Organisations and Behaviour - Essay Example

Introduction British Telecom Plc is a multinational corporation providing telecommunication services to the s. It is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is known as one of major supplier of telecommunication services, performing its business operations in more than 170 countries all over the world. Its ‘BT Global Services Division’ has helped it to become one of the major telecommunication services providers in the world providing services to the corporate as well as the government customers across the world. The retail division of the company is the biggest suppliers of broadband, telephony and subscription television services in United Kingdom with more than 18 million customers. The company was established in the year 1846. It is a listed company in the London Stock Exchange. 1.1 Organizational Structure and Culture and its Impact on the Performance of the Businesses The organizational structure has a great influence on the performance of the organization. The organization structure is considered as the anatomy of an organization, offering a foundation lying within which the organization performs its functions. This organization structure affects the behaviour of the organizational members. The organizational structure of BT Plc is based on two main internal divisions named BT Operate and BT Design. These two divisions support the rest four ‘customer facing’ divisions of the organization. BT Operate has the responsibility of deployment and operation whereas BT Design has the responsibility related to the design and the development of services. The divisions help the organization in delivering ‘software driven products’ associated with the next generation network and also achieve the target of cost savings. The organizational structure helps in the systematic functioning of the business operations. It’s objective of implementing cost effective techniques help in improving the financial performance as well. The most important business activity of the company is delivering mobile services to the customers. In the period of rapid technological change, the company maintains market leadership in United Kingdom. The organizational structure has helped in strengthening its international presence as well. BT Plc is an integrated company with two main departments. In both the departments, separate procedures are conducted for the completion of the business processes. The organization has a huge scope of proving its excellence in the future as well. The values, policies, collection of traditions, attitudes and beliefs constitute the organizational culture of BT Plc. High values encourage the employees and increase their efficiency thereby increasing the performance of the organization (Yeo and Li, 2011). Ryan Air Ltd being one of the low cost airlines in Fingal, Ireland possesses a functional organizational structure. It is one of the most successful examples of the low cost business models. There are different levels of management. The values act as the core of the organization including reliability, quality, action, feedback and informal communication. The functional organization structure separates the series of activities in different segments. Ryan Air Plc changes the organizational structure by expanding the business operations for the allocation of responsibilities to all the employees in appropriate manner. The main success behind the successful organization structure is the coordination in different departments within the organization. The organization was launched with the aim to achieve the low cost leadership model. But at the same time, Ryan Air Ltd did not want that the name of the organization to get associated with anything cheap. The airline has built and maintained a work culture which is said to be an exciting place to work in. The cost cutting strategies are implemented in each and every aspect of the organization. The employees in the organization are awarded for their excellent performances and at the same time, reprimanded on making any mistake. They are motivated for making better performances. The low cost leadership is the reason behind the company’s success. 1.2 Relationship between Organizational Structure and Organizational Culture and its Impact on the Organization The organizational culture and organizational structure is dependent on each other. In business world, the organizational structure determines the attitudes, behaviours, dispositions, ethics etc which creates work culture. For example- If the organizational structure of a company is hierarchical in nature then it would reflect the absence of freedom or autonomy in the lower levels. On the other hand, if the organizational structure is decentralized with authority distributed at all levels, then the work culture would be rendered personalized, independent and accountable. The procedure by which a company allocates power determines employee behaviour. Thus, the organizational structure and organizational culture have very close and dependant relationship. Organizational structure is the procedure by which the organizations and the management arrange their line of authority. The organizational structure determines the responsibilities as well as the flow of information in the organization. Work culture is the resultant factor of the aforementioned decisions. Most of the companies have hierarchical organizational structure shaped like a pyramid. The president or chief executive remains at the top of this pyramid followed by the Vice Presidents. The Vice presidents perform their functions under the instructions of the President. The Directors perform their functions by remaining in line with both president and vice president. The pyramid moves downward as well as outward depending upon the total levels of management in the organization which requires managing its business operations according to the objectives. The proper functioning at all levels of the management automatically enhances the performance of the organization. However, a decentralized organizational structure endows all the members of the organization with some power. This motivates them and creates a positive work culture which improves the performance of the organization to a great extent. Thus a positive relationship between the organizational structure and the organizational culture has a positive impact on the performance of the organization and vice versa. 