Organizational

Behaviour
RQF- Unit 12
Prepared by: Ms. Salma El-Saies

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Introduction
LO1: Analyse the influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others
in an organisational context.

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What is an Organization?

 An Organization is when two or more person work together with a common

goal.

 A deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish

some specific purpose (that individuals
independently could not accomplish alone).

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Organizational Culture
Part 1

10–4
What is Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture is the basic pattern of shared

assumptions, values, and beliefs considered to be the correct
way of thinking about and acting on problems and
opportunities facing the organization. The Philosophy that
guides an Organizations policy towards employees &
customers.

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Cultural aspects

 Dress codes
 The way employees generally dress, what is their
interpretation of the dress code policy.
 Language
 The words the employees mostly use, abbreviations and
their meanings.

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National Vs. Organizational Culture

National culture Organizational culture

 Broader  Narrower

 More complex  Manageable

 Influence org. culture  Subcultures

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Types of Organizational Culture
(As identified by Charles Handy)

1. Power Culture
2. Role Culture
3. Task Culture
4. Person Culture

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Power Culture

 Concentrating power among a

few people

 Usually is associated with

autocratic leadership.
 Decisions are made quickly
 Managers are judged on
results rather than how they
obtain them.
 Usually found in flat structures
Analogy of spider web:
 Motivation is likely to focus on there is no purpose
financial rewards like bonuses. without the spider.
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Role Culture

 Each member of staff has a clearly

defined job title and role

 Usually associated with bureaucratic

organizations like government.
 The structure of the organization is
clearly defined with clear delegated
authority.
 Power comes from a person’s position Analogy big building:
Solid and dependable –
 Decision-making process is slow. not going anywhere fast
 Usually found in Tall hierarchical structures 11
Task Culture

 Based on cooperation and team work

 Groups are formed to

solve problems
 Communication may follow
a matrix structure
 Creative & problem-solving spirit
 Very motivating environment Analogy of a NET:
the strength is derived
that meets worker’s intrinsic
from the many strands
needs 12
Person Culture

 Individuals are given the freedom to

express themselves and make
decisions

 Most creative type of culture

 No emphasis on teamwork
 People who thrive here may find
it difficult to work in a Analogy of a STARS:
structured environment each person is different
and operates alone
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Contrasting Organizational Cultures
Organization A
• Managers must fully document
all decisions.
• Creative decisions, change, and risks
are not encouraged.
• Extensive rules and regulations exist
for all employees.
• Productivity is valued over employee
morale.
• Employees are encouraged to stay
within their own department.
• Individual effort is encouraged.
Organization B
• Management encourages and
rewards risk-taking and change.
• Employees are encouraged to
“ run with” ideas, and failures are
treated as“ learning experiences.
”
• Employees have few rules and
regulations to follow.
• Productivity is balanced with treating
its people right.
• Team members are encouraged to interact
with people at all levels and functions.
• Many rewards are team based.
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Organizational Politics
Part 2

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Organizational Politics

 Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and

sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell ideas,
influence an organization, increase power, or achieve
other targeted objectives. (Brandon & Seldman, 2004;
Hochwarter, Witt, & Kacmar, 2000).

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Organizational Politics (Cont.)

 Individuals and groups within the organization may

disagree about how resources should be allocated, so they
may naturally seek to gain those resources for themselves
or for their interest groups, which gives rise to
organizational politics.

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Organizational Politics (Cont.)

 Simply put, with organizational politics, individuals ally

themselves with like-minded others in an attempt to win
the scarce resources.

 They’ll engage in behavior typically seen in government

organizations, such as bargaining, negotiating, alliance
building, and resolving conflicting interests.

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Organizational Politics (Cont.)

 Examples of these self-serving behaviors include

1. bypassing the chain of command to get approval for a
special project,
2. going through improper channels to obtain special favors,
3. lobbying high-level managers just before they make a
promotion decision.

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Negative Workplace Politics

 These types of actions undermine fairness in the organization,

because not everyone engages in politicking to meet their own
objectives. Those who follow proper procedures often feel
jealous and resentful because they perceive unfair distributions
of the organization’s resources.

