Politics in Organisations and Their Impacts on Organisational Culture, Efficiency and Productivity - Term Paper Example

Management and Organisational Behaviour

Executive Summary

Organisational Behaviour is the study of human behaviour in organisations. This report focuses on the relationship between management of employees and work-groups, power and politics in organisations and their impacts on organisational culture, efficiency and productivity. The main aim of the report is to critically study and analyse the various impacts that the groups in an organisation have on the organisation’s culture and business activities. It introduces the reader with the concepts of organisational behaviour and culture. It elucidates the major implications of team-work and power-games in organisations. The report demonstrates the positive and negative effects of formal and informal, small and large groups existing within an organisation. It also illustrates the extent to which group cohesiveness can influence organisational culture and productivity. This report facilitates understanding of the direct relationship between coordinated team efforts and employees’ output level. It emphasises on the two very important aspects in an organisation, namely, power and politics. The extent to which organisational efficiency depends on these two elements is also critically discussed in this report. The various good and bad sides of organisational power and politics have been extensively evaluated. The report is concluded with a summary of the entire discussion made in the main body.

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction4

2.0 Analysis5

2.1 Work Groups and Teams5

2.2 Power and Politics9

3.0 Conclusion12

4.0 Reference List13

• 1.0 Introduction

Organisational Behaviour is the study of human behaviour exhibited by the members in an organisation. Organisations are complex social systems consisting of a number of sub-systems, groups and sub-groups, where each organisation is different from the other in a number of aspects. Therefore, organisational behaviour varies from one organisation to another (Fox, 2006). The study of organisational behaviour deals with the aspects of interpersonal, psychological and behavioural dynamics within an organisation. However, there are organisational variables, such as, job content, job design, job role and organisational structure which affect the behavioural process of individuals in the work place (Aquinas, 2006). Evaluation of Individual Behaviour is integral to the study of organisational behaviour because individuals make up an organisation. Individual behaviour is the response of an individual to a particular stimulus. This varies from individual to individual as they are not identical in nature and different individuals react differently under a given situation (Lashley and Ross, 2014).

Organisational goals are set objectives or aims of an organisation towards which organisational activities are directed (Khanka, 2009). These goals cannot be achieved without the cooperation of employees. Therefore, employees need to be trained up properly so that they can develop skills and competencies. The managers should identify the most suitable talents and employ them in the right job so as to maximise organisational efficiency in terms of fulfilment of objectives. This will also set a guideline for employee behaviour which depicts that, effective employee management is crucial for organisational success (Daft, Murphy and Willmott, 2010). Managing people at work is not an easy task. Management does not mean doing work, rather getting works done by employees (Saxena, 2009). Mid-level managers are crucial for materialising organisational activities since they bridge the gap between top management and bottom-level employees (Jansen and Samuel, 2014).

However, organisational behaviour, groups and teams are highly important for the overall management, decision-making and productivity of the organisation, and this report assesses the validity of this fact (Knights and Willmott, 2007).

• 2.0 Analysis

Work groups, teams, organisational power and politics have immense impacts on organisational culture, productivity and employee management. These are discussed elaborately in the sections below.

However, in order to analyse these impacts, the understanding of organisational culture is essential. Organisational Culture is the unique characteristic of an organisation which differentiates it from other organisations. It is a means of establishing a sense of organisation identity and uniqueness among the employees and diverse stakeholders (Jarad, Nikbin and Yusof, 2010).

• • 2.1 Work Groups and Teams

Groups and teams exist in an organisation. The globalisation and internationalisation of business organisations has increased the importance of work-groups because these groups can collaborate across international markets (Boyle, et al., 2014). Groups are formed based on the unity of individuals or employees. When small groups develop within a large group, they are called sub-groups (Rudani, 2011).

