Essay: Organisational Behaviour And Management In Planning At Woolworths.

Discuss about the Management and organisational behaviour in Planning.

Organisational behaviour is the study of human behaviour in an organisation, and the interaction between the organisation and the human behaviour. According to Mullins (2013), organisational behaviour can be divided into three ways such as micro level, meso level and macro level. The major principle of organisational behaviour is to achieve the organisational theory and also develop a greater conceptualisation of the organisational life. Therefore, it can be stated that central idea of the organisational behaviour is used for the purpose of human resource and employee engagement, which will in turn maximise the entire output of the organisation. On the other hand, organisational behaviour is helpful to understand the group and the individual performance as well as their activities within a company.

This study will highlight the human behaviour in the working environment of Woolworths and will identify the effect on the organisational performance, communication, leadership and motivation etc. Woodet al.(2016) opined that internal and external perspectives are two relevant theories, which describe how the organisational behaviour can be measured by the performance of Woolworths. In addition, internal perspective is depending upon the employees’ behaviour and their personal feelings, communications, thoughts and experiences. On the other hand, external perspective is depending upon the environmental factors, which affect the individual’s performance and behaviour.

Woolworths is a supermarket chain in Australia. Woolworths is operating their business in the duopoly market. The Headquarter of Woolworths is at New South Wales, Australia. Number of employees is 11000 (Woolworthsgroup.com.au. 2017). In order to complete the study, the interviewer has conducted an interview on 3 managers of Woolworths. As the managers are busy with their operations, therefore, the interviewer has conducted the interview through telephone. This study will demonstrate the organisational planning, which is required to determine in order to achieve the business goal of the organisation. Time horizon is the primary aspect, with which Woolworths deliver the products to the consumers within the proposed time. In addition, pricing strategy is the other aspect, which is determined by Woolworths in order to satisfy the consumers (Mahembe and Engelbrecht2014). On the other hand, this study will demonstrate several leadership styles, which are following by the organisations in order to improve the organisational performance.

Organisational planning is a procedure, which is helpful to focus on the ideas and decide on the approaches, which are required to follow Woolworths in order to meet the goal of the company. As opined by Rhoden (2016), planning is the vital level of all work place. However, the management of Woolworths has been following “fail to plan, plan to fail” in the organisational performance. In addition, Woolworths focuses to the time horizon and thus, they develops time frame for each of the work. Within the mentioned time frame, Woolworths tried to accomplish their projects. Therefore, each of the individual workers requires to provide their efforts as per the necessities.

Findings

According to Mullins (2013), Woolworths’ requires to identify and organise the necessary resources and raw materials. If Woolworths supply excess raw materials for the production process, then it can be inferred that the organisation has to carry extra burden. This will in turn increase the overall cost structure of the products. In this point, it can be mentioned that supply of necessary amounts raw materials can improve the performance of an organisation. The organisation has planned to develop schedules with appropriate and specific milestones for achieving the goal of the organisation (Lee and Lee 2014). Woolworths has also planned to set appropriate prices of their products.

It is known that the objective of Woolworths is to deliver the products to the consumers within proposed time. After conducting the interview, the interviewer has identified that Woolworths has been planning mainly to deliver the manufacturing goods within the mentioned time. Therefore, time framework is the key aspect, which has been followed by Woolworths. In addition, the short-term goal of Woolworths is to provide higher quality of products at the best possible prices to the customers. As a result, the consumers are getting satisfied with their service and thus, Woolworths has planned to open more outlets around Australia. According to AlNasseriand Aulin (2016), it can be mentioned that organisational planning can increase the productivity of the organisation and the consumers will be satisfied. Therefore, the organisation has planned to expand it’s business. Hence, the revenue earning by Woolworths will be increased. In the opinion of Gelenset al. (2014), by following this organisational planning Woolworths will be capable to achieve business goal. Moreover, Woolworths also implement innovative techniques in order to improve the performance of Woolworths.

The main concern of Woolworths is to deliver the products to their consumers within the proposed time. This is the ideal practice of the organisation to satisfy their consumers. As a result, they also want to maintain a long-term relationship with the company (Contrafattoand Burns 2013). It can be mentioned that the long-term goal of Woolworths is to achieve the environmental needs. Therefore, they want to sustain organisational growth within the social development. Based on the organisational planning, which have discussed in previous, Woolworths has focused on four organisational strategies. The strategies are to be a consumer centric business, to be a higher brand value driven business, to develop strong and greater profitable consumer relationship, to enable multi-channel world. As per the statement of Lozano, Ceulemansand Seatter (2015), Woolworths has aimed to motivate the employees and also provide them necessary training in order to update their knowledge and skills. On the other hand, other important aspect is to determine the pricing structure of the products. As Woolworths always tries to give priority to the consumers, therefore, they set lower prices of the products, so that the consumers can afford to purchase it. As a result, pricing strategy is one of the important organisational strategies, which is required to determine in order to increase the profitability statement of the organisation (AlNasseri and Aulin2016).

