Organizational Behavior: Attributes of a Leader, Metaphors, Leadership Challenges and Solutions during Covid-19, Optimum Organizational Structure Determination

This report on organizational behavior covers the attributes of a leader, examination of organizations using metaphors, leadership challenges and solutions during Covid-19, and how an organization determines its optimum structure. The report uses Tesco as an example and discusses various leadership styles, motivational theories, and communication gaps. It also explores different metaphors such as organizations as machines, organisms, brains, cultural systems, and political systems. The report provides solutions to leadership challenges during Covid-19 such as improving communication, encouraging morale, providing technological support, and enhancing the workplace. Finally, the report discusses how an organization can determine its optimum structure for maximum performance.

Organizational
Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1.Examine the main attributes of a leader, and discuss whether there is any overlap with
manager..................................................................................................................................1
2.Critically examine organisations using metaphors.............................................................3
3.Leadership challenges and solutions during covid-19.........................................................4
4.How an organisation determines its optimum structure......................................................6
5. Causes of poor employee satisfaction and steps managers could take to increase level of
motivation and job satisfaction...............................................................................................7
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour involves the study of both the individuals and groups performance
and their activity within the organization. It involves the systematic and application of
knowledge about how the individuals or groups act within the organizations where they
operate their working. The organizational behaviour draws a discipline to create a unique
field. In the present report, Tesco is chosen as the company. It is a British supermarket
chain founded in 1919 and headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, 2021. The report
involves the examination of main attributes of a leader, and how organizations uses various
metaphors such as political systems with the strength and weakness of organization that
each metaphor highlights. In also involves the creation of effective teams in order to face
challenges because of technology and virtual working due to Covid 19 and providing
creative solutions that a leader can implement. Moreover it involves how organization
determines its optimum structure and how employees can be demotivated or dissatisfied
with their jobs with detailed discussion of job satisfaction and poor employee motivation.
MAIN BODY
1.Examine the main attributes of a leader, and discuss whether there is any overlap with manager
Leadership is the process of influencing the behaviour of people by making them strive
voluntary towards attainment of organizational goals. A leader plays an important role in
any organization and hence its important to have a good leaders with various attributes. In
context to Tesco, the managers follows various leadership styles which involves
Democratic, Autocratic and Laissez-faire leadership styles. The mangers apply these
leadership styles in different layers within the organizational structure of organization.
Organizational behaviour can be investigated through various viewpoints and multiple levels
including within the company and outside the organization. The organization has to follow
the suitable type of leadership on the other hand managers need to identify the employee’s
expectations and needs to motivate them(Baggs, 2017).There are various motivational
theories used by managers and leaders in order to motivate their employees. In context to
Tesco, the managers follows various leadership styles which involves Democratic,
Autocratic and Laissez-faire leadership styles. The mangers apply these leadership styles in
different layers within the organizational structure of organization.
1

There are various attributes of a leader that inspires others to take action or set a course for
future success. Strong leaders play an important key role in order to strengthen the positive
impact of these qualities(Berns, 2019).
 Focusing on developing others : This quality of a leader is based on principle of the
situational leadership theory which suggests that delegating, mentoring and
coaching are important tasks for situational leadership. It order to work upon other it
is essential to develop a team with diverse backgrounds and skills and give the team
members both the space and tool to build trust among each other(Bryant and Merritt,
2021).
 Encourage strategic innovation, action and thinking : A leader must consider
various internal organizational factors which involves staffing needs, product
roadmaps as well as external factors that involves technology advancement and
government regulations while making strategic decisions(Carroll, 2021).
 Ensure effective and cross-cultural communication: Leaders need to clearly
communicate with business units, individuals and the entire company and to all
stakeholders outside the business organization.
 Focusing on developing emotional intelligence : It is important for a leader to be
self aware and prioritize personal development. Leaders need to work in order to
refine the quality, accepting feedback, resilient from others. In order to be a self
aware it is important to set goals, take responsibility and prioritize goals(Dekavalla
and Montagut, 2018).
A successful leader focuses on the main picture and focuses to avoid distraction.
In order to be a successful leader it is important to have the ability to delegate.
Delegation is one of the main responsibility and duty of a leader but it might be
tricky in some situations. The best leader need to build trust and create a friendly
environment in order to delegate the duties effectively. The best leaders need to be
skilled communicators in order to communicate in a variety of ways . A good leader
need to be focused and self aware in order to recognize the strengths and weakness.
2

