Contemporary Management Issues - Sainsbury's Response to Change Drivers

This study examines the contemporary management issues present in the current business environment, with a focus on Sainsbury's response to change drivers after acquiring Argos. It covers the impact of technological development, business growth, and more.

Contemporary
Management Issues

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Discuss how Sainsbury has responded towards the change drivers with consideration for the nature of
the pressures for change..........................................................................................................................4
Recommend how the organization can enhance its response.................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12
References.................................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
Contemporary management issues are the issues which have not been resolved yet and
put a tremendous impact on the people. In management, there are numerous issues are
encountered by managers. These issues are related to uncertainty about the future, wellbeing of
employees, shaping the culture of company, hiring and on boarding right employees and more.
It is important for the managers to prepare suitable strategies so that they can face the
contemporary issues efficiently. In addition to this, they need to anticipate of the issue and
prepare suitable policies accordingly (Imazio and et. al., 2017). Main aim of the present study is
to examine the contemporary issues present in the current business environment. The study is
based on the takeover of Agro by Sainsbury. Here, Sainsbury is the second largest supermarket
chain in UK. It offers groceries and general items such as clothes, home appliances, mobiles and
more. In 2016, Sainsbury acquired Agro with an aim to expand the business. This takeover
boost the sales of the entity by strengthened the production capacity efficiently. The study will
cover change drivers and their impact on strategic decision-making of the organization. In
addition, it will include the strategic response of Sainsbury to the change drivers. Further,
suitable recommendations have also been included in the report for the further growth and
enhancement.
Overview of takeover
Sainsbury is one of the largest retailers of UK. It offers variety of products in order to
offer wide range of choices to customers. The company was founded in . Sainsbury acquired
Agros in 2016 with an aim to offer wide range of products to customers. Main aim of the
expansion was to earn substantial amount of profit. The acquisition proved beneficial in terms of
improving the sales and minimizing the cost. It was noticed that Agros outlets were increasing
trading intensity within the company (Argos takeover boosts Sainsbury's trading, 2018).
However, Sainsbury cut 3500 jobs and closed nearly 420 stores of Argos in order to respond
towards change in customer demand and growth in online shopping (Sainsbury's to cut 3,500
jobs and close 420 Argos stores, 2020). As a result, Sainsbury needs to find alternative roles so
that they can appoint the staff on those positions. The agenda to takeover of Argos was to make
business more profitable and efficient.

Discuss how Sainsbury has responded towards the change drivers with consideration for the
nature of the pressures for change
Change drivers are the internal and external factors which cause changed in the current
business practices. It might include change in the strategy, plans, products, operations and more.
Sometimes, changes occur due to the internal factors such as management style, change in staff,
union etc. In addition to this, change in current organizational strategy also facilitates changes in
the entire working practices of an entity. On other side, changes can also occur due to the
external elements (Hafberg, Borinstein and Alexopoulos, 2019). Technological advancement,
business growth, expansion are some crucial reasons of changes. Additionally, external
environment has a major influence on the working practices of the business. It includes
numerous factors such as political, social, technological, demographic, legal and more. However,
it is not possible to control these factors but these elements put a significant impact on business
entity. The external situation easily gets change by modification in policies, norms and more.
These changes affect the business and cannot be controlled by business managers. To cope up
with the changes, it is imperative to understand the different change drivers. It helps to
understand the change driver that is affecting the company. Further, it allows managers to take
suitable steps in order to deal with the impact of changes within organization. In current
situation, Sainsbury is dealing with the changes due to takeover of Argos. This takeover affected
the operations of the entity profoundly. Now, company is required to address these change
drivers while taking decisions. Analysis of the change drivers will help in taking important
business decisions in order to improve strategic efficiency of the organization.
Technological Development: In current time, technological development has become an
essential requirement of a business. It is important to adopt creative and unique ways so that
business operations can be maintained in an efficient manner. In addition, technological
advancements are important in order to ensure competitive edge in current market place. It
allows a company to offer unique, different products to the customers. If a company needs to
survive in current competitive environment, it is imperative to adopt new, unique and advance
techniques. These techniques play an imperative role in ensuring growth of company (Veneris,
Mahajan and Frazier, 2020).

