Organisational Behaviour & Management – Business Report Assignment
Business Report Assignment
For the first assessment of module BMA4001-20 ‘Organisational Behaviour & Management, you are required to write a report of 2,000 words applying key organisational behaviour theory to a specific organisation.
Before you start writing you will need to identify an organisation that you either work for at the moment or have worked for in the past. If you have never worked for an organisation, then you will need to choose an extracurricular organisation you are involved in, or an alternative organisation that you know a lot about. This could be an organisation a parent, partner or sibling works for. If you are having difficulty selecting an organisation, please discuss this with your Lecturer or tutor(online teacher).
You will be expected to write in specific detail about what happens in the organisation’s internal environment – relative to organisational behaviour concepts.
When you have chosen your organisation, you then need to answer the following question:
• “How can line management motivate employees to respond positively to organisational change within your chosen organisation?” Consider individual level, group level and organisational level challenges that could arise.
2. Organisational Theories:
To help you answer the question, use ONE organisational theory (choose from any of the organisational theories that we have introduced in lectures/seminars. You will need to apply the chosen theory to your chosen organisation.
3. Report Details:
You need to write a business report, which includes each of the following sections:
1. Briefly Introduce the organisation you have chosen to write about (5% of marks)
2. Briefly introduce the key organisational theory that you will use (5% of marks)
3. Answer the question, using your chosen organisational theory and applying it to your organisation (40% of marks)
4. Provide a critical evaluation of your chosen theory (30% of marks)
5. Provide recommendations for the organisation to implement (20%)
You need to ensure your report:
• Is closely linked to the key academic theory throughout.
• Is within the requested word limit of 2,000 words +/- 10%.
• Uses a suitable report structure (include an executive summary)
• Is well presented, professional and includes scholarly / peer-reviewed references
• Uses good grammar, spelling, and punctuation
• Uses BSU Harvard Referencing
More comprehensive details related to this assignment will be given within seminars.
4. Submission Details:
Please ensure your report is uploaded into Turnitin by a deadline.
Solution: Organisational Behaviour & Management – Business Report Assignment
Executive Summary
Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation is relevant for analysing effective strategies to motivate employees at Waitrose & Partners in Bath. The model is useful for designing motivation strategies at different organisational levels but it relies on active manager-employee interaction. Vrooms (1964) informs the development of motivation schemes aligned to valence, instrumentality and expectance as key effects. Since there are structured requirements for performance evaluations it impacts employees’ expectancy and thus motivation to adapt to change. Similarly, employees’ needs are highly dynamic and thus rewards must be of great value (valence) and must be delivered (instrumentality). Employee motivation is significant in influencing change and the elements of the Vroom (1964) theory emphasise employee needs which are unlikely to change.
Introduction of the Company (Waitrose & Partners)
Waitrose & Partners is a leading British supermarket chain headquartered in Bracknell, England UK. This retail store is traced to Wallace Wyndham Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor’s first shop opened in 1904. Taylor later departed and Waite and Rose established the Waitrose Ltd in 1908. Waitrose & Partners operates 329 shops in 52 countries and its location in Bath is in Northgate Street (Bedford, 2024). Staff in the organisation are identified as partners and commit to going above and beyond to meet organisation objectives. Moreover part of the John Lewis Partnership includes online stores and online sales.
An overview of the organisational theory
Vroom expectancy theory (1964 by Victor Vrooms) is a theory of motivation which informs the reasons for individuals to perform an action in relation to their individual goals. Vrooms (1964) informs employee motivation is influenced by valence, instrumentality and expectancy.
Figure 1: Components of Vrooms Expectancy Model
As highlighted in Figure 1 above Vrooms(1964) shows motivation is a function of employee expectancy. Primarily valence and instrumentality are outcome measures linked to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Valence highlights the extent an employee values rewards they would receive for specific performance. Instrumentality shows the probability of the reward being delivered when the expected performance target is achieved. Expectancy is the employee’s view of their efforts as necessary for good performance. This involves measuring the significance of reaching individual targets and the likelihood of success (Mehboob, and Othman, 2020). On the other hand, motivation explains leadership actions to encourage an employee to give their best outcome for the fulfilment of the organisation’s goals (Khairul Amali, et al., 2023). Primarily when the motivation is strong it increases performance and weak or inappropriate motivation strategy decreases productivity.
