Organisational Behaviour: A Case Study of Waitrose

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Organisational Behaviour
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Analyse the influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others in an
organisational context................................................................................................................4
LO2 Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal...................................7
LO3 Demonstrate an understanding on how to co-operate effectively with others.................10
LO4 Apply concepts and philosophies of organisational behaviour to a given business
situation....................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
Reference List..........................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
In this study, organisational behaviour will be discussed. Influence of different behavioural
aspects on an organisation will be discussed over here. Culture, politics and power play key
role on the behaviour of others in an organisational context. In order to achieve organisational
goals, motivation and teamwork helps to understand how cooperation with others is applied
effectively. Different philosophical concepts on organisational behaviour will also be
explained in this context. For this report, Waitrose will be chosen as an example for the case
study analysis. The organisational behaviour and culture of Waitrose that helps to meet its
organisational goals will also be analysed in this case study.
Waitrose is a British based supermarket retailer company and operates as the largest
employee owned type business firm in the UK chain. The internal aspects of Waitrose that
can affect its organisational behaviours as well as overall business environment internally
will be discussed in this context as political, cultural, power, motivation and philosophical
concepts. The whole study will be supported with several theories related to organisational
behaviours of Waitrose. The organisational goals can be met by the organisation if it can
consider the factors that can involve its internal behavioural aspects and factors.
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LO1 Analyse the influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others in
an organisational context.
Introduction:
An organisation always tries to incorporate different internal behavioural aspects in order to
cope up with the external business environment. Hence, for an organisation like Waitrose, it
is important to consider its internal organisational influences like culture, power and politics
respectively. Influences of these three factors on the behaviour of others in this case study
analysis will also be discussed (Wood et al., 2016).
P1. Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power can influence individual
and team behaviour and performance.
Culture, politics and power are three essential factors that can influence an organisation’s
behaviour and performance both at individual level and as well as team or group work. The
case study of Waitrose is also aligned with this analysis for an organisational context. The
influences of these three factors on the team and individual performance and behaviour of
Waitrose is discussed here as follows-
Organisational
Behaviours
Influences
Culture According to the cultural dimension identified by Hofstede, four main
cultural aspects in total can affect the organisational behaviour and
performance both at group or teamwork as well as individual level. These
four dimensions are-
 Masculinity and Femininity
 Individualism and Collectivism
 Avoidance of Uncertainty and
 Power Distance Index (Minkov, 2018)
Waitrose considers these dimensions in order to maintain a positive culture
in order to have an effective performance. Discrimination between two
genders leads in arising complications in an organisational context. Hence, it
is better to avoid this sex discrimination for a company like Waitrose. It does
not incorporate differentiation between femininity and masculinity. Waitrose
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maintains a hierarchal power flow from superior to subordinates internally in
order to build a simple cultural community. Waitrose prefer collectivism
over individualism as it helps them to resolve different organisational issues.
These practices make them as UK’s largest “employee owner type” firm and
growing business outlets very fast. Individual and team performances are
get enhanced due to the behavioural improvement of an individual towards
others in Waitrose context.
Waitrose also prefers a low uncertainty avoidance rate in order to allow its
employees to implement innovations frequently. Waitrose developed a very
strong culture for innovation through employee engagement, such that
Employee engagement is its culture that supports its cultural aspects of
innovation such as disruptive innovation, incremental innovation and
differentiated innovation. The company regularly promotes its innovation
through recognising the best partner ideas in its internal magazine
(waitrose.com, 2019).
Politics Political factors can have both positive and negative influences in an
organisational context. Internal politics can enhance the performances of an
individual at the workplace. Political factors that can affect the performance
and organisational behaviour include referrals, gossips, motivation, partiality,
discrimination and all.
Referrals are considered as a positive sight of politics by which one
individual can manage to get scope for entering a new workplace. On the
other hand, the person who refers others, get appraisal boosting his or her
career. The performance of the organisation is enhanced due to the
employment of new potential staff. From a statistical survey on the
employee’s reviews working under Waitrose, it is shown that employee
referrals are always given a priority and the person who refers, accounts an
extra amount of bonus from the company. Employee referrals ensure the
liability of the resources as that has been given from inside (Brown et al.,
2016).
Gossip is considered as a negative political impact on employee’s behaviour.
One individual may get confused or misunderstand some work-related
information. Moreover, associated with personal information, due to gossips,
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staff can feel mental pressure over his or her potential of tolerance. Waitrose
has build up a very strong community network in order to avoid these kinds
of negative influences, which can reduce the efficiency at workplace.
Motivation is a practice or approach to influence people to work with more
commitment and dedication (Herzberg, 2017). Waitrose arranges several
motivational programmes inside the organisation in order to maintain a
positive working environment in favour of both individual and group work as
well.
Moreover, Waitrose does not include partiality or discrimination as they
judge every employee by their individual performance to improve overall
efficiency.
