Organisational Behaviour: Culture, Power Dynamics & Body Shop Case

This report provides an overview of organisational behaviour, focusing on the concepts of organisational culture, politics, and power dynamics within the context of the Body Shop. It explores how organisational culture influences individual and team behaviour and performance, highlighting the importance of aligning employee values with the organisation's culture. The report also examines the impact of organisational politics, including how it can affect employee motivation and team dynamics. Furthermore, it analyses the role of power dynamics in shaping individual behaviour and team performance, emphasising the need for fair and transparent exercise of power within the organisation. The study concludes that understanding and managing these organisational behaviour aspects are crucial for the success and profitability of companies like the Body Shop.

Organisational Behaviour- Activity 1
1

Executive Summary:
The context below will help in gaining knowledge about the background of Body Shop. The
terms organizational culture, politics and power dynamics are discussed in details. It also
discusses the relation between organizational culture, politics and power dynamics with the
behavior of individuals and teams and focuses on the team performance. This study is developed
based on researches made by consulting various journals.
2

Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
Activity 1.........................................................................................................................................5
1. Background of the chosen organization briefly...........................................................................5
2. Definition of the terms organizational culture, organizational politics, power dynamics and
motivation........................................................................................................................................5
3. Influences of organization’s culture on individual behavior, team behavior and performance. .6
4. Influences of organization’s politics on individual behavior, team behavior and performance..6
5. Influences of organization’s power dynamics on individual behavior, team behavior and
performance.....................................................................................................................................7
The analysis to the chosen organization is applied giving examples..............................................8
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography:.................................................................................................................................10
3

Introduction:
Organizational behavior determines the behavior and characters of employees working in an
organization and helps to shape their respective personalities. The behaviors of employees and
the stakeholders are improved using the study of organizational behavior. It motivates the
employees to work hard which is in turn beneficial for the achievement of the goals of the
organization. Motivated and job satisfied employees tend to be more focused towards their jobs
and work with full potential. The chosen organization for the given study is “Body Shop”. The
Body Shop is well-known organization situated in Brighton known for providing best quality
products and services to the customers, which make it run profitably. The study done below will
focuses on the background of the organization, its organizational culture, politics, power
dynamics and its journey to become such a successful organization.
4

Activity 1
1. Background of the chosen organization briefly
Body Shop was established at Brighton in the year of 1976 by the late British human rights and
environmental campaigner Anita Roddick as a small shop to sell only 25 products. Now, Body
Shop is known to have almost 2,500 stores in the entire globe. The customers, who visited the
shop, were encouraged by the owner to recycle the packaging, as not enough bottles were
available at the beginning. This company has grown day by day and now has almost 2,500 stores
and almost 300 different types of products. Body Shop was the first known cosmetic brand,
which prohibited testing its products on animals. This fact made it proud and popular among
people as most people are animal lovers (Thebodyshop.in, 2018).
2. Definition of the terms organizational culture, organizational politics, power dynamics
and motivation
Definitions:
Organizational culture: The environment in the employees of a given organization work is
known as organizational culture. Each organization has its own unique and defined
organizational culture, which consists of the various psychological and social aspects. Body
Shop is known to have collaborated organizational culture and keeps on making advancements in
order to grown in the present competitive world (Alvesson, 2016).
Organizational politics: The term organizational politics refers to the unauthorized, behind the
back or unofficial efforts given by an employees or a group of employees for the achievement of
some goals other than that which the organization posses or politics is utilized to increase power.
Organizational politics can have good effects as well (Saleem, 2015).
Power dynamics: Power is the influencing ability of one over the other. It deals with leadership
or managing skills, and is the potential of effective and dependent relation. Dynamics of power is
dependent on the distribution of power in an organization, compliances and dependencies of
people, uncertain situations and worker reputation (Holmes and Stubbe, 2015).
5

