Leading and Implementing Workplace Change

This document discusses the importance of leading and implementing workplace change in organizations. It explores the impact of external factors on change management, presents a model for effective change implementation, and discusses the role of leadership and organizational culture. The case study of Unilever is used to provide insights into real-world examples of change management.

Leading and
Implementing
Workplace Change
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Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
History of the organisation .........................................................................................................3
Impact of the changes in the external environment ...................................................................4
Model for change........................................................................................................................7
Incorporation of the issues related to strategic change and how the change was managed by
the company................................................................................................................................8
Leadership style..........................................................................................................................9
Impact of the Organisational Culture on change management program...................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Change in the organisation is necessary to ensure their survival in the competitive business
environment. Such changes can take place in the structure of the organisation, alteration in the
processes which are followed the organisation, the technologies adopted, in the strategies of the
organisation etc. This influences the workplace culture as the change in any aspect of the
business affects the people working there and the other resources held by the company. To
successfully implement the change the major role is played by the leaders of the organisation
which create vision for their followers and make them understand the impact of such change on
them. For this report the organisation that is taken into consideration is Unilever, which is a
British-Dutch company headquartered in London. The company has been operating in various
countries with a wide range of their products. In this report the detailed history of the company
and the impact of various changes in the external factors are taken into consideration. Along with
this the model of changes are analysed with which the change can effectively be implemented in
the organisation. Various leadership styles that have been used in the organisation and the
various strategic issues are identified that helps them in managing change. Impact of
organisational cultural on the management process of the change is also taken into account.
History of the organisation
Unilever is a British Dutch company which was established in 1929 with the merger of
margarine producer of Dutch and the British soap maker Lever Brothers. The company has been
offering transnational consumer goods. The products which they have been providing include
various food products, beverages, beauty products, personal care products and cleaning agents.
The company is being considered as one of the most valuable company of Europe also
considered as one of the oldest multinational company of the world. The Unilever is a dual listed
company which has been listed as Unilever plc in London while as Unilever N.V. in Rotterdam.
In this company more than one lakh fifty five thousand employees are working. To expand their
operations they have been mergering with various companies and acquiring various companies.
The expansion always helps the companies to in increase their market base as in year 2000,
Unilever acquired Best Foods which helped them to increase their scale in foods in America and
with this they added various brands to their list such as Knorr, Bovril and Hellmann’s to their
portfolio (Amann and et. al. , 2017). Later they divided their businesses into two segments, one
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for foods and other for home and personal care. After this for two-three years they kept on
selling some of their shares in various companies. In 2007, Unilever became the first large scale
company by their operations in tea as they commit to sourcing in a sustainable manner. In 2019
Unilever acquired the business of Sara Lee Corporation which help them to strengthen their
category of leadership in skin cleansing and deodorants. Then August 2010 Unilever signed an
agreement to purchase assets and later on enter into an agreement to sell tomato products in
Brazil. Unilever kept on adding various products in their product line. In 2013 Unilever increase
their stake in Hindustan Unilever which increases their revenue to 67%. Recently in 2018,
Unilever announce that headquarter will be shifted to Rotterdam which will end its Anglo-Dutch
structure. They also required 75% stake in an Italian personal care business Equilibra and
acquired eco friendly laundry and household cleaning product company the Laundress. Unilever
has been declared as ninth best private sector employer. The operations of the company have
been classified into four main divisions: Personal care, refreshment, food products and home
care. Unilever is one of the largest media buyers in the world and has been investing funds in
advertisement and promotions which create awareness about their products among the
consumers. They have been facing stiff competition from Nestle and Procter and gamble along
with that competition comes from local market as well. The company has strong environmental
record as they have renewable grid electricity and various other sustainable methods. Unilever
faced various issues as they have been using paper for packaging along with this they is an issue
of Mercury contamination that has affected their business. They have to adapt changes which are
the requirement of the business for which they have to manage various strategic issues.
