Impact of Power, Politics, and Culture on Holiday Inn

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ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
P1 ANALYSIS ON HOW AN ORGANISATION’S POLITICS, POWER AND CULTURE
CAN INFLUENCE INDIVIDUAL, TEAM BEHAVIOUR AND THEIR PERFORMANCE. .4
M1 CRITICAL ANALYSIS........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................8
LO2..................................................................................................................................................9
P2 EVALUATING HOW MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES AND
TECHNIQUES ENABLE EFFECTIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF GOALS IN THE CONTEXT
OF HOLIDAY INN.....................................................................................................................9
M2 CRITICAL EVALUATION...............................................................................................11
LO3................................................................................................................................................13
P3 DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO CO-OPERATE
EFFECTIVELY WITH OTHERS IN THE CONTEXT OF HOLIDAY INN..........................13
WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE TEAM...............................................................................13
TEAM AND GROUP DEVELOPMENT THEORIES.............................................................14
LO4................................................................................................................................................17
P4 APPLYING CONCEPTS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF ORGANISATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR IN THE CONTEXT OF HOLIDAY INN.........................................................17
CONCEPTS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF OB............................................................................17
M4 CRITICAL ANALYSIS......................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21
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INTRODUCTION
Professional behaviour and understanding with organisational culture are among the basic
expectations that organisations have with their employees. An empirical relation between
organisational culture and business operations of an organisation can be understood with the help
of some standard theories and concepts. This report is an attempt to put light on these theories
and concepts in a specific organisational context. In the sequence, the analysis in this report has
been made on the major factor of influence such as power, politics and culture within an
organisation which directly impact individual and team behaviour and their respective
performance. The discussion has also been made on how motivational theories and techniques
benefits in achieving organisational goals. The emphasis in this report has also been put on the
benefits of effective teamwork and how effective leadership can guide its members towards their
goals.
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LO1
P1 ANALYSIS ON HOW AN ORGANISATION’S POLITICS, POWER AND CULTURE
CAN INFLUENCE INDIVIDUAL, TEAM BEHAVIOUR AND THEIR PERFORMANCE
An organisational environment is under the effect of many external and internal factors most of
which are among the integral parts of the organisations (Robbins et al., 2013). These factors
impact the organisational environment in terms of its culture at various levels and the extent to
which they are able to penetrate the cultural structure of the organisation completely depends
upon the relationship they have with organisational operations. For a practical context, Holiday
Inn has been taken which is among the biggest hotel chains in the UK.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Holiday Inn is a multinational British owned hotel chain, a subsidiary if Intercontinental Hotel
Group and has grown as one of the largest hotel chains of the world. Holiday Inn has 1173 active
hotel worldwide and is headquartered at Denham, UK. It is among the world's most recognised
hotel chain and controls a number of other brands like Holiday Inn resorts, Club Vacation,
Holiday Inn Select, Holiday Inn Garden Court etc. The first hotel of this chain was opened in
1942 by Kemmons Wilson of Tennessee (Bowie et al., 2016).
CULTURAL INFLUENCE
Cultural influence on organisational behaviour is the most basic factor of influence and there are
varieties of explanation available for its justification. On the count of using a standard tool for
the purpose, Handy’s model of organisational culture is best suited to the organisational context.
It is proposed by Charles Handy and Roger Harrison and considered as the most powerful tool to
understand and analyse the organisational culture. Power distribution and cooperation level are
among the two major dimensions of this model which are further divided into four elements
namely, power culture, role culture, person culture and task culture (Lee-Ross and Lashley,
2012).
POWER CULTURE: This culture defines the power structure of an organisation. For example,
in Holiday Inn, within the hotel premises, power resides in the hand of the manager of the hotel
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and manager is responsible for every financial and operational activity with the help of the junior
staff. So within a specific hotel premises power can only be exercised by the manager of the
hotel but since it is a large hotel chain there are higher levels than this which governs all the
hotels under control of the group. Since the manager of also answerable to his superiors, in this
case, the flexibility is a little less in order to keep upper levels happy and satisfied (Anderson et
al., 2012).
PERSON CULTURE: This cultural element refers to the people-oriented environment within the
organisation. Here every individual has their own independence to do and decide within their
purview like those in law firms. In Holiday Inn this is not very visible culture since in hospitality
industry there is a need of strong leadership which could tell people what to do in order to
provide the best experience to their guests and train the staff in the process. In Holiday Inn
responsibilities are distributed in very diverse range and every person has their set of
responsibility which does not coincide with other functions.
