Organisation and Behaviour Rose

HNC BUSINESSFAIRFIELD SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

UNIT 3. ORGANISATION AND BEHAVIOURRosemarie Beckford

Q1; LO 1.1

Functional Structure

A functional structure is usually used within small organisations. It is used in all parts of an organisation in departments like IT, administration and HR.Each department has specific jobs or tasks to do; these do not contribute directly to the revenue but are essential components that assist in running the organisation smoothly.Moreover, this structure is also based on the people as well as the organisation itself. A disadvantage of a functional structure would be that each function unit has expertise in its own field but lacks a broader awareness about the organisation objectives or the products.

Matrix Structure

A matrix structure is usually used within large organisations. It is also a combination of two structures; function and product. This structure often uses teams of employees within an organisation to accomplish work in order to take advantage of their strengths in order to make up for the weaknesses of functional forms.

In comparison and contrast, I would say the functional structure is more effective then the matrix structure because by each department within an organisation having specific tasks to achieve means more task are able to get done and it becomes less likely for mistakes to be made and specific task to be left undone. However, the matrix structure is also effective if it is being enforced in larger organizations.

Culture

Culture is the formal set of values, norms and beliefs that control the way people and groups within an organization interact with each other and with people outside the organisation such as customers and suppliers.

Role Culture – Within the role culture, individuals portray their jobs according to its duties as opposed to its purpose. This usually happens within bureaucratic organizations where structure determines the authority as well as strong emphasis on hierarchy and status.

Task Culture – Within task culture, individuals portray their job roles according to the outcome of results they are achieving; this is commonly seen in teams established to achieve specific tasks.



M1; LO 1.2

There are many structure used these days in organisations the different type of structure are Divisional structure, Team structure, Functional structure, Matrix structure. Some have disadvantages but never the less there are needed in any type of organisation. In looking at all these structures the structure I believe for the purposes of the Fairfield School Of Business the best structure is the Functional, it works great for this organisation because it’s a small College it consists of a small amount of staff, the member within it are able to deal with one function of the Business, so therefore there is no delegating here, each of its members have their own purpose, and it works well for small Businesses/Organisation like Fairfield School Of Business.



Q2; LO 1.2

The structure from table one that I have chosen to elaborate on is divisional structure; I have chosen this structure because I feel I feel it is successful and effective when put into place within an organisation.

Divisional Structure

A strength implicated within a divisional structure is that it uses clear accountability – this means that the structuring used around a product provides clear correlation between the profits of the individual divisions and the business objectives of the division can be formulated more objectively.



Divisional structure is able to impact on the performance of a business because by providing the business with structure around products means.

The Matrix Structure

This is a structure which has both function and product it’s a combination of two structures functional and product but there is one thing to know this structure is only use in very large company as it organise functions within the company.

Q3; LO 1.3

Dear John,

You’ll never guess what happened at work today; as you know I work as one of the event’s organisers for Fusion sporting events and basically whilst I was in the office earlier today our manager started randomly firing employees. He done this because apparently several complaints had been made but we were not informed about who made those complaints and who the actual complaints were about. Now as far as I’m concerned, my manger is not authorized to do that; within employee contracts it states that employees have to be given at least three warnings before being fired. But no, not according to my manager; he point blanked fired a bunch of people, had those



people removed from the building and confiscated their company ID and company equipment...including their company cars. I was shocked at this John, I mean literally gobsmacked. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Because of this my respect for that man has completely vanished. I mean what he done was fundamentally irrational; I mean he didn’t even consider the situation he was putting those employees in...they could have families they need to provide for.

Moreover these actions have appalled me because it has shown me the just how little the organisation thinks of their employees and their communication and loyalty towards their employees is astonishing. The reason as to why I feel the company lacked communication with its employees is because we were not informed about the complaints, employees were not given any warnings, we were not told who the complaints were made about and employees who were fired were not given any form of help as to what they could do now that they no longer had a job with the company. Because of this, employees who are left with jobs feel very discouraged because they feel the same things could happen to them at any time, they don’t feel like their jobs are secure and safe regardless of the contract with the company, they are gloomy because some of their friends are no longer working with them and primarily individuals feel reluctant to even want to come to work.

Thanks for listening John, you’re a great friend and I am happy I have you to speak to.

Yours sincerely,

Rosemarie

Q4; LO 2.1

Autocratic leadership is effective because one person has legitimate power, instance it’s a leadership style characterised by a person who has all overall decision and has little contribution from employees.

