Influence of Organization's Culture and Politics on Employees

This study explores the influence of organization's culture, politics, and power on employee behavior and performance. It discusses various theories of motivation and the difference between effective and ineffective teams. The study applies concepts of organizational behavior to the case of Dante International, an e-commerce retail services provider in Bucharest, Romania.

ORGANISATION
BEHAVIOUR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Influence of organization's culture and politics and power on employees..................................4
Content theory and process theory of motivation.......................................................................7
Herzberg Two factor theory........................................................................................................8
Difference between an effective and ineffective team..............................................................10
Organizational Theory and Concepts........................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
The study is on Organisational Behaviour. Organisational Behaviour means a concept where
employees follow a pattern of behaviour which defines culture prevalent at the organisation.
There are a number of factors which influence the employee behaviour and their performance in
the organisation. The organisation is Dante International which is a provider of e-commerce
retail services located in Bucharest, Romania. Company operates an online retail platform for
selling consumer goods and electronic products. The study reflects the influence of culture,
power and politics on employee behaviour and on their performance. Emphasis has been given
on motivation and motivational techniques to enable effective achievement of goals. Team and
group development theories have been discussed which support development of cooperation
within effective teams and the difference between effective and ineffective teams have been
illustrated. The concepts and philosophies related to organisational behaviour have been applied
and discussed.
Influence of organization's culture and politics and power on employees
An organisation is an amalgamation of various employees who come from different
backgrounds. They come from different cultures, different persona and different backgrounds.
Thus, there occurs an influence of factors like culture, power and politics.
Edgar Schein's organisational culture model
Organisations' employees take time to adopt to a certain culture which is formed in time course
going through several changes. Employees learn from their past experiences and keep in practise
everyday to form the culture at the work place. The employees work hard to make the culture
better at the working place (Wood and et.al., 2019).
Schein believed there are three levels in organisational culture:
Artifacts
This is the first level where the characteristics can be felt by individuals known as artifacts. The
dress code of the employees, office furniture, facilities and employees' behaviour all come under
artifacts and decide the work culture at office.

Values
The next level constituting the organization culture is the employees' values. Organisation is
affected by the thought process and thus the decision-making of the employees. The mindset of
the individual gets affected by the organisation influences how work is distributed and divided
between team members (Balwant, 2018).
Assumed Values
The third level cannot be measured but makes a cultural difference to the organisation. There are
beliefs and facts affecting the culture of the organisation. The human nature inner aspects come
at work here.
Hofstede model of organisational culture
Hofstede has given five factors which influence the work place
a) Power Distance:
Organization A
Power is distributed equally irrespective of the designations. Individual not considering the
hierarchy possesses equal benefits and rights.
Organization B
Superiors enjoy a fair treatment from managers and other the leaders leading the team are
assigned more amount of responsibilities compared to other members of the team.
Power distance index points to work culture differences according to the power assigned to the
employees. There are organisations who rely on team members to extract the best out of their
team mates. Team members have to also follow the advice (Wood and et.al., 2019).
Dante International follow a decentralised structure where employees are free to voice
their opinions and talk to their superiors without hesitation. Employee grievances thus are sorted
out quickly which in turn increases employee efficiency and performance.
There are some employees who can be termed accountable for their performance.
b) Masculinity vs Femininity: This means the male and female values difference occurring in
the organisation's culture. Companies where males dominate will be following policies which are
different while female dominated will be following different. Responsibilities also thus vary
according to the concept.

Dante International believes in equality approach where all employees are treated equally
irrespective of being a male or female. Their is no dominance of any gender. Employees feel at
par and are more vocal with each other to improve performance.
c) Individualism: An organisation where individuals of different skill sets come together and
form a team to work together in unison for the organisation. The organisations believe that
output can increase when employees converse their opinions, discuss matters amongst each
other and find out solutions using innovation (Jacobs and Manzi, 2020).
d) Uncertainty Avoidance Index: It points to the employees knowing how they react to unseen
circumstances. It engages with employee behaviour in different type of situations. Organisations
try to overcome these circumstances by preparing employees to get to adjust well with
organisations.
e) Long term Orientation: Organisations emphasise on long term relation with the employees.
Employees work hard to fulfil the expectations of the management. Employees consider
objectives which are long term in the organisation. There are some companies where employees
are concerned with their image being formed. Here the employees do not stick for long in the
organisation.
Dante International provides an environment where employees feel working for a long
term and do not have any fringe benefits to consider. Thus employee performance is seen
automatically improving with time (Kitchin, 2017).
Charles Handy model of Organisation culture
There are four factors which affect in organisation culture in organisation:
Power: There are companies where it is concentrated in few people. They have authority in
decision-making. Special privileges are enjoyed by them. These people are the major decision
makers within the company. Responsibilities are further delegated to them to other employees.
Employees have to follow and abide by the instructions.
Task Culture: Organisations are made to achieve the targets and find solutions to the critical
problems. Individuals with same specializations come together to form the team. The team
usually consists of around five members. Every member of team contributes equally and
accomplish the job assigned.

