Organisational Behaviour: A Case Study of Marks and Spencer

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
1

Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.............................................................................................................................................4
Task 2...........................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................23
Reference list...............................................................................................................................24
2

Introduction
The term organisational behaviour identifies the study related to the individual as well as
the group performances in case of an organisation. Organisational behaviour in most of
the cases deals with the ways, in which the power and culture is used in the
organisation.
For understanding the impact as well as the importance of the organisational culture,
the case study of Marks and Spencer has been selected. Operating since since 1884
Marks and Spencer is headquartered in London, UK. M&S operates through more than
1400 globally and enjoys an operating income of more than $600
(Marksandspencer.com. 2019). The current study will focus on the presence of the
organisational culture in the chosen organisation using Handy’s model. The different
concepts of the organisational power and politics in the life of M&S will also be
discussed in the sections. The different process and the content theories of motivation
that are applicable in these cases will also be discussed in the sections below.
3

Task 1
Introduction
Marks and Spencer works with the mission of making the enhancing the accessibility of
the quality products to the customers. The vision is to meet the changing needs of the
organisation by enhancing the competitiveness. The current article will discuss the role
of culture, power and politics in Marks and Spencer. The role of the content and the
process theories of motivation in enhancing the performance of the employees will also
be discussed.
Utilise Handy’s model of organisational culture and analyse your company’s
organisational culture;
In the words of Glisson (2015), the organisational culture identifies the concepts and the
ideas that are followed by the organisations for performing the different activities.
Culture is also defined as the set of important understandings and ideas that are shared
by the members of an organisation. However, it has been identified that there are a
range of organisational culture, which are present in case of any organisation. Handy’s
theory has pointed out towards the presence of four distinct types of culture that are
present in the organizations and these are role culture, person culture, task culture, and
the power culture.
In this particular theory, power distribution identifies the different extent to which the top
management of the organisation is interested in working either through a top-down or a
bottom-up approach.
Power culture is more about huge cooperation levels along with the high power
distributions among the employees and the management. In most cases, the
entrepreneurial organisations follow these types of culture. In the words of KANE
(2016), these type of organisations mostly rely on the presence of a flat structure and
charismatic type of leadership. In case of the organisations following the power culture,
cooperation indeed plays a significant role and the employees are extremely loyal
towards the organisation, however the number of regulations as well as the procedures
4

are much less in number. In all of these organisations, it is the leader who controls the
organisations centrally.
Figure 1: Handy’s Model of organisational culture
(Source: Handy, 2016)
The person culture is something that is characterised by the low co operation levels
and high distribution of power in the organisation. In most of the cases, the large
professional organisations adopt these types of culture. The law firms, health firms as
well as the education firms adopt these types of culture. All of the employees who work
in the organisations participate equally in the process. As opined by Janicijevic (2015),
there are actually a few rules and regulations in these organisations. The person culture
is considered as one of the most complicated ones and each of the individuals have a
general tendency to exercise their power in the process. Owing to the immense
confusions and the complications that are associated with this type of culture, M&S
does not adopt this type of culture.
In case of task culture, the organisation witnesses high power distribution with high
levels of co operation. The task culture is mainly task oriented culture and the
employees following this culture have the general tendency of completing their tasks as
5

well as the projects within the estimated deadline and the employees believe greatly on
their own expertise as well as that of the colleagues.
Role culture identifies the low power distributions along with lower degree of
cooperation among the members of the team. In most of the cases, the role culture is
something that follows a highly job oriented approach and is always found in case of the
different bureaucratic organisations. In this type of culture, the employees enjoy
immense stability as well a security and the culture is mostly noted for the strict rules
and the regulations that are followed. The role culture identifies a clear hierarchy and in
all cases the status of the individual is more important than his performance (Lomas,
2019). The role cultures are always flexible and the tasks are managed clearly with the
help of proper descriptions and procedures.
In case of M&S, the organisation relies much on the adoption of the role culture. This
type of culture helps the organisation in following a clear hierarchy among the
management and this also helps the organisation in following a proper job oriented
approach. The role culture also helps the organisations in adopting the different rules
and the regulations and thus making the processes much more systematic and
professional. In case of the employees, it has been noted, that these often helps them in
enhancing the safety and the security of the job. The role culture has always played a
significant role in enhancing the performance of the employees and it helps in rating the
employees based on a certain pre defined scale. The functional departments are also
divided and hence getting promotions becomes quite easy within this culture. In case of
the chosen organisation, this leads to the development of a proper culture and business
environment, that helps the employees in performing their duties in the organisation.
Analyse the concepts of politics and power in organisational life, and critically
evaluate how culture, politics and power can influence individual and team
performance for your selected organisation
Politics and power are some of the essential concepts, which are related with the
organisational behaviour as well as the organisational life. According to Lewis et al,
(2018), power identifies individual’s or the organisation’s abiity to influence the others.
6

