ORGANISATION AND BEHAVIOUR - Essay Example

? ORGANISATION AND BEHAVIOUR …………………. and Number …………….. …………. Word-counts-3331 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Task- 1 3 Introduction 3 Motivation and Non-financial motives 3 Effects of unmotivated workforce 4 Tesco benefiting from motivated workforce 4 Taylor’s motivation theory as not relevant to 21st century 4 Four Motivational Theory applicable to Tesco 5 Taylor’s Motivational Theory 5 Elton Mayo’s theory of motivation 5 Maslow’s Need Hierarchy need theory 6 Herzberg’s Motivational theory 6 Concepts of Change and impacts of leadership styles on Motivation 8 Leadership styles and impacts on Motivation 8 Conclusion 9 Task- 2 10 Introduction 10 Organizational Structure 10 Effective Teamwork plan 12 Types of Teams and impacts of Technology on them 14 Technology impact on teamwork 15 Technology transfer at Wellcome Trust 15 Conclusion 15 References 17 Task- 1 Introduction Human capital are undoubtedly the most powerful and highly productive assets in any organisation, because, all other resources such as materials, technology, time etc can be effectively utilized only if human capital are managed successfully. Out of various strategies, and techniques that are used to enhance greater productivity of human capital, motivation is a valuable psychological tool that promote people to be high performers. The first part of the assignment talks about the motivational theory in practice at Tesco, and explains concepts of change and leadership styles in relation to the motivational theory. Tesco is UK’s leading grocery and general merchandising retailer operating through more than 2000 stores in UK alone (Tescoplc.com, 2012). Motivation and Non-financial motives Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn (2005) defined motivation as “forces within an individual that account for the level, direction and persistence of efforts expended at work” (p. 120). An individual can be motivated by a number of different factors such as pay, reward, appreciation, promotion in the work, better working condition and so on. When an individual is motivated by any such method, he is mostly found to work harder and show sincere gratitude towards his job task and thus to be highly productive and be high performer. A company may use various types of non-financial motives such as 1) promotion, 2) safety at work, 3) reward and recognition, 4) better working condition, 5) health support, 6) education for children, 7) friendly atmosphere within the workplace, 8) organizational learning, 9) cooperation and 10) multicultural workplace. Effects of unmotivated workforce Unmotivated workforce will not work harder and therefore they will not be high performers or high productive in the workplace as compared to those who are motivated. Unmotivated workforce will not help the company create a brand loyalty among the customers as they are very likely to make mistakes and this will adversely impact the business. Unmotivated employees are found to show increased absenteeism and high turnover which in turn affecting the quality of business operation. Tesco benefiting from motivated workforce At Tesco, the management is highly concerned about customers as well as staff. The company supports its staff with its specially adjusted work and life balance through rewards and recognition. Flexible working, reduced health expenses, membership in gym, competitive salary, staff discount and company’s share options are some of Tesco’s attractive motivation incentives it offered to its people. From these incentives, Tesco has been benefiting to create trust and respect among its people. At Tesco, the motivated staffs are found to be in a partnership relation with managerial staff and thus they effectively accomplish their expected goals (The Times 100, 2012). Taylor’s motivation theory as not relevant to 21st century According to Taylor’s motivation theory, people are motivated by financial incentives as he argued that people worked purely for money. In early years, Taylor observed that the primary motive for work is money (Gallagher and Tombs, 1997, p. 442). But in today’s competitive, complex and dynamic workplace environments, people are mostly motivated by a number of other factors such as less burden, reduced compulsion, free hours, short break, rewards, recognition, appreciation and so on and therefore Taylor’s theory of motivation is not purely applicable to today’s workplace environment. Four Motivational Theory applicable to Tesco Taylor’s Motivational Theory Based on the findings, Frederick Taylor wrote in 1911 that people worked purely for money and hence the primary motivator is money. Specifically, in order to motivate people, managers are to increase pay or wages to be paid to the staff. His observation was based on the ‘piece rate’ system which was in place in early years of 1910s. it is argued that Taylor’s theory is quite inapplicable today since most of the people in workplace are found to be motivated by many pother external factors such as safety, reward etc. At Tesco, the employee reward package is a financial reward package and thence it resembles to the concept of Taylor’s motivation theory. However, Tesco’s financial reward package comprises of some other non-monetary benefits too (The Times 100, 2012, p. 106). Elton Mayo’s theory of motivation According to Elton Mayo, an individual can be motivated at his workplace by factors such as effective communication, showing interest in others, excellent teamwork, involving others in decision making, ensuring the well being of other etc. Based on Hawthorne Experiment he conducted at Harvard University, he found that motivation occurs when the individual is very much interested in the work assigned to him (Mackay, 2007, p. 41). Tesco applies Mayo’s motivation theory through its 360 degree feedback strategy and some other motivational tools. Tesco has applied 360 degree feedback system by which the company systematically collects and evaluates the performance data on an individual or group derived from a number of stakeholders in their performance (Ward, 1997, p. 4). 