Organisational Behaviour: Managerial Interventions at Wesfarmers Ltd

This essay explores organisational behaviour within Wesfarmers Ltd in Australia, focusing on enhancing employee productivity through effective management, job design, and improved working conditions. It examines various organisational theories such as scientific management, bureaucratic approach, administrative theory, and contingency approach, and their applicability to Wesfarmers. The essay identifies challenges like ineffective ethical standards and difficulties in employee recruitment and retention, proposing managerial interventions to address these issues. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of employee motivation through monetary and non-monetary rewards, and recommends fostering a positive culture, designing jobs based on merit, and maintaining health and safety standards. The analysis concludes that Wesfarmers' success hinges on productive employee performance achieved through clear goals, positive working conditions, and consistent motivation.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organisational behaviour
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Organisational behaviour.................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Theories of organisational behaviour that could be applied in an organisational setting................3
Organisational problem situations and formulation of managerial interventions considering the
cultural, ethical and social factors...................................................................................................4
Findings on current developments in organisational behaviour......................................................7
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The essay will be prepared to encourage a productive performance from all the employees
by taking care of their needs, designing good jobs and creating better working conditions,
furthermore keep them motivated to perform committed at Wesfarmers Ltd. in Australia.
Wesfarmers Limited, being a conglomerate company, manages its business operations in the retail
chains of Australia and New Zealand. The company has its subsidiaries including Coles
Supermarket, Bunnings Warehouse, etc (Wesfarmers.com.au 2018).
Theories of organisational behaviour that could be applied in an organisational setting.
There are various organisational theories that are associated with the management of work
planning and achieve standardisation within the organisational setting. This would not only
improve the business performance by enhancing the productivity but would also create a sense of
trust and loyalty among the management level and the staffs of Wesfarmers Ltd. in Australia.
According to Taylor (2012), scientific management theory consists of various principles including
the selection of the most effective worker, management of labour and providing training sessions
to them as well (Bowling, Wang and Li 2012). `The bureaucratic approach has helped
Wesfarmers to maintain a good organisational structure with proper working conditions so as to
encourage the productive performance from the employees.
According to Henry Fayol, the administrative theory is based on the management
principles, which enable proper designing of jobs, create good working conditions and keep the
staffs motivated through rewards. All these factors influence the performance of the

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organisation and allow it to adapt to changes with ease. The situational approach theory,
contingency and socio technical approaches are other theories applied within the organisational
setting as well.
The systems approach could allow the organisation consisting of different sub systems to
link the processes with the objectives while the socio technical approach would consider
Wesfarmers as a composed and reliable social system, technically improved and its environment.
The contingency approach, also known as the situational approach theory would make the
company understand that the systems are interrelated, which should be important for growth and
development and encouragement of productive performance from the employees (Alessandri et
al. 2012).
The goals should be set to improve the business performance and gain better control over
the organisational functions. At first, the action plan should be created and then find the most
suitable employees who could be part of the action plan implementation. The workers must
engage in the training sessions and periodic appraisal would assist in assessing the performances
of the employees working at Wesfarmers. It is important to check whether they can be appropriate
for the implementation of action plan or not. Lastly, the performance appraisal would monitor the
employee performance and create scopes for recording the actual outcomes required for
implementing the action plan. All these are major responsibilities of the manager or leader, who
must be active enough to adapt to changes and make sure that the employees are kept motivated
and encouraged to perform effectively (Beal et al. 2013).

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Organisational problem situations and formulation of managerial interventions
considering the cultural, ethical and social factors
One of the major organisational problems is the ineffectiveness of the ethical standards
maintained within the organisational setting. These standards should be acceptable to every
individual within the organisation. Within the workplace, sanctions are imposed on those who
could not follow the ethical standards and thus they should be held as guilty for the unethical
behaviours. The ethical thinking would influence the business process through consideration of
impact created by actions. Most of the decisions might be routine, still there had been issues
where the organisation had faced ethical dilemmas (Spagnoli and Caetano 2012).
To overcome the ethical dilemmas, Wesfarmers has formulated proactive managerial
interventions. This useful approach has made the CEO of the company, Richard Goyder to
manage the human resources properly to gain the best productive performance from them and
maintain good working conditions too. When asked about the most influential factors
contributing to the business success, he mentioned about the employees of the organisation.
Another most important challenge faced by the companies in Australia could be the lack of
ability to recruit and select the right kinds of employees. This had also hindered the development
and retention of many existing employees who possessed high quality (Solomon et al. 2014).
The organisation has maintained good culture with the involvement of the manager, which can
also allow the company to maintain coordination among the employees and bring out the best of
their performances, furthermore would allow the company to gain competitive advantage in
business.

