Organizational Behaviour: A Critical Analysis of HP's Culture, Politics, Power, and Motivation

Organizational Behaviour
1

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Task 2.......................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................19
Reference..................................................................................................................................21
2

Introduction
This project is based on the discussion of organizational behaviour. Organizational behaviour
in an organization is the way through which human communicate with one another. There are
various theories to develop the organizational behaviour. Team work is an important factor to
run an organization effectively. Culture, politics and powers are also three essential elements
of organizational behaviour. In this project, the examples of the companies ‘HP and Mega
Solutions’ have been cited to explain the subjects. It has been shown in this assignment how
the culture, politics and power have helped ‘HP’ to develop its all over performance in the
global market. It has also been shown in the project that how the managers in Mega
Solutions, a software company, have developed the team work in the company. The positive
factors that affect the team work positively and the negative effects that affect team work
negatively have been discussed in this project. Finally, some recommendations for the
improvement of the team work of Mega Solutions have been referred.
3

Task 1
1. Critically, analyse how HP’s culture, politics and power would or have influenced the
behaviour of individuals or teams in the organisation.
Company background
The Hewlett- Packard is an American multinational information technology company
headquarter at California in the US. The company deals in computer hardware, computer
software, IT services and IT consulting (Www8.hp.com, 2018). The company was first
founded by William Bill Redington Hewlett and David Packard on 1st January, 1939. HP has
been a leading PC manufacturing company from the year 2007. The company is working all
over the world with its list of HP products. The company is wording presently with about
30,000 employees and presenting host of products - computer software, computer hardware
and other computer products including printers, scanners and others in the international
market. The company innovates continuously its products and services and thus, satisfies its
customers.
Culture, politics and power play important role in the overall performance of an organization.
The culture, power and politics of the company ‘HP’ have helped in the various ways to fetch
the organizational success for a long time.
Culture of the HP
The culture of HP has been a continuous advantage against the challenges faced by its leaders
for a long time. The learning experience from the leaders and managers of the company has
discovered many innovations in the field of innovation of products and services. The
employees have also been appraised and rewarded and thus, they have been motivated to
innovate their ideas. The pioneers of HP have involved the employees in decision making in
the company and thus, the employees have felt that they are the part of the company. The
diverse workforce of HP has given a competitive advantage to the company. Through the
monetary and non-monetary rewards, the employees have been satisfied and developed their
performance. The corporate culture of the leaders has turned the leaders, dreams into reality
through flexibility of the company. The pioneers of HP have cultivated a rich culture in HP
and the employees have developed their behaviour (Bolino et al., 2015). They have learned
how to behave with their colleagues and customers. The leaders have applied different
4

behavioural theories such as Trait behavioural theory to form a good culture in the company.
The culture of HP is participative where all the employees are allowed to take part in
decision-making.
Politics of HP
The politics has played a huge role in the decision making and performance of HP. The
pioneers of HP have developed the performance of employees through the culture and
discipline in the company. The discipline in the workplace has developed the performance of
the employees in the company. The politics of the company has kept all the employees under
a pressure and the employees have found the answer they need and thus, they have spent
more time in their work for quality production. The innovation on the part of employees has
taken place.
Power of HP
The leaders have given power to the employees and they have been encouraged to take
decision in the company. The leaders with their power, have guided their subordinates and
rewarded for their good performance (Iqbal et al., 2015). The leaders have supervised the
employees with power. The positive power has highly motivated the employees and
increased the productivity of HP. In the above ways, the culture, politics and the power have
played positive role in HP and increased the productivity of the company in the global
market.
2.Evaluate how Maslow’s or Herzberg’s content theory and Vroom’s process theory of
motivational techniques enable effective achievement of goals in H-P or any
organisation you are familiar with.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory
5

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory
(Source: Ozguner and Ozguner, 2014)
Motivation plays an important role in an organization. There are various types of
motivational theories and the ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory’ is one of them that
contributes to the growth of the company ‘HP’. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory is five-
tier human need based theory (Fallatah and Syed, 2018). According to this theory, people in
an organization need to achieve some basic needs and then the employees are tend to achieve
the higher level needs. Thus, an employee goes higher. There are five steps of needs under
this theory – physiological needs, safety needs, need for love and belongingness, esteem
needs and self-actualization needs.
The communication manager of HP, in the first state of the model, has kept the employees
motivated not only through offering competitive salaries and benefits but also he has offered
them other various physiological needs. The pioneers of HP have provided the employees
company car and membership facility to the country clubs. The managers take their
subordinates out for lunch to make them happy and satisfied. Thus, in the first stage of
6