The Role Of Organizational Culture, Power, And Politics In Motivation

The Importance of Organizational Culture, Power, and Politics

Discuss about the Process Of Leading Organizational Change.

The main objective of this paper is to provide a brief overview about the organizational culture, team, and theories of motivation. Organizational culture, politics and power play are the integral part of the every company because these factors help to attain mission and vision of the firm. Furthermore, the paper explains the role of motivation, team and it also provides information about the culture of the organization. In addition, it depicts that how effective teamwork helps to resolve conflict and issues of the organization. Tesco Company has been chosen in the task to explain importance of culture, politics and motivation. Tesco is a British multinational grocery company which provides supermarket products to customers across the world. It’s headquarter is situated in Welwyn garden, England and the company employs approx 476,000 employees within the organization.

Culture, power and politics play a huge role in each and every organization. Positive culture helps in reducing stress and frustration of the workers. A well developed culture helps to recruit potential candidate in the organization. Furthermore, supply chain depends on the dynamic culture of the organization. It will also help to reduce absenteeism and increase morale of the workers. Environment and politics play a critical role in office politics. Political is a goal setting stage of the power (Fullan, 2014). Through office politics, employees can share their tasks and duties to others. Furthermore, it creates morality and trust among the workers with increasing productivity of the firm. On the other hand, power is one of the most successful factors for the firm because it provides satisfaction to the workers. It will help to initiate the management changes within the organization and it reduces resistance to change. With the help of power, managers can provide right guidance and direction to the employees to stand out against the competitors in the marketplace. In this way, culture, power and politics help to enhance the performance of the workers as well as organization (Bolman and Deal, 2017).

Organizational culture may be defined as the underlying assumptions, beliefs, ideas, values and ways of interacting which contribute to the psychological and social environment of an organization. Organizational culture encompasses vision, values, system, norms, languages, assumptions, symbols, habits and beliefs (Ehrhart, Schneider and Macey, 2013). 

Let’s talk about the organizational culture of Tesco; the culture of the company is dynamic and unique. The employees maintain a favorable atmosphere and healthy avenues of communication in the organization. It also helps to maintain effective leadership structure in the firm. This dynamic culture is not only inspire and motivate life balance in the workers but also develops healthy interpersonal relationship and a sense of community among the team members. The people work together in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of the firm.

Types of Organizational Culture

There are various types of organizational culture that influence the success and growth of the firm. The several types of organizational culture which are followed by Tesco have been discussed below (Alvesson,  2012).

Normative culture: Under this culture, Tesco predefines the procedures and norms of the organization and the firm sets the legislations and rules as per the existing guidelines. No worker dares to break the rules and regulations that have been implemented by the company.

Pragmatic culture: In such culture, customer satisfaction is the main motive of the workers. Under this culture, employees do not follow any set rules and regulations.

Academy culture: Under this culture, roles and responsibilities are assigned according to the educational qualification, background, work experience and knowledge of the workers. Various training programs are conducted to improve the skills and knowledge of the employees.

Baseball team culture: Under this culture, the individuals have an upper edge and they do not worry about their organization. This culture plays a significant role in Tesco Company.

Club culture: Tesco follows club culture in order to maintain peaceful and favorable working environment within the organization. Under this culture, employees are appointed as per the specialization, interests and educational qualifications.

Fortress culture: There are few companies where the workers are not sure about their longevity and career. Thus, these organizations follow fortress culture. Tesco also follows fortress culture to improve the performance of the employees.

Process culture: Under this culture, people abide by the regulations and rules and work according to the ideologies of the workplace. Thus, Tesco follow this culture to maintain effective working environment.

The cultural difference awareness plays a significant role in every organization in order to attain desired goals and objectives. It is the foundation of communication and it helps to maintain sustainability in the organization. It also helps in making effective and quick decisions within the organization. Along with this, culture awareness is unique and strong part of people lives because it affects teir values, hopes, loyalties, views and worries. In addition, it is important to understand the perspective and opinion of the workers (Ang and Van Dyne, 2015).

