Organisational Behaviour Assignment: A Portfolio On Business Structure, Leadership & Decision-Making

Question

Organisational Behaviour Assignment Questions : You have applied for a managerial position as a Business Development Manager in a large retail organisation.

Following shortlisting you have been asked to attend for interview. Prior to the interview you need to send in a written portfolio which will help the interview panel to establish your suitability for the post.

Task 1 – Written Portfolio
You must prepare a portfolio of evidence which includes:

• an analysis of the characteristics of different organisational structures
• an explanation of how the culture of an organisation can impact on the effectiveness of the organisation
• an assessment of the impact of learning on the effectiveness of employees
• an evaluation of how working in teams can improve employee effectiveness.

Extension activities:
To gain a merit grade you must also include in your portfolio analysis of:

• how different leadership behaviours impact on organisations.

To gain a distinction grade you must also include in your portfolio analyses of:

• the process and outcomes of change on the effectiveness of employees.

Task 2: You know that questions from the panel will ask for your views on certain management theories. In preparation make detailed notes which:

• evaluate different leadership behaviour theories
• analyse theories relating to work relationships and interactions.

Extension activities:
To gain a merit grade you must:

• evaluate the relevance of organisational culture theory in developing organisational effectiveness.

Task 3 – You should prepare a report which shows how organisations can motivate employees in order to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.

In this report, you must:

• analyse the benefits and issues with involving employees in organisational decision making
• explain different ways to motivate employees.

Extension activities:
To gain a merit grade you must provide an accompanying handout for distribution to each member of the panel. The handout must:

• analyse how motivational theory can inform employee motivation

To gain a distinction grade, using a business organisation of your choice, you must:

• evaluate how a named organisation of your choice motivates its employees.

Answer

Organisational Behaviour Assignment Task 1

Characteristics of different organisational structures

To operate efficiently and effectively, organisations must consider a formal system of communication, task-complete and decision-making that can accomplish the needs of the company. As Morrisons expands internationally, the organisation structure needs to be changed in order to fulfil the benchmarks and objectives of the company. The foremost is functional organisation structure that starts from the highest level of responsibility at the top and continues to organise the specific roles and corresponding function of employees in the organisation (Tsotetsi and Mugova, 2018). It allows employees to focus on their role and encourages teams to feel self-determined independently. Horizontal organisation structure is mainly used by the start-up companies in the need to build the different departments. This structure fosters less supervision and entails more employees in the organisation through open communication and more coordination. In contrast, divisional organisational structure controls their own resources where each division has its own sales, marketing and IT team. Various decisions can be empowered in this structure through a customised and flexible approach without informing the key business decisions to each of the members in the organisation. The matrix organisation structure is entailed with cross-functional teams that perform the special projects with a dynamic view. Aside from the original roles, the employees can encourage other skills and capacities as per the needs of the business (Zondo, 2021). At the last is the hierarchical organisation structure that starts from the notch of a CEO and command goes over the entry-level and low-level employees through proper supervision. Morrisons often follows the hierarchical organisation structure that better defines the role of authority and motivates employees with a good career path and fosters their chances of promotion.

Impact of culture on the organisation

Cultural context plays a vital role in the organisation through shared beliefs and norms. The cultural approach of an organisation is both intrinsically and extrinsically based on the cognitive system which reflects the decision-making style of the employees. Organisational culture in Morrison could be built through essential factors such as structural stability of the employees as well as integration of each member in the organisation through their superior standards. Proper cultural values in the organisation can reduce the gap between the employees and managers in the need to establish a strong relationship (Das and Sinha, 2021). A strong culture can often bring benefits to the organisation through enhanced trust and cooperation among the different departmental employees. It can lead to more efficient decision-making and fewer disagreements in the company that can increase the performance of the firm towards their overarching goals. An informal control mechanism can also be built in the organisation through proper cultural sets that can ensure a strong sense of identification within the company as well as foster open communication among the employees. Effectiveness of a good culture within the organisation can ensure motivated and committed employees, directing the same values and norms as per the ethics of the company. Practising the dimensions of organisational culture through Hofstede theory can be effective for Morrisons to understand the academic and social adjustment of the organisation depending on the business relations of the firm with the industrial market. Organisation culture is strongly attached with the ethical behaviour of employees to make them feel a strong part of the corporate experience as well as affirm a sustainable aggressive advantage to the company (Alibekova et al. 2021).

