People in Organizations: Leadership, Culture, and Team Effectiveness

This report explores the role of leadership, culture, and team effectiveness in organizations through a case study of Johnsons of Whixley. It discusses the various leadership roles within the organization, the ways in which the culture and structure support effective transitional change, and how to build effective teams through motivation. It also highlights the attributes that contribute to the success of Johnsons of Whixley.

PEOPLE IN ORGANISATIONS
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1 Culture, Structure and leadership............................................................................3
Leadership role that exist within Johnsons of Whixley...............................................................3
Ways in which structure and culture of organization may support effective transitional change
.....................................................................................................................................................5
QUESTION 2 Effective team and motivation.................................................................................6
Ways in which effective teams might be built through motivation within Johnsons of Whixley
.....................................................................................................................................................6
Team development attributes that might contribute to success of Johnsons of Whixley............8
Current strategies used by the Johnsons of Whixley by summarising the main findings...........9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
2

INTRODUCTION
People are one of the most important resource of an organization. Effective and efficient
people of an organization help an organization to gain competitive advantage and further helps
them to gain competitive advantage (Furtner, Maran and Rauthmann, 2017). It is important for
companies to focus on motivating their employees and enhance job satisfaction among their
employees. It is one of the most important roles of leaders of a company to focus on motivating
and enhancing satisfaction level of their employees. This report is about people in organization
and will focus on a case study Johnsons of Whixley organization. Johnsons of Whixley is one of
the largest and well-established wholesale and commercial nursery business organization of UK.
They are one of the most trusted suppliers of trees and plants to landscape trade who operates
within UK. This assignment will lay emphasis on role of leadership that might exist within
Johnsons of Whixley, culture and structure of organization that might support an effective
transitional change that occurs within an organization, ways in which Johnsons of Whixley can
build an effective team with the help of motivation and team development attributes that might
contribute within overall success of Johnsons of Whixley.
QUESTION 1 Culture, Structure and leadership
Leadership role that exist within Johnsons of Whixley
Leaders play a vital role within an organization. They also help an organization to achieve
their targeted or desired goals (Buch, Thompson and Kuvaas, 2016). They further helps an
organization to enhance overall productivity and performance of their employees. There are
various roles of leaders that exist within an organization like Johnsons of Whixley. Some of the
most common role of leaders that might exist within Johnsons of Whixley are as follows:
 Building morale: Leadership helps in pulling each and everyone towards a central
organizational goal (Den Hartog and et al., 2017). Leaders of Johnsons of Whixley motivate
their employees by boosting their morale and making them realize that how much their work
is appreciated by the organization.
 Communication: One of the main roles of leadership within an organization like Johnsons of
Whixley is to communicate all kind of updated information with their employees in a proper
manner. Leaders of Johnsons of Whixley plays a vital role in explaining and communicating
any kind of changes or updates in a proper manner. leaders of Johnsons of Whixley also
3

communicate all kinds of plan and policies related to people of organization in a better
manner such that employees does not take policies of the organization otherwise.
 Building potential of an organization: leaders helps in enhancing motivational level,
potential, intellectual ability and overall performance of their employees which helps them to
increase overall organizational potential (Pizzo, Lawley and Rubenstein, 2017).
 Hold accountable: Leadership within Johnsons of Whixley focus in enhancing professional
accountability within their employees so that they do not get away with the same. They make
sure that all the employees of Johnsons of Whixley accepts all kinds of changes easily and
focus on delivering positive results or outcomes of the change.
 Enhance relationship: leaders of Johnsons of Whixley focus in enhancing their relationship
with their employees. They made sure that all the employees think that they are an integral
and important part of an organization. This strengthened relationship among employees so
that they can focus on achieving their desired foals and objectives.
 Encourager: Leaders of Johnsons of Whixley focus on encouraging their employees so that
their employees can participating in contributing new or innovative ideas with the
organization (Karacay and et al., 2019). This helps the leaders to make their employees feel
important and a part od organization by feeling that they participated in bringing
improvement within the organization.
 Make decisions: Leaders within Johnsons of Whixley focus on managing and controlling all
kinds of organizational resources such as equipment’s, people, budget and many more. They
have an authority to take any kind of decision that relates to management od all the
organizational resources that can further any kind of organizational initiative and support
organizational changes.
 Role model: Another important role of leadership within Johnsons of Whixley is to act as a
role model i.e. they should be the one to willingly accept any kind of change within the
organization. This helps the leaders to act as a role model for their employees so that they can
understand who that change will affect them (Den Hartog and et al., 2017). This further helps
their employees so willingly accept those changes deliberately.
 Guide employees: leaders of Johnsons of Whixley majorly focus on guiding their employees
by explaining role and importance of work process. Leaders also focus on guiding their
employees by explaining and providing them with requited resources that would be required
4

