Leading Change in Organizations

This assignment focuses on the complexities of leading change within organizations. It emphasizes how changes in structure, processes, and systems can impact employees and explores various leadership styles that can mitigate resistance to change. Effective communication, fostering creativity, and open dialogue are presented as crucial elements for successful implementation of organizational change, ultimately driving growth in sales and revenues.

UNDERSTANDING LEADING CHANGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
P 1. Impact of changes in different organisational strategies and operations........................1
P 2. Ways through which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviours.............................................................................................................2
P 3. Measures that can minimise negative impacts of changes on organisational behaviour 4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
P 4. Different barriers for change and their influence on leadership decision making..........5
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................7
P 5. Different leadership approaches to deal with change......................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Changes help any business to grow and develop. It gives ideas to businesses for making
future decisions and strategies. Change relates with developing procedures and systems. This
assignment will provide an insight of alterations that affect business of various organisations.
Moreover, it will also cover how the internal and external drivers make impacts to the
modifications that are to be implemented (Aitkenhead and McCann, 2017). It also includes
obstacles that can be occurred to implement those alterations. In this assessment, two
organisations Toyota and Volkswagen are selected. Both are the automobile brands operating
worldwide. Present report will discuss about their strategic and operational changes.
Task 1
P 1. Impact of changes in different organisational strategies and operations
Alterations or changes in business can also be known as change management in the
context of any organisation. The needs of customers may vary time to time. In order to meet
their needs, entities are required to modify their objectives and goals. These modifications can
include changes in job rules, systems, organisational structures etc. It depends whether these
variations will affect the companies in positive or any negative way. This is also depended upon
various people and stakeholders of the firms how they adopt the changes. For example,
automobile company Volkswagen thought to make modifications in product strategies and
market development. It has done this so that it can create new products and new markets to sell
its products (Archer, 2015). To implement this, workers and managers of cited firm has
developed new and innovative strategies to bring products by determining the demands of
customers. The company first got to know about tastes and preferences of consumers regarding
their products and then implemented new strategic approaches. By this, Volkswagen produced
new and modified cars of high quality. It provided the resources to each of its department and
built different strategies for it. This had impact of the business and profits to the company and it
shown a huge hype in its sales.
Another company that has been taken in this report is Toyota. It is a world known
automobile brand and operates across the globe. This company implements changes more
frequently than others. That is the reason why this organisation has known to be in top
automobile brands. However, it had seen a huge fall in its sales of cars due to quality problems
in its four wheelers and had to recall all those cars from US that are in 3.8 million in numbers.
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Since then, it has not been looked back and arouse as a top brand in its field. It happened because
this firm implemented huge changes in terms of quality, design, models etc. This helped the
organisation to get over from that disaster (Doppelt, 2017). The company is still doing very well
by making variations in its products like launching Six Sigma and Just-In-Time (JIT). Through
it, the cited firm is able to attract more buyers and successful in retaining old ones. There are
some modifications that organisations make to gain profits and retain customers. The changes
are as follows: Structural: It is a variation that happens within firm. By this, the working skills of
employees, company policies and its duties had been altered. Through this, the
communication and working process was increased and it led to make smooth flow of
Toyota's business. Strategic: It stands for making alterations in objectives and targets of the companies. To
apply these changes, cited firms need to analyse the external environment because it
plays an important role to make modifications in organisations like Toyota and
Volkswagen. People: These changes include the workforce of entities that is liable to perform and
complete various tasks in a given time. Usually, it is done to attract new and skilled talent
to the company.
 Process: It is the step that can be taken by entities to modify its working operations. This
impacts positively for the employees due to which they can be more creative and
innovative than before.
These were some changes that every entity needs to implement in their organisation because
these modifications may lead the firms to get robust growth in their business.
