Managing Change in Organisations

This document discusses the importance of managing change in organizations, focusing on Unilever as a case study. It covers the drivers of change, core competencies, value chain, models for change, knowledge management, and stakeholder analysis. The document also explores the concepts of continuous improvement and innovation, as well as the change cycle and organizational life cycle. Study material and solved assignments on managing change in organizations are available on Desklib.

Managing Change in
Organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
The drivers of change, the core competencies and the value chain........................................1
Comparison of two models in depth.......................................................................................5
Knowledge management, knowledge tracking and knowledge migration.............................9
Use Mendelow’s method and the stakeholder analysis with the cause and effect...............12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
References:.....................................................................................................................................15
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Change in organisation is essential as it leads to positive development in the organisation and
also helps in achieving the objectives of the company(Howes, 2018). On the other organisational
change refers to making changes in the internal and external activities of the company which can
include successful resolution, changing in activities of personnel and those things which are
helpful in brining the required objectives of the company. Managing change in the organisations
refers to better leadership and understanding of all the things which are happening in the
organisation so that required changes can be done. Change is done to implement new activities
which might be useful for gaining the competitive advantage and this is done to bring effective
results. Unilever is a largest British consumer goods company which produces products which
are essential for daily use by the customer(Oakman, Macdonald and Kinsman, 2019). It was
established in 2 September, 1929 which was headquartered in London, England. This report will
cover nature of the change process which the company faced with the use of relevant models.
Key stakeholders with the identification of main areas of support or resistance to any planned
change, evaluating how effectively the change process was managed in terms of the issues that
surrounded knowledge management, knowledge tracking and knowledge migration and two
models that help senior managers to diagnose and plan change in their organisation.
MAIN BODY
The drivers of change, the core competencies and the value chain
Nature of change
The changes which are taken in the company are the adjustment which might be in the
internal activities of in the external activities of the company(Kinsella, Fry and Zecchin, 2018).
But it is difficult to implement changes in the companies because it disturbs the old method of
working and develops the new activities which make it difficult for the employees. Unilever also
have to make changes either in the planning process of the different products, or have to use new
technologies which has come up as this will help to reduce their production cost and many more
reasons. As the company deals in consumer products they have to develop things which are
demanded in the market because there are other competitors which can take the place of Unilever
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and this makes the company to make some changes. The changes can be explained by explaining
different models and theories in context with Unilever-
PESTLE analysis
This analysis is helpful in identifying the external factors of the organisations which can impact
the business performance in varied manner(Ligonie, 2018). Because of which companies have to
make some changes accordingly to reduce their impact and grow the business without any
difficulty. Unilever have also made certain changes by looking into such factors which are
explained below-
 Political factors- Unilever is a big company which sells variety of consumer products
and has expanded its business in different countries. Political factors are those factors
which define the government rules and regulations which has to be abided by the
companies(Dimmock, 2020). Unilever have to follow the rules of Food and Drug
Administration which are set by them and government of the country might set the trade
reforms which can create difficult for the company. In different countries in which the
company have established its business have to also follow the rules which can be positive
and negative.
 Economic factors- Economic factors are related to the revenue of the country as well
how the company is helping in the generation (Suleiman and et. al., 2020) . Unilever is a
big company which generates billion of revenue and this is fruitful for the countries also
in which they are established because they pay the taxes and on the other side the
company also helps in generating the employment opportunities to the people who are
unemployed.
 Social factors- This the most difficult and important factor for the company as it deals in
consumers products and the demands of consumers keeps on changing(Villar and
Miralles, 2021). Unilever is operating its business in different countries and they have to
satisfy the needs of every consumer by producing the product which they will like. In
different countries each consumer have differ demands which the company has to fulfil
otherwise they can shift to other companies.
 Technological factors- Technologies in the business of Unilever can be used only in the
production of products because this helps in reducing the cost in the production and helps
in improving the efficiency. Unilever uses the machines which are of high quality in the
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production and packaging of products and this helps in reducing the cost and helps in
earning more profits.
 Environmental factors- The company is focussing on the environment and following
the regulations of UN sustainability goals(Murphy, 2020). Unilever has decided to focus
on reusable and recyclable packaging which helps in reducing the pollution and impacts
less on the environment.
