ORGANISATIONS AND BEHAVIOUR (SM18)

Introduction:

Organisational behaviour plays an important role for providing a better future to a company. It consists of the management team and the employees whose behavior will reflect their organisation’s perspectives. Behaviour of organization here means the behaviour of individual to an organization i.e. employee activity, his approach to senior and management department,how he handle the work pressure. On the other hand, culture of the company and management are important factors which influence the growth of productivity of an organisation. Here in this report, John Lewis has been chosen for providing a clear understanding about the topic. This study has discussed about the relationship between the structure and culture of an entity and its impact on organisational productivity. Apart from this, various approaches of leadership and management have been analysed that play a significant role in maintaining a healthy work culture within an organisation. Finally, different motivational factors have been described, in order to understand the mechanisms that are essential for the development of effective teamwork culture in workplace.

Figure: John Lewis Partnership Logo

(Source: Knowledge, J. 2017).

L01 Relationship between organisational structure and its culture

1.1 Comparing and analyzing between the structures and cultures of different organisations

According to Le Marne and Harris, (2017, p.2), when organisations and its employees share a mutual culture, the working environment makes it easier for them for sharing common visions and following productive methods to achieve the desired goal. A composite culture focuses on a positive impact on the organisation in terms of motivation. It boosts up employees to recognize with the organisation in order to feel responsible towards the work. Different companies have different organisational structure and relevant cultures along with it. Organisational structure gets influenced by several factors like size, its purpose, variations of tasks it performs, external factors, culture and its product and services.

John Lewis Partnership has the hierarchical structure compared to other organisations which will govern the ways the organisation will perform its activities with positive and negative impacts (Knowledge, J. (2017). Mainly two types of structures exist in an organisation; the first one is the formal structure that describes individual ranks, power channels, section and elements of an organisation. The second one is the informal structure which explains about the interaction between the employees in an organisation. In contrast to a hierarchical structure is a flat organisational structure which has limited layers of management and a tall hierarchical structure which would not fit the entrepreneurial culture. As stated by Shah et al. (2017, p.240), organisational culture celebrates individual personality, honesty, and openness at the workplace. Employees here are independent to identify their aspirations. Other organisations built some aspects to run its development progress by individual growth opportunities, experience, and reward on the basis of performance.

Figure 2: Hierarchical Structure of an Organisation

(Source: Saunila, 2017, p.27)

1.2 The importance and impact of the relationship of structure and culture on the performance of the business

As opined by Masai et al. (2017, p.55), in the study of organisation, productive performance is a fundamental subject which is the most common and easy to understand concept used in the organisation theory. Failure in understanding the procedures of organisational goals, the performance level, the markets, and methods of business, structure and all the essential features of an organisation causes faulty hypothesis of performance. Decisions once made in an organisation like John Lewis Partnership on the basis of the performance of the employees in the workplace, employee’s behavior expectations, achievement of the workers, it can then execute the structure and promote marketing, culture and customs of an organisation in order to achieve the expected audacity, behavior and objectives (Knowledge, J. (2017). The role of a structure is not only to increase the capabilities of an organisation but also the procedures involve high performance.

According to Mulej et al. (2017, p.147), a poorly designed organisational structure that consists of well performing employees gets adapted to the poor structure. Such situation occurs because of the reasons that the employee’s does not have full control on the procedures, methods, rules and regulations, supporting system of an organisation. Therefore, in many organisations, the performance management often magnifies these feelings that promptly push the employees to act according to the structure, system or the forceful methods.

The relationship between the performance and culture, a number of substantial publications are there for guiding it. High performance within different organizations causes the appearance of strong culture. When an organisation performs well, collective principles, duties and standards of an organisation of different sectors takes place. This kind of culture proves that in order to be a commodity of high performance, critical elements are used for distributing in the success of an organisation.

1.3 Mentioning the factor in a list which could affect the behaviour of an employee and manager should be aware of that factor when a new policy has been implemented.

The new policy when developed in an organisation is affecting the behaviour of an employee (Joseph et al. 2015, p.35). Employee has the tendency to work and behave accordingly as per the old rule and regulation. All of a sudden, because of changing policy, employee need little gap of time where he wanted to adopt the   new changes. Sometime new policy affect very badly to the relationship between employee and customer. Sale manager should be aware of that and find out solution by handling their client by himself.

New changes or policies are impacting the organisation and employee are resistant to the new change of the organisation. The transition of new software is a part of new change which affects the working speed of employee and it would take some time to understand by employee. It is the job of the management team to conduct training for this new transition and sale manager must have all the knowledge of system.

