OB Report: Culture, Power, Politics, and Motivation

This report delves into the intricacies of organizational behavior, using Harrods as a case study. It critically evaluates the relationship between culture, power, politics, and motivation, analyzing their influence on individual, team, and overall organizational performance. The report examines the impact of culture types (clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy) and various power dynamics. It then assesses how content and process theories of motivation, including Maslow's hierarchy, McClelland's acquired needs, Locke's goal-setting, and Vroom's expectancy theory, enable effective goal achievement. Furthermore, the report analyzes team development theories, exploring the characteristics of effective versus ineffective teams and applying OB concepts to a business situation. The conclusion summarizes key findings and recommendations for fostering a positive and productive work environment.

ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of relationship between culture, powr, politics and motivation....................1
Analysis of influence of culture, power and politics...................................................................2
Evaluation of how content and process theories enable effective achievement of goals............4
Critical evaluation of how to influence the behavior of others through behavioral motivation
theories.........................................................................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
Critical analysis and relevance of team development theories, concepts, philosophies..............6
Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team..................................7
Application of concepts and philosophies of OB within context of organization and a given
business situation.........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The importance group dynamics is well known in the field of business productivity.
Organizational behavior (OB) encompasses the behavior of people within groups. The study of
OB therefore forms the foundation for developing an understanding of the aspects that can assists
the organizations in motivating employees as well as increasing their performance (Sa'adah and
et.al., 2020). The present report studies the aspects of organizational behavior at Harrods. It is a
retail organization headquartered in London. The organization believes in the values that
challenge conventional view of possibility (About Us, 2021). The five employee values at
Harrods define the ways in which the organization wants to be with and for its employees. The
report analyses the concepts of organization power, politics and culture and their relationship to
motivation. Theories of motivation and team development have been discussed.
PART 1
Critical evaluation of relationship between culture, power, politics and motivation
The culture, power, politics and motivation share a strong relationship with each other.
The day to day operations within an organization are influenced by the interaction between
power, culture and politics. In this way, these three aspects directly influence workplace
motivation (Tannady and Sitorus, 2017). The culture of the organization is directly impacted by
the power distribution within the workplace. Further, the aspect of politics is also intertwined in
this and depends on the power distribution. In this way, culture is related to the power and
politics at the workplace which in turn influence the level of employee motivation.
Culture, power and politics are directly reflected in the aspects such as spans of control,
departmentalization and chain of command. Further, it is these facets that form the basis for the
organizational culture and influence workplace motivation. Among the various facets, fair
communication methods, chain of command and distribution of power at Harrods forms the basis
for the strong organizational culture there. This in-turn fosters motivation in the company. This
strong and just relationship between the above mentioned aspects makes Harrods a leader in the
luxury fashion and retail industry. However, it can be critically analyzed that while an open
culture would promote employee participation and thus motivation, it would also lead to unequal
1

distribution of power. This may further result in negative aspects of organization politics to
emerge, thus depleting the motivation level at the workplace (Qodriah, Lasminingrat and
Yulianty, 2020).
It is thus recommended that organizations such as Harrods should maintain a balance in
power distribution and politics. This is justified as it would foster a supporting culture and
improve employee motivation. Further, it is recommended that organizations should adopt an
op[en culture that has clear lines of communication and chain of command. This is justified as it
would check the unethical use of power and politics.
Analysis of influence of culture, power and politics
Influence of organizational culture on behavior of individuals, team and performance
Organizational culture is an umbrella term which includes experiences, philosophies and
expectations of an organization which together guides the behavior of employees. Further, the
inner workings, interactions and self image of employees also expressed the culture of that
organization. Thus, it significantly shapes the behavior of the employees (Thokozani, 2017). The
motivation of employees and their individual learning are impacted by the culture of the
workplace. Moreover, communication is also governed by the culture of the organization. In
addition to this, the aspects such as decision making and conflict resolution are influenced by the
organizational culture as well. In this way, culture indirectly influences the behavior of
individuals. It further affects the behavior of teams as it defines the lines of communication and
distribution of authority. Moreover, a supportive culture which positively impacts the behavior of
teams directly improves the performance of the workforce.
There are four types of organizational cultures. They are as follows:
Clan culture
It is characterized by the members sharing commonalities. The employees consider
themselves as being part of the big organization family which is further bound by traditions and
commitments. This culture supports open communication and harmony and thus influences the
behavior of others to be motivated and cooperative (Lutfi, 2018).
Adhocracy culture
The adhocracy culture on the other hand, is based on the aspects of creativity and energy.
Thus, here, the behavior of employees is such that they are encouraged to take risks.
2