In today’s modern world, organizational culture is becoming a crucial part of the every firm. No company can survive its business without maintaining a unique and favorable culture. The organizational culture decides the way through which employees interact with each other in the workplace. It also helps to keep workers motivated and loyal to the management of the firm. It also increases andh enhances the quality of work which helps Tesco flourish and expansion. Unique and effective organizational culture provides guidelines and direction to the workers. Understanding the company culture helps to understand why changes does not take place or why a project is not successful. Also, it helps to understand where to make changes and organization culture is important for the survival of the company. It is essential to deal with significant changes that take place in the organization. Apart from this, if Tesco maintains dynamic culture then it can easily overcome the competitors in the market (Chhokar, Brodbeck and House, 2013).

The Culture of Tesco

It is seen that there is a link between work culture and business performance in order to meet long term objectives of the firm. Tesco is a multinational grocery company which renders supermarket products to the customers in the competitive market. Positive work culture motivates and engages employees for doing work efficiently and effectively. The success of the company depends on the corporate culture. Work culture helps to maximize the profitability and outcomes of the firm. The business performance directly is affected by the work culture. Tesco cannot attain success and growth without favorable working environment. If the work culture is favorable, employees work harder to accomplish the organizational goals. Furthermore, business performance is a result of motivation and motivation succeeds in a good work culture. Moreover, unique work culture helps to make employees happy within the organization. As a result, it enhances and maximizes returns and revenue of the firm.

Network theory is the study of graphs as a demonstration of either asymmetric relation or symmetric relations between discrete projects. Network theory is a part of graph theory which helps to gain competitive advantages in the global market while system theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems (Miles, 2012). Systems theory is one of the significant theories in management . A system is a set of distinction parts of the every organization. It treats an organization either closed or open system. An open system is influenced by the environment while closed system is not influenced by the environment. Tesco uses system theory and network theory as a framework in order to maximize the profits in the competitive market. This theory also focuses on multiple dimensions of the management. On the other hand, network theory helps to utilize the best capabilities of the employees. It also helps in motivating and encouraging the people in order to meet the targets and goals of Tesco.

Organizational politics are informal efforts to sell ideas, increase power, influence the firm and achieve other desired goals and objectives. Furthermore, it is the behavior and process in human interactions which involves authority and power. It is also called office politics. Organizational politics helps to encourage the workers and it resist indiscipline within the organization. With the help of such politics, managers and employers may give recognition and dignity to the employee’s aspiration, and hopes. Along with this, if the firm politics works well, appropriate leaders may be appointed and the company can run properly (Pettigrew, 2014). Personal decisional structure helps to make quick decision in the firm while organization change may be defined as a process of changing a company’s processes, strategies, technologies, procedures and culture as well as the effect of such changes on the organization (Anderson, 2016).

The Link between Work Culture and Business Performance

Power is the ability and capacity to direct influence the behavior of other in the course of actions. It can be social, political and psychical. Power can also influence the decision making process.  The employees can attain long term mission and vision of the firm through power. Furthermore, the workers can deal with organizational changes by using effective power (Murphy, Myors and Wolach, 2014). There are various types of power that have been discussed below.

Coercive power: It is the ability to influence someone’s decision making by taking something away as threatening and punishment if the person does not follow rules and instructions. Therefore, Tesco uses coercive power to improve the performance of the workers.

Reward power: In this power, managers provide reward and recognition to talented and potential employees for their performance. It helps in motivating the employees to maximize the profitability of the company.

Legitimate power: Under this power, managers and leaders held the authorities and responsibilities in the organization.

Expert power: This power based upon the workers. Under this power, employees keep high level of knowledge and skills for performing the tasks and duties effectively and efficiently.