ROLE CULTURE: This type of culture is suitable for Holiday Inn to understand the basic
cultural framework of the organisation. Here the culture is highly job and responsibility oriented
and is defined by a strict set of rule and obligatory ethics which represents the overall
organisational values. Role culture encourages individual staff member of the hotel to maintain
distinctness and quality in their work and it generates a sense of team efforts towards a specific
responsibility (Lee-Ross and Lashley, 2012).
TASK CULTURE: Task culture can be often noticed in construction companies and other
project-based organisations where results are needed to time and with quality. In Holiday Inn it
can be observed to some extent but not in a dominant form however study of this culture in the
context of Holiday Inn can reveal some interesting outcomes in regards of special events and
VIP guest handling scenarios.
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POWER AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE
Power and political influence have a significant effect on individual and team behaviour since
power and politics in many terms are used as synonyms of each other. Here the discussion will
take each of the factors individually (Pinder, 2013). In sequence, for analysis power on
individual and team behaviour along with their performance the theory which has been used is
French and Raven’s five forms of power.
POWER INFLUENCE
This theory was proposed by two social psychologists John French and Raven who studied this
phenomenon in the different organisational context and came up with 4 power dimensions which
can substantially provide insights on how power can influence people's behaviour and
performance within an organisation. Their dimensions are:
Reward: Holiday Inn is famous for its employee retention strategy and a large part of this
strategy is covered by recognition of efforts made by its employees and by rewarding them for
the same. By doing so, management exercises its power to retain and encourage employees to do
better.
Legitimate: This dimension refers to the visit of regular and loyal customers, VIP guests and
government officials in the Holiday Inn. When they come they believe that they have a formal
right to demand customs facilities which ultimately affects the behaviour of individual staff and
teams dedicated to providing some distinct facility (Anderson et al., 2012).
Expert: This is another influential power factor in the hospitality industry. Staff members such as
chef, a hotel manager who have high-level skills and competencies exercise their power affecting
people under their supervision.
Referent: This type of power comes in play when an individual or a member of a team is very
attractive and influential, representing worthiness of respect.
Coercive: This is an authoritative power which usually practices by leaders and managers of the
organisation where they can take actions against an employee who shows noncompliance with
the rules and code of conduct.
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POLITICAL INFLUENCE:
This type of influence concerning in hospitality industries like Holiday Inn, since most of the
time it produced conflict in team and management procedures of the company. Political
characteristics are basic instincts of some people and they are obliged by their instinct to act in
typical situation amplifying the situation and making it out of control. Politics is a common
phenomenon observed in teamwork and there are not very effective measures available to
prevent it since it begins at the subconscious level of team members and grows with time. The
behaviour of team members changes with this influence which develops conflict on the surface
degrading the efficiency of the entire team (Trondal et al., 2013).
M1 CRITICAL ANALYSIS
POWER AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE TO INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM BEHAVIOUR
In hospitality businesses like Holiday Inn employees are distributed in very diverse functions and
they have their dedicated team efforts and responsibilities regarding some task or overall
customer experience. A team effort is governed by a strategic team dynamics which is
constitutes of a definite structure where every member of the team is given a specific task
relevant to his skills and competencies (Belbin, 2012). So when a member of a team or an
individual at some upper position exercises its power, the direct effect is experienced by the
people at a lower level (Anderson et al., 2012). As discussed above, a different type of power
scenarios which are practised by people in such organisational environment, reward and coercive
are among the most influential power factors which can be observed in the hospitality business.
Similarly, Political influence which is intertwined with power aspects of organisational
behaviour is also accounted for interfering with the behaviour of individuals and team. Now
politics is an integral part of team dynamics and in a way, it keeps the team active and alive in
terms of brainstorming and discussion which may or may not be productive (Wilks, 2013). For
example, if an organisation has heavy political influence in its regular operations and activities,
its culture and behaviour of individuals and team will start oriented towards that activity which
will directly impact their performance.
CULTURAL INFLUENCE TO INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM BEHAVIOUR
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Handy’s theory has been used here to present ideas on how cultural influence impacts the
behaviour of people in an organisation. This theory divided the whole cultural influence into 4
elements power, role, task and person. Now, in general, there are two dimensions of culture that
can be observed in companies like Holiday Inn, the first dimension represents the culture on
basis of which company operates and treats its employees and second is what company want to
represent in front of customers and in the market. In the hospitality industry, there is plenty of
difference has been noticed in this two dimension. These dimensions develop behaviour of
people working within the company in a way that they behave differently within their team and
individually than they behave with customers and clients. The elements from Handy’s cultural
theory which contributes to this phenomenon are Task and Person culture.
