Primark's Organizational Structure

All aspects of organisational behaviour are influenced by the structure of the organisation. As we have seen Primark operates a carbon copy bureaucracy, therefore when concentrating on the individual Belfast store, a machine bureaucracy is easily identified. This highly bureaucratic structure can affect a company in many ways, but this section focuses on the relationship between structure and motivation. We studied how Primark motivates and how it fails to motivate its employees and how the machine bureaucracy impacts on this process. The word motivation is coined from the Latin word "movere", which means to move. According to Daft (2010: pg 506) motivation ‘refers to the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action.’
Motivation has become increasingly important for organizations that want to reach their organizational objectives in a competitive marketplace. In relation to Primark we will be assessing how management attempt to steer the motivation of employees in line with the goals of the organisation There are many motivational theories, however they fall into two main categories, content and process theories. Content theories focus on the internal factors that stimulate and direct human behaviour whilst the more recent development of process theories concentrate on the actual process of motivation, what practises will increase and maintain motivation. Within the two fields much work and study has been undertaken and multiple theories exist. As this discussion centres on the affiliation of structure and behaviour it is not necessary to widely discuss each theory, however it is helpful to establish some central characteristics of the theories. A common theme in the theories is the existence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, intrinsic factors are ones which come from within the individual, which is the incentive stemming from personal interest or satisfaction from their work. The