A Closer Look at the Structure, Culture and Motivation at Northumbria University.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

A Closer Look at the Structure, Culture and Motivation at Northumbria University

Introduction

This assignment investigates the organizational culture and structure of Northumbria University. The main are of HRM/D focus is on the university’s motivation issues. All organizations are concerned with what should be done to achieve sustained high levels of performance through people. This means giving close attention to how individuals can best be motivated through such means as incentives, rewards, leadership and importantly the work they do and the organization culture and structure in which they carry out that work. The organizational goals should be concentrated on developing motivation processes and the working environment that will help to ensure that individuals deliver results that are congruent with the organization goals.

Paradigm

As most the largest portion of the group members are from the functionalist paradigm, we decided to use this approach for analyzing the university’s structure, culture and motivation issues. This way of looking at the world provides a rational explanation of affairs, while providing pragmatic problem solving with practical solutions. The paradigm is based on objective scientific knowledge, which is used to explain the status quo and the social order. The key idea of functionalism is that the social world exists externally and that its properties should be measured through objective methods rather than been inferred subjectively through sensation (Esterbay-Smith et al. 1993). Following a functionalist epistemology, knowledge is not arrived at speculatively but is grounded firmly and exclusively in something that is scientifically observed by way of scientific method (Crotty 1998). The functionalist paradigm allows individual to understand realities through observation without being participants in the processes. This is an important aspect for our project, due to the limitations of our research experiences and time allotted.

Methodology

Our group has gathered primary information through observations within the university environment and interviews with three tutors. Any concluding support has been conducted by secondary data through research in books and journal material; also we used information from the official Northumbria University web site as well as other academic web sites to.

One should notice that this assignment does not provide an in-depth overall analysis of the university’s culture and structure. This is due to the shortage of time, insufficient data and because of our lack of skills in carrying out in-depth business research.

Northumbria University Background

Northumbria University is a large metropolitan university, first established as a polytechnic in 1969 and inaugurated as a university on 1 September 1992 (Northumbria Unversity). Rutherford College of Technology, the College of Art & Design, and the Municipal, College of Art & Industrial Design merged to form Newcastle Polytechnic. With a long history in the area and the need for practical and vocational training in the north east of England, Newcastle Polytechnic helped to fill the skills gap that existed in the local industries.

Building on these firm foundations, the Polytechnic became one of the leading institutions of its type in the UK. It became a major centre for the initial training of teachers with the incorporation of the City College of Education in 1974, and subsequently the Northern Counties College of Education in 1976.

In 1976 the Polytechnic, which already offered nurses training, began occupational therapy and physiotherapy training as well. In 1995 the incorporation of the Bede, Newcastle and Northumbria College of Health Studies was transferred into the University.

Northumbria University today has 22,000 students, of which about 15,000 are full-time. The other 7,000 students study part-time, distance learning and short courses through the university.

The Structure of Northumbria University

As an old Chinese saying goes: Without a compass, you can’t draw a precise circle. The university is without exception. Without a clear and effective organization structure, the university can not “draw a complete circle” in terms of having both an effective and efficient educational institution. When the students and faculty continue to grow rapidly, the heads of the departments do not effectively control and supervise the faculty because their time, energy and abilities are limited according to the interviews and observations that were conducted. This emphasizes the importance of a structure within UNN.

Admittedly without structure there would be no organisaiton (Jackson and Carter 2000 p.37). Therefore we must determine what structure is. A common definition of structure is as follows: The fundamental and relatively unchanging features of an organisation which are officially sanctioned by those who control it and consist of the way activities and component parts are grouped, controlled and coordinated in order to achieve specific aims and outcomes (Rollinson and Edwaede 1998, p 463).

As Rollison (1998, p.464) points out, the importance of an appropriate structure should ensure:

1. that tasks occur in the correct sequence.

2. the monitoring of activities, so that coordination and control can occur.