by employees to complete their work in a proper and efficient manner (Sonpar and et al.,
2018).
 Good listener: Leaders are also required to patient listeners. They should focus on enhancing
their relationship with their employees by listening to their employees their issues or
difficulties faced by them. This sometimes also helps them to identify any kind of risk or
threat that might affect their organization in many different ways. This helps the leaders to
understand their employees in a much better manner.
These are the main role of leadership that might exist within Johnsons of Whixley.
Ways in which structure and culture of organization may support effective transitional change
Overall culture and structure of an organization plays a vital role in supporting effective
transitional changes that might occur within an organization like Johnsons of Whixley. There is a
strong relationship between structure and culture of an organization (Lu and et al., 2018). This
relationship can help in strengthening and supporting effective transitional changes. There are
many ways in which culture and structure of Johnsons of Whixley may support effective
transitional changes.
Bringing changes within overall structure of an organization each and every level of the
organization can help in bringing positive changes within an organization. Johnsons of Whixley
does not have a proper organizational structure ad because of this their total number of staff
members fluctuate. Johnsons of Whixley can focus on establishing a proper organizational
structure which will help them to bring any kind of transitional changes within their organization
that would be quite effective and would not affect their employees. This is mainly because if an
organization does not have a proper and effective organizational structure then it reduces overall
transparency within organization and their employees which can become of the main reason of
employee demotivation (Adrian and et al., 2018). By establishing a proper organizational
structure Johnsons of Whixley can strengthen their relationship with their employees and would
further help them to support efficient transitional changes within their organization.
Culture plays a vital role within an organization. It helps in motivating and enhancing their
satisfaction level in many ways. But currently they do not have a proper organizational culture
because of non-existence of organizational structure. Most of the employees who are employed
at the time of peak season have least knowledge about employee benefits or actual role they need
to play in order to fulfil their duties. Establishing a proper organizational structure within
5

Johnsons of Whixley will also help them to enhance their organizational culture where each
employee will be assigned with their duties and department in which they would be reporting.
This will also help them to enhance employee involvement within the organization which will
further support their effective transitional changes (Den Hartog and et al., 2017).
Organizational culture and structure are also important for an organization like Johnsons of
Whixley at affects their overall job security level of employees. Most of the employees at
Johnsons of Whixley currently focus on securing their jobs which is affecting their overall job
satisfaction and overall performance level as well. They are required to be motivated as so that
they can feel job security and satisfaction. Bringing changes within organizational structure can
help their employees to understand their position within the organization. This will directly bring
improvement within their job satisfaction and performance level and will further support
effective transitional changes. Enhancing a proper and strong organizational culture will also
help Johnsons of Whixley to make their employees aware of new organizational structure. This
will help Johnsons of Whixley to make their employees to adopt new structure and start working
within teams and focus on bringing improvement within their work as establishing proper
structure will also help the company to make their employees aware about the fact that their
work will be noticed and will further rewarded (Adrian and et al., 2018). Leaders of Johnsons of
Whixley will also be able to establish a proper reward structure for their employees in order to
increase their job satisfaction and job security level. So, it can also be said that both culture and
structure of an organization will help in establishing effective transitional changes within an
organization i.e. they can effectively replace their exisi9ting process with a new one.
QUESTION 2 Effective team and motivation
Ways in which effective teams might be built through motivation within Johnsons of Whixley
There are various theories that can help in understanding ways in which team
effectiveness within teams through motivation can be built within Johnsons of Whixley. One of
the most commonly used team effectiveness models is The Hackman Model of Team
Effectiveness (Den Hartog and et al., 2017). As per this model there are five conditions that
helps in increasing team effectiveness as well as also helps in growing capabilities of team
members over time as well. Johnsons of Whixley can use this theory to build effectiveness of
their teams.
6

