Ways in which culture, politics and power influence organisational behaviour

This report discusses the influence of culture, politics, and power on organisational behaviour. It explores different types of organisational culture and their impact on team and individual behaviour. It also examines the role of politics and power in motivating employees and maintaining a positive work environment. Additionally, the report highlights the Tuckman theory of team development and its relevance in creating effective teams. The case study of Marks and Spencer is used to illustrate these concepts.

Organisational
Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Ways in which culture, politics and power influence organisational behaviour...............3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P2 content and process theory of motivation.........................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P3 Effective and ineffective teams.........................................................................................8
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P4) Apply various concepts and philosophies of Organizational behavior and evaluate their
impact on the behavior of employees :.................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Organisation behaviour is study of behaviour of teams and individuals in an organisation. It
helps managers in organisation to make efficient use of resources and attain all the objectives of
organisation. In relation to current report the chosen organisation is Marks and Spencer which is
a British multinational retail organisation and offers a wide range of products range from home,
food items and clothing. This organisation is founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Spencer,
where it currently operates more than thousand stores across the UK and over 500 stores at
global level. To analyse how this firm manages its large workforce, a critical discussion is made
on its culture, politics and power which highly influences decision making ability of its
management. This report also highlights the motivational techniques which can be used by
management of respective firm to achieve its goals and objectives. Further, a discussion is also
made on team development process and the models used by managers to develop an effective
team. In the end, an application of different philosophies related to leadership styles for handling
business operations and supporting employees to run business sustainable in retail sector, is
being explained.
TASK 1
P1 Ways in which culture, politics and power influence organisational behaviour
There are a number of internal and external factors affecting operations in a business. It is
necessary for organisations to understand these changes and identify organisational behaviour.
When taking Marks & Spencer into consideration the company has a proper structure to develop
their culture, politics and power. Below mentioned is a discussion on these three factors:
Culture:
Culture is an essential factor in organisation which influences the behaviour of teams and
individuals in the business. It relates with beliefs and values of individuals which will directly
affect their performance in working environment (Fasanmi, 2018). Behaviour of individuals is
deeply affected within an organisation when they work with others who are having different
culture. For this purpose, most of the oorganisations follow a specific culture where people of
different background can run cooperatively. In relation with M&S, different types of culture that
influence its team and individual behavior, can be elaborated by using Handy’s model of
organisational culture, in following way -

Power culture: This type of culture directly relates to different rules and regulations which
authorities in an organisation form. There are different departments in Marks & Spencer and it is
important for them to establish rules and regulation for each of them. The culture is in hands of
leaders of organisation who make decisions according to employees and benefit of organisation.
The employees that do not have power may get demotivated and not work to their maximum
caopability.
Role culture: Role culture is also an important factor of culture which is followed by Marks &
Spencer in which different roles and responsibilities are allotted to various employees in the
organisation. This helps in a bureaucratic flow within the organisation and also the duty of
management becomes easy as they are effectively assigning roles to different individuals.
Task culture: Within task culture different roles and responsibilities are divided to different
employees in an organisation. The managers at marks and spencer make sure that the task which
is handed to an employee is based upon their skills and responsibilities. The duties and
responsibilities are often divided between teams who can properly fulfil all their roles
(Chinomona and Dhurup, 2016).
Person culture: In this kind of culture the employees are considered to be superior individuals in
the organisation. Various departments are created within the organisation within which every
employee works. In Mark and Spencer managers make sure that they are motivating employees
with the help of leaders in the organisation to set up person culture. Person culture may
differentiate individual and organisational goals due to which employee may be unable to attain
organisational goals.
Politics:
Politics within an organisation can be defined as negative as well as positive activity which
is conducted by various employees and managers in the organisation to fulfil their
responsibilities towards the business (Lee and Woo, 2017). It helps in maintaining productivity
as well as profitability in the organisation by the way of using some non-working models. When
taking Marks & Spencer into consideration the organisation uses politics in order to motivate
their employees and increase their productivity.
Power
Abilities of an individual in an organisation which can influence behaviour of others and
also manage to motivate employees towards their work is power within organisation. When