3. that decisions can be and are taken at appropriate points, to ensure that adjustments which may be necessary to achieve goals and objectives are made for individuals and groups, but also they accept accountability for task completion.

4. effective and efficient use of resources so that the level of resource utilisation matches the level of activity and resources that are only deployed on what needs to be done.

Generally speaking, structure tends to be described in terms of the ‘height,’ ‘width,’ and complexity of an organisation (Campbell et.al 1999). UNN was a vertical structure that has several layers of management, which suits larger organisations in complex environments (Campbell et.al, 1999) with more hierarchical structures.

Universities have traditionally been divided up and made into hierarchical structures. This often meant that to get communication between two adjacent sectors or divisions, one has had to do it through a series of superior committees. It's very inefficient because they were not very effective and probably don't encourage communication and cooperation (Pro-Vice Chancellor according to the website of Northumbria University).

Because of the above reasons and coming from the functionalist perspective, the university needed to construct a structure that is a shorter, more flexible, more decentralized, and less bureaucratic. This will help the university improve cooperation and facilitate coordination throughout the entire organisation. Furthermore, it would increase the ability to respond rapidly to the external dynamic environment, which requires more organic responses and the pursuit of flexibility (Corbridge and Stephen 1998 p 42). These are the reasons why UNN elected to change the structure less than a year ago.

In September 2002, the university introduced a new internal structure. Instead of faculties, academic teaching will be organised into specific subject schools (UNN Website). There are 11 new schools, 10 academic subject areas plus teaching undertaken at the University Campus in Carlistle, whilst the University’s administrative functions are handled by various University Services (UNN Website), as seen in the appendix with the organizations chart.

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Centralization occurs when decision-making power is retained at or near the top of the organisation. When new academic programs are developed and particularly when they involve scarce resources, the central administration is heavily involved in the decision-making process (Hall 1982 p52). This in turn was supported through our interviews and is a characteristic of a bureaucratic organisation.

According to the interviews, the new structure has not impacted the working conditions extensively. However, only a few months have passed since the changes were implemented. Now there are six subject divisions and tutors report to the manager of resources (operations) and the subject division leader (strategic direction). From our interviews, there has not been any serious conflicts yet. However, until now there has only been few minor changes in terms of teaching.

The new flatter structure emphasizes the linkage and cooperation with the different departments and clearly realise the different departments’ responsibility avoiding the courses overlap and resource waste. The faculty members now have flexible time and opportunities to consult and conduct research. Furthermore the new structure promotes and facilitates communication amongst the managers, staff, service personnel and stakeholders of university in an attempt to be more flexible and adaptive to the rapidly changing external and internal environment.

The Culture at Northumbria University

Organisation culture is a pattern of basic assumptions – invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration – that has worked well enough to be considered valuable and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems (Schein 1992 , p9). Schein’s definition of culture is most appropriate for this assignment because as a group we are analyzing UNN from a functionalist paradigm in which the culture can be viewed as objective scientific knowledge (Mavin 2002).

The culture of UNN involves three distinct levels according to Schein (1999), which are artifacts, values and assumptions. Assumptions and beliefs comprise the deepest levels of the organization, the core beliefs that are subconscious for members of that culture according to Hatch (1999) and Mullins (2002). These assumptions in the culture exist in order to cope with the university’s problems of external adaptation and internal integration (Schein 1992, p243).

Artifacts represent the surface of the culture of an organization, they are the evidence of a culture’s core, such as the rituals, ceremonies and other behaviour manifestations

(Hatch 1997). With this in mind, UNN has its own unique description and experience.

Due to the barriers that exist between departments, staff members within the same department are often times seen eating, smoking and having tea breaks with individuals from the same department. This provides a supportive example of artifacts within a sub-culture, however not for the university as a whole.

Language and symbols are also relevant artifacts within the university. As for language, common jargon was observed in different subcultures (departments) frequently. Symbols at UNN are attached to the organization hierarchy as a means of displaying status within the organization. For instance, the position titles on the pay scale and various positions at different levels within the universities structure.