2.Critically examine organisations using metaphors
Metaphors helps in connecting with others and helps in simplifying complex ideas. In
context to companies it involves the way of simplifying organization which determines how can
be embrace and lead change. A metaphor is a connection which involve two ideas where on idea
is hard to convey and complex and the other one is commonplace and simple. These are basically
powerful and grabs attention. But sometimes these can limit while understanding a situation to
confine choices. The metaphor helps to expose new way of seeing organizations. With the help
of metaphors we can explore new ways of looking at things in an organizations(Gibson and
Ewing, 2020).
When using metaphors it is important to understand complexity of organizational, it is
important to grasp the basic four structures of an organization into four terms which comprises of
functional, matrix, simple and multi divisional . These structures draws a clear outline of how
organization works and how various complexities varies between each organization. Metaphors
can be used in order to understand organizational complexity in order to interact with companies
within specific structures. These types of metaphors explains how the organization are viewed
within the surrounding of everyday life. These are aesthetic, natural, social, cultural and ethical
ideas which are used to understand the operations function on various structural levels(Halford,
2018).
Organization as Machine:
People who see organizations as machines profound a feeling of control or order. They
strive to seek interchangeable people and neatly partitioned roles. In context to Tesco, the
metaphor works in the same way as how the machines do which involve straightforward task , a
repeatable outcome and focus on precision. The metaphor fails due to change in environment
changes when employees crave a great sense of human agency and purpose. In context to
leadership, its the duty of leader to exact requirements for swapping the role when there is a
situation of under-performance. This is considered to be the most simplistic metaphor and
various geometrically approaches that falls into this category. These involves various words such
as centralized, decentralized, bottom-up and top down(Malik and Bebenroth, 2018).
Organizations as Organism :
3

People who see organizations as organisms are related to surroundings of environment and
to fit into the environment. The metaphor works in this scenario in way when there is discrete
and clear change in the environment which threatens the organization survival. When it comes to
leadership, leaders are called to formulate a step-by-step and sense of changes in response to
actions. In context to organizational change, the traditional concepts of change management
comes under this scenario. This is a slight richer metaphor and involves various ideas such as
“organizational DNA” that involves maturity, birth and death.
Organisations as Brain: It involves the people who see organizations as brains which are
concerned with the organized wisdom and collective intelligence of the organization. It involves
seeing employees as management layers and sensors as sense making functions in order to
develop a learning organization. This metaphor is based on the assumption that past knowledge
is always predictive of future behaviour which involves that changes can be planned for the
benefit of pattern recognition and enough hindsight(Morgan, 2017).
Organisation as Cultural System : It involves people who see cultural systems that are related
with shared norms, rituals and beliefs of an organization. It involves thinking of the organization
as a mini society and are interested in the holistic experience of being an employee of the
organization. In context to organisations, the cultural systems are inherently systems which are in
favour tradition and reject change as these organizations then struggle in order to assimilate
changes which harm their beliefs and core values.
Organisation as Political System: It involves people who see organisations as political systems
are mainly concerned with wielding and gaining power and influence. They basically view
employees as followers in order to fellow and accrue leaders as allies and superiors as to control
and influence. In context to organizational change, this type of metaphor assumes that leaders
who emerges victorious from a political system is also a leader who marshal change.
4

