The Influence of Politics, Culture, and Power in Tesco and PwC
Organisational behaviour is defined as the study of understanding the behaviour and attitude of different entities in a corporation by analysing how they interact with others. In today’s competitive business world, companies use organisational behaviour theories to understand the behaviour of their employees which assist them in formulating appropriate policies to establish a positive working environment which increases their productive performance (Griffin and Moorhead, 2011). Various organisational elements influence people’s behaviour in a firm such as culture, politics, and power. This report will focus on analysing the impact of power, culture, and politics on the organisational behaviour of Tesco PLC and compare it with another corporation. Tesco PLC is a British multinational corporation which was founded in 1919, and it operates in the retailing industry. The company manages more than 460,000 employees across its 6809 stores worldwide (Tescoplc, 2018). This report will evaluate various strategies that assist HR managers in motivating teams and individuals in a firm. Further, the report will examine various HR strategies for effective cooperation in an organisation.
This section will analyse the influence of politics, culture, and power in Tesco and compare it with PwC. The London headquarter based consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers or PwC was founded in 1854. The company operates in the professional service industry, and it offers its services worldwide. The firm operates in more than 748 locations with the assistance of 236,000 employees (PwC, 2018a).
Charles Handy provided four different types of culture which include power, role, task, and person. In Power culture, the power is held by just a few individuals who influence the performance of other entities in the firm. People with power decide policies in the enterprise; therefore, there are fewer rules and regulations (Glisson, 2015). Roles and responsibilities strictly control the Role culture based on a set of regulations and actions of everyone in the organisation. The Task culture focuses on creating specific teams for addressing the issues and problems of the enterprise. The success of the enterprise in task culture is based on team dynamics and managers are requiring creating teams with a right mix of employees’ personalities, skills, knowledge, and leadership. In Person culture, employees are considered as superior and unique, and the company is just a collection of individuals that happened to work together. Culture of a company directly correlates with its success because it assists the corporation in increasing their efficiency and achieving organisational objectives (Patnaik, 2011). Positive working culture motivates employees to increase their productive performance which results in increasing company’s profitability.
Types of Culture and Their Impact on Organisational Behaviour
Both of these corporations are multinational, and they are requiring understanding the significance of cultural-difference awareness. Due to globalisation and digitalisation, 21st-century corporations can easily hire employees from different countries which require them to effectively manage cultural difference (Pinder, 2014). HR managers have to maintain effective relationship with employees of different culture effectively for smooth business operations. Lack of effective cross-cultural management leads to increasing organisational conflicts and disputes which reducing employees’ performance and it negatively affects company’s profitability. Therefore, managers have to manage cultural differences by implementing effective organisational behaviour theories.
Geert Hofstede provided Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory framework for cross-cultural communication in corporations. The theory provided six dimensions for distinguishing different organisational culture in corporations which include power distance index, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance index, pragmatic versus normative and indulgence versus restraint (Taras, Kirkman and Steel, 2010). These dimensions explain the extent up to which employees in a firm accept its culture. In Tesco PLC, the power is clearly distributed based on the hierarchy of employees which establish a positive culture in the enterprise. The company also has collectivism dimension in which employees work together to achieve common goals. The firm is also long-term oriented and focused towards developing employees’ skills (Mazanec, et al., 2015).
Effective communication assists corporations in establishing a positive organisational culture which results in improving employees’ productive performance. The principles of Network theory and Systems theory assist mangers in implementing effective communication channels to establish a positive working environment. Network theory studies the social structure in an enterprise and analyses its relationship with individuals, group, and the corporation that are influenced by their behaviour and beliefs (Myers and Sadaghiani, 2010). System theory was provided by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. The theory focuses on dividing the organisational system into different components which creates the business structure. The system of system includes two approaches: cross-sectional and developmental. The cross-sectional approach analyses the interaction between two systems whereas development approach focuses on changing the business system over time. Effective communication is a key to organisational success because it assists in establishing a positive working environment in which employees their quarries and ideas with top-level management (Kandlousi, Ali, and Abdollahi, 2010).