1.3 Factors that Influence Individual Behaviour at Work The major factors which are responsible for the individual differences in the behavioural patterns include: Abilities and skills, demographic factors, attitudes and personality, perception etc. Abilities and skills: The physical capability of the individuals to do a work is known as his or her ability. The skill is defined as the ability of an individual to act in such a manner which would correspond to a good performance for him or her. The skills and abilities have high influence on the individual behaviour as well as performance. An individual can perform really well if his or her abilities match with the job requirements. In such case, the managers play significant role in matching the job requirements with their abilities and skills. Demographic Factors: The demographic factors include nationality, education, socio economic background, age, sex, race etc. The organizations prefer hiring individuals belonging to decent socio economic background, young, well educated etc. It is perceived that the individuals with the aforementioned features would perform better as compared to others. The young professionals with effective communication skills and promising academic background remain in demand. The demographic factors play significant role in individual differences in the behavioural patterns. Perception: The cognitive procedure of interpreting the environmental stimuli in meaningful manner is termed as perception. There are number of factors which influence the perception of an individual. It is important for the managers in every organization to create a favourable working environment which would be perceived as the most suitable one by the employees (Dowling, Welch and Schuler, 1999; Black, Gregersen and Mendenhall, 1992). The employees would definitely perform well if they perceive the work environment to be positive. Attitude and Personality: Attitude is the tendency of responding in favourable or unfavourable manner to certain persons, objects or situations (Bardi and Schwartz, 2003). The managers in the organizations are required to study the variables affecting the attitude in order to create a work environment which would provide satisfaction to the employees. The employees would perform well if they can develop a positive attitude for the organization. Personality is the study of the characteristics as well as distinctive traits of the individuals, the inter-relations between them and the ways by which individual adjusts himself or herself to other people and situations (Parks and Guay, 2009). The individuals react in different manner at the time of responding to the organizational environment. This affects the behavioural pattern as well. The study of these responses is important for the organizations. This would help in understanding the personality type of the employees and developing a work environment which would increase their motivation and work engagement. 2.1 Effectiveness of Different Leadership Style within the Organizations Armstrong (2009) defined leadership as the process of inspiring subordinates and people to achieve their potential and deploying the potential to achieve organizational objectives. On the other hand, leadership can be seen as personal characteristics of individuals characterized with communication skill, interpersonal skill, personal charisma, team building approach, listening to feedback of team members and making decision by incorporating team members in the decision process. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs can be used to understand the relationship between employee motivation and its effect on leadership orientation in different organizations. Maslow (1943) identified five types of human needs as psychological need, safety need, social need, satisfaction of the ego and self-actualization and in organization leaders need to fulfil such needs of organizational members in order to influence their decision process. (Source: Koontz and Weihrich, 2006, p. 290) Such needs can be classified as, 1- Psychological Needs- basic human needs regarding fulfilment of hunger, thirst, 2- Safety Needs- human need for living in financially, emotionally and physically secure environment, 3- Acceptance Needs- need for having personal belongingness with peer group, workplace colleagues, 4- Esteem Needs- personal yen of individual to get recognised for work effort and achieve higher social status in front of peer group and 5- Self Actualization- need for possessing every happiness and fulfil every requirements in life. The study will compare leadership style in British Telecom and Tesco in order to understand how effective they are in motivating employees perform their task or increase productivity. In case of British Telecom, CEOs and top level management use transactional leadership style which focuses on managing emergent challenges and motivating organizational members by only providing financial reward to them for their work. At the ground level participation of employee is pretty low in management decision process in case of British Telecom (Nwagbara, 2010). Quite contrary, in case of Tesco, CEOs and top level management practices principle of participative leadership. For example, Sir Terry Leahy (former CEO of Tesco) developed customer