Impact of Power, Culture, and Politics on Organizational Behaviour

This document discusses the impact of power, culture, and politics on the behaviour of individuals and groups in an organization. It explores different types of organizational culture and their effects on employee behaviour. It also examines the various types of power and their influence on motivation. Additionally, it discusses the positive and negative effects of organizational politics on behaviour and performance. The document also evaluates different motivational theories and their impact on behaviour. Finally, it explores the characteristics of effective teams and the factors that differentiate them from ineffective teams.

Unit 12: Organisational Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
L O1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1) The impact of power, culture and politics on behaviour of group and individual ...............3
M1) Critical analysis of impact of politics, power and culture on team and individual
behaviour......................................................................................................................................6
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
P2) Evaluating motivational theories...........................................................................................6
M2) Critically evaluate the influence on behaviour of others through motivational theories.....8
D1) Critically analyse the relationship between power, culture, politics and motivation...........9
LO3..................................................................................................................................................9
P3) What makes an effective team opposite to team which is ineffective...................................9
M3) Analysis of group and team development theories............................................................11
LO4................................................................................................................................................13
P4) Concepts of behaviour in a specific business situation.......................................................13
M4) Positive and negative impact of concept of OB,................................................................13
D2) Critically analyse importance of team development theories and philosophies.................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour refers to the study of behaviour of human beings in
organizational settings, the interface between organization and human behaviour and the
organization itself. It can also be defined as the use of knowledge regarding how groups and
individuals act within the business where they work (Chumg and et.al, 2016). The Report is
based on IKEA. It was founded in year 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad. The company belongs to retail
industry. Headquarter of the company is located in Netherlands. It offers products such as
homeware, ready to assemble furniture etc. It offers the products worldwide. The firm is known
for operational details, cost controls and continuous development of the products etc. The Report
will outline the impact of power, politics and culture on behaviour of others, the ways to
motivate teams and individuals to attain a particular goal. It will also describe the understanding
of how to cooperate with others and applying the concepts of organisation behaviour to business
situation.
MAIN BODY
L O1
P1) The impact of power, culture and politics on behaviour of group and individual .
Organizational Culture -
Culture of organisation involves experience, expectations, values and philosophies that
guide the behaviour of members and it is expressed in the inner working, future expectations of
the individuals that are performing work in the organization. The management of IKEA uses
Handy's model to evaluate impact of culture on members (Majumdar, 2018).
Handy's model of organisational culture :
The model was developed by Roger Harrison and Charles Handy. There are four basic
types of culture in the business. These are as follows-
Power culture-
Under this type of culture, power remains only with few individuals that influence the
whole company. There are only few rules and regulations. Employees of the business are judged
by things they achieve and not by the way in which they perform those things (Ocasio, 2017).
Role culture-

This type of culture depends upon rules and regulations. Under this, power is determined
by position of person in organizational structure. This culture is based on tall organisational
structure.
Task culture-
This type of culture is developed when business have to resolve a particular problem or
have to complete a specific project. The power of members is derived from knowledge as long as
group requires expertise (Lesch and et.al, 2016).
Person culture-
In this type of culture, people see themselves as unique in the organization. This type of
culture is common in firms of accountants and lawyers etc.
IKEA is following Task culture in the organization. This type of culture helps to
influence the behaviour of employees as well as group. It encourages all the people to share
common vision at the workplace. Further, it helps to encourage workers to performa better. It
helps team to achieve organizational goals.
Organizational Power -
It can be defined as the the ability to influence the behaviour of employees by controlling
the resources. It is beneficial for the businesses in which manager assigns different tasks to
different workers and make them to do tasks. IKEA will adopt French and Raven's model to
identify various types of power (Sagi, 2015).
The model helps the organization to quickly respond towards the change, Under this
performance is judged on basis of results. The model is heavily dependent upon the skills of
people working in company. Size is a problem for power culture.
French and Raven's Model of Power-
Coercive power-
This form of power uses threat of force to achieve compliance from another. The force
may be of different types like social, physical, mental, political or through economical means.
Coercive power is based upon the idea of coercion.
Reward power -
This type of power is based on the right of person to offer or deny emotional, social or
spiritual rewards for performing what is expected of them. For example- a retiree is praised for
lengthy services.