Motivation of Employees in Waitrose & Partners for Positive Response to Change
Vrooms(1964) is relevant to explain how motivation occurs for individuals, teams and the organisation. First, intrinsic motivation occurs when the work environment helps the employee to work in teams and roles which fulfil their inner needs including affect (Mehboob, and Othman, 2020). Extrinsic motivation involves external conditions including appreciation, reward, or a prize. Line managers such as the store manager in Waitrose & Partners in Bath have close interactions with the employees (partners). Their key role in performance management includes communication of the stores and corporate objectives, supervision of roles, feedback to improve performance, and support reward, recognition, learning, development and overall career growth. The performance management role is useful to motivate the partners, and Vrooms Expectancy theory informs the most effective motivation strategies for individuals, teams and the store as highlighted in Figure 2.
Figure 2:Hierachy of challenges toward change.
The expectancy theory explores the effects of the skills, personality and behaviour of the staff on performance. The line managers communicate performance expectations to the staff and offer support to achieve them. An effective tool includes recognition and rewards which target specific accomplishment of the performance target (s). Waitrose & Partners expects employees to meet high-performance targets within groups. Employees who meet targets are transferred to a preferred location and promoted persuading others to perform better. However, this strategy has a negative effect since some employees may doubt any opportunity for career growth. The organisation communicates its commitment to supporting employee personal and professional development to meet the desired organisation objectives. Manager-employee conflicts over promotions are inevitable in organisations and decrease morale. A positive organisation culture through fair reward systems and flexible working practices are desirable to the employee. With employees identified as partners, the organisation equips them to deliver high output significant for overall success. Employees’ actions within teams are influenced by the following elements.
Valence: Waitrose & Partners motivate the employees by ensuring the reward system delivers high value consistent with the effort and skills needed to achieve specific performance objectives. Although performance targets are set for teams, the rewards must be consistent with the values of the individual members of the group. Line managers clearly communicate potential extrinsic benefits for individual employees. Promotional opportunities including working in a store of choice are significant and increase commitment to adapt to the change (Mehboob, and Othman, 2020). A major challenge for the organisation is lofty expectations where promotional opportunities and the qualifications for each position are not clearly set. Clear communication of the extrinsic values available for each performance metric and for each store across various countries increases high productivity and performance due to the great transparency. The expected high-value rewards are adopted to inform strategic choices to ensure standardisation and consistency across different sections. Commitment to fulfil individual and group targets to receive the expected extrinsic or intrinsic value is key to achieving organisation goals.
Instrumentality: Waitrose & Partners motivate its employees at the individual, group and organisation levels through intentional and timely delivery of rewards when performance targets are achieved. Waitrose predicts future recruitment and actively selects a suitable candidate to fill the position that is vacant. A major challenge in motivation is to communicate unavailable rewards since it leads to management-employee conflicts. Diversity of the rewards to include recognition and engagement of a highly talented workforce in decision-making exploits intrinsic values. Human resource management is tasked to strategically and operationally communicate employee needs to the executives.
Expectancy; Waitrose & Partners motivate its employees by showing them the right direction to build competency and confidence to achieve the set targets. The organisation commits to hiring talented employees and equipping them to achieve the desired outcomes. Employees are also motivated through deliberate efforts to create an appropriate working environment to help deliver better results. Waitrose & Partners also motivate employees through the right guidance and counselling on future choices in knowledge, skills and behaviour. The organisation also motivates the employees to adapt to the change through work-life balance including flexible working hours. The employee adapts to the change due to confidence the tasks do not take away their time with friends and family but maintain the efficacy to deliver the estimated results. The main challenge the organisation faces is employee and team efforts to manipulate the laid down processes to deliver the expected results. Despite the limitations in the individual knowledge, skills and competencies, employees adopt high risky actions to meet the targets. Waitrose & Partners capitalise on the intent to accomplish organisation goals and provide guidance and counselling on available opportunities. Strategic decisions include building partnerships to reinforce employees’ actions and deliver the required targets.
Critical Evaluation of the Motivation Theory
There are different theories of motivation categorised as processes or content theories and Vrooms (1964) expectancy is among processes. Against other processes motivation theories such as Skinner’s reinforcement, and Adman’s equity theory, expectancy theory informs the unique contribution of employee personality, skills and knowledge. Vrooms (1964) defined it as a push factor to define the interrelationship between instrumentality and rewards. The expectancy theory has been developed and improved by subsequent theorists such as L. W. Porter and E. E. Lawler in 1968 (Heneman, & Schwab, 1972). However, valence, instrumentality and expectancy (role perceptions) remain critical aspects which inform performance improvement (Mehboob, and Othman, 2020). These elements constitute the limitations of change since some aspects such as job challenges, hindered unsatisfied employee expectations, and employee expectations have not changed.