driven focus of the company and encouraged team members to participate in the customer value driven change process in Tesco (Nwagbara, 2010). Therefore, it can be said that transactional leadership of British Telecom works well when it comes to fulfilling psychological needs, safety needs and esteem needs of workers but fails miserably in fulfilling acceptance and self actualization needs. In case of Tesco, participative leadership style fulfils all the 5 needs of employees mentioned by Maslow (1943). Therefore, it can be surmised that effectiveness of participative leadership style in Tesco is bit more efficient as against transactional leadership style in British Telecom when it comes to instigating motivation among employees. There are various challenges faced by the organizations which entails with the functioning of the organizational structure. The inclusion of leadership theories and models helps in reducing these issues (Howell and Costley, 2001; Johnson, 2000). In the twentieth century, it has been assumed that the leadership characteristics seek high importance in the effective functioning within the organization (Song, Wang, and Wei, 2007). In order to eliminate the organizational issues and bring along effective changes within the organizations, it is very important for the managers to incorporate the leadership characteristics within their functioning (Yukl, 2009; Rees and French, 2010). Whenever any organizational issue slows down the performance of an organization, it requires the implementation of a change process. There are mainly two types of leadership styles. One is transactional leadership and the other is transformational leadership. The transformational leadership includes that style in which the leader recognizes the needed change, decides vision plans to guide by providing inspiration and then finally implements the change process. On the other hand, transactional leadership is that type of leadership which mainly deals with setting of the goals and objectives for the subordinates and then uses various techniques of rewards and punishments in order to encourage the employees to perform in compliance with the planned goals and objectives. The individuals develop leadership skills for encouraging the drive for change. Transformational leadership is implemented by majority of the organizations. At first a leader requires proper understanding of the needs of the change process followed by developing a road map to break down the present system and implement new systems. The leaders need to identify the causes of dissatisfaction of the employees associated with the inefficiency of the existing system (Muhammad, 2009; Jillson, 2013). Secondly, the leaders need to change various techniques within the existing system for the advancement of the new system. The employees are given training for motivating them and improving their individual performances. Thirdly, the leaders need to align the interest of the employees along with the new system in order to institutionalize them with the newly adopted system. These three steps help the leaders to increase the efficiency of the organizations by eliminating the organizational issues. They have a significant role in improving the performances of the organizational members (Popper and Lipshitz, 1993). There are various types of power indices used by the leaders for increasing the performance of the organizations. 1) Referent power- The leaders use this type of power to show their interpersonal skills to increase the coordination in between the agents of change successfully; 2) Reward power- The leaders follow a style of rewarding its employees with financial rewards for reducing their level of dissatisfaction and convincing them to participate in the change process; 3) Expert Power- The leadership style under this power includes representing management skills in long-term business where the leaders successfully influence the subordinates to follow the path of change process; 4) Coercive Power- The leadership style practised by the leaders in this category includes threatening the employees and forcing them to adapt to the change process; 5) Legitimate power- The leadership style followed by the leaders in this category includes utilization of their position through their influences to make the employees participate in the change process for increasing the organizational efficiency. Coercive power should not be used by the leaders as it acts as a bad influence on the human resource for their participation in the change process. The leaders highly use expert power and reward power for reducing the bargaining power of the employees within the organization. The leaders effectively utilise these powers in order to achieve solution for the problems. The problem solving skills of the leaders highly increase their acceptance among the subordinates as well as empower them to motivate and influence the human resource capital in participating in the change making process. The leaders should maintain their responsibilities in a proper manner and communicate with them effectively for increasing the coordination. 2.2 Organisational Theory Underpins the Practice of Management The organizational theory and management theory have been used in a number of aspects of the business. Most of the individuals strive to implement these theories in order to perform better and become more successful at their workplace. This often results in sacrifice of their personal principles for becoming successful. There are various examples of organizational theories implemented in the businesses. The employee or manager of an organization requires a set of structure to be followed for achieving the goals and objectives. The employees need to determine their role in terms of the organizational theory. These set of structures followed by the employees or managers underpin the practises of organizing or managing. Thus, the organizational theory underpins practices of management in an indirect manner. 