Organisational Behaviour Report: Waitrose Culture, Motivation, Teams

This report provides an in-depth analysis of organisational behaviour within Waitrose, a prominent British retailer. It explores the influence of organisational culture, power dynamics, and political landscapes on individual and team performance. The report delves into Handy's typology of organisational culture, examining role, task, person, and power cultures and their impact on employee motivation and behaviour. Furthermore, it discusses the significance of positive versus negative organisational politics. The assignment also examines motivational theories, specifically content theories like Maslow's hierarchy of needs and process theories like Adam's equity theory, explaining how Waitrose applies these principles to encourage employee engagement. Finally, the report contrasts the characteristics of effective and ineffective teams, incorporating Belbin's team role model to highlight how different roles contribute to team success. This comprehensive analysis provides insights into how Waitrose manages its workforce to achieve its organisational goals and objectives, and it serves as a valuable resource for understanding leadership management.

ORGANISATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION
Organisational behaviour can be referred to as the study carried out upon the behavioural
characteristics of individuals or groups which are functioning as an active part of the company.
This analysis assists the human resource team of an enterprise in devising and implementing an
effective strategy that strives to strike a positive balance between the behaviour of personnel and
the organisational goals and objectives (Choi, 2011). The present assignment is based on the
analysis of organisational behaviour within Waitrose which is a British retailer that has around
353 outlets spread across UK. This paper includes the influence of culture, power and politics on
behaviour and performance of individuals and team. Also, it consists of content and process
motivational theories along with the characteristics and composition of effective and non-
effective team. Lastly, philosophies of organisational behaviour are explored in context of
organisational situations.
LO 1
P1. Impact of organisation's culture, politics and power on individual, team behaviour and
performance
Organisational behaviour refers to the analysis of the manner in which individuals and
teams make an interaction across the organisational premises. The HR manager of Waitrose
devises and executes a healthy working environment for employees to motivate them to work to
their full potential. In this regard, it is often seen that organisational power, culture and politics
largely influence the behaviour and performance of personnel and team within Waitrose. This
influence is discussed in relation to Waitrose as follows:-
Culture
This refers to the set of values, beliefs and practices existing as the core part of an
enterprise. Within Waitrose, the HR department has developed a positive working culture where
individuals are motivated so that they work in an effective and efficient manner. This helps the
company to attain organisational goals within the stipulated time. When the individuals are
motivated, it leads to increment in overall team performance. As per Handy’s Typology, there
are four types of organisational culture which have a significant impact on individuals and teams.
These cultures are explained below:-
1

Role culture: This resembles functional structure where managers and leaders assign
roles and responsibilities in accordance with the skills and competence of individuals. When this
culture is implemented within Waitrose, it motivates the workforce to perform best as they are
allotted tasks as per their field of expertise. This facilitates them to work in coordination with
other team members for the realisation of organisational goals.
Task culture: Here, several teams are formed for the resolution of conflicts in the
organisation. In this regard, manager of Waitrose creates and formulates teams according to the
issues ascertained in the organisational context. This tends to influence the behavioural
characteristics as well as performance of individuals and teams in a positive manner as company
undertakes measures to resolve the workforce issues.
Person culture: In this organisational culture, managers mainly emphasize upon
improving the existing skills and knowledge of workforce. Waitrose conducts regular training
sessions to equip the employees with relevant and suitable skills to perform day to day
organisational tasks (Boje, Burnes and Hassard, 2011). This motives individuals and teams to
deliver desirable performance for achievement of organisational goals.
Power culture: This culture proposes decision making power in the hands of limited
individuals only which results into quick decision making. This culture if executed within
Waitrose would lead to adverse impact upon the behavioural characteristics as well as the
performance of employees as they are devoid of the initiative to utilise their creativity and skills.
It is noticed that Waitrose uses role culture to foster coordination amidst workforce as
this benefits them to motivate employees for achieving the set organisational goals.
Politics
It can be referred to as the behavioural characteristics and process that occur within an
organisation with the use of power or authority. Organisational politics can affect individuals
positively as well as negatively. Within Waitrose, HR department and top management facilitates
positive politics by creating a healthy working environment where employees have easy access
to flexible working timings, decision making powers, leaves etc. This motivates them to perform
by utilising their full potential and contributing towards attainment of organisational objectives.
Negative politics can be observed in an entity by way of biasness, inequality, diversity,
discrimination etc. which hampers the morale as well as performance level of employees
(Wagner and et. al., 2012).
