This is solution of UK college Organization and Behaviour assignment help, this discusses ASDA supermarket.

Task 1

Introduction:

In present scenario companies are giving specific attention to their organisation structure as it is implicitly play a critical role in success, sustainability and development of an organisation. Organizational structure is linked closely with the culture of organisation and has significant impact on it. This task is focused on analysing that relationship through example of ASDA-a supermarket chain in UK, and British Airways.

P1.1 Compare and contrast the organisation structure and culture of ASDA PLC to that of British airlines.

Organisational culture can be defined basic pattern of following attributes:

• Shared assumptions
• Values, and
• Beliefs

These attributes are important and considered to be correct way of analysing and resolving an issue faced by an organisation. In other words it can be defined that what all aspects are important for a company and what are non-important. Based on below diagram one can clearly view that how beliefs, values and assumptions forms the foundation of organisation culture (Lok & Crawford, 2004:321:338).

It is not necessary that all organisation must have similar organisation structure and culture. At times due to industry or business environment in which an organisation functions has significant impact on its structure and culture. In similar way ASDA Plc and British Airways are two different companies operating in different type of industries. ASDA is a leading super-market chain of United Kingdom owned by Walmart. Whereas British Airways is a leading airways in aviation sector of UK. British Airways which was established by British Government in 1974 started with a hierarchical organisational structure which was a common feature of government owned organisations. In such structure there are several layers of management which result into unnecessary inefficiency. With its privatisation in 1987 which resulted into overhaul of its organisational structure as well as culture. Privatisation of BA resulted into flattening of its organisational structure as it was directly associated with its inefficiency. This made decision making process fast in the organisations and smooth. It also empowered its employees in which majority of them were in customer facing role. With a flatter structure BA has also been able to identify clearly major roles and responsibility of its employees which has helped in reducing the ambiguity among employees and has made them more confident about their job responsibility. On other hand ASDA plc follows hierarchical organisational structure. This structure can be understood by diagram displayed below:

The above displayed structure is for a store, which shows that if at store level there are so many hierarchies then it can be easily understood that at organisational level how many additional level of hierarchies will be. On positive side, Asda, has clear segmentation of various business functions and departments. This helps in establishing the accountability for each of its employees. Culture in case of Asda is more formal in nature due to several layers of management which results into less vibrant work environment (Brooks, 2009).

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Hence both BA as well as ASDA has entirely different organisational structure and culture, however the objective for both remains the same-i.e. to excel in their respective industries.

P 1.2   Explain how the relationship between Asda’s structure and culture impacts on its performance.

            According to Andy Clarke-CEO of ASDA Plc, organisational structure and culture of ASDA Plc is its more important source of competitive advantage among its other competitors. Structure and culture of ASDA Plc has served three important functions:

Asda’s culture has provided a deeply embedded form of social control which has significant impact on decisions and behaviour of ASDA’s employees. Culture of an organisations is pervasive in nature, and impacts unconsciously that is why it has invisibly directing employees of the organisation to function in a way which is consisted to ASDA’s objective

Secondly culture and structure of ASDA has proven to a kind of cultural glue which helps in bonding employees together and making them feel part of overall organisational experience.

Thirdly most important impact of organisational culture and structure on the performance can be described as the fact that it has helped the employees in understanding the organisational growth and events. Due to which growth or poor performance of company has impact on the employees as well, and accordingly employees also perform. Hence in a situation of economic crisis, employees work hard to ensure that growth of organisation remains stable.

Based on the three points it can be clearly observed that both structure and culture of organisation has significant impact on its employees and overall organisation’s growth.

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P 1.3 Discuss the factors which influence the behaviour of ASDA’s employees at work giving relevant examples

Factors which influence the behaviour of ASDA’s employees are as follows:

Employee recognition: recognition of employee’s effort towards growth of organisation is an important factor which influences behaviour of an employee. ASDA through its various store based initiatives such ‘Star Performer of Month’ etc. ensures that it is giving recognition to its deriving employees, while motivating other to perform better.

SMART Goals: Each employee from store worker level to management level has well defined goals which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely in nature. This approach has given employees of ASDA a specific direction in which they work. It also helps in clearing out any ambiguity related to job responsibility.

