Blog Eight - Corporate Social Responsibility

Blog 8 - Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility can be defined as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as that of the local community and society at large (Anon., 2012).

The Body Shop is a manufacturer and seller of beauty products to consumers. This company shows that they have undertaken corporate social responsibility (CSR) in to their strategy and views of the business as a whole. There are many ways in which the body shop have shown CSR in practice and have provided an informative channel to show these strategies both within their stores and through their website to ensure the public understand their views on certain issues involving CSR. ‘HRM innovations have an important role to play in creating an organisational culture that builds trust, flexibility, cooperation and a commitment to organisational goals’ (Bratton and Gold, 2003). This shows that through the HR department developing ways to incorporate CSR strategy into their ethics of the business, they can build trust with customers and show their ethics and beliefs of CSR being incorporated into their business culture.

One way in which The Body Shop expresses its CSR ethics is through the creation of a sustainable supply chain strategy. This includes The Body Shop working with their suppliers who manufacture the products and the farmers who provide the manufacturers with the fair trade stock used to make the produce. They ensure that ingredients put into products sold are gained from economical communities from across the globe and were also the first company to bring fair trade to the industry. This strategy also requires fair trade ingredients to be used and that they are bought at fair prices negotiated with the farming suppliers. This shows that they follow a positive CSR strategy ensuring that the suppliers of the ingredients retrieve fair pay for their stock and therefore maintains the lifetime running of the farming work. Creating this sustainable supply chain strategy benefits over 25,000 people in 22 countries worldwide therefore helping these communities to create a sustainable future. (Anon., 2012)

Another way in which The Body Shop show CSR is through engaging in community-based projects including launching a campaign to stop sex trafficking of children and young people and another campaign in 2008 focused on stopping violence in the home. Through these campaigns, they were able to provide women with tools, help, guidance and support on this particular issue. ‘We strive to treat all people in a fair and open fashion, to respect and value their integrity’ (Anon., 2012). This statement on the Body Shop’s website mirrors their belief through the work they carry out within the community aimed at helping the public.

The Body Shop also helps non profitable organisations through donations of their profits from the creation of their own charity, The Body Shop foundation launched in 1990. ‘The Body Shop Foundation's focus is to assist those working to achieve progress in the areas of human and civil rights, environmental and animal protection’(Bilson, 2010). Therefore they offer financial support to communities with little funding to support their projects of improving their lifestyle and making a living for themselves financially showing they invest heavily in corporate social responsibility within their business.

The benefits to The Body Shop of these initiatives are that they show to customers they value CSR highly throughout the operation of their business and this is evident to their target market. This benefits sales growth as customers may be more inclined to shop at The Body Shop following its positive ethical guidelines and may entice new customers to begin buying their products. This may also reduce their need to compete on price as their CSR strategies may have a positive impact on differentiating them from other competitors. Overall, investing in CSR has a positive impact on the company’s image and therefore if sustained will help to incur long term profits.

References

Anon. (2012) corporate social responsibility - introduction [online]. tutor2u. Available from: http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/corporate-social-responsibility-introduction.html [Accessed: 25 April 2012].

Anon. (2012) Our values [online]. The Body Shop. Available from: http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/services/aboutus_values.aspx [Accessed: 20 April 2012].

Anon. (2012) Values and Campaigns [online]. The Body Shop. Available from: http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/values-campaigns/community-trade.aspx [Accessed: 20 April 2012].

Bilson, J. (2010) Corporate Social Responsibility at The Body Shop [online]. Suite 101. Available from: http://jo-bilson.suite101.com/corporate-social-responsibility-at-the-body-shop-a215660 [Accessed: 20 April 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2003) Human resource management, theory and practice. 3rd ed. Bath: Palgrave Macmillan.

Blog Seven - Personality

Personality – blog 7

Personality is the sum of a person’s characteristics including features in which make their identity unique to another person. Personality theorists are interested in the structure of the individual, how are people "put together;" how do they "work;" how do they "fall apart" (Boeree, 2006).Personality differs from one person to the next and can shape someone’s background, beliefs and their attitudes in daily life.

