Influence of Organisational Culture, Politics, and Power on Behaviour and Performance

This report analyzes how an organization's culture, politics, and power influence individual and team behavior and performance. It also evaluates how content and process theories of motivation enable effective achievement of goals in an organizational context.

Organisational
Behaviour

Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
LO 1......................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance...............................................................................................................3
LO 2......................................................................................................................................................5
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques enable
effective achievement of goals in an organisational contexts............................................................5
LO 3......................................................................................................................................................6
LO 4......................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational context
and given business situation..............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Organisation behaviour refers to the study of individual or group behaviour of human which
affects the organisational structures, performance, culture, leadership, motivation and etc. It is
the study in which how an individual conduct his behaviour within the organisation is
analysed and evaluated. The study tells an organisation about the motivation level of the
employees. It has been said that motivated employees works as an assets to the company as
they produce great productivity for the company but whereas demotivated employees
produces less productivity to the company. Organisation behaviour generally depends upon
the organisation’s culture, environment and work ethics. Organisational culture and
environment refers to the norms, values, ethics, expressions, structure, communication and
the like. Good organisation culture and environment would results in good organisational
behaviour(Altman, Valenzi and Hodgetts, 2013). For reference purpose this report has taken
an example of a company, Tesco. Tesco is a British multinational company which deals in
groceries and general merchandise. It is a retail company which was established in 1919 in
England, UK. The company was founded by Jack Cohen. Tesco has successfully launched
itself at 6800 locations across many countries. The countries which the company serves
include United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Czech Republic, Poland and so
forth.
This report different organisational culture, politics and power puts influence
individual and team behaviour as well as performance. The report also undertakes the
theories and techniques of motivation that helps the organisation in achieving its goals. Later
the report includes the factors which make a team effective as opposed to an ineffective team.
LO 1
P1 Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance.
Organisational culture refers to the ethics, values, communication structure which
develops the behaviour of people working into the organisation. It is been said that good
communication plays a major role in setting of an example of good organisational culture and
behaviour (Andersson, Jackson and Russell, 2013). According to the Charles Handy, cultures
are of four kinds and they are-
Power Culture- In this kind of culture the power is allotted to only few people. These people
are generally belongs to top level of management. Whatever is decided by these people are
followed in the organisation. These people influence the whole organisation. In power culture
the employees are judged on the basis of their work rather than how they have done the work.
In this type of culture the decisions are made very quickly without the consent from the
organisation which sometimes hinders the long-term growth of the organisation.
Role Culture- In this type of culture the role and responsibility of the employees are clearly
stated. The power of a person is defined by the role and position he has in the organisation.
For example- the power of a CEO is more than the power exercise by a manager. The
organisation culture is generally tended to be bureaucratic and the decision making is very
slow as the structure followed into such organisation is generally tall.

Task Culture- In this type some specific group are formed to address some specific task or
work. These groups are temporary and vanished when the task or specific motive is achieved.
The power in this type of culture of a person is detected by the responsibility he has into the
term. This enhances the team work and creativity into the organisation.
Person Culture- In this type of organisational culture, the employee considers itself superior
from the organisation. In such organisation the employees just happens to work with each
other to achieve their goals.
The company, Tesco, follows the Role and Task culture as their organisational culture. Tesco
tells its employees about their role and responsibility to them beforehand so that they know
their task very much clearly (Borkowski, 2015). Also some teams are formed into the
company to achieve or address some specific task.
Organisation politics is the informal, unofficial behaviour of an individual which they
seek to get some positive outcome for themselves. Politics generally bring negativity into the
organisation culture because it hinders the motivation of those who performs his work with
mere honesty and determination.Organisation politics can hinder the organisational behaviour
in following ways:
Demotivation to employees: Politics creates a demotivation into the behaviour of employees
as they feel that their organisation is doing partiality with them by appreciating the less
deserving people. This also reduces the overall productivity and increase the turnover ratio
into the organisation.
Brings negativity: Politics at work place bring negativity in the organisational culture and
environment. This may results into poor performance into the workplace and people might
not considerworking anymore into the company.
Power refers to the degree towards which a person can influence others. Power can be
of many types and they are:
Coercive power: In this type of power an individual influence other by giving them the
consequences when they would not complete their work or task (Borkowski, 2016). This is
now days are minimum used by the managers but they actually are very effective. Here the
employees work under pressure of facing the consequences. The company Tesco hardly
exercise this power. It only uses when the managers feel that an employee is careless and not
doing his work properly.
Reward power: In this type of power, the manager uses some sort of reward to motivate his
employees. Reward can be financial and non- financial. Financial rewards may include
bonus, salary, allowance, any prize money and so on. Whereas non- financial rewards may
include appreciation, certificate, promotion and so on. The Tesco uses this to motivate its
workforce for achieving their goal or targets.
Legitimate Power: Legitimate power comes up with the position that particular person held
into the organisation. The power of CEO in an organisation is greater than the power of a
manager. As in Tesco the company’s superior manager has more power as compared to the
any line manager.