Legitimate power -
This type of power comes from appointed, elected or selected position of authority by
social norms. It means the capacity to administer feelings of another person (Al Majzoub and
Davidavičienė, 2018).
Referent power -
It can be described as the capability of leader of the company to influence the employees
because of follower's respect, admiration or desire to gain approval.
Expert power -
It depends on what an individual experience, knows and special talent. Expertise can be
reflected through credentials, reputation or actions.
Informational power -
It is the ability of the agent of influence to make the change through information. It is
believed that power is the form of influence.
Leader of IKEA uses reward ability to modify the behaviour of people as well as group.
Reward power helps to influence motivation level of employees and group that helps to improve
their performance.
It may be possible that power of leader is not liked by employees working in
organization. This may result in lack of satisfaction and cause resentment among workers. I
Conclusion-
There are various types of power and leader should use reward power as it will help to
motivate employees.
Organizational Politics -
It can be defined as unofficial, informal efforts to offer ideas and influence an
organization or to attain targeted objectives. It is the use of power within the business to achieve
changes that provides benefits to individual or group. It is the behaviour to influence team as
well individuals that are working in the business. IT can be positive or negative. Positive
organization politics may provide the basis to IKEA for gaining competitive advantage.
Politically skilled managers help to manage working environment that are under stress.
It may also have some negative impact on behaviour and performance of individuals and
group. Such as negative organization politics mute the opinions of members. Employees tend to
feel threatened by ambiguity, uncertainty, self-interest actions that happens with individuals.

Moreover, it creates negative effect satisfaction from job, motivation level of workers that
influence their work performance and commitment towards the organization mainly of lower
status employees. Negative organizational politics also leads to conflicts at the workplace. As a
result, employees may be mentally or physically detach from the workplace. It will also restrict
sharing of the information and communication in IKEA.
M1) Critical analysis of impact of politics, power and culture on team and individual behaviour.
Positive organization politics helps to develop confidence in employees that helps to
improve their performance. Whereas, negative organization politics affects the confidence of
employees in negative manner. Task culture adopted byIKEA helps to solve various problems
through teamwork. But, it may also happen that the contribution and achievements of individuals
are unrewarded. Reward power helps to encourage employees to perform better. If, reward is
provided on the basis of performance then workers who didn't get the rewards will feel
demotivated.
LO2
P2) Evaluating motivational theories.
Content theory:
The theory of motivation includes two factor theory. it is also called Frederick hezburg
theory. This theory has a two factor motivation factor ,hygiene factor.
Extrinsic- It happens when people are motivated to perform or engage in activity to earn a
reward.
Intrinsic-
It involves engagement of people because it personally rewarding.
Motivation factor -motivation factor related to the achievement,recognition, work
itself ,responsibility, advancement. This theory is very important for every organizational theory
is motivated the employees in the organization.
Ikea company has applied motivation theory which is very helpful to motivate the employees in
the business. Motivation improves the action of the employees.
Ikea's give the reward to the employees for motivating the employees.
Ikea's give the free joyfully environment to the employees (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl and
Maude, 2017).

