Organizational Behavior: A Critical Analysis of GSK's Culture, Motivation, and Team Dynamics

This report delves into the organizational behavior of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a leading healthcare company in the UK. It critically analyzes how GSK's culture, politics, and power influence individual and team behavior and performance. The report further examines the effectiveness of content and process theories of motivation in achieving organizational goals. It also explores the characteristics of effective and ineffective teams, analyzing relevant team and group development theories to support dynamic cooperation. Finally, the report applies and justifies concepts and philosophies of organizational behavior within an organizational context and a given business situation.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
PART A..............................................................................................................................................4
BODY................................................................................................................................................4
LO1...................................................................................................................................................4
P1 & M1 CRITICALLY ANALYSE HOW AN ORGANISATION’S CULTURE, POLITICS AND POWER
CAN INFLUENCE INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM BEHAVIOUR AND PERFORMANCE.............................4
LO2...................................................................................................................................................6
P2 EVALUATE HOW CONTENT AND PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION AND
MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES ENABLE EFFECTIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF GOALS IN AN
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT........................................................................................................6
M2 CRITICALLY EVALUATE HOW YOUR ORGANISATION INFLUENCE THE BEHAVIOUR OF
OTHERS THROUGH THE EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF BEHAVIOURAL MOTIVATIONAL
THEORIES, CONCEPTS AND MODELS...........................................................................................9
PART B............................................................................................................................................11
LO 3................................................................................................................................................11
P3 DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE TEAM, AS OPPOSED
TO AN INEFFECTIVE TEAM.........................................................................................................11
M3 ANALYSE RELEVANT TEAM AND GROUP DEVELOPMENT THEORIES TO SUPPORT THE
DEVELOPMENT OF DYNAMIC CO-OPERATION..........................................................................13
LO 4................................................................................................................................................16
P4 & M4 APPLY AND JUSTIFY CONCEPTS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF OB WITHIN AN
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT AND A GIVEN BUSINESS SITUATION...........................................16
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................20
1

INTRODUCTION
Organizational behaviour can be defined as the behaviour of the human, staff and employees
within the organization can be referred as the organizational behaviour. It is the study of the
behaviour of the human in the organization which makes an interface between the behaviour
of human and organization. The main aim of the organizational behaviour is to implement the
theory within the organization and improve the concept of the organizational behavior in the
business (Kitchin, 2017).
The motivation and culture of the organization will have a positive influence on the working and
the behaviours of the individuals in the organization (Taylor, 2018). The first part of the study
will analyses the case study of the GlaxoSmithKline in which the implementation of various
theories and techniques has been discussed. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the market leader in
healthcare business or organization of UK. It is the pharmaceutical British based organization
which identifies the new medicines for the patient for their treatment. This assignment will
discuss the politics, culture and power in reference to the GSK. The advantages of teamwork
will also be highlighted through the working in a group effectively. The concepts will be applied
within the organization that has an effect on the individual behavior.
2

PART A
Introduction
In this report, organizational culture and motivation of GSK will be discussed. The influence of
the culture, power and politics will be analyzed with respect to the team behavior and the
performance. The importance of motivation will be discussed by applying some motivational
theories in an organizational context (Taylor, 2018).
BODY
LO1
P1 & M1 CRITICALLY ANALYSE HOW AN ORGANISATION’S CULTURE, POLITICS AND
POWER CAN INFLUENCE INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM BEHAVIOUR AND PERFORMANCE
Organizational culture can be defined as the values, morals and behavior of the organization
that contributes to the psychological and social environment of an organization. Following are
the organization culture and power of the GSK plc:
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON PERFORMANCE AND BEHAVIOR OF
INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM:
The working environment of GSK is very enjoyable and pleasing that motivates the staff and
employees to work in a better way. GSK’s employees are very enthusiastic which help the
organization to attain the goals and objectives on time with the help of proper mediums. The
high performing and healthy employees of the organization have the positive impact on the
new staff and motivate them to perform better in attaining their objectives (Al Saifi, 2015). The
GSK’s culture is very open and friendly which allows the people and employees to interact and
communicate with each other and share their views and feeling to each other. Also, the
working time and hours are also flexible which helps to increase the team behaviour and
3