Market culture
In this type of culture, the primary focus is on competition and growth. This type of
culture considers profitability as its priority. Each position in this culture is assigned with an
objective which directly supports the common goal of the organization. It can be critically
analysed that this type of culture makes the organizations result oriented and the focus is laid on
external success. Internal satisfaction is not the focus of this type of culture. However, it provides
the benefit of being successful to the organizations that adopt it.
Hierarchy culture
Hierarchy culture is one which primarily focuses on stability and structure. Organizations
adopting this culture have a traditional corporate structure. It is characterized by presence of
clear chain of command (Paais and Pattiruhu, 2020). Also, the employees and leadership is
separated by multiple management tiers.
The culture at Harrods fosters harmony and mutual understanding between the
employees. The workers consider themselves as a part of the bigger family. There is mutual
cooperation and coordination between the employees. Harrods focuses on building trust among
the employees. They are encouraged to act at all times with integrity, initiative and confidence.
The culture recognizes people for their efforts and work. Thus the employees are encouraged to
take ownership and be attentive to details. This type of culture has strong influence on the
behavior of the employees.
Influence of power on behavior of individuals, team and performance
Power, in an organization is concerned with the ability to affect the behavior of an
individual by exercising control of resources. There are various types of power within the
organizations, namely, legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, referent and reciprocal power. Power
influences the self esteem and confidence of an individual thus affecting his behavior. Further, it
also affects team behavior as fair distribution of power leads to team harmony. In contrast to this,
unequal distribution leads to team conflicts (Rahbi, Khalid and Khan, 2017). In this way, equal
power distribution directly improves the performance of the employees by enabling them to trust
the organization and work productively for it.
Influence of politics on individual, team behavior and performance
3

Organizational politics entails the use of tactics to influence the people for achievement of
personal and organizational interest. The potentially destructive aspects of organizational politics
negatively influence the behavior of individuals. This leads to distrust among the team members,
which makes them place personal interests above the organizational goals. In this way, team
behavior and performance are negatively impacted (Gopalan and et.al., 2017).
Evaluation of how content and process theories enable effective achievement of goals
Content theories of motivation
Maslow’s need hierarchy theory
Maslow’s need hierarchy theory presents a pyramid of needs that depict the reasons
behind motivation. The needs are ranked in the following order from the base:
 Physiological needs
 Safety needs
 Social well being
 Self esteem
 Need for self actualization
People move up the hierarchy of the needs which range from the basic things to the needs
which make an individual realize their purpose in life. This hierarchy acts as a ladder that
motivates the people to move up to fulfill the need at the next level.
Benefits
 This theory helps in summarizing the human needs in a better way. This is because it
provides useful insights about the human behavior (Ashkanasy, Humphrey and Huy,
2017).
 It also provides a better interpretation of motivation and has relevance to the applications
in modern day.
Limitations
 It faces limitations in generalizing the needs to the larger human populations.
McClelland’s acquired needs motivation theory
According to this theory, there are three types of emotional needs, namely, achievement,
power and affiliation. These needs are acquired by a person on the basis of his lie journeys. The
4

strengths and blends of these three needs shape the behavior and motivation of an individual
(Beckmann and Heckhausen, 2018).
Content theories enable the achievement of goals as these help the organization like
Harrods in fulfilling the needs of the employees so that they motivated to work and move to the
next level. Motivated employees have positive attitude towards the organizational goals and
objectives and strive hard to achieve them. Moreover, these theories help the organizations in
knowing the needs of their employees. In this way the organizations like Harrods are able to
manage its employees effectively. This leads to timely achievement of goals.
Benefits
 This theory emphasizes on providing the tasks to the employees according to their needs.
In this way, the employees can be motivated in a better manner.
 Application of this theory within the organization ensures that the employees are
satisfied.
Limitation
The basic needs are not taken into account by this theory.
Process theories of motivation
Locke’s Goal setting theory
This theory provides five key principles on the basis of which effective goals can be set
to motivate employees. These principles are clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback and task
complexity. These principles form the key to set goals. In order to be motivated, it is important
for the leaders to provide regular feedbacks to the employees. Similarly, goal should be set
considering the level of complexity of the tasks.
Process theories help in achievement of goals at Harrods as they explain the initiation of
behaviors. Therefore, these theories guide the organization about the aspects that they need to
target in order to achieve the desired results (Driskell, Salas and Driskell, 2018). Process theories
assist the leaders at Harrods in setting appropriate goals for motivating the employees. This in
turn leads to improved performance resulting in achievement of the organization goals.
Benefits
5