Ikea's give the responsibility to the employees' responsibility give the motivation to the
employees.
It will help to improve performance of the employees.
Ikea's give the interesting work to the employees which is give motivation to the employers.
Ikea's give advancement and growth to the employees which is helpful in motivation to the
employees.
Ikea's company has a many leaders which is also motivators which can encourage employees to
work harder.
Motivating factor is very important for job satisfaction. Motivation factor increase employee job
satisfaction. Motivation is very important for every organization.
Some points of motivation theory
achievement:achievement provide proud and motivation to the employees.
Recognition:Ikea company provide recognition to their employees of their success.
The work it self: the work itself provide challenges to employees .
Responsibility: responsibility motivation to the employees.
Advancement: promotion give motivation to the employees.
Growth:Ikea give opportunities to the employees to learn new skill.
Hygiene factors- It increases employee job satisfaction.
The absence of hygiene factors will cause employees work less hard (Miner, 2015).
Hygine factors includes company policies, supervision, relationship, work condition.
Remuneration, salary, security etc.
Company policies: company policy is very important for every organization .company policy
should be fair and clear to the employee. They must also be equivalent those of competitors.
Supervision: supervision must be always fair and clear and appropriate. Supervision is most
important part of every organizational. Supervision means supervise the work of employees. It
should be always clear and fair.
Relationship:relationship is very important for every organizational healthy amiable and
appropriate relationship should exist between peers, superiors and subordinates. Relationship
between leaders and employees is very helpful in every organizational.
Work condition: work condition is very important for every organizational.
Equipment and the working environment should be safe fit for purpose and hygiene.

Salary : salary is most important part of the every organization and business
salary affect the employees. Pay structure it should be always clear and fair and reasonable.
Salary should be competitive with other organizations in the same industries. Salary giving the
motivation to the employees (Velmurugan and Sankar, 2017).
Status:Ikea company should always maintain the status of the organization. Maintain the status
is very important for the every organization. Status should maintain the status of all employees
within the organizational. Good performance always increment the status of the organizational .
Status depends on the performance. Good performance provide good status.
Security: job security is very important for every employee. It is very important employees feel
that their job is secure.
Process theory:
Victor Vroom's expectancy theory- The theory was developed by Victor H.Vroom. The theory
focuses on management and motivation. As per the theory, the view of employees working in
IKEA will determine their level of motivation. It is one of the principle of reinforcement theory
that says individual involve in behaviour that have positive outcomes and avoid those behaviour
that have negative results.
Expectancy:
It refers to the belief that more efforts provides better performance. There are various
conditions that help to improve expectancy like necessary resources, required skills etc.
Instrumentality:
It can be defined as the thought that if employees perform better than they will get valued
outcomes. Things that help instrumentality are having clarity of relationship between result and
performance etc.
Valence:
It refers to beliefs regarding the outcome desirability. For example- Bonus may not
improve motivation level of worker who is motivated by formal recognition and promotion etc.
It can be described as the pressure that an individual puts on expected results.
As per the theory, high level of efforts of the workers of IKEA will helps to improve job
performance. The expected result is based on whether the employees are having required
resources to complete the work, skills etc. Various people relate high rewards with high job
performance but the theory is sometimes limited because rewards are not directly linked with

performance in various businesses. There is a difference between motivators and incentives.
They are manipulated by leaders and managers in order to get workers do the work (Alvesson
and Sveningsson, 2015).
M2) Critically evaluate the influence on behaviour of others through motivational theories.
Herzberg theory can be used by the management of IKEA to influence the behaviour of
employees. Motivation factors are directly linked with level of motivation of the workers.
Factors of satisfaction like growth, achievement etc. also helps to improve performance of
people that are working in the organization. The theory of Vroom's expectancy believes that
behaviour is the outcome of conscious choices of workers among various alternatives whose
objective is to increase pleasure and minimize pain (Baumhof and et.al, 2017). This helps to
motivate employees to remain committed towards goals of the company. Therefore, motivation
means that individuals make decisions regarding own behaviour and in respect of things that
motivate them.
D1) Critically analyse the relationship between power, culture, politics and motivation.
Organisation culture, politics and power are directly related with the level of motivation
of the workers. Culture of organization creates energy that will penetrate the business and
develop new momentum for the success. Organization culture has direct impact on behaviour of
employees. Whereas, reward power helps to motivate workers to perform better for receiving
various types of rewards (Onyett, 2018).
LO3
P3) What makes an effective team opposite to team which is ineffective.
According to McGregor only formation of teams in the organization is not sufficient. The
team should be effective.
Effective team -
The members of effective team are willing to assume the leadership roles according to the
situation. Shared leadership strengthen the sense of shared responsibility and also helps to
improve the level of morale of employees that helps to improve the level of job performance.
The management of IKEA company should focus on developing effective teams because
interpersonal relationships in case of effective groups are based on honesty, trust, respect and
acceptance (Onyett, 2018). Effective teams encourage discussion on the topics on which they are

