Organizational Behaviour, Leadership, and Team Dynamics in Tesco PLC

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Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE MANAGEMENT OF
PEOPLE

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
Table of Contents
Definitions from different authors...................................................................................................3
Leadership....................................................................................................................................3
Team building and development..................................................................................................3
Managing change.........................................................................................................................3
Different theories used in business operations................................................................................4
Theories of leadership..................................................................................................................4
Theories for team building and development..............................................................................5
Theories for Change management...............................................................................................5
Application of business theories in an organization........................................................................6
Change management in Tesco PLC.............................................................................................7
Team building activities in the organization................................................................................8
Reference List................................................................................................................................10
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Definitions from different authors
Leadership
Leadership counts among the most essential requirements in order to complete a work
appropriately. According to Lozano and von Haartman, (2018), leaders are capable of motivating
people and make them work towards a goal willfully. Leadership requires several qualities like
self motivating, never giving up attitude, and constant learning for effective outcomes. An
efficient leader is well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of his team members and works on
the areas of improvement for better outcomes.
Leadership plays a prominent role in every organization that is competing against its rivalries. As
per Billsberry et al. (2018), leaders are very good at socializing and networking that make them
highly influential due to which they can lead a group of people towards success. Taking
ownership for any mishap and giving the credit to the team members for every achievement
dance among the best qualities of a leader.
Team building and development
Team building and development it is very important in every organization that requires execution
of teamwork to meet its objectives. Lacerenza et al. (2018) have mentioned that team building
stands for developing a group consisting of people of similar mindset in order to make them
work together towards a common organizational aim. Every efficient team learns from mistake
and works in a better way towards improving its capabilities.
The development and building of team has an essential role in determining the success of an
organization. As mentioned by Vehmaa et al. (2018), an efficient team witnesses cooperation
among employees along with mutual respect and understanding. Hence, it avoids conflicts that
increase the productivity of the team fetching benefits to the organization.
Managing change
The ability to adjust its operations and activities according to the rapid changes happening in the
business arena is known as change management capability of an organization. As stated by
Rosenbaum et al. (2018), change management is essential for every company in order to sustain
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in the competitive environment. Managing changes in a positive direction helps the organizations
to stay ahead against its rivalries.
The carrying out of activities by a company management and operators to adjust its activities as
per the changing scenarios of market is known as change management (Martinsuo and Hoverfält,
2018). Every organization needs to constantly improve its services and products from the
customers’ perspectives so that it can meet their requirements most appropriately. It is very
helpful in gaining more customers and sustaining them for a longer period as it enhances brand
loyalty within the customers.
Different theories used in business operations
Theories of leadership
The two most important and effective theories used in corporate sector are the Transformational
Leadership theory and Trait theory. The Transformational leadership theory describes about the
different processes used by leaders and subordinates to learn from and motivate each other. The
primary focus is on transforming the existing work culture and performing of activities into
better forms. This is very important because it helps the organization grow faster and in a better
way to lead the competition. According to Hoch et al. (2018), a transformational leader focuses
on the betterment of every process applied to meet the objective at personal, team, and
organizational levels. The best advantage of implementing Transformational leadership theory in
a corporate sector is that the follower of subordinates has great faith in their leader and vice
versa. Hence, there are less chances of conflict within team members that increases productivity
of the team and enhances the personal skills of team members.
The second theory is the Trait theory of leadership that suggests that leaders are born and not
made. This theory takes the examples of some famous leaders and highlights the different skills
they possess. This includes creative thinking, time management, influential ability, intelligence,
and several other qualities. According to this theory, the leadership qualities in an individual
exists from the beginning which is visible from his honest and dedicated approach towards any
work. The born leaders learn from their experiences and do not give up after failing as they get
back to the same work with better preparation. As described by Wyatt and Silvester, (2018), the
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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
inbuilt leaders are capable of influencing an individual or a group and can make them utilize
their best potential in order to meet the team objective.
Theories for team building and development
Majority of the operations in many corporate companies are conducted in teams and therefore it
is important to apply the most appropriate theory of team building and development to get the
best results. The two major theories of team development used in many organizations are the
Tuckman's theory of team building and Theory X and Y. The Tuckman’s Theory of team
building consists of four different steps named Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.