Technology is considered as one of crucial change driver. In current environment, several
changes are introduced in technology. The existing ways become obsolete and companies need
to embark advance methods to perform a particular task. It is crucial to understand the changes
coming in the technology so that organization can adopt efficient ways of production and
development (Brown and et. al., 2018). Technology is not something that has been evolved once
and can be used over the period of time. Here, advancements are introduced in technology over
the period of time. Also, it is vital for the business owners to understand these advancements and
work accordingly. Technological development is one of the crucial change drivers which
affected the business functions of Sainsbury. British Supermarket group Sainsbury acquired
Argos for 1.3 billion. This takeover accelerated the growth of the company by enlarging the
product category. Combining o these two companies will enlarge the product portfolio of the
company. It will make company enable to meet with requirements of customers with 2000 stores
and 100,000 products within the country. With this deal, Sainsbury was able to offer products to
customers online. Here, 25 million customers will be able to buy products online or using mobile
device (Sainsbury's bets on Argos takeover for digital age, 2021). Argos had a strong technical
infrastructure which helps company to offer products to buyers. In this situation, customers have
option to buy products in stores and online. It is considered as one of the most effective and
advanced online sales and delivery network in Britain. With the takeover, Sainsbury got benefit
of technology advancement of Argos. As a result, they implement online sales techniques in
business. In addition to this, the company started to take move towards technological
development. It strengthens the business presence of the organization and makes them enable to
meet with demand of customers in an efficient manner. In addition to this, the change in current
practices will also become a reason of resistance of employees. They are not likely to easily
adopt new business practices. However, technological advancement will make things easier. It
will help the company to undertake business practices effectively. According to the new trend set
by COVID-19, Sainsbury is embarking e-commerce practices and contactless shopping. It is
because of change in behavioral trends of the customers. For this purpose, they enhance the
technical infrastructure so that they can meet with changed requirements of the buyers.
Impact on strategic decision making: Technological development has profound
influence on the strategic decision making of Sainsbury. Now, they need to take decisions so that
they can drive positive results through technological changes. In addition to this, company keeps

an eye on technological advancements and take suitable decisions in order to ensure further
enlargement. It is analyzed that employees are not likely to work in a change environment. They
are comfortable with the existing work practices (Hrustek, Furjan and Pihir, 2019). In this
situation, Sainsbury take effective decisions so that employees get ready to work in an advanced
and enhanced environment. Now, the decisions of the company are affected by the technological
development and enhancement. Here, they consider ample of factors before taking the final
decision with an aim to drive positive outcomes through technical advancements.
Impact on Commercial and Operational activities: Commercial activities of each and
every company are the major source of revenue. It is related to perform daily activities so that an
organization can easily operate the business successfully (Backman, Verbeke and Schulz, 2017).
In present scenario, the Argos has been takeover by Sainsbury. Here, Argos is a well-known
catalogue retailer. It maintains the sales through physical and online medium. The takeover will
bring technological advancement in the Sainsbury that will further affect its operation and
commercial activities. With technological advancements, the company can easily sale their
products to customers via online medium. It will enlarge the existing profit and will allow
company to maintain large customer base. In addition, technological development will make the
organization enable to offer timely delivery of products to customers. Now, Sainsbury will
receive the order through online medium and also make sure that they can deliver the order
timely. Therefore, technology is a crucial change driver that put a profound impact on
commercial and operational activities of the respective business entity.
In response to the technology change, Sainsbury is modifying its current practices
accordingly. In this context, they have been adopted e-commerce and online shopping
techniques. They make sure to offer best possible experience to customers. However, increasing
use of technical advancement has brought a drastic change in the working mechanism of the
company. Now, employees need to adjust their working practices as per the changing
environment of the company. In this situation, Sainsbury is arranging training sessions for
employees so that they can easily cope up with technological enhancements. Apart from this,
they are also using motivation techniques so that workforce bet ready to work in an upgraded and
changed work environment. Here, managers make sure that they maintain proper communication