 An effective should have a boundary so that they can understand who is a part of a team and
who are not. This helps in developing a real team as all the members are interdependent upon
each other.
 A team should have clear goals and vision as this helps in motivating all the team members.
Motivated team members strive together in order to achieve their desired goals and
objectives (Pizzo, Lawley and Rubenstein, 2017).
 Organizational structure also helps in enhancing team work as the way in which work is
required to be done is already defined. This not only helps in improving teamwork of the
members but also motivates them to complete given task appropriately. Johnsons of Whixley
can focus on building an appropriate organizational structure so work and task can be defined
already.
 Providing adequate and required resources, information, rewards, support which is required
by the team members also helps in enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness
(Lyubovnikova and et al., 2017).
 Last is by providing expert guidance, and coaching to the team members also helps them to
resolve any kind of issue faced by them and further helps in enhancing overall effectiveness
of the team (Den Hartog and et al., 2017).
From the above theory it is clear that motivation is one of the main factors that can help in
building an effective team. There are various kinds of theories that can help in motivating team
members. One of the theories that can help in enhancing motivational level of employees that
can be used by Johnsons of Whixley is Herzberg’s Motivation Hygiene Theory. As per this
theory there are two factors within workplace that can either demotivate employees or can
enhance satisfaction level of employees (Alsharo, Gregg and Ramirez, 2017). Hygiene is one of
the factors that can create job dissatisfaction among employees and can demotivate them and
thither factor is motivator factors that can enhance job satisfaction of employees. Johnsons of
Whixley can work on these two factors so that employees feel motivated and focus on achieving
desired goals and objectives. In order to motivate their employees to work effectively within a
team Johnsons of Whixley they use hot spot rewards in order to recognize strong performance of
their employees, however, they need to bring improvement in order to motivate their employees
such that they can easily build an effective team.
7

Team development attributes that might contribute to success of Johnsons of Whixley
There are various attributes of team development that can contribute in success of
Johnsons of Whixley. These are some attributes that every successful team share.
 By automating most of the time-consuming work: This can help Johnsons of Whixley
employees to focus on other important work that requires great attention. Automating some
time-consuming work can help the organization to enhance their team effectiveness and can
lead them towards success (Choi, Kim and Kang, 2017).
 Contribution of every team member: Effective team makes it easy for everyone to contribute
in order to achieve a task. It is one of the main attributes it is one of the main attributes of
team development that can contribute in success of Johnsons of Whixley where each and
every team member feels open to share their opinions of view point with others. This helps
the organization to enhance overall effectiveness of their employees which further
contributes in development of effective teams.
 Clear vision, goals and objectives: Focus on main common desired goals and objectives that
are required to be achieved (Breuer, Hüffmeier and Hertel, 2016). It is another important
attribute of team development i.e. each member of a team focuses on achieving same goal
this helps in increasing team effectiveness. This further helps in making all the team
members contributing same and fair share of work in order to achieve desired goals and
objectives of the team. This attribute can contribute in success of Johnsons of Whixley as
currently they do not have any kind of organizational structure because of which they do not
have teams who can work on a common shared goal and objectives.
 Inspiring team leader: Team leader plays an important role within an organization as they are
one who lead their team members towards desired goals, communicate clear visions, resolve
issues faced by team members and are open to any kind of criticism or feedback (Kozlowski
and et al., 2016). They mainly focus on employee development and enhancing their overall
skills and performance. Team leaders will not only help Johnsons of Whixley to lead towards
success but will also help them to enhance efficiency of their employees.
 Constrictive communication: Communication is one of the most important attributes that can
lead a team towards success or can lead whole team towards failure (Gibson, Dunlop and
Cordery, 2019). Any kind of doubts, queries or issues should be openly asked with each
8

other so that overall perspective of team can be cleared which will help Johnsons of Whixley
to achieve success.
 Appreciation: Team leaders should appreciate efforts made by team members as it help them
in encouraging team members to focus on enhancing their performance in order to achieve
desired goals and objectives. This team development attribute can also help Johnsons of
Whixley to achieve success and may contribute in overall success of the organization.
Current strategies used by the Johnsons of Whixley by summarising the main findings
Johnsons of Whixley majorly depend upon their staff members even on the employees
who work within the organization in peak seasons. Current strategies used by Johnsons of
Whixley to motivate and enhance performance of their staff members is to attendance
recognition strategies and annual profit share bonuses. But these current strategies are not
guaranteed i.e. there is no surety that these bonuses will be provided to the employees. Johnsons
of Whixley can use Herzberg’s Motivation Hygiene Theory to motivate their employees i.e. they
can recognize and reward works of employees who achieve their target, they can promote
employees who works will complete dedication and give excellent performance to their
employees (Mathieu and et al., 2019). They can promote employees whose performance is
excellent and can put responsibilities upon them. Another strategy used by Johnsons of Whixley
is hot spots rewards for excellent and strong performance. But these rewards are too small. They
can provide points to the employees for every achievement and at last they can reward their
employees together. This will not only motivate their employees to enhance their performance
but will also contribute in success of the organization (Feng and et al., 2017). Currently Johnsons
of Whixley have no organizational structure because of which number of employees working of
them is not fixed because of which their overall working structure is not appropriate and they do
not have teams working for them. They can focus on building proper structure which will further
help in developing organization culture. This appropriate structure will further help them to
distribute work or task within team members. Team development can enhance success Johnsons
of Whixley organization and can also help them to reduce workforce number at seasonal time as
all the work or task will be distributed appropriately.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has been concluded that effective and efficient employees
are one of the most asset of an organization that can help them to gain competitive. For this it is
9

