Organizational Structure And Culture At Tesco Management Essay

An organisations structure can depend on its size, the sector it operates in public, private, or third sector i.e. voluntary or charitable, the number of people it employs and its physical resources. Following are three different types of organizational structures

Functional organisational structure

Functional organisations are organised according to technological disciplines. Senior functional managers are responsible for allocation of resources but the responsibility for the total product is not allocated to one person but rather to a senior management group. Coordination occurs through agreed organisational procedures, detailed specifications and regular meetings both ad hoc and structured. Generally products that require a high level of specialist knowledge require a functional structure.

Divisional organisational structure

Divisional organisations are commonly divided into smaller units of operation with each division being aligned to a sales or production unit with supporting sales, production, finance, HR, and marketing resources operating under a departmental manager but responsible to the unit manager and then upwards.

1.2 Organizational structure and culture at Tesco

Following are some of the features of organisational structure at Tesco

Geographically based

Shared friendly culture

Employee empowerment is high

Decentralized structure

Decentralized decision making

Flexible work environment

Shared values and beliefs

Impact on Performance in Tesco

Flexible environment helps in increasing adaptability to change

Shared culture and beliefs, increase employee loyalty towards the organization and hence, his performance

Bureaucratic structures and cultures have been replaced with a decentralized structure if employee participation and flexibility has to be increased

A rigid, inflexible culture hinders growth as an individual and thus, creates employee resistance towards work

By having a shared culture, employees are better able to understand customers

A wider span of control, reduces the chain of commands and improves employer-employee relations

Inter-departmental coordination is improved in a decentralized structure

1.3 Factors that influence the Individual behaviour

Individual behavior at Irish Tesco is affected by factors existing within him/her such as personality, attitudes and perception. Following are the five different personality traits which are usually known as the big 5 traits that affect the individual behaviour at Irish Tesco.

Agreeableness

Extraversion

Conscientiousness

Openness

Neuroticism

Traits ultimately affect behavior of an individual. Extrovert person will be involved in more open communication and will develop a good rapport with other employees. If a member has the trait of conscientiousness, he/she will be working more independently and will take ownership of work rather than relying on members. An emotionally instable person would be having frequent conflicts with its co-members; he would be less punctual or have poor attendance. Highly conscientious people set higher goals and are more committed to work than others. Attitude is another factor that affects the individual behaviour of a person. A person who feels negatively about Tesco would portray negative behavior in form of high absenteeism, low participation, and aggression towards other colleagues.

Task 2

2.1 Different Leadership styles

Since, Tesco’s employees are closely linked to customers, their need to be satisfied first, therefore, a relationship-oriented style at the company will be required to keep the employees committed to the organization. Acer, Inc. has been promoting innovation, so it needs to have achievement-oriented style in order to make employees focus on creativity in order to achieve growth. An organization that is focused on producing more and more rather than managing people, a task-oriented style would be preferable. Usually, organizations with flexible cultures have a support, participative and relationship-oriented style. In periods of change, a transformational or charismatic leader would be needed who can create a vision that portrays the necessity to change.

2.2 Organizational theory and practice management at Irish Tesco

Organizational theory and management theory is used in many aspects of a working business. Many people strive to adhere to the theory to help them become better at their jobs or more successful in life, although this may lead to them having to sacrifice some of their personal principles in order to succeed.

One example of following organizational theory in the financial sector would be an employee or manager who wants to know how to achieve goals by having a set structure to follow. In addition, someone in a Human Resources sector will have to make decisions throughout their working day that will undoubtedly change the structure and practice of a working day for all other employees in the company.

If an individual gets so wrapped up in trying to fit the mould of what they interpret their role should be in terms of organizational theory, they may start to neglect other areas of business. 

In the same way, management theory may also underpin the personal values of some individuals. For instance, they may disagree with a particular rule or regulation that has been introduced by the company, however in order to carry out their job as a manager effectively and professionally, they need to move away from their principles and execute the job. 

