Organisation and Behaviour

Organisations and Behaviour

1.1 Compare and contrast different organisational structures and culture

Let us analyse two different kind of organisations: a restaurant and a fast food. Thanks to my work experiences in London I am able to compare both of them. In the restaurant there was everything except that a good relationship among the employees and between these and the managers. Everybody was hired through a short interview, without having an induction or a proper training or a briefly introduction of the organisation. It was like everybody was left at their own destiny, so if you had a good skills, determination and you agreed with the treatment that you would have received, you could have gone on and grow in your own, otherwise nobody would have helped you and said how to do things or were to find other things, for example. All these factors did not help to create a real friendship among the employees, and of course, had a huge impact on the motivations of the people, so that was almost impossible to see a work as a team. Instead, in the fast food everything was different. Before to get the job, you have to pass several interviews and attend an induction. Since the beginning you will been told about the company, how it works and the progress that you could do. The first day you start your job on the field, you will have a briefly walk-throw with the manager, outside and inside the shop in order to see and to know where emergency exit and other useful things are situated. Then you will meet all the team, and the trainer, which will follow and help you in every pass. This spirit that you can find will help you feeling part of a team in a very short time and also will motivate you to do your best to succeed with the company. At the end, it is clear how the choice of the restaurant to behave in that way with their employees had had a negative affect into the team, bringing dissatisfaction and laziness, so much so that some employees had left the place. Whereas, in the fast food, the work of the manager and of the employees as well, had helped a lot to create a good atmosphere and a good relationship between each other,so that everybody could be motived and focus on the business.

1.2 Explain how the relationship between an organisation 's structure and culture can impact on the performance of the business

A different organisation structure and culture may have relevant influence on the performance of the business. Comparing the 2 work experience that I had, it is clear how the organisation has had an impact on the trend of the business. In the fast food the manager managed to create a real and proper team which met the spirit of structure: a correct division of work between employees and the formal organisational relationship that are created between them. There were the principles of an organisation culture, there was respect between each other, respect for different culture and everybody was behaving in a proper way and always ready to help the others.
All these aspects create a perfect harmony inside the team, so that everybody was focus on achieving all the goals and inevitably, it had a strong and good effect on the business performance.
In the restaurant instead, nobody knew what “work as a team” means. The managers did not care about creating a successful team and also among the employees there was not the desire to reach it, so that who needed more help could not develop their skills and could not feel part of the company.
Altogether these aspects brought all the motivations of everyone down, so that no one cared about the growth of the company or achieving personal goal, bringing for sure negative influence on the business.

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1.3 Discuss the factors which influence individual behaviour at work

There are a lot of causes which condition the behaviour of a singular person in a workplace. Factors such as personality, attitude, culture, demographic factors, may influences a lot the people. Let us now examine these factors.

Personality-can be seen as one of the most complex aspect of humans beings that influences heavily their behaviour. It is known that character determine the way in which a person behave and response to situations and people. Personality can also be influenced by heredity, family and society. Attitude- can establish the tendency to respond positively or negatively to certain objects, situations or persons. Factors such as family, culture, society and colleagues influence the attitude. The managers in an organisation should know about the possibility aspects of different kind of jobs, in order to help employees to create a positive attitude among them, so that they will be able to work as a team.

Culture- differences among cultures are what distinguish one society from another. The capacities, the knowledges, the experiences and the talent of employees are related to the type of culture for which everyone comes from. It is clear that the culture influence the abilities of singular, so that someone who comes from a specific kind of custom can have an easier or more positive impact and also being more suitable for determinate kind of jobs, than someone else who has a different type of culture.

Demographic factors- such as background, education, nationality, race, also have an impact on the individual. For example a manager of an organisational will be more talented and confident in hiring persons that belong to good socio-economic background, well educated and with a young age, as they are believed to be performing better than the others. Also people who are dynamic and with good communication skills have always more chances than the others to be hired.

2.1 Compare the effectiveness of different leadership styles in different organisations

There are a lot of different leadership types, among them we can find the three major styles: Autocratic, Democratic and Delegative.

Autocratic- in this style the leader has total authority and command over decision making. The leaders tell their employees what must be done and how they want it completed, without getting any advice. It is a kind of style typically used when the manager needs to have under control the situation to avoid possible mistakes. It is clear the goal of this leadership: use your knowledge to get the job done, making sure that important things are done correctly and in a short time.