There are two main ideas as to where a person’s personality stems from including the Nature approach and the Nurture theory. The Nature theory explains that a person’s personality is heredity and therefore personal traits are obtained through genes and DNA which shapes a person’s personality (Powell, 2010) . However the Nurture theory explains that personality is shaped through environmental influences and therefore personality can change according to a person’s lifestyle. Therefore it can be debated as to whether either approach has a greater influence on personality than the other or whether a combination of both factors act towards the shaping of a person’s personality. There are two different approaches to personality where the nomothetic approach looks at personalities on a generalised scale stating that groups of people have similar personalities whereas the idiographic approach shows a personality of an individual as being unique to that person.

Nature Theory

The nature theory explains that personality follows a Nomothetic approach explaining that personality is relatively fixed and therefore is consistent throughout lifetime with very few changes. Psychologists such as Cattell and Eysenck follow this theory explaining their own concepts of how a person’s personality develops. Cattell’s theory explains that personality can be identified by 16 different traits known from carrying out the 16PF questionnaire. Such personality factors include Abstractedness, liveliness and perfectionism which Cattell proposed as measuring a person’s personality. These traits are set on a continuum and how far along this continuum a specific trait lays will give a description of an individual’s personality. Therefore Cattell follows the belief that people have each of these specific traits however it depends to what extent these traits are evident.

When looking at an employee’s personality when recruiting for a job role, a person following nomothetic traits would benefit a company as the employer would know the traits of its employee and these traits would remain similar for the remainder of the contract. Therefore the employer would know that what they see from the employee during the interview, they can expect when giving out different tasks for completion. However it may not be beneficial when an employer would benefit more from differentiating personalities for different tasks as jobs may not be completed to the best ability with consistent traits and little change.

Nurture Theory

The nurture theory explains that a person’s personality can alter according to the environment and changes can occur throughout lifetime. The idiographic approach can be linked to this theory as an individualistic personality will be adaptable to change according to environmental influences. Skinner’s theory of Radical Behaviourism supports the idea of personality altering through environmental influences. ‘Radical behaviourism assumed that behaviour is determined by a desire to gain positive reinforcement and to avoid negative reinforcement’ (Grice, 2010). This shows that an individual may alter their personality due to rewards being received through specific behaviours. In relation to a job role, an employee may act differently to their own personality if they have learned that positive reinforcement is gained from certain behaviours. This may be beneficial to employers as employees can adapt to working in different situations and learning new working practices of the business. However it may hinder some employer’s views during the recruitment and selection process as candidate’s personality traits may be hidden if they are acting in a way in which the interviewer would like to see them in order to be selected.

The extent to which either theory of personality is more dominant than the other is dependent on a person’s opinion however it may be that both theories contribute to the overall rounding of a person’s personality. ‘Both a body and experience are probably essential to being a person, and it is very difficult to separate their effects’ (Boeree, 2006).

In my opinion, I believe that both theories of how personality is formed have evident explanations however I believe the nature approach to personality has a more dominant influence than the environment on shaping an individual’s personality. This is because I believe a personality is mostly gained from traits that are innate and therefore inherited from parents and although personality can be altered a little by the environment, many of the innate traits will still be underlying and these traits help to shape a person’s beliefs and attitudes which they carry with them throughout life. However there are some drawbacks with personality testing on future applicants including a negative view of an employer on a potential applicant due to their personality not matching the typical personality an employer would want for the job in line. There are doubts about an overreliance on personality tests with respect to their use in predicting future performance (Bratton and Gold, 2007). Therefore even if personality testing has a large benefit on looking at potential employees’ attitudes and beliefs, it can distort an employee’s skill of adaptability to different skills if employed by a company.

Personality questionnaire

Through completing the personality questionnaire I found that I excel mostly within a work situation when I am interacting and presenting information during work tasks. The questionnaire also highlighted that I am moderately likely to organise and execute through decision making and assigning colleagues to different tasks within a team working situation. However I would be less effective carrying out a role which requires analysis and interpretation of information which could incur faults within a team working situation. Also when working with others, I may be less likely to be able to support and cooperate with others needs and therefore I would be more suited to working alone when developing a work plan.

Overall, the questionnaire shows that I would be more effective to a business in a more leading role giving guidance and delegation to others but also discussing and presenting new information to help others understand the job role in place. Therefore a business would benefit more if I could take information already retrieved and present it to others rather than creating ideas to be put into action in the future running of the task.

