The Essay Explores The Impact Of Culture, Power, And Politics On Organizational Behavior.

1.Analysing the influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others in an organisational context.

2.Motivating individuals and teams to achieve a goal

3.Cooperating effectively with others within a team and in an organisation

Positive and Negative Aspects of Culture, Power, and Politics

Culture, power and politics are the three large factors of an organisation which are present at each and every workplace and affect the behaviour of the individuals. The office politics, organisational power and culture have a direct impact on the everyday operations of an organisation as well as the workplace environment. The influence posed by politics and power at the workplace directly affects the culture of an organisation either in an informal or formal way (Schein, 2010).Power and politics in the workplace are of both types i.e. positive as well as negative. Positive power leads to productivity encouragement. It comprises of delegating power to the subordinates to make decisions, appointing those employees as supervisors who have shown a high performance for supervising other organisational employees and rewarding and recognising the employees for their hard work (Chang, Rosen and Levy, 2009).

The active power helps in building the confidence of the employees and also motivates them to work productively. It also enables achievement of power by the senior executives through the employee communication and respect instead of coercion and force. It is analysed that the active power results into increased retention rate of the employees in McDonalds as they are offered the authority to work collaboratively and have autonomy to express their individual concerns. It leads to resolution of conflicts at the primary stage only and thus; employees remain connected with the organisation for a longer time (Kotler, 2010).The behaviour of the employees is impacted in a positive manner as they have high involvement in the organisational decision making, as well as, there is the development of friendly association among the employees which leads to improved results of teamwork and increased efficiency and productivity.

McDonalds is saved from the negative power as it is extremely unconstructive for an organisation as for where there is negative power influence; the employees are motivated by means of threat and coercion. The risk is related to their job loss or imposing punishments and penalties over the employees. In the negative power, there is done favouritism to some of the employees in the organisation, and the rewards and recognitions are based on partisanship instead of competence and hard work (Schilling and Kluge, 2009). It impacts the behaviour of the individuals in a very negative manner as the employees get de-motivated because of the discrimination and favouritism prevailing in the company. Employees either raise their voice which leads to organisational conflicts or leaves the organisation and increases the attrition rate of the enterprise. By analysing the workplace politics, it is evaluated that it is also both positive as well as negative in nature. The real politics encompasses of the establishment of a clear chain of commands and effective policies (Easterby-Smith and Lyles, 2011). It results in the development of a healthy political culture which is easy to be comprehended by the employees. It helps the employees in finding answers to the queries as well as achieving more quality products and services.

The positive politics results into decreased conflicts among the individuals whereas the negative politics is the biggest threat for any company as it weakens the establishment and foundation of any organisation. The cynical politics results into unethical work practices, high favouritism, decrease the quality of work, declined organisational productivity and increased attrition rate. Positive politics impact the behaviour of an individual in a constructive manner (Sheng, Zhou and Li, 2011). The employees are more connected with the groups and support the teams without seeking any personal benefit. On the other hand, negative politics results into enhanced un-ethicality in a company which has a direct influence on the decreased morale of the workforce.

Impact of Culture, Power, and Politics on Employee Motivation, Teamwork, and Productivity

Both politics and power impacts the organisational culture and simultaneously the behaviour of the employees. In McDonalds, there is an existence of positive politics and power which give rise to an open and strong organisational culture where people are connected without the aim to achieve their personal aims and objectives. There are declined workplace conflicts, issues and discrimination which results in improved communication among the employees and development of strong association. The pessimistic politics and positive power results in the institution of deteriorate and complex workplace. Organisational culture can be collaborative or bureaucratic (Zheng, Yang and McLean, 2010).  The outcome varies from organisation to the organisation. It has been evaluated that the employees are more productive and efficient in the collaborative organisational culture rather than the bureaucratic or dominant corporate culture.

To critically analyse the existence of culture, power and politics in an organisation and its significant impact in hindering or nurturing the organisational performance, a case has been selected for supporting the arguments. The case selected is of Volkswagen which shows in what manner politics and culture plays a role in the hasty expelling out of the former CEO of the company, named, Bernard Pischetsrider (World Socialist Web Site, 2015).It is recognised as a case of corporate misbehaviour which took place because of the organisational politics and illegal use of powers and cultural domination. The case is completely a game of politics and power in an organisation where the former CEO, Bernard Pischetsrider was forced to resign from his position (Javed, 2016). It initiates when Porsche started buying the offers in the company. All the activities of Porsche have connected with the most likely forerunner as the Volkswagen’s CEO after Pischetsrider i.e. the grandson of the founder of Ferdinand Porsche. Ferdinand Karl Piëch has a high accomplishment to have profits and growth and a leading position in the company ((Thomas, Behrmann and Matusse, 2016).).Therefore, the power influences the decisions of the senior executives and Bernard was turned out from the position of CEO on irrelevant grounds. This case is a prominent example of the influenced nature of the individuals because of power, culture and politics in an organisation (Blackwelder, et al., 2016).

