Culture

Organisational culture describes the attitudes, psychology, values and beliefs of an organisation. These control the way the organisation interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organisation. The culture provides a sense of identity for the company and shows what they believe in, it can be good for morale to keep employees close together as they share the same beliefs.

‘a body of learned behaviour, a collection of beliefs, habits and traditions, shared by a group of people and learned by people...’ (Hofstede, 1984)

A good example of a company with a strong culture is the food outlet Nando's. They value their employees highly and believe that by treating them well the customers will be satisfied with the service. They try to make it a fun environment to work, for example they change the names of certain positions to jokes, (ie. HR Director = Mother Hen and Transport Manager = Poultry in motion). They also use 'stories' to tell employees of the history of the managing way. Nando's do not tolerate bullying in any form among staff and treat them all equally, and accept staff from all different backgrounds. They regard people higher than money. So really the main culture in Nando's is about having fun and respecting one another, and this shows through from their employees which will then make customers satisfied. 


"Nando's believes in a set of values that is central to everything that we do - Pride, Passion, Courage, Integrity and Family. We believe and appreciate that our continued success is down to our people with happy and committed staff key to the Nando's Experience." Nando's Management

Organisational Culture can be classified into four types according to Charles Handy (1996). They are Power, Role, Task and Person.

Power Culture - has a central source of power that comes from a central figure in the organisation. There are few rules and procedures and little bureaucracy with fast decisions. Usually found in small, entrepreneurial organisations and relies on personal communications.

Role Culture - a bureaucracy that works by logic and rationality. The organisation is split into a hierarchy using specialists, such as finance. Work is controlled by procedures and rules, monitored by a small amount of senior managers. The role is more important than the individual doing it, with the position being the main source of power.

Task Culture - a job/project based company which focuses on team working. The task is the most important thing, rather than the rules or the individuals. It brings together the right combination of resources and people. There is more freedom and flexibility and influence can be spread based on expert knowledge.

Person Culture - the idividual is the central focus and any structure serves the individual. Such as barristers, doctors or architects. Found in only a few organisations and there is no hierarchy. The individuals have nearly complete autonomy.


One problem with trying to classify culture into one of the four types is that some businesses can be a mix of cultures with parts of each aspect running through the business. It would therefore be hard to label one of the cultures to the business. Another problem could be that some people are different to the cultures that they have been put in and they may not fit into that certain culture, which may demotivate them and cause them to not work hard or leave.


In conclusion, culture is important to give the business an identity and make it unique. But different people who work there may have different attitudes so within the company there is a mix of different cultures. They can be grouped into four types, but large businesses tend to have a mix of all four within the company.

Bibliography

• Mullins, L. (2010), Management & Organisational Behaviour, 9^th edition, Essex, FT 

• Sherwin, L. (2009). Culture - Handy. Available: http://www.lindsay-sherwin.co.uk/guide_managing_change/html_overview/05_culture_handy.htm. Last accessed 2011. 
• http://www.nandos.co.uk/index.cfm
• Corporate and organisational culture. Available: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory--corporate-organisational-culture--322.php. Last accessed 2011.

Improving Staff Performance

The content theories focus on what motivates an individual and assume that they have a set of needs which they persue whereas the process theories concentrate on how they are motivated and how they achieve their goals by a process of calculation. The process theories are Vroom's Expectancy Theory, Locke's Goal Theory, and Adams' Equity Theory.

Expectancy Theory

The expectancy theory suggests that employees will be motivated to work when they think that the reward is worth putting effort into the task. The reward needs to be directly related to the task and has to be wanted and deserved by the employee. Vroom derived this model based on three variables; Valence, Instrumentality and Expectancy.

Valence: is the attractiveness and preference for a specific outcome of one individual. It is the anticipated satisfaction of the outcome, which differs from value which is the actual satisfaction of the outcome. So it is whether the employee believes that completing the task will benefit them or cause detriment. 

Instrumentality can be divided in to first-level outcomes and second-level outcomes. First-level outcomes are performance related and second-level outcomes are need related which are gained through the achieving high performance. These are dependent on the actual outcome of the performance rather than just the effort put in. 

Expectancy is when an individual chooses whether to put effort into a task based on preference for a particular outcome and also for the probability that the outcome will be achieved. People have a perception of the amount of probability that the choice of an action will actually lead to the desired outcome. This is expectancy.

Goal Theory

A theory derived by Edwin Locke which suggests that peoples' goals have an important effect on behaviour. The difficulty of the goal and the individual's commitment determines how much effort is put in. Difficult goals normally lead to a higher performance than easier goals as the employee is more challenged, but this only applies is the individual works towards them. Specific goals also lead to higher performance, rather than vague "do the best you can" goals. For the individual to fully achieve the goal and to feel motivated, feedback from management or the goal setter is crucial. So they can find out where they go wrong and work on it, instead of getting demotivated. The individuals commitment to the task is key, they cannot just abandon it. 

Equity Theory

Equity theory focuses on people's feelings of how fairly they have been treated in comparison to their peers. It is mostly associated with the work of Adams. People in work have a perceived outcome of the reward they should be getting for putting in a high performance and they often compare this to what other employees are receiving. When there is an unequal comparison of ratios the individual experiences inequity. This feeling can cause tension, which is not wanted. Therefore the person would be motivated to remove this feeling of tension. Adams states six types of possible behaviour as a result of inequity.

Changes in inputs; a person may increase/decrease their level of input, such as quality and quantity of work.

Changes in outcomes; may attempt to change outcomes such as pay, working conditions, status, etc, without changes to inputs.