Norms are often times mentioned with values and are established by the sort of behaviour individuals within any given culture can expect from one another (Mullins 2002). For instance, appropriate dress that staff members wear at the university or the type of behaviour that each staff member expects from the others are example of norms. Another relevant example is the norm of how promotions are supposed to be granted. According to the interview, promotions are supposed to be granted based on, among a few other criteria, publications. However, as stated by a staff member, this is not entirely the case. Instead promotions are viewed as taking place on the basis of coercion and persuasive tactics by staff members.

Values specify what is important to the members of a culture, as well as their standards about intrinsic worth (Hatch 1997) and how members behave accordingly. The values of the staff at UNN are being challenged due to the structural changes that have taken place within the past year. For example, most departments have recently gone through structural changes, which in turn challenge their core values. According to Rollinson (2002), the values act as guidelines for how the organization deals with change. Through observations of one particular subculture, a conclusion can be made that these values are not very strong and therefore a sense of intrinsic worth is low and the behaviour is dysfunctional toward the objectives of the university.

The enduring beliefs and expectations held to be important by the staff (University of Idaho) at Northumbria University come from the core values of the culture at UNN. In Northumbria University, the values produce norms that powerfully shape the behaviour of individuals and groups (Hatch 1997) throughout all levels of the organization. Because of the special characteristics of the education industry in regards to public society, UNN should display an image of being stable and intellectual. The university should also be characterized by norms and values that are shared by all its members and based on values, beliefs and assumptions (Jackson 2000). However, as mentioned previously different subcultures exist and all members do not share the same values, beliefs and assumptions.

There are several points that need to be addressed in regards to the values in the culture as explained below:

Constraints

From the information gathered from interviews and observations, a summary can be made that tutors in the bureaucratic system that exists at UNN perform their duties as well as possible considering the constraints that are put on them from the upper levels of the organisation. For example, what I should do is persuaded by what I can do, according to an interviewee when speaking about the contracts that staff members must adhere to. This is a clear limitation to the progress of the individual, the students, and the organization as a whole. Moreover, having few formal appraisals (only three in 11 years according to one interviewee) hinders the performance of staff.

2. Control (Mullins 2002)

Control measures exist at different levels throughout the entire university. Clear boundaries exist between departments, which in turn provide natural control measures for staff members at the university. These barriers come from the fixed structure of the university and the bureaucratic nature that surrounds the university. Other control measures also include unnecessary paper work, procedures that are very time consuming, and a clear set of rules and procedures at UNN, all of which are characteristics of a bureaucratic system according to Mavin (2002).

3. Rewards (University of Idaho)

There are various forms of rewards for academic staff members at UNN. For example, the academic staff members receive annual pay rises according to the Salary Scale provided by the Human Resources Department at the university. However, these salary scale increases are not directly linked to performance evaluations or appraisals, and instead are awarded automatically each year. Also, the tutors are allowed to pursue external consulting work and block teaching through the university for extra income, which is considered a reward for some staff members. Rewards are discussed in more detail in the motivation section of this assignment.

4. Team Orientation (University of Idaho)

According to the UNN Plan 2000, team work in teaching through the vertical and horizontal levels of the university is a priority. Team leaders are supposed to support the broad aims of the university plan by emphasizing the importance of the concept of team work throughout. However the nature of a team does not fit well in a university setting as a whole, but could be exploited within the different subcultures.

General beliefs that either define what is right or wrong or specify general preferences (University of Idaho) to the members of UNN. From our interviews and observations, the staff feels that it is their personal duty as a university tutor to adhere to the strict requirements of the university and the supporting community, in accordance to the norms and code of ethics at UNN to maintain a high standard of professionalism. The staff members want to exert their expertise and knowledge of the subject matter they are instructing, however some of their commitment to the students does not go beyond the classroom instruction. The organization culture at UNN is based on the principals of doing the thing right rather than doing the right thing (Mello 2002) according to our observations. For example, there is an emphasis placed more on efficiency than effectiveness because UNN is over 2 million Pounds in debt according to one of our interviews. This has a direct effect on the quality of education the university is providing because there are constraints put on the tutors, which in turn negatively affect the students. Even the best and brightest are destined to fail in an ineffective system.