with staff members. Additionally, they put all necessary efforts in order to maintain a healthy
and positive atmosphere at workplace.
Business growth: Business growth refers to the expansion of organization with an aim to
earn substantial amount of profit. Main aim of business growth is to enlarge the existing
customer base so that a company can enhance the sales significantly. There are ample of ways by
which growth can be achieved such as merger, acquisition, takeover and more (Gasbarro, Iraldo
and Daddi, 2017). Business growth not only helps in enhancing profit but also formulates a
positive image of organization in market. It makes a company enable to stay in competition for
longer period of time. It is not possible to survive in the current competitive marker for longer
duration without planning the growth. Additionally, business growth also contributes towards
enlargement of company. It inflates the profit margin by enhancing the existing customer base.
There are several financial benefits of growth. By embarking growth, an organization can easily
get an edge on rival firms.
Business growth is a crucial change driver. It facilitates changes in existing operation of
the entity. Here, it introduces change in existing process of production. In addition to this, human
resource structure of a company also gets change while growing the business. If a company
merge with another company, role of existing workers get changed. Sometimes, employees are
laid off after takeover of organization. Growing business is really important but it cause huge
changes in the existing structure of the entity. In case of international expansion, employees are
required to work in a change environment (Cai and Li, 2018). In current scenario, main reason of
Argos takeover by Sainsbury is the business growth. Argos is a well-known catalogue retailer
which is doing business through online and offline mediums. In 2016, Sainsbury acquired Argos
with an aim to grow the business. The main rational behind this acquisition was enhancing the
current customer base. After the deal, Sainsbury is able to offer wide range of products to
customers. It has a variety of products and numerous stores across UK. It helped Sainsbury in
improving the trade intensity. As a result, the respective company grabbed the position of the
second largest retailer in UK. It is stated that combining Sainsbury and Argos offered nearly
100,000 products through 2000 stores that was bigger than the UK’s clothing and general
merchandise business of TESCO. The acquisition made company enable to offer wide choices to
customers. As the result of the acquisition, Sainsbury was able to deliver more non-food products

to customers. They widen the range of electronics, home appliances, toys and more. According
to the expansion, deal boost the earning of the company resulted they become capable to offer
high earning per share to the investors. For the purpose of business growth, numerous stored of
Argos was opened across the UK. Here, the business growth is crucial for success of the entity.
However, it will cause ample of changes in the existing structure and process of the organization.
Impact on strategic decision making: Each and every company aims to grow the
business. For this purpose, they take suitable steps. While planning the growth, it is important to
analyze different factors. Growth enhances the profit of the entity. But, it might change the entire
process of the company (Olofsson, Hoveskog and Halila, 2018) . Here, employees need to
perform different functions and roles. In addition to this, it will also change the environment of
the business entity. In context of Sainsbury, they acquired the Argos with an aim to embark
growth in business. The business growth profoundly affects decision making of the organization.
They make sure that business growth has a positive impact on the company. They analyze the
impact of growth on employees, working practices as well. In addition to this, they make sure to
maximize the welfare of employees while planning for the growth. In this context, managers of
the company ensure to positively influence the company. Therefore, they analyze various
elements in order to take meaningful decisions to ensure positive impact of growth on the
business entity.
Impact on commercialization and operation: While growing the business, operations
of the business entity get highly affected. Growth brings changes in daily operation of the
organization for further betterment. It is a crucial change driver that has direct impact on
commercialization and operations. In current scenario, Sainsbury acquired Argos with an aim of
growth and enlargement (Cunningham and Miller, 2021). After this, the company opened a lot of
outlets and embarked technology in daily operations. Later, they decide to close some of the
outlets of Argos as they were not getting intended results. Due to this, company fired nearly 3500
individuals (Sainsbury's to cut 3,500 jobs and close 420 Argos stores, 2020). In addition to this,
it also affected the supply chain practices of the company. Post takeover, Sainsbury started to
prefer online practices rather physical shopping. They not only started to offer products online
but also improved the efficiency of supply chain in order to fulfill timely delivery of goods to the
customers. Therefore, the acquisition affected operation of Sainsbury profoundly.

Response towards change drivers
In the current scenario, technology development and business growth has been identified
as the crucial change drivers. Here, Sainsbury responded towards the change drivers efficiently.
For this purpose, they ensure to maintain proper communication with employees in order to
develop positive attitude towards changes. In addition to this, they also provide suitable
leadership and guidance to the employees so that they can easily work in change and enhanced
environment. With proper leadership and guidance, it is possible to turn the resistance in
acceptance. Apart from this, manager also motivates employees through suitable motivational
techniques. These techniques help the organization in stimulating employees so that they can
easily work in a change environment. In this context, Lewin change model has been applied by
the company which is mentioned below:
Unfreezing: It is the first stage of change management. It is considered as one of the
critical stages in the process of change management. Under this process, managers of Sainsbury
put significant efforts so that employees get willing and ready to change in work setting. Here,
they make sure that employees get ready to come out from the comfort zone to work in a
transformed situation (Trianni and et. al., 2017). In addition to this, it involves to make people
aware regarding changes and motivate them to work in a change environment. Here, managers
put significant efforts in order to make employees aware with the positive impact of change
practices. Additionally, they try to maintain effective communication with employees with an
aim to ensure their support & involvement throughout the process of change management.
Change: It is the second stage of change management process. It is the most crucial stage
wherein changes are actually implemented. This step is about actually work in a transformed
environment. Here, managers of Sainsbury ensure that employees accept the new ways of doing
things (Ahmadi and et. al., 2017). At this stage, leaders of the company prepare plans and
maintain proper communication with team members. In addition to this, managers encourage
employees so that they become a part of change practices of the company. Here, managers also
face ample of challenges as people are in fear due to the consequences of changes.
Refreezing: It is the final stage wherein people move towards stability from the stage of
transition. It is a stage wherein employees finally accept the changes (Alvaro and et. al., 2018).