2 Democratic- all the team together can decide what to do and how to do it, even if the manager maintains the final decision. It is commonly used when the leader has part of information, employees have other part, so that they are able to work as a team and know how to manage things.
All these factors help a lot to generate a good relationship among the employees and also to create a good atmosphere in which everybody has trust and respect of each other. I can identify all these aspects in my experience at the fast food “EAT.”, where everybody from the manager to my last colleague has treated me as if I were there since years, helping and giving me advices since the first day. Furthermore, this experience gave me the possibility to develop my abilities and to know how to work as a team; characteristics that I will bring always with me and that will be useful in the future.

Delegative- in this styles the employees can make the decision. Even if the manager is still responsible for the decision that are made. It is especially used when the employees can manage the things and are able to understand what needs to be done and how to do it. Can also be used when leader has fully trust and familiarity in the team.

2.2 Explain how organisational theory underpins the practice of management

Taking as example the fast food, it is possible to see how the organisation helps the practice of management by motivating individuals and by getting the best from each one. Starting from the induction, where they showed a graphic with all the progress that you could have made until arrive to became a manager within a year, continuing into the shop, it is understandable how they motivated people. As said in the answer above, the manager was using a democratic style, always ready to hear the employees, to allow them to do things in a different way and to help them if it was necessary. Compare with the other types it is possible to say that the manager was even a bit autocratic, sometimes, by giving the input on how that kind of thing had to be done and how much time needed to be done. Also during the busiest time it was necessary being autocratic to not made many mistakes. Instead, comparing with the delegative style, there was not the possibility for some employees to make the decisions, because they were new, without lot of experiences, so that the manager could not have trusted them.

2.3 Evaluate the different approaches to management used by different organisation

There are different approaches that can be taken by different organisations. As I have been saying, in the fast food there was an approach which was focus on motivating people and making them feeling part of the company. Obviously these approaches have contributed to get the best from each employee and also have helped them to work hard, with more passion in order to achieve the goals of the organisation and eventually own objectives. All these methods also have contributed to affect people in a positive way, giving them the instruments to grow up and to develop personal skills.
Analysing the restaurant instead, it was easily to see in which way they were treating people. It was adopted an autocratic style, where the leaders were giving orders without giving any advices and expecting things to be done in a shorter time than expected. These aspects have contributed not less to affect people in a negative way, deprive of them the enthusiasm to work and the voluntary to achieve something together with the company. This kind of style also have had an huge impact on the motivations of the employees and did not help at all to create a real team.

3 Discuss the impact that different leadership styles may have on motivation in organisations in period of change

It is possible to have different impacts among the organisations in period of change, especially regarding new motivation and different methods on how to explain things. For example in the autocratic style, the leaders may change some rules or may take other positions regarding specific things. It can facilitate or complicate the “life” of the employees, but the leaders will always have the total control about decision making and the authority to make some transformations or improvements which can change one more time the assets into the employees team. In one hand the changes can of course bring new motivations and new aspirations, but in the other one they can bring dissatisfaction so that the motivations will go down.
The democratic type instead, is the more suitable for changes, because the team will decide about that all together with the agreement of the manager, so that everybody can give their own opinion in order to make the bests changes for the company and for the team itself. Thanks to that, all the group can have more motivations or can recover them on the eventuality they had lost them; so that the team can gain more confidence in itself and can aspire to reach new goals.
Also the delegative one, can be considered as good as the democratic one in motivations changes. Because the decision of make a change will be taken and will be decided by the team altogether, they will be able to modify the aspect of things where necessary so that they can change the way on how to do or explain them among each other, so that they will have new motivation and new incentives in make the job done.

Compare the application of different motivational theories within a workplace

There can be different motivational theories within a workplace, such as training people and multitasking.
Training people: it works everything around the way the trainers teach you. For example, if they start since the beginning to teach in a determinate way, by showing how to do things in one of the easiest way, smiling and enjoying it at the same time, you will have a positive impression. This positive impression, will give you a different motivation on how to approach things and also will make you feel stronger and having more energies to do that specific thing. Training is the first step that each individual face once they get in a new place. This is why it has an important value and it is fundamental for people tendency. If the trainers will “fail” the training, the employees will be less motivated and will have a bad tendency at work; whereas if they will training positively, the employees, for sure will have more motivations and they will start the path into the new company with a positive tendency and with more vitality.
Multitasking: it is also considered a way to motivate people. An employee which is considered multitasking, has the trust of the manager and also the essential confidence to interact with him/her. Once the leaders will give the employees more things to do at the same time, they will feel really part of the group and they will spend all their own energies to try to make things done properly in a easiest and shortest way, in order to reach their goals. They will be really motivated because they know that if they do not do the right thing, they may lose the trust of the manager or they may disappoint them.