not agreed. Team members also uses healthy conflicts for promoting creativity and modification
in the ideas before reaching on consensus. The characteristics of effective team are as follows -
Open discussion -
Members of effective team participate through discussion and each member listen to the
ideas of another. Team members that are working in effective teams pursue common aim and
objectives. They pursue similar aim and objectives. Moreover, team members assess their
progress to attain the goals and making required changes to improve own performance.
Using situational leadership -
Leader of the team may lead all the employees with the help of situational leadership
style.
Ineffective team -
This type of groups are made up of people who do not mix well with others or who do
not have required skills to perform different types of tasks. Some groups of IKEA may have too
many members with similar skills while some other teams may lack proper training and
development opportunities (Jelphs and Dickinson, 2016). There are various factors that causes
ineffective teamwork such as lack of leadership, lack of incentives, deficiency of defined goals,
lack of proper training etc.
There are different characteristics of ineffective teams such as -
Lack of clear objectives : In an ineffective team there is atmosphere full of tenisons, destructive
conflicts. This type of groups develops an agreed point of view and defend it against other
original ideas. There may be situation of clashes of personality with employees who are not
listening to what other workers are saying.
The members of such teams may not have equality in status within the group. These type
of groups are known as ineffective because they suffer from clarity in purpose.
Ineffective groups avoid discussing and assessing the performance and progress.
Heading Effective team Ineffective team
Contribution of
members
Under this, all the employees well
accepted and understood the
objectives of team.
For ineffective groups it is
difficult to understand regarding
group task.
Listening Members of effective teams listen Under this, employees do not

to the ideas of each other. listen to ideas and opinion of
others (Casper, 2017).
Conflict resolution In case of effective groups there
are disagreements. Employees are
comfortable with this, and they do
not avoid conflicts (Ope-Tairu,
Aigbavboa and Thwala, 2017).
Generally, they do not dealt with
disagreements in an effective
manner. The members may be
suppressed by the leader that
results in open warfare.
Decision-making Mostly decisions are made by
developing consensus in which it
is clear that all the members is in
general agreement.
Actions in these type of teams
are being taken prematurely
before the original issues are
resolved or examined (Rana and
Kirubi, 2019).
Leadership In case of effective teams the
leader of group does not dominate
the team nor the members refer
unduly to the leader.
In case of ineffective teams the
leadership of leader remains
clear with the leader.
Division of labour When the action is performed the
assignment of duties and
responsibilities is clear. Clear
assignments are accepted and
made.
The decision in respect of
actions tend to be unclear. No
employee knows what is going
on.
Self evaluation The team members of effective
team is conscious regarding own
operations. Frequently, they stop
to evaluate the way in which work
is going or what things may
interfere with its operation
(Feldmann and et.al, 2015).
Ineffective teams make efforts to
avoid any form of discussion
regarding its own maintenance
(Ryan and Deci, 2017).

Underlying aim and
objectives
The employees of ineffective
groups well accept and understood
the objectives of team.
Under ineffective teams it is
difficult for team members to
understand what the task of
group is.
M3) Analysis of group and team development theories.
The relevant theory that can be applied by management of IKEA is Tuckman's theory.
This will also help to develop cooperation among group members. It is described below -
Tuckman's teamwork theory -
It was developed in year 1965. It is a well-known theory for providing basis to develop
effective teams. The theory has described four stages such as -
Forming-
Figure 1 : The Tuckman model of group development, 2017
Source : (The Tuckman model of group development, 2017)