Person culture: Employees feel as if they are above than the organisation. Such companies
follow a culture called person culture. In this, individuals are more focused about their growth
other than company. They are not loyal to the management and put their priorities before the
organisation's.
Role culture: Here employees are assigned tasks and responsibilities in accordance with
specialization,academia and their interests to motivate employees to do their best. Employees are
motivated to accept challenges in such a culture. The employee is responsible for the task given
to them. Responsibility comes with power in this work culture.
Dante International follows role and task culture where there is cooperation among team
members to reach common goals and employees are delegated responsibilities according to their
skill sets thus bringing the beat out of them and improving performance (Jacobs and Manzi,
2020).
Content theory and process theory of motivation
Content theory basically focuses on which factors motivate individuals. They focus on things
which people need in their lives. People would like to acquire things which they think can
motivate them. The theory which comes under content theory is:
Maslow Hierarchy of needs
The theory was proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1940s. It follows basically a pyramid of needs
which if fulfilled goes to another need. The needs are:
a) Physiological needs: The category of needs that humans have are physiological. These are
firstly physiological needs which are survival needs and things which are of priority to be
fulfilled first. These needs include shelter, food and clothing. Their fulfilment will help provide
motivation for other needs.

b) Safety needs: Once the above mentioned needs are fulfilled the person is motivated to fulfil
their safety needs. These needs include physical and emotional security, health and financial
security.
c) Social Belonging: This refers to the human being having a social circle of family and friends,
community relation which many people find rewarding (James, 2017) .
d) Self-esteem: Humans recognise this need at the fourth level. Maslow classifies them in two
categories: (i) esteem for self relating to self-dignity, achievement, mastery and (ii) desire for
reputation or respect from the social circle.
e) Self actualisation needs: It refers to the realization of person's potential, self fulfilment.
People want to realise that their potential is being utilised fully.
Herzberg Two factor theory
The two factor theory states motivation and hygiene as the two factors in the theory.
Hygiene factors
Herzberg states that they are the prerequisites for employee satisfaction at work. The hygiene
factors include salary,safety, security,working environment , working conditions and so on.
However, the presence of these factors will not be enough to lead to high level of satisfaction
(Pereira, Malik and Froese, 2017).
Motivation factors
Talking of motivating factors, these factors have the power to make moderately satisfied people
highly satisfied. The motivating factors may include achievement, recognition, advancement,
empowerment to the employees, responsibility and work which can raise interest in work. These
factors can motivate people to work with interest and motivate them to continue for a long period
of time.
The two factors both in combination can motivate employee and improve their performance and
reduce turnover in the organisation.

Process theory of motivation
It focuses on the procedure of how people can get what they need. These models follow
psychological and behavioural processes that humans follow.
Vroom expectancy theory
It states that behaviour depends on choices made among alternatives to increase the feeling of
joy. Vroom has said that employee performance is based on factors such as knowledge about
domain, experience which is relevant and abilities to perform tasks. Vroom used variables like
expectancy, Instrumentality and valence to explain the theory. Expectancy states that an increase
in efforts will lead to performance increase which is affected by factors like availability of
resources, skills relevant for the job and support of the seniors. Instrumentality is
conceptualised as if the performance is good the outcome will also be good. It is affected by
factors like understanding should be clear between performance and the output. There has to be
trust in people who do the decision-making and transparency in the system. Valence can be said
as the prominence individual places on the output. Valence can be said to be positive if person
can prefer reaching to the outcome.
Difference between an effective and ineffective team
An effective team is formed with a result of cooperation between team members. Effective team
is the one which achieves the goals set in the organisation. The team has cooperation between its
team members and have a level of understanding. This helps in them reaching to an agreement in
decision-making and solution of any conflict which may arise (Fernandez-Orviz, 2021). The
characteristics of effective team can be:
a) They communicate well with each other.
b) They focus on the goals and the results.