Impact of learning on the effectiveness of employees

The aim of learning is to deliver a systematic and planned function of the organisation in order to enhance the skill, knowledge and competency level of employees. Learning and training programs incur an employee satisfaction level as it entails accurate information and communication among the employees. Keeping well-trained employees in Morrisons can pay off significantly in terms of their commitment level as a part of the corporate practice. This can further reduce the costs of employee turnover such as exit interviews, separation costs, administrative functions like severance pay, termination and unemployment compensation. Replacement costs can also be reduced through effective learning and skill acquisition programs of employees that can ensure their high engagement with the organisations. The morale of the job is increased through effective learning programs that fosters great loyalty and empathy of employees towards the organisation (Fox et al. 2018). It will let the workers believe in the rationality of excellent training opportunities for employees that can lead to a positive growth rate in their career prospects. Investment in learning and training improves the financial standing of the company which can lower the maintenance costs by reducing the equipment breakdowns and resulting in fewer complaints. Better performance of employees through effective learning in Morrisons requires less need of supervision and brings in more productive work output. The learning opportunities further enhance the cooperation and engagement of employees within the operation and production level of the company in the need to stimulate their best of the abilities for organisation’s growth.

Effectiveness of working in teams

Teamwork plays a vital role in enhancing the efficiency of employees that can directly correlate the productivity of the organisation and yield higher profits. As per the views of Lohmann et al. (2019), teamwork directives motivate each member of the team in order to delegate the individual responsibilities as per their talents and acquisitions. While working in a collaborative fashion through teamwork, the employees can divide the work equitably and develop creative ideas and concepts in the need to conceptualise the business goals of the organisation. Building an internal system of checks and balances can ensure team members to pull their weights and meet all pre-established deadlines that can increase the productivity of the group and further the business. Engaging in work through team practises can highly contribute towards the effectiveness of individual employees as self-assigned tasks in group work can strengthen one's own qualities and bring-in improved quality of the product or service. Teamwork in Morrisons can increase the motivation level of employees through common goals and dependency of the organisation through their best possible practises (Lawlor et al. 2018).

Task 2
Evaluation of different leadership behaviours
Application of leadership theories can help in seeking out certain reasons that cause leaders to behave in a particular way. These theories focus on the characteristics of leaders and recognise the areas that require further improvement that will encourage them to become successful leaders in future. One of such theories is the Great man theory that emphasizes the hereditary characteristic of leaders and its role in developing effective leaders. According to the theory, a leader's capacity is inherent and the required character traits cannot be achieved; rather people are born with such traits. In order to portray leaders as heroic and present them as mythical characters, the theory ignores the probability of gaining leadership charisma to motivate people (Deshwal and Ali, 2020). Trait theory also provides support to the Great man theory as it stated that leadership characters are inherent and these certain inherent leadership qualities have made them superior to others. According to the theory, extroversion, courage and self-confidence are the most desired characteristics that allow individuals to become leaders in future. However, one of the major drawbacks of this theory is that it only points out the key features of leadership but there are many people who possess certain leadership qualities but never achieve the position of leaders. On the other hand, people, who may lack the traits of leadership, often become successful leaders in life (Swain et al. 2018). The theory lacks the in-depth analysis of required leadership characters and behaviours that can make people great leaders. Unlike the above-mentioned theories, contingency theory mainly focuses on the variables that are related to a certain environment and encourage leaders to apply a definite leadership style to deliver a successful outcome. The theory does not emphasize the particular traits of leaders but it tries to achieve the right cord to maintain balance between the behaviour, needs and context to address the specific needs of the organization as well as followers. Adjusting behaviour as per the changing environment is the main priority for the leaders to assess the demand of their followers. Therefore, it can be summarized from the theory that success of leaders depends on different variables such as style of leadership, qualities of leaders and aspects of the present situation.