The first step includes Forming of the team where different individuals assemble for deciding
and allocating the tasks. The team members are free to behave and respond independently before
the tasks are familiar located. The second step that is Storming is about suggesting the ideas
required to complete the tasks. Different are discussed along with a brief analysis about their
implementation and positive and negative consequences for the same. The third stage named
Norming is the result of Storming where the team members are clear of their responsibilities and
procedures to accomplish the objectives. Hence, they perform in harmonious way to meet the
decided goals. The final step is “Performing” where the team members put in their best efforts in
order to enhance the team performance (Devaraj and Jiang, 2019).
The theory X and Y consists of two different sets of qualities possessed by people of two entirely
different personalities. The theory X assumes the qualities of an individual that needs to be
motivated externally. This encourages the managers and leaders to use the hard skills of
management the employees perform their duties. It also said that the team members should have
the fear of punishment in order to perform at their best. The theory Y is entirely opposite to
theory X because it assumes that employees are self motivated and ambitious. According to this
concept, employees can be motivated through mutual cooperation and positive encouragement
using soft skills of management. It also says that the fear of punishment should not be induced
among employees and they should be motivated positively instead. Hence, the combined form of
theory X and Y includes the best points as per the situations and previous performance records of
the employees (Chen et al. 2018).
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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
Theories for Change management
Many successful business organizations in the corporate sector used to major models for change
management namely the Lewin’s change management model and the McKinsey 7s model. The
Lewin’s change management model consists of three steps that are Unfreeze, Change, and
Freeze. The first known as Unfreezing is about identified the processes and elements that need to
be changed followed by halting their functioning. The management carefully executes the
temporary halt on their functioning of a specific system within the entire organization so that the
main string operations are not severely affected. In the second step namely “Changing”, the
necessary changes are made in the entire system that has been Unfreeze. The changes are made
according to the feedback received from experts and the areas that are not performing in the
desired way. The third step involves freezing of the systems again after making the necessary
changes where those systems are made functional. It is very effective in large-scale organizations
where multiple models are working simultaneously. Hence, the entire operation is not
compromised because of freezing of any one or few modules (Rosenbaum et al. 2018).
The second way of inducing change in a team or an organization is the McKinsey 7s framework.
It consists of seven different elements that require changes in order to function as per the market
circumstances. These elements are strategy, structure, systems, style, skills, staff, and shared
values. The strategy element includes different ways of functioning and the systems element is
about the infrastructure systems and work culture of company and its departments. The structure
element is the operational structure of the company depending on factors like operations, size,
and region of influence. The style includes leadership styles whereas the staff consists of the
people from different backgrounds working for the company. The skills factor is about the
qualities that the company individuals possess and the shared values describe the overall
company culture and moral for ethical values possessed by the employees. The best advantage of
using the McKinsey 7s framework is that it makes the management realize the underperforming
areas that need improvement (Allaoui et al. 2019).
Application of business theories in an organization
The retail sector organizations in United Kingdom have seen tremendous growth in the last few
decades with the evolution of internet. These organizations earlier used to deal with their
customers and conduct their operations using manual ways and paperwork. However, they have
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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
been able to evolve in terms of operation and efficiency with the help of digitized platforms and
online services. The Tesco PLC is the biggest retail sector company operating in United
Kingdom, other European Nations and also in many Asian countries. The organization is a
century old company founded in London in the year 1919. Since then the organization has
opened more than 6500 shops all of the world with majority of them present within the UK. The
company management and leadership have successfully implemented many theories to manage
the changes and develop teams.
Change management in Tesco PLC
The retail sector business ecosystem the entire world has gone through drastic changes within the
last few decades because of several factors. The number of organizations dealing in retail sector
business has significantly increased. Moreover, the overall supply chain management have also
been affected due to the evolution of elements like transportation, Logistics, storage units, sales
and marketing, and several other activities. The company has implemented the McKinsey's 7s
Framework in order to make necessary changes within is operational units. The 7 elements of the
McKinsey’s 7s framework were properly analyzed by the managers followed by implementing
the changes that can enhance the productivity of the company (Galli, 2018).
The company started its operation through dealing with groceries and other Supermarket
accessories. However, Tesco PLC gradually expanded its operations to mobile Communications
and banking operations apart from retail businesses improving its strategy factor. The structure
of the organization use to be a simple and linear hierarchical structure due to the small size of the
company in the beginning of its operations. However, the structure also changed to compound
structure where similar hierarchies are followed for better management of all the operations in
different subsidiary companies performing different activities. The styles of leadership and
conducting operations in different sectors also changed because a transformational leadership
was required to make the operations better than before. The staff members were also trained
according to the newly evolving changes in the market. This specifically included trading to use
the online assets and different software platforms to reduce error. The recruitment of staff
members was also done looking at the new set of qualifications to be processed by the
candidates.
