Organizational Behavior: Dr. Martens Case Study Analysis

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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
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Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1- ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, POWER, AND POLITICS.......................................................3
HANDY’S CULTURAL TYPOLOGY.................................................................................................3
FRENCH AND RAVEN’S POWER TYPES.......................................................................................4
CHANLAT’S CHARACTERISTICS...................................................................................................6
TASK 2- MOTIVATING TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS..........................................................................6
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION........................................................................................................... 7
MASLOW’S THEORY OF MOTIVATION.......................................................................................7
HERZBERG’S TWO FACTOR THEORY...........................................................................................8
VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY................................................................................................9
TASK 3- EFFECTIVE COOPERATION WITHIN TEAMS.....................................................................10
EFFECTIVENESS OF TEAMS...........................................................................................................10
TUCKMAN’S TEAM DEVELOPMENT MODEL.................................................................................11
TASK 4- CONCEPTS AND THEORIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR.........................................12
PATH GOAL THEORY.................................................................................................................... 12
KURT’S CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL....................................................................................13
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 14
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Organizational behavior is the proper study of the human resources in the organization i.e. how
people act and behave in a group or team. The main aim of studying the behavior of employees
is to effectively and efficiently operate the business. The areas covered in the organizational
behavior are communication, job structure, leadership or decision making skills, and many
more (Wilson, 2017). Also in the case study of Dr. Martens which has grown significantly due to
adopting and changing proper organization culture of the company. Verwoert who joined the
family business after some time has worked hard to change the organization culture by
changing the behavior of employees and also working on their products. The Verwoert believes
that the organization can only become successful through people and product. In addition to
this, the management also provides proper support to other branches and builds a strong
workforce.
TASK 1- ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, POWER, AND POLITICS
HANDY’S CULTURAL TYPOLOGY
Organizational culture consists of values, expectations, philosophy, experiences, norms as well
as beliefs of a particular organization. With the help of organizational culture, the companies
set some limits and boundaries for the people and also expect from them their activities and
actions must be in these limits. In order to understand the organizational culture of Dr.
Martens, the Handy’s culture typology defines different types of organizational culture adopted
in the organization which is as follows:
Power culture
In the power culture, the power in Dr. Marten's lies in the hands of few people i.e. top
management and they take every decision regarding an organization. The top management
decides whether to delegate their task or not and to whom. It was expected from the
employees that they follow the order given by the top management (Yahyagil, 2015).
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Task culture
In the Dr. Martens organization, the management allows the employees to form the teams so
that the particular objective or goals should be achieved on time. But all the team members
must work towards achieving a common goal. The power lies in the hands of those people who
have complete knowledge about the project or who are expert in a particular field.
Person culture
In this culture, the employees work towards achieving their personal goal rather than
organizational objectives. The employees put more efforts so that they can earn more money
and they are not motivated to achieve organizational goal. The authority to take the decision
lies in the hands of the employees or trade union (Fernando et al., 2018).
Role culture
The person who has required skills, knowledge and expert in the particular field gain the
authority to make a decision. He may be a member of top management or lower management.
They decide what activities they can perform and what type of challenges they will accept.
From the case study of Dr. Martens, it is observed that all four types of organization culture are
adopted in Dr. Martens organization where the important decision is taken by Verowoert which
is power culture, the power is given to specialized HR personnel for achieving their task that is
role culture, small and unimportant decisions are taken by the employees without taking the
permission for top executives which is included in-person culture and also the top management
allows to employees to form teams for achieving a particular tasks which are included in task
culture. The employees are given proper guidelines and deadlines and the top management
expects that they will perform it within the timeline.
FRENCH AND RAVEN’S POWER TYPES
This model is applied for calculating the power in the hands of particular individuals. The term
power is defined as the ability of the individual to influence the behavior of other individuals.
The need of the power in Dr. Marten's organization is required at the time when the company
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underwent the structural changes and they are given more responsibilities to ensure that they
get the support of all employees in the business expansion. The model applied to define types
of power is French and Raven’s power model. This model also helps in influencing the individual
as well as team behavior and performance and its five categories are as follows:
 Legitimate power
In this power, the authority and responsibility to the individual come from a superior
position. The top management helps, guides and directs the employees which directly
affects the performance and behavior of the employees in the organization. The
superior has the authority to influence their behavior through punishment or rewards. It
is also expected from the employees that they will obey the orders and directions of
employees. In Dr. Marten's organization, all the major decision was taken by Veroweort
and all other people and other branches obey their decisions (Saito and Ruhanen, 2017).
 Reward power
The leaders or superiors give an award or reward to increase the performance or
influence their behaviors. The rewards used by the Dr. Martens organization to improve
the performance are a bonus, raises or promotion. The only disadvantage of this power
is that the superiors cannot convince the employees to improve their performance until
the rewards are appealing to them.
 Expert power
The individual having expertise knowledge or skilled get the authority to influence the
behavior of others and also the employees take them as their role model. The role
model in Dr. Marten's organization can be HR personnel who helped the company in
their business expansion through their skills and knowledge (Patterson et al., 2018).