individual performance as they get the high motivation to complete the existing task and meet
the tasks, also take the new task to complete the task efficiently. The GSK has maintained the
positive environment for their employees to increase their performance and maintain their
positive behaviour within the organization. There are various types of cultures in the
organization like power culture, hierarchy culture and role culture. Power culture is controlled
by the one leader who has the responsibility of making decisions and controls the strategy (Al
Saifi, 2015).
POWER AND POLITICS IMPACTS:
Politics in the organization may be defined as the achievement of the employees and individual
motives and taking care of the organizational interest with the individual interest without
having the impact on the organization. Politics of the organization may have the positive and
negative impact both on the individual and group's behaviour and performance. When people
and individual try to convert their power or authority into activities, they are considered as they
are in politics. Sometimes it has a negative impact on the organization, as many potential
employees give resign from the company when there is a lot of politics within the organization.
If the individual does not have the capability to cope up with the political environment in spite
of skills, knowledge and expertise then it will impact him/her in a negative manner (Blowers,
2017).
Power is the ability to influence others and the aptitude of affecting the subordinate behaviour
within the control of resources. There are various bases of power like Reward power, coercive
power, legitimate power, referent power and expert power (Blowers, 2017).
GSK plc organization is also get influenced by some politics and power within the organization.
The power used by the manager like Annaswamy Vaidheesh of the GSK is to guide the
employees in the organization. The employees of the GSK are highly motivated as the political
environment of the organization is well and good. Anyone doesn’t use the power to make
changes in the organization. But GSK is focusing on developing the political culture within the
organization. GSK has the view that politics lead to affect the quality of work and performance.
4

But the power and politics can be used by the GSK for the success and increase the
performance level of individuals.
5

LO2
P2 EVALUATE HOW CONTENT AND PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION AND
MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES ENABLE EFFECTIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF GOALS IN AN
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT
With reference to the GSK, the process and content theories of motivation will be explained
that will assist the organisation to achieve their goals. The process and content theories of the
motivation is divided as under (Chadwick, and Raver, 2015):
CONTENT THEORIES:
Maslow’s Need of hierarchy
Figure 1: Maslow’s hierarchical theory
[Source: http://www.biyanicolleges.org/maslows-need-hierarchy-theory/]
This theory focuses on the needs of the employees which are being fulfilled according to the
satisfaction level that will lead the organisation to achieve its goals.
6

At GSK, the employee’s psychological needs are being fulfilled through providing wages to the
employees. The safety needs are being fulfilled by assuring job security to them. GSK also keep
the good atmosphere to fulfilling the social needs. The self-esteem and self-actualisation needs
are also fulfilled by the company (Tanner, 2017). These all help the company to achieve its
organisational goals (Biyani group of colleges, 2018).
Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory
Figure 2: Herzberg's two-factor theory
[Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Herzbergs-two-factor-theory-Hygiene-factors-
Hygiene-factors-are-those-job-factors_fig49_323695129]
There are two factors in this theory – Hygiene factors and motivational factors. For motivational
factors company is providing promotions, incentives and bonuses to the employees which will
indirectly help the organisation to achieve the goals. To provide the hygiene factors company is
focusing on providing a good environment for their employees. They are also maintaining the
good leadership for the achievement of gaols (Miner, 2015).
Alderfer’s ERG Theory
GSK is also focusing on fulfilling the existence needs, growth needs and relatedness needs. The
explanation of these needs has been described as follows:
7

