Organisational Performance and Culture in Practice - 5CO01 Report

This report examines organisational performance and culture, focusing on the context of Heathrow Airport, Tesco, and H&M. It begins by evaluating different organisational structures (divisional, hierarchical, and matrix) and their associated products, services, and consumer bases, highlighting their merits and demerits. The report then analyzes the linkage between organisational strategy and products, consumers, and revenue, emphasizing how strategic choices influence product development and consumer satisfaction. It also assesses the ongoing impact of external factors, such as Brexit, COVID-19, and technological advancements, using a PESTEL analysis to identify political, economic, social, and technological influences. The report further addresses current issues impacting service delivery, particularly the effects of COVID-19 on people practices like employee training and rewards, and considers the impact of technology on working practices. Finally, it provides recommendations for adapting to the changing landscape and improving organisational performance.

Organisational
performance
and culture in
practice
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Evaluation of organisational structures with range of products, services and consumers
associated with each...............................................................................................................3
Analysis of linkage between organisational strategy and products, consumers and revenue 6
Impact of on-going impact of range of external factors.........................................................7
Assessment of current issues that influence service delivery and their impact on people
practice...................................................................................................................................8
Impact of people practice on organisational systems.............................................................8
Impact of technology on people, teams and working practices..............................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Heathrow Airport is London’s major airport and is the second busiest airport in the world
in terms of international passenger traffic. In addition to this, the airport is the busiest in entire
Europe by passenger traffic. As many as 80 airlines flying to 185 destinations in 84 countries use
the Heathrow Airport. The present report provides information about different types of
organisational structures and their linkage to organisational purpose. Analysis of linkage of
organisational strategy to products and services is provided in this report. Impact of external
factors on the Heathrow airport is given in this report along with identification of key prioritise
of the firm. Impact of people practices on organisational systems is given in this report along
with the impact of technology on working practices at Heathrow airport.
MAIN BODY
Evaluation of organisational structures with range of products, services and consumers
associated with each
Heathrow airport
Organisational structure: The organisational structure followed by Heathrow airport is
divisional organisational structure.
Merits:
 It provides more focus and flexibility on each division's core competency (Agostini and
Nosella, 2017).
 It enhances employee speciality.
Demerits:
 It can result in a loss of efficiency and a duplication of effort because each division needs
to acquire the same resources.
 Each division often has its own research and development, marketing, and other units that
could otherwise be helping each other. (Du Plessis and Blom, 2020).
Services: The services offered by the Heathrow airport encompass a wide range of
service which enables airline passengers to board on their flight and airline staff to
effectively depart and reach the airport.
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Consumers: The consumer base of the company includes airline staff members, airline
passengers along with the associate of airline passengers who are present for the departure or
arrival of the passenger.
Linkage with organisational purpose: The purpose of the Heathrow airport is to provide a
unique style of British airport service which enables airline passengers to experience simple,
quick, enjoyable and reassuring airport services. The purpose of the organisation is assisted
with the help of the organisational structure adopted by the company. This is because each
division of the company such as procurement, marketing technology operations is able to
attain core competencies and ensure that the services provided by the division are excellent.
TESCO
Organisational structure: The organisational structure followed by TESCO is hierarchical
organisational structure.
Merits
Employees are able to determine their career path in the firm as clear promotion aspects
are provided by the hierarchical organisational structure (Giusino, 2020).
 Hierarchical organisational structure enhances decision making process by ensuring that
the company conducts the decision making process swiftly.
Demerits
 The hierarchical organisational structure limits employee engagement as employees are
not able to participate in decision making process.
 The hierarchical organisational structure discourages teamwork which is disadvantageous
for business firms (Hasani, Kasim and Basnan, 2019).
Products: TESCO works in the retail industry and offers a wide range of products to their
consumers raining from grocery products through their supermarket chains.
Consumers: The target consumer base of the company includes consumer segments
which aim to find retail solutions for grocery, fashion, electrical appliances, food products and
other products.