Motivation: Motivation refers to internal and external factors, which makes the employees
interested to perform their respective jobs and do it in the most focused manner to achieve
objectives of the organization and help the organization to run successfully and profitably
(Ganta, 2014).
3. Influences of organization’s culture on individual behavior, team behavior and
performance
Influences of organization’s culture on individual behavior: Every organization has unique
organizational culture aligned with expectations and values of the employees. For example, the
organizational culture of Body Shop is different from Marks and Spencer or Ernst and Young
and so on. The employee needs must fit within the organizational culture, which makes it easy
for the employees to work. If employees are happy, they will work being focused and work hard
to achieve goals of the organization, which comes out to be beneficial (Helmreich and Merritt,
2017).
Influences of organization’s culture on team behavior and performance: A team is
comprised of individuals. Organizational culture is known to influence and improve individual
behavior, thus it is clear that it also influences team behaviors and performance of the team.
Teamwork is a job, which is achieved by equal efforts of the individuals, who are a part of the
team. Teamwork often increases productivity as many ideas are collaborated. The members of
the team should not be discriminated on any grounds and everyone’s opinion must be
considered. Body Shop is known to have an open-minded organizational culture, which
considers the needs of the employees, this makes them develop an innovative, and creative
nature, thus workplace monotony is broken.
4. Influences of organization’s politics on individual behavior, team behavior and
performance
Influences of organization’s politics on individual behavior: The main reasons behind the
political behaviors of the employees are either to increase power or to achieve some informal
individual objectives or that of a group different from that of the organizational goals.
Employees are given promotions based on their performance at work, but it is a long and a time
6

consuming process (Pettigrew, 2014). In this case, organizational politics may lead to some
situations, where appraisals may be given to employees maintaining good relations with the
upper management. This leads to de-motivated and unsatisfied employees, who work hard. Body
Shop checks that nothing like this takes place and performance is given highest priority.
Influences of organization’s politics on team behavior and performance: A team consists of
individuals, who have equal rights and every member can place their opinions. Politics has led to
lower employee performance. If the equality of team members is questioned by politics, it causes
a lot of harm and decreases the efficiency of the team. Organizational politics may affect the
success of the organization by inhibiting the employee performance. Body Shop looks into this
critical matter and checks this issue for effective and unstoppable functioning of the
organization.
5. Influences of organization’s power dynamics on individual behavior, team behavior and
performance
Influences of organization’s power dynamics on individual behavior: Power is known as the
influencing ability of one over another. An organization has its CEO, project heads, and
managers, who posses power and exercise it on the employees working under them. If an
employee is always dominated by the higher authority, then it makes it difficult for the employee
to perform his/her job, this makes them de-motivated. Body Shop ensures correct exercising of
power by the higher authorities over the employees working under them to maintain a stable
environment, which consists of happy and job satisfied employees.
Influences of organization’s power dynamics on team behavior and performance:. Team
comprises of members who have equal say and equal rights. All team members are equal and no
one can exercise power over one another. Every team has a team leader who has the
responsibility to control the team and give orders. The leader should exercise the power in a
correct manner and should not dominate the members, which will de-motivate them. Team
leader is also responsible to consider the views of his team members. Body Shop takes effective
measures to ensure efficient performance of the teams.
7

The analysis to the chosen organization is applied giving examples
The culture of the organization Body Shop plays a very crucial role in improving the nature and
behaviors and shaping personality of the employees. If the employees work hard and stay
focused, it benefits the organization itself for easy achievement of goals. Team comprises of
individuals, if individual performance is improved then the performance of the team as a whole
is improved. Body Shop tries its best to motivate the employees, by offering them flexible
timings, giving rewards based on their performances and they are planning to give some extra
payments to those employees, who agree to work a few more hours than the normal office
timings. Considering power dynamics, Body Shop takes effective measures to ensure no
employee is being unnecessarily dominated. Body Shop also takes measures to stop any kinds of
organizational politics and unofficial practices, which may harm the reputation and hinder the
performance. These measures make Body Shop one of the most successful and profitable
cosmetic brands in the entire globe.
8

Conclusion:
The detailed study above makes it easy to understand the concepts of organizational behaviors
like organizational culture, politics and power dynamics. It describes that culture plays a very
crucial role in shaping employee and team behavior and team performance. The focus of any
organization is to satisfy the customers by good quality products and services and earn revenue.
The Body Shop is growing day by day by adapting to the present market changes, which makes
it successful and profitable.
9

Bibliography:
Alvesson, M. ed., 2016. Organizational culture. Sage.
Saleem, H., 2015. The impact of leadership styles on job satisfaction and mediating role of
perceived organizational politics. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, pp.563-569.
Ganta, V.C., 2014. Motivation in the workplace to improve the employee
performance. International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied
Sciences, 2(6), pp.221-230.
Holmes, J. and Stubbe, M., 2015. Power and politeness in the workplace: A sociolinguistic
analysis of talk at work. Routledge.
Helmreich, R.L. and Merritt, A.C., 2017. Culture at work in aviation and medicine: National,
organizational and professional influences. Routledge.
Pettigrew, A.M., 2014. The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.
Thebodyshop.in. (2018). Beauty Tips & Skin Care Expert Advice | The Body Shop India. [online]
Available at: https://www.thebodyshop.in/expert-advice [Accessed 23 Jul. 2018].
10