Organizational Behaviour: Culture, Politics, Power in HP & Mega

This report provides an in-depth analysis of organizational behaviour, focusing on the impact of culture, politics, and power within organizations, using Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Mega Solutions as examples. It explores how HP's culture, politics, and power structures have influenced individual and team behaviour, contributing to its global success. The report also evaluates the application of motivational theories, such as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Vroom's Expectancy Theory, in achieving organizational goals within HP. Furthermore, it examines how to effectively influence behaviour through various motivational theories, concepts, and models, with practical examples. The study also discusses the dynamics of teamwork within Mega Solutions, a software company, highlighting factors that positively and negatively affect team performance, and offers recommendations for improvement. The document is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in organizational behaviour and management strategies and is available on Desklib, which provides a platform for accessing past papers and solved assignments.

Organizational Behaviour
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Task 2.......................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................19
Reference..................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
This project is based on the discussion of organizational behaviour. Organizational behaviour
in an organization is the way through which human communicate with one another. There are
various theories to develop the organizational behaviour. Team work is an important factor to
run an organization effectively. Culture, politics and powers are also three essential elements
of organizational behaviour. In this project, the examples of the companies ‘HP and Mega
Solutions’ have been cited to explain the subjects. It has been shown in this assignment how
the culture, politics and power have helped ‘HP’ to develop its all over performance in the
global market. It has also been shown in the project that how the managers in Mega
Solutions, a software company, have developed the team work in the company. The positive
factors that affect the team work positively and the negative effects that affect team work
negatively have been discussed in this project. Finally, some recommendations for the
improvement of the team work of Mega Solutions have been referred.
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Task 1
1. Critically, analyse how HP’s culture, politics and power would or have influenced the
behaviour of individuals or teams in the organisation.
Company background
The Hewlett- Packard is an American multinational information technology company
headquarter at California in the US. The company deals in computer hardware, computer
software, IT services and IT consulting (Www8.hp.com, 2018). The company was first
founded by William Bill Redington Hewlett and David Packard on 1st January, 1939. HP has
been a leading PC manufacturing company from the year 2007. The company is working all
over the world with its list of HP products. The company is wording presently with about
30,000 employees and presenting host of products - computer software, computer hardware
and other computer products including printers, scanners and others in the international
market. The company innovates continuously its products and services and thus, satisfies its
customers.
Culture, politics and power play important role in the overall performance of an organization.
The culture, power and politics of the company ‘HP’ have helped in the various ways to fetch
the organizational success for a long time.
Culture of the HP
The culture of HP has been a continuous advantage against the challenges faced by its leaders
for a long time. The learning experience from the leaders and managers of the company has
discovered many innovations in the field of innovation of products and services. The
employees have also been appraised and rewarded and thus, they have been motivated to
innovate their ideas. The pioneers of HP have involved the employees in decision making in
the company and thus, the employees have felt that they are the part of the company. The
diverse workforce of HP has given a competitive advantage to the company. Through the
monetary and non-monetary rewards, the employees have been satisfied and developed their
performance. The corporate culture of the leaders has turned the leaders, dreams into reality
through flexibility of the company. The pioneers of HP have cultivated a rich culture in HP
and the employees have developed their behaviour (Bolino et al., 2015). They have learned
how to behave with their colleagues and customers. The leaders have applied different
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behavioural theories such as Trait behavioural theory to form a good culture in the company.
The culture of HP is participative where all the employees are allowed to take part in
decision-making.
Politics of HP
The politics has played a huge role in the decision making and performance of HP. The
pioneers of HP have developed the performance of employees through the culture and
discipline in the company. The discipline in the workplace has developed the performance of
the employees in the company. The politics of the company has kept all the employees under
a pressure and the employees have found the answer they need and thus, they have spent
more time in their work for quality production. The innovation on the part of employees has
taken place.
Power of HP
The leaders have given power to the employees and they have been encouraged to take
decision in the company. The leaders with their power, have guided their subordinates and
rewarded for their good performance (Iqbal et al., 2015). The leaders have supervised the
employees with power. The positive power has highly motivated the employees and
increased the productivity of HP. In the above ways, the culture, politics and the power have
played positive role in HP and increased the productivity of the company in the global
market.
2.Evaluate how Maslow’s or Herzberg’s content theory and Vroom’s process theory of
motivational techniques enable effective achievement of goals in H-P or any
organisation you are familiar with.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory
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Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory
(Source: Ozguner and Ozguner, 2014)
Motivation plays an important role in an organization. There are various types of
motivational theories and the ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory’ is one of them that
contributes to the growth of the company ‘HP’. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory is five-
tier human need based theory (Fallatah and Syed, 2018). According to this theory, people in
an organization need to achieve some basic needs and then the employees are tend to achieve
the higher level needs. Thus, an employee goes higher. There are five steps of needs under
this theory – physiological needs, safety needs, need for love and belongingness, esteem
needs and self-actualization needs.