LO 2
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational contexts.
It has been said that motivated workforce is produce more efficient productivity. It is
hence very important for an organisation to motivate its workforce to achieve their goals and
objectives. There are many theories and process which an organisation can use for motivating
their workforce.
Theories
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: The theory states that the motivation has its stages, the stages
are follows:
Physiological needs: In this type of need the basic physical necessary is taken under account.
These needs may include food, shelter, clothes, sleep and so on. The Tesco, complete this
need by providing the employees with basic salary which can help them in attaining these
basic needs.
Safety needs: In this type of need includes the protection from threat or any other danger. In
this a person searches for places where he finds himself safe. Tesco provides the employees
these safety needs by providing them medical allowance, provisional funds, education loans,
sick paid leaves and so on.
Social needs: These needs include the need for friendship, association and so on. The humans
are social beings thus it is very much mandatory for them to communicate and to make
relations. Tesco fulfils this need by providing the employees an environment where they can
interact with each other. The communication into the organisation is very open, thus
encouraging the communication opens at all the levels.
Self- esteem: This is the need for respect and self- status. In this stage the person aims for his
respect into the society. Likewise, a working person looks for self-respect and status into the
organisation he is working. Tesco fulfil this need by providing them the chance for
promotions. With promotion a person status into his organisation increases with the increase
in his salary and rewards.
Self-actualization: At this stage a person has accomplished all his dreams or aims which he
had plan for himself. As in the case with Tesco, an employee at this stage would have
completed his goal and aim which he seeks with his organisation. His motives and objective
he had in Tesco would get complete making him totally satisfied and happy.
McGregor’s theory X and theory Y: This theory inculcates two theories i.e. Theory X and
Theory Y. In theory X comes the employees are who are very careless in performing their
work and do not completes their work at time. To handle such type of people a manager
exercise coercive power. In this the manager makes the employees work done by showing
them the consequences of not completing it (Chen, Chen and Sheldon, 2016). It is basically a
negative tool to get things done from the employees because the employees perform the task
with the fear of certain consequences. Where as in Theory Y, come those employees who are
very enthusiastic and motivate regarding their work. In this type of theory the managers uses
the reward system to keep them motivating. Reward can be financial and non- financial.

Financial rewards may include bonus, prize money, and allowance and so on. Whereas non-
financial rewards include appreciations, certificates and so on.
Tesco uses both the Theory as the organisation has both types of employees, who performs
their work with full motivation and who performs their work carelessly (Coccia and Rolfo,
2013).
Process Theory
Equity Theory: This theory was developed by psychologist john Stacey. This theory states
that the organisation should work on fair treatment. Means, the inputs or performance put by
an employee should give equal amount of output to him in terms of appreciation, pay,
allowance, status, position and etc. into an organisation. When an organisation exercise
equality, it generates motivation into employees and they think equal that their company will
pay at par with their hard work at have put into their performance. As in the case with Tesco,
the company exercises equality into their organisation culture (DuBrin, 2013). It treat equal
to all the employees irrespective to their age, gender, region, religion, nationality, disabilities
and so on. In Tesco every employee is paid as per the inputs he has put into his performance.
Expectancy theory: This theory was initiated by a Yale professor, Victor Vroom. The theory
proposes 3 factors of motivation i.e. expectation, valence and instrumentality. Here,
expectation refers to the assumption of an employee about the output which he thinks he
would get from his work. Valence refers to the very next level an employee can aim for when
achieved the task. And instrumentality refers to the actual output he gets from this input.
Therefore, the expectation of an employee should be equal to the valence. As in the case with
Tesco, the company provides equal output to the employee. It tries to match the expectations
and instrumentality with valance of an employee (Graham, Ziegert and Capitano, 2015).
Apart from this the company also gives feedbacks about the areas where an employee is
lacking behind if he did not get that much satisfaction.

