BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING AND LEADING CHANGE

This assignment explores the impact of change on organizational strategy and operations, evaluates internal and external drivers of change, and provides measures to minimize negative impacts. It also discusses leadership decision-making barriers, leadership approaches, and leading change using models like Kotter's and Lewin's.

BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING AND LEADING CHANGE

Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................3
Task 1: Managing the Impact of Change...............................................................................4
P1: Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change
on an organisation’s strategy and operations.........................................................................4
P2: Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership,
team and individual behaviours within an organisation.........................................................5
P3: Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on
organisational behaviour........................................................................................................6
M1: Assess the different drivers for change in each of the given examples and the types of
organisational change they have affected..............................................................................7
Task 2: Leadership Decision Making....................................................................................7
P4: Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership
decision-making in a given organisational context................................................................7
M3: Use force field analysis to analyse the driving and resisting forces and show how they
influence decision-making...................................................................................................10
Task 3: Leading Change.......................................................................................................13
P5: Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of
organizational contexts.........................................................................................................13
M4: Evaluate the extent to which leadership approaches can deliver organizational change
effectively applying appropriate models and frameworks...................................................15
Conclusion............................................................................................................................17
Reference list........................................................................................................................18

Introduction
The alteration in the management of the organization can take place due to the changes in the
global market. In order to cope up with the global market change the organizations need to
implement several strategies to improve its growth. The assignment is done to evaluate the
aspects that can affect the organizational structure and its impacts. The assignment provides
brief understanding about the changing environment as well as it provides several theories to
support the changes in the managerial functions. The assignment includes external and
internal factors of Microsoft and Apple Inc. A PESTLE and SWOT analysis is conducted on
both of the organizations that can support the alteration of leadership and management style.
The several approaches are defined in this assignment as well within the context of
organizations.

Task 1: Managing the Impact of Change
P1: Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of
change on an organisation’s strategy and operations
The small and large firms are experiencing several changes in the recent situation of the
market. Globalization is providing opportunities to the firms for the growth of the
organization. The employees of the organizations need to understand the diverse market and
its variation for improving the organizational power (Rivero, 2014). The organizations
implement several strategies and operations that can assist to accomplish the organizational
objective faster and with efficiency. The outcome of the alteration in the organizational
strategies can be unpredictable. The companies need to efficiently implement the strategies
to experience the profit.
Significanc
e
The strategy of the organizations is implemented on the whole department.
The planning process of the strategies provides a guideline to the
employees that can assist to accomplish the objectives faster and with
efficiency. The alteration in the strategies can affect the organizational
operations as well. For example, Apple Inc and Microsoft are popular for
building strategies in a proper way to efficient the work process of the
employees. Both of the companies provide proper structure as well.
Process The strategies of corporate sector can be divided into four steps that can
support the alteration according to the recent situation. The four steps
include implementation, review, planning as well as monitoring. The first
phase is considered as the planning phase where the managerial
department builds various effective strategies that is oriented to the
organizational objectives. The phase includes research and testing as well
(Alavi and Gill, 2017). The next phase is implementation of the planning.
In this phase, a particular strategy is implemented after reviewing the
planning properly. The implementation requires manpower to understand
the task and execute it accordingly. The management team of the
organizations allocates the tasks to the employees according to their skill
set. The next step of the process is monitoring which is a continuous
process. In this step, the management team continuously supervises the
work process of the employees. Depending on the outcome, the
managerial team can alter the strategies to improve the efficiency. For