LO2 Different accesses to management and leadership

2.1 Contrasting the efficiency of various leadership styles in different organisational situations

As stated by Ali, (2017, p.20), an organisation is having different types of leadership styles in various situations for growing its business worldwide for future investment. The basic types of leadership styles are as follows:

Autocratic: These leaders are mainly inexperienced with leadership criteria which involve people management. They can even cause damage to the organisation by forcing their subordinates to implement the strategies and services in a very restricted way. Autocratic leadership does not include commitment, innovation thinking and creative ideas which lead to failure of the task in an organisation.

Bureaucratic: This type of leaders acts according to assigned policies and procedures with creativity to meet organisational goals. It is most effective for John Lewis Partnership when its employees are performing routine tasks on a regular basis and when safety training is conducted. For other organisations it has been observed to be productive when the employees are performing jobs of handling cash.

Democratic: As mentioned by Akram et al. (2017, p.175), democratic leaders encourages the employees to take part in decision making, keeps them notified about everything that creates an impact on their work and make them aware of the responsibilities to solve problems. It develops pan for helping their subordinates in evaluating their own performance level and also allows bringing up individual goals. It is most effective for John Lewis Partnership when it decides to boost team building and active participation of all team members.

Charismatic: This type of leadership provides a fruitful ground for the purpose of creativity and innovative performance which is very motivational for the employees to work in an organisation irrespective of any situation. The leaders have a vision and mission as well as personality for motivating their subordinates to execute their individual goals.

Transactional: This types of leaders always in a will to return something for following them effectively in the situations like; promotion, performance review, new duties and changes in responsibilities It can be quite effective in many organisational situations by creating motivational members which adds an advantage to the respective organisation.

2.2 Functions of management in the Sales Department

According to McCarthy, (2017, p.1471), the management team plays a crucial role in the sales department in order to uplift the progress of the company’s developing structure. The important functions of the Sales Manager in an organisation are discussed below:

Managerial Functions: As stated by Panuwatwanich et al. (2017, p.60), the key role of a sales manager in John Lewis Partnership is managing sales operation which includes short and long-term sales policies and sales objectives for development. They also execute their responsibilities by consulting with other heads of departments in an organisation. It is the duty of him to establish informative sales programs in order to improve competitive positions of the department, to reduce the price of redistribution and achieving all the sales objectives which are predetermined on the basis of quality and quantity. Their function also involves certain procedure like; recruitment, training, selection and motivation in the best significance of the organisation.

Administrative Functions: Sales Manager is the administrative head of the sales department of an organisation who imposes total control on the employees and executes sales office. It is his duty to create an effective plan of sales enterprises and also managing the actions of the entire workers under his control. The sales manager is the leader of the sales personnel for guiding and directing their subordinates to maintain his own role effectively. One of the vital functions that a sales manager imposes is an administration of sales office which involves a large amount of paperwork and keeping details of records depending upon the assigned duties.

Miscellaneous Functions: As commented by Gkorezis and Petridou (2017, p.5), it is the duty of the sales manager to make sure long-term consumer relationship for achieving prospectus goals. For conducting individual selling to increase the volume of sales, sales manager plans and executes the strategies for supervising and controlling the efforts of sales implemented by sales personnel. Organisations are facing market competition for which substitutes are entering into the market. It is the function of the sales manager to inform about it to the top level authority along with his recommendations. He is responsible for maintaining discipline in the organisation for better outcomes. Organising sales promotion activities such as seminars and conferences where sales members and customers are getting incentives. He also prepares sales budget for an organisation to have a proper maintenance in the workplace.

Figure 3: Functions of Management in Sales Department

(Source: Gray et al. 2016, p.852)

2.3 Recommendations for evaluating different accesses to management skills & theories for the development of sales department

According to Sethibe and Steyn, (2017, p.175), various approaches have been evaluated to management skills and its theories gradually which has its impact on sales department as well. In order to improve for future benefits, certain recommendations have been discussed: Planning is the key aspect of managing the organisational work better in a systematic way by determining aims of the organisation, a course of action selection, initiating different activities for transforming plans into actions for the best outcomes. Strategic planning is also implemented by the management team of John Lewis Partnership for marketing goals and promoting the business to other target markets.

As stated by Chantall-Rocha and Japyassú, (2017, p.147), time management is very important for the managers in order to monitor and analyze the work that should go on time and meet the deadline which will also be effective in marketing proposals. Staffing is a vital aspect that needs to be carried in organisations for managing an old and expanded company by getting right target market. Human resource planning is an integral part of staffing to get an idea about the pricing for implementing objectives. The recruitment process must be effective in an organisation where the main role will be to write job description specifically. The directing team must be alert to do their respective work and identify the best qualities among its subordinates like communication skills, education qualification, human relation skills and motivation. According to (Abdeen et al. (2017, p.308), reporting is needed for the managers to implement it as a coordinating factor to transmit the information actively to execute the process effectively. Budgeting is very crucial for organisations to create fiscal planning, revenue structure to meet the objectives and future deals to long run the organisation. It requires a definite understanding and specific planning for development structure within the enterprises.