3.Leadership challenges and solutions during covid-19
Covid-19 pandemic has suddenly upended the working world and changed the styles of
various leaders in various businesses and arouse leadership challenges. During the initial
onslaught of covid-19 pandemic the leaders faced various challengers that affected the
employees as well as the leaders in the company( Park and Kahng, 2021). Many organisations
are working hard towards making better supply channels, new products and new operating
models to manage the impacts of the challenges strategically. As a result many leaders currently
find themselves in a condition that the face challenges in connecting with their followers. The
major challenges that the leaders faced were:
Communication Gap:
Communication is essential tool for the leaders to motivate, influence and direct their
followers towards the achievement of organizational goal. During the pandemic everyone was
connected through technology but the leaders need physical and face to face interaction with
their employees to enhance their performance at all levels of work. The leaders face the
challenges of communication gap that led to to various challenges that could hinder the
employees working. The employees face many challenges along with the leader because they
were unable to get guidance from their leaders at the time of need. The company's leaders has to
face many challenges due to to lack of interaction with their employees which lead to lowering
down of employees satisfaction, motivation and direction to work effectively and
efficiently(Saks, 2019).
The most common problems that were faced but most of the leaders of the company were
the challenges to maintain and build moral with their teams and employees. For the company's
leaders the pandemic situation was highly stressful because of increasing uncertainty and lack of
moral in the employees that led to fear of employee turnover. With increasing fear factor of
employee turnover, leaders of the company face the real threat of increasing burnout that caused
struggles in motivating their workforce.
Workplace concerns:
The pandemic has changed the ways and the places that the leaders considered as workplace.
The leaders of the company grappled not only in changing their workplace but also has to keep in
mind with the safety and physical health of its teams and people. The challenges were real
because a leaders has to make decisions regarding formation of a workplace which was beyond
physical. The leaders has to create work from home for the team members so so that their
physical health and safety could be maintained and work could continue.
Adapt Changes in Technology:
The rapid shift of technology had been observed by many leaders during the covid-19
pandemic. The company's leaders faced problems with connecting to the latest technology and
5

making changes that would help their employees to adapt those changes. The leaders had to face
the challenges along with the changing technology because they were well aware that adapting to
these changes would be difficult for the employees as well as organizations. Many people of the
company were not well aware of the uses of technology and that made it difficult for them to
work during the covid pandemic.
The challenges were many but the leaders have to find the solutions that could help them to
tackle these. The solid solutions adapted by the leaders of of the company are as follows:
Encouraging morale:
Leaders need to encourage their teammates and employees to take a break away from work when
they need and create flexible working operations that could help them to build morale of the
teams and employees. The employees of the company would require certain concerns from their
leaders and managers such as keeping focus on them and being positive in this uncertainty
duration(Timms, 2018).
Improving Communication:
With the help of better communication the leaders could influence and manage the activities
of employees and keep them engaged that would reduce employee turnover. The leaders of
the company should maintain a continuous communication with their employees free
conferences and various other methods such as audio visual meetings.
Technological support and know how:
With the rapid changes in technology an advancement due to covid, the leader should
consider providing adequate technical know-how and support to the employees and team
members so that there were could be effective and efficient. The employees of the company
may not be well aware of the technological uses that came up with the the digital work and
virtual working from home. Therefore, the leaders and company should provide technical
know how and support so that employees could learn the ways of using this technology.
Workplace concerns:
The covid-19 scenario has changed the ways in which the people work. The company
should enhance its work space in such a way that the health of work force can be secured
and preserve from the pandemic. Even after the pandemic the ability to work from home
could enhance working of people from various locations and this would be requirement of
the company even after post pandemic. The leaders of the company should focus towards.
4.How an organisation determines its optimum structure.
The organization structure of any business firm relates and aligns parts of an organization
in order to achieve its maximum performance. The chosen structure basically affects an
organization overall operation and its success in order to carry out its objectives and
strategy. In context to Tesco, the managers need to understand the limitations, benefits and
6

