Organisational Behaviour Report: Impact on M&S, Leadership & Teams

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of organisational behaviour, using Marks & Spencer (M&S) as a case study. It begins by examining how organisational power, politics, and culture impact individual and team behaviour and performance, highlighting the significance of these factors. The report then evaluates process and content theories of motivation, such as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Expectancy Theory, and explores techniques to enhance goal achievement within an organisational context. Furthermore, the report identifies the characteristics of effective and ineffective teams, offering insights into team dynamics and collaboration. Finally, the report applies concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour to a given business situation, providing practical recommendations. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and a discussion of the implications for leadership and management within M&S.

Organisational
behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
P1 Analysis of how organisational power, politics and culture can impact on individual and
team behaviour and performance...........................................................................................3
P2 Evaluation of how process and content theories of motivation and techniques of motivation
help in effective achievement of goals in an organisational context......................................6
P3 Demonstrate an understanding of what makes an effective team, as opposed to an
ineffective team......................................................................................................................9
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of OB within an organisational context and a given
business situation..................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour can be define as a study of human behaviour in overall
organisational settings. It is basically a implementation as well as study of knowledge regarding
how individuals act in the organisation. The main objective of organisational behaviour is to
investigate individuals behaviour in their organisational role (Borkowski, 2016). It generally
focus on both individual performance and group activities within a particular organisation. This
assignment is based on Marks & Spencer which is a major British multinational retailer which
was established in the years around 1884. In this study, impact of culture, politics and power of
organisation on individuals and team behaviour and performance will be analysed. Furthermore,
evaluation of how to motivate individuals for achieving organisational goals will be discussed.
An understanding of how to co-operate with others effectively will be cover. At last,
implementation of philosophies as well as concepts of organisational behaviour in a particular
business situation will be evidenced.
MAIN BODY
P1 Analysis of how organisational power, politics and culture can impact on individual and team
behaviour and performance.
Different factors of an organisation can impact on behaviour and performance of team as
well as individuals. Analysing such factors that has a major effect on team behaviour and
individuals is mandatory. In each and every organisation, such factors that influence team
behaviour and staff members are power, politics and culture. Thus, their individual impact on
team behaviour and employees are discussed here.
Culture
Organisational culture can be define as collective values and behaviour that give rise to
occurrence of unique psychological and social environment of a business. It is basically a system
of shared beliefs, assumptions and values that administer the behaviour of individuals in an
organisation (Vasu and et.al.,2017). M&S organisational culture is composed of various shared
beliefs and values of their employees. Such shared opinions and values have an impact on staff
members of the organisation and precept how they act and perform their individual duties. For
analysing the impact of organisational culture on team behaviour and individuals, Handy's model
can be implemented.

Handy's model of organisational culture
Charles Handy has stated four different types of organisational culture such as role
culture, power culture, task and person culture.
Power culture: In organisations that holds a power culture, generally has a strict
environment where power is in the hands of some of the individuals whose impacts basically
spreads within the whole organisation. Rules and regulations are there in this kind of culture
(Chen and et. al.,2016). Staff members are judged by their overall achievements and being
ignored by how they are performing the tasks. It is a strong culture but eventually influence on
team behaviour negatively so that it turns to be toxic for an organisation.
Role culture: Organisations with this type of culture are totally dependent on rules.
Employees are cleared about their roles and responsibilities and has a highly regulated culture.
Power in organisations with role culture is examined by individual position in overall
organisational structure. This type of power influence the decision process of team as it becomes
very slow and employees are not motivated to take any kind of risks.
Task culture: When teams in an organisation formed for addressing particular problems
or projects it results in occurrence of task culture in the organisation. It is a job oriented culture
which influence the task outcomes positively by effective team work in an organisation. Power
in this culture often shifts relying on current status of the project and mix of team members.
Person culture: Organisations with person culture have individuals who see themselves
as superior and unique to the organisation. It consist of individuals with similar background,
training and expertise (Carnevale, 2018). In this culture, the power is dependent on every group
of individuals which can influence the team behaviour by developing conflicts which is
favourable to attain task outcomes.
With the help of analysing all the four factors of organisational culture, it can be
identified that roles culture is best suited for M&S where roles and responsibilities are
particularly allocated to each staff member. It will also help in to enhance the performance of
employees.
Politics
Organisational politics can be define as behaviours use by the employees for enhancing
the chances of attaining positive results for achieving target goals and objectives of the
organisation. It consist of unofficial, informal efforts that impacts the business of an