Therefore this style of leadership is more suitable for college A for the reason that it has a limited number of employees as which a small organisation would. Hence when decisions need to be made quickly, it will be less problematic in addition to when strong leadership is needed to accomplish tasks efficiently.



Autocratic leadership is appropriate for college A for the simple fact that, because it’s a now smaller organisation the manger can monitor each employee, to access their strengths and weakness to allocate them to the right areas. Consequently this eliminates the rate of failure, even though it seems dictatorial its highly effective.

Laissez-faire leadership is more effective for college A since it’s a more hands off approach, which is fitting for a larger organisation. With very little guidance the manger leaves complete freedom to the employees to make decisions, which is a plus if the employees are motivated, skilled and capable of working on their own, with very little direction just tools and resources to solve the problem.

College B would need a team to make it run smoothly because it’s larger, also with more input from employees College B definitely won’t lack in inventive ideas. Handing that much autonomy to employees can increase productivity and they will feel a sense of fulfilment when projects are successful.

College B couldn’t run effectively under autocratic leadership, for the fact it’s a lager organisation then college A one person having ultimate say with little input from employees wouldn’t be constructive and the wrong decisions could be made setting up college B for a downfall. Laissez-faire is ideal for college B to function effectively.

College A couldn’t succeed effectively with laissez-faire because, giving a team so much say with so many productive minds would take them longer to make final decisions or even miss deadlines, which would surly make the college head towards failure. Autocratic is highly recommended for college A to work successfully.

Q5; LO 2.2

The Systems Approach is used by management within organisations to emphasise the interdependence and interactive nature of elements within and external to an organization. Employees and groups within an organisation are dependent on each other in order to achieve set task.

The Systems Approach is used by mangers today to work towards achieving goals within organisations. This is because by having different types of groups to carry out set task means more jobs are able to be achieved rather than having various individuals working on a variety



of different things. By having groups within the organisation allows the members within the team to depend on each other because this would mean individuals are able to share a work load as opposed to just having themselves to rely on when working towards completing a task.

Q6; LO 2.3

The Human Relations Approach

The Human Relations Approach works towards focusing on the value, human attitudes and relationships of individuals who work within the organisation and the influences social and psychological factors could have on them when the organisation is working towards shaping the organisational behaviour.Through research, organisations were able to find out that individuals require friendship and a sense of belonging as well as contentment within the social groups they from within the work



place. If Mr. John Smith was to enforce the Human Relations Approach for the management of his hotel, he would be able to expect self-governing teams within the organisation, co-operation with management within the team, productivity and shared decision making.

The Contingency Approach

The Contingency Approach is based around the theory that there are ‘universal principles’ that should be considered when doing things like motivating staff and designing organisations but at the same time new theories suggest that there are altered forms of organisational structures that could be as equally effective.If Mrs Sally Turner was to incorporate the Contingency Approach for her golf complex then she would have to establish an appropriate between the demand of the task at hand, the people and the environment within the organisation.

In comparison, I would say the Human Relations Approach is more effective then the Contingency Approach because within that approach employees are taken into more consideration because their attitudes, relations and values are considered when the shaping of the organisations behaviour is taking place.Because of this, it would be easy for organisations to work alongside their employees effectively and be successful as a company.

Q7; LO 3.1

Autocratic leadership could affect the motivation of employees when downsizing because the employees may develop a lack of respect and drive within the workplace due to the fact that the manger may have not made the right effective decisions before downsizing. For example; budget cuts were made far too late and employees may feel the manger should have known a lot earlier what the correct creative move could have been. However, the situation could also motivate employees somewhat to thrive on the matter of downsizing because primarily they are employees and they would want the organisation to be the best they be and so those



employees work hard be excelling in their allocated areas.Employees could in fact have the same level of motivation before downsizing because they could feel that they have no authority so they just go along with the process of downsizing the organisation.

Democratic leadership could affect the motivation of employees when downsizing because they could feel like they failed in the sense that when making the decision, they could have done more to prevent it from happening; even though the manger makes the final decisions. Because of this, employees could feel discouraged or depressed which would affect their work. For example, if the manger was to fire a few members of a team who were not thriving, employees could feel that now those employees have gone, they’d need to motivate themselves in order to maintain their jobs so that the organisation is able to function extremely well.

On the other hand, it could have been a group decision and everyone could have been on the same track when making the decision to downsize and as well as feeling confident that the business could do well. Employees could lose respect for their manger because, they feel downsizing wasn’t the right decision and they feel they can no longer shine whilst working with the organisation. After the organization has downsized, employees could feel more motivated to make the organization a success.