In this, managers of Sainsbury put efforts so that individuals accept the changes and start to work
with new ways. Here, managers put efforts that employees stick with the new ways of working.
To strengthen the reinforcement, employees are rewarded and recognized by the company. In
addition, they also offer positive reinforcement to workers so that they continue to work in
change environment for longer period of time.
With above discussion, it is analyzed that Sainsbury is responding towards change drivers
efficiently. For this purpose, they adopt Lewin change management model wherein they adopt
different practices in order to motivate employees to work in change setting. Here, managers
maintain appropriate communication with workers. They guide employees, support them so that
they easily get ready to adopt new ways. Apart from this, positive reinforcements are also given
to the employees in order to ensure that they stay in change environment for longer period of
time.
Recommend how the organization can enhance its response
Takeover of Argos by Sainsbury caused ample of changes in the company. Here, the
change drivers have been identified as business growth and technological development. Due to
the changes, company is facing issues of employee resistance, change in existing environment
and more. They are responding towards changes efficiently. For this purpose, they have been
adopted lewin change management model. Under this model, managers maintain proper
communication with employees. They interact with workforce in an efficient manner. These
steps are helpful in working in the change environment effectively. However, the response of the
company could be enhanced by adopting the following ways.
 Employees get directly affected with the changes. Hence, they are likely to resist the
changes as they are not ready to work in change environment (Pousttchi and Dehnert,
2018). In Sainsbury, employees also need to modify their existing business practices so
that they can work efficiently. For this purpose, they need to adopt efficient technology
that will bring changes in current setting. In this situation, Sainsbury needs to understand
the issues that are being faced by the employees. For this purpose, they are required to
maintain proper interaction with workers. It will allow the organization to know the
actual problems of employees so that they can provide appropriate solution. It will help in
formulating positive attitude amongst workforce regarding changes.

 The response of Sainsbury could be improved by analyzing the subsequent effect of
change drivers. Analysis of these after effects helped company to prepare suitable
strategies so that they could face the changes efficiently. It enabled the mangers to take
appropriate steps in order to face the changes effectively.
 For employees, it is not easy to work in change atmosphere. They have to face several
challenges while working in change environment. In this situation, it is imperative to
arrange necessary training programs for enhancement of employees. These training
programs will enhance the capabilities of human resources to perform a particular task.
After getting proper training, it will be easy for employees to cope up with changes.
These training sessions will improve the productivity, knowledge and skills of workers
which will further make them capable enough to work in a change setting.
 The response of Sainsbury could be improved via proper planning. They need to make
the anticipation and then prepare suitable plans in order to get the positive outcomes from
changes practices. Planning is helpful in minimizing the uncertainty and ensured the
success of business. Along with the forecasting, planning could help the organization in
facing the situation effectively.
It is analyzed that the response of the company could have been improved by implementing
above-mentioned recommendations. They could make the plans, do the forecast, train the
employees in order to respond towards changes efficiently. By implementing, the above-stated
recommendations, company could have been easily face the impact of change drivers in order to
ensure success in the current dynamic environment.

Conclusion
It is concluded through above-mentioned information that contemporary management
issues are the emerging problems in the field of management. There are several issues are being
faced by managers in current time. These issues are related to uncertainty about the future,
wellbeing of employees, shaping the culture of company, hiring and on boarding right employees
and more. It is important for the managers to prepare suitable strategies so that they can face the
contemporary issues in an efficient manner. The above study is based on takeover of Argos by
Sainsbury with an aim to enlarge the business and minimize the cost by improving production
efficiency. It is analyzed that takeover of Argos enhanced the trade intensity of Sainsbury. It
improved the market presence of the business entity by enlarging the current product portfolio of
the company. It is analyzed that the acquisition caused ample of changes in the company. In the
above study technology development and business growth has been identified as the major
drivers of changes. It is concluded that technological enhancement facilitate ample of changes in
the company. It affected existing decision making practices, commercial and operational
activities of the company. The other change driver is business growth that affected the existing
practices of the organization efficiently. It is summarized that the organization ensured to
maintain positive impact of growth on business practices. In addition to this, the operations of
the entity are also affected through growth of business. There is discussion of Lewin change
management model so that the company can face the changes efficiently. It is summarized that
the response could have improved through proper planning, forecasting and training of
employees.

