Organizations and Behaviour Assignment 1

Contents
1.

Differences in Organizational Structure and Culture of Tarmac and Dream Land 2

Conventional Structures.......................................................................................... 2
Line Structure....................................................................................................... 3
Line and Staff Structure....................................................................................... 3
The Organogram of Tarmac.................................................................................... 3
The Organogram of Dream Land............................................................................4

2.

Relationship between Tarmac Structure and Culture............................................4

2.1 Impact of Culture and Structure on Performance Outcomes............................5
2.2 Moral Integrity Values, Organizational Culture and Relationship Management
Practice................................................................................................................... 5

3.

Individuals Behavior at Tarmac............................................................................ 6

Congruence between Managers and Individuals Behavior....................................6
Factors Influencing Individual Behavior...................................................................7
Abilities................................................................................................................ 7
Gender................................................................................................................. 7
Perception............................................................................................................ 7
Attribution............................................................................................................ 7
Attitude................................................................................................................ 7
Personality........................................................................................................... 8

4.

Different Leadership Styles..................................................................................8

Teamwork Leadership.............................................................................................. 8
Autocratic Leadership.............................................................................................. 8
Free-Rein Leadership............................................................................................... 9
Participatory Leadership.......................................................................................... 9

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Coaching Leadership............................................................................................... 9
5. Organizational Theory for Tarmac.........................................................................10
6. The D ifferent Approaches to management.........................................................11

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1. Differences in

Organizational

Structures and

Cultures between Tarmac and Dream Land

The Tarmac group is a large and complex company and has three businesses:
a. Tarmac Quarry Materials;
b. Tarmac Building products ; and
c. Tarmac International.
On the other hand, Dream Land is a construction group and is organized as a single Company.
For every organization to be effective, they must have a well-organized structure. It is the form
of structure that determines the hierarchy, the reporting structure and other forms of
management. This is referred to as an organizational chart organogram.
It is worth recalling that there are different types of organizational structures. Companies follow
these structures depending upon a variety of things. Some are based on geographical regions,
products or hierarchy. To put it simply, an organizational structure is nothing but a plan that
shows the organization of work and its systematic arrangement of work.

Conventional Structures
As conventional structures are based on functional divisions and departments, the Tarmac
Company, which is an old company, naturally follows simple traditional rules and procedures in
structuring its organization. Various types of structures under traditional structures are:
Line Structure - This kind of structure has a very specific line of command. The approvals

and orders in this kind of structure is based on the top-bottom approach to be true to the name
line structure. This kind of structure is suitable for smaller organizations like small accounting
firms and/ or law offices. This structure allows for easy decision-making and is also very
informal in nature. They have fewer departments making the entire organization a much
decentralized one.
Line and Staff Structure Despite the line structures being suitable for most

organizations especially small ones, the line structure is not effective for larger companies. This
is the reason why the line and staff organizational structure comes into being. Line and staff
structure combines the line structure where information and approvals come from top to bottom,
with staff departments for support and specialization. Line and staff organizational structures are
more centralized. Managers of line and staff have authority over their subordinates, but staff
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managers have no authority over line managers and their subordinates. The decision-making
process becomes slower in this type of organizational structure because of the layers and
guidelines that are typical to it.

The Organizational Chart (Organogram) of Tarmac

CEO

Finance
(Manager)

Human
Resource
Manager

Marketing
Manager

Supervisors

Supervisors

Supervisors

Operators

Operators

Operators

Procuremen
t Manager

IT Manager

Supervisors

Supervisor

Operators

Operators

Tarmac has a clear strategic framework with most significant thing being right people
with the right skills in the right place within the business. When it comes to strategies, Tarmac
employs DREAM strategies, where
D=Develop markets-and grow by working closely with key customers;
R= Reduce costs-and be well positioned for the future;
E= Engage employees-to work as one team and each achieve its full potential;
A= Act responsibly-and be safe in everything that is done;and
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M= Manage assets-to get the most out of its investments.

