Organisational Culture and Workforce Motivation at Samsung: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Samsung's organizational culture and its influence on workforce motivation and performance. It examines how culture, power, and politics impact individual and team behavior, referencing Handy's Model of Organizational Culture and Hofstede's cultural dimensions to assess Samsung's operational environment. The report explores various motivational techniques and their effectiveness in achieving Samsung's goals, including an analysis of organizational psychology and system network theory. It also discusses the impact of globalization and digital technology, as well as the role of organizational politics. The report concludes with insights on how Samsung can enhance its organizational culture and workforce motivation to improve overall performance, including a review of power dynamics using French and Raven’s Model. The analysis is based on the provided content, offering a detailed overview of Samsung's operational strategies and cultural influences.

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Organisational
Cultures and
Workforce Motivation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
P1. Culture, power, and politics of Samsung influence on individual and team behaviour
performance.................................................................................................................................4
P2. Motivation and Motivational Techniques enables in effective achievements of Samsung’s
Goals..........................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18
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·INTRODUCTION
Organisational Behaviour examines the effect that individuals, teams, and structures have on the
behaviour within company, with the aim of applying such knowledge towards improving an
organisation’s potency.
This report critically analyses about how culture, power politics and power of Samsung can
influence individual and team behaviour and performance, and it also analyse motivation and
motivational techniques enable in goals of Samsung.
Lee-Byung-Chul, founded Samsung as a trading company. In the span of few years, it
diversified into areas such as foods, textiles, retail, securities, processing, and electronics.
Samsung is multinational company selling its electronics globally and has one of the highest
global brand values. Samsung follows a simple business philosophy: to commit in its talent and
technology by creating high quality products and services that bestow to better global society.
Samsung focuses on vertical integration and flood of products as a chief competitive advantage.
Samsung follows a simple business philosophy:


壱To commit in its talent and technology by creating high quality products and services that
bestow to better global society.

壱To focuses on vertical integration and flood of products as a chief competitive advantage.

壱Samsung is operating just smilier to other brand in the market with an intensity on vertical
integration by offering various products in the market like., TVs, LED lights, gaming products,
Smartphones and many more.

壱Samsung is leading to making its presence globally at each and every country of the world
with a satisfied and loyal customer's at each point.
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·MAIN BODY
·P1. Culture, power, and politics of Samsung influence on individual and team behaviour
performance
Organisational Culture
It is accumulation of values, practices, belief, and expectations that lead and enlighten the
actions of all team members (Welch, 2017). Good culture in organisation leads to improved
performance while dysfunctional organisation’s culture can hinder most organisations. Discussed
below is the classification of culture according to Handy’s Model of Organisations Culture.
Power Culture – In this culture, power remains in hands of only few people who have authority
and have special privileges to take decisions at workplace. It depends on employees of the
company if they can take pressure and give results it will result in increase in their performance
and if it is excessively used it may result into decrease in individual and team performance.
Task Culture - In task culture, teams are formed in order to solve issues and attain targets. Teams
are generally formed of people sharing mutual interest towards work. It is extremely adaptable,
team can easily be reformed, and individuals have large degree of control on their work which
maximise their performance.
Person Culture – In organisation where individuals feel that they are more important than the
organisation, employees just work for their personal motives, such organisations follow the
person culture. It does not suit the Samsung working style as people only focus themselves and
company is nothing just source of finance. It will lead to decrease performance of the company.
Role Culture – In organisations, where the responsibilities are delegated according to the
interest, qualification, and specialisation to bring best out of their employees improves the
individual and team performance.
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In Samsung, the organisational culture followed is the Role culture where the power comes with
responsibility. Individuals and team work according to their specialisations and interest which
improves employee’s performance because in role culture team members understand their roles
and task given is better which help them in successfully accomplish the given task, and they are
dedicated towards the organisation which boosts Samsung productivity.
If Samsung uses Task culture, it will generally improve the team performance and individual
performance as the experienced and interested employees are working on the assigned task. If it
uses Person Culture, means that it cannot expect loyalty from its employees, company
performance will hinder, if any uncertainty arise employees will not take it seriously. If
Samsung uses power culture, it can often very strongly permeate the whole organisation, is able
to move quickly and easily react to threat or danger.