The reasons for formation of work-groups and teams are as follows:

• Organisational Goals

The main aim of the managers is to achieve the organisational goals through effective utilisation of the skills and talents of employees in the organisation. Due to this reason, managers develop work-groups and teams comprising of employees with related skills and assigns respective tasks to each groups. Group efforts lead to a better and quick output by the employees in an organisation (Basu and Mukherjee, 2005).

• Organisational Proximity

It is the closeness created between the members of a formal group which leads to sharing of knowledge and experiences, followed by development of friendly informal groups within the organisation. Organisations unknowingly lead to the development of numerous groups. This proximity facilitates better performance by the group members, since employees prefer to work in friendly environment (Basu and Mukherjee, 2005).

• Psychological Factors

Psychological factors play a vital role in the employees’ productivity. Employees belonging to a group get the feeling of emotional security, mental support, self-esteem and confidence. These elements are critical to the success of an organisation, since employees are the most valuable resources and therefore their psychological and emotional factors must be given due importance. Thus, organisations try to divide people into groups based on their psychological aspects. When people perform in a group, they tend to perform better (Basu and Mukherjee, 2005).

The various types of work-groups in an organisation are as follows:

• Formal Groups

Formal groups are formed by the management as parts of the formal structure of an organisation with some special intention, where activities of its members are directed towards a common goal and a definite objective. The group members are made to function as a single unit with united efforts so as to fulfil a common interest (Singh, 2011). Further, when employees work in groups, they make lesser mistakes than compared to situations when they perform individually or independently. Formal groups facilitate better judgement and improved decision-making since two brains are better than one. These groups preserve the organisational culture and exhibit organisational identity through their works and attitude (Singh, 2011).

• Informal Groups

Informal groups develop within an organisation without the involvement of management. These groups are formed by employees among themselves to fulfil unwritten or informal purposes as a consequence of socio-cultural and psychological factors operating in the work-place (Ranganayakulu, 2005). These groups create a cordial relationship among the employees which develop a friendly work environment in the organisation. Informal groups improve inter-personal communication of employees since communication in these groups are not structured and are therefore helpful in developing extra knowledge apart from those related to the works of an individual (Barbara and Nkala, 2013). The employees belonging to an informal group do not have to consult with the managers in case of minor work-related problems. The peers and colleagues come forward with possible solutions. This leads to the formation of group cohesiveness. The coordination and correlation created among employees enhance the organisational performance and thus, informal groups facilitate improvement of organisational productivity (Barbara and Nkala, 2013).

However, members of informal groups often communicate informally among themselves and thus fail to adapt to the organisational culture. This results in cultural erosion in the work-place since organisational culture is something that is to be exhibited by each and every employee. However, members of informal groups exhibit their own cultures and are not acquainted with the culture of the organisation. This further leads to lack of organisational identity.

Work Teams in an organisation function together to bring about organisational effectiveness. Teams are combinations of different employees in the work place where the individual talents are extracted from each employee and strategically channelized into a common stream of activities in order to achieve a common goal or common interests (Lee and Spicer, 2014). Whereas, Management Teams are organisational teams which comprise of the managers and are responsible for ensuring smooth functioning and efficient operating by the work-teams (Moshal, 2009).

Thus, it is seen that, work-groups and teams are inevitable for the organisational success and effectiveness. Team efforts are better than individual efforts in achieving high degree of organisational productivity and fulfilling goals and objectives. However, the impacts of work groups are immense on the organisational culture since people working in groups tend to adapt the group culture rather than organisational culture. Different groups exhibit different cultures thus resulting in the eventual loss of organisational culture. This eliminates the sense of organisational identity from the minds of employees. Therefore, work-groups and teams obstruct the existence of a uniform organisational culture in the workplace.

