big
organisations like Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer.
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 Usage of technology in recruitment
The new HR development extensively use technology as their tools for development. Tesco
should also increase the use of technology in their HR departments so as to increase flexibility
and retrieve more data. The recruitment role is something which is needed to made more tech
savvy in Tesco than it was before. The emerging technological features of recruitment process
can even determine the best candidates just through the data of their past works by comparing
them automatically. Most of the companies have already been using the technical methods to
revolutionaries the recruitment system(Margherita, 2022). The traditional way of announcing
vacancies in the company has already been changed from the newspapers and pamphlets to
online websites. This technique has made it very comfortable for the companies and more
importantly for the job appliers to find and apply easily. Also to make recruitment faster, the first
few selection processes could be done online which would help in saving the time of HR
personnel.
 More focus on employee experience
In this modern era of organisation behaviour, it is important to focus widely on the employees
experience and satisfaction since this is the best way to motivate them in working very hard.
Tesco, being in retail industry has many competitors and the employees won't have to think
again if they feel uncomfortable due to the organisational culture. Tesco is one of the biggest
companies in Europe and they are expected to take different measures to keep their employees
happy. To keep the experience of the employees good, Tesco will have to keep the culture of the
organisation suitable for everyone. The culture of the company needs to be open because there
are people in the organisation who are from different parts of the country. There are big MNC's
which are highly successful but are seeing their employees leave regularly because of strict
working hours, low salaries and bad management. Tesco needs to make sure that these problems
are not an issue for them when it comes to Human Resource Management.
 Expanding HR capabilities
The HR have lot of responsibilities that widely influence the company's performance. These
responsibilities include Recruiting, selecting, managing good environment etc. But for the
effective performance of the organisation it is not enough as the HR needs to given to more
access for better performance management(Obrist, 2020). Expanding the HR capabilities will be
very important for knowing the behaviour and the capabilities of the employees accurately. Also
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the emerging trends have shown that the involvement of the HR in the company has been
proportional to their productivity. Hence it can be seen that all the big and emerging companies
are using the new HR trends to facilitate improvement in the performance of their employees.
Tesco needs to use approach too if they want to adapt to the changing trends.
Evaluate how organisational design has to respond and adapt to change management and the
relationship that exists between the two using a specific organisational situation.
Change management can be defined as the organized approach which is focussed on the
transition of goals and processes in an organisation. It is very important for organisations to
implement proper change management as it allows the businesses to stay relevant in the current
and future scenario. For the change to be effective in an organisation, there should be strategies
planned in order to make sure that the change won't impact the organisation in a negative way.
The change management also includes preparing and encouraging employees and monitoring
post change activities that will be the consequence of the change.
Change management theory and models
Change management theories are a framework helpful in transitioning people and processes in
order to improve the outcomes of the organisation. It is important to use the right change
management model to implement the change properly. One of the most important and renowned
change management model is Lewin's change management model. This model is known for its
simplicity which will be discussed below in detail.
Lewin's Change management Model
According to this model, change is considered as a process of lot of misunderstandings and to go
through the change the company needs to overcome this complicated process through
Unfreezing, Change and Freeze.
 Unfreezing
It is a critical stage of change management where it is decided what is to be changed. Tesco
needs to use the stage to evaluate the current processes and identify the requirement for change.
 Change
In this stage, Tesco needs to conduct the change and let their employees know about the
opportunities that the change will bring to the company.
 Freeze
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Tesco needs to make sure that the change is becoming sustainable in the whole organisation.
They also should celebrate successes that the change is bringing to the company(Su, Chen and
Wang, 2019).
Role of HR in management of change and organisational design
Human Resource is very important in an organisation for implementing the change and also
restructure or maintain the proper organisational design. The HR usually keeps the know how of
all the employees and the management which provides them with the opportunity to be one of
the main components of the changes that will take place across the whole organisation. The role
of HR will be to make sure that the changes are done in a right sense and it gets adapted the
people of the organisation. Some of the most important roles played by the HR in the
organisation are discussed below:
 Understanding
If the HR needs to be involved in the changing scenario in the organisation, then it needs to
understand the prospectives of change better than anyone else.
 Planning
After understanding the change, the HR needs to plan the procedures and criteria to implement
the change. Without the proper planning they will not be able to make realistic criteria for
change.
 Implementing
Then the most important role is to implement the change in a proper way with the cooperation of
the management.
 Communicating
After implementing, there is big requirement for the change to be communicated properly to the
employees so as to provide them the proper knowledge of the future procedures.
Types of change
 Organisational wide change
This is the change that is created at a very large scale and can impact the whole organisation's
structure. Tesco could use this type of change to restructure their processes.
 Transformational change
It is the type of change which is used to deal with the factors that could be important in the
transformation of change.
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 Personnel change
It is the type of change that involves changing of people in the organisation. Tesco could use this
type of change to hire or lay-off employees for the company's benefit(Vahdat, 2021).
 Unplanned change
It is that type of change that is done without the predictions. These are instant and could be taken
when situations go suddenly out of hand.
 Remedial change
This is the change that takes place to increase the functionality in the organisation. Tesco could
use this change to improve their productivity.
Relationship among the organisational design and change management.
There is a strong relation between the organisational design and change management. The
process of change management can be used to change or maintain the organisational design in
Tesco. If Tesco wants to implement change in the business it is required for them to make
strategies(Zheng, Chen and Shang,2019).
Recommendations
 An effective recommendation to the decision makers of Tesco is to make sure that the
communication is done well between the employees and the management about the
change.
 It is also recommended to them that before the implementation of change in Tesco, the
employees should have a voice in the implementation especially the HR.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that change is important when an organisation wants to grow or improve
from their current performances. Also that the organisational design is a key factor in change
implementation. These changes in the organisation could be of various types and the businesses
including Tesco could make the use of these changes to improve their productivity and
performance.
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CONCLUSION
From this report it can be concluded that there is a huge importance of organisational design
theory in the context of organisational structure and fulfilling organisational strategies. Then the
different approaches and techniques used for mainlining and motivating the employees were
covered through the Motivation theories and the Scientific management theory. Then the
effective and emerging HR developments that could be used by Tesco for improving the
performance of their employees. The whole report was concluded by understanding the
organisational design and its impact over change management and the recommendation through
a PowerPoint presentation.
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References:
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