 Referent power
The power of the individual comes from the special characteristics, traits or attitude of
the superior or role model. The leader gets the appreciation from their colleagues,
subordinates and other people and therefore they can easily influence the behavior of
other people (Taucean et al., 2016).
 Coercive power
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The superior is strict with the employees and punish and penalizes to those who do not
follow the rules and regulations of the organization. The structure of the organization
continuously changes and it is the most common feature of the employees that they
resist changing. It is suitable for those employees in the organization.
All types of powers help Dr. Marten’s organization to increase the individual behavior and
performance and influence the behavior of employees so that organizational goal should be
achieved within the time limit.
CHANLAT’S CHARACTERISTICS
This model divides the organizational politics into four categories which are as follows:
 Personal characteristics: in Dr. Marten's organization it is found that some people
influence the behavior of other people through their characteristics and political
behavior.
 Decision characteristics: it is also found that some people decide with complete
biasness and their unstructured and structured decision increases demotivation in the
organization.
 Structural characteristics: the people adopt several ethical and unethical approaches so
that they can achieve their task (Hassard and Parker, 2016).
 Organizational change: the political behavior in the organization can come from any
favorable or unfavorable change in the company which changes the authority or
responsibility of an individual.
TASK 2- MOTIVATING TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS
The term motivation means the internal forces of the employees which encourage them to give
their best in the organization. It is very essential to influence the behavior of employees at the
time when the organization decided to restructure and relocate its operations. Therefore, it is
very essential for the company to intrinsically motivate the employees so that the management
does not need to force them to perform their task. The term motivation is divided into two
categories and it is required that Dr. Marten’s organization should motivate the employees in
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both ways (Herzberg, 2017). The intrinsic motivation means when the individual himself takes
the initiative to adopt the change or to work hard for the company. On the contrary to this,
when the individual takes the organization forces the employees to adopt the change or change
their behaviors is known as extrinsic motivation and the management takes the help of
punishments or rewards. The theories of motivation which will help in explaining all aspects of
motivating the employees and to relocate or restructure the organization to London will be
covered with the following theories:
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
MASLOW’S THEORY OF MOTIVATION
Abraham Maslow gives this theory and according to him, the needs of the employees are
categorized into five hierarchal needs and he also defines the structure of needs. The lowest
level of the need shows that it is the basic requirement for human survival and the individual at
the highest level shows that he is completely satisfied in the company. Also, in Dr. Marten's
organization, the top management needs to apply Maslow’s need hierarchy theories to put the
needs of employees in the particular categories and these are as follows:
Physiological needs
Physiological needs include the essential items which are required for the survival of the human
and it is in the lowest category. Physiological needs have a great impact on the behavior of
employees. The items included in these needs are air, house, food, cloth, etc.
Safety needs
The individual will come to the next level when the primary needs are satisfied. After that, the
employees look for fulfilling their safety needs such as safe environment at the workplace,
proper protection, safety from physical harm. The examples included in the safety needs are
job security, financial security, health security and so on (Healy, 2016).
Social needs
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A human always seeks different ways to satisfy their social needs. Social needs include
attachment or belongingness with other people in the organization. The elements included in
the social needs are care, love and also acceptance by other team members and colleagues, etc.
Esteem needs
The word self-esteem means the need of self-image or self-respect. Dr. Marten’s organization
gives self-esteem through providing respect, power, recognition, attention, status and so on.
Self-actualization needs
The self-actualization needs include the opportunities for personal growth and development
and it is the last step of this model. This need is usually to seek by the top management and can
also be said that the self-actualization need of the individual is never get satisfied (Healy, 2016).
HERZBERG’S TWO FACTOR THEORY
This theory is also known as a motivation-hygiene theory which is founded by Frederick
Herzberg in the year 1959. This theory includes the two factors which make the individual
satisfied or dissatisfied from the workplace environment. The Herzberg conducted proper
research on the people who were working in the organization and identified the factors which
increase the performance of employees and other factors which decreases their morals. The
two factors contributing to increasing or decreasing the performance are as follows:
Hygiene factors
Hygiene factors also called dissatisfiers which decreases the overall performance of the
employees in the organization. Therefore they are the essential factors which increase the
motivation among the employees. These factors cannot give positive satisfaction to the
employees for the long-term but it leads to dissatisfaction if these were absent in the
organization. These factors work extrinsically for the employees. These factors are also known
as maintenance factors which prevent the employees to become dissatisfied from their work.
The elements of this factor include basic expectations of the employees which are related to
physiological factors. The elements included in the hygiene factors are policies, administration
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of a company, pay structure, physical operational conditions, job security, interpersonal skills,
status, and fringe benefits, etc. (Holmberg et al., 2018).
Motivational factors
The Herzberg says that the hygiene factors cannot be considered as elements of motivators.
The elements of motivation factors are giving direct and positive satisfaction to the employees.