Conclusion

Personality is an important factor when considering candidates for job roles within a business. Managers would be most interested in finding an employee with a personality which would fit the job title given and for this personality to maintain throughout the working role of the business. For example an employee working with customers would need a vibrant personality which would be friendly towards customers ensuring their needs and wants are met by the company to give effective customer service. However different methods to a personality questionnaire are used more regularly to establish employees working skills. Organisations now prefer to use reliable and valid psychometric instruments as a way of helping employees to diagnose strengths and weaknesses for a development plan (Bratton and Gold, 2003). Both Cattell and Eysenck’s theories of personality are effective in explaining in detail the differences in personality of an employee and these theories can be used to look into personality differences of employees from a business perspective.

References

Boeree, C. (2006) Personality theories [online]. Webspace. Available from: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/persintro.html [Accessed: 27 April 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2003) Human resource management, Theory and practice. 3rd ed. Bath: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human resource management. 4th ed. China: Palgrave Macmillan.

Grice, R. (2010) Overview of Skinner's theory of personality [online]. Helium. Available from: http://www.helium.com/items/1753679-skinners-theory-of-personality [Accessed: 17 April 2012].

Powell, K. (2010) Nature vs. nurture [online]. About.com. Available from: http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture.htm [Accessed: 17 April 2012].

Blog Six - Perception and Communication

Blog 6 - Perception and Communication

The importance of how an employer perceives their staff both on first impressions and during the job roles of the business is crucial to making a positive decision during recruitment and selection processes but also contributes to the start of a positive working relationship. Researchers have used a number of organisational performance measures including labour productivity ratios, product and service quality, unit cost ratios and revenue productivity (Bratton and Gold, 2003). This shows that perception can occur throughout an employees working career however these examples show perception of staff through figures and productivity rates. Communication between employees and managers on all levels of the hierarchy is beneficial to ensure the smooth running of the business and efficient methods of communication help to ensure this. People communicate differently depending on the context in which communication occurs, each message may have multiple layers of meaning, and culture influences communication, by which the perception of reality is created, sustained and transformed (Bratton and Gold, 2007). Therefore it is clear to see that perception and communication both intertwine with each other when looking at such factors within a business and is important when ensuring a positive and effective work ethic is maintained.

There are many different factors which can alter a person’s perception of another individual including past experiences and their attitudes and beliefs. From my own experience my perception of a teacher at my secondary school was incorrect. I developed a generalised attitude towards teachers and therefore my belief towards this individual secondary school teacher was incorrect. I realised later on through my school years that this perception was incorrect as I matured and developed my own attitudes which weren’t shaped by others. I got to know the teacher as an individual and found that they could help me positively to develop my work and found a common goal. Therefore I altered my perception of the teacher and developed a positive attitude towards them which I have maintained. To avoid making a similar incorrect judgement again, I would maintain a positive attitude towards a person and not make an initial judgement based on opinions.

Communication can occur in many different forms in an organisation for example speech, writing, actions, gestures and emails (Anon., 2012). Many organisations use multiple flows of communication within their organisation including upward and downward flows between departments within the hierarchy. Downward communication explains messages sent to subordinates whilst upward communication sends information to higher levels in the hierarchy however horizontal communication explains communication that flows between employees at the same level in the business (Bratton and Gold, 2007). Employees can communicate with line managers and managers of departments through discussion boards, meetings and forums to ensure that workers views and information regarding work are communicated effectively throughout the organisation.

Article on ‘How to improve staff communication’

This article gives recommendations on how to improve communication within a business including working collaboratively and measuring results on performance. When using these recommendations to show ways in which Buckinghamshire new university could improve its communication with students, firstly by considering the communication channels from the article the university could create a Social networking site e.g. a Facebook site to inform students of the upcoming events in which the university offers. This would benefit students as most young people use social networking sites therefore communication would be fast and formative. This would also be engaging the universities students as they would be informed regularly of what was happening in and around the university and students would also be able to comment with feedback on the events being arranged. Finally, the introduction of an online forum where the university can upload new information to students about news and events of the university however it allows students to have a discussion about any issues which may arise and the university can give comments back to the students. This creates a fast, active and informative way of communication and reduces the need for face to face meetings which incur time costs to both parties (Clake, 2012).