organisation. It can be define as individual's own interest within the organisation irrespective of
its impact on objectives and gaols (Lindebaum and Geddes, 2016). Workplace politics or
organisational politics focus on the behaviour and process of human interactions including
authority and power. It acts as an important tool for analysing the capacity of the organisation
and to balance different views of individual interest. It majorly influence team behaviour as well
as individuals in the organisation. Organisational politics may have positive or negative impact
on individuals and team behaviours. Such as:
 Positive impact: Politics in organisation can positively impact on team behaviours and
individuals. M&S can be benefited from positive effect of organisational politics. It will
help respective organisation to encourage their employees. With a belief that
organisational politics will not bound their interest, individuals usually get motivated. It
will have an overall benefit for increasing in productivity of M&S as employees will tend
to improve their performance. Employees will behave in a disciplined manner which will
eventually result in the formation of effective team. Individuals are also effected by
organisational politics as they attain set objectives of organisation.
 Negative impact: Unlike positive effect, organisational politics will also have a negative
impact on behaviours of team and individuals. It divert the focus of employees from work
to other interests. Due to politics they end to create their interest in gossips and find
difficult to concentrate on work properly. It will negatively impact on attitudes of
employees towards M&S that will eventually results in negative outcomes. It may results
into increased stress level among the employees which make them feel demotivated.
Power
There are different sources of power in the organisation. Legitimate power is the primary
source of power in the organisation which means power is assigned based on the designation of
job. Power can effect human phenomena of their performance and working (Pradhan and et.al.,
2016). It is the capability of the organisation to get things done according to the perspective of
organisations and to make employees work. It can be provided to the individuals at high position
as well as to those who can take right decisions. Different kinds of power in organisation is
discussed here.

 Coercive: This includes the use of power by superior to force employees for completing
given order through punishing them to complete task properly (Secchi and Neumann,
2016). The prime objective is to finish the tasks assigned to the employees. It is
responsible for influencing the completion of project on time but negatively impact on
team behaviour regarding cooperation among them.
 Reward: Individuals who have power can give rewards to the employees for completion
of task on time and in an effective manner. Promotions, incentives and compliments are
such rewards. It influence the team behaviour by motivating them and increase
productivity of team members effectively.
 Legitimate: It comes with an idea that individual has a formal right to give commands.
Both rewarding and punishing employees could be done in this kind of power. It
influence the team behaviour by directing them in correct way of performing their
responsibilities which is helpful to gain set targets of project.
 Expert: It is depend on high level of knowledge and skills for taking a particular
decision. Individuals sustain this power has a expert knowledge in their field and have
ability to provide information to others. It is helpful to influence the knowledge level of
team manners which reflect positively on their their performance.
Analysing all different powers, the most suitable power for H &M could be reward power
where employees will feel motivated and give their best to achieve target goals and objectives.
P2 Evaluation of how process and content theories of motivation and techniques of motivation
help in effective achievement of goals in an organisational context
Motivation can be define as a force that effects and stimulates person to sustain a
behaviour. It plays an essential role in encouraging employees to work with their full potential
(Waldman and et. al., 2017). It consist of both internal as well as external factors that excite the
energy of staff members for achieving target goals and objectives. Motivational theories are
discussed here.
Content theory of motivation
It explains the reason behind why human needs changes with the flow of time. It
identifies what factors motivate an employee. In M&S, Maslow's Hierarchy of needs can be
implemented for motivating employees.
 Maslow's theory