Tarmac organizational structure provides a clear line of control. Tarmac has many different jobs
and its structure is complex. Tarmac has three main levels of staff; they are:

Manager,
Supervisors and
Operators

The Organization Chart of Dream Land

Managing
Director

Marketing

Finance

HR

Admin

Productio
n

Dream Land is a construction company and its structure is a flat one. The MD directly
controls all the staff. Information and decision-making power is only in the MD hands. Reporting
system is accordingly fast. However,decision-making is frequently delayed because the MD
needs to consider and make instructions and receive feedback all by himself alone.

2. Relationship between Structure and Culture in

Tarmac
Although an individual at an organizational edge can demonstrate effective supportive
and normative relationship behavior, it is the shared presence of this normative behavior within
organizations that will support effective relationship, management practice and performance
outcomes. Organizational culture, and its supporting values, influences behavior and
expectations of individual managers within a business.
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2.1

Impact of Culture and Structure on Performance

Outcomes in Tarmac
The impacts of culture in Tarmac on behavioral norms can be clearly seen and the
application of associated favorable or negative activities within an organization. Cultural aspects
like assumptions, values and beliefs can have constant effects even where norms are not clear.
These strengthen organizational processes, practices, systems and structures through their
influence on the behavior of people.
This particularly takes place when it comes to the organization, its structure, practices,
purpose, and environment .As a matter of fact, the organizational culture is not the only factor
that determines organizational performance and success. Nevertheless, there is a multitude of
practical evidences that prove that there is a relationship between organizational culture and
performance, primarily on management practices and processes.
Under these circumstances, these elements of organizational culture are mainly
significant concerning thinking and social action. As a matter of fact, this explains in part why
the so-called strong cultures, with norms deemed beneficial and helpful regarding
organizational performance, have long been associated with organizational success.

2.2 Moral Integrity Values, Organizational Culture and

Relationship Management Practice
Porter (1998) proposes that ethics and morality are the ones that reflect honesty,
trustworthiness, tolerance, high self-esteem and commitment to the organization.Individuals that
have an external locus of control place responsibility for actions and outcomes on forces beyond
their control. Those described as having an internal locus of control take responsibility for their
actions. All employees have access to directional instruments such as reward systems and
examples of decision-making that shape and form their behavior and achieve desired outcomes.

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These directional instruments build employee moral resistance and empower them to accomplish
their daily jobs.
Such being the case an organizations culture is critically important to relationship
management practice because it influences dramatically the attitudes and obligations of all
members towards stronger relationships and management practices.

3.

Individuals Behavior at Tarmac

It should be aware that h uman behavior is complex and all people are different from

one another. The challenge of an effective organization is to successfully match all

aspects between the task, manager and the employees. The ideal is that a manager would
first analyze what the given tasks are first; then determine the required skills and pull
together a team that complement each other skills, thereby creating an inspiring and
workable team. In other words, a manager must be able to create a workable
environment in which everyone can cohesively work together. In order to understand
individual behavior and personalities, it is important to understand the basics of human
conscience.

Similarities

between a Managers and individuals Behavior in

Tarmac
The managers and employees in Tarmac have a direct relationship in which they can evaluate
one anothers behaviors. While the manager tries to evaluate the behavior of the employee, the
employee also constantly endeavours to evaluate the managers standpoint in order that he can
make adaptations as and where necessary. If this two-way approach proves to be successful, it
would create a behavioral resemblance between the two and would be a positive outcome. If this
does not happen, it would lead to dissatisfaction and frustration for both of them and would
eventually lead to end their relationship.The subordinates will have a perception of his own job
and non-work responsibilities and an expectation of how his manager would perceive the same.