taking Marks & Spencer into consideration the company is effectively securing their employees
and providing benefits to them in order to achieve all their goals and objectives. There are
different powers in the organisation which are mentioned below:
Legitimate Power: When taking Mark and Spencer into context these powers are those powers
which decide the position and authority of managers in organisation. This power provides
employees with a role to guide others towards objectives of the organisation.
Reward power: In Mark and Spencer managers uses reward power in order to make sure that
they are keeping their employees motivated and increasing their performance through monetary
and non-monetary benefits (Cahyono and et. al., 2020).
Referent power: Referent power is provided to an employer in Marks & Spencer when they are
holding a good position in company from a long period of time. It influences behaviour of other
employees as they become influenced by people holding power.
Expert Power: Expert power is those power which are inherited by person for having
qualifications and qualities in different fields. When taking mark and spencer into context there
are salesperson and store managers who have export power.
Power, politics and culture in an organisation can bring benefits to the organisation through
increasing productivity, efficiency and team performance. It is necessary that organisations are
maintaining good relationship between employees through proper communication which will
help in positive politics and good use of power. This will enable shop floor staff of M&S to deal
with high employee turnover rate.
Politics power and culture have a number of effects on motivation, turnover and team
performance. It is often seen that employees are demotivated due to negative politics which
affects their motivation level as a less turnover of the organisation (Rawabdeh and et. al., 2019).
When taking power into consideration employees are loathing for power and those who do not
get power may get into conflict with others. Keeping a check on politics will enable manager in
M&S to reduce employee turnover rate.
It is recommended that managers are critically evaluating all these three factors in an
organisation to make sure that positive use of these factors is being done. It is necessary for
managers to take care of power, politics in an organisational culture in order to make sure that no
employee is making negative use of it and it is only bringing benefits for the organisation.

TASK 2
P2 content and process theory of motivation
Motivation
Motivation can be defined as inner feeling of individual which helps in increasing the skills and
ability to perform on different tasks in an effective manner by achieving the goals and objectives.
There are two kinds of theories of motivation which can be implemented on the business
organisation and are discussed below:
Content theory: Content theory of motivation can be defined as those theories which are related
to increasing the motivation within the individual by identifying their personal needs and
meeting them. This also helps in gaining higher achievements and business profits. Examples of
content theories are Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, Herzberg two factor theories, McGregor’s
Theory X and Theory Y and so on.
Process theory: Process theory of motivation of those theories which are used by the manager
to motivate the employees by addressing overall process in which operations are done and way
to improve the same. Examples of process theories are Adam’s equity theory, Vroom’s
expectancy theory, Taylor’s motivation theory and so on.
Herzberg’s two factor theory
According to this theory researcher tries to states that there are certain factors at the
workplace which are directly related to the motivation of individual. These factors can be
defined two category which include motivational factors and hygiene factors.
Motivational factors: Motivational factors are those which are related to improving the
satisfaction level of individual and helps in building motivation. These are job security, salary,
challenging working, responsibilities and many more. If there are no motivational factors in an
organisation the employees will not work to their maximum capability leading to failures for
organisation.
Hygiene factor: It includes those factors which are not related to motivating the
employees but can help in increasing their satisfaction level and maintaining the job. These are
status, job security, and benefits, working condition, good pay and many more. When hygienic
factors are not present in organisation the employee turnover increases and organisation cannot
fulfil their goals with less employees.

Advantages
This theory is easy to implement the entire organisation and help in using motivation. This is
also based on hygiene motivational factors which help in maintaining balance between the
organisation working environments. This theory can also use by the manager in different
combination which allow more flexibility.
Disadvantage
Under this theory organisation has to classify the factors in different categories which give rise
problem related to overloading of work.
McClelland human motivation theory
It is a theory which states that every person within the organisation is influenced by three
motivation factor. These are need for achievement, affiliation and power. These motivators are
not inherent which means that this has to be developed through the culture and life experience
(Taylor, 2017). This theory has both positive and negative impact on the organisation where the
positive impact of this theory in relation to M&S is that it helps the organisation in in achieving
the goals and objectives. The negative impact of this factor on the organisation is that it
decreases the chances of success as inability to achieve power and affiliation will lead to non-
achievement of organisational goals.
Advantages
This helps the organisation increasing the experience and training level of employees to perform
different task. This will also help in motivating employees through a cheap method by increasing
their achievement. Help in increasing their compatibility with the market to compete with
competitors.
Disadvantage
The major disadvantage of this factor is that decrease the compatibility of organisation within the
market.
Adams equity theory
Adams equity theory is related to the theory which makes a balance between employees input
and structure of the organisation. According to this theory there must be a fair balance between

