Introduction
Organisational Behaviour is referred to the sector which undertakes the behaviour of individuals working in a business setting. Such studies help organisation to grow in an effective way. It also helps companies in applying scientific approach to manage their workforce. The following report is based on TESCO Plc, which is one of the biggest retail organisation in the UK. The agenda of this report is to analyse how team performance and behaviour is influenced by the organisations culture, politics and power and evaluation of content and process theories of motivational techniques.
TASK 1
Analysis of how TESCO’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team behaviour and performance
Organisation Culture:
Culture of an organisation is quite important as it helps in determining their beliefs and values according to which they perform their duties and tasks. There are various departments within TESCO and it is important that the culture which is followed that is most beneficial for the organisation. Handy's Model of Organisational Culture could effectively be used to determine the influence of culture on company's behaviour and performance.
- Power Culture: In this culture, the power or authorities are held by few individuals. Their decisions influence the whole organisation and very few regulations are imposed on the employees under this. With presence of this culture, judging criteria of employees would be on the basis of their achievement. There will be quick decision-making and working in the firm would be decided on the basis of their decisions.
- Role Culture: Under this, the roles and responsibilities of employees are crystal clear and the environment is quite controlled. The position of individual decides their power in the structure. This culture fits best in organisations with long chains of command. This culture would influence TESCO in the way decisions would be taken as role culture slows this process. Where the behaviour is concerned, under this culture, probability of risk taking in the firm also reduces in this culture.
- Task Culture: The formulation of this culture is during a specific project or organisational problem. The distribution of power depends upon the nature of the problem and upon the blend of members. If TESCO adopts this culture, the performance would be dependant upon the effective teams with the required skills, leadership and personality. Effective teams would also facilitate positive behaviour in the firm and enhance productivity of the firm.
- Person Culture: Individuals in this culture consider themselves to be superior and unique in the firm. The organisation is simply established for them to work. Organisations with these cultures have individuals coming from similar backgrounds, expertise and training. If TESCO follows this culture, it will be almost impossible to maintain hierarchies and the work would be performed on the basis of mutual consent.
Out of all these cultures, the most favourable culture for TESCO would be role culture which would help the firm in enhancing their productivity and sustainability.
Organisation Power:
Power exists in every organisation. The distribution, however, depends upon their position or skills. Each individual in the firm experiences varied degrees of power. For better understanding the power of in TESCO, it is imperative that 5 sources of power given by Bertram Raven and John French in 1959 be understood that are likely to be present in the firm. These are as follows:
- Legitimate Power: This power is also referred as positional power as the power is derived from an individual's position in the company's hierarchy. This power would allow managers at TESCO to exercise effective decision-making power. In addition, effective reporting from the juniors would allow the company to perform in a better way and facilitate disciplinary behaviour within the firm.
- Expert Power: This power is possessed by individuals on the basis of knowledge and expertise they possess. Individuals having this kind of power are highly valued within TESCO as critical tasks are being performed by them. Employees holding this kind of power usually end up gaining legitimate power too. Moreover, these employees would help TESCO in enhancing its performance.
- Coercive Power: This is the kind of power used by individuals to coerce and threaten others to perform in a certain manner or achieve a certain task. The methods used could be terminations, salary cuts and so forth. The impact of this on the performance could be that employees might perform ineffectively under such high pressure and their behaviour too would be negative for the firm.
- Referent Power: This type of power is gained through effective interpersonal relationships within the firm. The access of power is gained by certain employees simply by making others like them and by development of good connections. Individuals in TESCO could gain such power by maintaining healthy relations and better approachability towards them. The behaviour in the organisation is quite favourable in this kind of power.
- Reward Power: This kind of power is gained by the employees who have the authority of giving incentives to the firm. They allocate these incentives in the way of bonuses, hikes, paid leaves, etc. which influence the behaviour as well as performance of employees. This power would help TESCO in motivating the employees and create an environment of healthy working in the organisation.
