M/508/9862 - Analysis power on the behavior of employees of BBC

In this report we have observed how the people at BBC were unhappy by their practices, primarily because of the lack of change in the company for some time now, which eventually led to poor performance and falling standards of practice in journalism too. This led the company under a lot of scrutiny

The company has seen various ups and downs and is need extreme need of experiencing change for its benefits, and sustaining itself in future. Without change things can drastically worsen for BBC, which will be a major blow to the news agency, which can also effect its credibility too.

According to the Handy’s Model of Organisation Culture, BBC has a scope of improvement if it is able to implement it in the right manner, and follow it as well.

In the Handy’s model, there are four major classes of culture: Power, Task, Role and Person.

The transformation of BBC from a Power culture to a person culture is the result of one such model identification

Power culture focuses on the part where the power or the authority to run the organisation I vested in just a few people, and these people then run the company according their own will. After the implementation of change and accepting it nicely, the company soon turned to embrace a person culture in which the power is vested in all the people or the groups of people, and these people delegate the work and decision making in their respective departments. This is the ideal work culture for any organisation as It helps in maintain balance in the company and is justified to all the people of the organisation too, without any biased decision making which favours only a certain group of people of the company.

Effects of Power and Politics on Culture of BBC

If we review the Dame Janet Smith Report, which was an independent review into the working of BBC, we can understand how ruptured the internal system was for quite a long period of time and how things nearly out of control because of the lack of ethics in the working of the organisation .

This report has focussed on all the wrong activities which were happening in BBC by certain people of power like sexual harassment, discrimination based on gender, unequal pay or pay gap.

This report has thrown light on some very serious issues which had to be tackled at the very earliest. If we apply the Handy’s model of organisation culture, we realise that the transition has to happen from power oriented culture to people or task oriented culture, in order to maintain peace and harmony in the organisation , or else things might get out of hand.

The company has long put up with the wrong kind of people, and this change will start from changing the leadership or the change in the top management, which will eventually reflect in the entire organisation soon. Keeping this in mind, the necessity of change has to be made urgent so that any further damage which may happen, is avoided and the company does not fall apart.

TASK 2

Motivation Theories for BBC

Every organisation has its share of problems which can arise out of many reasons like organisational culture, leadership, organisation development, lack of change etc. .

BBC too had its share of all the problems because of incidents like sexual harassment, discrimination based on gender, unequal pay or pay gap, no employee redressal forum and on; as mentioned by the Smith Report of 2016 .

However the company has come up after a series of changes made in the leadership, organisation heads that it has finally started taking off. However, some amends still need to be made to make sure that the company does not fall back down again. These amends are to be made on the part of employees ie, it is now needed to motivate these people. For this situation, the content and process theory goes the best.

These theory deals with the system of ideals which brings about the change in an existing organisation.

Process theories apply a certain process to bring the change, while content theories focus on “what” exactly motivates people to drift towards the change and how can it be beneficial for them .

One of the best theories form this can be the Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Model which is typically set for organisation suffering from unhappy employees, which has resulted because of the poor performance of the company itself. Maslow’s model is a psychological theory which focuses on the certain needs of the employees and their expectation from the company, formed in a pyramid.

Psychological Needs, Safety, Personal Need, Self Esteem Needs and Self-actualisation Needs .

If this model is applied to BBC, there can be a pleasant change in the situations the people will not only feel safe, but will want to come to the office and work hard, as a notion of the appreciation of the efforts of the organisation, which again are extremely important right now after all that the company has gone through collectively . These models will also help in uplifting the morale of the employees, which will also serve as its purpose and will allow them to be more innovative and involved with the company, and actually be a part of BBC

Contribution of the Improved Level of Motivation in BBC

While above we discussed why motivation is needed and how that be implemented in BBC through various models and practices like the content and process theory, in which the Maslow Need Hierarchy Model stays, here we will aim to understand how these motivated employees will create a difference to BBC in real time.

Motivation is referred as the desire to achieve something, which is often fanned by job satisfaction, achievement, team, need for money, social status, respect, high standard of living etc. and drives the employee to perform not just better, but the best .

It is a well-known fact that motivation drives performance, hence it is important to make sure that the people of BBC are always motivated in order to back their high intensity performance to bring the best out of them in any situation whatsoever.

These motivations can be because of the following reasons:

The people have finally become goal oriented and realise the need to achieve their goals for their personal as well as their professional growth

They are thrusted by the inner motivation to make sure they achieve everything they have been dreaming of for quite some time now

Employees feel an obligation to give something back to their employer if they feel they are well taken care of

In order to improve the level of motivation for the employees of BBC it is important to make sure that the involvement of the management of top level is visible to the employees, so that feel connected to them, and whatever they say. This will make the work easier by a lot and will not engage in any unwanted or not needed efforts from wither of the side, and the time and energy can be put to do things the right way.

Following are some approaches to be followed by the management of BBC to see improved levels of motivation within the BBC employees and help to achieve its organisation’s goals:

• Proper communication channel to be set up
• Listen to employees and feedbacks regularly
• Complaint redressal system to be built
• Treating all the employees with respect
• Bringing in innovation and change
• Giving them good benefits and rewards for their work
• Appreciating the employees more often
• Formulating policies against all forms of harassment at workplace
• Stricter policies for offenders of any kind

TASK 3

Different Types of Teams in BBC

Teams are the building blocks of any organisation as they not only bring the employees together to achieve a common objective, but also contribute to their personal growth, which eventually reflect in the success of the organisation too. It is important to make sure that every organisation embraces team formation gracefully

The people of the BBC have to understand this fact they have to invest in their employees now in order to overcome all the loss which happened in the preceding years because of the actions of the few, and this can be done when they are able to unite the workforce.

