Leadership and Organization Behavior

TASK 1

A. Examining the skills and attributes needed for a leader

To develop a strong management style in an organization, good leadership has always proven to be successful. To become a good leader, one need to possess certain skills, traits and knowledge. These qualities and characteristics include being passionate towards the work, having an effective communication power to interact with the employees, commitment to the staff by building a strong team and being decisive, which defines the ability of making quick, logical and correct decisions. For example, Bill Gates, who founded the world's largest business Microsoft. He is among one of the most successful business leaders. He effectively played his leadership role by being very passionate towards his work and make tough decision, at times. There's a slight difference among leaders and managers, where leaders are more likely to take risk which defines their risk taking ability. Contradictory to that, managers are more focused to avoid the risk and works for minimizing it. Another great example is Mark Zuckerberg, who is the co- founder and CEO of the social networking website Facebook. He majorly played the role of a manager, carrying the leadership qualities of being a great speaker and communicator to his team. He subsequently made commitments towards his work and successively fulfilled the same.

B. Different type of leadership styles

Leadership style is a way towards the success of the organization. It is a style of directing people, implementing useful plans and motivating the employees of the organization. There are mainly three type of leadership styles being used in an organization, namely:-

1. Autocratic

Such type of leaders believe in direct supervision to maintain a healthy environment. They have more focus on efficiency. For example, in real life of Mark Zuckerberg always command his colleagues to complete a particular task. As a result of which, today Facebook is successfully becoming worldwide. Thus, Authoritarians believes in productivity.

2. Democratic

Also known as participative leadership, helps in boosting the morale of the employees by involving them in the decision making process. Mark Zuckerberg often takes feedback from his colleagues for making a better layout for Facebook. Due to which, he put better features which helps people easily connected to the world.

3. Laissez- faire

It is that style of leadership, in which all the decision making rights are given to the workers of the organization. It gives full freedom to the employees, which lacks direct supervision and sometimes also leads to low production, deficit control and an increasing costs to the company. In the real life scenario, Mark Zuckerberg sometimes let his colleagues to make changes in the Facebook layout (Hoch and Kozlowski, 2014). He even do not disturb or correct them, when they are fully wired in it.

TASK 2

A. Reward system in Tesco PLC and Ritz-Carlton, comparing the motivational theories

Motivation is an abstract concept used to explain behavior. Motivation involves certain theories to identify its need in a better way. In context to it, most of the companies have introduced reward management. It is one of the crucial strategies of HRM. The two companies namely, Tesco PLC and Ritz-Carlton has been opted here to determine their reward system. Tesco PLC is one of the biggest multinational retailer, headquartered in UK. It is a team of over 480, 000 people, serving in 11 markets. It too believes in rewarding their employees as a part of employment relationship. It has been used as a tool to raise the commitment and performance of the employees. Tesco follows Vrooms expectancy theory which defines that employees seeks reward as a return in exchange of their performance, being appreciated by the employer. Contradictory to that, Ritz- Carlson, believes in the McClelland theory of motivation (Avolio, and Yammarino, 2013). It is also called as Need theory or three needs theory, which defines that how the needs for achievement, power and affiliation affects the actions of people. The Ritz-Carlson is one of the luxurious chains of hotel, founded in 1983 and presently consists of around 35000 employees. It provides outstanding benefits, compensative pay and benefits with equal recognition and growth opportunities.

B. Measuring engagement and motivation of Tesco PLC and Ritz-Carlson

Employee engagement is another key tool for the employers to motivate and retain their employees. It defines the relationship between an organization and its employees. It is basically a contribution of three things, namely involvement, commitment and productivity. As, it has been believed that an organization with more employee engagement always outperform compared to an organization with low employee engagement. Similarly, the objective of Tesco PLC and Ritz- Carlson is also to make it a better place to work, by a more engaged workforce. They gained a better understanding of what really mattered in all the areas of their business and concluded employee retention, motivation and reward system as an essential part for getting success at all levels, considering that, Happy workers tends to be more productive (Chhokar, Brodbeck and House, 2013). Tesco PLC too provides both tangible and intangible type of benefit to its employees. Being rewarded for doing a good job, keeps the employees motivated and helps them in performing to their full potential. Thus, Tesco provides ruthless, easy and continuous rewards to its staff in order to build trust and loyalty among the employees. It also provides a vast range of competitive benefits, reflecting what employee's value the most, including medical benefits to the employees and their family and tuition subsidies for employee's children. Similarly, the other company Ritz-Carlson also provides day one benefits to its employee's which involves low cost food for the employees in the employee's dining room, discount in hotel rooms and resort, retail discounts and dining discounts, etc. (Miner, 2015). The employee's also gets a recognition here and various growth opportunities. Hence, the reward system of both the companies are effectively proven, as a result to which, they attain a successful position today.

