Understanding and Leading Change in Organizations | Desklib

This report by Desklib covers the impact of change on organizational strategy and operations, ways to minimize negative impacts, and leadership approaches to deal with change. It includes a comparison of different organizational examples, evaluation of internal and external drivers of change, measures to minimize negative impacts, and barriers for change. The report also discusses Kotter's Eight step Change Management Model, force field analysis, and driving forces of change. The subject is change management, and the course code and college/university are not mentioned.

Understanding and Leading Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change on
an organisational strategy and operations...................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership,
individual and team behaviours within organisation..................................................................4
P3 Determines the ways to minimise negative impacts of change on organisation behaviours. 6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership decision
making in Organisation...............................................................................................................8
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in Organisation.................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Change is important for companies as without change business losses their competitive
advantage and unable to meet the needs of customer. The change brings growth opportunities for
organisations by producing new ideas and increasing commitment. It is a complex process that
brings transformation and alteration in overall working environment of company (Nelson‐
Brantley and Ford, 2017). The change management process includes change in strategy,
technology, hiring new employees, introducing new products and services, changing the way of
selling and producing products and closing down departments. COVID 19 has created a great
impact on the business activities of organisation due to which they face severe loss. It is a public
limited company that sells sportswear accessories and clothing. The project is based on
understanding and leading change in which the impact of change on an organisational strategy
and the ways in which internal and external drivers can affect individual, leadership and team
behaviour with company. The report also covers the method to minimise the negative impacts of
change, barriers for change and different approaches of leadership to deal with change.
TASK 1
P1 Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change on an
organisational strategy and operations
Organisational change includes the action which is taken by company in order to change
their culture, technologies and internal process. There are various types of organisational change
such as mission change, strategic change, operational change and technological change.
Organisation change is important in business as it helps in growing and succeeding in market
(Espedal, 2017). The Organisational change can be occur due to governmental policies, social
changes, changes in market demand, change in technology and competitive innovation.
Comparison of JD Sports and Zumiez
Basis JD Sports Zumiez
Overview JD Sports is a British sports
fashion retail company in
England that deals in clothing
and sportswear accessories. It
Zumiez is an American
clothing company which deals
in clothing, jewellery and
sports accessories.

is a fashion-sports retail
business which was founded in
1981 by John Wardle and
David Makin.
Changes occur JD Sports implements various
changes due to COVID 19
such as changes in HR Policy,
way of working, hiring process
and going digitally.
Zumiez mainly focused on
changing its operation
activities such as they have
added extra security check up
while entering into outlet.
Aim The aim of JD Sports is to
meet the targets by focusing
on health and safety of
employees and customer in
COVID 19.
Aim of Zumiez is to fulfil the
need and demand of customer
and employees for improving
the growth and profitability of
business.
Product or Services JD Sports offers clothing and
sports wear accessories to their
customer by maintaining
proper safety due to crisis.
Zumiez provides clothing,
jewellery, centering on action
sports such as BMX,
motocross, skateboarding and
snowboarding.
TASK 2
P2 Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership,
individual and team behaviours within organisation
JD Sports has implemented various changes in organisation due to COVID 19, they make
changes in HR Policy, new ways of working, going digitally and virtual events will continue.
Change Internal
and
External
Impact on
leadership
Behaviour
Impact on team
behaviour
Impact on
individual
behaviour
Measures to
Minimise
negative
impacts

HR Policy Internal
drivers
The new HR Policy
creates a huge
impact on leadership
behaviour as leaders
have to
communicate to
their followers and
work accordingly.
The human resource
department of JD
Sports focuses on
changing the HR
policy so that their
employees gets
benefits during
COVID 19 and work
with safety at the
time of pandemic.
The behaviour of
team also get
changed due to
implementing
new HR Policy as
it helps in
encouraging
positive working
environment in
pandemic and
also they get
opportunity to
work remotely.
The
individual
behaviour
also get
influenced by
HR Policies
as employees
can avail the
benefits of
health and
leave
policies.
The negative
impacts while
implementing
HR Policy can
be minimised
by
communicating
reasons for
change and
offering them
opportunities
for output.
Going
Digitally
External
drivers
Going Digitally
affects the
leadership behaviour
of JD Sports as
leaders can save
their time by
viewing the number
of task achieved by
employees in real
time.
Going digitally
creates an impact
on team
behaviour as they
have to
communicate and
interact with
employees and
customers
digitally.
It also creates
a positive
impact on the
individual
behaviour as
they can
create a
social bond
with
employees
and stay
connected at
the time of
The negative
impact of
digital
technology can
be minimised
by monitoring
and limiting the
use of
technology.

