17 organizational politics and Culture

18. Organizational Change and OD

19.. Organizational Structure Organizational Theories and Approaches
20. 7S McKinsey 7-S Framework
21. OB Challenges & increasing scope
22.23. India and International Context
24. International Issues of OB

ORGANISATIONAL POLITICS
According to Farrell and Peterson, politics in an organisation refers to those
activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the organisation,
but that influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages and
disadvantages within the organisation.

REASONS FOR POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR

Individual traits: It refers to the intrinsic traits of individuals that compel them to get involved
in politics. Such traits include greediness, selfishness, dishonesty, callousness, etc.
Scarcity of resources: Organisations usually have limited resources that needed to be allocated
optimally.
Personal impression: to make an impression on their seniors or managers..
Lack of trust and bonding: lack of trust and bonding between individuals belonging to
different groups encourage politics.
Role ambiguity: Organizational politics because of a lack of clarity about their roles in the
organisation.
Promotions increments and Rewards: Desire of quick promotions and bigger
increments.
Stress to perform well: Pressure prevailing among individuals in an organisation
to perform well.

MANAGING POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR

Clear job descriptions and role definition: Every individual in an organisation

must be clear about their Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) and roles.Avoid
confusion about the job role it leads to politics..

Open communication: Managers must communicate to individual member of

their team and listen and understand their problems

Set examples: It implies that managers can avoid the situation of politics
Demonstrate ethical practices: Ethical practices of manager deliver a clear
message to all the employees in the organisation.

Promote team spirit: It leads to cooperation and better understanding between

employees; thereby reducing politics.

Allocate resources and rewards wisely: Allocate resource as per the situation
and employees’ requirements, and rewards should be given on the basis of
employees’ performance.

Organisational culture
Organisational culture can be defined as a pattern of shared values, beliefs,
attitudes, behaviours and assumptions of people in an organisation.
Strong culture enhance organisational performance and motivating people to
perform efficiently.

Formation of sustenance of organisational culture

Founders’ philosophy
Employee selection criteria
Top management

OB Challenges for the 21st Century”

1. Change Management

Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies
that change is like death and taxes — it should be postponed as long as possible
and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as
the one we are living in, change is the norm.

Organizational Change
Peter Drucker, in “Management Challenges for the 21st Century” (1999),
Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies
that change is like death and taxes — it should be postponed as long as possible
and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as
the one we are living in, change is the norm.

Steps of Change
Stages of Change Process

Forces of Change
• Internal forces exist within an organisation and are under the control of the
organisation. These include implementation of new technology or changes
in employee profile.
• External forces are present outside the organisation and are beyond the
control of the organisation. These include government policies,
competition or social pressure.

LEVEL OF CHANGE
• Individual level change: Change occurs at the personal level
• Group level change: Change occurs at the group/department/team level
because most activities in an organisation, are managed as groups.
• Organisational level change: Change that influences the entire
organisation. These changes involve major programmes that affect both
individuals and groups. Decisions regarding these changes are generally
made by the senior management.
TYPES OF CHANGE
 • Planned change: A conscious change that occurs as a result of logic can
be categorized as planned change. Such changes are implemented in an
organized manner and are well thought out and communicated in advance
to the stakeholders of the organisation.
• Emergent change: This is a spontaneous occurrence arising out of factors
beyond the reach of a change implementer. Emergent changes may be
implemented by the top management of an organisation at the time of
crisis. Such changes are generally temporary in nature.
• Episodic change: This is a change that does not occur on a daily basis.
Episodic changes occur only for a particular time period. These changes
are often termed as second order changes.

• Continuous change: A continuous change is one that occurs on a daily

basis. It is often termed as a first order change and does not influence an
organisation significantly.
• Remedial change: This refers to a change that calls for transformation in
a particular situation, task, procedure or policy. This type of change is
focused on corrective measures.
• Developmental change: This refers to a change that is taken up for the
improvement of employees as well as organisational performance.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE:

Fear of technological up-gradation: It refers to the fear of unemployment

among people due to technological up-gradation.
Undesirability of skills: With transformation, people often start thinking that
their present skills would get obsolete and they would not be able to master the
new skills required in the changed environment..
Inherent liking for status quo: Some people just want to continue the way they
are working, and any kind of change is unacceptable to them.
Poor communication: Changes made in an organisation may not be
communicated clearly to every level of the organisation. This may lead to a
feeling of dissatisfaction among the employees.
Lack of training: Some changes to be successfully implemented within an
organisation may require extensive training of its employees. If such training is
not imparted by the organisation, the employees may resist the change

2. Organizational Development
According to Warren Bennis, Organisation Development (OD) is a complex
strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of
 organisations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and
challenges
According to Burke(1994),“Organization Development is a planned process of
change in an organization’s culture through the utilization of behavioural science
technologies, research, and theory.’