These factors encourage employees to give their best and superior performance. These factors
are also known as satisfiers. All these factors contribute to the performance of employees. The
motivational factors show that physiological needs are completely satisfied and they are
looking to additional benefits. The elements included in the motivational benefits are authority
and responsibility, recognition, promotional opportunities, personal growth and development,
the meaningfulness of work and so on (Alshmemri et al., 2017).
VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY
This theory says that the behavior of an individual is influenced by the decision he takes from
different available alternatives with the main purpose of increasing the pleasure or decreasing
the pain. This theory divided the factors into three main categories which are as follows:
Expectancy: it is just a belief which means that the output of the employees will only increase
by putting more efforts. It can only be done when the individual thinks that they can achieve
the goals and they put all efforts to achieve those targets.
Instrumentality: it is a belief that if the workforces perform up to their best potential then they
will get a valued outcome. The employees believe that if they perform well they will get
rewards and awards. In addition to this, the quality of the performance will also get improved
(Kiatkawsin and Han, 2017).
Valence: it is the significance of the individual which they put on the expected outcome. It is
not an actual satisfaction but it is an expected satisfaction after accomplishing the objectives.
After bringing all these factors in the organization, the performance of the employees will be
improved and this will help in relocating and restructuring the location of Dr. Marten’s
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organization. Therefore, in other words, it can be said that when the employees expect that
they can achieve the goal and put their best efforts in achieving the same, they should be timely
and properly rewarded.
All these three theories will help in putting the needs of the employees in some categories,
which will help the top management to understand their needs and to work towards fulfilling
the needs and make them satisfied. It is because a satisfied employee will only contribute and
support the organization in every change and also in every situation.
TASK 3- EFFECTIVE COOPERATION WITHIN TEAMS
EFFECTIVENESS OF TEAMS
Before explaining the characteristics of the effective teams of Dr. Marten’s organization it is
necessary to define the term team. The word team refers to a collection of two or more people
working collaboratively to accomplishing the team’s goals. The terms effective teams means
that proper coordination and support between the team members so that the goals and
objectives must be accomplished within the period. The characteristics which justify the word
effectiveness of teams in Dr. Marten's organization are as follows:
1. Clearly define goals and objectives
After the formation of the team, the goals and objectives of the organization must be
clearly and precisely define and it must be measured in quantitative terms. It is not
sufficient to only define the goals but it is also necessary to communicate all members
of the team. Further, the roles and responsibilities of all team members should be
defined to avoid any confusion in the minds of team members regarding their work
(Cooke and Hilton, 2015).
2. Free and open communication
In Dr. Marten's organization, the communication flow should be two-way and they
should also follow the open communication method. The members will become
comfortable with each other if they share their views and opinions with other team
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members. Open communication also helps in building coordination which reduces the
chances of conflicts in the team.
3. Mutually accountable
All the employees are equally responsible for the team activities and they should not
blame other members for non-completion of their work. All team members are equally
responsible for the success and failure of teamwork.
4. Common goals
All team members should put team’s goal above to their individual goals. Moreover, in
order to achieve a team goal, all members should coordinate and appreciate the efforts
and also help in mistakes.
5. Decision-making
It is necessary to define the hierarchal structure of the team so that it becomes easier to
identify the person who takes the decision. But it is also necessary that all team
members should be equally involved in the decision-making process (Breuer et al.,
2016).
TUCKMAN’S TEAM DEVELOPMENT MODEL
The theory which I recommend to be applied in Dr. Marten's organization at the time of
developing the team is Tuckman's team development model. The steps involved in this model
helps in achieving the objective on time. The stages included in this model to develop the team
are as follows:
Step 1: Forming
Forming is the first step, where all members are gathered together and their roles and
responsibilities are unclear and they all depend on the leader i.e. leader provides directions and
guidance to team members. The leader collects all information and then allocates the work
accordingly. The allocation of work is done as per the skills, knowledge, and interest of
members (Zhen, 2017).
Step 2: Storming
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The leader defines the goals and objectives and they start building trust by interacting with
other members. The team members are putting efforts to develop their own identity in the
group. Also, the situation of conflicts arises because they share their views and opinions with
other members.
Step 3: Norming
The members work on resolving their issues and focus on achieving the targets. They socialize
with each other and gain the trust of others which develops coordination among the team
members. Further, the leaders also give authority to members to take their own decision
Step 4: Performing
The team starts performing their tasks and they all put equal efforts to achieve the objectives.
The environment of the team is positive and supportive and the leader monitors the
performance of employees so that necessary actions should be taken on time.
Step 5: Adjourning
This is the last step, where the team successfully achieves the targets and they all get dispersed
and move to new projects. This step is only applicable to temporary teams and the stages of
permanent teams end at the performing stage (Fiore and Georganta, 2017).
TASK 4- CONCEPTS AND THEORIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
PATH GOAL THEORY
Path goal theory is a theory which says the leaders should adopt the leadership style which is
suitable for the employees. In Dr. Marten's organization, there are certain situations where the
employees need the help of their leaders or sometimes they have to give complete control to
the employees. The different leadership style, which the leaders of Dr. Marten can adopt are as
follows:
Directive leadership
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