LO3 Methods of using motivational theories in an organisation

3.1 How the motivational theories influence worker of an organisation

In the opinion of Zingg et al. (2015, p.221), the organisation comprises of employee and infrastructure. Some rule-driven organisation is strictly following the schedule and maintains pressure on employee to meet their target. A good organisation signifies by not only his production ratio but also their culture. Inspiration for employee is necessary to make them work enthusiastically. Taking the example of John Lewis Partnership, a renowned company, has set up example of an organisation that has vision to achieve success in business.

In the opinion of Joshi (2016, p.55), employee is the most important factor, a company should be flexible with employee and should give feedback of work done by the employee. Manager should assign work as per the capability of individual. Employee may have normal iq but better memory or vice versa, work should go as per the skill of the employee. Therefore, it is the responsibility of manager to identify the person.

John Lewis partnership’s principles are very simple and crystal clear. Company believes in the happiness of employee, which would definitely lead to power, knowledge and profit. This company is the role model for the organisation those are already setup their business and also for the startup. It is company with 86,700 partners which make it unique organisation in the industrial world of UK and also other part of world. Their belief clearly says that employee empower the business process and enhance the growth.

In the opinion of Rana and Goel (2015, p.197), an enthusiastic employee will push himself to complete the task in the given time and in a proper way. Employee would take interest in the work as the assigned work is as per his capability. Motivational theory by management team and leader would encourage the employee for long term goal in the specific company. 

In the opinion of Haque (2014, p.1960), manager has to address the new team those have not much knowledge of sale and market. As the market is dynamic in nature, so manager has to convey working style which would not match with older one because of the changing scenario of the market. Sometime new team is nervous about the new managing leader, scare about his new strategy. Managing leader has to take opinion of each and every member of the team toward market. The addressing speech should be based on their opinion.

3.2 Analyse the different inspirational theories used by the sales department and how it is influencing the employee.

In the opinion of Johnston and Marshall (2016, p.55), the companies are inspiring the employee of sales department in a different way to achieve their target. Firstly, management team applies a theory to find out what is the positive and negative opinion of the employee toward the working system of company. Analyse them what should be the perception to handle the customer and how to behave when customer is not accepting the product to maintain the relationship.

In the opinion of Brehaut et al. (2016, p.436), best theory is hard work to achieve the target of the company and so motivate them by mentioning the benefits of achieving the target. Usually, with salary structure incentive also given to the employee if he met the target set for him. Therefore, especially,in the world of sales target with benefits should be shared among the employee in the organisation. The target and benefit should vary person to person. It would motivate the feeling of competition among each other to get more incentive that would lead to automatically achievement of target. In the opinion of Gammoh (2014, p.551), sometime competition become the main reason for bad interpersonal relationship of employees. This is the responsibility of the manager to implement theory so that collaboration remains in his place without leaving the competition. In the opinion of Hedelius and Nilsson (2014, p.25), the best theory for it is keeping the benefits hidden from one employee to another employee by putting norms and condition from company and target should be mention openly. In the case of fresher, when they interact with manager and leader in the beginning of the job, fear factor work in their mind. At that time, if supervisor or manager treat with employee harshly in their mistake, employee would get demotivate and cannot plan further for the assigned task or rather he/she would lose interest in the job. One more theory is to provide comfort zone to new employee and drag them slowly to company’s environment where employee got scolded or criticised for their mistake.

3.3 How sales manager make profit by using other inspirational theory for his department. Explain with reference.

In the opinion of Joseph (2015, p.61), there are some cases where an employee is performing nicely when they are inspected by the supervisor. Sometimes other type of tactics should be used to make the employee perform well, it include ‘criticising for their mistake’. This theory is not applicable for everyone. Each company comprises of different type of worker which also contain irresponsible employee. Those employees, if criticised are working properly and also gives result. Some award should be given to the best performer if they achieve more than expectation of the company such as ‘employee of the month or employee of the year’. Motivation is needed more for those employees who are under performer. Thus, special training session should be conducted for this kind of employee to improve their confidence level.

In the opinion of Angkanakitkul et al. (2015, p.84), sales manager has all the record of the performance of the entire team member. The manager can motivate the under performer by giving an idea on real time basis. That means he has to analyse the working style of best performer from the ground level to them so that they can implement it in their own way and try to achieve the target. During the trial of achieving target the employee might got no success at first attempt. Then, it becomes the responsibility of manager to support them and boost them for another attempt.