Samsung Culture -
Samsung creates a positive culture by focusing on attaining high degree of technological
innovation and including human resource development strategies (Wang, Zhang and Chen,
2019). Samsung is innovation-centred organisational culture emphasizes on having development
opportunities for all the employees, constant change, prosperity for all, passion for excellence
and ethical foundation for integrity.
Inner competition and rivalry hinder the performance of the individual which also impacts the
team performance.
Samsung culture of talk when necessary also maintain reserved environment affect the
employee’s performance.
Organisational Psychology – Organisational psychology refers to the use of physiological
knowledge in explaining individual working. It helps in improving the job satisfaction of
employees which increases the productivity and enhance healthy relationship by identifying
potential issues and suggests social issues. Samsung should consider organisational psychology
for better functioning; through the help of organisational psychology, they can remove the job
dissatisfaction among its existing workforce and provide them satisfied and healthy working
environment.
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System and Network Theory- System theory is the understanding of tangled social systems of
concern to official and network theory gives perception of social phenomena, for instance spread
of information and the way people form social groups which defines their behaviour at Samsung.
Cultural Difference
Culture Difference can be analysed as the cultural diversity found in the organisation which may
vary within one country, cross countries and across units. Company analyse cultural diversity by
looking at different behaviour patterns as these diversity results from lack of understanding and
affects the environment of the company. Sometimes miscommunications and majority culture
create partiality in the company which leads to deficiency in the performance of individuals and
teams. Samsung should take care of all the situations that may arise due to culture difference and
make employees understand that Company before all other concerns later in order to maintain
decorum of the company. It should provide inductions and development programmes to all new
joiners, so when they put hands in actual job practice, they are already comfortable and prepared
to do work smoothly.
Samsung can create positive working cultural environment by regularly coming up with fun
activities on every weekend like Diversity cultural celebrations, developing sports team and
having sports events, personalization contest etc.
Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture Theory
This theory is proposed by Greet Hofstede explains the impacts of society’s culture on the values
of its people, and how value defines the behaviour. There are six dimensions in Hofstede’s
culture theory-
Power distance Index – In this dimensions, less powerful people of a society accept and expect
that power is distributed unequally (Bonau, 2019). UK focuses that inequalities existing between
the people should be minimised and their ease of doing business within every class.
Individualism vs Collectivism – It is about the analogous importance of individual versus group
interest. Individualistic societies have loose ties and collectivism societies have tightly integrated
ties. UK score is the highest among the individualistic scores, people are highly individualistic
and private.
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Uncertainty Avoidance Index – This dimension defined as a society’s forbearance for ambiguity,
in which people avert any circumstance of something unexpected, away from status quo. UK has
a low score; society is generally happy to make it up as they along sort of attitude.
Masculinity v/s Femininity – Masculinity is defined as the preference of society for heroism,
assertiveness, achievement, and material rewards and femininity is defined as the preference of
society for the quality of life, cooperation, and modesty. UK is the highly success oriented
Masculine Society.
Long term orientation v/s Short term Orientation – This dimension refers to the connection of
past with present and future challenges (Ritala, Vanhala and Jarvelainem, 2020). Country with
short-term orientation has less development, while long-term orientation countries continue to
develop. UK has one of the long-term oriented society and most pragmatic, they serve durability
to all companies.
Indulgence v/s Restraint – This dimension measures the happiness; indulgence means free
gratification allowed by the society and natural desires of human related to enjoying life and
have fun. UK society is shown to be one of the restrained societies, so they do not put much
emphasis on free time and gratification of desires.
Figure1, Source: Hofstede Insight,2020
For Samsung to operate its business successfully in UK it needs to follow marginal power
distance, long term relationship with the customers and employees, courtesy, politeness,
discipline, and punctuality for successful operation in UK.
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Higher power distance between there is high level of inequality and people accept without
questioning. In UK, it is comparatively lower than other countries but still there is 67%, to boost
the industry of UK, companies should work on lowering the difference in the power distance, as
by lowering the inequality may also help in improving the employees work performance.
With the application of Hofstede’s Theory, Samsung will consider all the dimensions and ensure
that there is improvement in whichever dimension it is required, and workforce will see that
Samsung is putting efforts in developing proper workplace environment, will make them work
hard from their part and contribute towards company.