Analyzing theories relation work relationship and interaction

Interaction between management and employees is essential for the successful outcome of business and it is important for the management to provide clear and concise information to their employees about their assigned duties so that they can achieve their target. Interpersonal communication helps in establishing strong association between the involved individual and allows them to follow a common goal that will serve the best desired result for business. Social exchange theory is one of the famous interpersonal theories that help in basic foundation formation of almost all types of relationships. According to this theory, every individual has expectations from each other and this expectation is the reflection of natural human behaviour that helps in the formation of the intensity of each type of relationship. In order to encourage employees to enhance their level of involvement with organizational activity, they need to maximize the impact of reward programs within minimum cost to develop long lasting relationships with employees (Kozan et al. 2019). Therefore, management of Morrison is required to focus on their existing reward and incentive program to add benefit to each of the involved parties. On the other hand, application of uncertainty reduction theory helps in addressing the most basic process that allow individuals to gain knowledge about other individuals to avoid uncertainties and predict the future behaviour of the involved individuals. Management of organizations need to establish effective communication processes that can encourage authorities to gain knowledge about their employees and successfully reduce the probability of occurrence of uncertainty. The theory has introduced three ways to remove uncertainty from the process such as passive strategies that allow individuals to observe persons, active strategies allow individuals to provide assistance to persona to gather their required information and the last stage is the interactive strategies that will allow involved individuals to share information and disclose themselves to each other. However, application of the theory is most prominent at the beginning of interactions (Gelso and Kline, 2019). Organizations can follow this framework to motivate their employees to know about the present business goals and develop a high level of interpersonal communication strategy to motivate and inspire employees to achieve those goals and benefit the business outcome.

Evaluation of organizational culture theory

Changing nature of the global market has highly influenced the organizational culture and it is necessary for organizations to include changes as per the requirement of the market. In order to increase the effectiveness of the organization, it is important for organizations to adopt new changes within their organizational practice that will help in delivering satisfactory results. Application of organizational theory has also helped in pointing out the important elements that can develop highly influencing organizational culture that can deliver successful results (Erthal and Marques, 2018). On the other hand, effective organizational culture and productive workplace environment will also help in attracting and retaining employees within companies. One of the important elements of developing a sustainable organizational culture is establishing effective communication strategy. Implementation of an efficient communication strategy will help in maintaining consistency within the organizational process and form dynamic relationships between involved team members. Inclusion of effective communication channels also help in sharing opinions with each other and selecting the most effective solutions that can deliver a satisfying outcome. On the other hand, practicing the desired leadership strategy is also an integral part of developing a productive environment (Carvalho et al. 2019). Authentic and transparent leadership approach can inspire their followers to complete each task with integrity and deliver thriving results that can strengthen their position in the global market. Morrison has already established them as a reputed retail organization but to gain competitive advantages over their main competitors, they need to sharpen their organizational culture to enhance the investment level of employees and leaders.

Task 3
Introduction
Motivated employees can put maximum effort in their inner abilities to achieve the organisation goals and ensures high productive work. Better performance of employees results in lower cost of production and achievement of financial objectives of the company. Involving employees in decision-making can foster a sense of team work through a sense of belongingness and increase organisation’s productivity output.

Benefits of involving employees in decision making system

Enhance the commitment level of employees

Involving employees within the decision-making system can help in increasing the level of employee commitments and improve the value of the organization (Scholl et al. 2018). On the other hand, incorporation of employees in decision making systems also affirms the present value of their employees. This kind of organizational environment helps in increasing the level of commitment and encourages them to achieve the organizational goal by offering desired input.