example, the management team of Apple Inc execute the strategies in a
proper way to efficient the work process which reflect in the products of
the company.
P2: Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect
leadership, team and individual behaviours within an organisation
Internal factors:
The working environment of the organizations can be directly affected by the internal factors.
Training materials, newsletters, policies as well as interpersonal relationship are the part of
the internal factor of the organization that influences the working process. The organizations
need to provide respect for individual employee that can assist to satisfy the employees. For
example, Microsoft and Apple Inc are popular for establishing proper work culture within the
work place that can efficient the work process of the employees and increase the productivity
as well (Robson et al., 2015). Both of the organizations provide proper instruction to
individual employee. The instructions assist the employees to increase the productivity and
the faster the work process to accomplish the organizational objectives efficiently. When the
management team provides proper assistance to the employee, the organization can
experience growth in the profit faster.
 Organizational structure: the recent operations of the organizations are directly
dependent upon the internal factors. The organizations divide its work force into
different segments depending upon the skill sets of the employees. The tasks are
allocated to different groups that can provide maximum efficiency. The organizational
structure can have huge impact on the working employees and their working process.
For example, Apple Inc utilizes the factor of organizational structure that can efficient
the working process of the employees as the company does not provide information
about the final product to individual employee.
 External factors: The external factors include the communication between the
authority of the organization and the consumers of the products. The external factor
plays a vital role to influence the image of the company. The organisation can
experience loss due to the reduction of the external audiences. The organizations need
to implement several sensitive communication strategies with the customers to
promote the brand image properly (Porter-O'Grady et al., 2014). The image of the
society can be impacted by the correspondence related to the professional factors and
the letter maintenance. It can be stated as an example that Apple Inc efficiently

establish communication with the customers and conduct feedback process to
understand the demand of the customers. The organization has developed a website
that provides all the information about the recent products.
 Economics: Economic condition of the organisation is considered as the most vital
part of the organizational success. The economic situation can affect the organisation
in different ways. For example, Apple Inc has experienced several complexities in
the organisational operation as the former CEO of the company, Steve Jobs passed
away. The situation affected the company negatively and Tim Cook was given the
post of CEO. Cook maintained the alteration in positive way which additionally
assists the company to improve its production.
P3: Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on
organisational behaviour.
The organizations need to implement proper new innovative strategies to tackle the alteration
in the global market. The marketing team of the organizations needs to provide proper
strategies to improve the working process of the employees (Agostino et al., 2013). The
strategies vary from organization to organization. However, individual organization is
focused on the final organizational objective.
Allocate different jobs to
different team
The company needs to divide its task between the different
groups depending on their skill sets. The organizations need
to provide brief description to the employees that can help
them to understand the strategies of implementing. For
example, the Apple Inc follows the organizational structure
strictly to allocate the tasks.
Innovative strategies of
communication
In order to establish efficient communication between the
employees and the customers, the organizations need to
implement several new strategies that can support the
communication process. The communication strategies assist
the company to improve its production level and its service
quality (Crane and Matten, 2016). For example, Micro Soft
Corporation and Apple Inc conduct several meetings to
communicate with the employees and improve the overall
production by understanding the strategies. The meetings
provide brief description about the strategies.

M1: Assess the different drivers for change in each of the given examples and the types
of organisational change they have affected
The work process of the company can be improved if the administration team of the
organization establishes efficient communication in the working environment. The
administration team of the organization needs to provide respect to individual employee. It
can motivate the workers to work efficiently (Wagner et al., 2014). For example, Micro Soft
and Apple Inc utilize several sensitive communication methods that can help the working
process. This approach assists both of the companies to maintain a proper brand image in the
global market. The professional correspondence as well as the maintenance of the letters can
help the companies to provide an efficient impact on the society.
Task 2: Leadership Decision Making
P4: Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership
decision-making in a given organisational context
There are several barriers that can affect the organization in the alteration situation of the
global market. The alteration in the global market can influence the decision making process
of the organization as well as its leadership style. The barriers of the alterations can be
divided on four parts depending on the organization which are Apple Inc and Micro Soft
Corporation. The divisions are described below:
Shortage of
knowledge
The shortage of knowledge is considered as the major obstacle for the
organizational decision making as it can hamper the effective participates of
young employees. The social as well as tribal status ignorance can affect the
decision making process of the young people in the society. The
organizations can experience several complexities due to lack of knowledge.
It can cause poor planning of leadership and building programs.
Meetings and
alterations
The managerial department of the organizations can make alteration in the
organizational strategies without informing rest of the employees. This can
create a chaos within the working environment. The sudden alterations can
hamper the working process as well (Henderson et al., 2015). When the
companies make certain changes within the operations of the working

