Organizational Behaviour: Influence of Culture, Politics, and Power

This article discusses the influence of organizational culture, politics, and power on individual and team behavior and performance. It explores the different types of organizational culture and their impact on motivation and teamwork. The article also examines various motivation theories and techniques for effective goal achievement.

Organizational behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
P1 Organization's culture, politics and power influences individual and team behaviour and
performance.................................................................................................................................3
P2 Effective achievement of goals through content and process theories of motivation and
motivation techniques..................................................................................................................6
P3 Components that make an effective team different from an ineffective team: ......................8
P4 Philosophies and concepts of organizational behaviour applied within organization in a
given business situation.............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Organizational behaviour deals with the study of human behaviour at the workplace. It is
a systematic application of knowledge about how an individual or group behaves in
organizational settings. It is the area of study that examines the performance of human resource
in a work environment. Morrison's is one of the leading supermarket and its headquarters is in
Bradford, UK. It was founded in 1899 by William Morrison's. They deal with food, drinks,
clothing, books, magazines etc. As per the survey of 2019 they employee 110,000 employees
each week and serve to 11 million customers too. In the further report it is to be analysed the
influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others in the organization, evaluating
motivational theories to enable achievement of organizational goals, the factors which make an
effective team and applying concepts and philosophies of organizational context and given
business situation .
P1 Organization's culture, politics and power influences individual and team behaviour and
performance
Organizational culture and its influence: Organizational culture is the sum of the
beliefs, values, practices, ideologies and philosophies of an organization. It is a collective trait of
an organization that defines what it is. It basically defines what an organization is, what they
stand for and what they do. Handy's culture model has the following kinds of culture:
 Power culture: The power concentrates with few individuals who have influence in the
organization. Individuals are assessed based on their achievement only and not based on
the quality of work this demoralizes them and increases turnover at individual level.
Morrison's from years is following this culture only. The power remains with the
Morrison's family and after 50 years Ken Morrison's has stepped down, and they have no
Morrison's family member in board or executive level. Employees get motivated by the
power but at the same time can get demotivate by the pressures. For team level there is a
problem of coordination with other departments and also with the upper management as
well. If managed the power properly it also leads to team building and satisfied
individuals (Elsmore, 2017).
 Role culture: The power in this culture is determined by the role or position in the
organizational structure. People are controlled by the roles and responsibility. Morrison's
is also shifting to this culture as it has a hierarchical bureaucracy and with the highly

defines structure people have clearly delegated authority this reduces the chances of
conflicts at both the individual and team level. But is more effective in case of individual
(Wong, 2020).
 Task culture: It is formed when the organization has to perform specific task or a
project. Morrison's is also adopting this culture as there are various tasks which have to
be performed in the Morrison's supermarket therefore in this culture, power will shift
depending on team members, their skills and personalities. This culture is advantageous
for teams as it promotes team work and make workplace more interesting as bonds are
formed and problem solving is done together. But the drawback is individual
achievements and contribution go unnoticed therefore it is more effective in case of team.
 Person culture: In which people of the organization believes them to be superior to the
organization. Morrison's is not in favour of adopting this culture as organization with this
type of culture is just a collection of individual who just work for the same organization
and the power lies in every group of individual. For individuals this culture seems to be
best as it provides them security and a way to work without pressure. This culture is
generally not found in businesses.
So, Morrison's from many years was following the power culture but has now shifted to
role and task culture. It has also adopted learning work culture as it has long term business
sustainability and work performance. Learning culture is a set of organizational practices, values
etc. that stimulates organization or individuals to enhance their ability, knowledge and
performance (Anitha, 2016).
Organizational politics and its influence: It is the use of powers in informal way to
affect the decision-making in an organization or on behaviour that are non-sanctioned. Managers
at higher level of Morrison's use power to influence the behaviour of others. There are no good
or bad politics it is just the way people use it. Morrison's uses the politics in a good way by
building connection with powerful people of the organization, Bad politics are designed to
achieve personal gain at the expense of others also of the organization (Jain. and Ansari, 2018).
Morrison's defines bad politics as spreading rumours, talking behind someone's back etc. All this
causes some bad effects like decrease in Productivity: individual and team as it lowers the
output. Decrease in the overall productivity – politics lowers the individual output and individual
who play politics. High performance pressure increase stress and anxiety- individual and team