Cognitive distortion of inputs and outcomes; psycological distortion of their inputs and outcomes to achieve the same results.

Leaving the field; may try and find a new situation with more favourable balance by resigning or requesting a transfer.

Acting on others; may try to change another persons input, or cognitively distort the inputs and outcomes of others.

Changing the object of comparison; changing the reference group with whom the comparison is made. 

How Innocent Drinks motivated its employees

 

One of the ways Innocent motivate their staff is by rewarding high performance by increased capacity to earn. By using this strategy they are following Locke’s goal theory because they are working towards making a profit for the company in return for them to earn more themselves. Innocent also used profit related pay, which relates to the expectancy theory as employees will expect higher earnings if they are improving the business’s earnings. Another way Innocent motivate their employees is by using the “Nest Egg” scheme. This is a scheme which allows high performers to purchase shares in the company at a discounted rate each year. The higher the performance rating, the more they add to your investment with free shares. By setting up the Nest Egg scheme, Innocent are following the expectancy theory, the reason being that they are motivating employees by making them believe that the reward they will get is worth putting the effort in for. This encourages higher performance from employees who want to earn more money.

In conclusion, these findings show that companies try to use different process theories to motivate their employees which shows that they value their staff highly, whilst also making a profit for the company. 

Bibliography

• Mullins, L.J. (2010). Management & Organisational Behaviour. Essex: Pearson Education Ltd 
• http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/ 
• Expectancy Theory of Motivation. Available: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/expectancy-theory-motivation.htm. Last accessed 2011.  
• Reed, R. (2007), “Innocent Drinks”, growingbusiness.co.uk, 2011  
• Newton, S. (2009), “Innocent Smoothies show others how to employ”, Genyguide.com, 2011 
•  Mindtools (2010), “Locke’s goal setting theory, Mindtools.com, 2011

Motivation

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

There are four content theories of motivation. They are Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's two factor theory Alderfer's modified need hierarchy model and McClelland's achievement motivation theory.. Abraham Maslow's theory is about how people want things and what they want is based on what they already have and that they will always want more once they have something. He arranged this into a pyramid called the "hierarchy of needs" with the simpler needs at the bottom and the more complex needs at the top. The pyramid has 5 stages, starting with physiological needs, then safety needs, then social needs, then esteem needs and finally self-actualisation at the top. 

 

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Physiological needs are the basic requirements for human survival such as need for food, water, oxygen.

Safety needs are the needs for security and regularity and consistency such as steady employment, safe environment and job security.

Love/social needs are the needs for belonging and affection from friendships and families.

Esteem needs include the needs for self respect and the esteem from others. Self respect involves being confident and independent, whereas esteem from others involves recognition, reputation and status.

Self actualisation needs are the realisation of the individual’s full potential and “becoming everything that one is capable of becoming” according to Maslow.

Herezberg interviewed 200 accountants and engineers to find out when they felt good and bad in their previous jobs and why. This showed him that there were two different factors affecting motivation - hygiene and motivator factors. Hygiene factors are extrinsic and to do with the job environment, the need to avoid unpleasantness at work. Motivator factors are related to the job itself and serve to make the individual want to improve performance for job satisfaction. This can be related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs as the hygiene factors are the lower stages and the motivator factors are the higher stages. Hygiene factors are needed to make sure and employee is not dissatisfied whilst motivator factors are needed to motivate an employee to a better performance.

There are a number of reasons motivating me to start university. The main reason I want to get a degree is so that I can have qualifications in order to get a job when I come out. At the moment, due to the recession it is very hard to get a job for anyone, let alone an unqualified teenager. So therefore one reason for coming to university for a few years is in the hope that when I come out with a degree I may find it easier to get a good job that I enjoy. This meets my basic needs of living and safety needs as I am in a secure environment. Another reason for coming to university is the freedom of living away from home and being responsible for myself and making my own decisions. This relates to my social needs from living with peers and also my self actualisation of feeling responsible for myself in becoming an adult. I find the subject that I am studying interesting so this will keep me motivated for the 3 years to come. As I am only concentrating on one subject rather than juggling four, like at A Level, and having to do subjects which I didn't particularly like for found too hard, I should not get demotivated. But the work will also be challenging to keep me interested, relating to Herzberg's motivator factors.

A time when I felt demotivated was at secondary school. This was for numerous reasons. I felt throughout the school years that hard work was going unrewarded by not being marked properly, and being in a very competitive school where expectations were so high it was demotivating to see other students get exceptional marks that I could not compete with. Therefore my esteem needs were not being met, even though my social and safety needs were. I was also having to do subjects that I didn't enjoy and found too difficult as they didn't offer a wide variety of subjects. To change this, I left the school and started a college which offered a wider range of subjects and with students who were of similar acedemic ability. I was now more motivated to work as I had found subjects that I enjoyed and was good at without being overshadowed by the majority of other students.

In conclusion, Maslow's theory is a useful tool to be able to locate which position on the pyramid a person is. And the Herzberg theory is useful to know if the employees are satisfied with their working conditions and what they can do to improve and become more motivated.
 
Bibliography 

• Cherry, K., “Hierarchy of Needs”, About.com
• McCrimmon, M. (2008), “Herzberg and employee motivation”, Suite101.comMotivation and Personality, Third Edition, Harper and Row Publishers
• Mullins, L. (2010), Management & Organisational Behaviour, 9^th edition, Essex, FT
• Norwood, G. (2009), “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”, Deepermind.com
• Reed, R. (2007), “Innocent Drinks”, growingbusiness.co.uk
• Worman, D., “20 ways to motivate employees”, Biztrain.com