Skill Alignment: Each employee of ASDA is mapped to specific skillset based on which his role and responsibility is decided. This is crucial as it helps in better career growth of each employee. This factor impact on overall satisfaction level of an employee from his/her assigned job. Poor skill alignment leads to job dissatisfaction which further leads to issue of job attrition (Foster & Harris, 2005:4-17)

Thus above three factors are three major factors which have played significant role in influencing behaviour of ASDA’s employees across all level of its organisational structure.

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Task 2

Introduction:

Approach to management and leadership is a critical factor towards success of an organisation. Leadership has not only impact on the performance of the company, but it also becomes a decisive factor in motivation or demotivation of all the employees in organisation. There are several cases in history where a company has gone bankrupt just because of its poor management approach and lack of vision in its leadership. This task will focus on these aspects with reference to ASDA Plc and British Airways.

P 2.1 Compare the effectiveness of the leadership styles used by the CEO in ASDA to that used by British airways CEO.

If observed carefully then one can find one important and common attribute which connects both ASDA and BA and that is their customer servicing. When an organisation is in such sector then major responsibility for making its strategy a success depends on management approach and leadership style. For example in British Airways a major part of its employees is servicing customers either in flights or on airports through check-in counters etc. In a situation like this if the leadership of British Airways is not dynamic enough then it will impact the morale of its employees and that impact will be reflected in their behaviour towards customers (Galbraith, 2000:139-160).

Point to understand is that leadership style has cascading effect on the end customer and overall performance of the organisation. On other hand ASDA’s leadership is objective centric. ASDA’s management approach and leadership style is modelled in a way that the end result is achievement of the objective of the organisation. Accordingly employees of ASDA are aligned towards mission of the organisation. It can be said that ASDA’s leadership and management approach believes in complete alignment of organisation’s objective, employee expectation and growth of the business hence making a complete synchronization between various aspects of the leadership and management.

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British Airways after its privatisation has focused more towards streamlining its human resource aspect. That is why its management approach is inclined towards streamlining and optimization of the employees in the organisation. On other hand ASDA’s management approach is operations centric. It approaches the business in such a way that any sort of operational inefficiency is removed as soon as possible.

In terms of demarcation of leadership ASDA’s approach is better as compared to British Airways. In ASDA’s hierarchical organisational structure, there are several level of leaderships, for example starting from the store representative till top management there is leadership above all levels (Furnham, 2012). Hence a store representative might be led by his supervisor whereas a CFO of the company might be led by its CEO.

On other hand in British Airways leadership is centred in hands of few people. Which is not a good approach in long term. Leadership getting concentrated in hands of few people results into lack of visibility in terms of performance and operational efficiencies. It also demotivates the employees at times since decision makers are few and reaching them at times becomes difficult.

Hence it can be said that a proper formulation of leadership style and management approach is extremely necessary for the good health of an organisation. In absence of both these aspects an organisation might fall from its growth track after some point of time.

P 2.3 Evaluate the different approaches to management used by ASDA to that used by British Airways.

Leadership in an organisations can opt for various kind approaches in its management style. These approach define the overall culture of the organisation. Considering case of ASDA then it can be said that it follows an Operational Approach. In an operational approach management is seen as a process. Similar to this approach, ASDA also focuses on roles and functions of managers who are present at various levels of hierarchy within ASDA. As per this approach the central aspect revolves around activities such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Similarly ASDA’s central core of management is based on these activities itself (Gould, 2013). However one important flaw which this approach consists of is that it claims universality which is not possible, especially since management approach differs from one organisation to another.

Unlike ASDA, British Airways follows a Decision Theory Approach. Like this approach, in BA as well the entire management is the key decision making authority. When an organisation follows such approach then it can be said that at times, there is impact effectiveness of organisation due to quality of the decisions. Based on this approach, British Airways has various decision centres and their combination helps in defining the organisation such as BA. However one important drawback which British Airways has to face due to this management approach is the incomplete view of the management. Agreed that decision making process is important for management, but management of a company as big as British Airways is much more beyond just decision making.

Hence it can be observed that how two different organisations differ in terms of their management approach and what the objectives which they want to achieve are.