Under this stage every employee will make efforts to find out own place in the group,
sizing each other up. Team members are highly dependent upon leader for providing direction
and guidance.
Storming-
Decisions are not easily made within the group. Employees start seeing themselves as a
part of group. Employees may also challenge each other. There may occue conflicts as difference
surface. It may result in loss of focus on the task (Aalateeg, 2017).
Norming-
Under the stage of norming workers start to come together and develop ground rules. The
stage is characterized by growing sense of togetherness.
Performing-
It is the final step in which employees focus on work and team relationship that combines
to provide synergy.
Adjourning -
At this stage, it is essential to achieve closure of the group in positive way.
Members may feel a sense of loss or the decline in motivation when group work
comes to an end. It is also called mourning stage of group development.
LO4
P4) Concepts of behaviour in a specific business situation.
Situation: IKEA company offers various products like furniture, home ware etc. Currently, the
firm is facing difficulties in resolving conflicts and improving employee engagement at the
workplace.
Path goal theory -
The theory was developed by Martin Evans in year 1970. The model is depended upon
specifying the style of leadership of the leader that best matches with worker and work
environment in order to achieve a certain objective. It will provide leader of IKEA the
framework to determine how their leadership style motivates the employees. This model will
help organization to resolve conflicts at the workplace and also help to retain loyal workers in the
company for a long period. According to this theory, leader can motivate the employees by
adopting different ways such as by ensuring that workers will have clarity of goals. Leader of

IKEA should make efforts to remove the difficulties that team members are facing and
roadblocks that employees might encounter on their route towards the goals of company (Casper,
2017). Further, management of the company should also provide guidance, support and
coaching.
There are various factors on the basis of which leader of IKEA selcts the style of
leadership such as preference for structure, need for affiliation, desire for control, self perceived
level of task and ability of workers. Need for affiliation etc. There are some environmental
factors also that impact choice of leadership style such as formal system of authority, task
structure, primary work group etc. On the basis of these factors' leader will choose their
leadership style such as directive, supportive, participative, achievement oriented etc. After
selecting the leadership style, leader will focus on various types of motivation factors that will
help to motivate employees. It involves making path to the objective more clear, ensuring that
goals are clear to employees and rewards must be desirable. Further, leader will have to provide
coaching and guidance to motivate workers. So that, they will perform better.
Leadership styles -
Democratic leadership-
Under this, leader takes decisions by taking ideas from employees. Each and every
worker has equal opportunity to say on direction of the project. It is most effective leadership
style.
Autocratic leadership-
It is the opposite of democratic leadership style. The leader takes decision without
consulting employees. Employees are not consulted or considered prior to a direction.
Model of organization behaviour-
Autocratic model -
The basis of this model is the power of authority with managerial orientation. The
employees are oriented towards dependence and obedience on the boss. The result of
performance is minimal. Managerial orientation is dictatorial. Manager exercises power over
employees and give orders.
M4) Positive and negative impact of concept of OB,
There are various benefits and limitations of path goal theory such as it provides the
framework to the leader for evaluating how different behaviour of leaders impact the job

satisfaction level and performance of employees. It helps leader to choose leadership style on the
basis of different demands of the task. But, there are some limitations as well. The theory is
complex and confusing. Further, it fails to clearly explain the relationship between motivation of
followers and leadership behaviour (Onyett, 2018).
D2) Critically analyse importance of team development theories and philosophies.
Tuckman theory is one of the famous theory of team development. It provides support
and guidance to the organization for developing effective teams. Further, it also has certain
limitations such as the model does not consider the role of individuals that members of team
have to undertake.
CONCLUSION
The above Report has outlined that the culture of organization influence the team and
individuals ion both positive and negative way. Handy's model help business to evaluate various
types of cultures. Company is currently following task culture that helps to influence behaviour
of employees as well as group. Organization politics has both positive and negative impact on
the performance of workers. Positive impact is that it provides a basis to gain competitive
advantage. Whereas, negative impact is that it leads to conflicts in organization. Further, the
Report has explained that there are various theories of motivation like victor vroom's expectancy
theory, herzberg theory that helps to motivate employees. There are various differences between
effective and ineffective team on the basis of employee contribution, leadership, conflict
resolution etc.
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