References
Books and journals
Ahmadi and et. al., 2017. Are managers motivated to explore in the face of a new technological
change? The role of regulatory focus, fit, and complexity of decision‐making. Journal of
Management Studies, 54(2), pp.209-237.
Alvaro and et. al., 2018. Driver education: Enhancing knowledge of sleep, fatigue and risky
behaviour to improve decision making in young drivers. Accident Analysis &
Prevention, 112, pp.77-83.
Backman, C.A., Verbeke, A. and Schulz, R.A., 2017. The drivers of corporate climate change
strategies and public policy: a new resource-based view perspective. Business &
Society, 56(4), pp.545-575.
Biresselioglu, M.E., Kaplan, M.D. and Yilmaz, B.K., 2018. Electric mobility in Europe: A
comprehensive review of motivators and barriers in decision making
processes. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 109, pp.1-13.
Brown and et. al., 2018. Contemporary management of rectal injuries at Level I trauma centers:
The results of an American Association for the Surgery of Trauma multi-institutional
study. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 84(2), pp.225-233.
Cai, W. and Li, G., 2018. The drivers of eco-innovation and its impact on performance:
Evidence from China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 176, pp.110-118.
Cunningham, J.A. and Miller, K., 2021. Entrepreneurial university business models: core
drivers, challenges and consequences. In A Research Agenda for the Entrepreneurial
University. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Emhmed, S., Ali, M.A. and Al-Yousif, S., 2019, December. Drivers of Supporting Change to
ERP. In 2019 IEEE 7th Conference on Systems, Process and Control (ICSPC) (pp. 149-
154). IEEE.
Gasbarro, F., Iraldo, F. and Daddi, T., 2017. The drivers of multinational enterprises' climate
change strategies: A quantitative study on climate-related risks and opportunities. Journal
of Cleaner Production, 160, pp.8-26.
Hafberg, E., Borinstein, S.C. and Alexopoulos, S.P., 2019. Contemporary management of
hepatoblastoma. Current opinion in organ transplantation, 24(2), pp.113-117.
Hrustek, L., Furjan, M.T. and Pihir, I., 2019, May. Influence of digital transformation drivers on
business model creation. In 2019 42nd International Convention on Information and
Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO) (pp. 1304-
1308). IEEE.
Imazio and et. al., 2017. Contemporary management of pericardial effusion: practical aspects
for clinical practice. Postgraduate medicine, 129(2), pp.178-186.4
Li, L., Ota, K. and Dong, M., 2018. Humanlike driving: Empirical decision-making system for
autonomous vehicles. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 67(8), pp.6814-6823.

Olofsson, S., Hoveskog, M. and Halila, F., 2018. Journey and impact of business model
innovation: The case of a social enterprise in the Scandinavian electricity retail
market. Journal of cleaner production, 175, pp.70-81.
Pousttchi, K. and Dehnert, M., 2018. Exploring the digitalization impact on consumer decision-
making in retail banking. Electronic Markets, 28(3), pp.265-286.
Quiroga and et. al., 2017, April. A microeconometric analysis of climate change drivers for
coffee crops transition to cacao in Mesoamerican countries. In Proceedings of Economics
and Finance Conferences (No. 4507415). International Institute of Social and Economic
Sciences.
Ryberg and et. al., 2018. How to bring absolute sustainability into decision-making: An industry
case study using a Planetary Boundary-based methodology. Science of the Total
Environment, 634, pp.1406-1416.
Trianni and et. al., 2017. Classification of drivers for industrial energy efficiency and their
effect on the barriers affecting the investment decision-making process. Energy
Efficiency, 10(1), pp.199-215.
Veneris, J.T., Mahajan, P. and Frazier, A.L., 2020. Contemporary management of ovarian germ
cell tumors and remaining controversies. Gynecologic Oncology, 158(2), pp.467-475.
Online
Sainsbury's to cut 3,500 jobs and close 420 Argos stores, 2020. [Online] Available through: <
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54818644 />
Sainsbury's bets on Argos takeover for digital age, 2021. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-
home-retail-m-a-sainsburys-idUKKCN0VB0HL [Online] Available through:<
Sainsbury’s embraces technology to boost sales during lockdown, 2020. [Online] Available
through:< https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/sainsburys-embraces-technology-to-
boost-sales-during-lockdown/43619 />