It is difficult to try to execute both management and organizational theories as a psychological contract between the employer and employee still needs to be maintained. This will need to consider how fairly the company is treating the employee and how ‘fairly’ the employee is treating the company, i.e. Are they actually putting 100 percent effort into their work? Any changes to the organization or management in a company, is undoubtedly going to have an effect on all of this.

2.3 Different approaches to management

Human Relations approach

This is a management approach in which organization aims at managing people. This approach emphasizes on greater productivity through motivation and good human relations. Group dynamics, motivation, participation, effective leadership are considered very important in human relations approach of management.

Social Systems approach

In this approach, management understands behavior of groups & individuals, cooperation is necessary and efforts are directed towards achievement of goals.

Systems approach

In this approach it is assumed that systems are man-made. Internal and external environment is considered at most in systems approach and efforts are done to achieve established goals.

Contingency approach

In contingency approach, action is contingent on certain action outside system. Action is based on behavior outside so organization needs to integrate with the environment and it is implied that no action can be universal, it varies from situation to situation.

Task 3

3.1 Different Leadership styles

The two different styles required in different situations are as follows:

Situation 1: Unclear job duties and responsibilities

When job duties and responsibilities are unclear, in case of a new change made in the organization, manager needs to adopt a directive leadership style, which is basically the style of a transactional leader. Such leadership style will help in clarifying roles of employees in the organization and make their job descriptions more clearly by structuring the tasks required. Structuring will help individuals understand what is expected of them in the job they have been assigned and how they need to go about it (Nelson and Quick 2007).

Situation 2: Implementation of new strategy to achieve growth

Usually when organizations are under-performing or plan to compete on a more strategic level, they implement new strategies that need to be adopted by the whole organization in order to make it successful. In such a situation, an achievement-oriented or charismatic leadership style is required by the manager in order to make the vision of the organization clearer and to assign challenging tasks to the employees in order to boost their performance that can help in achieving growth company (Daft and Samson 2003). Irish Tesco always had intense competition with Pepsi, so implementation of new strategies to benchmark Pepsi along with proper leadership style can help in improving performance.

3.2 Application of different motivation theories within the workplace

Various motivational theories exit that assess the impact of different motivational variables on employee performance:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory

The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory addresses the needs of employees one by one, the physiological needs have to be satisfied first, before the employee shifts on to the next need levels, which will be safety need, sense of belongingness, self-esteem and finally the self-actualization need. For instance at Irish Tesco, the lower level employees will be more interested in the base salary or adequate work environment they get, however, as you go up the management hierarchy, the middle-level employees are motivated to perform well if they have achieved the sense of belongingness and self-esteem in the organization along with satisfaction of physiological need. Adequate base salary is not enough, and the company will have to use other approaches such as increased participation and teamwork to give them a sense of belongingness. For the top management, motivation could be improved through achievement of self-actualization (Smit, 2006; Stimpson, 2010).

Herzberg’s Two-factor theory

The two factor theory states that motivation is based on either the hygiene or the motivators. Poor hygiene leads to dissatisfaction of employees; therefore, a hygienic work environment is necessary. Motivators such as recognition, achievement and personal growth help in increasing the satisfaction of employees and improving their performance. Tesco is a reputed organization and is based on international standards; therefore, hygienic factors are there in the company so dissatisfaction is less likely, however, in order to improve the current performance, motivators such as personal growth will be needed and this can be done through initiation of self-directed teams, performance appraisals and challenging goals (Daniel and Gitman, 2008).

Vroom’s Expectancy theory

According to this theory, the motivation of employee depends on his/her expectancy about being able to do a certain task and achieve the outcome desired. Availability of resources is of concern in order for the employee to perform the task. If the company does not have the adequate resources available then performance will be affected in achieving the desired outcome. Also, goals should be assigned that are challenging as well as doable. If an employee knows that he cannot achieve the goal because of the time constraint or non-availability of resources, he would not be motivated to make an effort on it (Daft and Samson, 2003).