There is a strong relationship between motivation, power, politics and culture. If there is positive and healthy politics in an organisation and collaborative distribution of power at the workplace then its results into several benefits for the company. The most effective outcome is the increased motivation and morale of the employees (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2010). The employees possess an informal and friendly association with each other that result in effective teamwork and grouping. The collaborative culture, effective delegation of power and ethical politics leads to increased employee engagement and organisational productivity as there is a positive workplace environment. Google is one of such organisation which is globally recognised for incorporating all these things at its workplace comprises of a culture with high diversity and employee involvement (Crowley, 2013).The power delegation is also well structured which gives an autonomy to the employees to take their individual decisions. From such an analysis it is recommended that, in the present scenario, the organisation must adopt strategies and policies for having an active power and politics at the workplace which can enhance the employee’s engagement and the motivation. For having long-term sustainability and growth, it is essential to maintain equality in the workplace and high morale of the employees. There is a significant impact on the behaviour of the individuals of the organisational culture, power and politics. Thus, it is essential and mandatory for the companies to put maximum efforts in maintaining the ethicality in the implementation of all these factors (Lynes and Andrachuk, 2008).

Case Studies: McDonald's and Volkswagen

Being appointed as the HR manager of McDonalds, the first and the primary undertaking is to motivate the people and organisations to achieve a target efficiently. There are several ways to which the employees of the organisation can be motivated for attaining the set objective. But as an HR manager, there will use content and process theories of motivation for boosting the morale of the employees so that the company can rapidly achieve its goal (Miner, 2015).The content ideas are the one who has their primary emphasis over the factors within the individuals who are responsible for sustaining, directing, stopping and energising the behaviour of people (Nuttin, 2014). Through the content theory, there is a focus on the particular needs of the people which help them in getting motivate.The content theories comprise of motivation theories of David C. McClelland, Federick Herzberg, Clayton P. Alderfer and Abraham Maslow. In the process methods, the primary emphasis over the behaviour of the individuals and in what manner the action is stopped, sustained, directed and energised.  The process theories include a theory of goal setting, equity, expectancy and reinforcement (Stotz and Bolger, 2014).

The expectancy theory of process methods can help McDonalds achieving their targets as with the implementation of this theory about the recognition scheme of McDonalds, it can be analysed that there is a connection between the employees’ behaviour and the rewards and recognitions provided to them. Therefore, the workforces can be motivated by fulfilling their expectancies in against of their hard work and competencies (Presslee, Vance and Webb, 2013). This will result in faster attainment of the organisational goals. The next theory which will support in an achievement of the objectives is the reinforcement theory of process theories. With the incorporation of this theory, there will be a direct impact on the performance and productivity of the employees. As per this theory, the amount of rewards and recognition offered to employees in the past depicts the future performance (Skinner, 2014). Therefore, the employees will be motivated to achieve goals by providing them good rewards for their past performances. McDonalds will link this motivation theory with the compensation management of the employees. The next theory which will help in an accomplishment of the goal is the integration of the equity theory of process methods. The workers used to compare their salaries, incentive, rewards and recognition with other employees. The greater the organisational equity is, the better and improved are the performances. Therefore, there will take use of equity theory in offering the rewards to the employees for their respective performances and competence. It will help in motivating the employees by means of equality in the performance appraisal of the employees and as a result the employees will work productively to attain the set goals (Manzoor, 2012).  

The content theories also have their significant role in the achievement of the goal such as by incorporating the policies based on the Maslow’s theory for motivating the employees. It will help in satisfying the needs of the employees such as monetary needs, social recognition, job enrichment, etc. All these will help the employees to get motivated and work harder for the successful completion of the organisational goal (Jerome, 2013). The second content theory which will be used for motivating employees will be Motivation and Hygiene factor theory of Herzberg. By this theory, the employees will be forced to attain they goal faster by motivating them through the hygiene as well as motivation factors. The employees will be offered with various fringe advantages, promotional opportunities, recognition, and security, good working condition and improved interpersonal relations. If the employees receive motivation through both the factors, then it will help in increasing the morale of the employees to work proactively and achieve the goal so that they can receive higher rewards and recognition(Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The other two theories of content theories i.e. ERG motivation theory of Alderfer and the theory of needs of David McClelland both have also played vital role in the realisation of the set goal as the needs of the employees are targeted by both of these theories. Once the needs are accomplished, the individuals get motivated and perform efficiently and achieve desired goals.