360 degree feedback that Tesco followed sheds lights on Elton Mayo’s theory of motivation. At Tesco, managers have facilitated proper communication through intranet and internet facilities which in turn help the staff get updated about all the new changes that happen to the organisation. This is also fundamentally a motivator as Elton Mayo explained through his theory of motivation (The Times 100, 2012, p. 107) Maslow’s Need Hierarchy need theory Abraham Maslow classified human needs in to five levels. He explained these levels through a pyramid called hierarchy of needs. At the bottom is psychological needs, security needs at next step, acceptance needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs as the pyramid goes up, as depicted above. At Tesco, the management is giving values to the Maslow’s need hierarchy theory as employees are provided of greater opportunities for taking a share and interest in their own employment (The Times 100, 2012, p. 108) Herzberg’s Motivational theory In 1966, Frederick Herzberg attempted to find out factors motivating people in the workplace and he observed that there are two different types of factors called motivators and hygiene factors. Motivators are those factors that gave incentives to the workers and make them satisfied and hygiene factors are those that can lead to dissatisfaction within the workplace. According to Herzberg’s two factor theory, achievement, responsibility, promotion etc are motivator as they make employees satisfied at the workplace. Pay and benefits, supervision, status, job security, personal life etc are hygiene factors as they may cause dissatisfaction of employees in the workplace. It can be observed that the Herzberg’s two factor theory has been applied in Tesco as it motivated its employees by enabling motivators or satisfiers and by giving attention to hygiene factors. Proper communication, making employees involved in decision making, enhancing employee cooperation, reward and recognition are some of the factors Tesco used for motivating its people (The Times 100, 2012, p. 106). Suitable motivational theory for Tesco I strongly believe that motivation should not be purely based on any theory which is established by various literatures, but rather, motivation is a management strategy that must be designed, well prepared and developed according to the situation and workplace conditions. More specifically, Elton Mayo’s motivation theory may not be applicable to one organisation, but may be appropriate for another organisation, and hence, one thing remains constant that no theories determine how or what motivation to be followed, but the situational factors prevailing in the workplace determine how the motivation to be structured. Assuming that I am the manager to Tesco, I will evaluate the workplace situations as to what makes the people more satisfied, highly enthusiastic and what can make them enjoy their works, and then I will prepare a motivation plan, may be by integrating various theories of motivation. Concepts of Change and impacts of leadership styles on Motivation From the management point of view, change is a systematic and managerial process that results in some newer ways or methods of doing business with a view to lead the organisation to achieve its major goals (Jacobs, 1997, p. 22). For a business, change is an opportunity and for seizing this opportunity, the management may have to face obstacles, resistances or other kinds of difficulties and therefore it is a challenge too. Palmer, Dunford and Akin, (2009, p. 24) emphasized that change is not an automatic process as it doesn’t happen automatically, nevertheless it requires that people or management in responsibility of bringing change are expected to integrate between strategic activities, people, process, techniques and many other managerial functions too. In order to successfully managing the change, the management are expected to manage resistances to change so that the purposes, benefits and overall strategic views can be properly communicated to the people within the organisation. Leadership styles and impacts on Motivation There are different types of leadership such as charismatic, transformational, participative, situational, transactional etc. In charismatic leadership, the leader has been gifted with leadership skills and abilities that are kind of god-given gift to him. In Transformational leadership, the leader possess special abilities to develop innovative ideas, strategies, and therefore he is able to bring positive changes to the organisation. Transactional leaders clarify the roles they have to play and the tasks-related requirements of their followers and then provide proper rewards to the followers. Participative leaders show an approach to be participative in others in accomplishing the desired goals. Situational leaders are those leaders who act very properly according to varying situations (Daft and Lane, 2009, p. 424). All these leadership impact motivation in one way or the other. For instance, charismatic and transformational leaders are influencing the followers than in the case of other leadership styles since both charismatic and transformational leadership help the followers think positively, work collaboratively, act appropriately and therefore both these styles are found to have a positive impact on