Impact of the changes in the external environment
External environment has a great impact on the business operations so they have to
consider all the external factors. The change which the organisation has to introduce on the
organization is compelled onto them due to changes in these external factors. Such factors cannot
be controlled by the organisation. To formulate the strategy the organisation need to consider
various environment such as internal and external. With the help of this analysis the company
can identify various opportunities and threats can be availed by them to achieve their
organisational goals. On the basis of the strength and weaknesses of the organisation it is
identified that what opportunities can be availed by minimising the impact of various threats
(Beer and et. al., 2017). To identify the opportunities and threats it is important for the
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organisation to conduct an external environment analysis which can be done with the help of
PESTLE analysis. External environment is that environment direct influence on the business
even when it is not a direct part of the business. Some of the components of external
environment are customers, competitors, shareholders, suppliers, political factors, environmental
factors, social and cultural factors etc. This component has been classified into Micro and macro
components which depend upon the affect. Unilever has the ability to identify all the external
factors that can affect their operations. Whenever an organisation operates in different countries
they need to understand the impact of various external factors across globe. In context of this
PESTLE analysis has been done for Unilever which is given below:
 Impact of Political factors: Political factors determine the level in which the
government can intervene and this affects the performance of the company. In case of
Unilever it has a positive impact as in UK political stability exist. Due to this they do not
faces any changes in as government is not going to change in near future. This reduces
the chances for the company to bring change in their existing strategies. But the political
issues in the European Union are a threat as it can affect the business of consumer goods
(Wolf, Bobst and Mangum, 2017).
 Impact of economic factors: Economic factors are related to inflation, interest rates,
unemployment rate, wages and many more. Increasing in wages has an adverse impact on
the organisation due to which their strategies will be affected. But it has a positive impact
too as increase in wages disposable income of the will also increase which they can spend
on various consumer goods offered by Unilever. In spite of all this, Unilever expects a
business growth as the goods they have been providing are somewhat basic necessities
and with increase in size of the population the demand for their product will also
increase. This is an opportunity for the company which they have identified due to
change in external environment.
 Impact of social factors: Social factors are related to the demographics of the target
market, their taste and preferences, various behaviour factors and many more. Such
factors have direct impact on the demand of the products which has been offered by
Unilever. The people are becoming health conscious which is why Unilever has to shift
their focus towards healthy products an adverse impact on their existing marketing and
production policies. Unilever has sufficient funds with the help of which adopt new and
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more energy efficient techniques what will make their products innovative and attractive
(Wilson and Ransom, 2018). To increase their sales the focus of the company is on the
female consumers worldwide as mostly they take the decisions regarding consumer
goods.
 Impact of technological factors: These factors are associated with various innovative
techniques and processes with the help of which the organisation can take competitive
advantage. Unilever is heavily dependent upon technology to provide innovative
consumer goods. Unilever has adopted automation which offers an opportunity for them
to increase their operational efficiency. It helps them to enhance their monitoring of
inventory, management of supply and distribution channels etc. But the thread from this
factor is of rapid development in technology due to which the organisation also has to
frequently change it. This increases the cost for the company as well as it increases the
requirement of funds which has an adverse impact on the strategies of the organisation.
 Impact of legal factors: These factors are related with implications of various rules and
regulations that have impact on the organisation. Various regulations has been imposed in
context of environment with which Unilever has to comply with. This affects their
existing Strategies and policies as it increases implications. Also various quality
standards has been imposed on the companies which has been offering consumer goods
but it has a positive impact on Unilever as they are complying with all such regulations.
This increases the trust of the customers and makes them loyal towards the brand.
 Impact of environmental factors: These factors are related to ecological trends and
conditions which can affect the operations of the company. Various laws have been
imposed that compel the companies to contribute to the society but it has a positive
impact on Unilever as they have been contributing to the environment by supporting
various environmental movements. Also the company has their own corporate social
responsibility strategy that helps them in effective implementation of the program within
their organisation (Rothaermel, 2017).
On the basis of this analysis it is identified that the strategies of the company has to be
changed with changes taking place in the external environment. Some impact of the changes can
have positive influence while some have negative impact such as from political stability the
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Unilever has positive impact while from frequent changes in the technology increases the cost of
the company.
Model for change
Changes are important for the organisation which has to adapt to make them competent
enough to compete in the business environment. To managing the change efficiently the teams
and leaders play a crucial role. For implementing the change in the organisation the leaders has
to consider various model which with the help of which they can easily implement the changes.