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The overall skills required to carry out the different activities in several departments of Tesco
PLC were tested and enhanced for gaining better outcomes. This was accomplished by
rearranging the training and development schedules by the training and Human Resource
Department. The overall changes made in the system included replacing old operational systems
with new and upgraded systems of operations. This mainly included the replacement of paper
works with computer modules and cloud systems. Moreover, the manually done work for
packaging was also replaced by automated systems. The company replaced the logistics, storage
and transportation at the facilities with the more fuel it and energy efficient infrastructure. The
shared values mainly included the development of mutual bonding and cooperation among each
other at personal and organizational levels. The company maintained a balance between hard and
soft skills of employee management. It also encouraged different activities to motivate its
employees and develop are superior level of moral and ethical values among them (Jayakrishnan
et al. 2018).
Team building activities in the organization
The Tesco PLC has implemented multiple theories of team building in order to form different
teams and meet its business objectives. However, the most successful theory for this company
was the Tuckman’s theory of team building because all the four different steps were tested and
implemented in almost every stream of business by the company. The company had to expand its
businesses from grocery retail and supermarket sectors to communication, mobile, banking and
financial services sectors. Hence, the Tesco PLC required an efficient and workable roadmap in
order to successfully initiate the operations and carry out the same for long term success and
benefits to the company and its customers. Considering the case scenario of Tesco PLC opening
its convenience shops in the Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and India, it has been
observed that the company management has utilized the four important processes for team
building using the Tuckman's theory. Following are the four steps that Tesco PLC followed
while establishing new convenience shops and stores in Asian market.
Forming – The first step farming involved high-level meetings where the senior executives of
the company discuss about the possibilities of expansion for the company. A primary analysis
about the responsibilities to be held by different departments while establishing a new business
was done by the high level management. The representatives of different departments of Tesco
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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND THE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
PLC such as human resources, sales and marketing, infrastructural development, logistics,
promotion and advertisement, and administration departments produced the possible
responsibilities that they might need to perform in the future. The estimation of resources the
company would have required for successful opening was also done during the forming stage of
team development (Maes and Weldy, 2018).
Storming – The Storming stage included discussing about the problems and solutions that the
company needs to face and implement while establishing new business ecosystem in Asian
markets. Ideas were collected and analysis was done considering different market perspectives.
The company management carefully looked into the macro and micro environmental factors that
are likely to affect the overall business in the new markets. The existing competition regarding
the availability of grocery items to common people along with their prices and quality was
thoroughly studied by the managers and that teams were formed accordingly equipped with
adequately skilled people.
Norming – Every department and team involved in the new operation to establish Tesco PLC
outlets for convenience shops in Asian market started working as per the define responsibilities.
The Human Resource Department started recruiting new staff from the target market to gain the
local influence. The logistics department started identifying the different potential challenges
they can face while transporting the materials along with the testing of possible solutions.
Similarly, the sales and marketing department along with advertisement and promotion
department started working on making the products reach to the maximum number of people
through proper advertisements about their products (Al‐Sabbagh and Gren, 2018).
Performing – The last stage that was “Performing” was done by every department according to
the planned objectives. The Tesco PLC was successfully able to establish its first convenience
store in Malaysia which was a huge success. The organization attracted many customers and
gained a positive reputation and customer loyalty from a huge population. Hence, the company
successfully opened many other outlets in Thailand and India.
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Reference List
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Chen, J., Bamberger, P.A., Song, Y. and Vashdi, D.R., 2018. The effects of team reflexivity on
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Galli, B.J., 2018. Change Management Models: A Comparative Analysis and Concerns. IEEE
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Hoch, J.E., Bommer, W.H., Dulebohn, J.H. and Wu, D., 2018. Do ethical, authentic, and servant
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Lacerenza, C.N., Marlow, S.L., Tannenbaum, S.I. and Salas, E., 2018. Team development
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Psychologist, 73(4), p.517.
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Lozano, R. and von Haartman, R., 2018. Reinforcing the holistic perspective of sustainability:
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Maes, J.D. and Weldy, T.G., 2018. Building Effective Virtual Teams: Expanding OD Research
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