Globalisation and digital technology have influenced the Samsung business, previously Samsung
used to sell all its product at offline stores globally but with the launch of digital technology
Samsung started selling its electronics online. To expand its business Samsung did tie- ups with
different global websites like Walmart, Amazon in order to facilitate its services throughout the
world. For example: through the help of video conferencing, decisions are taken faster which
saves the time of the team if one member is not present, and it boost the productivity of
individual which improves both employee and team performance.
Organisational Politics – Organisation politics are self-aiding behaviours that employee use to
maximise the chances of acquiring positive results in organisations. Office politics takes place in
every organisation likewise in Samsung it has its good and bad influence of the company.
Good or positive politics in Samsung ensures good working environment where individuals and
teammates help each other by publicizing one's accomplishment, volunteering, motivate each
other to grow and work to their fullest, which ultimately increases the efficiency of Samsung.
The only pitfall of good politics is that sometime weak employees are not identified because of
the other teammates help (Ghafoor, 2020).
Negative or Bad politics are planned to achieve personal gain at the expense of others and the
organisations. Negative politics have bad influence on the employees as they are always trying to
improve status by targeting other teammates which generates negative environment in the
company. For e.g., Talking behind someone is back, spreading rumours, not telling essential
information. Involvement of individuals and team in politics can be destructive because people
focus on personal gains on the cost of company. Samsung keep tracks of every employee’s
performance and take measures that no negative environment is created within the organisation,
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which can harness their productivity, because they feel they will be rewarded fairly, so they can
do anything they want, to avoid such situation company takes steps by punishing them.
Organisational Power – Organisational Power can be defined as the ability to influence the
people in the company. To understand Organisation Power in detail French and Raven’s Model
is discussed below which categorise power into 5 bases –
Legitimate Power – Legitimate power arise from having a position of power (authority) at
workplace, such as being the leader or the boss or a key member of management. This power is
generally used when company wants to prioritize things like building out digital capabilities,
innovation, demonstrating why things are important, automation etc. Using this Power may
maintain discipline in the company but will kill the ideas arising. Individual performance may be
affected, and the team performance will also hinder will leader follow strict authoritative style.
Employees do not feel so good when this power is used as they cannot express their opinion
freely.
Reward Power – This power is used by rewarding individuals for acquiescence with one’s
wishes. Rewards are generally given like pay raise, bonuses, promotions, extra time off from
work etc. In Samsung when the employees achieve their targets successfully before the deadline
they are rewarded. This power may influence the individual and team performance.
Employees will be motivated and will give work with their full potential.
Coercive Power – Coercive power is used by threatening others like fear of losing job, giving
review of poor performance etc. Generally, it is set to have the high performance from the
employees (Pagare, 2018). This power is used up to certain level, extreme use of this power will
definitely impact the performance of individuals and teams and may to retention.
Employees will stay disciplined at the workplace, and reduction in chances of error.
Expert Power – Expert Power arises from experiences, knowledge, and skills of the individuals.
After gaining good amount of experience individuals become specialist in that fields. In
Samsung, such individual becomes leader and drive cultural change by encouraging other to
become expert too. Using this power generally increases the employee and team performance
and ultimately results into desired outcome.
Giving projects that they have their speciality and expertise, will result in more perfection in the
outcomes.
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Referent Power – Referent power is conveyed through being trusted and respected. Respect
comes when leader handles the critical situations nicely. In Samsung, HR associates ensures that
employee are treated fairly. This power influences individuals and team to give their best with
the full potential and it motivates them.
This power also makes the employees know that there is the relationship of authority and
responsibility existing and mutual respect is maintained, things goes in straight.
Reward Power is most Influential in Samsung, in order to motivate employees to perform best
with their full potential and if it is given to one person, other automatically works so that he can
also get. Company give them rewards such as praise, personal achievements, job title, bonuses,
raises, gifts according to their performance.
l壱P2. Motivation and Motivational Techniques enables in effective achievements of Samsung’s
Goals
Motivation refers to the process that leads and sustains goal-oriented behaviours. It involves the
emotional, cognitive forces, biological, and social forces that operate behaviour. In simple terms,
it is the driving force behind the person’s actions (Vikinas, Chua and Murray, 2019). It is
categorised into two types – Extrinsic and Intrinsic.
Extrinsic Motivation – Motivation which arise from outside of the individual and involve
rewards such as money, praise, social recognitions etc. Samsung can provide rewards such as
bonuses, commissions and benefits health benefits, customer loyalty discounts etc. which help
company to achieve its overall objectives of innovation and increase more customer base .