3.3 Usefulness of a motivation theory for managers

By understanding the motivation theories, managers will be able to adopt styles and strategies that will help in increasing employee motivation. They also help in deciding when to have a monetary reward system and when to use non-monetary rewards such as appreciation letters. For instance, word of mouth appraisals can be more frequently used. Also, managers will plan resources accordingly to ensure that employees have the necessary resources required to motivate him/her to perform a certain task. Along with that, managers will be able to better design performance-based reward systems on the basis of expectancy theory, if low performance has been due to low expectation of a reward. Maslow’s needs theories is more of use to individuals and less to the manager, because it is difficult to understand emotional need of an employee or whether he/she is facing lack of self-esteem or belongingness. Managers can also integrate various theories and make use of them in assigning tasks, evaluating it and making performance appraisals. It will help the manager have a more fair-based compensation in the organization and in deciding on tasks assigned to employees at different hierarchical levels. It will also help in avoiding any discriminatory practices or biases that promotes inequity in the organization (Jex and Britt, 2008).

Task 4

4.1 Nature of groups and group behavior within organizations

A group is formed when two or more individuals interact with each other in order to achieve a particular objective. They can be formal or informal in nature.

Formal groups are those that are defined by the organization structure and are assigned to achieve particular tasks. For instance, the sales department at Irish Tesco will be operating within the larger system of organization. (Daniel and Gitman, 2008)

Informal groups, on the other hand, are not properly structured or determined by the organization. These groups are formed as a result of social interaction occurring within the organization such as a friendship group or an interest group. For example, a group of employees who have lunch or coffee together, even though the group is informal, it is a significant impact on behaviour and performance of employees (Griffin and Moorhead, 2011).

The group behaviour also largely depends on the stage of group development. A five stage model of group characterizes group according to the following stages (Robbins, 2010):

Forming: The group members do not know each other really well and there is uncertainty as to how to carry out the group work.

Storming: Intra-group conflicts exist at this stage where everyone tries to dominate their ideas over others and it continues unless a conclusion is reached regarding who will lead the group and how the tasks will be organized.

Norming: At this stage, the members have developed a mutual understanding and are defining group norms.

Performing: Once the norms are set, the group starts performing to achieve the purpose for which it was formed.

Adjourning: After performance, the group adjourns if it was made for a temporary time period, for instance, for a particular project. In other cases, where groups keep on performing on continuous basis, this stage is not relevant to those groups.

4.2 Factors that may promote or inhibit the development of effective teamwork in organizations

Teamwork effectiveness criteria are based on team viability and performance and are largely affected by factors that may occur within the teams as well as external factors (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2008).

Factors that may promote teamwork effectiveness are (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2008):

Shared leadership: When leadership is shared, it means that there is a formal leader, but the leadership functions are shifting from time to time. Every member of the team is willing to take ownership and participates in active decision making, which helps in abiding team norms and achieving desired output effectively.

Clear purpose: It is very necessary to have a clear purpose because when team members know the vision, mission and goals of their team; their roles become clearer and they have a focused approach towards achieving the targeted goal.

Open communication: It helps in avoiding hidden conflicts since members are able to freely express their views.

Factors that may inhibit teamwork effectiveness and make the team dysfunctional are (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2008):

Groupthink: It occurs when group cohesiveness is too high within the team and members make decisions that can help in keeping the group intact at the expense of team goals.

Social loafing: Social loafing greatly inhibits effectiveness since the team member is withholding his efforts and not performing his share of work.

Unclear roles: When members do not know what is exactly expected of them, then they tend to become de-motivated towards performing well. Roles should not be ambiguous and each member should be given his share of work in order to improve team effectiveness.

4.3 Impact of technology on team functioning within an organization

Technology has helped in the creation of virtual teams within Irish Tesco that might have its operations nationally located. The team members can communicate with each other through emails, instant messaging, videoconferencing, groupware, etc. For instance, the sales team of Tesco can be physically dispersed in different cities and can plan on promotion strategies to meet global competition. Likewise, cross-cultural teams are also formed, which may help in promoting diversity and expanding operations of the organization across the globe. Because of technology, communication has become fast and travelling costs have been reduced, since teams do not necessarily have to meet frequently when they can communicate through virtual networks (Duarte and Snyder, 2006).