Linkage with organisational purpose: The purpose of TESCO is to provide best quality
products to consumers. The hierarchical organisational structure is best first for the company and
contributes to the attainment of purpose of TESCO. This is because the company can be
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responsive to demands of thee consumers by increasing the speed of decision making process
and gain competitive advantage. This helps the company provide bets services to their
consumers.
H&M
Organisational structure: The organisational structure followed by H&M is matric
organisational structure.
Merits:
 Job security of employees is enhanced with the help of matric organisational structure.
 Matrix organisational structure enhances internal communication in the firm (Luxton,
Reid and Mavondo, 2017)
Demerits:
 This structure increases the organizational complexity of the company.
 This organisational structure increases the possibility of conflict.
Products: H&M is a clothing retailer and offers a wide range of fashion products aimed at
men and women including fashion accessories, apparels and footwear products.
Consumers: The consumer base of the company includes young age men and women
looking for fashion products.
Linkage with organisational purpose: The purpose of H&M is to make affordable
clothing accessible to everyone. This purpose can be attained with the help of matrix
organisational structure as it develops employee ensures collaboration between departments to
offer the best fashion products accessible to target consumers.
Analysis of linkage between organisational strategy and products, consumers and revenue
Organisational strategy of the company assist in development of products or services of
the company creates future direction for employees of the company and builds revenue of the
company by ensuring consumer satisfaction (Metz, 2017). The linkage between organisational
strategy and products or services offered by the company is that the selection of organisational
strategy sets the foundation for product development. If the business firm adopts market
penetration or market development strategy, only slight changes in the current products are made
such as variants of current products or services with various upgrades are offered by the
company. In case of Heathrow airport adoption of market penetration as organisational strategy
will affect services offered by the firm as the organisation will introduce their products with
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discount offers or variations to attract international passengers such as discount concierge
service. On the other hand adoption of diversification or product development strategy involves
conducting research to offer new services. The main benefit of this linkage is that business firms
are able to create products which ensure progress of the firm. This linkage has disadvantage as
the business strategy controls innovation in the organisation. The relation between business
strategy and consumers is that consumer focused business strategy enhances consumer
satisfaction. Advantage of this relation is that business firms are able to directly impact their
consumers through business strategy. Disadvantage of this relation is that ineffective business
strategy increases employee dissatisfaction. Organisational strategy of Heathrow airport provides
ways to expand services, determines the current and future skills required by the employees and
helps the firm generate revenue by initiating plans which assists in progress of the company.
Impact of on-going impact of range of external factors
External factors affecting the firm can be determined with the help of PEST analysis (Ozmen,
2018). The PESTEL analysis of Heathrow airport is provided below:
Political factors
The main political factor affecting the Heathrow airport is Brexit. Implementation of
Brexit deal has changed various emigration laws which need to be considered by the organisation
in order to ensure safe and lawful air travel of employees.
Positive impact: Heathrow airport can ensure lawful air travel of foreign passengers and
immigrants with Brexit.
Negative impact: This factor changes protocols at the airport related to EU sir passengers which
affects daily functioning of the firm.
Economic Factors
The drastic impact of COVID-19 on British economy is the primary economic factor
affecting Heathrow airport. Vaccination rollouts by the government and removal of restrictions
provide opportunity to hospitality firms for economic development.
Positive impact: The Heathrow airport can exploit the removal of COVID-19 restrictions and
attract visitors with special offers. The company can develop discount travel offers for
international passengers and attract consumers by marketing the safety measures taken by the
airport to attract international passengers. Special discount passages targeted at international
passengers can help the company recover from loss faced during the COVID-19 crisis.
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Negative impact: The Heathrow airport faces loss of revenue due to restriction on international
air travel as a result of Covid -19.
Social Factors
The increasing usage of digital mediums for booking tickets affects business firms in
aviation sector (Prasanna and Haavisto, 2018).
Positive impact: Heathrow airport can increase international revenue by interacting with
international passengers online.