members lack trust on each other and authorities as they fear of secrets getting leaked. Affects
concentration- as individuals and team members are much more interested in spoiling the images
of others or other team members. At the team level it also leads to low performance, team
conflicts (Lampaki. and Papadakis, 2018).
Organizational power and its influence: It is the capacity to influence the behaviour of
others in the organization. Morrison's perform various types of power which was given by John
French and Bertram Raven in their organization like:
 Legitimate power – In this all the power are held by the top authorities, so all the power
of Morrison's is held by its CEO. The influence of this power is, if exercised in excess it
curbs motivation and creativity of individuals and reduce the productivity of the team if
there is regular interference by the senior authorities. If all the instructions are coming
from the authorities, team members would become dependent.
 Reward power- This power is played by the immediate boss for compensation, rewards,
raises which are given to the employees, in case of Morrison's this power is held by the
departmental manager or the authorized person. Individual gets loyal to the organization
if rewarded properly. In case of team it creates a strong bond within the team as everyone
tries to achieve that a common goal but sometimes giving out same rewards to every
team member can demotivate the employees who had put more efforts.
 Expert power – It is exercised by the person based on its skills and knowledge, in
Morrison's also this power is given to the person who have specific set of skill and
knowledge and enable them to understand the situation, suggest solutions, and has the
ability to outperform from others. Individuals build up confidence and has chances of
promotion. In case of team other people who don't have that skills get demotivated.
 Referent power – it comes person's perceived attractiveness, worthiness and right to
other's respect. In Morrison's the one that makes everyone feels good and whom people
like and respect has tended to have a lot of influence. Individuals get respect and others
listen to them but is not good in case of high turnover. In case of team others get
demotivated if there is huge liking on a particular member.
 Coercive power – This comes when a person can punish others for non-compliance, in
case of Morrison's the power comes because of position and the person can use various
threat and punishment tools (Landa. and Tyson, 2017). At individual level they feel

insulting and sometimes de motivates them and in case of team as whole team is
threatened therefore the fear is less.
Later on Raven added an extra one which was informational power in which the power comes
from the ability of person to control information that others need to achieve the goals. Morrison's
uses legitimate power, expert power and coercive power (Taştan. and Davoudi, 2017).
P2 Effective achievement of goals through content and process theories of motivation and
motivation techniques.
Motivation is an internal process that stimulates an individual to initiate, guide and
maintain goal-oriented behaviour. It is an inner feeling and derive that prompt an individual to
work hard for fulfilment of unsatisfied needs. The following are the theories of motivation:
CONTENT THEORY:
Content theory describes the needs that motivates people to achieve goals or perform
action. It includes four types of theories-
Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Needs are necessity for an individual and these needs motivates
them to achieve goals in organization too. Morrison's also focused to fulfil the following needs
enabling effective achievement of organizational goals by motivating them.
 Physiological need: These are basic needs and consist of food, clothing, shelter, sleep,
water etc. Morrison's provides their employees with basic salaries, clean drinking water
and first aid to motivate them as motivated employees are satisfied employees.
 Safety needs: These consist of security of employee’s family, job, health etc. Morrison's
provides their employees with safety like provide with plant which are in accordance
with legislation and guidance, ensuring the substances handled, stored and transported in
safe manner and provided health and safety statements to director and managers about
their responsibility towards employees.
 Emotional needs: It consists of feeling of love and belongingness from friends and
colleagues, social interaction, team spirit. Morrison's organizes various programs and
training session in which they try employee to open up with other colleagues.
 Esteem needs: This need of consist of respect from society, achievement etc. Morrison's
give promotions for recognition of their employees and also give rewards to deserving
employees and have a system of staff discounts, give various service awards etc.

 Self-actualization needs: These are the highest level needs which consist of focusing on
employee’s hobbies, creativity, problem solving, growth and Morrison's organizes
problem solving sessions of employees with the managers to solve their problems and
look for their growth (Soni. and Soni, 2016).
Morrison's fulfil their employees need step by step initiating from the basic physiological needs
and motivating them to reach at self-actualization need by achieving organizational goals.
Herzberg's two factor theory: Morrison's knew that motivation is a key to effective
achievement of goals in the organization. So, Morrison's followed the motivation theory of
Fredrick Herzberg which was Herzberg two factor theory, also known as Dual theory (Chiat. and
Panatik, 2019). The two factors are :
 Motivating factors: These factors encourage employees to work harder and includes
providing employees with sense of achievement, recognition, responsibility,
advancement and growth.
 Hygiene factors: These are those factors which does not give satisfaction but whose
absence will not create dissatisfaction to the employees. Working conditions, company's
policy, supervisor relations etc. are examples of hygiene factors (Kotni. and Karumuri,
2018).
Morrison's purpose was to motivate the employees, and they do it by providing monetary and
non-monetary rewards as per industry standards. They also provide employees with flexible
timings and additional health benefits and provide loyal employees with reward system and
remunerating them efficiently if their targets are achieved. So the company maintains the level of
employee’s job satisfaction and also creating more motivational factors to retain them for a
longer period (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl. and Maude, 2017).
PROCESS THEORY:
It deals with the process of motivation. Morrison's believes that by understanding these
processes it is possible to understand action, interactions, psychological and behaviour patterns
of the people.
Equity theory: This theory was developed by Jane Stacy Adams and says that employees
compare their input from the job with the output of the job. The higher the equity of input to that
of output the higher motivation is there of the employees. Morrison's also tried to eliminate the