Referent power: It is one of the five bases of social power. Referent power is developed in 1959 by Bertram Raven. It refers to the ability and capacity of a leader and manager to influence their follower (Clegg, 2013).

The motivational techniques include create a positive work environment, set goals, share profit, incentives, recognize achievements. Through these techniques, the firm has been able to accomplish the objectives and goals in the competitive market. Along with this, motivational theories provide several advantages to the employees (Petri and Govern, 2012). It helps to improve product quality and provides job satisfaction to the people. Motivational theories help the learning process and it also promotes self discipline. Through motivation, people maintain positive working environment within the organization (Ford, 2014).

Motivation is the process of encouraging the people for accomplishing the goals and objectives of the firm. It helps to maximize the revenue and minimize the risk of the company. It also influences the individual behavior of people within the organization (Pinder, 2014).

Intrinsic motivation: Intrinsic motivation includes engaging in a behavior and action because it is personally performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward (Burke, 2017).

Extrinsic motivation: This motivation occurs when people are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an action and activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment.

System and Network Theory in Management

Tesco can motivate the employees either intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation. The firm uses motivation and reward system to retain the workers at the workplace. Motivation also helps to allow the management to meet the goals and objectives of the company. It also helps to reduce in employee turnover in the firm. Furthermore, motivated employee work for a longer in Tesco and it minimizes in the rate of turnover (Cherry, 2016).

Content theory describes why human needs and requirements change with time. This theory explains the particular factors that motivate and encourage behavior. The content theories include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, theory X and theory Y, ERG theory, Herzberg two factor theory (Miner, 2015). On the other hand, process theories deal with the process of motivation. The process theory includes equity theory, expectancy theory and the porter Lawler model. Tesco uses Maslow’s theory to identify and analyze the needs, requirements and wants of the employees. It is one of the foremost motivational theories that help to inspire people in the firm (Lepper and Greene, 2015). Maslow’s theory is used by Tesco to encourage people in the firm.

The emotional intelligence refers to the ability and capability of employee to manage and control his or her emotions and posses the ability to control and handle the emotions of other employees as well. In other words, it can be said that employees can influence the emotions and behaviors of other people also. Emotional intelligence is important skill in leadership. There are five elements of emotional intelligence such as self regulations, self awareness, empathy, motivation and social skills (Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee, 2013).

The soft skills play an integral role in the management of Tesco. These skills are used by managers and leaders to motivate the employees to handle and reduce the risks and challenges of the market. Soft skills also help to make unique and reciprocal relationship between managers and employees. These skills also help to optimize the productivity and outcomes of the organization. Soft skills build and develop a good reputation of the firm in the marketplace and resolve the problems of the workers (Khalili, 2012).

Effective teamwork helps to maintain upward and downward communication in Tesco. It also helps in increasing engagement and promotes innovation. In addition, team members can easily measure and identify common objectives and goals. In this way, effective team helps in performing various tasks of the management in the organization (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).

Organizational Politics and Personal Decision Structures

Team is a group of people who work together to attain the desired goals and objectives. Team member’s posses complementary skills and knowledge. Team helps to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. There are five types of team which include department teams, problems solving teams, virtual team, cross functional teams and self managed teams. Tesco maintains department teams to divide the work in different departments. Furthermore, problem solving teams focus on the various issues and queries (Turner, 2014). Along with this, virtual team can be any type of team that communicates digitally rather in person. In addition, a cross functional team is a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common objectives and goals. It includes various departments such as finance, operations, marketing and human resource departments.  On the other hand, self managed teams help to make unique decisions (Griffin, 2013).

Basis for comparison	Group	Team
Meaning	Group refers to a collection of individuals who work together to accomplish the goals.	A group of persons having identity who joined the organization for attaining the goals.
Leadership	One leader	More than one leader
Members	Members are independent	Members are interdependent
Work product	People do work individual	They do work collectively.
Focus on	The employees focus on the goals.	The workers focus on the team goals.