Task 3

P3.1 what types of changes could ASDA engage in? Discuss the impact that different leadership styles may have on motivation of ASDA’s staff in periods of changes.

ASDA typically follows an operational approach according to which the management is more of a process where role and function of managers are in focus. The entire approach is based on the management and ends up ignoring the low level of organisational structure who are involved into day to day operations of the organisation. In such circumstance if the entire approach is centred on the management then the employee working at the lower level of hierarchy will feel demotivated (Jones, 2010). ASDA despite of being acquired by Wal-Mart has its own style of leadership which is in sensibility of UK’s employee behaviour. There are various leadership styles which are as follows:

Authoritarian: Under this type of leadership there is total control of the organisation by a specific leader of the organisation. Such style can be useful when there is chaos at organisational level. ASDA plc in this regard has a well settled process in all of its functions, hence this style will be devastating for a well-established organisation such as ASDA.

Paternalistic: Under this type of leadership, the leader’s’ acts like a father figure, by taking care of his subordinates and colleagues like a father. This style is beneficial for employees’ motivation, but when an organisation is as big as ASDA which has its operation spread across various locations of UK it will be difficult to extract benefit from this style and it might lead to situation of favouritism in the organisation.

Democratic: Under this leadership style people at various level in an organisation are empowered to make decisions. Also equality among all the employees is sought. If applied on ASDA, this leadership will have positive benefit on its employees and their motivation as this style will bring a sense of empowerment and inclusion among the employees (Smith, 2012).

Hence it can be said that every leadership style has its pros and cons and is suitable for a particular situation only. That is why it is important for organisations to carefully review and implement their leadership strategy.

P3.2 Compare the application of different motivational theories with special reference to ASDA’s employees as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Vroom expectancy theories and McGregor’s theory X and y -----.  Which theory is most applicable and why?

Organisations in today’s competitive world are seeking to boost motivation and performance of their employees through various factors such as use of motivational theories etc. Different types of motivational theories with reference to ASDA’s employees are as follows:

Vroom’s Expectancy Theories: Motivation under this theory is defined through three varying factors such as Expectancy, which is probability that certain action or activity will produce and outcome which is preferable as first level of outcome. Instrumentality is the second variable which is associated with the limit to which outcomes can result into next level of outcomes. Thirdly Valence is the choice or preference for a specific outcome.

Maslow’s Model:  This model works on the arrangement of needs of human being which as per this model can be segmented in a hierarchical model. Similarly for an employee there are certain needs or requirement which needs to be fulfilled. This model puts the most basic needs of a human being at the bottom of the model. That is why it is important for an organisation to focus on basic needs such as pay scale, satisfactory working environment etc.

McGregor’s theory X and Y: Based on this model, attitude of a manager’s style of working can be either X (negative) or Y (positive) in nature. Thus manager has a significant role in boosting employee’s morale.

According to this theory a manager style is mirror which clearly reflects their attitude which they have towards other people in the organisation. Hence it is either ‘X’ (negative) or ‘Y’ (positive). Also according to this theory work has been defined as a natural state and people as self-controlling (Walters, 2000:420-436).

Based on analysis of above three models and considering ASDA’s organisational structure, Maslow’s hierarchy model is best suited for the organisation. Reason behind implementation of this model is purely based on the fact, that ASDA has a multi layered organisational structure. In such scenario identifying employee’s needs becomes convenient as compared to other models described above.

P3.3- Evaluate the usefulness of a motivational theory for managers. How could a theory like Hertzberg’s motivation theory be useful and relevant to the managers of ASDA?

For a manager in an organisation it is critical that the team which he manages remains motivated and positive. At times rather than applying ad-hoc approach to motivate employees, it is better that proven motivation theories should be applied. Considering a situation where Hertzberg’s motivation theory is applied in ASDA, then it will be helpful to managers, as this theory will enable managers to identify Motivators, and Hygiene Factors. Through motivators managers will be able to identify crucial factors such as responsibility to be assigned, recognition related factors, responsibilities etc. (Herzberg et al, 2011). These factors are inclined towards psychological satisfaction of an employee, and with a diverse and scattered workforce of ASDA, it becomes important to analyse these factors.