C. Ways to motivate staff

Beside using numerous motivational theories, there are many other ways to motivate the staff of an organization. Some steps are-

Acknowledging professional achievement by communicating better

One must communicate frequently to the staff by actually speaking to them face to face which gives a sense of value to the employee's and is one of the best way to show an appreciation towards their hard work.

Offering opportunities for advancement

Employee gets best motivated, when they know that they are working towards something. Offering training to them is another best way to provide them the skills they will need to climb up their ladder of career.

Supporting new ideas

One should always listen to the employee approaching with new ideas for the betterment of the company. Supporting is definitely motivating, whether it works at the end or not.

Not letting them to become bored

Celebrating festivals, and anniversaries together provides a refreshing environment, which makes the employees feel better and they perform well.

TASK 3

Below are some information, based on my experience of working in Tesco PLC for the past two years at the position of HR.

A. Benefits of team work

Team work is a dynamic process. It is basically a group of two or more people united to achieve a common business goal. As per my own experience, I identified few benefits of working together in a group.

1.It has increased my productivity and performance

By working together, one can always achieve more than working individually. Also, a wider range of knowledge helps in completing the activity on time by sharing and discussing ideas with each other, resulting in a better performance.

2.Increased innovation

Working together creates an environment which excels at creativity and learning.

3.Improved Morale

Teamwork allow the employees to perform with greater responsibility for making decisions.

4.It offers a support system

Working with others meant that I am not alone and whenever I am facing some issue, I can easily ask someone else to help me out.

B. Working in a team for me and others

My experience of group work was a boon. Especially, when it taught me the conflict resolution skills, which has undoubtedly helped me to become an effective manager. Conflicts can certainly take place anywhere. Employees coming from various backgrounds tends to have different work style and habits, which could sometime lead to a dispute. Being in the position of an HR, I am the only responsible person to seek it out. However, in contrary to that, few other employees working with me did not found it so helpful. According to them, it was a longer process causing delay and limiting their creativity. They were also dealing with an unequal participation, facing difficulty in presenting themselves as team players.

C. Effectiveness of a team

Team effectiveness is also known as group effectiveness defines the capacity of a team to accomplish the assigned tasks and goals. An effective team consists of members who have the necessary skills to complete the assigned task. In an effective team, the task is divided among all the members. Effective team members are those who are engaged in open communication, carrying an active listening and responding power (Solomon, 2014). In an effective team, workers trusts and supports each other. The four common stages are used to develop an effective team:-

• Forming- It is the initial stage in which the team has started forming and establishing its ground rules. The members started knowing each other, finding ways to relate.
• Storming- In this step, the members will set a formulated plan, once they get the goals and objectives needs to be achieved.
• Norming- The members get united in this step by determining the roles, each individual will play in the group. Some roles include leader, researcher, recorder, etc.
• Performing- Here the members work together to accomplish the goals and objectives.

TASK 4

A. Performance Appraisal procedure in Tesco PLC

Process of performance Appraisal, also called as performance review is one of the most interesting part of human resource management. In this procedure, the employees are being judged on the basis of their work performances and become eligible for the further incentives and other benefits provided by the company. It plays a very crucial role in motivating the employees to perform and give their best. Based on my own experience of working in Tesco as an HR, below is the process I used to plan and prepare for the assessment of performance appraisal-

1. Establishing performance standards

It is the first step in which certain set of standards are built to use as a ground for comparing the performance of the employees. It's a criterion to judge the actual performance of the employees with the desired performance and see whether they are successful or not.