Power Power is a measure of the abilities to perform or prevent an action. For an
internally strong organisation, the power flow should occur from superiors to
subordinates. The superiors in an organisation possess the power to control an
action. Subordinates are supposed to follow the instructions as power is flown
from their immediate superiors. Waitrose follows a simple organisational
structure in order to maintain the power flow as commands to improve the
performances of both the individual staffs and teams. A team leader or
manager gets an opportunity to instruct his or her team members according to
the simple hierarchical structure.
Proper power distance index helps in maintaining a particular work profile in
a conflict-free environment. For example, Waitrose executes around twenty-
two innovative ideas on average per week by performing a simple power
distance index. Moreover, they maintain a simple performance and position
based salary structure in order to avoid any adverse business scenario. As per
the UK government legislations, Waitrose also focuses on the minimum
wage act as governed by the government.
Working experience is another aspect in which the company measures power,
because as per the business policy of Waitrose, an experienced individual
who already worked under any other retailer business firm previously is
provided with more power, salary and higher position than a fresher is
(Holmes and Stubbe, 2015).
Table-1: Influences of Culture, Politics and Power in an Organisational Behaviour
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(Source: Created by the learner)
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LO2 Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal.
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational
techniques enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context
The content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques are important for
an organisation in order to achieve the goal of it. From the viewpoint of an organisation like
Waitrose, the motivational techniques and theories will be highly effective in order to meet
the standards of the competitive market. There have been many segments where it is seen that
the theories have motivated employees to make a rational change in the entire system (Cook
and Artino Jr, 2016). Some of the content and process theories will be evaluated and their
effectiveness in meeting the goals will be highlighted.
Content Theories
The content theories are those which analyses the factors, which helps an individual to
perform adequately. It also directs the human behaviour to meet the organisational goal and
objectives. Some of the content theories are Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's
motivator-hygiene theory and many else. In the following part Maslow's hierarchy of needs
will be evaluated to identify the impact on organisational development.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
There are different types of needs in individuals’ life, but in this theory they have been
categorised in five different types. Psychological needs are associated with shelter, clothing,
food, drink and others. Safety needs are associated with protection in work place, stability
freedom and many other factors (Lee and Hanna, 2015). On the other hand love and
belongingness needs are related with intimacy, trust, friendship and many other factors. The
esteem factors are related with dignity, status, independence and many other factors. The
factors like personal growth, desire fulfilment and many other things are associated with self-
actualisation.
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Figure-1: Mashlow’s Hierarchy of needs
(Source: Mcleod, 2019)
Evaluation
From the above description, it is evident that the theory is going to contribute in demand
fulfilment of an employee. However, how performance related issues can be solved or
workplace imbalance in Waitrose can be minimised are not detailed in this part. The theory
gives a detailed analysis of the one employee’s essential needs but it does not give any idea
about the process of approach in order to fulfil those (Morrical et al., 2018). The theory has a
rational viewpoint and it can provide proper direction to the management of Waitrose to meet
the requirements of the employees. By fulfilling the desires from psychological perspective,
the management is going to get a major improvement in the employee performance, which
will enhance organisational productivity.
Process Theories
The procedures, which motivate one individual to perform in a proficient manner, are
generally referred to the process theories. In this context, the Goal Setting Theory is going to
be considered because it will provide a proper viewpoint towards development of an
individual.
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Goal Setting Theory
Edwin Locke has proposed the theory and he has pointed that an organisation needs to make
sure that they are giving some goals to the employees to boost up the morale. The goals are
going to make a proficient impact on the employee performance management (Latham et al.,
2017). The goals have to be clearer and vivid in order to achieve them. The challenging goals
are going to enhance the confidence of the employee when he will reach it. This will motivate
him to fulfil future challenges presented to him.
Figure-2: Goal Setting Theory
(Source: Nationalforum.com, 2019)
Evaluation
The goal setting theory has given a direction to the management to take an approach towards
enhanced employee performance management. The management process required to be done
in a rational manner and for that purpose goal setting is a profitable decision. The
management of Waitrose has to think of the fact that rushing towards meeting the goal is
going to decrease the quality of the services and products. Implementing the theory is going
to enhance the employee motivation but it is necessary to monitor the approach of
employees’ to have better idea of their performance (Nationalforum.com, 2019). The theory
has detailed about the productivity increasing process but similar goal achieving will
demoralise the Waitrose employees and for that, they have to be provided with new
challenges after a time interval.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the management process needs to make a better kind of contribution
to the business environment of Waitrose. The different theories have better impact on the
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business development process and in the end; it is going to provide a better kind of service
for business development as well.
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LO3 Demonstrate an understanding on how to co-operate effectively with others.
P3. Demonstrate an understanding of what makes an effective team, as opposed to an
ineffective team.
Having a number of effective teams in an organisation gives it competitive advantages over
others in terms of increased profit count or productivity. An effective team works more
efficiently in a workplace than working as an individual or an ineffective team. Waitrose
follows collectivism over individualism, which reflects the concept of Hofstede’s cultural
dimension model as mentioned earlier (Tench and Topić, 2017). An effective team can be
made by following the steps as follows:
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Four steps to make an
effective team
Leadership establishment
Establish employee relationship
Teamwork
Set common ground rules
Figure-3: Four steps to make an
effective team
(Source: Created by the learner)