Increased the rate of productivity
Employees often feel more secure about their position within the organization if their opinion can be valued by the management. Overall morale of them can be lifted to improve the overall environment of the organization. It ultimately increased the level of engagement of employees that influenced the rate of productivity in a positive manner.

Issues of involving employees in decision making system

Increasing complexity in communication

Arising complication within the existing communication system is one of the advantages of the employment involvement system. Involving inputs of more employees can also increase the confusion and affect the decision-making ability of the management (Lepri et al. 2018). On the other hand, maintaining consistency within the decision-making system is another difficulty that can arise due to the involvement of employees.

Overstepping boundary between manager and employee

Encouraging employees to take part of the decision-making system can often blur the lines between manager and employee designation. Despite admiring the opinion of employees, managers need to incorporate discipline structure within the organization that is vital for maintaining stability in the work culture.

Different ways of motivation

Establishing supportive environment

Introduction of reward programs
Recognizing the effort of employees through reward and incentive programs can help in improving the morale of employees. In addition to providing competitive salaries and other benefits to the employees, organizations can also be flexible in managing the duty hours that will eventually help in increasing the retention rate of workers. Flexible working hours and opportunity to work from home will inspire employees to maintain work and personal life balance that will ultimately help in increasing the engagement level of employees.

Involve transparency in the system
Maintaining transparency in the business activity is one of the significant factors that can enhance the engagement of employees with organizational activities (Ozkeser, 2019). Sharing data with employees on a regular basis can develop a clear picture about the present situation of business. On the other hand, it is important for an organization to be clear about the financial outcome of business that can provide insight about the current business scenario and improve their morale.

Importance of motivational theory

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs dictates the five categories of human needs that is integral to achieve the personal outcomes. Self-actualisation, safety, esteem, psychological, love and belonging needs entails the most crucial part of effective management in the organisation (Andriani et al. 2018). This theory of motivation ensures the employees to gain insight of their specific needs and accord responsibilities within the organisation as a part of the motivational approaches. Involvement of Maslow’s theory can assure great satisfaction rate of employees through which they can have a good relationship with peers and managers. In addition, this theory of motivation can accomplish the immediate and long-term needs of the employees based on the pyramid. The employees who follow the Maslow’s theoretical insights can increase their likelihood of needs and generate higher productivity rates with increased job satisfaction levels.

McClelland's need theory

McClelland's need theory explores one of the three main motivators of an individual such as affiliation, achievement ad power. Application of this theory can well motivate the employees and develop a strong sense of positivity through their cultural existence and life experiences. The theory can highly influence motivation level of employees by creating friendly and lasting relationships to avoid high-risk situations and uncertainty in business cases (Paaisand PATTIRUHU, 2020). In addition, the employees can enhance their self-esteem and reputation level through the motivation style and coordinate a strong decision-making for the organisation. By knowing the attributes of motivated employees, their expectations can also be accomplished through greater corporate practises and interactive positions in terms of client service and other social approaches.

Motivation practises of Morrisons

At Morrison’s, customer service and provision of quality products or services are the top-most priorities of their organisation. The organisation deals with employee motivation through periodic motivational programs that improves the current motivational attributes of the employees. Inclusion of training and development program for employees has highly influenced their job satisfaction rate as well as ensured rewards and recognition to promote their corporate involvement in the organisation. According to a report, the clash between private equity takeover and break-up risks triggered poor cultural environment in Morrisons but their motivation practises have lifted up employees greatly through a 254-p share rate in the market (Devlin, 2021). As a result of the motivation practises in Morrisons, they have astounded skilled and knowledgeable employees through friendly and well-training behaviours.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be stated that motivation incurs additional skill-sets to employees that explicitly improve their productivity and efficiency in the organisation. Training and skilled workforce can ensure robust business performance and transparency. Involvement of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and McClelland's need theory can highly influence the decision-making of the organisation.

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