Conclusion

To conclude, the way in which employers perceive their staff has a large effect on their future employment within the business. Attitudes and beliefs of an employee show specific traits of themselves and can distort the perception of them as individuals to other staff if these views do not coincide with the companies’ ethics. Communication of information throughout an organisation is one of the fundamental factors of a business’s success. Without effective communication where messages are not distorted, businesses can deal with potential problems that may occur and insure the smooth running of the businesses quickly and correctly.

References

Anon. (2012) Business communications [online]. The Times business case studies. Available from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/people/business-communications.html [Accessed: 27 April 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2003) Human resource management. 3rd ed. Bath: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human resource management. 4th ed. China: Palgrave Macmillan.

Clake, R. (2012) How to. improve staff communication [online]. People management. Available from: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/07/how-to-improve-staff-communication.htm [Accessed: 27 April 2012].

Blog Five - Power and Conflict at work

Power and conflict at work

Conflict is when two individuals or two groups of people have a disagreement on a subject which would involve a resolution. When employees with differing social experiences, personalities, needs and points of view interact with co-workers, disagreements may cause stress. (Bratton and Jeffrey, 2003). Conflict can occur in organisations where individuals have differing ideas or opinions on work set and conflict about the ways in which working practices are carried out to achieve the goal set. Conflict normally involves opposing views on one or more of the following including commodities, relationships, territory and principles. (Anon., 2011)

Conflict within a group

I have been involved in conflict within a football team when playing against an opposing and resulted in being unable to achieve our main purpose and therefore losing the game. Conflict developed when players became frustrated with each other and some of these frustrations were not resolved effectively. The relations of players was unitarist as each player saw that others followed the same aim as them, conflicts were seen to be peripheral and team working was beneficial whilst conflicts were a disadvantage to the team goal. Strategies used to deal with the peripheral conflicts within the team were for players to express their views and frustrations via the captain therefore enabling the players to find some common ground and to calm the situation down. This is due to most unitarist views of conflict believing that conflict arises from communication failure between the people concerned. Therefore players could therefore speak openly about their issues and compromises could be made encouraging conflict resolution. The captain would also clarify the specific goals of achievement in which all players worked together to achieve to ensure players can reflect on having the same common goal. Therefore a strategic approach of having the captain of the team help to resolve conflicts within the team to improve communication flows and using the same strategy each time was beneficial to help guide players to solve conflicts and reduce conflicts from occurring in the future.

French and Raven explains that there are five different sources of power within a workplace which employees may have to gain power when at work. The five different ‘sources of power’ include coercive power, reward power, expert power, legitimate power and referent power.

Coercive power occurs when an employee is able to punish a worker for not complying with the correct working practices of the company. For example an employee choosing to arrive to start work 15 minutes later every day than all other employees in the workforce. This would breach the contract of time in which the employee should work and therefore a line manager of the organisation would have coercive power over the employee to take action. Reward power is the ability of a person to reward another however expects a reward in return for this therefore enabling a person to compensate another for compliance. An example of this is when a line manager of an organisation authorises an employee time off work for holiday which may conflict with another employee being off work at the same time however the employee therefore works overtime for the line manager to enable the holiday time. Expert power occurs when an employee’s knowledge overpowers another employee’s idea and therefore the power of this knowledge results in the opinion of that employee to be taken into account. An example of this is when an employee at a higher level in the hierarchy has greater knowledge of the companies’ practices from working at the organisation for a longer period of time and therefore is able to overpower the employee in terms of known knowledge on the subject. Legitimate power explains a leaders approach in that they have power of ordering employees to carry out certain tasks and expect the employees to follow these demands. For example a manager of an organisation would give out tasks to the line managers of each department and would expect every employee to follow work set out by their line managers and complete the work to a quality standard. Finally, referent power explained by French and Raven explains that an employee may hold power in the hierarchy of an organisation for having an identity or status which is respected by other employees. Therefore respect is given to this employee due to the positive opinions of the worker from the individual’s identity. An example of this may be that most employees at lower levels of the hierarchy may have respect for the chief executive officer of the company as this person leads from the front and has extensive knowledge of the company’s operations. (Anon., 2012)