3. Organizational Structure: Organizational Theories and Approaches

Meaning and Type of the Organization, and Their impact on OB:

Organizational Structure: Organizational Theories and Approaches: Role
of Power and Politics: Organizational Culture Change Management and
OD:

Organisation

According to Stephen P Robbins, organisation is a consciously coordinated social

entity with a relatively identifiable boundary that functions on a relatively
continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.
An organisation is a group of people working together to achieve defined goals
and objectives through shared interests, values and rules.

Organisations are formed because it is difficult to achieve bigger and complex

goals individually that require different skill sets.
In an organisation, individual goals are foregone for the group goals and the group
goals are compromised for organisational goals so the maximum benefit can be
derived by using limited available resources.

FEATURES OF AN ORGANISATION

TYPES OF ORGANISATIONS
• Bureaucratic Organisation
• Decentralised Organisation
• Participative Organisation
• Pyramid Organisation
• Matrix Organisation
• Strategic Business Unit (SBU)
• Virtual Organisation

Bureaucratic organisation: Bureaucratic organisations follow a set of formal

and rigid rules and regulations. Such organisations have a centralised decision-
making process. In such organisations, organisational charts are designed for
every department with an aim to make more organised decisions. Examples of
bureaucratic organisations include prisons, police departments, colleges and
universities.

Participative organisation: This type of organisation takes the middle path and
adopts the positive features of both bureaucratic and democratic organisations. In
a participative organisation, all employees get involved in the decision-making
process. A participative organisation practices specialisation but not very rigidly.
It is more flexible than a bureaucratic organisation but less flexible than a
democratic organisation.

Pyramid organisation: This type of organisation follows a hierarchical structure

containing top-level, middle-level and low-level management. In a pyramid
organisation, the decision-making process is highly centralised. Top-level
managers make major decisions. The concern for employees is low in a pyramid
organisation.

Matrix organisation: In this type of organisation, dual lines of authority are

formed. An employee working on a particular project could report to different
managers. For example, an employee may have to report to the head of a financial
department and the head of the production department. In this case, the financial
head would be the primary reporting authority, while the production head would
be the secondary reporting authority, whom the employee reports for a particular
time period.

Strategic Business Unit (SBU): It refers to a small part of an organisational

arrangement that performs a specific task. An SBU forms its own business
strategies and objectives, which are different from the SBU’s parent organisation.
In addition, it is a separate organisation with its own product lines and geographic
markets.

Virtual organisation: This type of organisation focuses on out- sourcing its

operations so that assets can be reduced to minimum. In a virtual organisation,
various functions, such as production, supply chain or logistics operations are
managed through a network of contacts. Moreover, a virtual organisation does
not have any physical location; therefore, it is cost effective. However, a major
drawback of such kind of organisation is that the management’s control is
reduced.
Bureaucratic theory

This theory was given by Weber. According to this theory, organisations should
have a clearly defined hierarchy. In addition, the roles of employees at different
levels should be defined clearly. There should be strong lines of authority (rules
of system), division of labour, specialisation, control and interpersonal relations
in organisations.

McKinsey 7-S Framework

Making Every Part of Your Organization Work in Harmony

• Do you know how well your organization is positioned to achieve its goals?
Or what elements influence its ability to implement change successfully?
• Models of organizational effectiveness go in and out of fashion, but the
McKinsey 7-S framework has stood the test of time.
• The model was developed in the late 1970s by Tom Peters and Robert
Waterman, former consultants at McKinsey & Company. They identified
seven internal elements of an organization that need to align for it to be
successful.
• learn how it can be used to improve performance or manage change in
organizations by ensuring that they all work in harmony.
• Also, we provide a worked example and a downloadable template that you
can use to apply the model.

When to Use the McKinsey 7-S Model

• it can help you to improve the performance of your organization, or to

determine the best way to implement a proposed strategy.
• The framework can be used to examine the likely effects of future changes
in the organization, or to align departments and processes during a merger
or acquisition. You can also apply the McKinsey 7-S model to elements of
a team or a project.
•
•
The three "hard" elements include:
• Strategy.
• Structures (such as organization charts and reporting lines).
• Systems (such as formal processes and IT systems.)
 • The four "soft" elements, on the other hand, can be harder to describe, and
are less tangible, and more influenced by your company culture. But they're
just as important as the hard elements if the organization is going to be
successful.
Hard and Soft Elements