the services to ensure strong relationship and productivity within the organisation and motivate
the employees but helping them in gaining competitive advantage and return of their input
(Hackett and et. al., 2018). The positive consequence of this theory on Marks and Spencer is that
it helps the organisation in managing the employees by providing them equal opportunity. The
negative impact of this theory on the organisation is that it cannot be implemented in each and
every situation within the firm. If employees feel that their input is more than output it may bring
a feeling of insecurity amongst them. It will affect their performance and overall result of
organisation. Therefore it is necessary for managers to make sure that they are aligning all the
inputs and outputs of the organisation.
Advantages
This theory is helpful in reducing the exploitation of employee by managing quality. This also
acts as a source of motivation to the employees. This will help in better in the relationship
between workers and company by providing opportunities
Disadvantages
Difference in perception is a major disadvantage of this theory because it leads to changes in
perception of employees. Exact competition difficulty is also problem in implementation of this
theory.
Expectancy theory
This is related to the behaviour of individuals within the organisation where it increase the
motivation in a selected and specific manner by identifying the behaviour of individual and
dividing that behaviour according to the needs and requirement of organisation (Chou and et. al.,
2019). Expectancy theory assumes that behaviour result in three factors which are expectancy,
instrumentality and valence. Positive aspect of this theory on marks and Spencer is that
implementation of this theory will provide opportunity to the firm in identifying the behaviour of
different individuals. Negative aspect of this is that it is not easy to identify the behaviour and
wrong interpretation can lead to demotivation.
Advantage
 This is based on self-interest and easy to apply on the organisation.
 Emphasis on reward and other ways of organisation

 End goal of this theory is to gain more satisfaction and least amount of pain.
Disadvantage
 Reward not necessary associated with performance.
 Based on job skill and education of a worker
It can be evaluated that marks and Spencer in use room theory of expectancy within the
organisation because it is best to theory in relation to the business and will help in achieving the
goals and objectives in future periods along with meeting the problems of high employee
turnover. Satisfied employees will stay longer in organisation decreasing turnover rate in Mark &
Spencer.
TASK 3
P3 Effective and ineffective teams
Team management is an essential factor for every organisation as it leads organisation
towards success. Organisations can increase their productivity and profitability by regular
functioning of team. A team is basically a group of individuals who come together in the
organisation to achieve a common purpose or goal. There are different people in a team who
have different abilities and are qualified to meet the objectives of team.
Tuckman theory of team development
This theory of team development was developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. The theory
relates to various stages which an organisation goes through while they are developing a team in
order to meet all its targets and achievements. M&S can benefit from team development theory
which will allow their managers to work accordingly in order to reduce employees turnover rate
on shop floor. There are five different stages for team development which are described below in
relation to Mark and Spencer:
Forming: Forming stage is the first stage in this theory which is directly related to
collecting information about various individuals who can come together to perform a task
(Nguyen and Malik, 2020). When taking Mark and Spencer into context there are a number of
people who have different qualities and skills and they are identified so that they can come
together to form a team and achieve a common goal or objective. Managers need to make sure
that employees are effectively communicating in team.

Storming: Storming is the second stage in which different members identify what are their
roles in the team. It is necessary for them to come together in order to develop an effective team.
The characteristics and skills of individuals are noticed by each other and according to it they are
distributed tasks. Managers need to introduce team members to each other along with mentioning
their strengths. An effective team helps in achieving all the goals and objectives in given time
period. If the team members do not communicate and build barriers due to cultural differences at
this stage it can lead to formation of an ineffective team.
Norming: Norming is the third stage in which people in a team come together and solve all
the conflicts and grievances between them. The communication between team members takes
place and the managers in Mark and Spencer make sure that they are conducting proper
orientation to bridge the gap between individuals in a team. They understand each other’s
capabilities and maintain communication and relationship in order to properly meet the required
task and activities. If norming in a team is not conducted and grievances are not solved it may
lead to inefficiency in team and non-attainment of goals.
Performing: Performing is the fourth stage in this model where individuals who are
assigned with different task in the organisation and team are conducting their task successfully. It
is necessary that every individual is completing their roles and responsibilities towards the team
in order to meet the objectives. This is the main motive for which the team is formed. When each
member in team is meeting their roles and responsibilities an effective team can be formed.
Adjourning: Adjourning is the last stage in team development theory where the task and
activity of team is completed and they have achieved their objective. It is often seen that rewards
for performance are also awarded to different people related to a project for which the team was
formed. It will help manager in developing an effective team. After meeting the goals and
objectives people or separated and get back to their different departments.
Advantages
The Tuckman model helps to clarify different stages through which a team goes through
and also learn primary tension as well as secondary tension which are needed to be solved in a
team. It also helps in showing clear path to develop a team and solve uncertainty issues in a
team.
Disadvantages