COVID 19.
Virtual
events
External
drivers
Virtual events also
influences the
leadership behaviour
as they have to
encourage and boost
the motivation level
of employees at the
time of pandemic so
that they can
contribute their
productive output.
Virtual events
also creates a
huge impact on
team behaviour as
they have to keep
their online
customer and
employees
focussed so that
JD Sports can
discussed their
business strategy
and activities in
COVID 19.
The virtual
events also
influences
the individual
behaviour as
they have to
attend the
online
meeting and
accomplish
their task
virtually. The
employees
have to give
their best
performance
while
interacting
with
customer and
increase the
sale of JD
Sports.
In order to
minimise the
negative impact
of virtual
events it is
necessary to
plan the
meetings and
encourage
employees to
participate in
virtual events
and give their
valuable
suggestions.
P3 Determines the ways to minimise negative impacts of change on organisation behaviours
Measures to minimise negative impact on JD Sports
Participation of employees:
It is one of the way through which company can reduce the negative impact of changes in
JD Sports. While implementing the change it is necessary to involve their employees so that they

can produce their thoughts and opinion in meeting (Nadim and Singh, 2019). The leaders of JD
Sports must encourage their staff to participate in decision-making process as it helps in making
them important part of JD Sports.
Address the impacts of changes:
The manager of JD Sports must ensure that their employees must know the impact of
changes. It is the responsibility of managers to provide clear information of changes and their
impact on organisation and individual whether positive or negative.
Define the changes:
The new changes in COVID 19 must be define to employees in order to minimise the
conflicts and reduce the miscommunication between employees and managers. Manager of JD
Sports must state the changes in clear manner so that they can know the need of change and how
to implement the changes.
Kotter's Eight step Change Management Model
Kotter's Eight step Change Management Model is used by company in order to introduce
the changes in business. The manager of JD Sports must understand each stage of model for
implementing and designing the change. There are eight step of change management model they
are as follows:
Create a Sense of Urgency:
In JD Sports, manager has to identify why the change is necessary, they must highlight
the potential threats regarding the changes in future (Alavi and Gill, 2017). It is the
responsibility of manager to involve employees in decision making process so that they can
know what the changes are taking place in pandemic.
Build the Change team:
JD Sports must build strong team in order to implement the change process in effective
and efficient manner. The manager must identify the right skills and personality of employees
that can drive change within Organisation. They must create powerful change coalition that can
work as a team and ensure that there must be influential staff from various departments.
Form a strategic vision:
The manager must develop strategic vision by determining the core values and strategies
for realising the change. It is necessary to describe the vision effectively so that employees can
work with concentration and dedication to achieve the goals and objectives of JD Sports.

Communicate the vision:
It is essential to communicate the change in vision to their employees so that they can
connect with vision and aims to achieve it. The manager of JD Sports must handle the issues of
employees with involvement and honesty.
Remove barriers to change:
JD Sports must ensure that the process and structure of business must be aligned with
their vision. It is necessary to check the barriers that could create an impact on changing the HR
Policy and working style of JD Sports.
Focus on short-term wins:
Organisation must focus on creating short term wins in change management process by
creating short term targets and achieve it in early stage of change (Hughes, 2016). JD Sports
must reward employees on the basis of their contributions and performance.
Maintain momentum:
JD Sport must focus on continuous improvement by analysing the past experience and
making changes accordingly in order to gain success. It is important to improve the individual
performance so that they can contribute their best and perform better in Organisation.
Anchor change in corporate culture:
Company must ensure that change becomes important part in working culture and visible
in every organisational aspect. JD Sports must gain support from their staff to implement the
effective change management process.
TASK 3
P4 Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership decision
making in Organisation
COVID 19 brings a negative impact on business due to which they are implementing
change management process for sustaining in Market for long run. JD Sports also adapts change
management in order to provide better quality of products and services to its customer by adding
safety measures (Eoyang and Holladay, 2020). Company is focusing on providing products and
services that doesn't harm the customers. In order to understand the change management process
in effective manner Force field model is implemented through which JD Sports can identify the
root of causes and take action accordingly. The model was developed by Kurt Lewin which was

used in businesses for communicating and making decisions related to company. JD Sports must
implement force field analysis by describing the plan for change, identifying forces for change,
forces against change, assign scores and apply the model. Through force field analysis, company
can encourage the honest reflection on underlying roots of problem and its situation. The
analysis present the negatives as well as positive of situation so that they can easily comparable
and it also considers the aspects of making desired change (Coruzzi, 2020). JD Sports must
conduct force field analysis by brainstorming all possible forces inside and outside the company
that helps in working for and against the solution, assess the strength of each forces, place the
forces in force field and discuss how to increase the forces for change. Force field analysis helps
in providing framework for addressing complex process. The Changes which is implemented by
JD Sports during COVID 19 are changes in HR policy, way of working, hiring policies.
Different barriers for Change
Lack of Confidence:
Lack of Confidence is one of the barrier for change that can create a huge impact on
decision making of leadership. Employees generally do not trust on changes implemented by
manager, their resistance to change is a barrier for JD Sports (Bipp and Demerouti, 2015) . The
leaders of company must encourage their employees to participate in change management
process and support them as their resistance can affect the decision making of leaders in
pandemic.
Fear of Failure:
Fear of failure is another barrier for change as employees will not support the change
when they are not confident in their abilities to adapt the changes. The leaders of JD Group must
provide tools to their employees for making changes and handling transition. The decision
making of leaders also get affected when employees have fear of failure. Thus, it is necessary to
provide training and development opportunities to staff so that they can adapt the change
process.
Poor Communication:
Poor Communication is also a factor of resistance to change as it is necessary to have
active conversation for implementing effective change management process (Mulki, Caemmerer
and Heggde, 2015). Poor communication also influences the decision making of leaders as it is