Teams are made for development of the organization and expansion of the business. There are five stages of team that have been discussed below (Woodcock, 2017).

Forming: It is the first stage of the team development where people get together to meet the long term targets and goals. It also reduces anxiety and uncertainty. Under this stage, members are cautious with their actions and behavior.

Storming: It is the stage where competition and conflict are at its greatest. In this stage, members are dominant to reduce the conflict and issues.

Norming: Under this stage where the group and team members become a cohesive unit to attain common goals in the market (Pelegrini Morita and Marie Burns, 2014).

Performing: This stage leads hard work therefore; members do work with more efficiently and successfully.

Adjourning: Many teams try to reach this stage eventually. In addition, they maintain close relationship with the help of adjourning teams (Smither, Houston and McIntire, 2016).

Team plays various roles in the organization to attain common objectives. Team members maintain favorable mental attitude to overcome the challenges. Members are also known as the shapers of the company because they posses great communication skills and knowledge. Along with this, team members also accept challenges and conflicts to maximize the outcomes of the firm. They maintain coordination and co-operation among the employees. Moreover, team members are called critical thinkers in a team because they predict and analyze the future risks and challenges. In this way, they can make effective decisions. They are specialist in various areas to identify and evaluate the competitor’s plans, strategies and policies. In this way, team plays enormous roles in Tesco company to reach at the top level in the marketplace. The leaders can also monitor and evaluate the activities and actions of the subordinates (Pieterse Van Knippenberg and Van Dierendonck, 2013).

Types of Power and their Implementation in Tesco

 There are several factors that help to promote effective teamwork in the organization have been discussed below.

Diversity: This factor promotes creativity and innovation and raise awareness, which will help in effective teamwork. Diversity of culture also improves efficiency and effectiveness of the employees.

Communication: Dynamic teamwork is facilitated by open communication. Thus, all team members should feel comfortable asking questions regarding the clarification of responsibilities and jobs and they should feel happy to make suggestions when an issue and conflict arises in the organization. 

Leadership: Leadership also provides support in effective teamwork. Leaders provide help by coordinating the efforts of team members and motivating team members to speak their minds during team meetings (Tannenbaum, Weschler and Massarik, 2013).

Team building exercises: Teamwork is also developed and built by shared practice and experiences.  It also boosts and develops morale and confidence among the employees. Team building exercise is also an important element in determining the development of effective and efficient teams (West, 2012).

Organizational behavior is considered as study of human behavior in the organization. In other words, it is considered as application of psychology at any workplace. It is the area of understanding how individuals and groups behave in the organization. Organizational behavior is also used for the purpose of examining the role of systems, structures and processes in shaping the behavior of the organization, and also for understanding how organizations really work.

Managers of the Tesco face different challenges in context of organizational behavior and some of these are stated below:

• Workplace is a diverse space, and it consist different individuals and groups. It becomes difficult for managers to manage all these people who belong to different race, culture, and sexual orientations, and manage their behavior in such manner as it leads to positive outcome for the organization.
• Tesco must frame such policies which ensure ethical behavior in the workplace, and the most difficult challenge for managers of the organization is to promote such behavior and culture in the organization. Managers must established ethical values in the organization such as employees must put interest of organization ahead of their personal interest.
• Globalization is another important aspect which creates different challenges for Tesco in context of organizational behavior such as managers have to manage individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and race (Wicks, 2018).

Social resistance is considered as social phenomenon under which those groups which are disadvantaged, exploited, and dominated challenge such dominating practices that are constructed by the nation-states, social institutions, social organizations, and traditional cultural practices. In Tesco, managers of the organization are responsible to frame such policies and conduct such operations in the organization which does not cause any harm to the society or any disadvantaged groups (MSG, n.d.).

Social capital is a concept related to the economic and cultural capital under which social networks play most important role. Transactions in this are manifest by reciprocity, trust, and cooperation. In other words, Tesco are responsible to produce such goods and services which ensures common good, and not for themselves only (Harvard, n.d.).