In my opinion, I think both democratic and autocratic employees somewhat would experience the same affects when dealing with motivation when in a situation of downsizing; due to the issue of downsizing in any organisation, any type of leadership could affect the employees involved in one way or the other.

Q8; LO 3.2 & 3.3

Taylor theories of motivation are a more bitter approach to autocratic leadership in a sense. He’s view about what motivated people at work where mostly based on pay, because he felt that workers don’t enjoy their work that’s why they need to be controlled like machines. Taylor pay plan was called piece-rates, which were the workers should get a fair day's pay for the amount produced and Workers who did not distribute a fair day's work would be paid less



or nothing. Workers who did more than a fair day's work e.g. exceeded the target would be paid more, so this would motivate them to increase their productivity.

A worker's job is to do what they are told, and the managers would give the workers small tasks and the workers should get the training for the task they are meant to do, so they can work efficiently on their task.

On the other hand the Maslow pyramid of needs represents a theory needs and motivations of the people in these times. The hierarchy is separated into 5 levels, according to the classification of human needs, needing to fulfil one need before moving on to the next level.

A person starts at the bottom of the hierarchy and will seek to satisfy basic needs such as food and shelter. So once these physiological needs have been met, they are no longer a motivator and the person will move to the next level. Safety needs like security, health and work. Then they will proceed to social needs where most people need to feel wanted, belonging to a group, society or even a family where they can communicate and work as a team. The second to last need is esteems were its about being given recognition and the fact that everyone needs respect and esteem. Lastly Self-actualisation which is measured, by what people think of themselves, and the degree of their success in challenges in their work.

However Taylor’s theory was effective in his days, its not necessarily the best way as he would say, because people work for more than financial gain and actually enjoyment in there chosen professional, therefore it wouldn’t work in the business world today. Maslow theory can actually appeal to the business world, for the fact that the theory is understandable if managers of today can access what level each employee has reached, and then they can settle on appropriate rewards.

M2; LO 3.2

The 2012 Olympics was one of the biggest events for London for many years, it was so good to see how far we have come and also how it is wonderful to see the amount of females that was able to take part. It is a good thing for British women because in the past there was not the chances for women to take part in such events as those were always a male orientated



thing; there was many sports where you would never think woman would take part in, now we have reached a time where woman are competing in such events and being able to achieve medals in them.

The Olympics would have been a great motivator for women with obstacles like disabilities to over come, because they could feel encouraged in the sense that they see other individuals with disabilities who still take part in sports and it will encourage them to do the same.Moreover women who feel they aren’t great at sport like track events could feel encouraged to get involved in other sports like table tennis because they do not have the same requirements as track events.



Q9; LO 4.1

Groups

Groups are an amount of individuals who have regular contact and regular interaction while working together to achieve set tasks and goals,

The nature of groups and group behaviour within a work place is for the members within the group to have normative views; establish how members within the groups are organised and activities

The Nature of groupsv Normative views, describes how a group is to be organized and how its activities are to be carried out.v Group dynamics consists of a set of techniques.v Regarding internal nature of groups



Factors That Promote Effective Teamwork In McDonalds

Factors That Inhabit Effective Teamwork In McDonalds

Communication - Communication is a key factor that assists team members in keeping the team together. Communication can be most effective when all members;

- Provide ideas- Contribute constructive feedback- Ask for explanations on anything they

don’t understand- Produce frequent updates of their

work- Listen to others within the team

carefully

Conflict – Dealing with conflict as it arises is effective because the matter is able to get dealt with immediately before it becomes uncontrollable. Conflict often takes place when there is a personality clash and can often distract the team from its focus and achieving its goals. It is effective to reduce tension and boast team morale as well as giving individuals the chance to voice their views and opinions during conflict situations.

Effective Leadership – This is a key aspect of teamwork because team leaders should;

- Have the skills to be able to produce and maintain a positive working environment for the team in order to motivate them.

- Be able to inspire team members to have a positive attitude towards work

- Encourage team members to have high levels of moral so that members within the team are able to feel appreciated and supported.

Bonuses/Compensation – Teams work well when they know they are being rewarded for their efforts. When team members are given their bonus/compensation agreements before they join a team, it is more likely that bonuses/compensation isn’t going to be an obstacle for them and so they strive towards working effectively. If team members do not receive those bonuses/compensation it is likely for those individuals to feel discouraged and reluctant to work effectively.