• • 2.2 Power and Politics

Power is the ability to bring about changes in the behaviours of other people such that, they are made to act or react in a manner, which they actually do not want to do (Hulks, Myers and Wiggins, 2012). They would have rather preferred to follow a different course of action. However, they are forced to behave in a way which the individual in possession of such power wants them to do. Whereas, politics is the application of power in the workplace and commonly termed as Power-Game (Drory and Gadot, 2006). It is the improper utilisation of power and is used to control the activities of workers and employees. Often, the management and higher authorities in an organisation who have formal powers in their possession tend to take undue advantage of such power. They politicise their power and channelizes the same into a wrong path so as to exert pressure on the employees. Power is often utilised by the managers depending on their personal preferences or dislikes for a particular employee, which is certainly not expected (Hulks, Myers and Wiggins, 2012).

Since, power is the ability to influence other people’s activities it can be used either in a positive or in a negative way. However, the choice is on the person having the power.

Different types of power and their impacts on employee management and organisational culture are discussed below:

• Legitimate Power

This power is possessed by an individual because of his/her formal position in the organisation. It reflects the position of authority of the individual inside the work-place (Lunenburg, 2012). This power helps in efficient management of employees. The managers are generally given this power to control the course of activities of their subordinate employees. This gives them the right to ask the employees to work in particular manner. It helps in employee management since without the existence of a legitimate or position power, it would be difficult to manage employees and make them work. This is because employees will not obey managers until they have the right to exercise power. This also helps to establish a formal hierarchy in the organisation which acts a path of information-flow from the higher-level management to the bottom-level employees. This further leads to the development of a proper organisational structure which reflects the culture existing in the particular organisation. When an organisation happens to perform under a definite structure, the employees are also trained up accordingly and they get adapted to the culture of the organisation (Lunenburg, 2012).

The Autocratic Model can be related to this power. This model is based on the allocation of power to the managers where the employees are obedient to and dependent on their superiors (Academic Library, 2016).

Figure 1: Model of Organisational Behaviour

(Source: Academic Library, 2016)

• Reward Power

This power is exercised to motivate employees by rewarding them when they perform well or above the standard (Lunenburg, 2012). This leads to better performance by the employees and staffs since individuals want their talents to get recognised. Consequently, employees will be loyal and dedicated towards the organisation. The employees will think themselves to be a part of the organisation and will happily adapt to the organisational culture as well as get acquainted with the same.

• Coercive Power

This is a negative power which is used by managers to punish or threat employees for performance or non-performance of some particular activities (Lunenburg, 2012). This may lead to employee dissatisfaction and downfall in their performance standards. This is not an ethical way to make employees work. This will either result in cultural erosion in the organisation or the organisation’s culture will be misrepresented.

• Expert Power

This power is not a formal power and is used by individuals based on their knowledge, skills and expertise (Lunenburg, 2012). Employees with more knowledge and advanced skills tend to discourage or demoralise the new and inexperienced employees. This leads to a feeling of emotional insecurity and reduced self-esteem in the employees, which results in deterioration in their output and efficiency. This is also a threat to the organisational culture since this is never anticipated to happen at workplaces. Rather, co-workers are expected to be encouraging and cooperative.

Therefore, organisational power affects the management of employees and organisational culture to a great extent. If power is utilised in an honest way, it will lead to organisational improvement and establishment of a firm organisational culture. However, power when misused leads to organisational inefficiency and cultural spill-over in the organisation.

Politics plays a vital role in bringing about changes in organisational structure, work-proceedings and altering the culture that prevails in the organisation (Kitchin, 2010). It shapes the mentality of the workers and guides them to work in a particular way. This guidance is often not at par with the organisational standard and not desired. Politics tend to destroy the working-motive of employees and diverts the minds of workers to a different area. This leads to under-performance by employees and reduction in organisational productivity. Politics is generally done by a group of individuals to cause negative effects to the organisation or to fulfil their personal demands. This hampers the performance of other employees and spoils the work environment. This spoilt work-environment and political protests against the management in response to various issues portraits a negative image of the organisation to its stakeholders, thus creating a scope for downtrodden culture in the organisation (Kitchin, 2010).