The communication manager of HP, in the first state of the model, has kept the employees
motivated not only through offering competitive salaries and benefits but also he has offered
them other various physiological needs. The pioneers of HP have provided the employees
company car and membership facility to the country clubs. The managers take their
subordinates out for lunch to make them happy and satisfied. Thus, in the first stage of
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theory, the minimum needs of the employees are met and they are encouraged to improve
their performance. The security and safety facilities in the workplace reduce the risk of death
and physical injury (Fute et al., 2015). The workers feel that their risks in the workplace have
been reduced and absenteeism of employees has decreased in the workplace. According to
the third step of theory, the pioneers of HP have conducted various social welfare programs
to take care of the local community and the workers as well. Thus, the social needs of the
employees are fulfilled. In the fourth stage of the theory, the pioneers of the company,
appreciates the employee performance and allow them in decision-making. Thus, the self
esteem of the employees has increased and they have been motivated. According to the final
stage of the theory, the self-actualizing people in the company are self-aware and they are
self-motivated towards their growth. Thus, the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory has been
applied in HP to motivate employees and the employees have achieved organizational goals
that led to the company’s growth of market share and profitability.
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory in HP
Figure 2: Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
(Source: Parijat and Bagga, 2014)
The Vroom’s Expectancy Theory was discovered by Canadian professor, Victor Vroom in
the year 1964. Under the Vroom’s Theory, the efforts, performance and outcomes of the
performance of the employees are separated. The pioneers of HP mainly apply this theory in
the work environment of the company. The steps of the theory are the following:
Expectancy
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In this step, the employees develop their performance with the challenges they meet in their
work field. The pioneers have found out which factor like training, support from supervisor
can help the employees and builds their confidence. The pioneers of HP have given proper
support to the employees who have completed their tasks with necessary skills at the right
time. Thus, the objectives of the company have been met with products and services (Parijat
and Bagga, 2014).
Instrumentality
Under this step, the chiefs of HP have rewarded the employees who have performed
additionally in the company. They have promoted the employees to the higher posts and
rewarded with monetary and non-monetary rewards to perform well (Kiatkawsin and Han,
2017).
Valence
In this step, each employee in HP is distinguished differently with the other employee based
on their own needs (Parijat and Bagga, 2014). For instance, when one employees has been
rewarded with money, the other has been offered days off to be satisfied. In the above ways
the employees have been motivated.
3. Critically evaluate how to influence the behaviour of others through the effective
application of behavioural motivational theories, concepts and models. You may
support your points with practical examples, from any organisation you are familiar
with
Behaviour is one of the good qualities in an employee that helps to reform his character and
attitude to his seniors and other colleagues in the organization (Garg and Tiwari, 2015).
Hence, behaviour plays an important role in the company. Through the reformation of
behaviour, a manager can be able to identify the general and social needs of his subordinates
and thus, he can feel how his subordinates can be motivated to his work. The employees in an
organization, through reforming his behaviour, can communicate with his colleagues and
appreciate them in their work also. The behaviour of the individual employees in HP has
helped them to coordinate and cooperate his colleagues and thus, has developed the ultimate
productivity of the company. There are various types of behavioural theories that are
followed in the management of HP and they are the following:
Equity theory
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Equity theory is applied where employees think that their reward are according to their
performance but sometimes, the employees of HP have thought that their rewards are not
equal as compared to the others’ rewards in the company. Employees who feel that they are
treated inequitably put fewer efforts in the work, transfer or quit jobs. The managers in HP
have avoided the negative consequences. They have allocated the rewards properly. The
managers have appraised all the employees fairly and have rewarded them. In this way, they
have made the workplace flexible.
Reinforcement theory
Through reinforcement theory, the pioneers of HP look at the relation between the behaviour
and its consequences. The on-job behaviour of the employees is focused by the pioneers of
the company. Through rewards, the behaviour of the employees is reformed so as to increase
the profitability of the employees. If any employee is not engaged in any improper
behaviour, then he will not experience the consequence. In the third step, sometimes, the ill-
behaved employees are punished through threats, suspension and others to mitigate his
negative consequence of his misbehaviour (Deng et al., 2018). The managers in HP are
careful and they make the wrong doer in the company that if they do any wrong act, then they
will not be rewarded. The managers in HP are always careful that if an employee who is
entitled to reward and does not receive any reward, gets offended on both the manager and
the company. Hence, the managers treat all the employees fairly.
