Organisational Behaviour: Tesco Case Study (MGT201)

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Organisational Behaviour
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
P1: Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power can influence individual and team
behaviour and performance.............................................................................................................4
P2: Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques enable
effective achievement of goals in an organisational context...........................................................7
P3: Demonstrate an understanding of what makes an effective team, as opposed to an ineffective
team................................................................................................................................................10
P4: Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational
context and a given business situation...........................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
Reference List................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
Organisational behaviour can be referred to as the study of the method of communication and
interaction within various individuals and groups in an organisation. Generally, this study is
conducted as an attempt to generate more efficiency in the business running within an
organisation. The key concept of the study conducted for organisational behaviour is to prove
that scientific approaches exist that can be utilised to in the case of management of individuals
working at the organisation. The theories related to organisational behaviour have been utilised
in the past and are being used in the present for the purposes of human resources that aims for
maximising the output through individual members of a group functioning within an
organisation. This report will attempt to analyse the impact of power, politics, and culture on the
behaviour of others with the context of a chosen organisation. The chosen organisation is Tesco
Plc. It will evaluate the ways of motivating teams and individuals for achieving a set goal. It will
demonstrate the ways of understanding and cooperating with others in an effective manner.
Lastly, philosophies and concepts will be applied regarding organisational behaviour in a
specific business situation.
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P1: Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power can influence individual and
team behaviour and performance.
The politics, power, and culture of an organisation are essential aspects that can greatly influence
the functions and operations of an organisation along with the work environment of the specific
organisation. The range of influence varies from the changing behaviours of the employees to
supervising decisions required for organisation. These aspects of an organisation influence any
kind of business regardless of their nature or size. The work place culture and environment along
with the delegated powers within the individuals working at the organisation make large
contributions to the quality of work that is delivered through the employees of the specific
organisation (Huczynski et al., 2013). The influence of each of the factors will be elaborated
briefly in the section below along with few issues recorded at Tesco regarding organisational
culture, power, and politics.
Influence of Power:
Power is any given situation can either be used in a positive manner or a negative manner. When
it is used positively in the work place of an organisation, it manages to enhance the productivity
of the organisation through the amount and quality of work delivered. In addition, it manages to
create a motivated environment for the individuals working at the organisation for being better
than their current stage within the organisation and produce greater results with enhance work
quality and delivery (j Mullins and Christy, 2013). On the other hand, when power is used in a
negative manner, it deprives the individuals working at the organisation of the respect that is
expected and deserved. This in turn will lower the level of motivation within the workplace and
decrease in efficiency and delivery of work can be observed.
For instance, Tesco face a number of problems in their work environment that led the employees
to believe that it would not be easy to work in such an environment. The issues with their
suppliers regarding demand and payments made it difficult for the employees at the organisation
to work at peace. In order to resolve these issues, the individual with the responsibility of the
power of the company had to take steps for mitigating the number of issues face with their
suppliers. Under such work pressure, the employees might feel mentally harassed that may lead
to poor retention of employees. New policies were devised and implemented by the human
resources department along with supervising every decision made by the company on their
behalf. After the suitable steps taken by the organisation, the work place environment changed
and made it possible for the employees to continue working at the same organisation. Any kind
of change can be redeemed valid and positive only when they affect the operations and
productivity of an organisation positively.
Influence of Politics:
Some employees within an organisation turn to politics rather than working towards the goal and
objectives of the organisation in order to gain higher positions or better recognition at the
organisation. Other than employees, the people at power indulge in workplace politics for
running the organisation on their own terms. Politics can be referred to as behaviour that is
irrational and this behaviour can be found within the individuals working within the organisation.
Politics has more negative effects than positive that creates a negative environment in the
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workplace. The influence of politics is strong on the organisation along with their respective
employees. There exists decrease in the entire productivity of the organisation. Negative impact
can be observed on the concentration of the people working at the organisation. The environment
of the workplace becomes unhealthy for the employees to work in that leads to lower
productivity (Robbins et al., 2013). In addition, the attitude of the employees changes due to
such politics. They become de-motivated due to such a negative environment. The stress
increases amongst the employees and the operations that lower the productivity of the
organisation. The politics can also lead to the employees gaining wrong information given by
people indulging in workplace politics.
Tesco has faced similar issues in the past since it is not easy to build a politics free workplace
environment. Different kinds of people work in the organisation due to which conflicts may arise
in thoughts and interests. Cases of unethical practices were reported to the management team;
however, they were handled with care and understanding by the senior personnel who were not
involved in office space politics.