important for organization to focus on enhancing motivation, satisfaction level and effectiveness
of their employees so that they work in an effective manner. it has been analysed that leadership
within a company plays a vital role within success of a business. Leaders are the one who can
boost their employee’s morale, can communicate any kind of change in an appropriate manner
etc. It has also been analysed that overall organizational culture and structure helps in supporting
effective transitional changes that are brought by the leaders within an organization. There are
many ways that can helps organizations like Johnsons of Whixley to build effective teams with
the help of motivation. These effective teams can also help organizations to increase
effectiveness and overall performance of their employees.
10

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adrian, A.L., and et al., 2018. Integrating new soldiers: The role of leaders and unit members.
Military Psychology. 30(2). pp.131-141.
Alsharo, M., Gregg, D. and Ramirez, R., 2017. Virtual team effectiveness: The role of
knowledge sharing and trust. Information & Management, 54(4), pp.479-490.
Breuer, C., Hüffmeier, J. and Hertel, G., 2016. Does trust matter more in virtual teams? A meta-
analysis of trust and team effectiveness considering virtuality and documentation as
moderators. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(8), p.1151.
Buch, R., Thompson, G. and Kuvaas, B., 2016. Transactional leader–member exchange
relationships and followers’ work performance: The moderating role of leaders’ political
skill. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. 23(4). pp.456-466.
Choi, S.B., Kim, K. and Kang, S.W., 2017. Effects of transformational and shared leadership
styles on employees' perception of team effectiveness. Social Behavior and Personality:
an international journal, 45(3), pp.377-386.
Den Hartog, D.N., and et al., 2017. Stimulating and Utilizing Employee Voice: The Role of
Leaders, Teams, and Power. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1,
p. 10456). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Feng, Y., and et al., 2017. Rethinking distributed leadership: dimensions, antecedents and team
effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Furtner, M.R., Maran, T. and Rauthmann, J.F., 2017. Dark leadership: The role of leaders’ dark
triad personality traits. In Leader Development Deconstructed (pp. 75-99). Springer,
Cham.
Gibson, C.B., Dunlop, P.D. and Cordery, J.L., 2019. Managing formalization to increase global
team effectiveness and meaningfulness of work in multinational organizations. Journal of
International Business Studies, 50(6), pp.1021-1052.
Karacay, G., and et al., 2019. Role of Leaders as Agents of Negotiation for Counterbalancing
Cultural Dissonance in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Journal of
International Management. 25(4). p.100704.
Kozlowski, S.W., and et al., 2016. Using big data to advance the science of team effectiveness.
Lu, L., and et al., 2018. When can culturally diverse teams be more creative? The role of leaders'
benevolent paternalism. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 39(4). pp.402-415.
Lyubovnikova, J., and et al., 2017. How authentic leadership influences team performance: The
mediating role of team reflexivity. Journal of business Ethics, 141(1), pp.59-70.
Mathieu, J.E., and et al., 2019. Embracing complexity: Reviewing the past decade of team
effectiveness research. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational
Behavior, 6, pp.17-46.
Pizzo, P.A., Lawley, T.J. and Rubenstein, A.H., 2017. Role of leaders in fostering meaningful
collaborations between academic medical centers and industry while also managing
individual and institutional conflicts of interest. Jama. 317(17). pp.1729-1730.
Sonpar, K., and et al., 2018. Picking the Measuring Stick: The Role of Leaders in Social
Comparisons. Journal of Management Studies. 55(4). pp.677-702.
11