Organisational Politics:
Organisational Politics, if used in a correct manner could be beneficial for an organisation. Every company has a political facet and set of rules and regulations that are required for them to work in a systematic way. It is imperative that individuals working in TESCO use their own agendas and objectives to fulfil organisational growth requirements. Moreover, the authority and power exercised in the organisation must be effectively used to promote ethical practices and discrimination-free environment for the employees.
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TASK 2
Evaluation of how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques enable effective achievement of goals in TESCO
Motivation refers to the methods used to develop intention in individuals to work in a more effective manner. TESCO could use motivation as an effective tool to achieve its operational and organisational goals effectively.
There are two types of Motivational theories that could be efficient and beneficial for the organisation. These are described below:
Content Theory:
The focus on these theories is on the management policies and practice and what behaviour of individual is motivated. They identify individual needs and the right kind of motivation to fulfil the same. The theory covered under this is described below:
- Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs:
This theory is based on individual needs while working for an organisation. TESCO, in order to motivate its employees must focus on all these needs which are mentioned as under:
- Psychological Needs: The basic need of any employee working in TESCO would be to receive a pay that is enough to fulfil their psychological needs like such as food and shelter.
- Safety and Security: Another need of employees of this firm would be to get effective training in order to ensure their safety while working with different equipments.
- Love and Belongingness: While working in TESCO, the need of employees would be to effectively be accepted in the firm and be a prominent part of their teamwork to contribute better in its success.
- Self Esteem: This need arises when individual reach a certain level and start feeling the want of being valued within the firm. They need respect and acceptance within the company in this stage.
- Self Actualisation: The last step requires individuals to grow and achieve their highest potential in the workplace. They undertake creative tasks and challenging position to accomplish every possible situation in a most effective way.
There are various advantages if TESCO uses this theory for motivation:
- This theory is quite simple to understand as well as to apply.
- Basic human nature is applied which makes it quite effective for employees.
However, there are certain disadvantages Safety and Security:too of this theory:
- There are various ways in which individuals perceive things at the workplace which makes it ineffective for TESCO.
- This theory is quite complex to measure as it is in qualitative terms.
Process Theory: These theories focus on how employee behaviour could be motivated. They undertakes the process of occurrence of motivation and its kind to influence behaviour of individuals. The theory which is covered under Process Theory is discussed below:
- Adam's Equity Theory: This theory undertakes the idea of maintaining a fair relationship between individual performance and their rewards in comparison with other employees. The ideology is to keep employee input more than their outputs. In TESCO, the various types of exchange relationships arising while comparing input/output of one individuals with others are described below:
- Overpaid Inequity: This is the stage when perception is developed by an employee about their outputs being more than their inputs as compared to others.
- Underpaid Inequity: In this stage, the perception developed by employees is about their incomes being less than their outcomes in relation with others.
- Equity: Individuals in case perceive that their incomes and outputs are equal from that of others.
Fair treatment is the main source of motivation according to this theory. It is imperative in TESCO in order to ensure a healthy working environment.
The advantages associated with this theory is described below:
- Managers of TESCO using this theory could make them realise that one of the most important motive of people in the organisation is equity.
- This theory could effectively contribute to motivational theory and practice.
The disadvantages of Adam's Equity theory is mentioned as under:
- This theory is ineffective in describing actions taken by a person to re-establish equity if inequity is perceived.
- All the motivation factor are not considered in this theory. Only personal perception is considered.
Conclusion
Thus, it is concluded that organisational behaviour is quite important to regulate and monitor to ensure effective working. Organisation's culture, power and politics play a crucial role in determining the behaviour and performance of the organisation. Moreover, evaluation of various theories of motivation determine the most effective way in which employees in organisation could be motivated.
References
- Coccia, M. and Cadario, E., 2014. Organisational (un) learning of public research labs in turbulent context.International Journal of Innovation and Learning.15(2). pp.115-129.
- Coccia, M., 2014. Structure and organisational behaviour of public research institutions under unstable growth of human resources.International Journal of Services Technology and Management.20(4-6). pp.251-266.
- Kitchin, D., 2017.An introduction to organisational behaviour for managers and engineers: A group and multicultural approach. Routledge.
- Wilkinson, A., and et. al., 2014.Handbook of research on employee voice: Elgar original reference. Edward Elgar Publishing.