Organisational Behaviour: Sainsbury's Performance Report, Unit 12

This report provides an analysis of organisational behaviour, focusing on the case of Sainsbury's. It explores the impact of organisational culture, power dynamics, and political influences on employee behaviour and overall performance. The report delves into motivation theories, including content and process theories, and their application within the company to achieve organisational goals. It also differentiates between effective and ineffective teams and discusses various concepts and philosophies related to organisational behaviour. The report highlights the importance of aligning organisational culture with employee motivation and performance, emphasizing the role of leadership in fostering a positive and productive work environment. The Sainsbury case study illustrates how these elements interact to shape the company's success and customer satisfaction.

Unit-12 Organisational
behaviour

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART – 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Impact of organisational culture, power and politics on organisational behaviour.....................3
Motivation theories and techniques help in attaining organisational goals.................................6
PART – 2.........................................................................................................................................8
Effective team and ineffective team............................................................................................8
Concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour...........................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
Books and Journals....................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour is the process of understanding behaviour of an individual
within an organisation. It can be referred to as the connection between an individual and the
organisation. It is related to a single individual and also to a group of people working in an
organisation. The study of organisational behaviour is to determine the expected behaviour of
people working within it (Ramdhani, Ramdhani, and Ainissyifa, 2017). The organisation works
with having a wide range of people showing different behaviours. They are not expected to
behave same in a certain working condition. This human factor affects the productivity and
profitability of the business. Therefore, it is important to study the behaviour of an individual
working in an organisation. Sainsbury is one of the largest chains in the supermarket industry in
UK.
The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest retailer of
groceries having many subsidiary companies. The organisation is known for manufacturing its
own products which are of good quality and fulfils demands of customers. The products from
Sainsbury are affordable to all its customers. This report explains different elements which
support the influential behaviour of the organisation as well as the employees working in the
company. There is a detailed evaluation of the theories of motivation while justifying the goals
an objective of the company (Naqshbandi, and Tabche, 2018). It is crucial from an organisation
to organise the working of its employees to create efficient outcomes. Different types of concepts
and philosophies are used to determine the behaviour of the organisations and the performance of
the team.
PART – 1
Impact of organisational culture, power and politics on organisational behaviour
Sainsbury works with the vision of being the most trusted retailer company where the
employee are always ready to work and customers to shop. The organisational culture promotes
harnessing the talent from the individuals working in the company, developing more creativity
and making the company more diverse related to the workers. This helps in great customer
services and customer satisfaction leading to the goal of the company. In Sainsbury the
organisational politics is there is create a positive impact on the performance of the employees
while addressing their problems. It helps in improving the performance of the group as they have

the authority to correct the lacking points. It also creates a negative impact in the individual
performance by affecting their mindset leading them to not focus. It deceases the productivity of
Sainsbury.
Many organisations find it difficult to have a balance between culture, power and politics.
The combinations of these three factors have influence in the work environment by affecting
every operation in the workplace. Organisational culture refers to the common believes and
values which employees working together in the organisation share in common. Power holds the
centre of the organisation. Thus power intimidates and influence people working in the
organisation. Better powerful person will produce more influence on the employees. Such
organisation can react better in the difficult situations. The success of such organisation is
dependent on the ability and performance of the whole team. It attracts more candidates who are
power oriented and have a political mindset (Sharma, 2017). Such individuals are more prone to
take risks and are not concerned about the security that much. Power culture in an organisation
will have individuals who will control the resources. The challenges coming in this way is the
problem to retain the control and trying to succeed all the time.
Power culture is always limited to the individuals in an organisation who enjoy their
position which gives them power. Powerful people in the organisation have to authority to make
decisions and also are the most privileged people n the work place. Along with this, they have
some crucial roles and responsibilities in their job profile which is concerned with other
employees. Employees do not have the freedom and the liberty to express their concerns and put
their perspective on the table. The use of this power determines the behaviour of the individuals
working in that space. More power will result in more effectiveness. The hierarchal structure of
the Sainsbury involves having a lot of people to report to before giving the information to the
main boss. Each level of the hierarchal system is monitored by some individual and commands
are passed down from one person to another till the last of the chain (Chubb, and Reed, 2018). It
is a complex structure which involves taking lot of time to finish the activities. It provides a close
control of workers. Employees working in Sainsbury will know what to do and avoids from
waiting till that particular task is allotted.
The culture of role is used in large organisations like Sainsbury. Associated roles are
assigned to the employees and they then put all their efforts and focus on attain those goals. This
increases the efficiency of the whole company. In the case of expert power, power comes from