Trust – Team members need to be able to trust that each member is going to be able to;

- Add value to the team and the tasks they undertake

- Contribute views, ideas and opinions during the tasks at hand

- Express appreciation for the contributions made within the team

Focusing On Goals – Teams are usually driven by common goals. In order to have an effective team those goals need to be made clear to each team member. By having team goals and objectives to focus on, teams are often able to strive towards achieving the same things in order to succeed in those goals and objectives. Without having the same focus at heart, team members are likely to stray from the team and do their own thing despite the fact that they’re part of a team.

Team-Building Exercises – This is an effective way of promoting teamwork because team-building activities are able to;

- Develop the effectiveness of teams- Improve aspects like problem-solving

and communication within teams

Communication – Communication in effective teams stems from communication between team members and communication between management and the team. Open communication is highly recommended within teams; informal as well as professional communication. Interaction



Games and drills are effective ways of;- Building relationships- Bringing team members together- Establishing personalities, strengths

& weaknesses as well as personal interests

between team members outside of the workplace allows them to find out about each other more. Without these types of communications, team members would find it difficult to simply communicate with each other as well as achieving their tasks.

Diversity – Diversity within teams is able to raise awareness about respect for things like cultures, personalities and talents. If teams were not embracing diversity, it could become difficult for them to solve problems and for team members to get along.

Innovation – Innovation can be a key factor that inhabits effective teamwork in McDonalds because innovation within the business would mean McDonalds;

- Were not open to change- Does not recognize alternative

methods/ways of doing things - Prefer to work in a static environment

Organisation – Teams need to be able to stay on track in order to complete set tasks on time.

Effectiveness and Accountability – This could be a factor that inhabits effective team work because by;

- Not setting clear goals and objectives- Not identify areas of improvement- Delivering late and insufficient information- Failing to listen to others- Over commits and under performs

Means teams are not going to be able to work effectively alongside each other and the business will find it difficult to be successful.

Q10; LO 4.2



D1. LO 2.2



D2. LO 4.2

McDonalds is a big organisation who employ a lot of staff and they work long hours and conditions are not always great there are factors that can inhibit effective team work is something that works both for staff as well as for management they work well it requires effective leadership and team work as mc’donalds is really about serving a market that is based on speed and money so communication from management and staff is very much the key and regular feedback from staff to management in order for it to be effective and as it is worldwide it must have a universal approach for what’s effective for all staff and management they are very happy to use factors to conduct their business and it works for them. Inhibit could only accure if all the factor I talked about was not in place or not followed then it would be easy for the efftiveness to not work.



References

Q1; LO 1.1

- According to Haider’s lecture notes ‘organisational culture’; Handy- According to Haider’s lecture notes ‘module: organisations and behaviour’- Business Essentials – supporting HND/HNC and foundation degrees; organisation &

behaviour. Pages 101, 106 & 107.- Edexcel Business study guide, Level 4 HNC, 5 HND.

Q5; LO 2.2

Edexcel Business study guide, Level 4 HNC, 5ND; Pages 368 & 369



Q11 LO 4.3

Virtual teams enables Employers and Employees to reach their full potential quickly efficiently and to the highest level of excellence, it saves on the training budget without compromising quality, it saves on accommodation expenses and the running of lesson training in house with top of the range PC’s and its a faster way of sending report quickly and of ease. The best way is to have the latest equipment to run it in the way that’s best for your business ie: you could run 1 day training sessions on becoming a virtual user in person, with induction programs sales, policies and procedures and also could have on line consultations in the virtual work place accelerates organizations to face new challenges to cope with their new organizational structure.

Virtual work place can offer a wide range of factors such as social issues and legal concern and performance, compensations, the telecommunication technology is the glue that makes virtual societies possible, but the technology alone does not guarantee the viability of a virtual work place, persons using this way must use the technological power, intelligently and deliberately. By using this type of technology it also addresses new workforce, demographics where the best employee maybe located, anywhere within the world and where workers demand increasing technological and personal flexibility, with virtual teams organizations can build teams with optimum membership while retaining the advantage of a flat organizational structure.

A virtual team is also known as a Geographically Dispersed Team, there a group of individuals who work across time space and organisational boundaries with the web of communication technology at the touch of their fingertips. Using a combination of technology and teams many companies are pursing virtual teams because they can use the same application and share and collaborate through word, excel and desktop video conferencing as Skype for example.

Documents

Organisation and Behaviour Rose