From the functionalist paradigm, an integrationist perspective is most appropriate when describing the characteristics of cultures. The integrationist perspective according to Martin (1992) views a culture as an organization wide process involving most employees. However, as mentioned earlier, there are several subcultures within UNN, which is likely to happen in a large organization (Rollinson 2002). Due to the different subcultures within the university, there isn’t a collective culture that supports the overall mission and strategy of the organization. Therefore those subcultures that are inherently negative inhibit achieving the goals of the university.

Culture Management

From a functionalist perspective, when culture is managed effectively and efficiently within an organization, the organization is more likely to achieve its objectives. According to the bureaucratic structure of an organization, a role culture exists and is determined by the strategy/mission, industry, stakeholders and size of the organization (Mullins 2002). With this in mind, the intergrationist perspective assumes that executive managers within an organization can influence and change the culture of an organization when they desire to do so (Rollinson 2002).

A role culture is often stereotyped as a bureaucracy as mentioned above. A role culture rests on the strength of strong organizational ‘pillars’ – the functions of specialists (Mullins 2002), for example the academic departments in UNN. The bureaucratic features of UNN are its extensive procedures, rules and regulations resulting in prolonged time periods to accomplish even the most remedial tasks as frequently observed.

However, according to Mavin’s (20002) notes on Handy’s and Harrisons’s organizational ideologies, a role culture is frustrating for individuals who are power orientated and require great control over the activities that they are involved with on a daily basis. Our observations and interviews concluded that UNN is full of staff members who are power orientated. These people do not work well within a highly structured and controlled environment and therefore a conflict exists. Furthermore, the culture at UNN is not supported by its structure and the management of the culture will never be as effective and efficient as it should be.

Motivation

Motivation is the drive within a person to try to achieve a goal and to meet a want or need, as well as the organization’s needs (Weightman 1999). Motivation depends on extrinsic, intrinsic and social needs according to Rollinson (2002). Therefore the concept of satisfying these needs through motivation has been the foundation of most motivation theories.

Two popular theories of motivation are Maslow’s Need theory and Herzberg’s Two-factor theory from a functionalist perspective. Maslow ( 1970) first developed the idea of self-actualization needs where he states that human needs fall into a hierarchy from the most basic physiological needs to needs for self-actualization. According to Maslow (1970), everyone seeks a sense of meaning and accomplishment in their work, for managers this understanding is important if they are responsible for directing people towards certain goals or objectives and motivating people to integrate their goals with those of the organization.

Hertzberg conducted a study of the distinction between satisfiers or motivators, and dissatisfiers or hygiene factors (Armstrong 1999). Motivators are intrinsic factors directly related to the job and are largely internal to the individual, which include responsibility, freedom and scope. The intrinsic motivators are likely to have deeper and longer-term implications to the individual. Dissatisfiers are extrinsic factors which the organization largely determines, including rewards and punishments. Extrinsic motivators can have an immediate and powerful effect, but they will not necessarily last long (Armstrong 1999).

This section seeks to identify some of the issues which impact the motivation of the academic staff at UNN. Most higher education institutions have an implicit or explicit mission to offer a high quality learning experience to all their students, in which the staff plays a major role in achieving the objectives of the institution (Rowley 1996). Tutor motivation is a key in the establishment and further development of quality in higher education, but at the same time it is important for the satisfaction and fulfilment of educators themselves as well.