Influence of Culture:
Various organisations have unique and different working styles that often contribute to the
specific culture within the organisation. The culture of an organisation is formed through the
beliefs, principles, ideologies, and values within the workplace environment. The workplace
culture manages the way by which employees behave with each other within the workplace of
the organisation. In addition, it specifies how the individuals working within the organisation
interact with people of concern outside the organisation. Various theories and models can be
utilised to understand the influence of culture on the productivity and behaviour of the
organisations (Christina et al., 2014). In general, the impact of culture can be observed on the
attitude, behaviour, processes and system, and the leadership running within the organisation.
A positive work culture had been established at the organisation of Tesco in the past. According
to the Handy’s model of culture, there are four kinds of organisational culture that include task
culture, role culture, power culture, and person culture. The culture type specific to organisations
followed by Tesco is the role culture. Organisations that follow this type of culture base their
working and operations on rules. Every individual is assigned their roles and they have clarity
about their jobs within the organisation. Delegated authorities exist within a highly defined
structure and hierarchical bureaucracy is followed in this organisation. According to some
reports, it was observed that the culture in the organisation is not light due to which it affects the
way individuals work, behave, and act within the workplace. The organisation indulged in too
many risks that eroded the share price, the value of the company, and reputation of the
organisation.
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P2: Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context.
Motivation can be referred to as the encouragement or the reason for taking actions in precise
manners. Motivation can either be negative or positive. In most of the cases motivation is
observed to be positive. Motivation that is positive is essential for enhancing and improving the
current level of productivity of the organisation through their business. Different motivational
techniques and theories exist that are utilised by the organisations for improving the conditions
of the work and behaviour at the organisation. Individuals working at the organisation need
positive motivation that can develop and improve the productivity and efficiency of the work
done by them. The various motivational techniques and theories have been elaborated in the
section below that can aid in the improvement of effectiveness within the organisation of Tesco.
These theories of motivation have been developed for explaining the idea of motivation and its
use in the workplace of an organisation. There are two basic groups of theories namely content
theories and process theories (Mester et al., 2018). Content theories are concerned about what
kind of factors is capable of motivating people and on the other hand, process theories are
concerned with how the process of motivation occurs through those specific factors.
The content theories are divided into 4 categories namely Alderfer’s ERG theory, McClelland’s
Need theory, Maslow’s need hierarchy, and Herzberg’s Motivation-hygiene theory. The process
theories are divided into 4 categories as well that are Adam’s Equity theory, reinforcement
theory, Vroom’s expectancy theory, and Carrot and stick approach to motivation.
Content theory
Content theory that is a vital category of the motivation theories highlights the factors required
by the individuals working at the organisation for motivation to perform better than their current
selves. Individuals require change with time and this theory provides a description of why
individuals require this change. This theory focuses more on what factors of motivation are
required by the individuals working at the organisation rather than the process of motivation for
the same. This theory can be considered as one of the oldest theories along with the four
prominent theories as mentioned above. The content motivation theory is related to the
explanation and examination of the factors that bring about positive motivation for the
environment of the organisation like providing job satisfaction, rewards system, and such other
factors (Tyson, 2014). Tesco could apply this content motivation theory in their supervision and
administration for figuring out the factors that could introduce positive motivation within the
workplace. Tesco could utilise the Maslow’s Need Hierarchy that could aid in identifying the
factors of motivation along with the requirements of the individuals working at the organisation.
This would help in restoring the balance within the relations of the employees.
According to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy, steps such as revised salaries and schemes of incentives
could aid in satisfying the needs of security and safety for the employees. In addition, it helps in
maintain transparency with their employees that are not discriminated on the grounds of gender,
race, colour, and such others. Maslow categorised the needs of humans into five different
categories that are security and safety needs, physiological needs, esteem needs, love and
belongingness needs along with self actualisation needs. A pyramid has been structured for
placing these needs according to their importance in the life of an individual. The self
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actualisation needs are put in the beginning of the pyramid, which is of the highest importance
followed by self esteem, love and belongingness, security and safety, and physiological needs
(Kaur, 2013). Tesco can recognise these needs to help the employees improve their current
performance at the organisation.