the knowledge. They influence other people by their expertise in a certain area. Followers can
have more expert power than their leaders. Referent power is solving the problems created by the
lack of expertise by building a team having strong bonding. The relations with the employees
and the subordinates of the leaders are well built. The influence of the person is due to its
relations and bonding with other people. Legitimate power relates to the role of a person in an
organisation. This person influences with the help of demands and requests appropriate to the
position they are in.
Culture of the organisation is about the ethics and values identified by the majority of the
employees. Culture impacts are used to identify the nature of life of an individual. Leaders and
manager understand the value of organisational culture in their internal strategy and the
behaviour of employee. Every employee has to adapt to the organisational culture in order to fit
in the work environment. The performance of all the employees are not just affected by the
training and learning but also by the organisational culture. It impact the team work, motivation
of the individual or the whole team and lastly, it determines the desire of the employees to stay in
the company or leave it for good. If the culture of the organisation supports the employees and
their growth, it can result in producing excellent outcomes and will make the employees stay
motivated to put in their best (Lampaki, and Papadakis, 2018). In a different organisational
setting, individual will feel less that their efforts are going to waste and thus, they will not work
efficiently. The perspective of an individual will change depending on place being more direct
and positive in order to improve their behaviour. It s important to set the organisational culture to
be real and become the pat of day to day life of all the employees to make the working of
business operation in a smooth and effective way.
Organisational politics can informal and unofficial efforts in order to express ideas and
influence the organisation by increasing power. Politics is present in every place and
organisation and been existing from over a millennia. Politics grows from diversity of the
interest and competing in each other’s ideas and roles. The influence of politics can be both
positive and negative impacts on the individual behaviour on the employees. It affects the
decision making in the organisation and the behaviours of the individuals are more self serving
and not sanctioned by the organisation (Varshney, 2019). Organisational politics is more as an
activity. It influences the distribution of pros and cons present within the organisation. It
produces intentional behaviours. This will help in attaining more promotion and help in

expanding the roles and responsibilities leading to more gain of personal visibility. Politics can
lead to more manipulative behaviours within the organisation. This behaviour will attempt the
use of power as the base of solving any problem.
Motivation theories and techniques help in attaining organisational goals
Motivation is the foundation of keeping the employees inspired to work and perform
efficiently. It helps in determining the goals and objectives in the organisation. Motivation
theories can be of different types in an organisation. Content theory of motivation explains the
needs and requirements of humans which change over time. The element which affects the
behaviour of an individual is determined by these theories. It is the external factor in the
affecting the achievement of common goals. McGregor’s theory X and Y divided the mangers
and leader into X and Y category for better understanding of motivation. Managers from the
category of X are more self involves and the employees under them do not perform their job well
as they are unhappy with the leader. They try to avoid the work. They feel forced to work in the
company where they are not ready for the responsibility (Jain, and Ansari, 2018). Additions to
this, these employees lack the ambition. On the other hand, the mangers and leader in the
category of Y are good in their work and create the employees which are optimistic and
innovative. These individual’s behaviour are self employed. This theory is very useful in the
modern day organisations. The main characteristic of this theory is based on being self
empowered.
In the case of Sainsbury the skills and level of motivation comes under the Theory Y
where employee are highly motivated to do their job in an efficient and a way which is profitable
to the business. The employees always try to perform better than before. Sainsbury is a retail
grocery store. The company sells the products and services of high quality and at affordable
prices for their customers. They have put in very creativity and innovation in their products.
Human resource department is very important for Sainsbury as they make the organisation move
forward towards the creating new products which the ideas of the employees. The majority of the
employees working in Sainsbury are self motivated and responsible towards their roles. They
perform well as they are considered to be an important part of the organisation.
Motivated employees play an important part in attaining organisation’s goals. Employee
work in team and use their skills, expertise and talent in making efforts to value their customers.

