Behaviour of managers with their workers

Introduction:

Management Behaviour is concerned with the study of the behaviour of managers with their workers/subordinates within an organisational setting. (Laurie J. Mullins, 2005.)

The management behaviour is a vital and key part that decides the business success or its fall because it has direct effects on the individual that are in the team of the manger. The manger is responsible to get the most and best out of them and if he is able to do that the business will be positively affected by this. It has always been argued about the factors that affects the management behaviour. But the factors that affect this are the Culture, organisation structure.

The study of the individual members’ behaviour is a key element for the business performance and its success either they are the managers or the low level workers. This not only helps the management of the organisation to understand but also formulate the policies that have favourable effects on the individual’s behaviour and subsequently affecting the business performance in the positive way.

Company Profile:

Tesco, which was started in 1919 and today it is one of the leading and largest British supermarkets in UK. Tesco has also entered the US market with a different name. Many companies in this industry see the Tesco as their role model to succeed in their business. Tesco in also entering different sectors of the retail industry even it has recently entered the financial industry as well by offering the banking services and insurance as well. They studies and analyses the policies of Tesco that they have in place in different business functions of them and tries to implement that in their own businesses according to their own preferences.

Culture And Management Behaviour

There are many factors that affect that influence the management behaviour in the organisation. But the main factor is Culture.

It can broadly be defined as set of norms along with the aspects like values and beliefs which are closely associated with the norm concept. (Kilmann et al. 1985). The culture have great amount of influence in the management behaviour. If for instance the culture in an organisation is power culture i.e. few people have the whole power to make the essential decisions, the management behaviour in those organisations is autocratic behaviour where the work is more important than the individuals. In that environment individuals are motivated through the power and threatening that is related to their work. Many individuals due to this kind of management behaviour either continue their job due to the threat regarding work or they leave the job due to lower motivation due to the management behaviour and the culture. And the other extreme kind of culture is person culture where the individuals are given the importance. They are given the right to speak and express their opinion on the decision made by the management and in some cases even the decision making powers are given to them. The management behaviour in this culture is more democratic sort, where individuals are motivated through different factors, which will be later discussed and the main element of the management behaviour is this culture is to achieve the targets of the company by keeping the employees happy.

Tesco uses the mix of the task culture and the role culture which are based on the work and type of roles that are given to the individuals. And the management behaviour is partly autocratic and partly democratic depending upon the situation that prevails at that moment. The team based culture in Tesco clearly gives an indication of the democratic process of decision making and work in the organisation. And the behaviour of the management with the staff and since the staff is heard, they are motivated by this.

Motivation And Management Behaviour

It can be defined as a force which drives an individual to achieve some goal in order to fulfil some need or expectation. The driving force on which it depends it is different for different individuals and depends upon their needs and behaviour. The motivation is a key at work because a motivated person works harder at work and uses his all energy to fulfil the tasks that he is given. (Laurie J. Mullins, 2005.)

It a key factor that influences the individuals behaviour and their performance hence resulting in the success of any business and its performance. Motivated staff is very important for the supermarket businesses like Tesco, because if the staff is motivated it will provide the customers the best customer service they can. That is why the organisations like Tesco have a proper management system that conforms not only their corporate policy of happy employees; happy customers but also is tailored and varied according to the situation and environment prevailing. Different organisation uses different motivation tools based on different theories but the ones used by Tesco is

Maslow and Hertzberg Theory and Tesco

Maslow was the one who said that there are also other factors that affect the individual other than the money which Taylor Fredrick argued. After a well research he came up with a hierarchy of needs that are responsible to motivate the employees in one or the other way. The pyramid of Maslow consisted of five stages of needs according to their priority.

Physiological Needs: These are the basic and most preferred needs by the humans and include factors like food, sleep and shelter. Tesco also understands these needs of their employees and importance of these factors in the life of their employees. They provide these needs to their employees by providing them a safe place to work, regular working hours and important facilities like discounted shopping for its workers, staff canteen, and lockers for personal belongings.

[ Source: Abraham-Maslow.com ]

The next level of needs is Safety need which includes the jobs security, right to express themselves, better management behaviour towards the employees and a feeling of belonging and attachment by the management and the organisation. Tesco also motivates its staff by providing these needs. Tesco fulfil these needs of staff by giving them the job security, most employees of the Tesco are on permanent contract and of they are not on permanent contract, they are offered permanent slots on the basis of their performance. They also have the access to the sick schemes provided by the Tesco to give them the feeling that some cares for them.

The third level is the Social/ Love needs this includes the socially active environment to the staff at workplace and opportunity for social interaction between the staff. This will not only satisfy the social needs of the employees but also creates a social and friendly environment in the organisation. Since Tesco focuses on the team based targets therefore they automatically fulfils this need due to the team based tasks. Tesco have working groups at different levels of their organisation including the top management level. They also have certain days in the year where they have all the teams participating in different fun tasks thus offering inter team’s interaction and few other occasions like celebrating birthdays of the members and annual events like Christmas, Halloween and others.

Esteem Needs includes the self respect and the esteem of others. This may include appreciation by the upper level of staff or even promotions for instance. These needs are related to the future of the employees on the basis of their past performance. Tesco uses this factor as well and the system through which this need is fulfilled is called the 360 Degree Feedback and Appraisal System, which forces on the values of not only self respect but also the respect for others and the appreciation of employees in the basis of their performance. It has a self assessment system that marks the performance of individuals. Usually the supervisors hold meetings to discuss the possible promotions or give them the value awards to recognise their good performance. This not only motivates the employees to achieve more than what they are doing but also makes them feel good and think that if they’ll perform well it will be marked.

The highest level of Maslow’s Theory is Self Actualization that includes the factors and area that influences the person in question automatically and there is no particular list area of personal interest of the employee and it varies widely from individual to individual. Although Tesco offers Personal Development plans that recognises the skills and talents of the workers and offers them the career progression options. The outreach plan offers the talented and competent individuals a fast track to reach the management level of the Tesco.

Maslow also argued that once one level of needs have satisfied the individual than the next level will automatically motivate the employee to achieve it. (Hiriyappa, B., 2009.)

Available from: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/tesco/tesco_15_full.pdf [Last Accessed: 10/01/2011.]

Conclusion:

After all the analysis and research done above it, can clearly be seen that the culture plays a vital part in deciding the management behaviour of an organisation and its effects on the individuals. And subsequently the Management Behaviour plays a key role in motivating the staff, hence positively affecting the performance of the businesses. And since now a days employees are termed as a key asset of an organisation therefore if they are motivated they will play a key role in success of the business. Same happened in the case of the Tesco who has cleverly adopted the Management Behaviour on the basis role and task culture. And created a team based environment in the organisation to fulfil their different needs to motivate them. And these are the reason that has made the Tesco one of the market leaders in the supermarket industry. Since the needs of the Tesco staff are fulfilled they are motivated. Low labour turnover indicates that Tesco treat its employees in a better manner and employees there are happy enough to not leave.

Available from: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/tesco/tesco_15_full.pdf [Last Accessed: 10/01/2011.]

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Bibliography and Referencing

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Laurie J. Mullins (2005). MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR. Prentice Hall. p294.

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