equalities if any. He also believes that if employees will not get proper working environment
they give get demotivated and will leave. The following are the inputs and the outputs:
 Inputs : time, efforts, loyalty, hard work, commitment, adaptability, determination, trust
in superiors, skill, personal sacrifice etc. Morrison's considers the inputs been given by its
employees, and they make ensures that they are receiving fair payments.
 Outputs: job security, salary, employee benefit, recognition, reputation, responsibility,
praise, sense of achievements etc. Morrison's gives their employees various benefits like
pension for their loyal employees and who has served for a longer period. They also give
their employees rewards and organizes award function too, to motivate them to achieve
the goals effectively and efficiently (Ryan, 2016).
Morrison's believes that if employees get demotivated then they reduce the input or change and
will not strive to improve their performance.
Goal setting theory: this theory was given by Edwin Locke which states that goals are
important to give direction to the employees to achieve organizational objective. Morrison's also
believes that performance of the employees are directly linked to the goals. With employees are
provided appropriate goals with feedback then It will enhance their performance. There are two
types of goals:
 Learning goal which is set to enhance the skills and knowledge of the employees.
Morrison's generally set these gaols in the training process to build their employees skills.
 Performance goals are set to avoid and eliminate errors. Morrison's set these goals for
attainment of the serious objective and project (Lunenburg, 2011).
Morrison's focuses on these principles while setting goals: there should be clarity in goals which
means it should be measurable, unambiguous, specific and should have a time limit. Gaols
should be challenging as employees believe that challenging goals have higher rewards. They
also believe that goal setting increases employees performance and motivation through proper
feedback.
P3 Components that make an effective team different from an ineffective team:
A team is a collective group of persons working together to achieve goals and tasks. There are
two kinds of team effective team and an ineffective team.
Basis Effective team Ineffective team

Meaning When the group of people who
work together to achieve
common goal with clear
objectives and communication.
When a group of people who
come together to achieve a
common goal but there is no
clear objective of the team and
no collaborative spirit.
Member's contribution and
discussion
In case of effective team there
is proper participation and
discussion among all the
members.
In case of an ineffective team
only few members of the
group dominate the discussion.
Listening quality Members listen to each other
and hear to every ideas given
by other members
Members do not listen
properly and in this team ideas
are over-ridden and sometimes
ignored.
Decision making In effective team the decisions
are taken after agreement of all
the members.
Decision are taken without
properly analysing the real
issue. Premature actions are
taken in this type of team.
Conflict management Conflicts are treated normal
and members in case of
disagreement do not avoid
rather take step to manage it.
Conflicts in ineffective team
are not dealt with effectively
and in case of disagreements, it
is settled by vote. This results
in dissatisfaction among team
members.
Evaluation Effective is aware about their
activities, operations and self-
evaluate it.
Ineffective team is unaware
about their activities,
operations and try to avoid
discussion on evaluation and
maintenance.
Relationship of members Members of the team trust, Members of the team have

respect each other and have
supportive and collaborative
attitude towards each other.
competitive attitude and are
pragmatic based on need and
liking (Black, and et.al., 2019).
Teams in any organization goes through these five stages of development which was given by
Bruce Tuckman in 1965. Morrison's also consider these five stages of team development:
Stage 1 - Forming stage: This is the first and introductory stage of team development. Everyone
behaves in a very polite and pleasant manner and are excited to start something new and know
each other. When teams are formed in Morrison's members of the team are cautious about their
behaviour and try to avoid conflict and controversy. The purpose of this stage is to make the
employees or team members familiarize with each other and focus is on the interaction between
them.
Stage 2 – Storming stage: It is the most difficult stage of team development. Conflicts and
competitive component is seen in this stage. Team members disagree with each other. In this
stage of Morrison's team development personalities of members clashes, disagreement on how to
do the work may occur so it is the duty of Morrison's authorized team leader to recognize
conflict and should try to resolve it and not avoid them as it leads to long-term problems.
Stage 3 – Norming stage: This is the third stage of team development in which team members
become a cohesive unit. The conflicts are resolved in storming stage and now some unity is there
among members. So in this stage, Morrison's team performance is enhanced and members
appreciate and acknowledge each other’s skill and talent. Contributing and harmonious
atmosphere exist in the team.
Stage 4 – Performing stage: In this stage members of the team have become matured,
organized, confident and motivated, and they believe that they can operate without supervision.
In this stage Morrison's team have a clear structure are all the members are dedicated to achieve
a common mission. The team focuses on problem solving and teams become high-performing.
The team members strive towards goal achievement.
Stage 5 – Adjourning stage: This stage was later on added and in this stage the goals are almost
achieved and winding up of the work is undertaken. Morrison's team is on the verge of