the goals and ambitions of Sainsbury has made the brand come in the top in UK. But there
maybe some attributes from the theory X in the organisation where the employee are receiving
the motivation but are not working efficiently (Nuckcheddy, 2018). This is because they are not
satisfied with their job profile and thus lack in directing the organisation towards the required
goals. Another type of theory is process theory of motivation. This theory focus on the factor
which is use to determine the extent of modification and continuation of the efforts put by the
employees. Porter lawler model was the famous process theory of motivation. This model is the
combined approach of the factors in the motivation theories. It builds the complex understanding
that all performance from the employee’s side are resulting in the job satisfaction with the help
of abilities and perceptions. The main factors of this theory of motivation are effort, performance
and satisfaction. In detail, effort is the amount of energy offered by the employee into fulfilling
the desired goals of the organisation. Performance is the result from the actions coming from the
efforts of the individual and lastly, satisfaction is well the progress and mental peace received
after doing the job well. In the context of Sainsbury, efforts are high from the employee working
in the company as they are provided with different value and given rewards associated with the
good work. The culture of motivation in Sainsbury is to always keep the employee motivated to
perform their best by offering them rewards (Wood, and et.al., 2019). This helps in given better
outcomes in terms of productivity and profitability of the business. The system of giving rewards
has increased the level of satisfaction an employee gets with their job. It makes them work more
hard to achieve the goals. Along with this, company gets the chance to honour their best
employee who has given their heart and soul to make the company successful. With the help of
highly motivated staff, Sainsbury has fulfilled their idea of expanding the business and becoming
so successful with a large customer base. Finance and business operation are important for the
company to run but motivation is what makes the employee do well in the departments as
important like finance and business operations because in the otherwise case they will not be
committed to their work which lead not receiving a better performance from employees.
Apart from the motivational theories, motivation techniques are also very important
aspect on the behaviour of individuals working in an organization. Sainsbury is committed to
follow the daily activities and breaking the traditional cycle by adding motivation in the basic
activities. Among all the activities, the employees are supposed to find their focus on simple
pleasures and their area of expertise. This technique depends on the behaviour of an individual.

Sainsbury has always used many motivation techniques to keep their employees stay motivated
to work and thrive organisation to the success. The effectiveness of the working condition in te
company can be increased by giving out more rewards and taking in more of their ideas in an
project on quarterly level. Sainsbury must offer some time to take some regular break and refresh
the minds of the employees. This will help the employees to gain their strengths and do well
health wise to be ready to achieve the goals. Motivation technique also gives out supportive
feedbacks on regular basis which can be used as constructive criticism and work on themselves
to achieve more organisational efficiency in the respective areas of operations in the company.
PART – 2
Effective team and ineffective team
Team work is the backbone of any organisation holding it all together. Cooperation
within the team is very essential and necessary for achieving success by following smooth
business operations. Assistance in the work environment includes having a good level of
engagement among the employees. It provides an open form of communication which leads to be
feeling more comfortable. Cooperation and assistance in the workplace is determined by the
working manner the whole team as a one (Sheedy, Garcia, and Jepsen, 2020). This team work
can be effective or ineffective depending on the members and the situations they are in. An
effective is successful in attaining their desired goals and objectives. A team can be considered
as effective when they flow discussion which is open and supported and respected by each
member of the team. Here, member of the team are allowed to express their perception and their
point of view regarding some problem. During such times the leadership styles preferred is the
situational leadership style. All the individuals are allowed to talk and put their ideas on the table
while other listen to them in a respectful and patience manner.
An ineffective team on the other hand is completely opposite to an effective team. In an
ineffective team, the members of the team are not interested in listening to other team members.
There is more of a closed discussion happening within the organisation. The leadership styles in
such organisation is authoritative. The process of making a decision in an effective team is done
having the complete consensus where everyone can put their points into the ongoing agreement
(Wagner, and et.al., 2017). The same process in the ineffective team is very stressful as the
decisions are often taken at a premature level from even before the real problems are solved.