Power is nothing, but the ability to get the things done by the individual in any ways
wanted. In most of the organisations there is actually an equal distribution of power in
the organisations. Power also allows the employees to do their work effectively in an
organisation and allows the management of the organisation to develop a proper
relation with the employees of the organisation. However, considering the immense
importances that are associated with concepts of politics, there are some always some
sorts of advantages as well as disadvantages that are associated with the process. One
of the significant advantages of power are that, these allows the CEO of the
organisation to lead the employees towards a common goal. In case of M&S, it has
been identified that the practice of effective power indeed ushered towards the
development of proper and effective relationships among the organisational employees.
Another of the significant advantages of the power is , this provides a clear hierarchical
structure that is being followed in the organisations and thus taking decisions becomes
easy for the individuals. The outcomes and the ways, the objectives are fulfilled are
determined greatly by the power distributions in an organisation. In case of Marks and
Spencer, it has been noted, that the equal distributions of power in the organisation are
some of the major factors that have been contributing towards the success of the
organisation for the past 135 years. The distribution of power or rather the
establishment of unity of command have actually helped the employees to understand,
what needs to be done and by when and more significantly whom to report.
Contrarily, power can also be intoxicating as well as devastating, once it is abused.
Among the different disadvantages of power, corruption is the most significant among
them. In all of the cases, corruption leads to the misuse of the employees as well as the
teams and leads to exploitation. In the words of McLeod (2017), ineffective power
affects the environment of the organisation creating ample confusions and commotions
in the organisation, the performance of the team and the employees are greatly.
The organisational politics on the other hand identifies the combinations of the
unofficial, informal as well as behind the scenes systems for selling the ideas,
influencing the organisation or even achieving the other targeted objectives of the
organisation. According to Open Learn. (2019) effective politics does not signify
7

winning in all of the situations, but this is more about maintaining effective relationships
among the employee and at the same time achieving the results of the organisation.
Politics form an inseparable part of the organisational life as it helps in solving the
issues and in aligning the organisations. Politics normally have bad impact on the
organisation. Statistics that have been carried out in this regard have pointed out that
the employees spend more than 20% of their effective work hours in politics. Politics in
most cases influence the employees and the team in a negative way. In the individual
level, this disturbs the efficiency and the work ethics of the individual. In the team level,
politics however influences the performance of the team and more significantly, it effects
the existing communications in the team. The synergy and the coordination among the
team members are also hampered owing to the negative impact of politics in the
organisation.
Though politics is often portrayed as one of the devastating parts in case of an
organisation, but there are times when these have proved to be helpful as well.
According to Mindtools.com (2019), there have been instances when the employees
have participated in the politics for the sake of recognitions from the higher
management. In case of chosen organisation, it has been identified that the employees
have participated in the organisational politics for some recognitions and this has also
enhanced the performance of the employees as well. The overall performance of the
organisation has also enhanced greatly because of these and these are reflected
greatly in the sales margin of the organisation,
Evaluate content and process theories of motivation and how they correlate with
the effective achievement of business goals, and consequently the performance
of an organisation
The main goals of the organisation are to be the leader in its respective sector and
provide best services to the customers.
Content Theories of Motivation
The content theories of motivation identify the factors, which motivate the employees of
an organisation. The different content theories include
8

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy
One of the most common motivational theories, the Maslow’s need hierarchy helps in
identifying the needs as well as the strength of the individual in an organisation.
Figure 2: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
(Source: McLeod, 2017)
The physiological needs identify the basic need that needs to be fulfilled by the
organization. In the words of Gawel (2017), these are some of the basic needs and
fulfilling them motivate the individual to work for the organisation. The safety needs on
the other hand, helps the employees to feel safe, while they are working in the
organisation. The social needs are determined greatly by the existing communication
systems persisting in the organisation. It has been identified that the fulfilment of these
needs in case of M&S actually helps the employees to work effectively for the
organisation. The esteem needs identifies the needs of self-respect and self-confidence
of the employees in the organisation. The self actualisation needs identifies the needs
of the individual for enhancing the potential of the individual. The esteem and the self
actualisation need help in enhancing the performance of the employees and this also
9