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The organization has maintained good relationships with the stakeholders, especially the
shareholders or investors and the employees. The employees of Bunnings have provided services
to benefit the community by developing water tanks for the primary schools and even providing
no-profitable group facilities for making enough profit in business. The company has also
considered sustainable approaches to reduce the environmental wastes through processes of
recycling and reduced energy consumption (Xerri and Brunetto 2013). The greenhouse gas
emissions reduced largely, which can also keep the environment safe and healthy as well as
create positive mindset among the customers about the company.
There are multiple subsidiaries of Wesfarmers including the Bunnings Warehouse, Coles
supermarkets, Harris technology, Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety New Zealand, etc. Coles
Supermarket was facing issues including the lack of commitment of workers and reduced
organizational performance that could be overcome through proper transformation for
responding to the changes. The paid wages were quite less for the staffs working at Bunnings
and Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety New Zealand than the Australian workers working for the
same job position (Muogbo 2013). Thus, it would be important for the manager to play a helping
hand with the line managers and HR manager to ensure that the processes of recruitment,
selection and development of the employees are successful. The company is considered as a
major example whose success has become the benchmark for other companies in Australia, New
Zealand and all over Asia.
Achievement of the productive performance of the employees is possible by maintaining
a high performance culture, which would also facilitate the working conditions, development of
goals and objectives and proper designing of the jobs. The manager must carry out his roles and

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responsibilities properly by defining where the organization has been heading and what could be
the actual progress within the allocated time frame (Hoejmose and Adrien-Kirby 2012). The
manager should also set a clear vision and make clear opinions about the kind of culture that
established within the organization. The managers should set goals and objectives and set targets
for the employees so that they could be encouraged to perform more efficiently. The manager
must consider their opinions and responses to make decisions, which would not only make them
feel valued for the organization but could even create better scopes for achieving long term
success for Wesfarmers. It is also the responsibility of the manager to act as a responsible leader,
enable transparency within the organization for increasing the level of ownership, and ensure
proper sharing and exchange of information and knowledge within the organization (Haslam et
al. 2014).
Findings on current developments in organisational behaviour
One of the current developments in organizational behavior could be the increase in
motivational level of the employees by providing them with rewards. The employees of
Wesfarmers Ltd. are kept motivated by providing both monetary and non-monetary rewards so
that the goals and objectives are accomplished as well. Providing them with enough
opportunities to succeed in their professional career, enabling teamwork and fulfilling their
desires for money could be beneficial for motivating them and drive their performances. Other
than the salary and job security benefits, the positive brand image of Wesfarmers Ltd. has also
contributed to the fulfillment of needs of theirs at various motivational levels (Pinder 2014).
Motivation could be challenging when the job role of a person change or the goals and
objectives were not set properly. The employees at certain levels feel the urge to fulfill their

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diverse needs and preferences and these keep on changing even, which may create difficulties in
reaching the goals and objectives and social needs fulfilled with ease and convenience. Thus,
motivation could be a major component related to the development in organizational behavior
(Ifinedo 2012).
The managers could even work with the team members and perform action-oriented roles
to keep the employees motivated and encouraged. This would help in obtaining better feedbacks;
furthermore improve the customers’ services, stocking activities and management of the
supermarket. It would enhance the skills and knowledge of the team members and allow them to
allocate and divide as Monitor-Evaluators where new ideas may promote to forecast sales and
handle issues with ease (Wesfarmers.com.au 2018).
Recommendation
 It would be important to provide the staffs of Wesfarmers with proper growth
opportunities, rewards for keeping them motivated, and encouraged.
 Maintenance of a positive culture would promote good working conditions as well as
allow the staffs to work as an unit
 Recommendation of the designing of jobs properly to pay the wages based on the
performances and merit of the employees.
 Maintenance of the health and safety standards to keep the employees safe and ensure
that the ethical standards are maintained within the organizational setting is also
recommended.

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Conclusion
The success of the company depended on the productive performances of the employees,
by setting proper goals and objectives, creating good working conditions and motivating them by
providing them with monetary and non-monetary rewards and benefits too. The contingency
approach, socio technical approaches and theories were applied to manage a good organizational
behavior while few problems faced by Wesfarmers were lack of proper culture, not meeting the
ethical standards, etc. The organization maintained a good culture, provided training to the
workers for creating a productive workforce, and at the same time, manages the business
functioning with ease.

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References
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change on organisational citizenship behavior. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 39(2),
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Bowling, N.A., Wang, Q. and Li, H.Y., 2012. The moderating effect of core self‐evaluations on
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