A contingency theory is an organizational theory which stated that the only best way to organize a corporation is to lead the organization or make decisions. It further states that ideal course of action in nay organization is depend on the internal and external situations. Contingent leaders applied their own style of leadership to the right situation. Tesco is the organization which applied its own style of leadership for the purpose of conduction operations of the organization.

Path-goal theory:

This model is based on the particular style of leadership or behavior which fits in the employee and work environment of the organization for the purpose of achieving particular goal. The goal of this theory is to increase the motivation, empowerment, and satisfaction of the employee and make then most productive members of the organization. Tesco can use this model for ensuring effective performance of their members (NwLink, n.d.).

Culture, power, and politics of an organization are considered as an important aspect which directly or indirectly affects the performance of   the organization:

Globalization and digital technology are considered as two important aspects which completely change the way in which organization conduct their business. Both factors remove the barriers which hinder the ability to communicate and interact with the people. Following are some effects of these approaches on the Tesco:

• Provide new opportunities to the Tesco by removing the issues related to the communication.
• Globalization and technology open new doors related to the consumers, knowledge, and give easy access to raw material and other products.
• It helps the companies by facilitating cheap labor and also reduce manufacturing cost by give easy access to the cheap raw material (Lawlor, 2007).

Government possess the power to change the way business organization work and influence the economy either by make amendments in laws or by changing policies and regulations. This can be understood through example; higher rates of taxes directly impact the profitability of the business. It must be noted that political situation of the company directly affects the economic approach of the company, and then economic approach affects organization business. it is necessary for Tesco to be flexible in nature and frame such policies which help them in dealing with such changes and issues (Pondent, 2018).

There are number of reasons because of which changes occurred in the organization and these reasons include financial approach, a merger or acquisition, expanding markets, accommodating growth, or changes in business model.it must be noted that, change is always difficult and require focus of management to deal with this. Tesco must frame such strategies which are flexible in nature and can be changed as per the changes occurred in future (Joseph, n.d.). :

Power and authority are considered as separate terms but these concepts are related to each other. Power is considered as the possession of authority, control, and influence by which person has capability   to influence the actions of another person, either by direct authority or by some other intangible means. Prime source of power is the possession of knowledge, and authority of knowledge is depends on the levels or positions. It must be noted that, power can strengthen the authority and authority is considered as the one of the primary source of power (Barnes, n.d.).

Motivational theories play very important role in the effective leadership within the organization, as they influence the employees of the organization to put their best efforts for achieving the goals of the organization in association with their personal goals. It also helps the management to achieve their targets within particular time period. In other words, it is the process which motivates the people to conduct their actions in such manner as it ensures achievement of their personal goals as well as organizational goals (Gillikin, J.).

Tuckman describes the group development theory on the basis of various factors and after conducting lot of research. Tuckman develop this theory in 1977, and as per this theroy team development is the process which is divided in 5 stages that are Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and last Adjourning. Adjourning is considered as that stage when any team is completing the current project. Team development is considered as one of the most important theories in the organization (Abudi, 2010).

When people work together, the team needs to maintain some level of cooperation in the organization. The collaboration and cooperation help to resolve conflict among the employees in the organization. If the people work together then they can easily find out the risks and challenges of the market and they can protect the firm from the market risk. Furthermore, if the employees work together then they can share their personal problems and issues with others. It will create unity in the firm and it will increase and enhance the level of confidence of the workers. In this way, Tesco can reduce conflicts and issues which are arising due to ineffective teamwork.

Conclusion

On the mentioned analysis, it can be concluded that organizational culture, politics, and power are essential to stay in the competitive market and to maximize the profitability of Tesco. To attain long term goals and objectives, motivation plays a critical role in the firm. No company can attain success and growth without motivation. Now it is recommended that Tesco should provide training and development coaching to the employees to motivate and enhance their performance and productivity.

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