motivating the employees of the organisation towards fulfilling the goals and the
objectives of the organisation.
Process Theories of Motivation
The process theories of motivation on the other hand help in identifying how can the
employees be motivated. One of the important process theories of motivation include
Goal Setting Theory
The goal setting theory points out that the willingness of an individual to perform their
work depends greatly on the work that has been designed to the employees. Pointing
out towards the importance of deciding a goal, this particular theory identifies the goal
setting is essentially important for ensuring the performance of the employees ( Locke
and Latham, 2016). Developed by Edwin Locke in 1960, the theory identifies that the
willingness among the employees to achieve a pre decided goal is something that
motivates the employees to work effectively. In case of Marks and Spencer it has been
identified that the difficult, clear as well as the specific goals become easy for the
organisations to achieve. The main goal o the organisation is to be the leader in the
retail market. With the help of the goal setting theory, Marks and Spencer have been
able to decide a series of short term goals. The process has proved to be greatly
motivating for the employees and hence have enhanced the work culture of the
organisation.
These types of goals enhance the overall performance of the employees and hence
help them towards the fulfilment of the organisational goals and the objectives. The
organisation also uses the technique for enhancing the incentives of the employees and
also enhancing the employee motivation as well.
Provide an overall conclusion evaluating how the selected organisation can
improve the performance of their staff to meet goals.
When it comes to culture, M&S mainly relies on the presence of role culture. The main
advantage of the role culture is that, these help the organisation in defining the different
10

job roles of the employees. The practice of the role culture has proved to be helpful for
Marks and Spencer in establishing a proper hierarchical structure in the organisation.
However, when it comes to politics, it has been identified that though the organisation
relies much on the establishment of the positive politics and the management support
this fully, there has been a change in the recent times. It has been noted that the
employees are relying much on the practice of negative politics. It has also been
identified that the employees are spending more than 30% of the time, in these politics
and these are greatly affecting the overall performance of the employees in the
organisation. These have lead to a situation, where the employees instead of rectifying
the errors and concentrating on the work, are more interested in behind the back
gossips. The situations need to be managed by Marks and Spencer. It is high time, that
the management of the organisation take proper steps to prevent these. In accordance
with the Maslow’s Hierarchy, it is recommended that the management should
concentrate on fulfilling the self-esteem as well as the self-actualisation needs of the
employees. The organisation needs to provide the right promotions and the incentives
to the deserving candidates. In accordance with the process theories, the management
can also decide the goals and the deadlines of achieving them. It is expected that these
will be useful in solving the issues that have thus risen.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that the power and culture indeed has great roles to play
when it comes to fulfilling the goals and the objectives of the organisation. The above
section has discussed in detail Handy’s theory of power as well as the Maslow’s
Hierarchy of motivation and the goal setting theory of motivation.
11

Task 2
Introduction
Teamwork is the core concept of any successful business organization. In modern
business world, every venture is looking for opportunities to build and maintain effective
teams for appropriate accomplishment of their business targets. In this section, different
aspects of team building will be represented with multiple theories and frameworks for
overall consideration of the study.
Section 1
1. Explain the different types of team and analyse the relevance of hard and soft
skills for effective teamwork utilising a known framework, such has the Emotional
Intelligence.
Team is regarded as the group of individuals working together for accomplishing a
common business objective. Most of the successful ventures of modern time are aimed
at achieving competitive advantage and greater market sustainability through
maintaining excellent teamwork performance. According to researchers, teams can be
segregated into four vital groups; self managed teams, project teams, virtual teams
and operational teams. Every team type has its own effectiveness and set of strengths
as well (Archer and Cameron, 2013). However, in order to utilise the maximum potential
of the exhaustive members of a team in accomplishing business objectives, ventures
and team leaders are required to consider where the team can work in best manner.
Team leaders must be efficient enough to analyse and determine the strengths and
weaknesses of their team members so that they will be able to manage and utilise the
team performance in a precise manner. In this context, hard and soft skills must be
taken into consideration. Soft and hard skills are the two most important skill sets that
employer should consider during evaluation of job candidates (Carvalho and Rabechini
Junior, 2015). However, it is evident to state that for an employer measuring soft skills is
always more difficult compared to hard skills. As per the opinions of modern marketers,
hard skills are easier to recognise and it is mostly identified at the time of interview and
12