Recent article on work-related stress

This article explains that more public sector works develop work-related stress than private sector workers. ‘Public sector workers take an average 9.1 days sick leave a year compared to 5.7 days in the private sector’ – research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) (Hicks, 2012).The article explains that this absenteeism may have resulted from work related stress where workers may have added workloads and the need to meet work related targets within the health, social work and education organisations. When linking this story back to conflict occurring in businesses, public sector workers may also suffer work related stress due to the uncertainty of their job security. This has resulted in public sector workers striking due to this issue caused by government cut backs and therefore can create conflict within the workplace. This can be linked to the statistic of almost 50% of unionised public sector organisations being hit by strike action over the past 12 months. Therefore in conclusion, work related stress can be caused by conflicts within the organisation due to strikes and unionised organisations carrying out strike action.

Article on work related stress - http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2012/mar/15/support-stressed-public-sector-staff

Conclusion

Conflict between employees and employers has a negative effect on the running of the business and can affect the environment workers are in. This can affect the motivation of employees and it’s important for the managerial sector of companies to ensure that conflict is kept to a minimum otherwise it can damage the long term running of the business.

French and Raven’s sources of power are beneficial in explaining where conflict can arise from as employees at different levels of the hierarchy in a company can overpower other workers views. Therefore it is also important to ensure that power of different employees is handled correctly so that each employee is entitled to their own opinion. Different employee relations can impact on conflicts although if employees learn to follow a working strategy that coincides with other employees working ethics, conflict will not occur often in most businesses.

References

Anon. (2011) Finding a definition of conflict [online]. In-tuition. Available from: http://www.practical-management-skills.com/definition-of-conflict.html [Accessed: 19 April 2012].

Anon. (2012) French and Raven's five forms of power [online]. Mind tools. Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm [Accessed: 19 April 2012].

Bratton, J. and Jeffrey, G. (2003) Human resource management. 3rd ed. Bath: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hicks, B. (2012) What public managers can do to support stressed staff [online]. The Guardian. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2012/mar/15/support-stressed-public-sector-staff [Accessed: 19 April 2012].

Blog four - Leadership

What is management and leadership?

Leadership can be defined by being a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organisation in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent (Clark, 2010) . Leaders follow certain traits such as having characteristics of power, creativeness to present ideas for the business to take on board and having the ability to take control on decision making to have a positive effect on the organisations. ‘Leaders demonstrate passion, integrity, curiosity, and daring and also provide a guiding vision. (meudell, 1999)

Whereas a management role explains a manager as being the person responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary (Reh, 2012) . A managerial role must take on a structure to control the workforce and employees within it and to construct and demonstrate the processes of work to be carried out and looking after the operations of the business.

Therefore when comparing both managers and leaders roles within an organisation, there are subtle differences. Managers work to control and implement strategies within a work force and are assigned to specific areas of the business to control, whereas leaders oversee all aspects of the business and create a certain culture to follow to inspire employees and to lead from the front incorporating decision making of the company in the short and long term.

An example of a leader within an organisation

There are many different theories which can be used as an explanation of leadership within an organisation including Adair’s theory showing a contingency approach. This theory explains there are 3 overlapping areas in which to look at when holding a leadership role including task needs being undertaken, the maintenance of the team to enable its practices to be effective and the individuals needs i.e. the employees. ‘A good leader recognises that a healthy interaction between the team, the task and the individual is vital’ (Anon, 2011). Therefore the three areas identified need to be assessed by the leader to ensure a positive working environment and quality of work is achieved with the control of a leader. An example of a leader within an organisation is a head teacher of a secondary school. The head teacher’s job role stretches across the whole school leading all employees within the hierarchy of the organisation. The head teacher must take on a positive leadership style in order to control the way in which teachers teach the classes and to ensure students follow the correct guidelines of the school and achieve a high standard of grades at the end of their education. The head teacher who worked at my secondary school, took a positive approach to students interacting with pupils to develop positive relationships and involved students opinions in some decision making of the school. This included obtaining a student voice through prefects etc. and therefore ensured students could develop positive working relations with the head teacher. Leadership roles came into action when making more prominent decisions for the school i.e. on budgets and preparing the school for Ofsted inspections. The head teacher also made the final decisions about student’s continuation in education at the school and controlling decisions at the top of the hierarchy. When linking the leadership of a head teacher to Adair’s contingency theory, there are similarities with the head teacher being aware of individual needs such as the employees i.e. the staff and teachers and being aware of student’s interests. Also focusing on task needs for example knowing that the school must achieve certain academic results and therefore decisions should be put in place to help achieve this. Finally a head teacher as a leader must be aware of team maintenance needs and this can be referred within the teaching teams of each department e.g. humanities and sport etc. Team practices would be maintained by having regular meetings with each head of department about the commencing weeks and the programme of tasks occurring. Also any issues can be raised at the meetings and sorted within the time arranged to maintain the team needs.