Expectancy-value theory
According to the expectancy value theory, an employee in HP is motivated to perform well
when he or she thinks that his or her efforts will bring forth a good performance appraisal, his
appraisal will lead to the reward of the organization and finally, the reward will satisfy the
employee’s goals. The main theme under expectancy value theory is the relationship
between efforts and performance and finally, the satisfaction of the employees. Thus, in HP
when an employee has high expectancy and his high expectancy is related to his satisfaction,
then he or she is highly motivated. Therefore, the managers in the HP have emphasized the
perception and efforts of the workers and then rewarded them based on their performance
(Lauermann et al., 2017).
4. Critically evaluate the relationship between culture, politics, power and motivation
that enables teams and organisations to succeed, providing justified recommendations.
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You may support your points with examples, from any organisation you are familiar
with.
Culture, politics and power have helped the employees of HG to meet the goals and
objectives of the company through team working. Culture forms the behaviour of the
employees, politics forms some positive disciplines and power allows some efficient leaders
in an organization for working in a team in some effective ways. Culture, politics and power
have influenced positively the team in HG to increase the productivity.
Culture in HP
A healthy organizational culture forms a healthy personality of an individual and a healthy
personality is necessary for the growth of an organization (Alvesson and Sveningsson,
2015). The employees of healthy personality in the HG understand the ethics and values of
their company and hence, they can give a better result than those who have not the
knowledge of ethics and value of their organization. An employee, in HG having knowledge
of ethics respects his or her colleagues add values his or her colleagues’ work. He trusts on
his colleagues. As a result, the loyal employees in HG have realized the needs and
requirements of the customers and the productivity of the company has increased. A good
culture in HP has taught the employees good manner and the employees has learnt to deal
with the customers in proper manner for their satisfaction. The managers, due to the good
culture in HP realize the efficiencies and loopholes and train them to increase their
knowledge and skills. In this way, the skills and knowledge of the employees help to develop
the performance of the employees leading to the productivity of the company. In this way, the
culture of HP, has directly been related to the productivity of the company.
Politics in HP
The politics in the management of HP have created some effective disciplines through which
the employees have been able to work in a discipline manner and thus, increased their
productivity. The managers have clearly states the goals and objectives of the company and
the employees in a disciplined manner have been able to achieve the organizational goals
through their performance (Peters, 2015).
Powers
Finally, some leaders, trough power given to them, have dominated their subordinates and
thus, have made the employees work without indiscipline and absenteeism. The leaders have
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fetched rigidity in the company and the employees have been regular and disciplined in their
own job roles. In the above ways, culture, politics and powers have increased the productivity
of the company (Fawcett, L., 2015).
The following are the recommendations for further development to increase the productivity
of HP:
 The managers should explain their subordinates the goals and objectives of the
company so that in the near future, they can design their job roles to optimize their
performance in team.
 The communication among the employees should be more technical so that they can
share their own views and thus, they can work more effectively in the team.
 Cultural programs in the company should be conducted to develop the culture in a
team. Through these cultural programs, the managers will also gain knowledge.
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Task 2
4. Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team in an
organisation.
Define a team
Team: Basically, a team is a group of people where they work together to perform their work
independently and efficiently to achieve same goal (Davis, 2017). Cooperation in a team is
urgent for the success of the organization. The team members work in a team in such a
manner that each member in a team is equally responsible for the performance of the entire
team. There are various factors that may increase the efficiency of the organization like Mega
Solutions. They are the following:
Points of effectiveness:
Clear objectives: The managers in Mega Solutions should make the team members
understand the goals and objectives of the company clearly so that they can perform their
tasks effectively and efficiently in the organization. Without the clear picture of goals and
objectives, the employee in a group cannot work effectively.
Good communication: The team leaders should look into the matter so that there should be
proper communication among the team members and they can share the view among
themselves. Thus, the innovation of software will take place in the company and the
productivity of the company will increase (Gable and Sharp, 2016).
Proper leadership: the pioneers of the Mega Solutions should appoint skilful leader to guide
his or her team members. The leader should give proper training to the team members so that
they can perform their task skilfully. When the conflicts arise in the company, the leader
should come forward and resolve the issues to make them cooperative.
Support from the leasers: The team members of Mega Solutions should get adequate
support and the cooperation from their leader. Whenever any problem arises in the company,
the leaders should resolve the matter and encourage the team members.
Training and development: Training and development program are necessary to make the
employees skill and competent. The team members should be give training to know the
products and service of the company so that they can answer the customers whenever
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