 Researchers have found that if employees think their

organization is overly driven by politics, the employees are less
committed to the organization, have lower job satisfaction,
perform worse on the job, have higher levels of job anxiety,
and have a higher incidence of depressed mood.
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Positive Workplace Politics

 Employees who learn to navigate the politics of an

organization are more productive than those who are left
out of the loop.
 An employee with a strong political group that supports
him is a happy and satisfied employee.
 A climate focused on collaboration and equal treatment
prevents conflict that can reduce productivity.

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Organizational Power

Part 3

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What Is Power?

 “Power is simply the ability to get things done the way

one wants them to be done” (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1989). If
you want a larger budget to open a new store in a large
city and you get the budget increase, you have used your
power to influence the decision.

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Power Definition

 Dependency
 Dependency is directly related to power. The more that a
person or unit is dependent on you, the more power you
have.
 Dependency is power that a person or unit gains from
their ability to handle actual or potential problems facing
the organization (Saunders, 1990).

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Power Definition

 Substitutability
 Finally, substitutability refers to one’s ability to find
another option that works as well as the one offered.
 The harder it is to find a substitute, the more dependent
the person becomes and the more power someone else has
over them.
 If you are the only person who knows how to make a piece
of equipment work, you will be very powerful in the
organization.

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Bases of Power
 What are the sources of one’s power over others?
Researchers identified six sources of power, which include:
1. legitimate,
2. reward,
3. coercive,
4. expert,
5. information,
 (French & Raven, 1960).

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Bases of Power

1. Legitimate Power
 Legitimate power is power that comes from one’s organizational role or
position. For example, a boss can assign projects, a policeman can
arrest a citizen, and a teacher assigns grades. Others comply with the
requests these individuals make because they accept the legitimacy of
the position, whether they like or agree with the request or not.
 Steve Jobs has enjoyed legitimate power as the CEO of Apple. He could
set deadlines and employees comply even if they think the deadlines
were overly ambitious. Start-up organizations often have founders who
use their legitimate power to influence individuals to work long hours
week after week in order to help the company survive.

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Bases of Power
2. Reward Power
 Reward power is the ability to grant a reward, such as an increase in
pay, a perk, or an attractive job assignment. Reward power tends to
accompany legitimate power and is highest when the reward is
scarce.
 When Steve Jobs ran Apple, he had reward power in the form of
raises and promotions.

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Bases of Power
3. Coercive Power
 In contrast, coercive power is the ability to take something away or
punish someone for noncompliance. Coercive power often works
through fear, and it forces people to do something that ordinarily they
would not choose to do.
 The most extreme example of coercion is government dictators who
threaten physical harm for noncompliance. Parents may also use
coercion such as grounding their child as punishment for
noncompliance.
 Steve Jobs has been known to use coercion—yelling at employees and
threatening to fire them. When John Wiley & Sons Inc. published an
unauthorized biography of Jobs, Jobs’s response was to prohibit sales
of all books from that publisher in any Apple retail store (Hafner,
2005). 29
Bases of Power

4. Expert Power
 Expert power comes from knowledge and skill.
 Steve Jobs has expert power from his ability to know what customers
want—even before they can articulate it.
 Technology companies are often characterized by expert, rather than
legitimate power. Many of these firms utilize a flat or matrix
structure in which clear lines of legitimate power become blurred as
everyone communicates with everyone else regardless of position.

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Bases of Power

5. Information Power
 Information power is similar to expert power but differs in its source.
Experts tend to have a vast amount of knowledge or skill, whereas
information power is distinguished by access to specific information.
 For example, knowing price information gives a person information
power during negotiations. Within organizations, a person’s social
network can either isolate them from information power or serve to
create it.

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Positive Types of Power

 Positive power in an organization involves encouraging

productivity. This includes giving employees the power to
make decisions, rewarding employees for strong
performance and appointing employees who perform
strongly to supervise other employees.
 Positive power builds employee confidence and motivates
employees to work harder.
 It also results in those in higher-level positions gaining power
through employee respect and communication, rather than
coercive efforts.
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Negative Types of Power

 When leaders in an organization do not have the respect of

the employees under them, they have a negative power.
 This type of leader motivates employees to perform by
threatening them with job loss and other punishments or
shows favoritism to certain employees rather than
recognizing the hard work of multiple employees.
 Not only does the quality of work produced decrease under
this type of power, but it leads to higher turnover rates in
an organization.

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