Unilever has to undertake various strategic changes which change in market situations. The
model which could help in effectively implementation is Kotter’s 8 step model. This model is a
detailed model which has various steps which help in considering all the factors which can resist
change (Rees and Smith, eds., 2017). The steps of the model are:
Create a sense of Urgency: In any organisations a sense of urgency to adapt change has to be
created and this can be done by identifying various threats and identifying the opportunities that
can be tapped. On the basis of such identification the people working in the organisation can be
convinced for introducing the change. This urgency can be build and feed on itself.
Form a powerful coalition: In this step the people of the organisation are convinced to accept
the change which is necessary for the organisation. This can be be done with the support of the
key people and leaders in the organisation. For this the management need to identify the persons
who has the most influencing capability and they can be asked for the building the team
(Cameron and Green, 2019).
Create a vision for change: The leaders so identified need to create a vision for the followers
which will facilitate them to implement the change effectively. This can be done by making
people understand the importance of change for them and for organisation. For this the leaders
has to identify the values and accordingly they will prepare a short summary and create strategy
with which they can make people understand the employees (Popli and Rizvi, 2016).
Communicate the vision: The vision so created need to be communicated to the people. For this
the leaders need to talk about the change so often which will help the employees to make up their
mind. While communicating the leaders need to consider the concerns and the anxieties of the
people which will be influenced from such change. Further the vision need to be implemented to
all the operations from trainings to the performance review.
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Remove obstacles: It becomes important for the leaders to remove the hurdles which can be
faced by the employees. Due to change in the strategy or the structure the employees of the
organisations are the one who are most impacted (Pandey, 2017). To overcome such issues the
hiring need to be done effectively of the new employees while to the existing employees
trainings need to be provided as per the changes in the roles and responsibility of the employees.
Create short-term wins: Short term targets need to be planned for the employees this will help
them to achieve easily. Such short term wins will motivate them to work consistently. The
targets which the leaders will establish must not be expensive such as they must include
activities which can adversely affect the level of performance of the employees. Rewards must
be provided to the employees for the targets which they have achieved. It will make them
competitive which push them to improve their performance.
Build on the change: After the targets are achieved the leaders must identify that what went
right and what went wrong. Accordingly they can formulate their policies and strategies which
will help the leaders and the management to build a momentum. The idea can be kept fresh by
introducing new changes in the ways they uses to achieve their goals.
Anchor the changes in corporate culture: Lastly the changes which are introduced need to be
anchored in the corporate culture. This can be done by talking about the progress made the
organisation after the implementation of the changes. The change ideals and values need to be
included in the hiring and training of the new staff (Mulki, Caemmerer, and Heggde, 2015).
The contribution of the leaders and the key people must be recognised by the organisation.
This is how the model of change can contribute in the implementation of the change.
Unilever can implement any change effectively with this model as it take the implementation
step by step which increases the chances of the successful implementation.
Incorporation of the issues related to strategic change and how the change was managed by the
company
Unilever faced various issues which leads to introduction of changes in the organisation.
These changes are imposed by the internal and external factors of the environment. The issue
which they have faced is related to the prices of the products offered by the company. Such
issues affects the strategies of the company and they arises due to changes in the prices of the
products by the competitors. Also such issue arises due to change in taste and wants of the
customers as it affects the sales of the products and to meet the required level of sales the
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company has to reduce the prices of the company. The another issues which is faced by the
Unilever is of sustainability of the legacy. This is because the CEO of the company changed
which has influenced the structure of the company and various strategies also. It influences the
behaviour of the employee which is why the leaders need to actively apply various model of
change which can enable them to implement such change effectively and step by step. For
Unilever, the Kotter's 8 step model of change is suggested which will make them understand the
impact of change and various benefits from it (Maheshwari and Vohra,2018). The leaders can
efficiently follow all the steps of the model of change which will facilitate them to make their
employees comfortable with such change but establishing short term targets for them. The issues
so faced by the company will bring changes in the policies and plans of the company such as to
maintain the margins the company has to make changes in their marketing plan and many more.