motivation. Other leadership styles like situational and transactional also give motivation to the followers to work with leaders or to work in different situations. Conclusion The first part of the assignment defined motivation and explained various theories of motivation in relation to the current practices at Tesco. This paper concluded that a specific theory is not the key determinant on what motivation to be followed in an organisation, but the workplace conditions may be more influencing factors for that. This paper has also described the concepts of change and explained how different leadership styles influence the motivation. Task- 2 Introduction This part of the assignment talks about organisational structure in relation to different types of groups and their behaviour, team work and the impact of technology on teamwork as well as other organizational functioning. This paper provides a brief plan for creating an effective team work and explains how it may be impacted by the technology the organisation uses. For this assignment, Wellcome Trust has been chosen since it is one of the well known and emerging not-for profit organisation in UK, with its strategic vision to enhance achieve extraordinary human as well as animal health (Wellcome Trust, 2012). In the past financial year, Wellcome Trust has raised its venture and growth capital holdings to 19 percent of its investment portfolio, which was accounted as ? 13.6 billion (Schafer, 2011). Organizational Structure Organizational structure explains various grouping, departmentalising, specialisation etc among the jobs and their specific nature as well as behavioural patterns and therefore it is critically important to explain the concepts of organizational structure for identifying the groups and their behaviour that exist in Wellcome Trust. As Robbins and Judge (2011, p. 488) pointed, organizational structure is a pattern in which job tasks are formally grouped, divided and then coordinated. It thus depends on how the organization has done division of labor, coordination, communication, workflow etc. Normally in organisation, there can be six patterns they are, departmentalization, work specialization, chain of command, control span, formalization, and centralization or decentralization (McShane and Von Glinow, 2004, p. 446). At Wellcome trust, as depicted above, the organisation is divided in to six groups, they are directorate, technology transfer, investment, science funding, medical humanities and engagement and operation. Mainly there two staff in the directorate being with the responsibilities of managerial decision making, policy making, conducting research and advice on policy and the relevant matters etc. usually, in any organizational set up, there will be a superior authority with responsibility of managing all the organizational activities. With 24 staff, technology transfer department provides technology transfer support, translation funding and helps companies conduct research and development projects to bring several products to the market. Staff involved in investment in Wellcome trust manages the funds and assets of the trust and is being advised by the experienced investment committee to defend against the strong economic and financial headwinds (Annual Report, 2011). Science funding department with 5 staff manages funds related to five science oriented grouping, they are 1) molecule, genes and cells, 2) physiological sciences, 3) Neuroscience and mental health, 4) immunology and 5) public health. Medical Humanities department with 10 staff explore medicine in its historical, moral, ethical and cultural contexts to ensure social responsibility to the general public. The operation department comprising of 11 staff provide wide range assistance and supports for ensuring proper human resources, financial as well as legal and technological supports too. At Wellcome Trust, the organizational structure can be observed from the organizational functions, nature and the behavior of each of the groups mentioned above (Wellcome Trust, 2012) The organizational structure may be functional, divisional, geographic, market oriented or matrix based etc (Jones, 2004, p. 160- 161). The organizational structure in Wellcome trust seems to functional since people are grouped on the basis of their common skills and expertise. Grouping of the total staff based on their functions and expertise is considered to be critically important to enhance greater effectiveness in the management. Organizations largely differ from one to another based on the structure and grouping of its people they follow and this largely impacts the way they operate and achieve their goals too. Effective Teamwork plan Teamwork is perhaps one of the most dynamic and self-motivated tool for achieving a number of managerial goals such as motivation, high performance work system, increased productivity, competitive advantage etc. Teamwork is a collaborative effort of a group of people within an organization to achieve their common goal. Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn (2003, p. 251) pointed that an essential criterion for an effective teamwork is that the members should feel ‘collectively accountable’ for what they wish to accomplish. With an approach to collective accountability, the team members are directed towards utilizing their skills to achieve the common goal of the organisation. In today’s highly competitive and dynamic business landscape, teamwork is one of the most effective management strategy to foster maximum involvement, greater commitment and increased responsibility and thus to enhance greater potentiality and productivity of the people involved in job-tasks. As Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhert (2003, p. 42) noted, teamwork is an assignment of work to groups of employees with varying skills and capabilities of people who will interact each others to assemble product or provide a service. Teamwork has been found to work well in contributing to total quality by performing inspection and quality control activities. It has also been considered to be a measure to establish organizational learning since people will be motivated to work together and transfer their knowledge between the members. When it comes to Wellcome Trust, there are six departments and different people with various skills and capabilities. For a not-for profit organisation, people are critically important assets to any organisation because their skills, expertise, knowledge, wisdom and even behavior can create an outstanding zeal among the general public towards the organisation. From a business point of view, this can also be termed as brand equity or brand loyalty. In order to establish an effective teamwork at Wellcome Trust, the management should consider five steps in planning of the teamwork. Five steps involved in planning the teamwork are 1) getting the people involved, 2) Setting a good example, 3) Coaching the team members, 4) training the team members and 5) establishing formal team building program (Dinsmore and Cabanis-Brewin, 2010). In order to build teamwork, the first and foremost step is getting the people involved. The management should find and select appropriate people from the six departments- directorate, technology transfer, investment, science funding, medical humanities and engagement and operation and then they should be evaluated based on questionnaire or aptitude test etc. if the ultimate goal is to create awareness about STDs among the public, more people may be required from medical humanities and technology transfer departments. Secondly, the management should focus on setting a model example and it should be based for further activities and plans. Team members should be coached and trained as to what they are commonly and specifically expected to perform and how they can collaborate their works. An expert coach and trainer may be helpful for this. Finally, the management should focus on setting up a formal team building program. The team may comprise of different roles that different people are expected to play and this should be carefully coordinated since a better coordination and supervision in teamwork is very essential to its success. Types of Teams and impacts of Technology on them Teams may vary from firm to firm, or from one work-environment to another within the same organisation, however there are basically six types of teams that are categorized based on their functional areas. These are 1) Project team, 2) natural work team, 3) self-directed work team, 4) process management team, 5) management team and 6) Virtual team (Scholtes, Joiner and Streibel, 2003, p. 3- 4). Project team is temporary having a special focus and having core as well as affiliated members. Complementary skills are often required for this team. A natural work team comprises of all the people in a given work contexts and the members in this team share similar responsibility to accomplish the desired task. A self-directed work team is a natural work team, but it also shares many management responsibilities such as scheduling and managing the budgets. A process management team is one team that shares responsibilities of controlling a work process. The members of a management team represent independent functions and processes and coordinate their efforts. A virtual team use technology-supported communication quite frequently than the face to face communication for accomplishing the team-goal (Scholtes, Joiner and Streibel, 2003, p. 3- 4). Technology impact on teamwork Teamwork is a collaborative action whereby members to the team show collective accountability being directed towards utilizing their skills for achieving the desired goal. In working as a team, the members may often use technology such as computer, video conferencing, mobile chatting, software assisted communication etc. These technologies and all other communication or otherwise technologies influence the effectiveness and efficiency of teamwork. With technology, communication is flexible, appropriate, speedy and very convenient and therefore the teamwork is positively impacted. Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhert (2003, p. 53) emphasized that information technology is changing the way organizations handle information sharing. Employees are increasingly getting access to information and this has been found to positively impact their work potential as well as productivity in the workplace. Technology transfer at Wellcome Trust One of the groups in welcome trust is technology transfer that focuses on product development through technology transfer support for and on behalf of the trust. Drug discovery and vaccine development are some of the example for the technology transfer activities. As technology transfer staffs are required to deal with utilizing latest technology and making them useful for research and scientific development, the same technology will be impacting the teamwork and other organizational activities in Wellcome trust. Conclusion The second part of the paper explained the organizational structure within Wellcome trust and evaluated various nature and behavior of each of the groups or departments in the organisation. The paper has detailed the concepts of teamwork, types of it, and technology impacts on it and identified the same in relation to the team work and other organizational activities in Wellcome trust. 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