2. Communicating the standards

This is the step in which being a management, I need to communicate the established performance standards and expectations to its employees. Thus, they can perform accordingly (Zhang and et.al., 2013).

3. Measuring the actual performance

It is one of the most difficult part of this process where I needed to measure the performances done by the employees during the given period. It is a never ending process which need a continuous monitoring of the performances throughout the year. It requires a cautious selection of an appropriate skill for measuring the performances.

4. Comparing with standards

This involves comparison of actual performances of the employees with the desired performance. It shows difference in the performances of the employees from the standard set.

5. Discussing results

It includes providing feedback to the employees, where the appraisal is being shared with them on one to one basis. The focus of this discussion is on communication and listening, where the problems and its solutions are being discussed to reach the desired result (Dijke and et.al., 2012).

6. Decision Making

The whole purpose of employee appraisal is to make decisions by HR about rewarding the employee, promotion, demotion, transfers, and sometimes even suspension, all depending upon the performance of the employee as per the standards.

B. Evaluating the usefulness and success of performance appraisal process in Tesco PLC

Performance appraisal is a formal and unbiased process of reviewing and judging the performance of the employees. It is a multifunctional tool that can be used for concerning the effectiveness and productivity of an individual or a team. Some benefits are as mentioned below-

• Performance improvement- Feedback allows the employee's to improve their performance.
• Training and development needs- Deficiency in performance show an inadequate skill or knowledge, which further shows a requirement of training and development to improve their current job performance.
• Career Development- It enables the manager to counsel their employees in developing their career.
• Promotions and transfers- It is a way of finding out an appropriate employee to assign a promotion or transfer
• Compensation decisions- This process is useful to compensate the employees by increasing their pay and other incentives.

C. Factors involved in planning a performance management system, Proposing a new appraisal process

A strong performance management is based upon the processes one uses to measure the reward and abilities of meeting the desired goals and achievement. Some traditional methods include Rating Scales method and Ranking method, etc.

1. Rating scale methods

Under this method the appraisal traits are based upon attitude, performance, regularity and sincerity, etc. which are further rated on by points on a scale of 1-10. The employees are being assessed by the superiors or even their subordinates and colleagues.

2. Ranking method

In this method manager makes a comparison among two or more employees, instead of using a standard measurement (Sharif and Scandura, 2014). In such cases, the top management employees usually get the rewards as bonus and promotions, whereas those at the bottom sometimes either gets any punishment or their reward gets suppressed.

Therefore, to actually build a strong performance management, one should use a modern method of appraisal process, such as 360 degree performance appraisals. It provides each employee the opportunity to receive feedback on the basis of their performance. It is a multi source feedback used majorly for the employees at middle or senior level. It has four integral components that involves self appraisal, superior's appraisal, subordinate's appraisal and Peer appraisal. Further, offering a more extensive view towards the employee's performance (Robbin and et.al., 2013).

CONCLUSION

This report states the importance of leadership in an organization. It defines the required skills and abilities of a leader to motivate employees in the best and effective way. Understanding the theories of organizational behavior helps in growing and developing required skills of leadership, fruitful for the future of a company.

REFERENCES

• Avolio, B. J. and Yammarino, F. J., 2013. Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead. Emerald Group Publishing.
• Bolino, M. C. and et.al., 2013. Exploring the dark side of organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
• Carter, M. Z. and et.al., 2013. Transformational leadership, relationship quality, and employee performance during continuous incremental organizational change. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
• Chhokar, J. S., Brodbeck, F. C. and House, R. J., 2013. Culture and leadership across the world: The GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. Routledge.
• Colbert, A. E., Barrick, M. R. and Bradley, B. H., 2014. Personality and leadership composition in top management teams: Implications for organizational effectiveness. Personnel Psychology.
• DiPaola, M. and Tschannen-Moran, M., 2014. Organizational citizenship behavior in schools and its relationship to school climate. Journal of School Leadership.
• Hoch, J. E. and Kozlowski, S. W., 2014. Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership, structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology.
• López-Domínguez, M. and et.al., 2013. Transformational leadership as an antecedent of change-oriented organizational citizenship

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