Incentives for Extrinsic Motivation at UNN

A motive for a person who acts to fulfill a need, may be externally induced-when something is actively done to encourage a person to act in a certain way. This is known as extrinsic motivation (Armstrong & Murlis 1998). Incentive schemes are often viewed as extrinsic motivators, whereby the incentives are the deliberate “dangling of the carrot” to entice people to perform to receive the reward (Adair 1996). These rewards can be beneficial, that is they are either momentary or have a momentary value, or they can be non financial and have more personal and abstract meaning to the employee, for example verbal recognition and praise (Armstrong & Murlis 1998; Pitts 1995). Other extrinsic factors include:

1. Training: Training in itself can be motivating. Goals are set and achieved in the training process which leads to self-fulfilment and pride through satisfying higher-level needs as motivators (Allan 1996). UNN staff are supported by various types of training and Institution-Wide Training & Development Programmes, which are provided according to the Appraisal and Development Scheme – A Guide. The training and development offered under this programme is circulated annually to departments and listed in the staff newsletter. This training needs to be an ongoing process to maintain motivation at UNN (Allan 1996).

2. Appraisal system: If an appraisal is to motivate, then it must help staff achieve self-fulfillment. From our interviews we can see that the UNN academic staff is not motivated by the university’s appraisal system. In most organizations there are two types of appraisal systems- formal and informal (Allan 1996). In terms of a formal appraisal, one staff member reported only having three appraisals in 11 years. This is not adequate in terms of motivating employees through appraisals. Some UNN academic staff seem to be unsatisfied with the unfair judgment for promotions as well, according to the observations and interviews. This is in turn is an area that de-motivates staff and needs to be improved.

3. Feedback: Feedback is a very powerful tool for motivation (Allan 1996). At UNN, there are different ways of getting feedback from at the university. For example, one interviewee stated that there are lots of ways of getting feedback on work. We have the students provide evaluations from a course perspective so from that I know if things are going reasonably well. Also, from people coming and putting work my way in terms of asking me to write units for course developments or sending students to come and see me for advice on particular things. If this feedback provides a clear and realistic indication of performance enhancement that must be accomplished and expected, it increases UNN staff self-esteem and satisfies the higher-level needs of staff members.

4. Leadership: Leadership can be categorized into three types: autocratic, democratic and laisser-faire (Allan 1996). People will be motivated if managers use an appropriate leadership style for the situation. However, some UNN academic staff seem to be unsatisfied with specific people who have power in the organization according to our observations. However, others are entitled to take decisions on their own units as they see necessary to a certain extent. For instance a tutor said ”I am in the position where, except one unit in the division, I don’t share with anybody and I am on my own to develop the units. For me this is fine.” This staff member feels motivated because of the appropriate leadership style (laisser-faire style) that was used in this particular situation.

An Environment for Intrinsic Motivation

1. Challenge: The UNN staff has a chance to teach international students often, which challenges them and gives them an opportunity to learn from the experiences of people with diverse backgrounds of knowledge and cultures, which they consider as a challenge according to the interviews. “There is a challenge to it if you look at the international flavor of your course, there are different challenge than there would be perhaps to teach a course which is exclusively northeastern British,” according to the interviews.

2. Variety: UNN provides an opportunity of doing a variety of tasks for the staff. In terms of both their subjects taught and outside consulting through the university, which provides motivation for staff members according to the interviews. A tutors said ”I think the first one of the motivation factors for me is variety of work that I’m doing, there are a lot of them with the majority of the work that I do being on a post graduate level whether it be teaching or whether it be research supervision.“ If jobs are redesigned to include the variety elements, then motivation and satisfaction will improve (Allan 1996).

3.Autonomy: Individuals like to exercise autonomy and independence, so it is recognized that some factors contribute to positive motivation while others can only minimize dissatisfaction, which is important for the tutors at UNN. The UNN academic staff has the freedom to choose the ways and methods to change their own units to get desired results to a certain extent according to the interviews. They have flexibility in their schedule as well, which plays a critical role in terms of motivation. As one staff member stated I’m not particularly worried about my timetable, if I’ve got really heavy teaching on Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday –then I can come in here on a Monday and do what I’m doing, within lectures there’s a starting time for doing things and so on.. This shows us that they feel comfortable to meet their core obligations and expectations with a moderate level of autonomy.