 Legal factors- Unilever is a big company and has to follow the rules and regulations has
abided by the laws of different countries. The company also has to save and protect its
patents because it is the tendency of the other companies who may take the use of patents
right of the companies such as Unilever(Cradock-Henr and Fountain, 2019).
Porter’s five forces-
Porter five forces is useful in identifying the competitors and how the company can
develop itself for the growth in the market.
 Bargaining power of customers- The power of customers is high in the case of Unilever
this is because the company is the largest manufacturer in selling the consumer goods in
the market(Rahman, Billah and Hack‐Polay, 2019). The company might raise the prices
of the products because of the quality in the products but consumers check in every
perspective whether it is price or other thing.
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 Bargaining power of suppliers- The company has always provided its name with trust
and loyalty and suppliers on the other hand are less in power(de Sousa Jabbour and et. al.,
2018). This is because the company deals in products in which the raw materials which
are used in the production of the products can be taken by any other supplier.
 Threat of new entry- Unilever is a big company which has established its business in
different countries and the company which establishes its business which is similar in the
business line has to beat the competition and have to make itself biggest company then
only it is possible to beat Unilever. Thus, the power of new entrants compared with
Unilever is less.
 Threat of substitutes- Consumers first purchasing the product check the price at which it
is sold and then the quality of the product(van Assen, 2020). This time if the other
companies are selling the products at cheaper price may shift the consumer towards them
but those consumers who are using the Unilever products first might check the quality.
 Competitive rivalry- Unilever is a big company and so also the competition is high in
the market because other companies which are as big as Unilever are selling the quality
products and that too at less prices. This becomes very important for the company to
make some new innovations in the products and with some attractive strategies which
bounds the consumers to use their products.
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Comparison of two models in depth
Changes and improvement in the company products or in the daily activities is important
because this helps towards the growth of the company and leads to gain competitive advantage in
the market.
Continuous improvement and innovation-
Continuous improvement in the organisation refers to making changes which are fruitful
and is helpful for achieving the objectives which are important for reducing the costs and to
improve the quality in the products which the company is producing.
Innovation is the ability to make something new which is different and unique compared
with that of others. Unilever have launched different products which are different in the nature as
provided by other big companies.
Contrast continuous improvement and innovation can be explained by following terms in context
with the company-
 Effect- The effects which the continuous improvement makes on the company
performance is always long lasting and the effect also last very long because any
company do the changes to bring good and long improvements(Vogel and Olivier, 2019).
On the other hand, innovation is always for small time and does not last for long because
Unilever have made innovations in many products but it is new for some time only.
 Involvement- Involvement requires the involving every person at every stage and in
continuous improvement top management is involves in making the decisions which has
been undertaken by Unilever superiors. On the other hand, innovation is made by
particular people only which are involved in product designing.
 Approach- Making changes or improvement in the company is the efforts of group and
thinking collectively by people. Innovation is the individualistic approach which has been
developed by the individually.
 Investment- Unilever makes the improvement in their strategies which does not requires
high investment but in innovating products it requires high investment by the companies.
 Resource orientation- Unilever makes the improvements in which the employees plays
the major role in making the improvements and the innovations requires the technology
because of which the innovation can be made.
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 Suitability- Improvement in the organisations is required in those economies which are
slow in the growth and innovation is always required in the emerging or fast growing
economies.
Change cycle
Change curve is the model which is used to express the emotions which people feel when they
have to experience a change.
 Denial- In the beginning consumers usually deny the change which they have to see in
the products. Because people are usual in using the products with the older features and
all of a sudden when new things are provided to them they does not accept it.
 Resistance- When the product begins to expand in the product people become angry
because of the change and resist to accept it(Baby, Gale and Swain, 2018). They think it
to be a negative change which they does not want to accept.
 Acceptance- After some time people begin to accept the product because of the quality
and new features which the company have worked on. They start thinking that they must
use the product for once and see if it is useful or not.
 Exploration- This is the step in which individuals start projecting themselves and they
start planning for different situations and solve the issues if they identify any.
 Commitment- Now as the people have accepted the things they start the new planning
and the change which they have faced is normal to them(Rookwood, 2020).
 Growth- Individuals starts growing with the change which they have faced as this will
make them new and develop positivity.
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Organisational life cycle and innovation
Organisation has also its lifecycle in which it starts to grow and bring it to the level of success.