Managerial Approaches to Culture, Power, and Politics

Influencing the behaviour of other is an essential task in the organisations as there are a number of times when managers have to influence the employees for any organisational change or other thins. Therefore, it is necessary that the behaviour of the individuals is influenced in a positive manner. There can be taken use of motivational theories, models and concepts for influencing the behaviour of the employees. To influence the behaviour of the workforce, the organisation can incorporate several motivational theories in its practices and policies. By the motivational concept it can be perform in such a way that first there must be needs recognition of the employees such as job enlargement, rewards, perks, high status etc. (Zhang and Bartol, 2010 Once the needs of the employees, have identified, the second step initiate by McDonalds will be given an opportunity to the employees to accomplish those needs in the form of providing them chance to work hard for achievement of any established organisational goal. Once the goal is fulfilled, then the senior executives provide appropriate rewards and outcome to the employees so that, their needs can be satisfied (Stevenson and Lochbaum, 2008). Hence, by implementing the motivational model and theories, the employees can be influenced to work hard and to perform effectively in a team. There is a vigorous and strong bond among power, politics, culture and motivation which enables the organisation and the teams to succeed and growth. Once the employees get influenced and motivated by the motivational theories, concepts and models then it results into the positive delegation of power according to the competence of the employees, and it results into positive politics in the organisation. The positive power motivated employees, real politics and collaborated culture together leads into rapid organisational success. Once the employees get motivated, they work in a productive and efficient manner which enhances the corporate performances, sales, customers and revenues (Heckhausen, 2012).

In an organisation, there is the formation of several teams, but the productivity and performance of every team are different and diverse. Some deliver productive and effectual results whereas other teams result into unproductive performance. According to the performance efficiency, the team are recognised as effective and ineffective. There are several qualities and competencies of the effective teams which make them different and oppose from the ineffective teams (Aguinis, 2009).The effective teams enjoy the team work and trust each other and work in a collaborative form with mutual and clearly-defined goals. Opposite to the ineffective teams, the members of the effective teams inspire each other to have higher team involvement, express their view-points and maintain the connection with every team member. The primary area of difference is the communication, in effective teams, there is a concise and clear exchange of information which supports the understanding among all the team mates and clear understanding of the team goals (West, 2012).In the effective teams, there is two-way communication, people speak-up their views as well as listen carefully to the opinions of other team members. With the formal communication, there also exists an informal and friendly association among all the team mates which result in increased support for each other. The success of the project undertaken by the team is equally shared among all the team members and no individual member claims for rewards and recognition. One of the key factors which diverse the effective teams from the ineffective teams is the ability of conflict management (Behfar, et al., 2008). The issues or difference in opinions arise sort at the primary level only, and they do not convert into high-level conflicts which can become the result of poor productivity. All these qualities, competence and unity of the effective teams make them different from the weak teams (Harville and Thornton, 2014).

As per the Tuckman’s Teamwork theory, there are five stages in the overall group development. There are five different stages in the group development theory i.e. storming, performing, forming, norming and adjourning. As per the first stage i.e. forming, all the people strive hard to find their place in the team. It is the stage of team building where there is forming a team by establishing a group of few individuals. The second phase is storming, in this phase; the individuals consider themselves as the part of the team (Lunenburg and Lunenburg, 2015). They try to understand the purpose of the team, the objective for which the team is formed. The third stage is norming, in this stage; there develops a sense of togetherness and development of processes and rules in the team. The next phase is performing where there is the development of synergy by having effective team relationships. The entire focus of this stage is in the execution of the task. The last stage is the adjourning stage, in this phase; in this stage, the task is completed, and it’s the time of dismantling, and because of the development of friendly relation, the team members will depress (Chou and Garcia, 2011).With these different phases, there is a development of team spirit among all the team members which have a direct impact on the development of dynamic cooperation. As all the team members are diverse n nature, culture and job role, there is increased dynamicity in the organisation. Working in teams results into high cooperation among the organisational employees which directly enhances the organisational productivity and efficiency (Tuckman and Jensen, 2010).

As per the organisational behavioural concept, there is the vital importance of groups and working in groups. There are several things demanded by the individuals at the time they become the part of a group. It includes high security, improved status, high self-esteem, strong affiliation, collaborative power and shared goal achievement. In analysing and evaluating the overall organisational behaviour, it is essential to first identify the groups and the respective behavioural needs (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2010).There is a strong relevance of team development theories in the context of organisational behaviour concepts and philosophies which influence behaviour in the workplace.As per the group development theory, it is essential that slowly and gradually the team member develops and establish their place in the team and also establish the friendly association among each other. But if there does not take place such association and team spirit, then it results in an ineffective team which impacts and influence the behaviour of all the individuals (McShane and Von Glinow, 2011).The higher the engagement of the individuals is, the greater is the motivation level of the employees. And if the employees are motivated, then it is easy to influence them for performing effectively and efficiently in an organisation. Therefore, it can be critically analysed that there is a direct connection between the motivation of the employees, the organisational behaviour theories and the performance of the organisation and the employees (Xyrichis and Ream, 2008).

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