Negative impact: The cyber security threat associated with usage on online channels
negatively impacts safety of employees. Cyber criminals can use the digital channels of the
company to access information system and steal sensitive passenger information such as
information related to passport of the consumers. Single case of this kind of cyber-crime can
damage the reputation of Heathrow airport. The firm will not able to recover from negative
branding as passport information of passengers includes highly sensitive and private information
which is important for passengers and governments all over the globe.
Technological Factors
The improved airport security technology is the main external factor affecting Heathrow
airport.
Positive impact: Airport security technology such as e-passports can help the respective firm
decrease illegal air travel. This type of security will increase the overall safety of the airport and
prevent dangerous attacks including terrorist attack or cyber-crime attack. Heathrow airport will
be able to enforce immigration laws more effective and prevent transport of illegal substances
such as narcotics from the airport to international regions through air travel. This will not only be
beneficial for Heathrow airport but also for the surrounding community as the organisation will
be able to stop illegal substances or immigrants from entering the region.
Negative impact: Heathrow airport has to make high financial investment in order to gain such
technology.
Assessment of current issues that influence service delivery and their impact on people practice
The primary issue which affects delivery of airport services in case of Heathrow airport is
the on-going COVID-19. As the pandemic is not over and COVID-19 cases have accelerated in
some countries such as India, Heathrow airport have to take various steps in order to recover in
such situations. In addition to this the focus of Heathrow Airport needs to focus on developing
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capabilities which help the firm survive if the situation worsens (Salas-Vallina, Alegre and
Fernandez, 2017).
Impact on people practices: The loss of air travel affects the revenue of the firm and
impacts various people practices which require financial investment such as employee rewards
and recognition practices. This is because majority of financial investment of Heathrow airport
will be used to ensure safety of passengers and staff working at the airport and contamination of
the virus. Equipment needed by the employees of the organisation such as masks, PPE kits and
thermometer for checking the temperature of passengers. The financial investment of the
organisation will be used in buying this equipment which will divert the investment into people
practices. This is addition to low air travel will reduce employee rewards or incentives given by
the Heathrow airport to their consumers. The firm needs to address this issue quickly as
employee reward is related to employee motivation and lack off rewards or reduced rewards can
reduce employee motivation in such difficult times. Another factor which affects people
practices is that the guidelines imposed by the government to stop the spread of the COVID-19
virus requires social distancing, this will impact the people practice of employee training. This
people practice is affected as the firm needs to find an alternative for employee training which
enables employees to learn new skills remotely. VR training and mobile training are new
technologies which cane be used in this context by the Heathrow airport. The firm will be able to
impose social distancing while also ensuring that employee development programmes and
training activities are not hindered.
The complex distribution landscape of the aviation sector is another factor which affects
daily activities at Heathrow airport. The complexity of distribution landscape is increasing with
introduction of e-commerce. Heathrow airport has to coordinate with various business firms in
order to provide information about flight routes to the consumers. This includes Global
distribution systems, airline reservation systems, ATPO company, travel agencies and travel
agents. The firm has to train employees and utilise technology to coordinate with various
agencies and provide airline passengers correct information.
Impact on people practices: Employees at Heathrow airport have to be trained to utilise
technology and ensure time management in order to ensure that the respective agencies are
communicated by the employee to provide correct information to air travellers.
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Impact of people practice on organisational systems
People practices such as analysing people data, managing grievances and employee
recruitment affect organisational systems (Thang, Phi and Trang, 2021). Employee recruitment
affects organisational systems of Heathrow airport as the firm has to recruit skilled employees at
every position of the company. In addition to this grievance procedure of the firm affects
organisational systems as systems which increase employee dissatisfaction need to be eliminated.
Impact of technology on people, teams and working practices
Impact of technology on people-
The development of technology in past many years has made the work easier for people
as the use of technology can be made in various ways. In the lives of people, technology has
impacted both in the positive and in the negative ways and it depends wholly on them how they
have to use the technology (Gomes, Seman and De Montreuil Carmona, 2020). With the use of
technology communication has become easier which can be concerned with both in personal and
in professional way. Sharing of data and retrieving the data have become much more easier than
at the earlier times.