The stages at which the organisation work is mentioned below in context with Unilever-
 Entrepreneurial stage- In this the company is new and has to develop the strategies which
will be useful in attaining the success. Unilever in the initial time has to work a lot in
identifying the opportunities and the solutions for solving all the issues.
 Collective stage- In this stage the structure of the organisation has been developed and it is
the responsibility of the manager to introduce some innovation inside the company also the
goals of the company are set up(Cuttance, 2020). Unilever has a flexible structure in which
the managers of the company try to build some control.
 Formalization stage- In this stage management and structure of the organisation begins
from informal to more formal and communication is also not flexible but formal.
Unilever also in this stage utilized the procedures and develop more flexibility and does
not provide restrictions to the employees in their work.
 Elaboration stage- In this stage the company have to make some changes whether in the
innovation or in communication otherwise the company will fail. Unilever have
developed the management and the people effectively and the communication is also
flexible including the innovation which can be seen in the products.
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Comparison of two models-
The changes which are undertaken in the organisations is essential and Kurt Lewin’s change
model helped in understating the changes in the organisations(Duberry, 2020).
Kurt Lewin’s Model-
The change in the organisation can be understood with the help of this model in context
with Unilever-
 Unfreezing- It involves the changes which is the most important part in the organisations
but people who work does not want to accept this change(Gimpel and et. al., 2020). In this
step people who are working in the organisations have to leave their comfort zone and have
to adopt new style of doing the work. Unilever have also brought different changes in the
products or in the management so that they can grow and have acknowledged the employees
to know why the change in necessary. In this communication is very important and that too
effectively which gets the knowledge of people working in the company.
 Change- In this stage the employees have accepted the changes and they are working with
the new policies. Communication play the major role and Unilever have developed effective
planning which is required for the changes that have been build and leaders plays the
effective role in motivating the employees. But it was difficult for the managers and the
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leaders because changes are new to the employees and each person fears to adopt the
changes.
 Freeze- Now the employees are stable with the new changes that have been implemented in
the organisation. They are ready to adopt the change and work according to the new rules
which have been developed in time(Saleh and Mujahiddin, 2020). Effective planning is
developed and by which employees work hardly to bring success for the company. Unilever
have brought different changes as the demands of the consumers keeps on changing and for
this the company has to change the working style.
Project management approach
Change management is to develop new planning and the execution to develop the current
activities of the company into future activities. Adam have provided the different blocks or
barrier which creates for making changes in the organisations.
Knowledge management, knowledge tracking and knowledge migration
 Perceptual block- In this the manager is inefficient to identify the problems which is
coming in the way of making change process. This might include change in the perspective,
or being stereotype or seeing the problem from narrow approach (van Stolk and Hafner,
2020). Unilever communicates the manager whenever they introduce changes in the
organisation.
 Emotional blocks- This includes that the manager is not ready to take the risks and having
old approach for solving the change problems. If any problem arises the manager does not
want to give any idea because it might occur to be silly. Unilever have very flexible
approach in the decision making and no manager perceive such blocks.
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 Cultural blocks- This includes using tradition methods for solving the problems or to focus
on the things for much time which is not providing any result. It basically involves the
culture biasness which the manager considers but in Unilever no such consideration is bring
adopted.
 Environment blocks- It includes lack of support which the employees might have to face
because they does not receive from the senior managers(De Oliveira, Cavazotte and Alan
Dunzer, 2019). Or some might not be able to go with the criticism which has to be faced by
every person in the company.
 Mental blocks- This includes the knowledge and the ideas which are different and
inappropriate. This results in poor decision making for the organisation objectives but in the
case of Unilever there are senior managers who help the people if they are facing such
issues.
Leadership theories
Transformational leadership-
Transformational leadership is a theory of leadership in which leader works with their teams in
order to identify the areas where there is a need for change. With the help of inspiration they
create a vision in order to guide the change(Dhanani, 2019). They will execute the change in
tandem with the members of their team so that the members can also give contribution in the
change and also can accept the change without a problem. This helps the leader to motivate their
followers and inspire them with their capabilities. It gives the member the authority to take
decisions once their training is completed. The involvement leader in any specific task will only
be their when the member is stuck and needed the help, otherwise the leader will not interfere in
each and every step of the task and will make sure that the member has the freedom to do the
task according to the decisions they take (Heeks, 2020). Transformational leadership helps in
enhancing the job performance, morale ans motivation of the followers. There are four types of
behaviour of a leader such as idealize influence, intellectual stimulation, individual
consideration, inspirational motivation. In context to Unilever, the leaders of the company follow
transformational leadership as they want to inspire their followers and want to enhance their
abilities. They challenge their followers to take responsibility of their work which will help them
to understand their strengths and weaknesses. It will enhance the loyalty, commitment,
involvement and performance of the followers.