Analysis

In order to improve the performance of an organisation, Woolworths has planned to develop a team. According to Alfeset al. (2013), teamwork can increase theproductivity of the organisation. The definition of organising can arrange different elements into a sequential structure or order. This will in turn implies assembling of necessary resources to achieve the organisational objectives. Therefore, it can be mentioned that this is an organisational goal oriented process, which highlights the organisational effectiveness and efficiency. On the other hand, Chumget al. (2016) cited that organising is the managerial program, which is needed to carry out and also required to determine in order to achieve the business goal. Organising is also associated with the human resources and the other organisational assets such as strategy, technology and environment.

On the other hand, organising at the level of organisation includes an inference about the feasibility of departmentalise within the departments to efficiently coordinate the effort. According to De Vriesand Van der Poll (2016), there are several ways of departmentalise, which include organising with the help of activities, product or with the consumers. Woolworths has used several approaches of departmentalisation. Therefore, in a synopsis, it can be mentioned that organising is a method, which involves integration, balancing and the coordination of the organisational function and can combine the employees in order to achieve the business goals.

From the interview, it can be noticed that the management of Woolworths have keep their faith on the team development. The organising process of Woolworths has developed a relationship with the employees by assigning tasks to the eligible employees (Lozano, Ceulemansand Seatter2015). It is because when Woolworths has assigned tasks to the staffs, they become responsible towards the tasks and perform it efficiently. In addition, the procedure of organising has raised to a network of authority responsibility associations between the members of the company. This network of organisational authority responsibility connection is known as “organisation structure”. Woolworths has aimed to two broad classifications such as organising as a process and organising as a structure. On the other hand, Mahembeand Engelbrecht (2014) opined that organising is a continuous method and in order to achieve the business goal, Woolworths requires to maintain a consistency in their performance. Therefore, it can be stated that organising is essential for achieving the organisational goals. In this context, Woolworths is able to determine the distribution, finance, production, organisational operation etc.

Organising is associated with the mechanism, which is helpful to achieve the organisational planned objectives. Therefore, Woolworths has been providing a framework within which several activities have performed by the managers of the organisation significantly. Organising procedure is used within the organisation in order to maintain and achieve the coordination among the organisational staffs. This is the ideal organising practice followed by Woolworths. As per the statement of Hyde, Harris and Boaden (2013), with the help of organising, the performance of the employees can be connected with the functioning of each of the departments. In addition, organising is depending upon the concept of work division of Woolworths, which leads to the specialisation. The organising process of Woolworths has aimed to achieve higher effectiveness as it is benefitted to make significant utilisation of the physical resources. In the words of Lee and Lee (2014), it can be stated that Woolworths is able to promote development of the employees and the management can take necessary decisions and is able to tackle the difficult situation. It also helped to boost up employees’ morale.

Organising

Leadership is helpful to focus to the management approach, which works towards what is suitable for the organisation and for the stakeholders. Their leading power of the organisational leaders will be able to reflect the performance of the individual employees. In the opinion of Odetunde (2013), a leader is assumed to be someone having clear vision, which is required to follow in order to achieve the goal of the business. On the other hand, it can be menti0oned that keeping mind the business objectives, the leaders implement organisational strategies and also formulate plans. Therefore, Contrafatto and Burns (2013) mentioned that three dimensions of leadership are what to do, how to meet the vision and who will be idea to carry out the strategies?

Figure 1: Three strategies of leadership

(Source: Created by author)

There are five types of leadership style such as Laissez faire, autocratic, participative, transactional and transformational, which can be followed by the organisations. The laissez faire leader will be able to identify the organisational shortcomings and then supervise and motivate the performance of employees in order to improve their individual performance (Hyde,Harris and Boaden2013). In this type of leadership approach, it can be observed that no leadership or no supervision efforts will be received from the managers, which will in turn lead to the poor production along with the increasing cost structure. On the other hand, in case of autocratic leadership style, the managers of an organisation do not involve the employees in the decision making process.

The participative leadership style is the adverse leadership style of autocratic. In the participative or democratic leadership style, the managers allow the employees to take part in the decision making process. As a result, Bourne (2016) cited that participative leadership style can boost up the performance of the employees. As per the transactional leadership style, the leaders are willing to provide awards or also punished the employees based on their performance. Therefore, the employees receive awards after accomplishing the business goal. On the other hand, transformational leadership style is depending upon the higher level of communication between the management and the employees to achieve the business goals (Contrafatto and Burns 2013).