Figure 1: Motivation theories
(Source: Business Jargons, 2015)
Process theory
The process motivation theory focuses on the way motivation was brought about amongst the
individuals working at the organisation. These include several processes that help in the
development of motivation of the employees at the workplace. This theory focuses on the
essentiality of the critical examining of attitudes and behaviours of the employees for their work
for taking counteractive measures in cases where the productivity of the organisation is not
aligned to the set goals and objectives of the organisation (Robbins and Judge, 2014). The
management department of Tesco could attempt utilising this theory in the practices running
within their organisation for identifying the reasons of dissatisfaction for the employees along
with group criticism received by the management and human resources department of the
organisation. The main objective of this theory is related to devising strategies related to
mitigating the issues arising in the process of motivation. Implementing this theory could help
Tesco prove to their employees that equality lies within the organisation and no employee is
discriminated on any kind of ground.
The theory of Adam’s equity highlights the essentiality of maintaining the balance between the
performance or input of an employee and the output received as a result of the considered input.
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The theory aids in identifying the concealed factors and the variables that may influence the
relation of the employees with their organisation (Robbins et al., 2015). This theory was
discovered on the observation made on the behaviour of an employee regarding de-motivation
due to the feeling that the pay is lesser than their input for the organisation along with benefits
and other perks.
When the levels of motivation will be enhanced and improved for the organisation of Tesco, they
will be able to achieve the goals and objectives set for the organisation since the attitude and
behaviour of the employees will change according to the level of motivation towards the
organisation (Lawrence and Lee, 2013). Several benefits that Tesco could gain by improving the
level of motivation are related to the low rate of employee turnover, positivity in the relations
amongst the employees, and increase in the productivity of the organisation.
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P3: Demonstrate an understanding of what makes an effective team, as opposed to an
ineffective team.
An effective team is the way forward in for any business in this competitive business world.
Effective teams help in the increasing of knowledge beyond the individual capacity and
effectiveness of the team is associated with ensuring that better value is provided to the
organisation (Wheelan, 2014). The trust is a major factor that is associated with building
effective teams. Trust develops when a team goes through various phases of forming, storming
norming and then performing. This ensures that presence of trust helps in the growth of
effective teams (Yang, 2014). With interaction and clear communication processes the effective
teams are built, conflicts get reduced when there is shift of goals from individualistic aspect to
group goals. Ineffective teams lack transparent communication and are more into a rigid mode of
performing rather than flexibility that will make the organizational goals more aligned to the
team goals. Effective teams have the ability to understand and adjust to the diversity in the
organization and these teams take much learning from the varied backgrounds of its members.
However ineffective teams rather than becoming enriched by the diversity are usually in conflict
with the team members. Effective teams have the ability to be more productive and this is the
reason why they are assets in the organization (Levi, 2015).
The Tuckman theory is that , theory which is attached to making the team to travel through
stages which gradually makes the organization develop the team into a effective team from a
nascent ineffective one (Costa et al., 2014). The instilling of discipline is also a way by which
ineffective teams can be transformed into effective units. There is the need to include mutual
respect; trust and these will bring about the synergy that will make the team effective. Through
the stages of forming, storming and norming, strong commitment levels develop in the team that
makes the team effective. Ineffective teams have very poor foundations and there is chaos in the
functioning of the team. Disorganized and chaotic work processes also have the ability to
become disintegrated and this happens due to lack of disciplinary practices in the everyday
activity of the group in question. Coordinated activities form the basis of effectiveness in the
dynamic business environment of today. There are differences in industry and the team dynamics
also change with the change in the industry. Adapting to the situation is often required and
effective teams have the ability to quickly adapt the changes in the environment in a major way.
This is done in a cohesive manner, however in the case of ineffective teams there is so much
internal friction that it becomes impossible for the team to remove the barriers that are there in
the environment (Weberg and Weberg, 2014). There is also major ineffectiveness that is caused
by the leaders in the organization and this happens when there are poor leadership skills in
practice in the organisation. It often leads to teams becoming ineffective because due to the
chaotic unorganized style of leadership, there is tremendous confusion and conflict leading to
disoriented team members leading to ineffective teams (Itri and Lawson, 2016).
Further elaboration of the Tuckman theory can focus on how Tesco can apply this theory in their
organisation that can aid in the process of team building and resolving issues arising in the
formed teams within the organisation. The first stage that is known as Forming is the step that
initiates the process of team building. In this step, the individuals working at the organisation are
not familiar with the other individuals and this step allows them to interact and understand one
another. In this step, the management team of Tesco could initiate this process where the
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individuals would get to know their colleagues and be comfortable to work with them. The
following step is known as Storming. Here the members or the individuals are not completely
known to the expertise and the quality of the other individuals in the group that leads to conflicts
and differences amongst the members assigned to the same team. Individuals take time to adjust
to a new team due to which they may challenge the leader of the team along with the other
members in relation to the style of working adopted by the particular team.