There is research evidence on the relevance of Vroom (1964) in explaining the employee motivation process in the 21st century. Many researchers have explained the significance of Vroom’s (1964) elements to enhance adaptations to strategic and operational change. According to Armenakis, and Harris, (2009) for each change process, there are perceived specific changes. Thus adaptation to the change process is influenced by elements(intrinsic or extrinsic) of greater value for individuals, groups or organisations. Participation and willingness to adapt to the change increases with perceived promotional opportunities and yields a greater degree of change implementation (Mehboob, and Othman, 2020). Zimmermann, Lioliou, and Oliveira, (2017) based on a sample of UK firms with operations in other countries found employee commitment to adapt to change is directly correlated to the level of valence.
Vrooms (1964) is relevant to explaining employee commitment to adapt to change since it emphasises the relationship between rewards and instrumentality. For success, an organisation should constantly adopt new motivational schemes. Waitrose & Partners have been in business for over a century but the needs and expectations of its workforce have changed. For instance, with increased competency in technical and non-technical functions, the participation of the employees in decision-making is critical. Vrooms (1964) through the expectancy elements informs the need to inspire employees to deliver better results through career development and skills improvement. Further, the theory informs that the elements of work influence employee motivation, and the lack of work-life balance has a negative effect on the adaptation to change (Daouk-Öyry, and El-Farr, 2023). These expectations are also similar to propositions in Maslow hierarchy of needs that employee satisfaction is progressive and impacts performance.
Finally, Vroom (1964) is relevant in explaining motivation due to the synergy between performance management and motivation in the attainment of the organisation’s objectives. Particularly performance evaluations are linked to the model element of expectancy (Daouk-Öyry, L. and El-Farr, 2023). Since Waitrose & Partners hires qualified persons to fill vacant positions, skills development is critical for confidence for success in the dynamic environment. The structured performance evaluation by the line managers impacts employee expectancy and thus influences motivation.
Recommendations for the Organisation
Waitrose & Partners need to have decentralised motivation strategies to meet the unique needs of the staff within each store while maintaining its corporate culture. A major consideration is to ensure the actions assigned to each of the teams are related closely to the organisation and corporate goals. Part of the organisation’s behaviour is group dynamics and politics influenced by each entity’s partners’ characteristics (Mehboob, and Othman, 2020). Motivation strategies thus must be different from business to business to cultivate diversity within the workforce. Although the organisation give the employee a chance to choose a store of choice their personality, and skills must be evaluated against the organisation’s culture.
Recognition and rewards within the store can have a negative effect on employees when they perceive them as manipulation for further efforts. A clear recognition plan which is aligned with the actual performance is effective for staff independent of their skills and personality. Since there is a need for performance evaluation to determine the achievement of each target, the results need to be used for skills development to increase employee expectancy (Zimmermann et al., 2017). Professional/ Skill development is effective for the employee and will influence behaviour. Upgrading skills builds confidence in job security amidst the proposed changes in the processes and activities. Providing opportunities to the employees to advance their skills to perform future tasks will improve their commitment.
Conclusion
It is clear adaptation to change is highly dependent on motivation strategies and some are effective and others are ineffective. The expectancy theory signifies the role of job characteristics and reward systems as key forces for employee behaviour. Precisely the reward must be anticipated and should be of great value, and the employee needs to be confident they will achieve the set targets to receive the reward. The motivation strategies can be different in each organisation and change contexts due to the diversity in employees’ needs. Challenges such as lofty expectations by individual employees, group politics and resistance to changes are inevitable. Thus the motivation schemes must be connected to the corporate performance goals to demonstrate the significance of each partner’s actions on overall performance.
References
Armenakis, A.A. and Harris, S.G. (2009) ‘Reflections: Our journey in organizational change research and practice’, Journal of Change Management, 9(2), pp. 127–142.
Bedford, E. (2024) Waitrose store numbers UK 2024 | Statista, Statista .
Daouk-Öyry, L. and El-Farr, H. (2023) Vroom’s expectancy theory [Preprint]. doi:10.4135/9781071924204.
Heneman, H. G., & Schwab, D. P. (1972) Evaluation of research on expectancy theory predictions of employee performance. Psychological Bulletin, 78(1), 1–9.
Khairul Amali, N.A. et al. (2023) ‘An investigation of learners’ motivational drive to learn a foreign language: A look at Vroom’s expectancy theory’, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 13(3).
Mehboob, F. and Othman, N. (2020) ‘Examining the links leading to behavioral support for change: An expectancy theory perspective’, International Journal of Social Sciences and Economic Review, pp. 1–08.
Zimmermann, A., Lioliou, E., & Oliveira, J. S. (2017). Managerial work characteristics and organizational commitment after offshoring: The moderating effect of perceived organizational valence. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2017(1), 11561.