Reading notes
Reading notes
LO 3
It is the study in which how an individual conduct his behaviour within the
organisation is analysed and evaluated. For reference purpose this report has taken an
example of a company, Tesco.

Reading notes
Reading notes
Vague role definition: The role or job description if not clear to the team may cause the
ineffectiveness. If the members are not clear about the task they need to perform then this
would result into confusion and vague direction. This will cause inefficiency into the team
(Hauser, 2014).
No progress or resolving issues: Issues occurs in every group or team and to resolve it with
mere politeness and patience is the duty of a team leader. If the issues and problems are not
solving with the time it will result into conflicts, confusion and misunderstanding among the
members. This can stop the team in the attainment of its predefined goal and objective.

Reading notes
Proper communication: Proper communication helps any organisation or team in reducing
any barriers. With communication the team members can openly put their ideas and shares their
view and problem among each other. This helps a team in tracking the problem so that they can
come up with its solution. This helps in making a team effective.

Reading notes
Difference between the effective and ineffective team:
Listening
Effective: In such team, the members listen to each other and solve the issue.
Ineffective: In such team, the members do not try to listen to any one and performs the work
according to their wishes.
Trust
Effective: Trust is present among the team members.
Ineffective: Trust is lacking among the team members.
Conflict Resolution
Effective: Any conflict, if arises, solves immediately by conducting of meetings.
Ineffective: The team members and the team leader do not try to solve for the issue. This
creates more complexities and conflicts among the team.
Communication
Effective: The communication is open in effective teams
Ineffective: Lack of communication makes the team a failure in reaching their targets or
goals.

Reading notes
Reading notes
Apart from this the companies also focuses upon the factors which can makes their
organisational culture more effective and valuable. There are many philosophies which have
been developed for the organisational behaviour.
Philosophy may include the ethical perspective of organisational behaviour, which states that
an organisation works on three factors i.e. employees, employer and structure. The company
forms its structure in such a way that the employees feel motivated and comfortable in
attaining the desired task. The philosophy is to create a value and ethics which forms the
culture of an organisation, such culture in which an employee feel motivated and satisfied
while working. It has been said that a motivated employees performs to the fullest and gives
the high possible productivity to the company
Getting known about the expectations of the employees regarding their expectation of
organisational culture, informal groups play a major role in this. The organisational
behaviour also undertakes the behaviour of human being as an individual, in group and at
interpersonal level. The company Tesco, gave an ample amount of time into setting its
organisational culture and environment in such a way that it gets good response from the
behaviour of its employees. The organisation with the time and trend changes its structure
which helps in making a good organisational behaviour (Nelson and Quick, 2013)

Reading notes
CONCLUSION
From this report, it can be conclude that the organisational behaviour refers to the
study of human behaviour into an organisation. The attitude and behaviour a human has of an
organisation affects the productivity of the organisation. Also organisational culture and
environment plays an important role in determining the organisational behaviour. The
organisational culture, politics and power effect on the behaviour of employees. Too strict
culture curbs the creativity of an employee whereas politics brings negativity into the
behaviour and also in the performance of employees. There are many theories and process
like expectancy theory, equity theory, theory X and Y and so on which a manager can use to
motivate its workforce for the attainment of desired goals and objectives.
This encourages the employees and they feel quite motivated about being considered as a part
of decision making of the company. They feel important part and happily put their opinions
and views on the table. The Tesco has flat structure; it means that the communication and the
hierarchy which a company follows are very small. Taller the hierarchy, the long would the
communication system of an organisation. Therefore, the companies put emphasis on
organisational behaviour more.

REFERENCES
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