 It provides a method through which employees can be motivated to complete the work
quickly and effectively by increasing incentives.
 This theory assists organizations like Harrods to enhance motivate through improvement
in feedback quality.
Limitations
 If the goals are complex, they may lead to riskier behavior.
 The performance can be undermined if the employees do not possess the skills to perform
the necessary actions for the goals.
Vroom’s theory of motivation
According to this theory there are three things which motivate people, namely, valence,
expectancy and instrumentality. Valence is related to a person valuing the reward associated with
an action. Expectancy is the trust that the additional efforts put in by a person will help him
achieve the desired results. Instrumentality is the belief that rewards will be obtained if a person
achieves the desired outcome.
Application of vrooms theory would require provision of rewards that are valued by the
employees. This can be in the form of new opportunities or financial rewards. Also, the leaders
at Harrods can apply this theory by setting achievable objective for the individuals (Locke and
Latham, 2019). Further, the rewards promised to the employees should be provided to them as
this will help in building trust.
Benefits
 This theory correlates motivation with satisfaction and hence provides an opportunity to
Harrods to obtain employee motivation by adopting strategies that satisfy them
 The theory lays emphasis on rewards and payoffs which can be efficiently implemented
within the organization.
Limitations
 The theory is unrealistic at it is not always true that desired outcome can be achieved
through effort and performance.
 The theory does not consider other inputs such as overall capacity and education. It is
solely based on effort.
6

Critical evaluation of how to influence the behavior of others through behavioral motivation
theories
Behavior theories of motivation describe the interaction of the external goals and the
internal drives with the learning that results in a behavior. These theories are based on three
concepts namely, drives, learned motives and incentives. Drive acts as an aspect that instigates
behavior. Hull’s drive theory suggested that it is inadequate drive that leads to learning.
However, it can be critically evaluated that the drive stimuli that were posed by Hull are elusive.
Further, it could not be determined whether drives are required for directing the behavior of
individuals under normal circumstances. According to Hull’s Model, learning can be obtained
when there is a reduction in drive (Kanfer, Frese and Johnson, 2017). However, it can be
critically analysed that this theory is not completely applicable to the motivation at workplace.
As per the behavioral theories of motivation, emphasis in laid on the ability that an
individual possesses to learn new motives. Classical, observational and instrumental learning
techniques help in acquiring new motives. According to the technique of observational learning,
an employee at Harrods may learn new behavior by modeling or observing somebody else
behave in a certain way. However, it can be critically analysed that this theory will also support
the fact that an employee may also learn wrong behavior by observing others.
Instrumental learning, can be used to influence behaviors of others at Harrods as it lays emphasis
on the view that the future probability of occurrence of a particular response depends on the
consequence that follows the response (Locke and Latham, 2019). Application of this approach
of behavioral theories can be to offer rewards for implementation of reinforcement.
PART 2
Critical analysis and relevance of team development theories, concepts, philosophies
The relevance of team development theories can be understood as follows. According to
Bruce Tuckman’s model, there are four stages of team development, namely, forming, storming,
norming and performing. This model is based on the belief that with the development of maturity
and ability in the team, relationships are established and the leadership style is changed by the
leader. Therefore, it can be analysed that this model assist Harrods in providing training to the
7