Existence needs
GSK is focused to fulfil the safety and physiological needs; it is aiming at providing the basic
material needs. GSK provides the salary to the employees on time and various benefits like
incentives, perquisites, and job security in order to fulfil the Existence needs (Miner, 2015).
Relatedness needs
They are aiming at building the good relationships among the employees. This will make feel
them relatedness for the achievement of goals. GSK working culture and environment is too
good that also help in the growth of the organisation (Miner, 2015).
Growth needs
GSK is also focusing on fulfilling the growth needs of employees. This will do with the help of
attaining the self-actualisation of the employees. This will lead to growing the mental level of
employees.
PROCESS THEORIES
Following are the process theories of the motivation that will help the organisation to achieve
the goals. The main theories of motivation are:
Equity theory
GSK is constantly assessing the level of effort for the workers and organisation provides the
rewards for their performance and efforts. The relative rewards against their performance of
the employees are also provided. The managers need to distribute the equal reward to their
employees.
Expectancy theory
This theory is based on the perspective that the person's behaviour is impacted by the choices
and it is the decision-making process which evaluates the effort and performance of the
individuals. It aims at the processes of cognition and their effects on the individuals.
Cognitive evaluation theory
This theory focuses on two types of motivators i.e. Extrinsic and Intrinsic.GSK organisation have
the view that the responsibility, competence and the work-life interest are the factors comes
8

from the Intrinsic motivators. And Extrinsic factor comprises of promotion, working conditions
and pay.
9

M2 CRITICALLY EVALUATE HOW YOUR ORGANISATION INFLUENCE THE BEHAVIOUR
OF OTHERS THROUGH THE EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF BEHAVIOURAL MOTIVATIONAL
THEORIES, CONCEPTS AND MODELS
Motivations theories have been created for the understanding of the human behaviour. There
are various behavioural motivation theories that all play a major role in the organisation by
influencing the behaviour of the employees (Kanfer and Chen, 2016).
Like Hertzberg theory bring the sense of motivation and situations for the job satisfaction
among the employees. It also provides many opportunities for the achievement and being
recognised. It also referred as the job enrichment and provides more satisfaction to each
individual. But these theories also have some limitations like there are some motivator factors,
the absence of which leads to the demotivation among the employees (Lazaroiu, 2015).
Maslow's theory focuses on the five needs that are present in a pyramid that is followed by a
step to step. Various needs that have been fulfilled by the organisation satisfy the employees
and being positive behaviour among the employees. But on the other hand, this theory fails to
recognize the individual differences and culture. And all needs need to be experienced in the
same order. Every individual have all five needs but this need varies according to the time,
situations and perception of the individual Kanfer, R. and Chen, G., 2016).
Behavioural motivation theory, models and concepts bring the following factors among the
employees and affect their behaviour. These factors are- Promotion, learning, sense of
achievement, recognition of ability, empowerment and responsibility, and growth.
Implementation of theories and concepts brings a feeling of involvement among the
employees.
The employees of GSK can be influenced by the application of motivational theories. This brings
them a sense of belongings and they take part actively in each task and activities and it leads to
the self-awareness at the organisational workplace and also allows to the team managers to
have the better control over their members. The implementation of these theories and models
brings the good working atmosphere which will lead to the positive behaviour. It will also bring
self-confidence and self-awareness to the employees. But in another case, it also has the
negative influences on the behaviour of the employees. For instance, if the company has not
10

implemented the motivational factors then it will lead to the dissatisfaction among them
(Lazaroiu, G., 2015).
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above part that the working culture of the GSK is very good and it
satisfies the employees at the workplace. The Maslow’s theory is followed by the GSK in a
better way as compared to the Hertzberg two factor theories. The focus of the GSK is at the
hard work and commitment which lead to the achievement of the goals. There are some
limitations also present in the organisation due to the implementation of the behaviour models
and theories which should be overcome by the GSK.
11

PART B
LO 3
P3 DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE TEAM, AS
OPPOSED TO AN INEFFECTIVE TEAM
GSK’s team managers have the view that the only presence of the teams or the work groups in
a company don’t help in achieving success but there is an effective and efficient group for the
success of an organisation. Effective team and group promote the discussion on the agreement
and also make the healthier conversation among them. Following are the characteristics of an
effective team and group (Mannix and Neale, 2014) –
1. Friendly and open discussion- In an effective team and group the members like to
participate in the group and contributes to the group with the listening the views of all
members and share views.
2. It ignores the voting system for taking any decision and reaches the decision by the
process of persuading the members.
3. Use of situational leadership- The managers of GSK need to lead the group under
different circumstances, with the use of different leadership styles in the appropriate
circumstances (Gilmore, et al. 2015).
4. GSK pursue the common aims for the achievement of the overall goal of the individual.
5. GSK team managers analyse its own development and progress for the achievement of
goals and make the important changes for the improvement of the performance
(Karmakar, and paneerselvam, 2014).
An ineffective group or team has the indefinite task and objectives, they don’t have any
individual aim and so they don’t work in a proper manner to achieve the organisational
tasks. These groups create an agreed perspective easily. If the organisation discovers the
reason of the ineffectiveness in their team will help them to sort out the problem. They
easily achieved the completion of the task. An ineffective group are characterised by:
12