P 2. Ways through which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviours
In every company, there are numerous drivers that can affect the leadership, team
management and behaviour of any individual of the firm. These drivers may be internal or
external. Both can impact entity's sales and profit margins in various ways. The internal and
external drivers can be divided in many parts that are as follows:
Internal: There are many parts of internal drivers that are given below:
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 Capabilities: Different entities have different capabilities to perform as whole. By this,
the leadership can be affected in firms like Volkswagen and Toyota. Moreover, it
motivates leadership quality of any entity. If a company is more capable in terms of
performance, then it will be beneficial to it in context to leading the team. Also, it
enables workers of an organisation to work as a team and increase personnel behaviour
at the workplace. Resources: Resources can play important role in organisations like Toyota and
Volkswagen (How Internal and External Factors Drive Organizational Change, 2018).
There are various types of resources that are used in entities. Some of them are human
resource, natural resource etc. lack of these can affect the manufacturing and production
qualities of products to a great extent. On the other hand, it is very beneficial to have
sufficient number of them. It can lead to impact the leadership, individual behaviour and
especially team work as the team may not be able to perform well due to lack of it. Inventions: By having numerous innovative ideas, companies lead to be more productive
and capable in terms of providing quality products and services to customers. It also
affects the leadership, team and behaviour of an individual. If new inventions take place
in entities such as Volkswagen and Toyota, then it would be very beneficial for them
regarding offering high quality cars in nominal prices. Hence, it is very impactful on
increased leadership, working in a team and actions of individuals.
 Desires: In every entity, each person has his own desires to get growing opportunities as
much as possible. Overall, all the organisations have a desire to be on top to avail market
shares. Lack of this hope can impact negatively the leading skills of senior team
members and lessen team work. Also, it affects personnel behaviours in negative ways.
External: There are various external factors that affect organisations that are given below: Customer satisfaction: It is one of the main objectives of firms like Volkswagen and
Toyota. It is an external driver that can be proved as negative or positive for the cited
firms (Espedal, 2017). If the consumers are satisfied from products and services of the
entity, then it would be hugely profitable to companies and retain its buyers as well as
affect positively in terms of leadership qualities, working in a team and individual
behaviour. On the other hand, if buyers are satisfied, then it will give motivation to the
organisation by means of leadership skills, team work and also personnel behaviour.
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 New competitors: Arrival of new competition every day can bring challenges for
business of organisations. In fact, auto mobile industries are facing new changes each
passing day and it made the competition at its peak. In this scenario, both entities deal
with difficulties to establish itself for long time. It also affects the leadership in firms like
Volkswagen and Toyota as the leaders may find themselves unable to guide its workers
properly with every day new challenges. This is difficult for them to train the employees
for technologies and variants now and then. Furthermore, competition in market makes
team unable to work efficiently and affect their behaviour towards each other.
P 3. Measures that can minimise negative impacts of changes on organisational behaviour
It is essential for companies to identify and minimise negative impacts of alterations on
behaviour of entity. Because, it can impact functioning of firms and lead to great losses for
organisations. So the necessary steps should be taken to reduce negative impacts of these
changes. These are some initiatives that can be taken in order to increase positive changes in
firms.
By communicating: It is one of the most important measure that can be taken into consideration
in entities like Volkswagen and Toyota (Head and et.al., 2018). By making effective
communication among the employees of the cited firms, workers feel comfortable to share their
problems related to workplace and performing various tasks. Hence, it will be very helpful while
implementing modifications in entities. Communicating with staff members is the best way to
face and resolve issues regarding alteration.
By helping employees: If all the workers get to know about changes that are going to take place
in company and how they can be benefited through it, staff and other employees will tend to
work in a more effective way that is eventually going to benefit for cited firm in terms of gaining
more profits and maximum sales of products. Both the organisations Volkswagen and Toyota
apply this technique to increase their earnings (Rogers and Marres, 2016). It is clear that if
employee section of any company is happy then the entity will be gaining more success in its
business.
By adopting participative style leadership: In order to get more sales and generate revenues, the
entities should take initiative in the direction of various leadership styles like participative. By
this, the managers and other senior professionals can get feedbacks from lower level workers
through which they might know new and innovative ideas to implement changes. In addition, the
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senior staff will also understand employee's perception and weaknesses of company (Fullan,
2014). It will make them able to work to overcome the shortcomings of firm.