The theory was proposed by Abraham Maslow. According to this theory, an individual
has five basic needs which are love, safety, esteem, physiological and self-actualization. Such
needs are arrange in the form of hierarchy which are discussed as follows:
Psychological needs: These are basic needs of individuals which are necessary for
individual survival (Desselle, 2016). It consist of air, water, sleep and food. It is very necessary
to fulfil basic needs in order to move further in hierarchy.
Safety needs: The need consist of satisfaction as well as future safety. It can be fulfil
after the attainment of basic needs. Safety needs are safe environment, shelter, even employment
and many more. At this level of hierarchy, individuals tends to be safe from any sort of physical
risks or emerges.
Social needs: Satisfaction of psychological and safety needs bring social needs of an
individual. Social needs includes friends, family affection etc.
Esteem: It consist of need for feeling good about oneself. It is concerned with self
confidence, self respect, social recognition, and personal worth. Individuals get motivated by
esteem needs and feel a sense of power. It comes after satisfaction of above needs.
Self actualisation: This is consider as a last need according to the Maslow theory. It
consist of high attainment of individual potential. This particular need is very helpful for dealing
with real life problems.
This theory is motivation is helpful for M&S to make motivational strategies on the basis
of different kinds of needs of individuals. It is favourable to encourage them more effectively for
increasing productivity which facilitate to achieve business goals.
Process theory of motivation
These kind of theories are necessary for motivating staff members within organisation in
order to achieve target goal sand objectives. It improves behavioural and psychological processes
the motivate an individual to react in a specific manner (Kaufman, 2017). It helps in analysing
how needs of individual may impact his/her behaviour for achieving goals related to such needs.
Expectancy theory could help in better understanding of process theory of motivation. It is
discussed as follows:
 Expectancy theory
The theory is proposed by Victor Vroom of Yale School of Management. This theory put
emphasis on overall outcomes rather than individual needs and wants. It states that performance

of staff members can be depend on number of factors like knowledge, skills, experience and
ability. Three variables are used for explaining this theory such as:
Expectancy: It can be define as faith that individuals hold that they can attain target
goals. It is a belief of individuals that performance can be enhance through increasing efforts for
achieving particular gaols.
Instrumentality: It is the trust of individuals that they will gain rewards if their
performance is up to the expectations.
Valence: It is necessary for the individuals to achieve target goals and objectives. In
valence individuals place importance on expected outcomes.
The theory of expectancy for motivation can be used by M&S to encourage their
employees on the basis of the mentioned factors. It is favourable to provide benefits to the staff
for their improved performance which motivate them and organisation can attain set objectives
of effectively.
Motivation techniques
There are number of motivational techniques that could be utilized by M&S for
motivating their staff members. Through motivational technique, respective organisation can
attain target goals and objectives (Weick, 2017). It has been analysed that motivated employees
tends to work more efficiently rather than demotivated employees. Some of these techniques are
mentioned here.
 Develop positive workplace environment: Organisations like M&S motivate their
staff members by creating a positive and healthy environment. It is done through
encouraging team work and sharing ideas and to make sure that there is proper
availability of tools and knowledge. The employees can be supported by listening to
their problems and issues.
 Set goals: Organisations help their employees to become self motivated and achieve
target goals and objectives. It is important to make sure that goals must be reasonable
and achievable by the employees. Superiors should offer rewards during completion of
targets to employees for encouragement.
 Recognise accomplishments and achievements: Companies celebrate achievement of
employees by giving them titles like employee of the month or star performer. During
celebration at staff meetings, make a big deal for the achievements. Provide certification

and post a thank you notice on the wall of company's website. It is required to identify
accomplishments of team and efforts of individuals to motivate them.
P3 Demonstrate an understanding of what makes an effective team, as opposed to an ineffective
team
A team can be define as group of individuals who perform together for achieving target
goals and objectives. Team consist of number of individuals that have different abilities and
different skills who work together to achieve target goals and objectives (Blader and et.al.,
2017). A team could be effective or ineffective.
Effective team consist of individuals who can successfully achieve goals and objectives.
It can be define as a team which has a common goal and objective and individuals within the
team help each other in order to perform well. It will help to enhance motivation and
productivity of overall organisation. Whereas an ineffective team is a team which doesn't have
any common goal and individuals are not able to communicate with each other effectively
(Kesen, 2016). They are not able to achieve target goals and objectives. It is full of conflicts and
issues and thus, leads to negative outcomes.
Effective Ineffective
 Team members participate and
contribute to the group by means of
discussions and through listening to
each other's perspective.
 Tasks and activities are clearly
understood by the team.
 Communication is usually open and
honest and conversations are generally
take place in formal meetings.
 Decision making is unanimous and the
overall conclusion is based on
considering opinions and perspectives
of team members.
 Team members tends to loose interest
in the discussions and avoid listening
to each others opinions that often
results in conflicts.
 There is no clarity of tasks by the team
members.
 Only few team members dominate the
overall discussion and there is only
selective listening.
 Decision making is through a voting
concept without including any
discussion process.