• 3.0 Conclusion

The above analysis of the impacts of work-groups, teams, power and politics on organisational culture and employee management suggests that, these elements are inseparable parts of an organisation. Their existence cannot be ignored. The work-groups and teams offer wide scopes for new employees to learn and sustain themselves in midst of cut-throat competition. Teams provide support to members and ensure efficient productivity, where the contribution of the leader cannot be denied. However, sometimes groups lead to destruction of organisational culture due to the informal behaviour adopted by the group members.

Power exists with the managers who motivate employees and make the employees deliver the output on scheduled time. This ensures appropriate output by the company. However, powers also have immense negative impacts. These demoralise employees and creates under-confidence among them, which in turn affects the organisational efficacy. Politics is the improper utilisation of power to fulfil personal/group demands. Politics hampers organisational workings and erodes the culture, thus, leading to value-destruction.

It is concluded that, although groups and teams have numerous advantages on the organisational activities and management, sometimes they prove to be harmful as well. The same assessment can be made for power and politics in the workplaces. However, management operates and sustains itself amidst these occurrences and keeps on creating value for the organisation.

• 4.0 Reference List

Academic Library, 2016. Models of Organisational Behaviour. [online] Available at: <http://academlib.com/2814/management/models_organiational_behaviour> [Accessed 22 July 2016]

Aquinas, P.G., 2006. Organisational Behaviour: Concepts, Realities, Applications and Challenges. New Delhi: Excel Books

• • • • Barbara, M. and Nkala, P., 2013. An Assessment of the Effects of Informal Groups on Employee Performance: A Case of High Schools in Bulawayo Province. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 19(7), pp. 107 - 108
      • Basu, S.K. and Mukherjee, S., 2005. Organisation & Management and Business Communication. New Delhi: New Age International Publishers
      • Boyle, M., Judge, T.A., Millett, B. and Robbins, S.P., 2014. Organisational Behaviour, 7th ed. New York: Pearson

Daft, R.L., Murphy, J. and Willmott, H., 2010. Organisation Theory and Design. Boston: South-Western Cengage Learning

Drory, A. and Gadot, E.V., 2006. Handbook of Organisational Politics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited

Fox, W., 2006. Managing Organisational Behaviour. Cape Town: Juta & Co.

Hulks, S., Myers, P. and Wiggins, L., 2012. Organisational Change: Perspectives on Theory and Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Jansen, A. and Samuel, M.O., 2014. Achievement of Organisational Goals and Motivation of Middle Level Managers within the Context of the Two-Factor Theory. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(16), p. 53

Jarad, I.Y.A., Nikbin, D. and Yusof, N.A., 2010. A Review Paper on Organizational Culture and Organizational Performance. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 1(3), pp. 34 - 36

Khanka, S.S., 2009. Organisation Behaviour: Text and Cases. New Delhi: S. Chand & Company Pvt. Ltd.

Kitchin, P.D., 2010. An Introduction to Organisational Behaviour for Managers and Engineers: A Group and Multi-Cultural Approach, 1st ed. Burlington: Elsevier

Knights, D. and Willmott, H., 2007. Introducing Organisational Behaviour and Management. London: Thomson Learning

Lashley, C. and Ross, D.L., 2014. Organisation Behaviour for Leisure Services. London: Routledge

Lee, H. and Spicer, D., 2014. People, Work and Organisations. London: Palgrave Macmillan

Lunenburg, F.C., 2012. Power and Leadership: An Influence Process. International Journal of Management, Business and Administration, 15(1), pp. 1 - 6

Moshal, B.S., 2009. Organisational Theory and Behaviour: Text and Cases, 2nd ed. New Delhi: Ane Books Pvt. Ltd.

Ranganayakulu, K.C.S., 2005. Organisation Behaviour. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors

Rudani, R.B., 2011. Management and Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: Tata McGraw hill Education Pvt. Ltd.

Saxena, P.K., 2009. Principles of Management: A Modern Approach. New Delhi: Global India Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Singh, H., 2011. Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: V.K. (India) Enterprises