BA Business Management, LCBB4003: Modern Workplace Report

This report delves into the dynamics of the modern workplace, examining the interplay between organisational structure, culture, and individual behaviour, with a specific focus on Sainsbury. It begins by defining organisational behaviour and its impact on achieving company objectives, then explores the relationship between organisational structure and performance, analysing functional, matrix, and hierarchical structures. The report further examines the influence of organisational culture on performance, referencing Hofstede's dimensions and Charles Handy's model. Finally, it discusses various factors affecting individual behaviour within an organisation, including personal, organisational, and environmental elements, concluding with an assessment of how these elements contribute to creating a modern workplace. The report highlights the importance of aligning organisational structure and culture to enhance overall performance and employee engagement.

Introducing the
modern workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Analysing the relationship of organisational structure and culture with organisation
performance............................................................................................................................3
Effects of various factors on individual behaviour.................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Organisation behaviour means how individuals work within the organisation in
accordance with their conduct, actions(da Silva Soares Jr and et. al., 2019). The main aim is to
identify how organization will conduct its activity with the behaviour of its employees which
will directly impact in achievement of company's objectives. When the organisation behaviour is
understood by the managers with that they can make teams and handle all the conflicts and
human resource personnel can form the culture by focussing on employees and their work
results. Employees create their own cultures which help the organisation to make strategies
according to employee behaviour. Organisation behaviour builds good relationship inside the
company maintaining productive communication. Sainsbury was founded in 1869 by John James
Sainsbury with its headquarter in London which is the largest chain of supermarkets. In context
with sainsbury, this report covers the relationship of organisational structure and culture with
organisation performance ,encompassing the effects of various factors on individual behaviour.
MAIN BODY
Analysing the relationship of organisational structure and culture with organisation performance
Organisation structure is a hierarchy which defines how the company is working and how
the activities are being done within the organisation. It explains the network of connection that
exists in the organisation. Organisation culture means the beliefs ,assumptions and values in
which the employees are working which influences the working(Sujata and et. al.,2019) .Every
organisation has its own culture which provides recommendations and creates boundaries for the
members in the organisation.
Organisation structure with organisation performance:
 Functional organisation structure- The functional organisation structure divides the
department according to their functions. The structure is vertically in shape from CEO ,to

marketing,to store support centres etc. Functional organisation have expertise units which
answers to single authority which is top management. Sainsbury has large number of
department having narrow span of control which means the mangers or the top authority
have lesser control on the subordinates. All the employees in the company are grouped in
accordance with the skills and knowledge which increases the performance of the
company and make it more efficient. The coordination is developed in different
departments which helps the company to produce better results on time.
When the company launches any of its new product it becomes easy for the employees as
they can work independently with the authority having cross-communication between functional
areas. This facility helps in specialisation of the product as well as to the organisation. It gives
security and safety to the employees as their performances are noticed which develops
motivation to employees hence resulting in good organisation performance of the company.
Sainsbury offers variety of products to the customers according to the demands and their
requirement ,this structure is helpful because employees become specialised in the fields which
makes their work more effective and precise and bring innovative and unique products
increasing the sales and improving efficiency of the company. Sainsbury uses this structure
because the results are effective and improves the performance by increasing the sales for the
company. This structure is helpful in reducing the cost of operation as the employees are placed
according to their skills which helps in reduction of multiple departments and with this the top
authority can focus on big pictures of the company because these departments will be headed by
different mangers which provides information to the top executives.
 Matrix organisation structure- Matrix organisation structure means that business
structure where employees have to report to two or more managers providing every
aspect(Anwar and et. al., 2020). This structure is helpful when the information and the
knowledge have to be shared to different departments for completing a task allowing
organisation to use wide range of skills. This structure is used by sainsbury as it can be
used in different circumstances because of its flexibility. The structure provides safety
and security to employees as all the objectives are clearly instructed to them ,so when
they plan new products or wants to enter to a new market helping the employees to focus
on their task.

The main aim of sainsbury is their customers and when they use this organisation structure it
gives them flexibility which the customers want. Employees can access variety of skills and
different perspectives as they are not bound to single department which removes the barriers also
.When the communication is not restricted and employees are allowed to reach in every corner or
organisation it enhances the motivation and provides effective results. Using this structure
employees become more friendly with the environment of the organisation providing effective
results thus,improving the organisation performance(Sharma and Khatri, 2019). When the
employees are working under different mangers they are learning different skills from different
departments making themselves fully potential as they are breaking hierarchy and traditional
barrier of the company. As ,sainsbury offers different line of products different departments
work for its development but sometimes some defect can arise ,matrix structure helps in
removing such defects as all the projects and products are checked by two or more mangers
increasing efficiency and improving performance of company. Hierarchical organisation structure- Hierarchical structure means chain of command
from top to lowest level of organisation which means when some decision has to be made
at the lowest level they have to pass this information to the upper level for approval and
lately the decision will be returned to them(Standish,2019). Sainsbury follows the
hierarchical structure which keeps the control orientation of the company stable because
when the products are sold or some marketing message has to be given from top to
bottom level this strategy proves to be beneficial. Responsibility is more in this structure
because there is always one individual who will be responsible for the actions and there
will be no blaming of decisions to others providing effectiveness in the workings. This
structure helps to identify different teams which are sharing resources and helps to
determine powers and duplication which are overlapping in the company. There are many
departments in the company in hierarchical order where one is responsible to the other
creating clear results and specializing in variety of tasks improving the performance of
the company.
Organisation culture with organisation performance-
Organisation performance is totally dependent on the culture of organisation because
when culture includes some values,norms ,beliefs it will automatically give good results to the