After conducting the interview with the managers of Woolworths, it can be observed that Woolworths has followed participative or democratic leadership style. Therefore, Idenand Eikebrokk (2015) opined that the subordinates of Woolworths has the opportunity to take part in the decision making process of the organisation. This leadership style considers the subordinates contributors in any type of organisational performance. As a result, the innovation, creativity, honesty has reflected in the performance of the employees.

In the words of Longoni (2014), democratic leadership style is helpful to solve the complex organisational issues. The organisation would have the potential to work collaboratively, therefore, in case of complex and strategic problems, the democratic leader of Woolworths could take efficient decisions. Moreover, it can be mentioned that greater communication skill between the management and the employees of Woolworths has improved and this would in turn reflect the individual performance of the employees. In addition, creative environment is helpful to increase productivity of the organisation. The bonding between the team members and the managers would also increase. However, Young (2015) argued that Woolworths sometimes faced difficulties during the decision making process. The employees sometimes provide several opinions and it would be difficult to take one single decision. If this situation arises, Tamtaand Rao (2016) mentioned that democratic leadership approach is comparative time consuming. Therefore, the management requires comparatively more time to take decision. However, it can be concluded that democratic leadership is an ideal style to lead the organisation and can improve the employees’ performance.

Controlling is one of the important tools, which can check the errors in the organisational operation and take corrective action. Therefore, deviation from the standards would be minimised and organisational goals can be achieved in a predicted way. According to Dikshit and Dikshit (2014), it can be mentioned that controlling is a foreseeing activity where the previous concepts of control were used after detecting the errors. Hence, it can be mentioned that control in management is helpful to determine the standards, measuring the actual performance and then take correct action.

The four major elements of controlling are:

• The organisational characteristics can be controlled
• The sensor
• The comparator
• The activator

The first element such as characteristics system is able to measure the existing correlation within the organisational operation process. This can also measure how the system is performing (Idenand Eikebrokk2015). This characteristic is the output of the entire system during the stage of processing. With the help of second tool, an organisation can measure the characteristics of the operation. The third element of organisational controlling can determine the necessity of further correction within the business performance. It is an important indicator, which can mitigate the loopholes to improve the performance of the organisations. Changet al. (2016) added that it will involve an essential preventive action, which highlights that good control can achieve the goal of the organisation. Lastly, the activator element is the corrective action, which can return the system to the expected output level.

From the interview, it can be identified that the managers of Woolworths are able to identify the new challenges and mistakes of the organisational functions. Moreover, the interviewer has understood that controlling is the last approach of planning, organising, staffing as well as directing. In addition, the management control of Woolworths can determine the standards of the performance of employees; evaluate the actual performance of the employees and also compare this actual performance with the organisational standards. After identifying the differentiation, the managers of Woolworths have planned to take corrective plan (Ibrahimet al. 2015). In this way, Woolworths is able to accomplish the organisational goal. Apart from this, the managers of Woolworths would able to improve the employee motivation as well as also facilitate the coordination in action. Therefore, Woolworths has arranged award program to the best employee. This would in turn motivate the employees to improve their performance.

As per the theory of controlling, it can be observed that the organisations aimed to facilitate and motivate the employees. Hence, Woolworths follows to arrange award program in order to enhance the level of motivation of the staffs. In this point, it can be assumed that this organisational strategy is the best practice to understand how the managers successfully manage the Woolworths’ organisational operation (Wong, Mahmud and Omar 2015).

Conclusion

The major concern of this study is to highlight the organisational behaviour of Woolworths. Therefore, three managers of this organisation have been chosen on which the interview has been conducted. The interviewer has set 4 open ended questions. Based on their responses, the interviewer has identified that the organisation has focused to the time horizon in order to deliver the products to the consumers. On the other hand, after the interview method, it can be noticed that Woolworths has followed democratic leadership style in their organisation. This proves that Woolworths has given priority to the employees, so that they can take part in the decision making process. In this purpose, the managers of the organisation have aimed to make a greater communication with the subordinates. Lastly, it can be observed that Woolworths has implemented innovative techniques and organisational strategies in order to achieve the goal of the business. As a result, the managers of the organisation inferred that the revenue earning of the organisation has increased. The profitability statement of Woolworths would be also increased.