Whereas the change in the managerial position will bring changes in the policies of the company
and even in the structure of the company.
Leadership style
Various leadership styles has been used by the leaders of the company which helps them
to effectively implement the change and influence their followers. Some of the leadership styles
which can be used by the leaders in Unilever are given below :
 Democratic Leadership : In this style of leadership, the leaders take decisions on the
basis of the inputs of the followers. But the final call is of the leaders as they have to
consider the impact of various factors which has influence on the decisions . The
leaders in Unilever uses this style effectively as they believes that this style of
leadership motivates the employees (Maheshwari and Vohra, 2015). This is used by
them for their lower level of employees as it allow them to use their authority and this
will make them enable for their future position.
 Strategic leadership : In this type of leadership style the leaders identify the
operations and the growth opportunities. They take the burden of the executive interest
which helps the leaders to make the conditions stable for them. In Unilever this style is
effective as most of the companies believes that it can bring balance in the existing
strategies and the one which can be implemented in future.
 Coach style leadership style : In this type of leadership style, the leaders provides
guidance to the employees make them learn various ways which can be used by them
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to execute their performance. Every employees in the team does not have the same
skills so to those who lack such skills they have be provided coaching by the leaders.
 Autocratic leadership : This style is inverse of democratic style in which the leaders
do not consider the inputs from the employees. The employees are not considered in
any task and decision of the organisation. Such leadership style is not effective in all
cases but it is used by the leaders in some cases where they believe that the task are
crucial (Lewis, Cantore and Passmore, 2016).
In Unilever, different styles of leadership is being used by the leaders of the company
such as coach style leadership style and democratic styles. These are used by them very often
which keep their employees motivated. The company faced various strategic issues such as
maintaining prices and the margins, sustainability issues, disruption by direct to customers. Also
such strategic changes influences the strategies of the company which affects the culture of the
organisation and for this the leaders have to actively take part by motivating the employees.
Impact of the Organisational Culture on change management program
Organisational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs of the
employees towards the organisation. In present scenario, each and every organisation have its
own personality to work same as the group of people shows at the time of working together. It is
also assumed that organisational culture is an invisible but even it a powerful force which
influences the behaviour of employee of the group. In company like Unilever, organisation
culture plays the crucial role where it guides that how any of the company is performing and
what are the essential things what they need to adopt for future growth. Also, if company have
the positive organisational culture then it will be easy for the organisation to adopt any of the
changes which are required by the company (King, Newman and Luthans, 2016). There are
number of situation where changes are necessary and it is only possible in the condition where
company have better form of organisational culture. It is mandatory for business organisation
that they must try to develop the organisation culture in which every employee should be given
opportunity which helps to maintain the healthy organisational culture. Below, there are some of
the principles of organisational culture and they are explained below:
 Work with and within your current cultural situations: The main principle of
organizational culture says that it is never an easy task for any of the company to switch
cultural situation due to which it becomes important for organization that they must focus
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on their existing culture to accomplish the goals. In context of the Unilever, it is
necessary for them to bring changes but still it is necessary that they must try to focus
that how they can bring changes with the help of organizational culture which they have
adopted.
 Change behaviors, and mind-sets will follow: It is necessary to understand that changes
will occur within the company but if employees will not be able to adopt it then it will not
be possible to achieve the target. In context of Unilever, it becomes important for leader
and manager of the company to try that how they can change the behavior employees
towards the changes which they have adopted. If behavior of the employees can be
changed then it will become easy to fix the mindset through which goals can be easily
accomplished in specific time period (Hayes, 2018).
 Focus on a critical few behaviors: The main organization culture says that if company
wants to perform the task which they are willing then they will require to focus on their
behavior. Here, it becomes important for Unilever that they must plan that how they can
interact with employees, even there is the option to conduct meeting which will help to
understand that whether changes are suitable or not and if not then they can decline for it
because sometime it can save time and money both.
 Demonstrate impact quickly:It is crucial for any of the organization to understand about
the culture and changes. In context of Unilever, it is necessary for them to understand that
if they want to accomplish the target as soon as possible then they must try to
demonstrate about the culture they are going to implement with the company because that
really helps the organization to check that whether the decision which are being taken
are right or wrong.