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Hersey and Blanchard theory-
In reaction to Blake and Mouton’s behavioural leadership approach, Hersey and Blanchard
develop a theory of situational leadership(Gonçalves, Navarro and Sala, 2019). This theory
suggest that the qualities and capabilities of a leader are affected by the situation and the
circumstances in which leaders are. They argued that the abilities of leader depends upon
situational factors and by analyzing, recognizing and understanding these factors the abilities of
leader to lead their followers will enhance and will able to lead their followers successfully. If
these factors are ignored the leader will not be able to lead their teams effectively and efficiently
without any stress (Davis and Rhodes, 2020). The four leadership styles that Hersey and
Blanchard came up with are telling, selling, participating and delegating. These four leadership
styles will help the leader to cope up with the different stages of followers such as Task
Readiness and Psychological Readiness. In context to Unilever they make sure that the
leadership styles of their leaders are dynamic and changes according the demand of the situation.
They make sure that the leader’s leadership style should be modify according to the ability and
willingness of their followers.
 Task Readiness: It refers to the ability of the follower to deliver the task that has been
asked them to perform(Núñez-Ríos, Sánchez-García and Tejeida-Padilla, 2020). It can also
be called as task development as the abilities of the followers will develop throughout time.
 Psychological Readiness: this refers to the degree up to which the follower is ready to take
the responsibility of their tasks. This will be affected by the aspects such as energy,
motivation and confidence in the ability of followers.
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Use Mendelow’s method and the stakeholder analysis with the cause and effect
The two models which are helpful to senior managers for making changes in the company
have been mentioned below-
Mendelow’s Matrix of stakeholder analysis- According to this theory, the stakeholders of the
organisations are based on Power and Influence by which they function in the company.
Similarly, Unilever also have stakeholders and their analysis has been done below-
 Grid A- In this the stakeholder has low power and interest on the decision making of the
companies(Grzegorczyk, 2020). Customers comes under this group and with the power
they are less powerful until and unless they go against the company and they are less
interested about the decisions which are taking place in the company. In Unilever also
consumers are less powerful and have less interest.
 Grid B- In this the stakeholder has high interest but low power and the employees are the
one in Unilever who comes under this category(Kremez, Frazer and Thaichon, 2019).
Employees are the one who are always curious about the business and their promotions
which can impact their job and working.
 Grid C- Stakeholder’s have high power but low interest and Government comes under this
grid for Unilever(Cortes and Herrmann, 2020). This is most obvious that government have
hug power and they can close the company if they does not adhere to rules and on the other
side less interest on what is going in company.
 Grid D- This has high power and high interest and in this shareholders plays the major role.
Shareholders are the one who are interested in what is going on in the company operations
because they have invested their money and similarly have high powers to make any
decisions which they think is suitable.
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Total quality management-
Quality refers to the standard which has to be present in either the products which the
company is selling or in managing the activities of the company which needs to be qualitative.
Total management means to manage the whole activities of the company including the products
which they are selling and managing the whole organisation (Vashishth, Chakraborty and
Antony, 2019). Unilever quality is determined form their customers who give them the actual
feedback of quality in the products and services which the company provides. Employees are the
one who helps in the accomplishment of the objectives and strategic approach helps the company
to build and plan their strategies which was beneficial for Unilever and customers are also
satisfied with the products which are sole by the company(Abdel-Fattah, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that change in the organisation is necessary
because it helps to adopt new technologies and with the change in strategies and objectives the
company is able to survive in the market. Change might not be accepted by the people who are
working in the company and for this management becomes very important which has to be
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undertaken by the leaders and the mangers. Customers demands also changes and for this it
becomes the prior importance for the companies to make changes which will help in satisfying
the need and demands of the people.
References:
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Núñez-Ríos, J.E., Sánchez-García, J.Y. and Tejeida-Padilla, R., 2020. Human capital
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