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3.3 Evaluate the usefulness of a motivation theory for managers

The motivation theory are really important for the manager because it can help to set up a team. It is very useful for a leader to start with the right step in every circumstance during the process of integration of each individual into the company. It can be thought that the work of a manager is an “easy job” because gives only instructions and will check once the things are done. Instead it is more important than a job as a trainer or as a simple employee, because they must have the capability to “build” a team and with it to reach the objectives which are given from person in a higher position than them. If the leader will fail in it, there is the possibility that can be fired, or even worse, that the company can fail without reach the expect goals. Thanks to that the motivations assume a relevant position into a workplace, so that the managers will do all that is into their capability to help the employees and to make their life easier, by giving examples, playing games and teach them by using their experiences. It is with the help of the manager and with the volition of a singular employee that the right motivations can come up so that the job can be finished and the employees can develop and reach the targets of the organisation all together as a team.

Explain the nature of groups and group behaviour within organisations

The groups are planned by purpose and created by management as part of the formal organisation structure. There are three different kind of groups: formal groups, virtuoso team and informal groups.

Formal groups- are formed as a consequence of the ideal of organisation and arrangement for the division of the work. They are created to achieve particular goals and are concerned with the co-ordination of work activities. Individual are brought together on the basis of established roles within the structure of the organisation. Their goals are pointed out by management, and relationships, rules and norms of behaviour established. Formal work groups can be differentiated in a number of ways: the task to be performed, the basis of membership, the nature of technology and position within the organisation structure. Also, they tend to be relatively permanent.

Virtuoso team- are formed only for big change in organisations. They are composed of individual virtuosos or superstars with a single clear, ambitious mandate and are not supposed to remain together for different projects. They are rarely created by the organisations.

Informal groups- are concentrated more on personal relationship and agreement of group members than on defined role relationship. They serve especially to work and satisfy psychological and social needs, not necessarily related to the tasks to get done. An informal group can be the same or take only a part of the formal group. The informal leader may be chosen as the the individual who is more adapted, who helps to resolve conflict, reflects the attitudes and values of the member, leads the group in satisfying its objects or cooperate with the management or other people outside the group. In rarely case, it is possible for the informal leader to be the same person as the formal leader. Main reason for informal groups:

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-The perpetuation of the culture;
-The communication system;
-The implementation of social control and
-The provision of interest and fun in work life.

4.2 Discuss factors that may promote or inhibit the development of effective teamwork in organisations

There are several factors which can affect the development of a teamwork in organisations. Factors such as the behaviour, the communications, the group size and the compatibility of members are the most important.

Behaviour-it is extremely important for the approach in every organisations. An individual with the right behaviour will integrate itself easily inside the group, will learn and will develop skills as well as grow together with the team. Whereas an individual with an incorrect behaviour will affect negatively the team, bringing inevitably discontent inside the group and eventually frictions which will influence all the work into the team.

Communications-are also important and contribute to the success of the group. Communications can be affected by the nature of the task, by the work environment and by technology. For example, difficulties in communication can arise with production system where workers have to stay in a determinate place with limited freedom of movement. Even when there are the opportunities to interact with colleagues, physical condition may limit the communications.

Size of the group-there can be problems with communications and co-ordination as the members increase in size. A large group is more difficult to handle and require an high level of supervision. Then when a group becomes too large it may split into smaller units and friction may develop between the sub-groups so that the cohesiveness inevitably becomes more difficult to achieve. Comparing with a small group(less than 5 members) for example, the bigger one will have an higher amount of creativity and variety that can be produced.

Compatibility of members-the more the group will share knowledges, backgrounds, interests, attitudes and experiences, the easier it is to achieve cohesiveness. Different personalities or skills of members, may serve to complement each other and help for a cohesive group. However, such differences may be the cause of conflicts and frictions. Conflict can also arise in a homogeneous group where individuals are in competition with each other(ex. Incentive payment schemes).

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4.3 Evaluate the impact of technology on team functioning within a given organisation

Nowadays the technology is present in every organisations and gives a huge help in making things done faster and in an easier way. It has also an important effect on cohesiveness and relate closely to the nature of the task, physical setting and communications. Evaluating the technologies in the fast food,it is possible to say that they helped a lot, especially during the busiest time. They contributed to make things easier, helping the cohesiveness and the interaction, even when there were problems of understanding between the group. In one hand, have a skill-based technology can increase the percentage of group cohesiveness, in the other one with machine-placed assembly line work it is more difficult to develop wholeness.

Bibliography:

Business study guide; www.studymode.com

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Bibliography: Business study guide; www.studymode.com 7