By bringing new technology: The competition is increasing to be on the top of all others in
market place. So, to compete with them, it is essential to be updated with the latest technology
and techniques to use them. It can prove to be very fruitful for companies like Toyota and
Volkswagen in long run. Moreover, cited firms will not be going to fade with the time because
of having adequate knowledge regarding application of various technologies.
Contribution of employees: The employees need to contribute towards their organisation by
understanding roles and responsibilities to finish tasks (Green, 2017). If they do so, the entity
will be benefited and hence the workers will also get benefits with promotions, appraisals etc. it
creates healthy working environment and promotes towards the growth of firm. Thus, the
negative impacts of changes will automatically be reduced.
Re-motivate workers: In organisations, to implement changes and get prevented by its negative
impacts, it is needed to motivate staff members on a regular basis. This way, they will feel like
working all the time. In order to provide motivation to them, entities like Toyota and
Volkswagen both should conduct training sessions to make the employees updated with every
modification. Additionally, the top professionals need to give awards and promotions to make
workers feel encouraged and motivated to perform efficiently.
Task 2
P 4. Different barriers for change and their influence on leadership decision making
There are many barriers that may occur while implementing change in organisations.
These are obstacles in the way to implement modifications. If any action is not taken on time,
then working efficiency of the cited firms can be badly affected. Hence, it is essential to remove
barriers to apply necessary alterations. Various general barriers that can come when applying
changes are given as follows:
Resistance to change: - It is one of the most common form of hurdles. It may occur frequently
in the entities. Many people and workers related to company resist changes and prefer to work as
they used to do before. It prevents alteration management in companies. They want stability in
their current working status and don't want to perform more efficiently. Furthermore, staff
members also think that the suggested change will make them lethargic and generate more
complexity. It happens sometimes and influence decision making because employees may think
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if the modifications will be beneficial for them or not. In order to reduce this barrier, leaders
should adopt different leadership styles to motivate workers.
Little knowledge of current state: - It is very difficult in knowing what can be the impact of
changes will have on the organisation. Further, many entities do not know their current state and
apply modifications in company. They build various strategies to implement alterations without
having complete knowledge of current rules and legislations. The modifications are done to
improve its position and business in market (Johnson, 2016). In order to apply changes in
organisations like Toyota and Volkswagen, they follow the strategies of their competitors and
eventually fail in some areas. This affects its current focus to achieve targets and objectives. It
makes the leaders harsher towards other lower staff members and they start to force them to
implement change management and hence, conflicts take place.
Integration: - It is difficult for managers of entities to implement modifications as this can
affect productivity of staff members. In addition, by applying it the structure, systems and
processes will also be changed. So, it is very hard for managers and leaders to make integration
of activities so that alterations can be possible. Furthermore, senior members are not able to
understand what changes are needed to make in current process and how to build different
strategies for workers to meet company goals.
Competitors pressure: - In several cases, the external forces may restrict companies to apply
modification in their firm. For instance, Both Volkswagen and Toyota have so many competitors
in market due to which both entities are under pressure to be in top. These external forces also
include current market condition and economic factors. All of which generate various impacts on
strategies and operations of the companies. It puts their business in dilemma and comes with
high complexity to implementing change.
Complexity: - To implement alterations in entities, various change occurs in the system, process
and activities of the firm which creates complexity. In order to minimise these, managers and
leaders have to be more skilled and talented to rectify and determine complex problems.
Therefore, it becomes very risky for them to solve and manage numerous complexities.
There are various complex situations that occur in Volkswagen as well as Toyota. In
context of the former, problems have taken place to bring new technology and products. It makes
leaders to motivate employees by adopting different leadership styles (Komives, 2016).
Moreover, leaders are bound to be applied more specific style of leadership to guide workers in
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the hardest times. In contrast, Toyota applies change to improve its quality of products. So, it
implemented new technologies. However, this task is bit challenging as employees resist
changes (How Internal and External Factors Drive Organizational Change. 2018).