In conclusion, this shows head teachers can be positive and effective leaders as they take into account the different aspects of an organisation which need control and guidance in order to maintain the way in which to focus on quality of work. There are many different theories of leadership following different areas which make up a positive leader however in evaluation I believe a positive leader maintains personal traits combined with attributes which are learned through the environment to follow a leadership style which will control an organisation. Therefore these theories are helpful in looking at different concepts and ideas of leadership within HR management, however overall an effective leader will work in their environment and will continually learn different ways in which to lead and guide employees to impact positively on work outcome.

References

Anon. (2010) Concepts of leadership [online]. NW Link. Available from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html [Accessed: 21 March 2012].

Anon (2011) Leadership theories - what do they mean? [online]. management skills. Available from: http://www.practical-management-skills.com/leadership-theories.html [Accessed: 21 March 2012].

Clark, D. (2010) Concepts of leadership [online]. NW Link. Available from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html [Accessed: 21 March 2012].

meudell, K. (1999) Management and organisational behaviour - a student workbook. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pitman Publishing.

Reh, J. (2012) Manager [online]. About.com management. Available from: http://management.about.com/od/policiesandprocedures/g/manager1.htm [Accessed: 21 March 2012].

Organisational Culture

Organisational culture describes the values, beliefs and behaviours which provide norms for the environment of an organisation (Anon., 2012). The culture of an organisation sets out to provide structure for employees within a business and often culture shows to be a strong factor in certain organisations. Edgar Schein, a culture theorist explains that the definition of organizational culture must be general otherwise factors may be eliminated which may contribute to culture within a business. (Anon., 2007). Culture impacts on the working procedures in which a business performs and effects the way in which the organisation is run on a daily basis.

The organisational iceberg theory proposed by French and Bell (1990) explains that there are both visible and invisible aspects that make up a business culture showing that visible aspects are known to customers however invisible aspects are hidden within the organisation. Examples of visible aspects are the structure and aims of a business including their views on how they wish to progress in the market. Using the Body Shop as an example of an organisation with a strong culture, the visible aspect shown to customers to have a big impact on their culture is their view on using fair trade products which are responsibly sourced. The Body Shop launched community fair trade in 1987 to benefit their suppliers helping to ensure they will obtain a fair price from the products they sell and benefiting consumers due to buying products containing natural ingredients. This programme has resulted in over 25,000 people in 22 countries worldwide benefiting from products sold by Body Shop. (Anon., 2012) This visible aspect of Body Shop has adapted their culture into showing their strong views in helping fair trade farmers across the globe to earn a fair price for their stock selling to the store, which may result in an increase in customer spending due to following their beliefs of the company. They promote this visible aspect in store by the layout of their shops using wood panelling on their shelves to create a rustic view for customers following their value of selling fair trade products. Another visible aspect of the Body Shop is there view on abolishing animal testing on products. They pride themselves in being a company which does not use animal tested products and ingredients in which their suppliers use to make the goods. The Body Shop campaign globally against cosmetic animal testing and this is shown heavily on their website enabling people to obtain information about their values and views on the concept of animal testing. (Anon., 2012)

Handy is another theorist in the explanation of organisational culture within a business. Handy explains that there are four types of culture within a business, each of which has different ways of monitoring and managing their employees.