CONCLUSION
In this part influence of power, politics and culture have been explained on organisational
behaviour of Holiday Inn and for the purpose standard model and theories has been used which
are relevant to the sector taken for the analysis. It can be concluded from the analysis that
although the influence of all these factors, power, politics and culture are intertwined with each
other, they also have their distinct impact on people's behaviour. Where power and politics try to
disrupt team dynamics and leadership efficiency deteriorating performances of every individual,
cultural influence tries to build the broken links among individuals and members of a team in its
most common sense. However, a proper overview of cultural, power and political is needed to be
organised, distributed elements with high intensity to the less sensitive area of the organisation.
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LO2
P2 EVALUATING HOW MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES
AND TECHNIQUES ENABLE EFFECTIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF GOALS IN
THE CONTEXT OF HOLIDAY INN
The content and process theories of motivation are the earliest theory of motivation. The focal
point of the content theory is on WHAT, whereas process theory focuses on HOW to motivate
employees or human behaviour in the organisation. In the management environment, content
theory largely accepted by the organisation, this theory is also known as needs theory (Miner,
2015). This theory of motivation focuses on fulfilling the needs that can motivate the employee.
Process theory of motivation emphasis on how motivation can take place and which process can
positively impact or motivate the employee.
The content theory includes Maslow’s needs hierarchy, McClelland’s achievement motivation,
Alderfer’s ERG theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. This theory is used to find out what
motivates us or our employees who concentrate on internal factors that can energies human
behaviour.
The process theory includes victors Vroom's theory, Skinner's reinforcement theory, Locke's
goal setting theory and Adam’s equity theory. This theory finds out how the organisation can
create the motivation among the employees (Miner, 2015).
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Figure 1: motivation theories
Source: TANKONYVTAR, 2019
Motivational techniques: these techniques will help the holiday inn to motivate their employees
at the workplace by raising their morale and improve productivity. There are many ways to
motivate an individual but different motivation work for different employees (Tracy, 2019). Here
are some following techniques which can energize the employees:
 Place the goals which are achievable and reasonable: the goals and objectives should
be set in a way that can easily achievable by them with their self-motivation. This will
benefit the business as employees will be able to give their full contribution. When the
work is reasonable employees feel encouraged to do that otherwise they will get
discouraged by non-achievable targets.
 Positive working environment: positive environment push the employees to work
enthusiastically. Availability of top management when employees are needy especially at
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the time of disputes to resolve it. This will initiate freedom for employees to do work as
conflicts will be eliminated.
 Motivation can be increased by incentives: to encourage the employees or groups
incentives can play a major goal. Incentives can be given in any terms financial or non-
financial such as cash prizes, gift certificates, gift cards, holidays, choice office space,
extra vacations and parking spots (Tracy, 2019).
 Acknowledge accomplishments and achievements: by giving consideration to the
employees through star performer, the employee of the month awards. Celebrating their
achievement is the biggest happiness of employees. By appreciating individual and group
Effort Company can highly motivate the employees.
 Requesting for employee input: to improve the working conditions in the organisation
employee satisfaction is must and it can be possible only when the survey is done. By
taking the opinion of employees their potential morale can be developed.
 To improve performance profit must be shared: when the income of organisation rise,
it happens due to the major contribution of employees so the company should introduce
profit sharing program, this will motivate the employees and their teamwork as well as it
will help in reducing employee turnover.
M2 CRITICAL EVALUATION
The hospitality industry has the highest rate of employee turnover among another industrial
sector because of work pressure, improper and unethical treatment and low growth opportunities
etc. Motivation theories are commonly used in these industries while preparing a retention
strategy by the HR department. However, Holiday Inn has maintained to prevent such turnover
rates and also have won the best employer award by many concerned institutions. These theories
have been divided into two segments content theories and process theories. The content theory
focuses on the abstract cause which supports, sustains and changes the behaviour of an
individual or a team within specific needs whereas process theories provide little practical
approach on how the motivation for needs are triggered in people using a variety of techniques
(Lee-Ross and Lashley, 2012).
Now it is commonly understood that to achieve some challenging goal or even smaller ones,
there is a need for motivation as a drive, a potential force which makes the person see beyond the
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