c) Everyone contributes to the team.
d) There is no dominance of individual rather the team invites suggestions from members to
voice their own opinions regarding tasks thus promoting innovation.
e) The objectives are clear to the team and everyone is committed to achieve them.
Ineffective team is one which is poorly organised with very less of communication and
motivation. Their characteristics can be given as:
a) The team is not properly structured with employees not being clear of their roles and
responsibilities.
b) There is no unison between members and thus tasks get delayed.
c) There is lack of communication between people.
d) Influence of one or more people is there over decision-making and ideas and opinions of other
team-mates are not invited.
Tuckman theory of team development comprises of the steps followed in effective team
building and the process which the team goes through:-
Forming: This is the stage when people start to know each other and are in the process of getting
acquainted. Uncertainty is there in this stage as people look for a leadership position in the
company. Team members have curiosity in their mind as to what their role would be in the team.
Storming: This is a crucial stage where competition occurs as individual personalities emerge.
Team performance can decline in this stage as members may not agree on the goals. Here the
team mates have to accept each other's opinion and solve the individual differences and work
through ideas on team tasks and goals (Majumdar, 2018).
Norming
After passing through the storming stage, conflict starts resolving and there occurs some unity
between team members. The members start recognising the leaders as well as self roles.
Interpersonal differences start getting resolved and team members start learning to cooperate and
focus on team goals.

Performing stage
The consensus and cooperation gets established and team starts getting recognized. There is
clarity in the goal set and the procedure to be followed to achieve them. Problems now get solved
with a constructive approach.
Adjourning Stage
In this stage, most team goals get accomplished. The tasks have now to be wrapped up and
efforts and results are documented. The work load starts reducing and team starts disbanding.
Organisational Theory and Concepts
The path goal theory was given by Martin Evans which focuses on the best approach to
be followed by leaders depending on type and demands of the situation. The leader has to
provide help in achieving of goal through direction and support.
Path Goal four styles
The theory helps in infusing motivation and enthusiasm with empowerment in employees which
helps in becoming productive members of the organisation. The styles which were followed in
the theory are as follows:
a) Directive: This refers to the situation where the leader helps know the employees the
expectations to be fulfilled. Employees are guided and given directions how to go about the task.
This approach works well for employees who are new to the organisation.
This approach however does not work well with employees who are experienced. It does
not support creativity as employees have to follow the instructions.
Dante International use this approach when they have to form new team of inexperienced
people and want to make directions clear for the project (Majumdar, B., 2018).

b) Achievement oriented: The leader sets high goals for the employees and provides them
motivation to perform at the highest level. The leader himself takes on the task to lead by
example.
The style becomes tiresome and induces fatigue in employees if practised very often.
Organisations have to see that employees are not given challenging tasks continuously.
Dante International uses this style when they have a challenge in a new project which
requires special skills and accuracy. It may happen that the operations software is being changed
with a sophisticated one to protect security. At this time managers themselves learn the new
system and provide example for other employees to follow (Larijani and Saravi-Moghadam,
2018).
c) Participative leadership: This means when the leader himself gets involved with the task. It
happens in organisation where employees are highly skilled and are in knowledge of work. The
leader asks for subordinates' suggestions while making decision.
The drawback of the style is employees do not ask leader for advice and go for the
solutions.
d) Supportive: Leader supports in work both professionally as well as personally. The
psychological aspect of employees is also emphasised. The tasks are complex and also are
tedious to achieve.
Dante International employ this approach when they have to face difficult tasks. The task
can be to achieve quick deadlines during seasonal times and employees have to reach targets.
Neo classical theory is another human relations theory given by Elton Mayo and Fritz
Hawthorne. It basically laid emphasis on the employee rather than counting production or
structure of the company. The theory focused on the best way which can be taken up by
organisations to motivate employees.
Studies of Hawthorne during this time revealed that social factors were of utmost
importance to the employee. If the social needs of the employee were not taken in consideration
the manager can face issues like resistance to work from employees and performance getting
lowered. Employees must be motivated to find some value which binds them towards the job.

Employees can get value addition if they are not given the same task everyday and instead of just
doing the routine work confined at one place get to interact and communicate their opinions with
each other. This would increase employee productivity.
Dante International has always kept employees' needs be it social, psychological,
motivational at priority. They recognise employees with the human factor in mind. The social
needs are taken care of employees by having frequent interactions with them, team members are
encouraged to come up with ideas and voice opinions on relevant matters. Social gatherings are
also organised by the company, these get together motivate employees to gel along not only with
their team mates, get conflicts solved and also have conversation with their seniors. Thus,
employees get a feeling of remaining in this environment for long-term.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it can be concluded that organisations follow theories on organisational behaviour which
can affect employee performance. There are many situations which demand different approach
with leadership and motivation and the managers have to take the step as per the situation which
can motivate employees. The various factors like social, behavioural ,psychological are kept in
consideration and it has been realised in organisations that each employee has different needs to
fulfil and ways to motivate them will also be different. Organisations thus use different modes to
retain and motivate employees for long-term.

REFERENCES
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