Impact of technology on work-
The technology is used not just for the personal use but it is also use while doing work or
at the workplace. Heathrow Airport is making the use of technology in various from the entry to
the exit and also for work regulation. The airport is making the use of technology in Biometrics,
to keep the record of their employees, Knowledge management and in many other software. It
helps in brining much more efficiency in the work and the speed of completing the work is also
fast than to use the traditional methods of work which is why the Heathrow Airport have become
the busiest and largest airport.
Impact of technology on working practices-
The working practice in the Airport is different from that of the normal business as the airport
has to use the technology because without the use of technology they would not be able to run
this business. The Heathrow airport uses the facility of Dynamic display solutions which helps to
make effective communication and also performs the activity of making the message reachable
to the passengers. The online booking which is made for the tickets is not just made
automatically but with the use of technology.
Current use of technology in Heathrow airport-
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The use of technology in Heathrow Airport is huge and without taking help of technology the
Airport would not be able to function (Ruck, 2019). The Heathrow airport is the biggest airport
and also the busiest airport in which the processing of the passengers needs to be fast and
speedily. The paperwork is not present at the Airport and the use of technology is started when
the people starts arriving which involves their check-in check-out and the bag drop, tagging of
bags is done with the help of machines. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine
learning is also used in the Airport in Language Processing, Pattern recognition, Auto scheduling
and many others. The Heathrow airport also provides the people with the virtual reality which is
used in providing the training to the people (Benson, 2018). In the training they provide the
facility of providing the trainees with the real life scenarios which they can face while doing the
work.
Recommendations for Heathrow airport
The firm needs to utilise product development business strategy and conduct heavy
research to offer new services to employee. This is suitable strategy for the company as the firm
will be able to utilise advanced technology such as Virtual and augmented reality to offer new
services to consumers such as smart lounge rooms. These lounge rooms will utilise Internet of
things technology to provide digitally connected lounge room to the airport. In addition to this an
application which connects passengers with every shop located in airport and have their orders
delivered to the airport lounge.
Another recommendation which needs to be adopted by Heathrow airport to deal with the
COVID-19 impact on people practices is the adoption of VR training technology. This
technology will help the company ensure that employees work on their skills gap remotely with
the help of VR training technology. The firm will be able to provide employee flexible training
hours with the help of this technology which will play a role in improving employee satisfaction.
In addition to this building employee application which connects employees with their mentors
so that they can gain and give feedbacks on their training with the mentors will help the company
ensure effective communication. In addition to this interaction with the mentors will enhance
employee motivation in such testing times and encourage them to continuously enhance their
performance.
Logistical efficiency is another aspect which needs to be considered by Heathrow airport
in order to enhance consumer experience. This can be attained by ensuring quick movement of
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goods around the airport with minimisation of environmental impact. Technologies like
driverless electric vehicles have been introduced to reduce time and costs. These technologies
can be used by Heathrow airport to enhance logistical efficiency reduce expenditure and provide
better passenger experience. The improvement of baggage handling systems with individual
tagging of items via RFID or other tagging is another example of technology which can be used
by the respective organisation to enhance logistical efficiency.
The usage of technology such as AI, VR and advanced digital security systems also
introduces the threat of cyber-crime. In order to deal with this threat the recommended solution
of for Heathrow airport is to collaborate with professional and experienced cyber security firm to
ensure that the digital systems of the establishment are safe.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that there are different types of organisational
structures which have various advantages and disadvantages. The organisational structures such
as hierarchical, divisional and functional organisational structures have different purpose. It is
important for business firms to link organisational strategy with the products of the company.
Business firms can identify the impact of external factors on their company by using PESTEL
analysis. In addition to this people practices have an impact on management, employment and
growth of employees. The growing usage of technology affects business firms ad influences
growth of organizations.
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