If the employee’s and worker are rewarded in the Samsung then they will more positive and
motivated towards the work in the Samsung. This will lead to motivate the other employee’s of
the same field, they will also perform well as they will expect being rewarded on completion of
their task. This will make a better product by the Samsung employee’s.
Reward helps in building a better employment deal, and also helps in retaining the employee and
reducing the turnover.
Intrinsic Motivation – Intrinsic Motivation means motivation which comes from within the
individual as solving any critical issues and gaining confidence. Samsung can use intrinsic
motivation such as by giving autonomy to its employees, by giving recognition for their work,
by giving mentorship, assessment of their work so that they can feel motivated while working.
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Intrinsic motivation develops a feeling of satisfaction in Employees. For example, if the
individual is given freedom of expressing ideas, there is a possibility that he comes up with such
great idea which ultimately benefit the company. Generally peoples uses to buy the end result
not the goods if the seller captured the expectation of the customer's towards the product then
they can convey the customer easily to buy products, the sale approach is become relevant when
a seller is selling its products are upfront fee.
It can be related to use of technology or amazing marketing strategy.
Many psychologists suggest that motivation varies person to person in the theories proposed by
them. The main focus of these theories is to explain how and what gives rise to motivation.
Motivation theories are separated into two – Content and Process Theories.
Content Theories – It focuses on ‘what’ motivates people and addresses certain factors like
individual goals and needs. Maslow’s need hierarchy, Alderfer’s ERG theory, McClelland’s
achievements theory, and Herzberg’s two factor theory are part of Content Theories. Samsung
being a multinational company follows all different types of motivational techniques and do not
compromise with the quality of products it sells to its customers.
Maslow’s Theory of the Hierarchy of Needs–
This is most widely known theory proposed by the Abraham Maslow. Theory is shown in the
shape of the pyramid the most basic need at the bottom and the most immense need at the top
(Odor, 2018). Discussed below are the needs in detail –
Physiological Needs are the most basic need without them human body cannot function well. It
includes food, water, clothing, and shelter. These are the basic needs for which every human
works without this need all other needs are unnecessary. Samsung ensures that they pay enough
to all staff and employees that their basic needs are met.
Safety and Security arise after the basic needs are fulfilled. These needs include safety of life,
financial security and health and wellbeing. Samsung provides life insurance to all its employees
and job surety to its most of the talents working.
Belongingness and Love need refers to the love and affection that everyone human wants to
receive. Employees will not feel motivated when their love and belongingness needs are not
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satisfied. Samsung creates positive environment by listening to everyone's idea, clear
communication, by recognising the hard work of its employees and by showing trust so that
employees can work together with each easily and develop interpersonal relationship such as
friendships.
Self-Esteem Needs means being valued, appreciated, and respected by others in society. When
all other previous fulfilled people want respect and appreciation for their work and self-respect is
very essential at this stage. Samsung makes sure that they provide appreciation by recognising
their hard work, giving them authority or position and autonomy, pay rise with the position to
their employees for their contribution, which boosts their productivity.
Self-Actualization need means individual is wants to reach and grow their full potential. It is the
highest level of need, that individual have after accomplishing all previous needs.
Maslow's Theory helps Samsung in both personal development and in the growth of Samsung.
Samsung identifies what people working in its organisation need and what drives and motivate
them. It also helps the company and employees to develop mutually beneficial relationship and
positive environment conducive to work.
Samsung follows their path by giving the platform of opportunities to potential employees,
which help in return help in contributing their best for the growth of Samsung.
Maslow’s theory helps Samsung to understand the different needs of its employees, by
understanding the needs of its employees, company can lower absenteeism and reduce staff
turnover in the company, and making talents stay in the company, Customer's service people of
Samsung will stay in the company for a longer time than they are going to deal various day to
day as well as night problem that the buyer are facing by dealing with customer's regular lead to
get more knowledge of Samsung products and its customer's as well which ultimately help the
employee’s of customer's service work more efficienct and perform their work more fast and
also the Samsung brand name is standout in the field of customer's service. contribute in the
company will help Samsung in achieving its goal of giving best to its customers and that can
happen with the help of employees.
Alderfer ERG Theory –
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