• Strategy: this is your organization's plan for building and maintaining a

competitive advantage over its competitors.
• Structure: this is how your company is organized (how departments and
teams are structured, including who reports to whom).
• Systems: the daily activities and procedures that staff use to get the job
done.
• Shared Values: these are the core values of the organization and reflect its
general work ethic. They were called "superordinate goals" when the
model was first developed.
• Style: the style of leadership adopted.
• Staff: the employees and their general capabilities.
• Skills: the actual skills and competencies of the organization's employees.
Using the McKinsey 7-S Model

• The model is to identify which elements of the 7-S' you need to realign to
improve performance or to maintain alignment and performance during
other changes. These changes could include restructuring, new processes,
an organizational merger, new systems, and a change of leadership.
Application of 7S

• To apply the McKinsey 7-S Model in your organization, follow these

steps:
1. Start with your shared values: are they consistent with your structure,
strategy, and systems? If not, what needs to change?
2. Then look at the hard elements – your strategy, structure and systems. How
well does each one support the others? Identify where changes need to be
made.
3. Next, look at the soft elements – shared values, skills, (leadership) style,
and staff. Do they support the desired hard elements? Do they support one
another? If not, what needs to change?
4. As you adjust and align the elements, you'll need to use an iterative (and
often time-consuming) process of making adjustments, and then re-
analyzing how that impacts other elements and their alignment. The end
result of better performance will be worth it.
 • Figure 2 shows a template matrix that you can use

Challenges and Opportunities of Organizational Behavior

Total Quality Management (TQM)

It is a philosophy of management that is driven by the constant attainment of

customer satisfaction through the continuous improvement of all organizational
process.
The components of TQM are;

(a)Customer focus
,(b) Concern for continual improvement,
(c) Improvement in the quality on all aspects
(d) Accurate measurement and,
(e) Empowerment of employees.

Managing Workforce Diversity

 Diversity means employing different categories of employees who are

heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, relation, community,
physically disadvantaged, elderly people etc.
 Heterogeneous category of employees is to tap the talents and
potentialities, harnessing the innovativeness, obtaining synergetic effect
among the diverce workforce.
 In general, employees wanted to retain their individual and cultural
identity, values and life styles even though they are working in the same
organization with common rules and regulations.
 The challenge for organizations is to become more accommodating to
diverse groups of people by addressing their different life styles, family
needs, and work styles.
 Categorising employees based on gender, race, ethnicity, relation, etc.
 Main factors: To harness innovativeness, bring out the best talent and
potentialities.

Responding to Globalization
  Wherever the demands exist irrespective of distance, locations, climatic
Conditions, the business
 Operations are expanded to gain their market share and to remain in the top
rank etc. Business operations are no longer restricted to a particular locality
or region.
 Company’s products or services are spreading across the nations using
mass communication, the internet, faster transportation etc.
 More than 95% of Nokia (Now Microsoft) hand phones are being sold
outside of their home country Finland.
 Japanese cars are being sold in different parts of the globe. Sri Lankan tea
is exported to many cities around the globe.
 Garment products of Bangladesh are exporting in USA and EU countries.
Executives of Multinational Corporation are very mobile and move from
one subsidiary to another more frequently.

Empowering People
 More power and responsibility to the lower level cadre of employees and
assigning more freedom to make choices about their schedules, operations,
procedures and the method of solving their work-related problems.
 Encouraging the employees to participate in work related decision will
sizable enhance their commitment to work.
 Empowerment is defined as putting employees in charge of what they do
by eliciting some sort of ownership in them.
 Managers are doing considerably further by allowing employees full
control of their work.
 Delegating more power to the lower levels of employees.
 More participation.
 Increases confidence levels.
 Improved manager and employees relationship.

Emergence of E-Organisation & E-Commerce

It is a dramatic change in the way a company relates to its customers. At present

e-commerce is exploding. Globally, e-commerce spending was increasing at a
tremendous rate.

Stimulating Innovation & Change :

Successful organisations must foster innovation & be proficient in the art of
change. Victory will go to those organisations that maintain flexibility
,continually improve their quality and beat the competition to the market place
with constant stream of innovative products and services.
Improving customer service
OB can contribute to improve an organizational performance by showing how
employees attitude & behaviour are associated with customer satisfaction.
In that case, service should be the first production oriented by using
technological opportunities like computer, internet etc.

Improving Quality and Productivity

❑ Performance
❑ Features
❑ Reliability
❑ Durability
❑ Services
❑ Response
❑ Reputations

Improving ethical behavior

The complexity in business operation is forcing the workforce to face ethical

dilemmas , where they are required define right and wrong conduct in order to
complete their assigned activities