Interpreting the research results from a functionalist’s perspective, UNN academic staff seems to be satisfied in generally by the university’s appraisal system, probably because they have not received different forms or frequencies of appraisals in the past at UNN and have nothing to compare to. Tutors have frequent opportunities to earn extra income, by doing consultancy or undertaking projects for external organizations through the university, which is an extra motivation for them. They are not particularly worried about their overloaded timetable and feel comfortable to meet their core obligations and expectations that the university requires of them. They believe that the workload is fully aligned with their job revenue, according to the interviews where as they rate their wage comfortable and satisfactory. Managers and supervisors often times verbally recognized and praised good effort, which generates positive feelings toward work and therefore acts as a motivation factor for them.

However, they look frustrated by the promotional perspectives within the organization. Even though there is a formal mechanism and clear guidelines of the promotional procedures, it seems that in reality this takes on average a very long time and the criteria is not followed. For example one interviewee said they have told us to do research and write papers to be promoted but in the end others are promoted……… there is not any reason to try and put effort into conducting research………if you asked everybody in the X faculty (school), everybody will point the same 5-6 people who have the overall power in the department.

The working environment seems to be a driving factor, but not always. It is characterize as being positive. For example, the fact that even though there structure is very formal, it is still easy for them to communicate and contact with people at higher levels and generally there is a good relationship between staff and managers. Some staff members keen about the flexibility of their schedule, and it is believed that the level of autonomy is quite reasonable, considering the fact that they work for a very large bureaucratic organization. However, there are negative views of this as well, mostly due to the communication and culture that exists within faculty areas. However, this is a characteristic that appears to the most organizations.

To conclude, the staff at UNN seem to have mixed opinions in terms of motivation. However, due to our limited research and our functionalist perspective this analysis was not in great depth. With that in mind, motivation can produce, more or less, better problem-solving skills that are innovative and report higher job satisfaction if motivation is taken seriously.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The following recommendations are based on a functionalist perspective from our limited analysis of the university.

UNN has taken steps recently to improve upon its structure, therefore it is to soon to make certain recommendations without knowing the implications of the changes already made. These improvements included creating a structure that is shorter, more flexible, decentralized and less bureaucratic. In theory this should improve upon the cooperation, coordination and communication throughout the university. However, with an organization the size of UNN, a certain level of bureaucracy will also exist in terms of policies and procedures for control measures. According to Mintzberg’s (1979) contingency theory, structure should reflect the organizations situation at any given time. Therefore, there is a need for a best fit approach rather then a best practice for the university. Furthermore, it is necessary to be sure that both the structure and culture are coincide with each other to improve upon the social architecture of UNN.

The culture of UNN can be summed as a role culture within a bureaucratic organization. The problem that exists is that the university if full of “stars” who do not work well in the confines of a bureaucratic system. Therefore, the constraints, control, rewards and team orientation issues mentioned previously must all be addressed by the HRM/D strategy to ensure that the performance of individuals is congruent with the performance of the organization. The HR/D strategy should address these issues through the artifacts, norms and values, and eventually through the assumptions within the culture as a means of managing the culture.

Both extrinsic and intrinsic needs have the potential to be satisfied in terms of motivating staff. The Human Resources strategy should focus on improving the formal appraisal system, for example implement 360 degree feedback throughout the university and stick with it. According to Armstrong and Mullis (1998), any reward programme needs to be integrated with the business strategy of an organization. Thus, for an incentive scheme to contribute to organizational success, it needs to be structured and implemented so as to reward behavior that helps to meet business objectives (Smith 1994). The staff promotion procedure should follow the promotion policy that is in place, or change the guidelines for promotions if it is outdated. Also, leadership and development training should be provided for managers and training programmes should be on going and linked to the development of the staff.

All of these recommendations should be directly linked to the HRM/D strategy of UNN, which in turn should support the overall organization strategy of the university.