The team work has various benefits as it is responsible fostering innovation and learning
among team members which improve effectiveness of entire group to gain desired goals. It is
helpful for blending complementary strengths, establishes trust between each and other and teach
about technique of conflict resolution which make a team more effective to attain organisational
objectives.
For building an effective team, M&S needs to implement Tuckman's theory in their
organisation. It is discussed as follows:
Tuckman's theory
This particular theory focus on how a team tackles with different challenges arising from
formation of the team to overall completion of the project. According to this theory there are four
stages of formation of an effective team (Liu and et.al., 2017). it can be used in M&S to make
more effective as well as team for achieving desired business goals. The stages are mentioned as
follows.
 Forming: At this stage, a team is formed and tasks are allocated to the team members.
Members of team tends to behave in independent manner and do not know each other.
 Storming: At this stage, relationship between team members is developed and they starts
to suggest ideas for addressing the tasks.
 Norming: Team members starts to trust each others. Roles and responsibilities of each
member is clear . Decisions are made on the basis of team agreement. Unity and
commitment are strong.
 Performing: The team shares a common vision and has its own stability without any
contribution of leader (Blader and et.al., 2017). Team work together to achieve goals and
doesn't need any kind of assistance from the leader.
 Adjourning: After fulfilling all the goals and objectives team reach to adjourning stage.
It is important to give a positive closure to the project. The stage is basically for
analysing accomplishments of group members and celebrate overall success.
P4 Apply concepts and philosophies of OB within an organisational context and a given business
situation.
In an organisation, there are different individuals from different backgrounds. Hence, a
business situation can be arise depending on the divergence of external and internal factors of the
organisation. It could be very critical for organisational failure or success. M&S being a

multinational organisation has a large section of employees. The employees are from different
cultures and backgrounds which sometimes proved to a barrier for the organisation to deliver
their services effectively (Kumari and Thapliya, 2017). Communication is the major issue in the
organisation as different cultures brings out language barriers and it is hard for the supervisors to
communicate with each and every employee properly. There is often a confusion between
employees regarding who emails which authority of customer and many more. However, to
resolve this particular issue, path goal theory can be implemented in the organisation so that
employees could interact with each other effectively. The theory is discussed as follows:
Path-goal theory
The theory focus on defining a leadership style that fits best to the employees and work
culture for achieving target goals and objectives. Theory suggests that a leader has different
styles and behaviour based on a particular business situation. The role of a leader is to provide
assistance to the employees through their path and support them by solving their issues.
According to this theory there are several elements which are mentioned as follows:
Path goal leadership
 Directive leadership: In this sort of style, the leader has an idea of how the tasks will be
done and performed along with the idea of its deadline. Through this leadership style,
employees gets a supervision regarding the tasks.
 Supportive leadership: In this style, leaders generally pays attention to the well—being
and needs of their employees. He tends to be friendly and empathic.
 Achievement-oriented: In this style, leaders sets some challenging goals (Atta and
Khan, 2016). He expected that employees will perform with their full potential and give
best.
 Participative: Leaders in this leadership lifestyles that it is very important to include
ideas and opinions of employees for making a decision.
Task & environmental characteristics
This consist several factors including designing of tasks, formal authority system and
work group which is required to be focused by M&S. It is necessary to prepare number of tasks
effectively in order to complete the entire project properly. Meanwhile, it consist to establishes
peaceful and comfortable work place for working group of employee to facilitate work-done

appropriately. Formal authority should focus on required polices and regulations in company to
maintain decorum of the company while performing.
Employees
The elements of employees consist their experiences, ability and locus of control which
should be consider by M&S to achieve their business goals successfully.
For the situation arising in M&S, directive leadership style can be implemented as leader
will direct the way through which communication can be held in an effective manner. He will
assist the employees to use a particular mode of communication and help them to avoid any kind
of confusion.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that, organisational behaviour is one of the
most important aspect of an organisation. It includes different cultures related to task, role,
person & power including various power types like coercive, reward, legitimate and expert for
influencing team work. However, it involves Maslow motivation theory and expectancy theory
of motivation to encourage employees. Moreover, it consist Tuckmann theory including essential
stages such as forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning for making effective
team.

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