company. Culture includes customs, organization's expectations that have been developed over
time in the organisation.
Hofstede dimension culture
This theory was developed to identify the differences which exists in different countries
and to perceive how the business is done in different countries(Seebacher and Krause, 2019).
This theory explains how the national and local level contributes to the culture of the
organisation which is explained in different factors-
 Power distance- Power distance means the differences which occurs in the work culture
because of power delegation to employees. In some organisations there are managers
who keeps control and are responsible for their teams .Sainsbury have different
departments which are headed by team managers and have the responsibility to take out
the best member from the team.
 Masculinity v/s Feminity- This means the difference between male and female
employees on the culture of organisation. Sainsbury does not have such culture because
the company keeps equality to both its female and male workers except in terms of pay
scale as the company is always in news for paying less salary to its female employees.
 Individualism- Some organisations follow the policy of individual working as they
prefer that it will provide them good results but sainsbury always believe in team work
where individuals come together and share their ideas and discuss with the whole team
which results in innovative ideas.
 Uncertainty avoidance index- Uncertainty avoidance index means that culture where
can face the unforseen circumstances(Ndoja and Malekar, 2020). It makes sure that
employees can suffer both comfortable and uncomfortable situations. Sainsbury have
always tried to avoid the bad conditions which hampers the company's performance and
always tries to prepare its employees for facing every situations faced by company. Long term orientation- There are organisation which gives importance to long term
retention of employees where the workforce focusses on doing hard work and living to
with the expectations of authorities. But,some organisations have employees whose main
motive is to earn profits in short time and leave when they get new opportunity. In
context with sainsbury ,the company always focusses in long term relations with the
employees offering good incentives and building healthy relationship with them.\

Charles handy organisational culture
This model classifies the organisation culture in four types-
 Power- There are organisations where power is in the hands of selected individuals who
have the right to take decisions in company's matters and enjoys certain benefits(Bryant
and et. al., 2019). But sainsbury does not provide such power in limited hands because it
creates differences among employees. Company provides friendly environment where
employees can come up and share their new and innovative ideas.
 Task culture- In this,teams are formed to decode the problems and achieve the targets
with three to four members in the group. Sainsbury have team conflict management
which resolves the conflict which arises in the company and for attain some targets.
 Person culture- The organisations which follow culture where employees consider
themselves to be first rather than the organisation. But in case of sainsbury,employees
give more importance to the organisation and focusses on achieving the goals. Role culture- Role culture means in organisation every employee have been given some
roles and responsibilities according to their knowledge and skills. Sainsbury have divided
the department in accordance with the skills and talent that individual pertains where they
accepts the challenge and work in responsible manner.
Effects of various factors on individual behaviour
There are many factors which influences the behaviour of humans in organisation where
manager have to interpret the situation or task which has to be given to the employees and
identify the skills which are required so that manager can assemble a team which matches the
skills. Some factors are explained below-
 Personal factors- These factors includes the individual knowledge, age,religion which
influences the actions of humans(Ek Styvén and Mariani, 2020) .The age which is just a
number but impacts the performance as higher age group people gain more knowledge
and experiences in organisation but younger groups people are considered to be more
innovative having unique ideas on the other hand physical characteristics includes the
skin,complexion, shape etc. which makes individual confident and motivated. Perception
is the viewpoint of individual which they have in accordance to their experiences which
helps them to explain particular situation.

 Organisational factors- Human behaviour is influenced with organisation factors.
Physical facilities which includes the arrangement of people and things at the workplace
which provides positive environment to employees. The structure also plays important
role because when organisation design is concrete and does not provides good
communication employees feel more restricted. Sainsbury always provides good structure
and working environment to its employees with bonus when the employees work extra or
when they achieve objectives effectively.
 Environmental factors- The external environment impacts the individual behaviour
employment opportunities plays major role because when jobs are less individuals have
to work to same job even when the job is not giving them full satisfaction(Inda-Caro and
et. al., 2019). But,when job opportunities are more employees don't have to worry about
the next job. Monetary benefits plays a huge role as it gives more confidence to
individuals to work harder for the company. So, to stay on particular company or to shift
their job completely depends on what wage they are receiving.
CONCLUSION
In context with above analysis, it is important for the company to change their
organisation structure and its culture so that the company can be considered as modern
workplace. When the structure of the company is flexible it will be easy for the workforce to
determine their roles and responsibilities in the organisation and when the company have
friendly culture it boosts employee performance and creates good communication between them
which will make them stay in the company and will lead to less job turnover for the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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are critical for the organisation of panic attack-like defensive behaviour and
unconditioned fear-induced antinociception elicited by the chemical stimulation of
superior colliculus neurons. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 29(7). pp.858-870.
Ek Styvén, M. and Mariani, M.M., 2020. Understanding the intention to buy secondhand
clothing on sharing economy platforms: The influence of sustainability, distance from
the consumption system, and economic motivations. Psychology & Marketing. 37(5).
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Inda-Caro, M. and et. al., 2019. Validating a model of effective teaching behaviour and student
engagement: perspectives from Spanish students. Learning Environments
Research. 22(2). pp.229-251.
Ndoja, K. and Malekar, S., 2020. Organisational citizenship behaviour: a review. International
Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion. 11(2). pp.89-104.
Seebacher, F. and Krause, J., 2019. Epigenetics of social behaviour. Trends in ecology &
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Sharma, N. and Khatri, S.K., 2019. Does digitised internal communication develop citizenship
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Public Sector Performance Management. 5(1). pp.105-122.
Standish, T., 2019. Marketing students at work: organisation citizenship behaviour training as a
tool to minimise survey non-response. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
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Sujata, M. and et. al.,2019. The role of social media on recycling behaviour. Sustainable
Production and Consumption. 20. pp.365-374.