characteristics of various organizational structure in order for strategic alignment. For the
key to profitable performance there are various business elements that need to be aligned
which involves Leadership, organization, people and jobs. A deep understanding of these
elements are needed in order to adapt change strategically and quickly as these are essential
for the high performance of organization. In order to achieve results these four elements
need to be in sync. Sustaining organizational capacity and achieving alignment requires
critical thinking and time. All the organizations must identify the outcomes the process or
new structure is intended to produce(Valiyappurakkal, 2021).
Organizations are typically mature in a predictable or consistent manner. As the
organizations moves towards the various stages of growth they need to address the various
problems. These processes creates need for management skills, different structure and
priorities. As an organization passes or grows from one stage of development to another it
need to carefully plan and well conceive its strategies and practices in order to maximize
effectiveness.
5. Causes of poor employee satisfaction and steps managers could take to increase level of
motivation and job satisfaction
Motivation refers to the psychological processes that stimulate excitement and persistence
of voluntary actions aimed at some goal. Employees satisfaction refers to the fulfillment of the
social, psychological, esteem, safety and self actualization needs and requirements of an
employee that they obtain through their job(Zanke, 2019).There are certain causes that are
responsible for poor employee motivation and job satisfaction could be understood through Mas-
low's hierarchy of needs.
• Physiological needs are those needs required for human survival such as air, food, water,
shelter, clothing and sleep. If the employees are not able to fulfill these need they would not be
willing to work with the company.
• Safety needs include those needs that provide a person with a sense of security and well-being.
This need in terms of providing safe environment for working could reduce employee turnover
or vice versa.
• Social needs, also called love and belonging, refer to the need to feel a sense of belonging and
acceptance. The employees should be provided with adequate reputation and respect it the
employees of the company may not be comfortable with the company.
• Esteem needs refer to the need for self-esteem and respect, with self-respect being slightly
more important than gaining respect and admiration from others.
7

• Self-actualization needs describe a person's need to reach his or her full potential. The
employee's willingness to take risks increased so the company should provide the opportunity for
growth of the employees
This progression principle suggests that lower-level needs must be met before higher-level needs.
The deficit principle claims that once a need is satisfied, it is no longer a motivator because an
individual will take action only to satisfy unmet needs.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that organisational behaviour plays an
important part in the organisational goals and their achievements. In context to Tesco, it
shows how its managers and leaders performs various functions in order satisfy its
employees and motivate them to perform their operations in order to achieve organisational
goals. In addition to that it involves various theories of motivation which are used in order to
motivate employees and increase the level of job satisfaction among them. In addition to that
it involves how various metaphors are used in an organisation and organisational behaviour
can affect the overall working.
8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baggs, J. G., 2017. Improving medical ICU outcomes: Promoting respect and ongoing safety through
patient engagement communication and technology study. Critical care medicine, 45(8). pp.1424-1425.
Berns, R. S., 2019. Billmeyer and Saltzman's principles of color technology. John Wiley & Sons.
Boxer, P., 2018. Working with'the irritation of doubt': The place of metaphor. Socio-analysis, 20. pp.27-
50.
Bryant, W. and Merritt, S. M., 2021. Unethical pro-organizational behavior and positive leader–employee
relationships. Journal of Business Ethics, 168(4). pp.777-793.
Carroll, B., 2021. Listen to the wise: expert leadership in the Covid-19 crisis. In Management
Perspectives on the Covid-19 Crisis. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Dekavalla, M. and Montagut, M., 2018. Constructing issues in the media through metaphoric frame
networks. Discourse, context & media, 26. pp.74-81.
Gibson, R. and Ewing, R., 2020. Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Springer International
Publishing.
Halford, S., 2018. Gender, power and organisations: An introduction. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Malik, A. and Bebenroth, R., 2018. Mind your language!: Role of language in strategic partnerships and
post-merger integration. Journal of Global Operations and Strategic Sourcing.
Morgan, J., 2017. The employee experience advantage: How to win the war for talent by giving
employees the workspaces they want, the tools they need, and a culture they can celebrate. John Wiley &
Sons.
Park, J. and Kahng, S. K., 2021. Factors associated with the preventive healthcare service use among
older adults in Korea: Focusing on age variation. Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 15(1). pp.24-34.
Saks, A. M., 2019. Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement revisited. Journal of
Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance.
Timms, P., 2018. Partnership and conflict: working relationships between voluntary and statutory
agencies providing services for homeless people. In Housing: participation and exclusion (pp. 68-83).
Routledge.
Valiyappurakkal, V. K., 2021. Gap theory based performance analysis: A case study of an Indian hostel
building with passive architectural character. Journal of Building Engineering, 41, p.102395.
9

Zanker, A. T., 2019. Metaphor in Homer: Time, Speech, and Thought. Cambridge University Press.
10