Organisational politics plays a crucial role in the effective performance of a corporation. It is defined as unofficial and information ideas or activities which influence organisational entities that result in achieving targeted goals in the firm. Effective managers use organisational politics to influence the performance of employees and establish a positive working environment. Politics strategy assists managers in setting the disputes between employees during organisational change (Kacmar et al., 2011). Organisational change is a key part of an enterprise which assists companies in changing their business strategy as per rapidly changing marketing requirements. The personal, structural and decisional change also influences the organisational behaviour in an enterprise and its culture.
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory
Power has a significant influence on organisational culture since the individuals with decision-making power changes and implements new policies in the enterprise. Power allows managers to take appropriate actions in the enterprise which assist them in effectively implementing organisational change. There are different they of powers in organisations such as coercive, connection, reward, informational, legitimate, referent and expert (Levine, 2010). These types define the sources of power as well which provide how employees achieve their power to take actions. Power assist corporation in making appropriate changes which resulted in improving the organisational culture in a firm.
Organisational psychology is defined as the process of scientifically studying the process of human behaviour in a corporation which assists in increasing employees, employer and consumers’ satisfaction (Mohammad, Quoquab Habib, and Alias, 2011). The data collected from the analysis assist corporation in implementing appropriate policies that result in improving satisfaction of different entities in a company.
Tesco PLC has implemented “Role culture” in their organisation to manage their large number of stores. The enterprise divided the work into different responsibilities and assigned them to different employees. It allows them to maintain a formal structure that focuses on efficiency. PwC, on the other hand, has implemented “Task culture” in their corporation which assists in providing professional services to a large number of clients. The company has established different departments in their enterprise to offer a wide range of professional services to its customers such as consultancy, taxation, cybersecurity, digital services, management and many others (PwC, 2018b). The company use task culture to divide the work between different departments which assist in increasing their efficiency and effectiveness.
Politics also play a crucial role in the enterprise because it assists managers in unofficially taking the initiative to direct employees towards achieving organisational objectives. Tesco and PwC both hire people from different countries who have different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, both of these corporations implement cross-cultural policies to implement a positive organisational culture in the enterprise which resulted in increasing their efficiency (Tan and Waheed, 2011). Both of these companies divide power among their employees differently. The power in Tesco is divided by the hierarchy in which senior and top-level employees have power over other workers. Whereas in PwC, the power is not based on hierarchy, instead people in groups have similar powers, and they decide after consulting with others. Tesco should increase their employees’ engagement in decision-making to motive them which will improve their performance. Culture, power, and politics assist both these corporations in maintaining a competitive advantage which proves that these factors assist corporation in succeeding in their respective industries.
Effective Communication in Corporations
In Extrinsic motivation method, managers use reward or punishment methods to increase employees’ performance and improve their behaviour in the company. In Intrinsic motivation method, people are rewarded personally rather than externally in order to increase their performance. Extrinsic rewards include increase in basic salary, bonus, incentives and other monetary rewards. Intrinsic rewards include appraisal, job satisfaction, encouragement, recognition and other rewards (Hung et al., 2011).
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs: It is one of the most popular motivation theories which were provided by Abraham Maslow. The theory divided human needs into five categories which include physiological, security, belongings, esteem and self-actualisations. Managers can analyse their employees’ requirement and fulfil them in order to increase their performance. The effectiveness of motivations theories increases if they assist in fulfilling employees’ requirements which positive influence their behaviour (Sadri and Bowen, 2011).
Herzberg Motivation-Hygiene Theory: It is also known as the Two-factor theory, and it was provided by Frederick Herzberg. The theory provides that there are separate sets of motivators and hygiene factors that influence employee satisfaction. Motivators include various factors such as challenging work, responsibility, opportunity to work for something meaningful, sense of importance, recognition and many others. Hygiene factors include fringe benefits, salary, status, job security, insurance, vacation, working condition and many others (Pegler, 2012).
Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory: It focuses on establishing “SMART” goals for employees which challenges them to improve their performance. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. In 1990, Locke and Latham published their book together which provided five key principles of goal setting. The principles include clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback and task complexity. Managers should clearly set goals for employees and properly communicate them. The goals are required to be challenging enough, and it requires commitment of both workers and managers (Locke and Latham, 2013). The managers are required to continuously collect feedback to ensure that employees are working towards achieving their goals. The tasks shouldn’t be too complex for employees because it might discourage them.