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Factors Influencing Individual Behavior in Tarmac

Abilities

Be it Tarmac or any other organizations, a persons abilities are the natural or learnt traits. In
fact, these abilities can be classified into mental and physical and different tasks require different
levels of the two. In the case of Tarmac, mental abilities are the intelligence, persons deductive
reasoning, and memory, analytical and verbal understanding whereas physical abilities include
muscular strength, stamina, body coordination and motor skills. An individuals self awareness
of his own abilities is found to determine how he feels about the task. On the other hand, the
managers perception of his abilities determines the kind of task he assigns to an individual.
Gender

It is found that Tarmac is a non-discriminatory organization in which men and women are equal
in their mental abilities and job performance.Similarly, a managers personal values might
influence how he considers gender as factor in his task assignment and evaluation.
Perception in Tarmac

Perception is the basic cognitive process that transforms sensory stimuli into meaningful
information. Most real life problems are multidimensional and the rational approach is often
entwined with the gut feeling, resulting in individual perception. In Tarmac, both managers and
subordinates must recognize that perceptual differences exist and often are the reason for mutual
dissatisfaction.
Attribution in Tarmac

Attribution is the process of observing behavior and then determining its cause based on
individuals personality or situation. Attribution based on personality is due to internal causes
and is termed as dispositional attribution. It includes personality traits like shyness, arrogance,
intelligence, etc. Attribution based on external influences and situations that are outside the
control of individual are termed as situational attribution.
Attitude in Tarmac

An attitude is the abstract learnt response of an individuals entire cognitive process over a
period of time. Almost all of the employees of Tarmac are found to be possessed with good

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attitude. It is quick in response to a familiar situations without requiring deep reasoning; it

forms the basis of biases and attribution errors.
Personality in Tarmac

Personality is the relatively stable set of psychological attributes that distinguishes one individual
from another. The `integrated individual behavior model proposed above, is a framework to
understand the process by which the personality develops over a period of time.

4.

Different Leadership Styles

It is undeniable that managers have different leadership styles for different situations. Such
being the case, it cannot be recommended that which leadership style is the best. Lets suppose
the project is under great time restraint and if there are many parts to the task, a strong,
autocratic leadership style should be recommended. On the other hand, when creative solutions
are needed and time is not a pressing issue, teamwork and free-rein leadership can get the job
done far better.

Teamwork Leadership
In these days, teamwork leadership has become increasingly famous among business firms. This
being so, formation of a team motivates team members and encourages them to gather their
knowledge and submit

creative solutions to problems more quickly than they would

individually. The results of the team may in fact yield far better. A teamwork style is ideal to
speed up a project, or optimize processes. The coordinated effort used by a team for a particular
project may be replicated for other projects within the firm.

Autocratic Leadership
Under autocratic leadership, the manager makes all the decisions and directs subordinates to
complete the project. An autocratic manager demands obedience and is not open to questioning.
The assumption is that employees are not capable of completing the project on their own and
need strong guidance to accomplish the task properly. The autocratic leader tells others what to
do, how to do it and when it should be done. Suggestions from staff are not entertained. The
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autocratic leadership style is most effective when deadlines are tight and there are a great many
people involved in the project.

Free-Rein Leadership
This leadership style is effective when staff are perfectly capable of accomplishing the task by
themselves. Free-rein leadership style is at the other end of the spectrum from autocratic
leadership. With free-rein leadership, employees decide and formulate policies without the
manager's help or advice or whatsoever input. Free-rein leadership proves to be the ideal when
employees are well informed or well-versed in the task and are motivated to complete their tasks.

Participatory Leadership
The participatory leader coordinates the contributions of smaller groups to completing a task.
The manager motivates employees by explaining how their work will fit into the "big picture" so
that they understand the importance of completion of their task. Subordinates have a voice in
decision-making, and have the ability to accomplish the task. This style works best when support
is needed from the manager.

Coaching Leadership
This style of leadership, sometimes called "Management by walking around," is effective when
managers expect their subordinates to accomplish the tasks by themselves. But they can seek
help from their manager when difficult or unfamiliar situations arise. The manager can be
metaphorically referred to as a coach or counselor to enable employees to complete the task.
To discuss which leadership style Tarmac is using, Coaching Style of management is their
choice. Tarmac has three main levels of staff: Manager, Supervisors and Operators. The
operation function at Tarmac is key to overall business performance. Tarmacs long-term aim is
to develop high performance teams who work within a culture of quantity and continuous
improvement. As for Dream Land, they employ coaching leadership management. It
is effective when managers expect their subordinates to complete a task on their
own with help when difficult situations arise. The manager acts as a coach or
counselor to enable employees to complete the task.