Power culture is used by firms who have a centralised team of management and where all decisions are made by a central figure of the company. Other employee’s views and opinions are usually dismissed and the ultimate decision is made from the centralised management. This culture is usually incorporated into businesses with a primary leader and with strict management processes. Virgin Company is a business which is an example of incorporating power culture by being led by Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the company. Branson makes many corporate decisions of the company and deals with many of the crucial problems the business may face. ‘Your people need to be led well. A good leader must know the team, its strengths and weaknesses; socializing and listening to the team is key.’ (Branson, 2010)This quote is told by Richard Branson when explaining how he created a beneficial culture within his business. This quote helps to illustrate how he leads the company and the employees within it showing a prominent power culture.

A role culture explains a type of culture in which power of each employee is determined by the roles in which they undertake within the organisation and within the hierarchical state of each job position. Employees follow specific job descriptions and their aim is to complete individual tasks set, role culture also displays bureaucracy within a company (Sherwin, 2009). John Lewis has implemented a role culture within their organisation allowing staff to have individual roles to complete advantageously giving them a sense of job identity within the culture of the business. (Potter, 2010) explains that John Lewis encourage respect, fairness, dialogue and collaboration between all staff (shareholders or partners) to work from a leadership base of high credibility and trust. Therefore this shows they value importance on their employees and ensure they have a positive reputation of culture. By issuing yearly bonuses to employees, they show importance of their staff to the company and communication of this is shown in the public eye.

Task culture is an explanation of businesses which value high importance of the tasks in hand and make every effort of the company to complete tasks set. There is less control and influence from sub ordinates as employees work in team based groups to ensure completion of work. An example of this culture would be seen in more research based businesses where more team working is required with different skills to implement within the business surroundings.

A person culture reflects a culture in which the business surrounds the importance of employees and key job roles are led by staff decision making where in which there is no hierarchy. The individual employees are the centralisation of how the business is run and therefore would reflect smaller businesses such as sole traders or self-employed workers.

A problem with classifying culture of a business into one of four types of culture in which Handy suggests is that cultures of organisations may overlap within different types as they may contain different characteristics. Therefore it would be difficult to classify certain businesses into one specific type of culture as this may not be a true reflection of how their employees operate. Another issue of culture classification is that Handy’s four types of culture are specifically defined and therefore businesses may have some of the characteristics however not others and therefore certain organisations culture may not have a true likeness of a specific type.

In conclusion, it is beneficial to show through visible aspects an organisations culture to customers as a positive corporate culture is beneficial when gaining consumer demand and customer loyalty. It is difficult to place a certain culture within one of Handy’s types of culture and therefore it may be difficult to group business cultures as many organisations differ. Also many organisations promote culture which is less visible to the public eye creating difficulty when defining a specified type of culture and this may have an effect on the businesses reputation. Culture can be generalised within organisations however businesses have an individualistic culture in which they pursue within the company’s operations and which employees follow. Although corporate culture is generalised to all organisations, individualistic cultures will define and outline businesses in the long term.

References

Anon. (2007) Definition of organizational culture [online]. Organizational culture. Available from: http://www.organizationalculture101.com/definition-of-organizational-culture.html [Accessed: 5 February 2012].

Anon. (2012) Organizational culture [online]. BusinessDictionary.com. Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organizational-culture.html [Accessed: 5 February 2012].

Anon. (2012) Values and Campaigns [online]. The Body Shop. Available from: http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/values-campaigns/community-trade.aspx [Accessed: 5 February 2012].

Branson, R. (2010) Richard Branson: People Power -- the Engine of Any Business [online]. Entrepreneur. Available from: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217350 [Accessed: 5 February 2012].

Potter, D. (2010) My Cultural Reflections : Doing Business The John Lewis Way [online]. Cultural change. Available from: http://www.culturalchange.co.uk/?p=923 [Accessed: 5 February 2012].

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Improving Staff Performance

Content theories are a type of motivational theory which explains how people become motivated by their own individual needs. These can be personal needs and the varied strength of these needs will determine how motivated a person is to fulfil them. Process theories describe how a person creates specific goals for themselves and examine the way in which they will achieve these goals. This process will occur when a person becomes motivated to achieve their specific goal by following the requirements needed to obtain this achievement.