While talking about the change management programme, it is crucial part of the organisation
as is needed to be if company wants to sustain within the market for longer period of time.
Whenever company thinks that they must try to introduce new technology for the purpose of
earning profit then they require the help of change management because it helps to install the
new process in best possible manner (Gupta and Kumar, 2018). Change management is the
system, techniques for managing people's side of transition to accomplish the business results
they need. Change management primarily emphasizes about how to help workers to understand,
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accept and use a change in their day-to-day activities. It is said that whenever any of the business
organisation wants to adopt the changes it becomes crucial that their organisational culture
should be suitable so that each and every work can be done in a systematic manner.
Both the term organisational culture is interrelated which means if any one of the fails
then there will less chances of accomplishing the goals. As changes are natural for any of the
company which means that if in any of the situation company fails to adopt the changes then
they must try to change the whole organisational culture through which goals can be
accomplished easily. In context of the Unilever, some of the situation occur where manager and
leader might not change the whole organisational culture because they have the fair of losing the
market share in some of the situation (Grady and et. al. , 2019 ). For change to succeed, cultural
changes or adaptation to culture are necessary, since these concepts cannot be distinguished.
Close relationship between culture of organization as well as change management helps to
accomplish the positive result for the company. There are number of impact of organisational
culture on the change management programme are explained below in detail:
 Job satisfaction among employees: It is understood easily that whenever any of the
organisation changes its way of performing the business activities then employees feel
self-satisfied because there are number of situation where working the similar form of
style brings frustration among the employees. In context of Unilever, their manager and
leader must try that how they can adopt the changes for providing the satisfaction to the
employees.
 Create problem in implementing the changes:It is necessary that changes should be
done with the company which helps to accomplish the goal but sometimes organisation
culture creates problem in it. The main reason behind it is that company training, skills
and knowledge are required but for that long time period is required. In context of
Unilever, at the time of bringing the changes company faces the problem because it is one
on the bigger process where manger and leaders are required to provide knowledge about
the changes which company is going to implement (Elsmore, 2017).
 Incurred unnecessary expenses: Whenever any of the company want to bring changes
they are needed to understand that lot of payment will be done. It is never an easy process
for the company which perform business activity at smaller ground. In context of
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Unilever, it will not be easy work for their manager and leader to implement the changes
because lots of payments will be needed to done over here.
 Changes of obtaining the better organisational result: Whenever changes are to be
done, the chances increase automatically for company to accomplish the goals. In context
of the Unilever, if they bring the changes in the company then organisation culture will
play the crucial role in implementing it. Also, chances will also increase for the company
to accomplish the goals because wider area will open in front of the company to decide
that what is right and wrong for the company (Dawson, 2019).
 Reduces the chance of errors: No one is perfect in this world, which means that
employees will have to suffer if they will not be able to update themselves. While talking
about Unilever, if company becomes able to bring suitable form of organisational culture
with the help of change management then in that situation company employee will be
able to perform their task in a systematic manner. It will have the direct impact on
accomplishing the goals of an organisation.
These are some of the impact which can be seen just because of implementing change
management. In this situation, company might have to suffer sometimes and even they gets
the chance in number of occasion to accomplish the goals. Changes increase the overall cost
of the company which is one of the negative impact whereas there are number of situation in
which company gets the opportunity to sustain within the market just because of
organisational culture and change management (Busby, 2017). In addition, the main impact
of organisational culture is that employees get the opportunity to enhance their performance
in which they plan that how they are needed to perform their task and duties through which
organisational goals can be accomplished easily within the short period of time.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that the organisations need to implement various
changes in the organisation with a aim to make them competitive and to ensure their survival.
But these changes adversely affects the companies existing strategies and the structure. For this
various leadership styles need to be implemented by the leaders which can helps them to
motivate their employees, such styles of leadership could be democratic, participative etc. To
understand the impact of the changes the companies have to undertake analysis of the external
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factors. Also it is concluded that the changes also has impact on the organisational culture in
which also the leaders need to actively take part and make the people comfortable with such
change.
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