Vroom’s Expectancy Motivation Theory: This theory provides that employees act in a certain way because they are motivated to act in a specific behaviour. The theory analyse how an employee processes to various motivational factors which assist managers in implementing appropriate policies for their motivation (Estes and Polnick, 2012).
Tesco PLC has implemented Herzberg theory to encourage their employees to perform better. The company has established effective communication channels between employees and management which allow staff members to provide their feedback and quarries in the enterprise. The employees become motivated in Tesco because they feel like they are a part of the company. Employees are able to provide their quarries directly to the top-level management which result in establishing a positive organisational culture (Yamuna and Devi, 2016). Leaders play a crucial role in implementing motivation strategies in the organisation. Effective leadership approach assists managers in upgrading motivation theories as per market requirements and implement at across different divisions in the enterprise. The corporation should also implement Locke’s Goal-Setting theory since it can assist in challenges its workers to improve their performance by achieving small targets. Various international corporations use Locke’s Goal-Setting theory to increase employee job satisfaction which results in enhancing their efficiencies such as Coca-Cola, Nike, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft and many others.
The Role of Organisational Politics
Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability of a person to understand and manage his/her own emotions and the emotions of others as well. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence are able to know what they are feeling and what does it mean and how these feeling can influence others. Emotional intelligence is one of the most crucial skills for effective leaders which assist them in understanding his/her own and others emotions in conflicting situations and provide solutions that are suitable for everyone. The key elements of emotional intelligence include empathy, self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills and motivation (Clarke, 2010). These factors assist leaders in assessing organisational behaviour and implement policies to improve its culture.
Soft skills are referred as personality traits of a person such as behaviour, attitude, and habits which are displayed when people work with others. Good soft skills assist managers in effectively managing employees and teams by establishing a positive organisational culture. Soft skills also assist managers in resolving conflicts between employees. Managers use soft skills to encourage employees and motivate them to improve their productive performance (Laker and Powell, 2011). The key soft skills for managers include dependability, work ethic, honesty, effective communication ability, teamwork, flexibility, time management skills and decision-making ability.
This approach provides a leadership model which provides that most leadership behaviours include relationship and performance maintenance. Task-oriented approach provides that managers should focus on tasks that are necessary to be performed which assist in the achievement of organisational goals or achieving performance standards. Relationship-oriented approach focuses on motivation, general wellbeing, and satisfaction of team members in an enterprise (Aryee et al., 2012).
The Psychodynamic approach includes various other behavioural theories that influence a person’s attitude, emotions, and feeling. The theory assists managers in understanding the relation between conscious and unconscious motivation. Managers use this theory to recognise and understand the feelings of employees which are affected by various unconscious motives. The theory provides that people’s behaviour is directly influenced by childhood experiences (Lee, 2010). By analysing employees’ behaviour through this theory, management can implement or change current policies that motivate employees to increase their performance.
A company creates teams in order to bring employees together and direct them towards achieving a common goal. Unlike the traditional approach, modern teamwork approach incorporates it into culture and activities of a corporation. Many studies have proved that employees are more productive while working in teams than compared to working alone (Gillespie et al., 2010). Managers use organisational behaviour theories to promote effective teamwork among employees which result in establishing a positive culture in the company and increase its profitability. Following are different types of teams that benefit an organisation.
The Impact of Power on Organisational Behaviour
Problem-solving team: It is a team in which people from different department of a company who possess different skills, interest, and ability come together for providing a fast and permanent solution for organisational problems.
Quality teams: These teams include various talented and qualified employees who possess different skills and knowledge. All these team members focus on resolving specific organisational issues that negatively affect its working environment and efficiency. These are cross functions teams which mean employees from different departments join these teams to provide different perspectives. Usually, these teams are temporary, and they dissolved after achievement of their objective.
Project teams: The employees in a project team work towards achieving common goals and managers use this type of team because it allows them to set the work in a measurable, specific and time constrained way.