essential to make change communication plan by including the announcement of change, one on
one meetings, methods for gathering feedback and organise small group discussions.
Driving forces of Change
JD Sports has different organisational structure which is developed for accomplishing
business goals and objectives. Driving forces includes the things, events and situations that could
influence the operating activities of business. Driving forces are divided into two parts they are
internal and external forces. The Internal forces includes the situations, events and things that
takes place within company. It includes strategic, structural, process oriented, employee morale
and technological Change. External forces includes things, events and situations which occurs
outside the JD Sports it involves changes in technology, customer requirement and competition.
The driving forces can be managed with reactive and proactive approach. In reactive approach
leaders will see and wait for the hope that change will pass quickly (Al-Ali and et. al., 2017).
The changes due to COVID 19 makes employees uncomfortable and hard to see the possibility
of benefits that may arise. In proactive approach managers focuses on preparing and anticipating
the change by minimising the threat and risk associated by implementing changes in COVID 19.
Ways to Overcome Barriers for Change
Collects feedback of employees before change:
It is one of the way for overcoming the barriers of change, employees usually get resist to
change when they believe that their suggestions doesn't matter. The manager of JD Sports must
run surveys and collects feedback so that they can know how they feel about the changes and
how they can make the process easier.
Involve employees in Change management plan:
It is important for JD Sports to involve employees in change management process so that
they feel valuable and their opinion matters in decision making process. There must be an active
participation of employees while implementing changes in Crisis.
JD Group can achieve the goals and objectives by encouraging and boosting the morale
and confidence of staff so that they can contribute their best efforts in accomplishing the
business goals and adapt new changes in company.

TASK 4
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in Organisation
Leadership is an activity of influencing and guiding employees of an organisation in order
to improve their performance and efficiency. It is a potential to influence staff and group towards
the realisation of goal. Leadership is a group process that interacts with each other and shapes the
behaviour towards accomplishing organisational goals. Leaders of JD Sports ensure that their
employees must remain motivated while working in company so that they can contribute their
best in effective and efficient manner (Steigenberger, 2015). They mainly focus on building
confidence among staff by encouraging and boosting their morale. JD Group has implemented
change process in COVID 19 situation in order to run the business in smooth and effective
manner. Company is committed towards maintaining safe shopping experiences by offering
products and services on online channel for increasing the sale and growth of business. The HR
Policy of JD Sports also changed due to pandemic as employees were working remotely due to
government restrictions. Organisation is also hiring employees remotely by identifying the skills
and competencies of staff. The main motive of JD Sports is to ensure the employee safety and
continue the business by focusing on their safety and health. In Post COVID 19 Era Company is
focusing on reimagine work practices, reskilling the workforce and reconstructing the workplace
and culture. There are few different leadership approaches which can be implemented by JD
Sports while dealing with change.
Participative leadership style:
Participative leadership style is one of the approaches which can be implemented by JD
Sports while dealing with change management. Company must focus on involving their
employees in decision making process related to implementing any changes. Leaders must
encourage their staff to involve in business activities and give there productive suggestions for
implementing changes. The employees of JD Sports are working from home in pandemic due to
which it is necessary to determine the changes so that they can accept the workplace culture and
policies. In Participative leadership style, leaders empower staff by trusting them to work
according to them and give their productive outcomes.
Transactional Leadership:
Transactional leadership is another approach which can be used by leaders of JD Sports
in order to deal with the change due to COVID 19. The leaders reward their employees on the