diminishing because the task is completed. If the team is standing committee with continuous
responsibility members are replaced by new members and the team can either go back to
forming or storming stage.
P4 Philosophies and concepts of organizational behaviour applied within organization in a given
business situation.
Morrison's generally uses authoritarian style of leadership. In this top authorities hold the
singular authority which means all the decisions are taken by the high level leaders. The leaders
in this style prefers to take the charge. The autocratic leader is disciplined, confident and
decisive. As Morrison's is a supermarket chain the top authorities have to take the charge to
ensure that employees are effectively rotating the stock, taking steps to mitigate shoplifting.
These segments need a leader that can keep an eye on management and employee behaviour.
Social Capital Theory
This theory mainly focuses on social relationships which includes social networks,
generalized trusts, civic engagement etc. This theory is complex and has multidimensional
concepts with different types and level of measurement encompassing social norms, values,
beliefs, trusts, relationships, networks, obligations and institutions that foster cooperation and
collective actions for social development. Morrison's believe that the richness of social capital
depends on the size of the network and volume of economic and cultural capital (MacDonald,
2019). The capital is maintained till members continue to invest in relationships. Organization
has three type of social capital :
Bonds with friends, and the people with whom individual shares common interest, identity,
culture etc. and these are based on trust and respect.
Bridges, these are the links that is beyond the identity which includes colleagues and associates
and tries to build the gap by connecting online contacts through events, trainings, meet ups etc.
Linkages which are the links with people or groups up or down the ladder.
This theory is applied in the organization to a limited extent, as it has certain limitation
such as single individual cannot be appropriated as the exclusive property and the ownership of
social capital is less relevant (Dubos, 2017). Morrison's has some advantage of applying this
theory like lower transaction cost in terms of law and contracts, fewer public resources to govern

etc. but has to face certain limitation like it puts limitation on individual actions, sometimes
results in racial diversity.
Path-Goal Theory
This theory or philosophy of organizational behaviour focuses on how the leaders
motivate their subordinates to accomplish desired goals. The emphasis of this theory is on the
leader's behaviour style or process that best suits in handling and managing employees. The goal
of this theory is on motivation of employees, empower them and keep them satisfied so that they
do not leave the organization. Morrison's leaders also follow this theory and chooses behaviour
that complement what is missing at the workplace and provide subordinates with elements that
they need to attain the gaols. This theory identifies four types of behaviour of leader which are:
 Directive: In this style the leader directs the employees about how to perform the
task and lets them know what is expected of them. Morrison's leaders provide
guidelines to the subordinates, lets them know what is expected of them. They
also set standards for their performances and controls in case the standards are not
met. If the leaders of Morrison's wishes to develop skills in their employees, then
they will schedule a training for them, and they have to follow the direction of the
training. They also make use of rewards and punishments so that goals can be
achieved.
 Supportive: In this style the leaders acts friendly towards the employees and
show concern for their needs, wants and preferences. Morrison's leaders also
show concern for the well-being of their employees. They use this style to make
the work environment more pleasant. If the company faces the situation of
frequent turnovers or employees feel demotivated then they will display personal
concern, interacts with their employees and listens to their needs and wants. This
also increases self-confidence in their employees.
 Participative: In this style the leaders involve employees in decision-making and
also shares information with subordinates. Morrison's also follow this style they
also consult with the employees regarding work, task goals and ask for their
suggestions and by this behaviour of leader’s employees are highly get involved
in their work. If any critical decision has to be taken, then Morrison's leaders take
suggestions from their employees who are in direct contact with the customers.

 Achievement-oriented : This style is somewhat similar to goal setting theory. In
these leaders sets challenging goals for the employees and expects them to
perform at higher levels. Morrison's leaders apply this style as they believe that
their employees are responsible enough to accomplish challenging tasks. The
leaders of Morrison's set challenging goals for the employees to meet the sales
targets, expects them to perform at their highest level and also shows confidence
in their ability to meet expectations (Farhan, 2018).
For Morrison's achievement-oriented and directive style is most appropriate. As they are in the
supermarket industry, so they have to reach sales target and reach number of customers.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that Morrison's organizational culture, politics and power influences
both the individual and team behaviour and performance. They have negative impact like it
promotes unethical behaviour sometimes which causes variety of problems and have positive
impact as it encourages employees to behave in a responsible way resulting in happy and heathy
workplace. There are various motivational techniques and theories that Morrison's uses which
enable effective achievement of organizational goals like content theory and process theory. It
also identified that there are various factors like effective communication, conflict management
etc. which makes the team effective and differentiates it from an ineffective one. And Morrison's
also uses path-goal theory to accomplish their organizational goals by motivating their
employees. It uses achievement-oriented and directive approach within their organization to
achieve their objective and enhance employee retention.

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