Management team always tracking the current scenario of the market and analyse the need of the customer and also their satisfaction level. Manager can give the feedback of the situation of market to their team member randomly and can suggest plan to execute. The motivational theory would work only when employee possess positive attitude.

LO4 Evaluating the techniques for the development of productive teamwork in organizations

4.1 Selection of an efficient team within the HRM department

As opined by Bang and Phadtare, (2017, p.65), an effective team is essential to be present in the HRM depart for running the business productively. A manager of the organisation goes to a selection process for getting a perfect balanced team. The procedure includes:

Identifying vacancy and evaluating the need: When a vacancy is there for a position that is newly created, a manager has to understand the strategic goals of the organisation and the upcoming changes with a proper job analysis. When replacement occurs it needs to look at the points that the previous employee was lacking behind so that to find the key qualities in the next candidate during the selection procedure.

Developing Position Description: According to Jeschke and Weitkamp, (2017, p.120), a manager during recruitment need to write down the job description effectively in order to get the best candidates suitable to their individual job roles as per the criteria is given by the organisation. The description should include all the necessary information like; job duties and responsibilities, job functions, the purpose of the position and very fewer requirements from the candidates.

Creating Recruitment Plan: It is essential to develop before selection process in an organisation is it John Lewis Partnership even which is approved by the organisational unit. It is done in a strategic and systematic order for hiring the best-qualified candidate. Recruitment plan needs elements to work with in order, which includes; position period of a candidate in respective job profile, placement goals, a vast variety of agencies, advertising resources through social media platforms, print advertisements and internet job sites and resume banks.

Applicants Review and developing short list: All search committee members’ review the applicants for ensuring individual biases should not interfere after the position has been placed on the candidates.

4.2 Barriers that restricted the development of a productive team in the HRM department and the team performance

As stated by Kearney and Kruger, (2016, p.46), an effective team in the HRM department gets restricted from developing in an organisation due to various reasons, some are listed below:

Poor Communication: Bad communication skill acts as a barrier to develop an effective work atmosphere. Without communication, the team gets distracted from its flow of works which leads to a loss of the business. Therefore, the team in this situation tries to enhance their communication skills for effecting working efforts.

Uncertain Goals: When the goals are not specific by the management, then the team cannot work productively leading to job functions distortion. Simultaneously when the duties of individual members of each team fail in achieving those goals, the distortion takes place in the workplace. Hence, the team members build more definite perspectives for their projects and a clear vision.

Deficit Managerial Involvement: According to Sherr et al. (2016, p.412), when the managers cannot perform his duties in team execution due to lack of time, then the capabilities of creating an effective workplace gets threatened. Thus, the team members act accordingly to work in a productive manner for the best outcomes without any mistakes in the progress report.

Ego: Members who do not work accordingly for general advantages of the group will face difficulty in developing into a productive unit. When the staff members out of ego change their role and interfere in the jobs of the team members, the group progress will be in threat. Therefore, the team members are in need to check their individual egos and work together on their given tasks by building a strong united team.

4.3 Impact of technology on team functioning inside HRM department

As mentioned by Gray et al. (2016, p.852), the business world has been changed with the influence of technology rapidly and the functions of the team member in the HRM departments get affected. Computers and the Internet have increased the impact of technology significantly in an organisation. This impact is noticed even in human resources, where technology plays a crucial role to showcase its influencing level on HR practices.

Recruitment: Human resources have been greatly impacted by technology in one way that is in the area of recruiting. It has made the process more efficient where the candidates can upload their resumes online and the recruiters can get them for interview selection. Organisations now can put the job description for vacancies on the internet through their company website or in various job portals.

Training: According to When and Montalvo, (2016, p.458), for human resources professionals in order to train the new employees in an effective way, information technology has played a significant role in it. John Lewis Partnership has successfully emerged in this new technology era of progressing. Getting company information and training programs from outskirt locations erodes the need for trainers to act directly with brand new hires. Training in virtual practicing centers makes it possible for the HR practitioners for training a vast number of employees with the help of computerized programs of testing.

Performance Management: HR practitioners’ uses information technology to approach the performance of employees and also getting their feedbacks that are utilized for the future betterment of the organisation. It has been made possible by different software programs in order to examine the roles and duties of the employees using metrics meeting action standards deliberately.

Conclusion

In this context, the importance of structure and culture of the organisation has been analysed. The organisation has many departments with employees with different skill and perception. Its hierarchy itself conveying that the systematic approach is necessary for running the organisation.

Next come culture which is an important factor to make the relationship between the employees and managers. Most important factor which comes along all mentioned factor is employee which causes downfall and uplift of an organisation.