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Power
This is defined as the authority possessed by personnel to be able to influence other
individuals who are working in company (Wagner and et. al., 2012). Within Waitrose, top
managers have the power to take decisions on behalf of organisation. There are two forms of
powers which are generally used by leaders in an organisation, these are:-
Reward power: This power focuses upon persuading individuals to perform in the
desirable manner by offering rewards and recognitions such as incentives, mementos, bonus,
certificates etc.
Coercive power: This type of power demonstrates that top management devise policies
that are necessary for personnel to adhere to. This is a negative power as this uses penalties
and/or punishments to make employees work in the desirable manner.
It has been observed that Waitrose makes use of reward power to motivate employees by
using incentives and recognitions so that they can contribute towards the realisation of goals.
LO 2
P2. Theories of motivation
In today's dynamic era, HR department need to constantly ascertain such needs of
individuals the fulfilment of which have a positive impact on their behaviour and performance.
Motivation is defined as the composite of internal and external factors which instils passion and
desire within individuals to stay committed to their job role for accomplishment of personal and
organisational goals (Wagner and et. al., 2012). In this context, management of Waitrose use
motivational theories to encourage workforce to perform for the achievement of set targets.
Content Theory of Motivation
These theories assist in analysing the reasons behind changes that take place in human
needs with the passage of time. Abraham Maslow, Herzberg and David McClelland have been
some of the psychologists who have given content theories. In this regard, management of
Waitrose uses Maslow’s Theory of Motivation as explained below:-
Maslow’s Theory of Motivation: Also referred to as “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”, this
motivational theory segregates needs in 5 types, namely, psychological, belonging, safety,
esteem and self-actualization. Within Waitrose, managers undertake initiatives to meet all the
needs of personnel ranging from personal to organisational. With this, management strives to
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instil loyalty and trust in individuals towards firm. When employees become satisfied with
respect to their team and personal needs, they tend to get motivated to perform more
productively and their actions contribute to achievement of organisational targets. By fulfilling
the needs of employees, managers of Waitrose aim to retain individuals for a long period of time.
This fosters coordination among individuals present within the team to work together for
improvement of overall organisational productivity.
Process Theory of Motivation
These theories emphasize upon the manner in which motivation takes place and the
procedures associated to motivate individuals. Some of the process theories are Victor Vroom's
expectancy theory, Adam’s equity theory, Skinner’s reinforcement theory and Locke’s goal
setting theory. The management of Waitrose uses Adam’s motivational theory as described
below:-
Adam’s Equity Theory: This motivational theory proposes equitable treatment for all the
individuals working within an enterprise (Demir, 2011). Within Waitrose, management makes
sure that initiatives undertaken by workforce (in the form of number of hours worked, their
commitment and loyalty etc.) are met with relevant outputs (such as rewards, bonus, recognition,
incentives, certification, performance appraisals etc.). Leaders of this organisation have
acknowledged that once an individual feels that the outputs received at workplace are not more
than their inputs, they tend to become dissatisfied. Thus, Waitrose emphasizes on equitable
treatment for all.
LO 3
P3 An effective team as opposed to an ineffective team
Team plays an important role within an organisation in order to attain the desired goals.
Team refers to a group of individual who collaboratively work for the attainment of common
goal. For accomplishment of organisational objectives within timely manner, company has to
create an effective team so as to ensure execution of allotted tasks in the desired manner and
achievement of positive outcomes (Colquitt and et. al., 2011). Leader plays an important role in
leading and motivating team members to enhance their productivity at work. Within Waitrose,
leader of company build teams with the aim of performing business activities. For better
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understanding of effective team, differences between ineffective and effective team are given
below:-
Basis Effective team Ineffective team
Decision-making Here, all the members receive
equal opportunities for
presenting their ideologies and
views for effective decision
making process. With the help
of effective team, company
can feasibly enhance their
level of growth and profits.
Here, the members of team are
not given the opportunity to
take part in decision-making
process. This tends to give rise
to issues and problems within
the team thereby negatively
affecting their performance at
workplace (Carpenter, Berry
and Houston, 2014).
Underlying goals Here, each group member has
relevant and adequate
understanding of their job
roles as well as the tasks that
they perform at workplace.
This helps the team to easily
execute their tasks and get
positive outcomes.
Here, members face issues and
difficulty in gaining a proper
understanding of tasks. This is
the major reason that, here, the
team members fail to achieve
the organisational goals in a
timely manner.