people for working in teams. In this way, teams are able to realize their full potential. However,
it can be critically analysed that the four stages of team development may not yield similar
results for all types of teams. Though the model can be used for influencing the behavior of
employees as it provides knowledge about the four stages through which a team goes
(Ashkanasy, Humphrey and Huy, 2017). Therefore, suitable tactics can be employed by the
leader to motivate the team members to behave in a way that increases business performance and
productivity.
Belbin’s model of team roles identifies nine team roles and categorizes them into three
types. These are action oriented, people oriented and thought oriented. With each team role,
typical behavior and interpersonal strengths can be associated. Further, weaknesses associated
with each of the nine roles were also specified by Belbin. According to Belbin, team role depicts
the tendency of a team member to contribute, interrelate and behave with others (Sa'adah and
et.al., 2020). This model helps organizations such as Harrods to understand each role and
manage the strengths and weaknesses attached with it. In this way, contribution of individual
members to the team can be improved thus leading to enhanced business productivity and
performance. However, it can be critically analysed that the indicators for assessing the team
balance have not been provided by this model. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as a model that
can be applied to all the sectors.
Explain what makes an effective team as opposed to an ineffective team
The following six characteristic make an effective team as opposed to ineffective team:
 A common goal: Possessing a common goal makes a team effective. Tem \work is
regarded as successful if the team has the ability to work towards a common vision. Each
member of the team works towards that goal. This is the goal that is not only ambiguous
but also motivating. As opposed to this, an ineffective team does not have a common
goal.
 Open communication: This is the second characteristic of an effective team. Efficient
communication is the key to effective teamwork. Proper communication not only
prevents duplication of tasks but also timely achievement of the team objectives
8

(Qodriah, Lasminingrat and Yulianty, 2020). As opposed to this, ineffective teams have
unclear communication that leads to confusion and delay.
 Team roles: An effective team has clear tam roles. Each member of the team has clarity o
his responsibilities. Well defined team roles increase team productivity and make a team
effective. In contrast o this, ineffective teams do not provide clear roles to its members. In
this way, the members do not have respect for each role and the productivity of team
decreases.
 Time management- Effective teams are characterized by efficient time management. The
team members focus on the task and achieve its completion. Debates and discussions are
kept concise to save time. Once a decision has been made, no further time is wasted in
discussions.
 Practical problem solving: An effective team will possess the characteristic if practical
problem solving whereby the team members are involved in identifying the problems and
solving them practically. The problems are embraced by effective teams as and when
they arise. The team members consider a new problem as a novel opportunity to make
progress by solving it. As opposed to this, ineffective teams view a new problem as a
burden and the team members are not encouraged to solve it.
 Bonding: This is another characteristic that makes a team effective whereby the team
members trust each other to do the tasks and also support one another when they fail.
This mentality of mutual defeats and mutual accomplishments is where the teams thrive.
As opposed to this, ineffective teams do not possess mutual bonding among the team
members. There is lack of trust and the members do not consider it as a responsibility to
support each other.
Application of concepts and philosophies of OB within context of organization and a given
business situation
The various concepts of organizational behavior can be applied within the context of
Harrods as well as for a given business situation. These concepts include motivation theories,
theories of team development, characteristics of effective teams and the relationship between
organizational culture, power and politics. Both content and process theories can be applied at
Harrods for gaining information about the aspects that motivate employees. Accordingly,
strategies can be devised (Thokozani, 2017). For example, on applying Maslow’s need hierarchy
9

theory, the employees’ need for accomplishment can be determined and accordingly tasks can be
allotted to them. This will keep the workforce motivated and will assist Harrods in improving its
performance and therefore, productivity.
Path goal theory
According to this theory, the behavior of a leader depends on motivation, satisfaction and
performance of the employees. The path goal theory identifies four types of leaders:
 Directive- This type of leadership styles is characterized by the leader providing
directions to the followers regarding the tasks, expectations, scheduling etc.
 Supportive – This leadership style is evident when the leader is highly concerned about
his followers. He also possesses the characteristics such as being approachable and
friendly (Beckmann and Heckhausen, 2018).
 Participative – this type of leader engages is active consultation with the followers before
a decision is made.
 Achievement- It is characterized by setting of challenging goals by the leader for his
followers. also the leader shows high level of expectations from the followers.
Given business situation
There are various business situations. One among them can be a situation when an urgent
project needs to be completed. This situation would require the team to work in a coordinated
manner with proper time management and effective communication. Also, the team members
need to be motivated to undertake the urgent project and complete it on time. All this can be
successfully done through application of the various concepts and theories of organizational
behavior. The motivation theories can be used for motivating the employees. At the same time,
team development theories can be used for understanding the role of each team member and
allotting responsibilities and tasks accordingly (Rahbi, Khalid and Khan, 2017). Moreover, by
understanding the team roles, and also the stages of team development, strategies can be
formulated for better management of staff so that the project can be completed on time. The
tasks can be allocated to them according to the specialization and skills and also according to the
behavioral strengths and weaknesses. This will assist Harrods in better time management.
Furthermore, emphasizing on the characteristics of effective teams, focus can be laid on fostering
efficient communication within the team (Kanfer, Frese and Johnson, 2017). Also, Harrods can
10