basis of their performance and work. They usually focus on particular task and reward their staff
in order to motivate and boost their morale. JD Sports also monitor their employees carefully to
reward success, punish failure and enforce rules. In COVID 19, workers are unable to give their
best performance due to pressure and stress. So, transactional leadership is one of the suitable
approach through which short term goals can be accomplished quickly and employees results are
being rewarded.
Autocratic leadership:
Autocratic leadership is also an approach of leadership which can help JD Sports to deal
with changes. In autocratic leadership, leaders have power and authority and instruct employees
what to do, how to do, when to do, etc. They rely on specific policies, rules and procedures to
govern all the process and changes within workplace (Kroll and Pasha, 2021). Through
autocratic leadership decision can be made quickly and it also helps in improving
communication between leaders and subordinates. The approach can be helpful in implementing
the changes in effective and efficient manner as leaders give command and followers have to
follow the instructions.
JD Sports must implement participative leadership approach as it encourages
collaboration and facilitates free flow of ideas. The team members of organisation also feel
valued and perform better in organisation by accomplishing its goals and objectives. Through
implementing participative leadership helps in increasing the morale of employees and also
improve their effectiveness and efficiency. The approach aims to deal with changes in pandemic
as it encourages the staff to participate in decision making process and give their valuable
suggestions. The model which helps in implementing changes in successful manner is Lewin
Change Management Model. It is easy and simple model which helps in managing and
understanding the organisational change. Lewin believes that change for individual and
organisation is complex journey which includes different stages of misunderstanding before
accomplishing the stage of stability. The model was developed for evaluating two areas such as
change process in organisational environment and how the status-quo could be challenge to
implement effective changes. There are three stages of changes they are as follows:
Unfreezing:
The first step of change is preparing employees to accept the changes which includes
breaking down the task and activities for building up new way of operating business. In order to

describe the unfreezing change firstly the need for change must be ascertained, company must
also gathered the support, develop the strategy to communicate need for change and manage any
uncertainties. JD Sports must need support of their employees for implementing the new HR
Policy and working with safety and health precautions.
Change:
In transition stage, employees are ready to move towards the desired change, they are
uncertain about the future and adjust with changes. For managing the change stage it is necessary
to communicate the employees consistently, encourage action and engage people. The managers
of JD Sports must support their staff on regular basis by answering their queries and issues
related to change in pandemic.
Refreezing:
Refreezing means institutionalizing and reinforcing the desired changes by implementing
the refreezing stage a new sense of stability in employees are created due to which they feel
confident, become comfortable and form new relationships. Refreezing stage includes four steps
such as embed changes, plan to sustain change, provide support and celebrate success.
By applying the above model, JD Sports can implement the change in successful and
effective manner through which they can gain competitive advantage and sustain in market for
long run. The main purpose of implementing this model is that company can understand how
changes can occurs by observing the social behaviour among individual and group. The Lewin
Change Management Model focuses on behaviour and people can catch the concept easily.

CONCLUSION
From the above information it is being identified that COVID 19 has created a positive as
well as negative impact on the performance and efficiency of business. The positive impact of
COVD 19 is that company has adopt digital technology in order to attract more customer
towards the brand. The negative impact of pandemic is that organisation has faced severe loss
due to crisis due to which many companies shut their business. Due to pandemic, company has
changed various their way of working. They started to work remotely in order to sustain in
Market in crisis. There are various models which is applied by organisation for changing the
business activities and working successfully. JD Sports implements various leadership style
which helps in improving the performance and growth of business in pandemic.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al-Ali, A .A and et. al., 2017. Change management through leadership: the mediating role of
organizational culture. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Alavi, S. B. and Gill, C., 2017. Leading change authentically: How authentic leaders influence
follower responses to complex change. Journal of Leadership & Organizational
Studies, 24(2), pp.157-171.
Bipp, T. and Demerouti, E., 2015. Which employees craft their jobs and how? Basic dimensions
of personality and employees' job crafting behaviour. Journal of Occupational and
Organizational Psychology, 88(4), pp.631-655.
Coruzzi, C. A., 2020. Leading Change With Intelligence: The Power of Diagnosis in Creating
Organizational Renewal. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 56(4), pp.420-436.
Eoyang, G. H. and Holladay, R. J., 2020. 9. Leading Change. In Adaptive Action (pp. 146-159).
Stanford University Press.
Espedal, B., 2017. Understanding how balancing autonomy and power might occur in leading
organizational change. European Management Journal, 35(2), pp.155-163.
Hughes, M., 2016. Leading changes: Why transformation explanations fail. Leadership, 12(4),
pp.449-469.
Kroll, A. and Pasha, O., 2021. Managing change and mitigating reform cynicism. Public Money
& Management, 41(5), pp.395-403.
Mulki, J. P., Caemmerer, B. and Heggde, G. S., 2015. Leadership style, salesperson's work effort
and job performance: the influence of power distance. Journal of Personal Selling &
Sales Management, 35(1), pp.3-22.
Nadim, A. and Singh, P., 2019. Leading change for success: embracing resistance. European
Business Review.
Nelson‐Brantley, H. V. and Ford, D. J., 2017. Leading change: a concept analysis. Journal of
advanced nursing, 73(4), pp.834-846.
Steigenberger, N., 2015. Emotions in sensemaking: A change management perspective. Journal
of Organizational Change Management.