Furthermore, Waitrose uses Belbin's theory which provides assistance in determination of
propensity of the members as well as their behavioural characteristics towards their job role. This
tends to enhance the relation shared by team members and facilitate a sense of coordination as
well as cooperation among them.
Belbin's Team Role Model
This theory proposes 9 team roles and categorise them in three groups, namely, Action, People
and Thought Oriented. This assists the management in creating an effective team as per the
behavioural traits of individuals (Avey, Palanski and Walumbwa, 2011).
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Action Oriented Roles
Shapers: These are the personnel who are always willing to take challenges which can
assist the team to improve. They are highly courageous, enthusiastic and look at obstacles as
stepping stones to success. They tend to motivate people to give their best.
Implementers: These are the individuals who are associated with implementation of
things. They are usually held responsible for transformation of ideas and imagination of team
into reality. They are highly dedicated to their work.
Completer Finisher: These are the individuals who are immensely engaged throughout
the whole project and make sure that there is no miscommunication taking place between any of
the team members regarding any aspect (Ates and Bititci, 2011).
People Oriented Roles
Coordinator: They are the leaders who provide assistance to the team in building an
adequate and relevant understanding of the stipulated goal. They ascertain the potential of each
team member.
Team Worker: They are the individuals who render guidance and support to the members
of team and make sure that work is being carried out together in an effective manner.
Resource Investigator: These are the personnel who build effective relationships and
find out the best source to acquire the necessary resources for execution of team tasks.
Thought Oriented Roles
Plant: The individual who is the creative innovator to bring up new ideas as well as
processes for execution of project. In Waitrose, this role is usually presented to the worker who
believes in finding out a unique manner of carrying out old things.
Monitor Evaluator: These are the individuals who generally supervise and assess the
ideas and views brought by team members (Ashkanasy and Humphrey, 2011).
Specialist: Specialists are the personnel who possess potential skills as well as
competence to get things executed in the desirable manner.
The top management of Waitrose makes use of Belbin’s model to ascertain the behavioural
traits of individuals working in the organisation and match them with the roles proposed by
Belbin in order to clearly specify the role of every member in the team.
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LO 4
P4 Concepts and philosophy of organisational behaviour
Motivation holds importance in every organisation as this strives to encourage
individuals to perform in an effective and efficient manner. HR department of entity has the
prime importance in this relation and it makes use of a number of theories which encourages
employees to act as per different organisational situations. In Waitrose, HR team evaluates the
behaviour and performance of personnel in order to build up a positive working environment. In
this relation, leadership theory utilised by Waitrose is briefly described below:-
Path goal theory
Path goal theory can be referred to as a leadership theory which is proposed by Robert
house and reflects that approaches of leader are contingent towards motivation, satisfaction and
performance of subordinates (Laforet, 2011). This theory helps Waitrose as this provides
assistance to HR manager in selecting such behaviour which is best suitable at workplace. Path
goal theory is a composite of four different styles as given below:-
Directive: Here, leaders guide the workforce about their roles and responsibilities. This
style affects the employees in a positive manner and motivates them for performing their work in
an effective and efficient manner.
Participative: This leadership style stress upon participation of employees within the
decision making process as well as taking feedback from them to facilitate the business growth
(Boje, Burnes and Hassard, 2011). This impact on the workforce in a positive manner.
Supportive: Here, leaders show concern towards the staff that assists in fostering positive
relationship between them. It helps to reduce stress levels of employees and encourage them to
share their problems with leader.
Achievement: This style focuses upon showing trust towards workforce thereby
expecting a desirable output from them.
Different situations
Different situations that take place within Waitrose affecting the behaviour and
performance of employees are as follows:-
Multitasking: This refers to the ability of individuals to carry out more than one task at a
time. In Waitrose, employees try to do multitasking yet it directly reduces the quality of work.
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Poor communication: Communication refers to the medium through which information
is transmitted from one person to another (Avey, Palanski and Walumbwa, 2011). Within
Waitrose, HR manager stresses on devising an effective communication system at workplace so
as to avoid emergence of conflicts among employees.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that analysing the behavioural
characteristics of every individual is significant for organisations. Also, it has been ascertained
that ascertainment of personal and organisational needs of individuals and taking initiatives to
fulfil them helps to motivate individuals as well as teams to perform in a productive manner
towards the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. Further, every organisation has
its own power, politics and culture which negatively or positively affect employees and team.
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