Moreover, the roles played by each member in the team plays an important into making it and
effective team or an ineffective team. Action oriented roles include a sharper who challenges the
other team members to improve their quality of work. Such employees are extroverts and
dynamic. Implementer are their to make things turn from plan to action. A complete finisher
makes sure that the running idea is working with no errors and the project is completed
smoothly. Another type of role is people oriented role which has a coordinator, a team worker
and an investigator of the resources. Coordinator manages the actions of the team as a traditional
leader of the team while guiding them to the correct path. Team worker is an individual who
provides support and make sure that team is working in an effective way or not. Research
investigator is the person who will bring in the innovations and will always be ready to explore
available options for the resources. Then comes the talent oriented roles are the people who plant
by being creative and filling the team in with new ideas which can not be good for
communication. Monitor evaluates as the name suggest is the analyser to evaluate the ideas and
identify the pros and cons before the final decision making and other operations. Lastly, there is
specialists who will posses their special knowledge and expertise in to the job. In the context of
Sainsbury, they follow the approach of defining roles of the individuals working in different
departments of the organisations (Otte, Konradt and Oldeweme, 2018). Sainsbury sells a wide
range of everyday use products and services to its customers and the reason behind this effective
communication and coordination between all the teams and departments is the roles played by
each members. These roles are effective team roles which makes adds to the effectiveness of the
team. Another important theoretical approach adopted by Sainsbury is that the company uses
Tuckman model which is very popular. It provides a well set foundation for the building of
effective team. This theory works by four different phases. It starts with forming stage for
developing the team. In this phase, all the team members play the role being polite and positive
when the leaders play being dominant. Next is the storming, here, the individuals working in the
company are forced to cross their boundaries and they challenge the authority and the person in
power. This can lead to some conflicts within the organisation. In the phase of norming people
try to resolve their issues with one another and learn to understand perspective of others along
with the strengths of their team members. Performing constitutes the last stage where the goals of
the team are effective and are achieved by high level of hard work. Sainsbury follows the
Tuckman’s model up to some extent. Forming stage is deal by company to take the chance of

introducing new products in the already existing product range. All the employees of the
organisation are distinguished between well coordinated departments within the company. This
adds to the working of team and enhances their overall work. Employee exhibit good set of
communication skills which help Sainsbury to carry out each operation and process n their
business in a smooth manner. During the norming phase there is the rise of certain conflicts on
the idea of launching new products into the market. These conflicts consume a lot of time to be
resolved and thus effects the working of the whole team (Selvarajah, and et.al., 2021). Employee
working for Sainsbury has worked with high level of coordination which makes the last two
phases of Tuckman’s model easy for them. The only way to work in an effective team is through
foster good and open communication while exhibiting positive behaviour in between all the
individuals working in the company. Ineffective teams built up negative energy for its team
members which will lead to influence the working of the employees and comes in the way of
achieving the desired goals.
Concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour
Conflicts within the organization often arise due to several reasons like having an unclear
understanding about the responsibilities. This happens because employees are being provided
with a specific set of information and are not having a proper understanding about the
responsible employee and due to which their issues are remain unsolved.
Employee and environmental characteristics
Employee characteristics: They are the high qualities present in an employee to improve their
workplace productivity. Rewarding the employees based on their characteristics will only
increase their morale in working and give them the job satisfaction. Employee motivation is an
important step for the Sainsbury because with this approach it can ensure that it is being able to
motivate employees to implement changes within their working process. In such a way that high
work productivity is being accomplished and also innovate steps can be taken to improve weak
performance areas (Kondalkar, 2020). Working environment, Sainsbury tends to operate in a
market area which is fill with some of the biggest market competitions. Therefore because of
which organization has to guarantee that various steps are being taken by employee through
which diversity within product placement can be accomplished. Suitable supports, in order to

