Organizational Structure, Motivation, and Tesco: A Management Report

This report provides an analysis of Tesco's organizational structure, focusing on its bureaucratic characteristics and its impact on employee motivation. The report begins by defining management and organizational structure, specifically highlighting the bureaucratic structure adopted by Tesco. It then delves into the characteristics of this structure, such as formalized rules, centralized decision-making, and a clear hierarchy, and discusses both its positive and negative impacts on the company's operations. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to exploring motivation theory, particularly Herzberg's two-factor theory, and how it can be applied to improve employee satisfaction and productivity within Tesco's bureaucratic framework. The report concludes by summarizing the findings and suggesting the need for Tesco to consider alternative organizational structures or management approaches to enhance employee motivation and overall organizational effectiveness. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis and conclusions.

INTRODUCTION TO
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
1. Organizational structure.......................................................................................................................3
2. Characteristics of Bureaucratic organization.......................................................................................4
3. Motivation theory and its impact.........................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCE..............................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Management is an art of creating such an environment where person can work individually or in a
group to attain goals of organization. It is an essential part of any entity. This study is based on
bureaucratic structure of Tesco which have both negative and positive impact on functioning of the
company. This report will assist reader to identify characteristics of such corporation. This will also
include motivational theory which may affected by structure of this enterprise.
1. Organizational structure
Organization is such social system of group of individuals who are managed and structured to
achieve specified goals and objectives. It is an ongoing process and structure will define relationship
between positions and functions. It is an open system which is affected by both internal as well as
external factors of it. An entity is generally established for accomplishment of particular vision and
mission and for this various strategies need to be made which is managed by set of people known as
management. As per the view of (Chang and Smithikrai, 2010), management is an art of getting things
done by others. It is the process of maintaining and designing environment where individuals and group
of individuals work with full efficiency to accomplish desire goals. Therefore, it is an essentials part of
every corporation which assist in achieving set objectives with optimum utilization of resources along
with cost reduction.
Each and every business has a unique and different organizational structure that helps in
allocation of tasks, supervision and coordination. Structures can be simple, flat, adhocracy, matrix, team,
bureaucracy, etc. Bureaucratic structure is also known as tall and hierarchical structure. It is one of the
oldest structure which most of the enterprises adopt to control functions of their business. It is a
centralized organization where all decisions are made by managers and others are not includes in it. It is
in pyramid-cal form. It is organized with high degree of formalities and these charts are exists for every
department. It includes many stages or layers of management which flows from top to lower level. In UK
there are number of entities either small or large which follows this type of structure to run their business.
Some of them are CAPCO, Hilton Hotel, TESCO, British Airways, Marriott Hotel, etc.
(Lewis, 2011) defines that bureaucratic structure is very common in nature and used by many of
the firms and corporations in all over the world. It has both positive as well as negative impact on
functioning of a business. It is generally in favor of large organizations where a number of layers of
management exist. It is a traditional one which is commonly used by every company. Tesco has also
adopted this structure to run its business. One of the main reason behind its adoption is that it is easier in

formation compare to other ones. In past years it was very popular among the all organizations because it
facilitated good command to have control on business functions. Today due to the changing in
technology, increasing in innovation and competition between all entities, enterprises decreases levels of
management.
2. Characteristics of Bureaucratic organization
The basic characteristic of bureaucratic structure of Tesco is that under this chart various rules
and responsibilities are written down and stated clearly. Under this, controlling power is clearly identified
as it is with high ranking managers of a firm. Promotions and appointments of officers are formal in this
and employees are selected by management on the basis of their skills and knowledge. Nature of this is
not flexible because it does not accept any changes quickly. It required time to adapt any emerging
changes. The presence of this structure in organization has a very serious impact on performance and
productivity of employees. According to (Watson, 2011), both small and large enterprises require
structure to operate its functions smoothly and with the use of this bureaucratic structure various problems
of firms may be solved. Corporations like governments, militaries and many other follow this.
As Tesco follows this structure it facilitate a clear chain of command where people know that to
whom they have to report and who reports them. It generate clear set of responsibilities. It also provide a
clear path of advancement and specialization. On the other hand, it has a great impact on motivation of
employees of firm. Under this type of structure only one or few persons have authority to take decisions
and make any changes in any area of business. Employees of entity are not involved in decision making
process. This is the main reason of decreasing motivation among them. This will direct affect the
productivity and profitability of corporation. As per the view of (Angelin and Sudha, 2014), the main aim
of formation of any establishment is to achieve set goals and targets and if employees of unit will are not
motivated by their superior then this may lead to decrease in job satisfaction level. Today, employees do
not want to work in such environment where management does not involve them in decisions making
process.
Management at Tesco needs to adopt such structure under which employees will feel that they are
part of organization. Their participation in various decision making procedures may lead to better
communication among them. This will in turn increase their motivation level which will make them to
work with full efficiency. This is the main reason behind criticizing bureaucratic structure because an
enterprise cannot run without its employees and to run business motivation is essential at every level.

3. Motivation theory and its impact
(Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2015) describes that Tesco require to adopt a motivation theory
that will help management to motivate their employees when required. Herzberg or two factor theory is
suitable for the company. This theory includes two factors i.e. hygiene and motivational factor. In this
theory to motivate workers first of all managers need to identify hygiene factors. It includes issues like
pay or salary, policies of company, physical working conditions, fringe benefits, job security,
interpersonal relations, status, etc. In the absence of these will lead to lack of motivation and the other
factor which actually motivate workforce is intrinsic. It assists management at Tesco to ensure job
satisfaction. These include recognition, advancement, achievements, responsibilities, growth and
promotional opportunities, meaningfulness of the work, etc.
The above factors yield positive satisfactions. These will motivate workers and employees to
work with full efficiency. Through hierarchical structure of the firm may affect these factors of
motivations. Any person whether at lower or higher level expect that persons superior to them will
appreciate them for their performance. This does not happened in this type of structure and therefore it
may lead to dissatisfaction among them. These two above factors have an inverse relationship. In the
presence of intrinsic factors it will motivate workers while on other side in the absence of extrinsic it
reduces motivation among them. This theory helps to boost morale among employees. It is clear form the
above discussion that bureaucratic organizational structure has negative impact on motivation of
employees.
CONCLUSION
This study concluded that bureaucratic structure is an old and traditional structure of an
organization which should be replaced by new one to better functioning of firm. This report describe
about the working conditions of Tesco in respect of this structure. This has a negative impact on
motivation of employees and workers and to overcome from this it needs to adopt Herzberg theory of
motivation. It describes that to motivate workforce at this company management need to identify factors
of dissatisfaction and convert them into motivational.

REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Angeline, S. and Sudha, S., 2014. Leadership styles affecting organizational citizenship behaviour in
selected IT organizations in Chennai. Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management. 7(4). pp.28-
36.
Chang, K. and Smithikrai, C., 2010. Counterproductive behaviour at work: an investigation into reduction
strategies. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 21(8). pp.1272-1288.
Clegg, S.R., Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T., 2015. Managing and organizations: An introduction to theory
and practice. Sage
Lewis, S., 2011. Positive psychology at work: How positive leadership and appreciative inquiry create
inspiring organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Watson, T.J., 2011. Ethnography, reality, and truth: the vital need for studies of ‘how things work’in
organizations and management. Journal of Management Studies. 48(1). pp.202-217