2.3 Different Approaches to the Management Classical approach: This approach focuses on the formal structure of the organizations including planning of job, principles of the management, the technical necessities within the organization, assumption of logical behaviour etc. Human relations approach: this approach focuses on the social factors in the work place and the behaviour of the employees in the organization. It includes the study of the human behaviour ranging from personal dynamics of the individuals to the associated culture. The systems approach: This approach makes effort for reconciling the two previous approaches. The focus is given towards interrelationship between the organizational structure and behaviour and the associated range of variables lying within the organization. 3.1 Impact of Different Leadership Styles on Employee Motivation within Organisations during Change Process The leadership styles have an impact on the motivation of the employees. 1) Transformational Leadership Style- The transformational leaders depend on the visionary leadership for winning over the followers. But this leadership style has an additional focus on the employee development. The leaders using this form of leadership develop supportive relationship with the employees rather than providing incentives, bonus etc to motivate the change. 2) Transactional leadership- The transactional leaders prefer detailed planning and efficient organizations. They believe in motivating the employees in practical ways and not by means of inspiration. For example, the employees are given incentives or bonus on making good performances. 3) Autocratic Leadership- The autocratic leaders force the subordinates rather than persuading them. For example, the leaders might threaten the subordinates with salary cuts on failing to meet the performance objectives. 4) Democratic Leadership- The democratic leaders highly encourage employee feedback. The leaders encourage the employees by means of training and development programs. This approach is risky to some extent because if the leader fails to push the team in achieving project objectives then it might result in a decline in the performance of the organization. The study has already discussed different leadership styles that may be incorporated during the change initiatives. Consideration of research work of Muhammad (2009) reveals the fact that leaders need to motivate team members throughout the change process in order to not only engage them with the change process but also reduce resistance from them. How different leadership styles can motivate organizational members during period of change? To answer the question, one can use Belbin’s (1981) Team Roles Theory. According to Belbin (1981), organizational leaders should develop teams in order to increase collaboration among team members and keep them motivated throughout the change process. Belbin’s Team Roles Theory describes six stages of team formation such as, 1- determining role of team members, 2- coming up with innovative team building idea, 3- establishing plan for success of the team, 4- realizing the potential idea by examining its practical consequence, 5- using participant and servant leadership model in order to communicate objective statement to the team members and coordinating their activities after considering their feedback and 6- equilibrium should be established between behavioural attributes of the interaction between Completer-Finishers and Implementers. Belbin (2007) used the concept of formal group (being developed through influence of external force and work for achieving particular objective) and informal group (being developed in self driven manner by participants because of similar interests and may or may not work for achieving particular objective) to identify how organizational leaders can motivate employees through team formation. Consideration Belbin’s (1981) theory and research review of IRS Employment Review (1995) reveals the fact that organizational leaders need to participate in team building and team role distribution process in order to control participation and coordination between members within team. 3.2 Motivation in Workplace Motivation within the workplace is one of the most common topics advocated by the scholars or researchers in most of the organizations. The present business environment is characterized by extreme challenges and increased stress. The organizations need to ensure the fact that the employees are prepared to face any type of challenge. Motivation is one of the most important factors taken into consideration in such cases (Sapru, 2006). The establishment of motivation within the workplace is highly essential for ensuring satisfied employees (Naidu and Rao, 2008). Motivation ensures increased individual productivity which automatically increases the overall output of the companies. Some other benefits of the motivation in the workplace include satisfied customer base, enhanced productivity, satisfied employees, increased financial performance and decreased staff turnover (Gitman and McDaniel, 2008). Motivation in the workplace is also characterized by means of high performance and increased efficiency (Baldwin, 2001). It is very essential for the organizations due to a number of reasons. The concepts and theories of motivation are highly relevant for all the organizations across the globe. From the standpoint of any organization, the motivation makes the human resource perform actions at an improved level of efficacy associated with employees, argumentation of productivity etc. This in turn facilitates the attainment of organizational goals and creation of pleasant and suitable working environment. One of the most important functions of motivation in the