There are many different kinds of teams which can function in an organisation. They are:

Problem Solving team: these are the team consisting of people from various department who temporarily come together to work on a matter of immediate concern and stay together until the entire issue is set right, and disperse only after that.

Virtual Team: this is formed by the people who work on a project from diverse geographic location, something which is the most prominent type in BBC provided their vast variety of content coverage.

Work group: this is a team formed by the people of same responsibilities and is also referred to as natural team. These can be people of same or different department working on same product or project

Task Force - Such teams are formed for a special purpose of working on any specific project or finding a solution to a very critical problem.

These teams are the probable team types which can be formed in BBC to ensure that the employees not only function together, but also focus on understanding the need to inculcate the feeling of achievement and togetherness in these people so that the changes can be further comprehended for them and any such backlash is avoided.

After all the ups and won in BBC, and the poor working conditions being offered to the employees, it is important that these people are given the ability to come together once more and work hard to achieve their professional as well as their personal goals and commitments so that they can move ahead, taking BBC along with them.

This is the responsibility of the employees, leader and the top level management of BBC alike, and hence it shall be delegated in this way only.

Effective Teams in BBC

As mentioned above, teams are the building blocks of any organisation as they not only bring the employees together to achieve a common objective, but also contribute to their personal growth, which eventually reflect in the success of the organisation too.

It is important to understand that every organisation has a different expectation and need when it comes to the formation of teams and employee arrangement. The company often realises this later, after much of the work has been done, and a certain stage arises which does not allow them to move ahead anymore. This is where stagnation arises, and the same situation gets repeated which was observed in BBC few years ago, resulting in everything wrong that could happen in a company at once.

BBC in is not only in need of good employees, but is also in need of good team members who can work with everyone together and alike, without creating any problem for the people of the organisation whatsoever; probably the last thing which is needed for the company right now or maybe ever again as long as it survives.

In order to form the right team for BBC, the Tuckman and Jenson Model is the best as it take into account everything that is needed in a team0 right from the planning to actually forming it, and goes on during the entire process of this functioning

The teams are formed in four stages:

Stage 1 Forming ie when all the people of the team come together, get to know each other and the goals and objectives are set for the team, leaving them to realise everything. There might be some issues related to trust and safety, however this is where the team moves ahead with each other; slowly and steadily.

Stage 2 is the Storming stage where the group or the team starts working and problems crop up because individual thought and personalities start reflection, which makes it difficult to work with another sometimes and the employees or the team members start fighting of “Storming” with each other.

Stage 3 is the Norming stage where the conflicts get resolved, people are happy and accept each other and their style of working in order to avoid any further conflicts. During this stage people start contributing in the other person’s growth as well and allow a lot of flexibility and damage coverage to each other. This is the point where the group actually starts becoming a team.

Stage 4 is the final and the last stage known as the Performing stage. Here the team performance is judged in terms of their ability o reach the goal and how effective they had been in. this stage focuses on achieving the goals by focussing on the problems and bringing in their solutions collectively like an actual team. This is where the results start showing up as well and can focus on building the strengths further more if at all any lack is seen

Task 4

Improving Team Performance in BBC

After understanding how BBC can form a team for itself, it is now the time to realise how BBC can improve their performances on a continuous basis in order to get nothing but the best for themselves.

It is important while people work in team to make sure they are always high spirited and that they actually want to do something for their company. This can be done by uplifting their spirits by flaming their undying loyalty for BBC. It is important to give them a meaning as to why they work for them, and why should they be working for them. The employees have to feel proud to be working for BBC and not just because of their need to work from .

Once this is achieved, following step can be followed to increase their performance:

• Measure their team performance and provide them feedback for the same too
• Providing an incentive to the people of the team as a token of appreciation for their efforts
• Spend less time on meetings and more time on actually interacting with the employees
• Set ground rules to achieve their desired targets on time
• Setting clear objectives for them in order to avoid any confusion
• Clearing the communicating channel for a better flow of information for them

This can be complimented by building leadership using the Path-Goal leadership theories which will help in specifying the style of a leader which best suits the needs of the team and will allow them to function properly, and will listen to them as well, without any rebuke or fight off for these people. This theory is based on the Vroom’s model and hence is cohesive in its approach .

Barriers to Performance in BBC

There can be many barriers to performance in an organisation, some of which often relate to the inability of the employees themselves as they often too lose their zeal to work and show no interest, or are unable to work in team, thus disrupting the environment for everyone too.

These barriers can also be formed because of the misconduct on the part of the company like:

• Discrimination on basis of gender, ethnicity or colour
• Pay gap based on gender
• No redressal for complaints

These issues often demotivate the employees so much that they lose their interest in working for the organization and even if they do, the results are poor and not worth the efforts which they put in.

This is where the entire company often loses itself and goes down. A lot of effort then goes wasted into bringing it back to life and re-structuring it into achieving the goals and objectives set for the organisation as well.

Keeping this in mind, the company then has t take many reformative measure to make sure the employees are happy, satisfied and still want to work and with full enthusiasm to get eh results which have been planned. Thus, it is important to make sure these barriers are eliminated and only the best practices remain.