process, the employees become clueless about the implementation of the
new strategy. This type of problem can occur as a barrier to the
organizations. For example, Apple Inc faced several problems as the former
CEO Steve Jobs passed away. The alteration in the new strategies has
affected the working process of Apple Inc.
Cultural
shortage
In case of Micro Soft Corporation, the organizational socio-cultural aspect
can affect the working environment of the company. The managerial
department of Microsoft and the high authority motive the employees to
work efficiently by showing appreciation to accomplish the objectives in
given time period. The internal communication process between the
employees is considered as moderate. However, the working environment is
too professional for the employees as they communicate on a ground level
regarding the tasks that are provided to them. The employees do not
communicate about their personal issues (Latham, 2013). The company
should conduct several programs to relax the situation and increase the
communication between the employees. The company provides
compensation to the employees as well as incentives to motive the workers.
On the other hand, the organization does not encourage social gathering that
the employees can enjoy. For this reason, the employees of the company are
detached from each other.
Geographica
l Barriers
The geographical barriers illustrate the geographical locations of the
companies. The statics shows that the organizations which are situated in
non popular places, the companies tend to experience loss due to the
location. The business purpose of the organization cannot be met due to this
factor. This barrier can affect the organizational image as well as its different
outlets.
The groups of the organization or individual employee can be a reason of leadership barrier.
The leadership style of the organization can be hampered for different reasons. The
organization needs to overcome these barriers by efficient skill, innovative concepts as well

as knowledge. There are several factors that can affect the organizational leadership style of
Apple Inc and Microsoft, which are:
Untrustworthines
s
The untrustworthiness of the leaders can negatively impact the
employees of the organization as well (Bushe and Marshak, 2016).
This trait of the leader can influence the employees not to obey them. A
successful leader of the organization needs to have efficient skills as
well as the information and knowledge that can assist the employees to
understand the objectives. The leaders need to have honesty and
integrity as well.
Arrogance Arrogance can be described as overconfidence of the leaders. The
informational flow of the organization needs to be standard that can
encourage the employees to work efficiently. Arrogance can negatively
impact the leadership style of the organization and it can reduce the
respect of the employees towards the leaders.
Disorganization The employees of the organization follow the leader as an example to
do the tasks. When a leader works faster to accomplish the objective it
can lead to disorganization as the work process comes to a stop.
Stubbornness The stubborn attitude of the leaders can have negative impact on the
employees. The stubborn attitude of the leaders can affect the decision
making process as well. A successful leader needs to maintain a
balance between communication and conversation to understand the
complexities of the work process and resolve the situation as soon as
possible.
Negativity Negativity is considered as the barrier of leadership traits as it can
negatively impact the employees of the organization. The leaders need
to have positive attitude towards the work process which can motivate
the employees to accomplish the objectives.

M3: Use force field analysis to analyse the driving and resisting forces and show how
they influence decision-making
PESTLE ANALYSIS:
In terms of Microsoft Corporation:
Political factor In order to increase the corresponding performance and other
investments of the company, maintaining the Political factor is taking a
vital role. Every company must develop Political stability in their
organization in order to making proper marketing investment (White and
Robinson, 2014). This factor is also a key factor of Microsoft
Corporation to gain the overall revenue.
Economic factor The Microsoft Corporation makes a lot benefits from the economic
stability in a major basis. On the other hand, this company also has a
great potential in order to increase sales in all the high-growth countries.
In addition, the economic factors are helping to increase sales of SMB
sales in Microsoft
Social factor The stable attitude of Microsoft Corporation also helps the company to
increase their productivity rate in the market. In addition, they also listen
to the customer about their product. For example, recently this company
is making huge investment in their gaming products as most of the
customers are recently focusing on most of the gaming products.
Technology
factor
On the other hand, Microsoft Corporation must introduce different
innovative technology in their Smartphone and tablet products. This way
company can make huge impact in the Smartphone industry.
Legal factor Legal factors are causing threat for Microsoft Corporation. The company
must maintain all the legal factors in their organization that way they can
increase their product image in the market. For example, Microsoft is
recently working on their electronic wastages with recycling process.
Environmental
factor
Microsoft Corporation always has the opportunity in order to increase
their sustainability performances of green products. For example,
recently Microsoft Corporation is utilising green energy as their
resources which also enable them to decrease environmental threat.