The third step is known as Norming and it can be referred as the step that manages to mitigate
the differences amongst the members of the same team. The differences are mitigated when the
conflicts are decreased and bonding starts amongst the members of the same team. In such a case
when specific work is allocated to the team, the members divide the work peacefully and equally
amongst themselves that leads to efficient and effective completion and execution. The last stage
is known as Performing. This phase is known to supply synergy through the help of balance that
is created between the relationships amongst the members of the team and the work. The
individuals of a team at this stage-manage to work efficiently with each other and they manage to
deliver quality in their performances as well. This framework of team building can help Tesco
maintain the peace and processes of the organisation. It will be easier for them to deal with the
situations that arise due to several issues and setbacks. These steps will help the organisation
maintain the balance between the employee relations and the work of the organisation.
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P4: Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour within an organisational
context and a given business situation.
The basic concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour include individual differences, a
whole person, perception, and motivated behaviour, the value of a person, involvement desire,
and social systems of organisation, dignity of humans, mutual interest, and holistic concepts.
These concepts can be categorised into two sections namely nature of people and nature of
concerned organisation. Concepts such as individual differences, perception, a whole person,
value of person, and motivated behaviour can be considered under the category of nature of
people. On the other hand, social system, mutual interest, dignity of humans, involvement desire,
and holistic concepts can be considered under the section of nature of the organisation. The
concepts are briefly described below in relation to the organisation of Tesco.
Individuals Differences
The concept of individual differences can be considered as a derivation from psychology. Each
person is unique due to which different types of individual behaviours exist amongst the
individuals working in the organisation of Tesco. The differences in the thoughts style of
working between the individuals may give rise to conflicts amongst the employees of the
organisations (Luthans et al., 2015).
Perception
The perception of an individual can vary according to their separate views gained after looking at
a situation or circumstance. This happens due to different experiences gained by two different
individuals. In the case of Tesco, a problem can be viewed and approached differently according
to the perception of different individuals on the same issue. The work is also done differently due
to different perceptions.
A whole person
The personal life of an employee is not very different from their professional life within the
organisation. If the aspects of the working life are not comfortable, it may affect the personal
life, which in turn will affect the productivity of the organisation. Therefore, it is essential that
the working regulations dwelling in Tesco are comfortable for the employees in order to enhance
productivity and profit of the organisation.
Motivated behaviour
A working individual has a couple of needs that they need to fulfil by working hard and giving
their best performance that can lead them to the incentives and rewards provided by the
organisation. Such incentives and rewards are used to motivate the employees towards achieving
the set objectives and goals of the organisation. Similarly, Tesco rewards the employees who
perform better than the others and this can act as motivation for the employees that did not
receive the reward.
Involvement desire
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Employees are highly interested to gain opportunities that can allow them to indulge in the
decision making processes. They seek to share the information they have gained through the
experience from their work years (Argyris, 2017). For such cases, Tesco provides a forum for its
employees where they get an opportunity to express their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and
suggestions that can aid in the processes of decision making.
Value of person
An employee working at an organisation needs to know their importance in the organisation
other than their value regarding labour, capital, or land. They want to be treated with dignity and
respect and they want recognition from the concerned society and the employers. Tesco arranges
programs that can help them talk to their employees regarding their experience at the
organisation.
Dignity of humans
This can be considered as a philosophical concept. Every individual requires respect and dignity
in their workplace; they may be personnel of the organisation or a mere employee. Humans are
one of the most important factors in an organisation and treating them properly must be an act of
utmost importance (Pinder, 2014). Tesco provides recognition to the employees on various
grounds such as employee who has spent the highest number of work years at the organisation.
Social system
Organisations can be considered as social systems therefore the activities of the organisation are
ruled over by laws of the society along with psychological laws. Two kinds of social system
exist within the organisation such as formal and informal. It is evident that the organisation of
Tesco must maintain both the formal and informal social system.
Mutual interests
Individuals require the organisations as much as the organisations require the individuals. Both
the elements cannot work without each other. Individuals require experience at the organisation
to achieve their own goals and objectives and the organisations require the individuals to
complete their organisational objectives (Miner, 2015). Tesco has a high number of employees
that helps the situation of unemployment along with the achievement of organisational
objectives.
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