On other hand Hygiene factors enables a manager to analyse factors which can be used to prevent the sense of dissatisfaction among employees. In a business environment which is volatile and competitive in nature, it is essential for every manager to retain his employees. Identification of hygiene factors will enable ASDA to retain its efficient employees.

Task 4

P4.1   Explain the nature of the various groups that may exist among ASDA’s staff and how they may influence the group behaviour

Within an organisation there might be various groups which exists. At times these groups might be formed formally whereas in other cases group’s formation takes place informally as well. Formal groups within an organisation is formed with an intention of achieving certain task or short term objective at department level. On other hand informal group are formed when likeminded people sharing common likes and dislikes come together. Thus point to understand is that based on these two group types the entire group behaviour is driven.

No organisation can stop formation of informal groups, they are bound to form. However in a company like ASDA, informal groups can be used for better working environment and motivation of employees. Informal groups helps in better understanding of employee’s psychology. But it is equally important that ASDA should not allow these informal groups in becoming factor of dissatisfaction among employees, since many times a strong informal group can create an unfavourable working conditions for the weaker groups (Schein, 2010).Thus ASDA can capitalise on its various informal groups to boost its team work culture and other collective efforts which is required for a positive and efficient work environment.

P4.2 Discuss the factors that may promote or inhibit the development of effective teamwork among the employees of ASDA PLC.

Factors which might promote or inhibit the development of effective teamwork among the employees of ASDA PLC are as follows:

Work Environment: A positive work environment is an important aspect which helps in promoting effective teamwork. At times economy situation or other job related factors might be negative in nature, thus in such situation it is important that a positive work environment boosts the morale of teams working in the organisation.

Internal politics: ASDA’s diverse workforce and scattered operation is a breeding ground for internal politics. This is one such factor which inhibits the development of an effective teamwork. It leads to lose of faith and trust among employees.

One to One Discussion: In order to promote the teamwork, it is crucial for managers to engage in one to one discussions with the employees and get an understanding regarding their expectation. This will help the organisations to align its employees in teams in which they will be effective.

Frequent Reviews: It is essential that ASDA should conduct timely reviews of its teams in order to assess their performance. This will ensure that team work is aligned to the objective which the team is supposed to achieve. Hence if as an organisation, ASDA can ensure that these factor can be taken care of, then there is no doubt that it can move towards a culture of highly effective team work.

P4.3 Evaluate the impact of technology on team functioning within ASDA PLC.

In a globalised world, organisations have been working hard to gain maximum efficiency and productivity. This is essential since with liberal markets new competitors are coming up in the market frequently. Use of technology is one such aspect which has enables organisations to unlock the true potential of the teams working within the organisation. In this regard ASDA PLC can be termed as one such example which has effectively used technology to boost its teamwork. ASDA has several stores functioning across UK. Hence inventory management through specific software application is one such use of technology. With this application ASDA has been able to keep a track of all its stores in terms of inventory management.

Technology has also enabled ASDA to integrate its team which works across these locations. For example at times the central operations manager has to conduct reviews and meeting with store level supervisors in that case it is not possible to visit each and every stores. In such scenario use of communication technologies such as audio-video conferencing has been used effectively by ASDA. It also has a dedicated supplier online network through which it manages the team of suppliers as well its internal team.

In nutshell it can be said, that technology has helped ASDA in becoming more efficient and productive. It has allowed its teams to integrate in a seamless manner. Technology has also impacted on the decision making process of ASDA which has improved and has become quick in nature.

Conclusion

On the basis of analysis, it can be concluded that having a well-structured strategy towards organisational setup is primary requirement of establishing a successful an efficient organisation. Use of technology, motivational theories and various other factors needs to be implemented considering the structure of the organisation.

References

Lok, P., & Crawford, J. 2004. The effect of organisational culture and leadership style on job satisfaction and organisational commitment: A cross-national comparison. Journal of Management Development, 23(4), 321-338 Brooks, I. 2009. Organisational behaviour: individuals, groups and organisation. Pearson Education. Foster, C., & Harris, L. 2005. Easy to say, difficult to do: diversity management in retail. Human Resource Management Journal, 15(3), 4-17. Furnham, A. 2012. The psychology of behaviour at work. Psychology Press. Galbraith, J. R. 2000. The role of formal structures and processes. Breaking the code of change, 139-160.

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