One of the disadvantage of this model is that there are five different stages which are
difficult to maintain one by one (Olivier-Pijpers, Cramm and Nieboer, 2020. It is necessary for
the group members to follow proper instructions at each stage in order to maintain effective
communication and good relationship with members. There is only one solution to every conflict
in a group that is communication which is recommended by every manager.
Reflection:
Being a manager of Marks & Spencer it was necessary to perform team management for
launch of summer collection 2020. A team of specialised people were brought together by me
who have skills and qualities in different departments required for the launch. The first stage was
forming stage in which I selected experts from different departments. This consisted of an expert
for communication, event management, promotion and so on. In the next stage all of these were
brought together and introduced to each other however I noticed there are people who have
conflicts due to different culture and insufficient communication. Being a leader I made sure that
everyone in team is comfortable and well aware of each other so that they can come together and
work successfully. In the next stage of norming everyone came together and successfully bridged
the gap between culture. All the employees who work in my team made sure that they are well
aware of each other’s qualities. It enabled them to trust each other and work together. The fourth
stage was performing which was on the day of launch which was successfully conducted. This
was the major reason for which the team was formed and all the employees cane together. After
the performing stage was the last adjourning stage when the great achievers in team were
awarded and everyone went back to their own departments.
TASK 4
P4) Apply various concepts and philosophies of Organizational behavior and evaluate their
impact on the behavior of employees :
Leadership is a concept by which a person (leader) influence, guide as well as lead followers
in order to achieve a specific objective. In context of Marks and Spencer, The leaders of
company apply various theories to guide and motivate employees to work efficiently so that they
can achieve the organizational objectives. The theories are outline below:
 Path goal theory: As per this theory, leadership style as well as behaviour should be
applied according to situation arises at work place. Leaders should adopt theories that
best fit to employee’s nature, needs and working environment of company. Managers are

using Path Goal Theory in order to make sure that they can effectively guide employees
through different stages in a team. Use of effective leadership style under Path Goal
theory also helps in decreasing the employee’s turnover ratio. Mangers of Marks and
Spencer apply leadership techniques as per nature, needs of employees and requirement
of working conditions within the organization. They make modification in the behaviour
as per situational aspects. It assists them to enhance productivity of work force to get
positive outcomes. It has analyzed that due to the implementation of this practice at work
place, organization mangers are able to reduce employee’s turnover. There is also
negative impact of this theory as it creates a lot of pressure on human resources of
company to achieve the goals and objectives.
 Leadership Style theory: There are numerous leadership styles and theories that apply by
manager to enhance productivity of staff. Selection of a particular theory depends on a lot
of factors such as environment at work place and employees characteristics. In marks and
Spencer leaders guide, motivate and lead human resources through various theories like
path and goal and so on. It helps them to maintain good relationship with employees as
well as increase their work efficiency
Managers of Marks and Spencer apply leadership theory and models. It will help them to
increase efficiency as well productivity of human resource. At the same time, it also reduces
down the retention rate or turnover of employees from company.
To create a healthy and friendly work environment where employees can enjoy their work, it
is important to do socialization at work place. There should be some informal and social groups
where team members can interact with each other. Marks and Spencer carry out this theory to
create positive conditions at work place. These theories are given as follow:
 Informal Group: it is a group where all the employees can interact with each other
independently regardless any predefined organizational hierarchy. In Marks and Spencer
there are informal groups in order to enhance belongings, job satisfaction, and
productivity of staff. These groups provide an opportunity to human resources to interact,
communicate as well as share thoughts with each other. Along with this it will motivate
and reduce the turnover of staff. Due to informal groups in an organisation the power of
authority is often decreased. The team performance is also decreased as people focus
upon individual efforts and do not take ownership or responsibilities.

 Social Loafing theory: It refers that people put less effort towards goal attainment when
they are working in a team. It will improve the overall process but reduce productivity of
an individual. In case of Marks and Spencer, they adopt this theory in order to enhance
production efficiency. Social loafers will have negative effect on team performance and
motivation. As well as the employee turnover ratio will also increase due to this. On the
another side, it puts an adverse impact on overall efficiency of employees as they become
careless and pay less attention towards their individual contribution in team work.
Advantages
It is necessary that organisational structure contains of informal groups which will help
employees in attaining benefit of social gathering. It is seen that informal groups in an
organisation helps to feel an employee regarding belongingness (Zhang, Jiang and Jin, 2020). On
the other hand self-loathing theory helps organisation to attain goals and objectives easily and
also enhance production efficiency.
Disadvantages
Informal groups can a number of time get involved in various politics. These politics can be
negatively affecting company and due to eat employees may get demotivated. It is a major
reason that too much grapevine communication is formed in the organisation and rumours are
circulated due to informal groups.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded with the help of above report that they’re a different kind of concepts
and theories used in organisation to manage organisational behaviour. Power culture and politics
are affecting in individuals as well as teams in an organisation in a number of ways. It is required
by managers of Mark and Spencer to successfully used team development theories in order to
manage different team in their organisation. Motivational theories are also important in order to
make sure that employees in the organisation are encouraged and keep working towards their
goals. Fulfilling all these needs of organisational behaviour managers in Marks & Spencer can
affectively set up their goals and meet all their responsibilities towards the organisation.

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