In terms of Apple Inc:
Political factor The political factor of Apple Inc is not that steady in terms of import and
export purposes. This company purchases their resources from different
places which also affect the company in political terms.
Economic factor The rate of the inflation is high in the company, as one of leading
company of the world the Apple Inc. is increasing their business very
fast.
Social factor In terms of social activity, Apple Inc. always communicates with local
authority to the government in terms of their current and future products
(Norman and Verganti, 2014). This also helps the company to retain all
their customers.
Technology
factor
In order to increase the rate of productivity, Apple Inc. always apply
different types of innovative technology in their organization. Thos also
attract more customers to purchase products from the company.
Legal factor The legal structure of the Apple inc. is very much strict and every
customer along with the employees always respects all kind of decisions
from the company. In addition, the company also maintain some key
legal frameworks in their organization such as, the act of Fire safety of
year 1988. In order to maintain this framework, the company must
introduce fire extinguisher and also build proper fire exit space, that way
every employee can get out the office in emergency.
Environmental
factor
Proper environment factors always taking vital place in terms of overall
income structure of the company. For example, if the company is using
internet connection within lower cost, then the company can reduce some
of their investment
SWOT ANALYSIS:
In terms of Microsoft Corporation:
Strengths  Brand Loyalty: Microsoft Corporation is one of largest software
company and operating system provider in all over the world. For
example, most of the desktop are running Windows Operating
System in the market and also providing one of most trusted
software’s to each and every customers.

 Brand reputation: This Company is considered as 5th most
valuable technology giant in the market and also leading their
revenue with 58 million dollars (Creasey et al., 2015). According to
the Forbes, Microsoft Corporation is the 7th most trustworthy
company in all over the world.
 Use of Software: Microsoft Office and Windows OS are the most
famous in all over the world. This company also providing all of the
facility to their customers with proper updates in all the software.
Opportunities  Cloud services: Microsoft Corporation recently working on the
cloud service with their famous “One drive” cloud service. With this
service they are also increasing the cloud market in all over the
world.
 Smartphone industry: In the current Smartphone industry,
Microsoft also taking huge part as they are providing lag free and
secure Windows OS in the Smartphone.
Weaknesses  Security flaws: One of key weakness of Microsoft Corporation is
the security issues in their Windows OS. Most of the users having
several security trouble with their operating system.
 PC markets: The current technology market, huge portion of users
is changing their desktop to the Apple desktop. For the security
reason, most of the company is now changing their desktop.
 Slow Invention: Microsoft Corporation is recently slowing their
invention on the technological market. Their old Windows OS still
the same, they haven’t change that much, which also affecting in
their sale.
Threats  Potential Lawsuits: Microsoft Corporation is already one of leading
organization in the market; still they can get different types of threats
from the some lawsuit issues.
 Changing consumer preferences: recently the desktop market is
moving to the Smartphone and laptop industry. In order to survive in
the market, Microsoft must work on their laptop products.

In terms of Apple Inc:
Strengths  Position of the leadership style
 Creative products
 Introduce innovative technology
 High profit ration in the company
 Brand reputation in the market
 Advertising capabilities
Weaknesses  Entire organization is depends on the selling of Smartphone products
 The company is totally dependent on the innovative technology
which is hard to invent sometime (Renko et al., 2015)
 Inappropriateness
Opportunities  the main opportunity of the company is to make innovative products
 proper development in fresh products
 Allocation in the network spreading of the company
Threats  Simulations
 Hostile competition in the organization
 Increasing the price of the products
Task 3: Leading Change
P5: Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of
organizational contexts.
In the recent business trends of the market, each and every business should change their
organizational strategy accordingly. Every organization should be prepared to face all kind of
changes in the market. Making changes to company goals is one of the main responsibilities
of a leader in an organization leader. Managers of an organization are also taking a key
position in order to manage the entire workforce. With maintaining all the key changes in the
market, entire working staffs along with managers and leaders have to focus on the
organizational structure.
In terms of Microsoft Corporation and Apple Inc, these two companies are now leading the
entire technological market in all over the world. Still both companies have to face some
issues within the organizational strategy (Goleman, 2014). In terms of Microsoft Corporation,
this company is recently facing huge challenges from the market, as lots of small companies