 There is a lack of the agreed aims so individual performance decreases which affect the
team and organisational objectives.
 The atmosphere and environment are full of stress and tension which leads to the
conflict and disputes in the organisation.
 The decision is made through the voting and there is lack of the assessment and
discussion of the decision for measuring their progress and performance (Karmakar, and
paneerselvam, 2014).
Reasons for the ineffectiveness of the team:
1. Sometimes there is a lack of the purpose which leads to the ineffectiveness of the team
as there is no specific goal for them to be accomplished on the daily basis. Moreover, they
don't understand the way of reaching goals and unclear about the type of work.
2. The feature of an ineffective team member is to do finger pointing, they don’t learn from
their weaknesses. The negative atmosphere makes a wall between the supervisor and team.
3. Sometimes the team manager does discrimination among their members which increase
demotivation and discouragement among the members and the members don’t like to
work in unity (Ruch, et al. 2018).
4. Team group is made up of various team members and some of the team members have
the shy and reserved kind of person and they don't mix well in the team which also lead to
the ineffectiveness of the team (Karmakar, and paneerselvam, 2014).
13

M3 ANALYSE RELEVANT TEAM AND GROUP DEVELOPMENT THEORIES TO SUPPORT
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DYNAMIC CO-OPERATION
A team creation is not the easy process it takes a lot of efforts like various research has been
done in the team development and formation. So GSK plc also requires the group and team
development theories to encourage the cooperation in the organisation. Following are the
theories and models adopted by the GSK (Kitchin, 2017):
Tuckman's five-stage group development model:
GSK plc has adopted this model for the team and group development which have the five
stages:
Figure: Tuckman’s group development model
[Source: http://coachcarter5.blogspot.in/p/team-work.html]
Forming:
This is the first stage of the model which says that at this stage the team members are very
polite and friendly. The members try to understand and explore the member’s behaviour. I was
very excited about the team forming and as a team leader I analyse that all team member can
have the understanding of the other members’ expectations (Nextblog, 2018).
14

Storming:
In this stage, the members start the competition for the leadership, status and the control
within the group. There is a chance of the interpersonal conflicts. Each member tries to
understand the behaviour of others and solves the individual issues. This is the quite difficult
phase as I have analysed (Nextblog, 2018).
Norming:
This stage focuses on the establishing the balance among the various conflicts situations. They
try to achieve the group goals by developing the group consensus and norms. In this stage, the
members create a sense of belongings and work together. I analysed that the team members
have the sense of socialisation which makes them help and support everyone in the team
(Nextblog, 2018).
Performing:
This stage focuses on the achievement of the objectives and increases the performance of the
task and activities. In this stage, members have the trust and support of each other. I have felt
that all my members are very cooperative so the delegation of work became easy (Nextblog,
2018).
Adjourning:
This stage shows that the team has formed for achieving the common purpose and after
fulfilling the purpose, the team was adjourned. I felt that here team breaks ups as the purpose
is being accomplished (Mazanec, et al. 2015).
Belbin’s team role model:
Belbin has identified the nine-team roles and these roles categorized into three divisions i.e.,
Action-oriented, people oriented and thought oriented roles. Following are the explanation of
the roles (Mazanec, et al. 2015):
Action-oriented roles
The team role under this category is shapers, implementer and completer- Finisher. These all
are active in the taking challenges and get things done on time.
15