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5. Organizational Theory for Tarmac Underpins the

Practice of Management
It is relevant here in this juncture to note that o rganizational theory involves

identification of the different approaches to understanding organizations .When one looks back at
the history of organizations, one will find that organizations starts with armies, which were the
first large-scale cooperative groups formed specifically for a purpose and they are characterized
by a hierarchy of authority within which decisions are made at the top and passed down in the
shape of orders which must be followed. A second early development was that of public
administration whereby organizations came into begin to implement the decisions of
government: initially to collect taxes, but increasingly to order and regulate society through laws
and the application of various rules. Again, these organizations were characterized by a hierarchy
of authority and a requirement to comply with its exercise.
Tarmac has put in place a program of Change Management to respond to these issues and
to improve performance and to motivate staff. To make this happen, Tarmac is training managers
to move from an autocratic to a coaching style of management. An autocratic manager tells
people what to do and how to do it. This may be necessary if a job is urgent or needs to be done
in a particular way, example for health and safety reason. A coaching manager focuses on
developing employees to manger themselves rather than managing every task. This means that
they can find a way to achieve results and learn from the experience. This makes employees
more motivated and better able to deal with future situations.
Tarmacs business is about much more than building and maintaining roads. It is a
multinational business and serves different types of customers across its business activities. T
maintains its competitive advantage. Tarmac needs to have employees with high levels of skill.
To support this, it provides carrier development opportunities across a wide variety of job roles.
Tarmacs emphasis is on having the right people and skills. Their change management programs
ensure that managers work closely to develop their staff. The staff benefit from developing their
skills and potential through Tarmacs positive commitment to progression. Tarmac benefits from
the savings and quality enhancements arising from its process of continuous improvement.

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6. The Different Approaches to Organisation and

Management
Management Theory
Every managerial act rests on assumptions, generalizations and hypotheses that is to
say, on theory. Our assumptions are frequently implicit, sometimes quite unconscious,
often conflicting: nevertheless, they determine our predictions that if we do a, b will
occur. Theory and practice are inseparable.

Main approaches to organisation, structure and management

Classical organization and management theories emphasizes issues of

Hierarchy and structure of authority

Control by managers and technical specialists over workers and work
Principles of good organization

Human relation approaches

It reacted against the impersonal rationality of classical theories and emphasized the

importance of people, their relationship and attitudes at work.

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System Approaches

The organization as a system, it becomes clear that there can be no one bests way to
design and manager such dynamic and varied processes. This is where contingency
theory comes in.
Contingency Approaches

The contingency approach to organization developed as a reaction to the idea that

there are universal principles for designing organizations, motivation staff and so on.
Essentially, it all depends on the total picture of the internal factors and external factors
of each organization. Managers have to find a best fit between the demands of
i. The tasks
ii. The people
iii. The environment in their particular situation.
Tarmac use the contingency approach to manage its business, Tarmac has a clear
strategic framework and one important element this is having the right people
with the right skills in the business. It is Tarmacs core belief that its people make
the different and enable the business to be the leader in its chosen markets. It aims
to have motivated people all working together as one team across its business
units and functions in support of its vision to achieve the exceptional.
Dream Land uses the human relation approach. It focuses on the idea that people
need companionship and belonging, and seek satisfaction in the social
relationship they form at work.

The people in Dream Land become a self

governing team, and a team that cooperated wholeheartedly with management.

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References List
1. Individual Behaviors at work. 2012. Individual Behaviors at work. [ONLINE] Available
at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ . [Accessed 20th October 2012].
2. BPP, Organizations and Behavior Book (2012)
3. Leadership Management for Free | Leadership.com. 2012. Different Leadership
Management. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.practical-management.com/index.php.
[Accessed 20th October 2012].

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