A Process Theory

A specific process theory of motivation is Locke’s goal setting theory which describes that employees are motivated to complete individual tasks set by them in order to achieve specific goals. These goals may be set by senior management giving them encouragement to complete these goals improving their quality of work performance. If a goal set for an employee is more personal to themselves they will be more inclined to want to achieve this goal as they will have the concentration to complete the tasks leading up to it and have the influence of other management staff. This theory also states that a strong motivation to achieve a goal is the specific feedback given to the employee encouraging them to complete tasks set.

How an organisation motivates their staff

I have chosen John Lewis as an organisation to focus on its motivational strategies for its employees. John Lewis partnership focuses highly on sharing profits with their employees taking recognition of their loyalty to the company. ‘The most tangible advantage of being a Partnership is the annual bonus, where we distribute a proportion of profits to Partners as a percentage of salary’. John Lewis also has an annual pay review to analyse their employees salary to ensure its in contrast with the standard of work. The organisation also helps to encourage motivation by changing employees responsibility when alternating their job roles on a trial basis getting employees to focus on learning new skills in the working environment. Management training schemes aim to suit everyone in the management field of work to improve their managerial skills and goals are set to help achieve this. John Lewis partnership jobs also stated that ‘Every employee at every level of the business is encouraged to take on new challenges or develop a career in Management’.

These motivational strategies can impact on employee’s standards of work and can show the factors of motivation of Locke’s goal setting theory. This is because most of these strategies are aimed at setting goals for employees to achieve such as alternating job roles which can provide the input of a task set followed by the motivation gained to complete it resulting in a goal achieved by the individual employee. This follows the process pattern of the goal setting theory with an outcome of achievement and therefore further motivation to achieve more goals set. John Lewis’s annual pay review is an example of the feedback process in Locke’s theory as manager’s look at individual’s contracts and give single advice ensuring that employees feel they are treated fairly encouraging motivation within the workplace. ‘Chris Charman, a senior consultant in executive compensation and rewards at Towers Perrin, believes the John Lewis Partnership is an ideal type of organisation to offer a profit-sharing scheme because it enables front-line retail staff to identify how they impact on the business' profitability’. This statement suggests that employees will feel more motivated to work hard for the business in the long term as they will have an individual identity seen by senior management. This also benefits team morale and social relationships within the work team as all employees feel there is equality within the work place reducing risks of industrial action which may cause bad reputation for the organisations brand. . If more goals are set to a higher standard for staff to achieve within the job roles that are altered on a trial basis, staff will be able to combine what they have learnt previously to focus on learning new skills increasing their future motivation levels.

Other Process theories

Locke’s findings of his goal setting theory established that more specific goals improved individual’s task performance than goals with less importance resulting in reduced motivation levels. Findings have shown also that feedback is a crucial part in the process theory to reward employees of their achievements when reaching desired goals. This can also relate to other process theories such as Expectancy theory (Vroom, Porter and Lawler) which explains that following effort and performance behaviour, a perceived reward is gained resulting in job satisfaction which in turn achieves increased motivation levels. This theory states that effort is required to achieve a goal set which relates to Locke’s theory as the more difficult the goal set is the more effort will be given in task performance to achieve the desired goal. The other process theory of motivation is Adam’s Equity theory which defines that a person’s motivation changes depending on the equity of work and that performance behaviour should be level to the perceived outcome. This links to the other two process theories as effort alters with the skill needed for each goal to be achieved therefore contrasting with Locke’s theory stating that motivation levels alter with task and goal difficulty.

 In conclusion, the process theories can be effective when contrasting ideas of how organisations motivate their staff and how this affects their task performance. However employees must be willing to want to achieve goals set, and these goals must be developed by the individual to encourage them to seek goal achievement and become more motivated. Research from all three process theories can help to understand the fundamentals of how motivation is formed within a work environment and shows that steps must be taken to work up the levels of motivation encouraging loyalty of workers to organisations and improvement of work quality in the long term.

Reference List

John Lewis Partnership jobs (2011) John Lewis Partnership (online) Available from: http://www.jlpjobs.com/your-career/training-development.htm [Accessed 22^nd November 2011]

John Lewis (2011) John Lewis (online) Available from:  http://www.johnlewis.com [Accessed 22^nd November 2011]