workplace is increasing the job satisfaction of the employees so that it helps in developing a stable workforce within the organization (Tewksbury and Higgins, 2006). If the performance of an organization is deteriorating due to various issues within the workplace, then it is very important to motivate the employees and influence them in a change process in order to successfully implement it. Implementation of motivational theories helps the organizations in improving the efficiency level associated with the workforce and encouraging them to participate in the change process. In the previous sections, the study has used Maslow's (1943) Hierarchy of Needs model in order to understand relationship between need fulfilment and motivation among human. However, Maslow's (1943) Hierarchy of Needs model characterised with five types of human needs such as Psychological Needs, Safety Needs, Acceptance Needs, Esteem Needs and Self Actualization can be used to compare motivation of workers in British Telecom as against Tesco. Nwagbara (2010) stated that in case of Tesco, leaders take participative leadership role in order to encourage organizational members to develop a high performance team that can deliver customer value at constant basis. For example, Sir Terry Leahy (former CEO of Tesco) empowered team members to make decision during contingent period by establishing strategic control groups. In case of Tesco, following practices are being used to ensure team dynamics and group norms such as, 1- delivering customer value has been selected as team objective, 2- size of the team varies as per requirements, 3- organizational codes are being used to develop norms; 4- weekly meeting is being done among team members in order to increase cohesiveness, 5- status of the team member being updated with his/her contribution in the team and 6- conjunction between task roles, self-interest roles and maintenance roles are being used to define role of team members (Nwagbara, 2010; Stott and Walker, 1995). Using such team dynamics and group norms, organizational leaders in Tesco can satisfy all the five needs of team members and can motivate them subsequently. However, in case of British Telecom, use of team dynamics and group norms is being limited to only top level management in most of the cases, outcome driven transactional leadership style is being used in order to motivate employee by paying reward or monetary benefits or recognizing their effort. Therefore, magnitude of employee motivation in case of Tesco is team dynamics driven while magnitude of employee motivation in case of British Telecom is driven by fulfilling Psychological Needs, Safety Needs and Esteem Needs. 3.3 Usefulness of Motivation by the Managers within the Workplace Motivation is an effective tool that is not often utilized properly by the managers in the organizations. The managers can utilize motivation within the workplace for inspiring the employees to work, producing good results for the business in the most effective manner etc. Motivation does not require to be generated externally because every individual possesses his or her own set of motivational forces. It is the mangers’ responsibility to identify as well as address these forces. The managers might lack the knowledge required to successfully implement motivational programs and increase the production by creating a positive working environment. In such case, they are required to increase their knowledge and identify effective motivational programs for increasing the efficiency of the associates (employees). Every manager has a goal of reaching maximum outcomes for the organization. Motivation for improved performance depends to a great extent on the recognition, job satisfaction, achievement and professional growth. Offering a positive motivational environment in the workplace is a challenging activity for the managers. Thus, the managers need to understand the employees along with their needs and demands. Identification of the motivational factors, implementation of effective motivational programs, proper understanding of the employees needs etc helps to create a stable workforce and thereby increase the performance of the organization. Conclusion Throughout the essay, the researcher has tried to highlight different aspects of organizational behaviours within companies. Concept of leadership and motivational aspects within organizational context have discussed in the paper. While in some cases, examples of British Telecom and Tesco are being used in order to justify the argument. It has been found that leadership cannot be inherent property of particular individual rather managers and or even team members can use leadership role to motivate organizational team members to achieve particular objective or improve performance. Managers and organizational members need to understand the employees along with their exogenous or endogenous needs in order to fulfil the objectives of leader-member exchange paradigm. It has also been found that organizational leaders can play vital role in team formation and directing contribution of team members in team through proper implementation of team dynamics and group norms. In conclusion, it can be stated that the study has found significant relationship between leadership direction and motivational dimension of organizational members in organizational context. Reference List Armstrong, M., 2009. A handbook of human resource management practice. London: Kogan Page. Baldwin, B., 2001. The new life insurance investment advisor. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Bardi, A., and Schwartz, S. H., 2003. Values and behaviour: Strength and structure of relations. Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 29, pp. 1207-1220. Belbin R. M., 2007. Management teams: Why they succeed or fail. 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