Functional teams: These are permanent teams that include employees from a similar department who has different responsibilities and roles. A manager is assigned to the team who is responsible for its operations and everyone in the team reports back to him.
Due to the advancement of technology, corporations use different technologies to perform their daily operations. The concept of “Virtual teams” has grown popular due to the advancement of technology specifically internet or social media sites (Majchrzak et al., 2014). Virtual teams include members from different physical locations who rely on internet collaboration tools to perform their actions. Virtual teams allow managers to employ the best experts in the field and join them in a team that discusses matters through video or voice chats and provide solutions to organisational problems.
The term ‘group’ is defined as a large number of individuals who form a unit to perform or achieve a specific cause or goal. Team is defined as a collection of people that come together for the achievement of a common objective that needs completion. A team’s strength is based on connection and relationship between team members, whereas, a group can be formed by coming together of a large number of people. (Humphrey and Aime, 2014)
Bruce Tuckman has provided that there are three issues which influence a team’s performance: content, process, and feelings. He provided a four-stage development model that addresses these issues which reduces inefficient factors and increases team’s performance. The forming-storming-norming-performing model assists in tackling problems related to a team’s performance and provide solutions that increase their performance. These development stages have a significant impact on the development of individual since it provides them the opportunity to recognise and utilise their full potential by working in an effective team (Bonebright, 2010). The Forming stage provides that teams meet and set their objectives, and they should focus on common objectives rather than personal benefits. In storming stage, team members resist the work and find reasons to avoid achieving common objectives. In norming stage, team members focus on becoming part of the team, and they implement plans for achieving tasks. In performing stage, the members concerned about getting the job done and solving problems for achieving the team’s objectives. Along with a team’s development, these stages also influence a person’s development because he/she go through these stages which develop his/her skills.
Organisational Psychology
Dr. Meredith Belbin provided this approach after studying teamwork for years. Teams perform at their best when each member clearly understood of his/her responsibility. This model assists managers in analysing employees’ skills and dividing work between them clearly. The responsibility of each team member must be specified by the manager clearly to avoid any confusion which reduces team members’ performance (Van Dierendonck and Groen, 2011). The key roles and skills required for effective team include balanced roles and responsibilities, clear objectives, effective processes, good communication, support and trust, individual development and many others.
Cooperation means when two or more people work together to achieve a common objective. Competition means when two or more people struggle with each other to gain possession of any goods or service. Cooperation and competition are key part of a team, and they influence the performance of team members (Bullinger et al., 2010). Managers implement organisation behaviour theories to maintain cooperation in teams, but little competition encourages members to improve their performance. Soft and hard communications skills assist in maintain cooperation or competition in a team.
Benefits
- Improve performance
- Coordinated work
- Financial savings
- Better and faster solutions
- Competitive advantage
- Mutual support
- Positive working environment
Risks
- Lack of flexibility
- Risk of conflicts
- Complexity in decision-making
- Loss of organisational resources
- Diversion of energy
For effective cooperative functions, managers require resolving team conflicts. Managers can implement various organisation behaviour theories for conflict resolution. For example, managers should change the structure of teams in conflicting situations which will resolve the conflict. The managers can change the composition of the team to ensure that separate personality employees are able to work with disputes (Kossek et al., 2011). Conflicts are also resolved by problem-solving in which managers listen to disputing parties and offer a middle group. Managers can also consider majority voting to decide in conflicting situations. These factors assist managers in resolving conflicts which improve team’s performance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, HR managers use organisational behaviour theories to study the behaviour of employees which assist them in implementing appropriate policies that improve company’s efficiency. Culture, politics, and power have a significant impact on the behaviour of entities in a corporation and HR managers are required addressing these issues by implementing appropriate strategies. Due to globalisation, managers implement organisational behaviour theories to address the challenges of cross-cultural different and maintain effective relationship with employees. Various motivational theories assist HR managers in encouraging employees to improve their productive performance. Effective cooperation is necessary for modern corporations since it increases their efficiency and provides them a competitive advantage. Effective teamwork increases a company’s efficiency and assists in faster achievement of organisational goals. By implementing effective organisational behaviour strategies, managers can improve their company’s efficiency and sustain their future development.
HR Strategies for Effective Cooperation in an Organisation
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