improve the employee performance there are several organizational approaches which can be
implemented. This includes support like developing suitable work culture in which employees
are being provided an ability to discuss their issues and creative ideas to implement change.
Leadership style: Participative leadership, approach is the leadership approach in which leaders
allow employees to participate within the decision making process. Through this it can ensure
that it is being able to employee’s level of participation within the team discussion can be
increased, by which issues which employees are facing can be resolved. Autocratic leadership
style is when the leader believes they are always right and the decisions are made depending on
the leader more and less input from the employees. Authoritative leadership highlights the
confident leaders who plan according to the expectations. They engage and energise their team
members. Democratic leaders share all te valid information to their employees and approves the
final decision. This ways it affects the work responsibilities of the team members in a positive
way.
Focus on motivational factors which help employee succeed: Defined goal, will provide
employee a clear identification of the target which they have to achieve and due to which they
are being motivated to implement appropriate measures to achieve desired target. Clarify path, is
also an effective approach for employee motivation and this happens because by providing a
proper path for the target achievement. Organizations like Sainsbury can ensure that it is being
able to reduce the employee’s time consumption for identifying an appropriate step to improve
organizational performance. Remove obstacles, this segment of employee motivation comprises
of organizational steps which are being taken to resolve the issues which the employees are
facing. This happens because of the fact that company has to ensure that it is being able to take
appropriate measures to resolve the issues which employees are facing. Provide support, it is also
an important stage which the company has to ensure that it is being able to provide a proper
guidance for the organizational requirements. Through this the corporate can ensure that it is
being able to take suitable steps by which higher work productivity is being accomplished
(Bayanova and et.al, 2019).
Model of Organizational behaviour: It is the technique which helps in understanding the hard
things and ideas by giving them a clear approach. It can be classified into four different models.
Autocratic model deals with the managerial orientation of the authority where the performance
result is very less. In the custodial phase, the employees are more directed towards the security

and benefits while becoming dependent on the organisation. Collegial, is the organizational
behaviour in which a proper organizational culture is being developed in which overall
organizational work load is equally being divided among employees. Through this step company
can ensure that it is being able to take appropriate steps by which work collaboration among
employees is being increased. Supportive model is where the employees focus on their
performance and participation in the organisation.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that organisational behaviour and motivation are the two most
important things for an organisation to run efficiently. Sainsbury comes in the category of
following a positive organisational culture. It has created a good behaviour in the individual s
working there as a team. Power in the organisation and politics are the things which impact the
behaviour of employees and leads to influence their performance in the workplace of both an
individual and the whole team. Many motivation theories are used to determine which type of
motivation is followed by the company. It can be evaluates that the company is working with an
effective team. This is the major plus point of Sainsbury. However, they also show the traits
from the ineffective team. Lastly, the concepts and the philosophies of the organisation are
established. Sainsbury can use many recommendations which can help in improving the
performance of their staff in order to reach the desired goals, the company can be motivating the
employees. Motivation is the process which causes direction and persistence of the voluntary
actions which are goal oriented. Motivation helps in increasing the level of effort from the
employees side towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation. Motivation is
important to make certain outcome to look attractive. Satisfied employees works with less
amount of tension and more attention in their performance. Company can provide the employees
with incentives and rewards to make them work with self interest. Such schemes will help in
boosting the productivity and increasing the sales of the company. Gift cards and vouchers from
Sainsbury can be used a reward and motivate the employees. This is the way of showing
appreciation towards the work and performance of the employees. Such things make them happy
to work for an organisation which values their efforts.