Task 3
P 5. Different leadership approaches to deal with change
To handle alterations in organisations, it is essential for leaders to give proper guidance
and support employees in all complex situations. They are the main pillars who take
responsibilities to make workers accept the modifications in companies. In order to do so,
leaders need to follow different kind of leadership styles to help staff members. Some of those
are given below:
Comfort with ambiguity: It is a style in which leaders already know how to control situations
and to deal with changes. They know what can happen and act accordingly.
By adopting creativity: This form enables leaders to find various sources and information on
how to resolve complex situations while implementing change management. It should be taken
into consideration to apply this style effectively. By this, they develop and create strategies for
workers and organisation.
Open communication: Effective communication is essential to deal with various issues
regarding modifications that are to be implemented. Leaders need to openly interact with
employees and listen their problems to resolve issues. It will also make workers more
comfortable and conflicts will less likely to occur on workplace. Therefore, the staff members
will feel safe and happy in companies. It eventually helps to implement alterations in entities.
Situational leadership: In this particular style, leaders first try to determine the whole situation
and then take initiatives to solve it (Maya Pillai, 2011). It makes leader to choose effective style
to deal problems. This kind of leadership enables leaders to change approaches accordingly.
Servant style: This style is concerned about the performance and improvement of workers. In
this style, leader divides all staff members into different teams assigns them tasks. The main goal
of this approach is to achieve desired targets by systematically dividing teams (van der Voet,
Kuipers and Groeneveld, 2015).
Cross Cultural: This approach is the most common as well as crucial as it allows staff members
to express their views and ideas to build strategies for implementing change in organisations like
Volkswagen and Toyota. It enables workers to give their innovative ideas while any change or
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modification is occurred in entities (O'Donnell and et. al., 2015). In this way, performance of
every employee can be measured and also it can help to find more skilled and talented
employees.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment, it can be said that change management is an important part
of any organisation to achieve success in business. If any entity is not implementing changes,
then it is less likely to survive in today's competitive world. It helped both Volkswagen and
Toyota to expand their business globally and made them enable to bring improvement in their
strategies to get desired position in market place (Yoder-Wise, 2014). However, many hurdles
can come during application of modifications in structure, processes and systems but still, they
can be minimised using various leadership styles and by implementing open communication,
creativity etc. for employees in organisations. In this way, changes can be applied in entities to
get growth in terms of sales and revenues.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Archer, G., 2015. Leading change in a complex digital world. Government News. 35(5). p.18.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Espedal, B., 2017. Understanding how balancing autonomy and power might occur in leading
organizational change. European Management Journal. 35(2). pp.155-163.
Fullan, M., 2014. Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John
Wiley & Sons.
Green, R.L., 2017. The four dimensions of principal leadership: A framework for leading 21st
century schools. Pearson.
Head, B. A. and et.al. 2018. Palliative Nursing Summit: Nurses Leading Change and
Transforming Care The Nurse’s Role in Communication and Advance Care
Planning. Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing. 20(1). pp.23-29.
Johnson, G., 2016. Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson Education.
Komives, S. R., 2016. Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of
leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
O'Donnell, M. and et. al. 2015. Curriculum transformation: Leading change through a research
driven consultative model.
Rogers, R. and Marres, N., 2016. Landscaping climate change: A mapping technique for
understanding science and technology debates on the World Wide Web. Public
Understanding of Science.
van der Voet, J., Kuipers, B. and Groeneveld, S., 2015. Held back and pushed forward: leading
change in a complex public sector environment. Journal of Organizational Change
Management. 28(2). pp.290-300.
Yoder-Wise, P.S., 2014. Leading and Managing in Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Online
How Internal and External Factors Drive Organizational Change. 2018. [Online]. Available
through <https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-internal-and-external-factors-drive-
organizational-change.html>
Maya Pillai, 2011. 5 Different Leadership Styles to Implement. [online]. Available through
<https://runapptivo.apptivo.com/5-different-leadership-styles-to-implement-4676.html>
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