are entering in the Smartphone industry with Android OS. This change in market has affected
Microsoft badly, as they are failing to compete with all other companies. In order to change
the situation leaders of the company must introduce different types of innovative strategies.
On the other hand, Apple Inc also faced huge challenges when their previous CEO Steve Jobs
died. Current CEO Tim Cook takes all the responsibility of the company and controlled the
situation. With his innovative technical ideas and marketing strategy, Apple Inc is now the
leading company in Smartphone industry.
Some key leadership approaches which an organization should apply to deal with the changes
in the market are;
Situational
leadership
Consider a situation where the manager has assigned a task to one of his
team member that is not prepared to face the challenge at all. Then that
particular employee will be helpless and will de-motivate with the task.
In such cases the leaders of the company must know his/her entire
working staff properly, and should know the capabilities of them. With
understanding the capabilities, leaders can allocate all their team
members properly which will increase the efficiency of the company.
Transformationa
l Leadership
Transformational leadership style is one of key for an organization, as it
can increase the efficiency of the company in terms of achieving the
organizational objectives. Leaders of an organization must know how to
allocate a task to the team members. In this way, a leader can have better
understanding about the goals for the team members. With having proper
transformative leadership style, a leader can identify that the employees
are the most important for an organization (Smits and Bowden, 2015).
Therefore, leaders should encourage their employees with creative ideas
which also inspire all of them. The transformational leader also
distributes proper vision of organizational objectives to the members,
which motivates them to capitalize on the company's growth.
Transactional
Leadership
A transactional leadership style always focuses on management structure
over the workforce of the company. This type of leadership style is
completely based on the rewards and punishments of the employees.
This means, if an employee is working efficiently and providing a lot to
the current objective of the company then that employee will get rewards
from the company. On the other hand, if any employee is failing to

provide his skills to the organizational objective then he/she can be
punished by the company.
M4: Evaluate the extent to which leadership approaches can deliver organizational
change effectively applying appropriate models and frameworks
Kotter’s change model
In 1996, Harvard Business School’s professor John Kotter has introduced “8 step change
model” based on an investigation of 100 renowned organizations which were working on the
organizational changes. Those 8 change model are Creating Urgency, Strong guiding team,
developing suitable strategy, communicating the vision, Removing Obstacles, Building short-
term objectives, Consolidation gains, Anchoring changes among corporate culture.
Creating
Urgency
 Highlighting and rectifying all the potential threats which can
affect in the coming future.
 Investigating all the opportunities.
 Initiate proper discussions among leaders and employees about
organizational issues.
Strong guiding
team
 Construct strong guiding team in the organization.
 Identify fragile areas of the organization
Developing
suitable
strategy
 Explain the organizational objectives to the employees in a
positive way
 Define ultimate goal to the employee and also determine the value
of the organization in the market (Biddle et al., 2013)
Communicatin
g the vision
 Communicate with every working staff about the organizational
changes.
 Solve all the organizational issues in a proper way.
Removing
Obstacles
 Make sure that the organization has strong management strategy.
 Motivate employees by rewarding them.
Building short-
term objectives
 Build short-term objectives as it will make employees
comfortable.

Consolidation
gains
 Monitor the past of the company to build proper strategy.
Anchoring
changes
among
corporate
culture
 Make sure that all the organizational changes have become key
part of organizational culture.
Kurt Lewin’s change model
The Kurt Lewin;s change model actually provide strong decision making skills and proper
behavioural style to leaders of an organization. There are 3 different stages of this change
model;
 Unfreeze: The first stage of this change model is about getting prepared to the
changes. This stage should start with positivity and motivation in order to deal with
the changes. Changes: After creating the unfreeze stage, people start to solve all the uncertainty
and find for new ways of working.
 Refreeze: When all the changes are solving accordingly then the company became
stable.

Conclusion
This task provides an outline of change management within organizational changes along
with their effects. This task also describes various internal and external factors of Microsoft
Corporation and Apple Inc. In addition, the PESTLE and SWOT analysis for both companies
is discussed extensively to support the decision-making and management style of leaders.
This task also showed the change management model is important to identify the internal and
external factors in organizational changes. This task also provided several impacts on the
business environment with various models, for example Kurt Lewin's change model, Kotter’s
change model.

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