People-oriented roles
This group consists of the coordinator, resource investigator and team worker. Resource
investigator is curious and innovative, the coordinator is like the team leader or the chairperson
and the team workers provide the support to the team (Mazanec, et al. 2015).
Thought oriented roles
They comprise of the plants, monitors and specialist. They are the innovators which evaluate
the ideas (Raes, et al. 2015).
16

LO 4
P4 & M4 APPLY AND JUSTIFY CONCEPTS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF OB WITHIN AN
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT AND A GIVEN BUSINESS SITUATION
CONTINGENCY THEORY
According to this model, the actual leader is one who accepts the situational leadership style
and it should be set effectively to attain the goals and gaining best output. GSK plc also adopted
the contingency theory. This theory suggests that the style of leadership is identified among the
individuals by the rating and score system. If the score is high then it is referred as the
relationship-oriented leader and the low score named to be a task-oriented leadership. GSK
leaders have scored high and they are a type of relationship-oriented leadership. All the leaders
maintain the healthy relationship with the employees (Platt, et al. 2017). They are termed as
the relationship-oriented leadership because they are very friendly, loyal, cooperative, sincere,
kind and considerate etc. because they have high scored in these factors. The positive influence
on the behaviour due to this theory is it develops the trust, confidence and loyalty among the
group for his leaders and it leads to positive behaviour among them. It does not clarify the
actions to be taken under the different conditions.
PATH GOAL THEORY
It is the situational leadership theory with the view of the leadership style adopted by the
organisation for the achievement of desired outputs. GSK plc persuades the employees for
maintaining the attitude and behaviour in the organisation with their efforts and performance.
The main aim of implementing this theory by GSK plc is to boost up the motivation among the
employees so as to influence their behaviour in the organisation (Meslec, et al. 2015). It
suggests that it includes two basic functions i.e., path clarification in which the leaders help the
subordinated to accomplishing their tasks. The second one is increasing the reward number.
17

GSK has adopted first two leadership styles in the context of the path-goal theory (Harding,
2017):
1. Directive leadership: It shows the expectation of the leader from their subordinates with the
proper guidance and standards.
2. Supportive leadership: The leader support and treats the members equally and fulfil the
personal needs and maintain the good relationships.
3. Achievement-oriented leadership: This type of leaders expects from their subordinates to
give the outstanding performance.
4. Participative leadership: This leader consults with the subordinates and employees for their
suggestion for the decision making.
The negative effect on the behaviour of the employees can be seen on the employees when the
leaders are the type of achievement-oriented leadership as sometimes it makes the employee
stressful and helpless when they are asked to achieve the high target within a specific time
period (Hillson and Murray-Webster, 2017).
SITUATIONAL RESISTANCE
This theory suggests that the team members are being resisted by the behaviour of the
members due to the problems faced in the leadership style adopted by the leaders. GSK may
gain the competitive advantage by an effective implementation of the leadership style. There
are two types of resistance within the organisation first is functional resistance and second is
dysfunctional resistance. Functional resistance assesses the changes that made for the
improvement and dysfunctional resistance avoid and ignores the urgent issues (Forsyth, 2018).
The main sources of the individual resistance are economic factors, habit, security, fear etc.
Thus, the use of the theories and concepts at the GSK plc will help the organisation to influence
the behaviour of the employees. It has been observed that the implementation of the
motivational theories will help the leaders to increase the motivation among the employees
which will enhance the productivity and efficiency of the employees. Several limitations should
18

be overcome by the GSK through the effective policies and strategies so that positive behaviour
can be developed among the employees (Fiedler, 2015).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that from the application of various cultures the
behaviour of the employees can be impacted. The power and politics have also affected the
behaviour and performance of the individual. GSK has adopted various theories of motivation
for the achievement of goals. Through satisfying various needs of employees the behaviour of
an individual can be influenced. GSK also focuses on the creating the effective team through
various methods and ways. Belbin’s team role model and Tuckman's five-stage group
development model have been applied in the organisation for the development of the team
and group. Also, the GSK has also applied the concept of OB through various models like path
goal theory and contingency theory which can affect the behaviour of employees negatively
and positively.
19

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