In order to improve the performance of Woolworths, it can be recommended that Woolworths also require to implement the strategy of fair price policy. In this context, it can be mentioned that along with the implementation of ideal time horizon, the organisation also requires to set the price of the product cheap, so that the consumers can afford the price and purchase the products. If Woolworths set higher prices of the products, then the overall sales of the organisation will be decreased. As Woolworths is belonging to a duopoly market and Coles is the major competitor of Woolworths, therefore, the sales of Woolworths will be declined. As a result, the financial position of the organisation within the Australian retailing industry will be decreased.

References

Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.

AlNasseri, H.A. and Aulin, R., 2016. Understanding Management Roles and Organisational Behaviour in Planning and Scheduling Based on Construction Projects in Oman. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 21(1).

Bourne, L., 2016.Stakeholder relationship management: a maturity model for organisational implementation. CRC Press.

Chang, K., Chang, K., Nguyen, B., Nguyen, B., Cheng, K.T., Cheng, K.T., Kuo, C.C., Kuo, C.C., Lee, I. and Lee, I., 2016. HR practice, organisational commitment & citizenship behaviour: A study of primary school teachers in Taiwan. Employee Relations, 38(6), pp.907-926.

Chumg, H.F., Seaton, J., Cooke, L. and Ding, W.Y., 2016. Factors affecting employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour in the virtual organisation from the perspectives of well-being and organisational behaviour.Computers in Human Behavior, 64, pp.432-448.

Contrafatto, M. and Burns, J., 2013. Social and environmental accounting, organisational change and management accounting: A processual view. Management Accounting Research, 24(4), pp.349-365.

De Vries, H. and Van der Poll, H.M., 2016. The influence of Lean thinking on organisational structure and behaviour in the discrete manufacturing industry.Journal of Contemporary Management, 13(1), pp.55-89.

Dikshit, A.Y. and Dikshit, P.A., 2014. An Empirical Study Of Voluntary Organisational Behaviour: Investigating relationship between personnel Psychology & counterproductive work behaviour. ZENITH International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 4(3), pp.64-76.

Gelens, J., Hofmans, J., Dries, N. and Pepermans, R., 2014. Talent management and organisational justice: employee reactions to high potential identification. Human Resource Management Journal, 24(2), pp.159-175.

Hyde, P., Harris, C. and Boaden, R., 2013. Pro-social organisational behaviour of health care workers.The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(16), pp.3115-3130.

Ibrahim, R., Aziz Amin, A., Ghani, M.A., Hashim, N. and Salleh, M., 2015. Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Readiness: A Demographic Study on Local Government Employees in Southern Region of Malaysia. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 23.

Iden, J. and Eikebrokk, T.R., 2015. The impact of senior management involvement, organisational commitment and group efficacy on ITIL implementation benefits.Information Systems and e-Business Management, 13(3), pp.527-552.

Lee, H.H. and Lee, C.Y., 2014. The effects of total quality management and organisational learning on business performance: evidence from Taiwanese insurance industries. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 25(9-10), pp.1072-1087.

Longoni, A., 2014. Sustainable operations strategies: the impact of human resource management and organisational practices on the triple bottom line. Springer.

Lozano, R., Ceulemans, K. and Seatter, C.S., 2015. Teaching organisational change management for sustainability: designing and delivering a course at the University of Leeds to better prepare future sustainability change agents. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, pp.205-215.

Mahembe, B. and Engelbrecht, A.S., 2014. The relationship between servant leadership, organisational citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness.SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 40(1), pp.01-10.

Mullins, L.J., 2013. Management and Organisational Behaviour. UK: Pearson.

Odetunde, O.J., 2013. Influence of transformational and transactional leaderships, and leaders' sex on organisational conflict management behaviour. Gender and Behaviour, 11(1), pp.5323-5335.

Rhoden, M., 2016.Construction Management and Organisational Behaviour.John Wiley & Sons.

Tamta, V. and Rao, M.K., 2016.The effect of psychological contract fulfilment on organisational justice, work engagement and knowledge sharing behaviour.International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 9(4), pp.283-305.

Wong, S.C., Mahmud, M.M. and Omar, F., 2015.Spiritual leadership values and organisational behaviour in Malaysian private institutions of higher education.Pertanika Journal Social Sciences & Humanities, 23(2), pp.495-507.

Wood, J.M., Zeffane, R.M., Fromholtz, M., Wiesner, R., Morrison, R., Factor, A., McKeown, T., Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J.G. and Osborn, R.N., 2016.Organisational behaviour: Core concepts and applications. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd..

Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017).Woolworths Group: Quality Brands and Trusted Retailing. Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/ [Accessed 26 Jan. 2017].

Young, M., 2015. Project Management Research: social Dimensions and organisational Context. Designs, Methods and Practices for Research of Project Management, p.19.