Leading and Managing Change Assignment - (Doc)

LEADING AND
MANAGING
CHANGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Case Scenario.........................................................................................................................1
Difficulties in implementation of 'wholesale cultural change' at Barnacles...........................2
Planned approach to implement change at Barnacles............................................................5
How leadership style and business strategy could enable to design future successful change
initiatives................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Change can be considered as an inseparable part of an enterprise. This is done with a
view to deal with the different types of scenarios that arise within the specific business sector or
the overall corporate marketplace (Van der Voet, Kuipers and Groeneveld, 2015). With the
passage of time, technology has significantly advanced and owing to this, business strategies
adopted by organisations have also evolved. In order to feasibly adapt itself to such situations as
well as to gain an edge over rival firms, leaders in the company come up with significant changes
in context of the operations and functioning.
The following assignment is carried on The Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel that is
banked upon the Scottish coast in rural settings. This entity is certain miles away from market
town owing to which grabs the attention of a large base of population. This report comprises of
the overview of case together with the obstacles encountered by management while executing
wholesale cultural change. Further, a planned approach is devised to formulate changes within
the hotel. Also, effective leadership style and strategy have been included to incorporate changes
within the entity.
Case Scenario
The Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel which is well renowned as 'Barnacles' is a luxury
hospitality enterprise. This operates in a manner which strives to render lavish lifestyle for
people such that maximum satisfaction can be attained from them. This hotel has 100 en-suite
bedrooms, restaurant, golf course and an outdoor swimming pool. This entity was running
profitably in the past times when a number of high profile celebrity stars and royal families
visited the bar to gain experience of the lavish landscape and ambiance of this hotel. However, it
has been witnessed that the old charm of Barnacles has faded with the course of time. Yet the
enterprise is able to derive profits by stressing on retaining the old and loyal customer base. Over
last some years, the strategy of this entity has been to tackle the competition with retention of
consumers by providing a high profile living standard to them. Such guests have also been loyal
towards the hotel and thus, visit it on a frequent basis from time-to-time. The hotel's traditional
Sunday lunch menu is tempting and delicious enough to gain the attention of local people.
Barnacles is functioning quite satisfactorily over time. A significant threat that has
emerged for this hotel over the course of time is Peacock Hall, a large stately home which has
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been transformed into a four-star hotel. Peacock Hall is at a small distance from Barnacles and is
now ready to function within the market with widespread publicity. This organisation is
intending to capture the hospitality (hotel) industry by launching attractive facilities such as
bridal suite, leisure club, boutique, health spa, hi-tech conferencing. This poses threat to the
existence of Barnacles. Thus, the management team of Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel is
considering to introduce wholesale cultural changes within the organisational premises to resolve
the queries and/or complaints placed by people over years.
Difficulties in implementation of 'wholesale cultural change' at Barnacles
In the modern era, leaders as well as managers realise the need and importance of
bringing about rapid changes across the organisational premises. Taking into consideration the
threat caused due to Peacock Hall, Barnacle Bay is planning to introduce some essential changes
across the premises with a view to reduce the impact of increased competition. The top
management of this hotel recognises the importance of bringing about changes at regular time
intervals to sustain in market for a longer time . To facilitate this, owner of Barnacles has
acquired a loan. These funds would assist the organisation in wholesale refurbishment of hotel.
This refers to the practice of restoring old items in a manner that they may seem to be newly
purchased or prepared. By way of wholesale refurbishment, Barnacles will now have new décor,
carpets, furnishings and a newly developed indoor swimming pool with sauna as well as a fitness
centre. The process of wholesale cultural change implies the wholesome restructuring of the
existing culture of organisation (Komives, 2016). This would require the deployment of current
workforce as well as processes in a manner that they foster the execution of change within the
organisational premises. These changes are aimed at changing the face of Barnacles such that the
entity possesses the potential to outshine the rival firms. Peacock Hall is found to be consisting
of extraordinarily lavish facilities and thus it is essential for Barnacle Bay to review its existing
processes and activities in order to ensure that the services offered by this hotel match the
standards of Peacock Hall. This will help Barnacles to make sure that people stay connected with
the organisation for a long period of time and display loyalty towards the hotel after experiencing
the services offered by the hotel once.
Wholesale cultural change comprises of a number of elements such as practices, beliefs,
customs, traditions, people, hygiene, interior, norms, mission and vision of enterprise (Painter
and Clark, 2015). In this regard, to effectively tackle the hyper competition prevailing within the
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hospitality industry, Barnacles has to undertake certain key alterations. Considering the
innovative and luxurious facilities offered by Peacock Hall, Barnacle Bay has to carry out certain
modifications to instil a feeling of loyalty and trust among customers. While formulating such
changes within the enterprise, the organisation stands a chance to face some difficulties or
barriers which are described below:-
Lack of planning: The first and the foremost challenge that then management of an
organisation undertaking change may face is the lack of a suitable and relevant plan to
implement the change. In this regard, if proper and adequate planning is not done by Barnacle
Bay to execute the wholesale cultural change, then it will imply the ineffective execution of
proposed change (Lawrence, 2015). In this relation, the failure to make a budget for introducing
the changes within the hotel premises would result in ineffective management of funds and
thereby may also lead to wastage of funds in certain cases. Each activity associated with
implementation of change must be priorly planned in order to ensure its execution in a
systematic manner. Further, the management of Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel must make
sure that they anticipate the needs and requirements of people so as to provide services in
accordance with them. In this way, proper planning will assist the organisation in gaining a
strategic and competitive edge in marketplace.
Barriers of communication: In the present scenario, Barnacle Bay comprise of 75
employees of which 55 employees belong to immediate locality while the rest of them are from
overseas. As a consequence, the national and cultural background of employees are diverse. This
implies that there is a high probability of cultural and linguistic barriers that may prevail amidst
the workforce operating within the organisational premises (Jones and Harris, 2014). But since
the hotel is running since a long period of time, the employees have got used to such situations
and have adapted to this scenario. In this regard, the hotel needs to deploy the existing staff in an
efficient as well as hire some new employees that will give their contribution towards bringing
about the wholesale cultural change. Now, when new persons will be hired, there are two options
available to Barnacles. The management of hotel would either recruit personnel from overseas or
local markets. In case the employees are hired from nearby locations, then the 20 employees who
belong to overseas will face issues such as linguistics and cultural barriers. However, if the
contrary happens, then it will create obstacles for those belonging to nearby localities. Conflicts
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may emerge amidst the employees and/or management owing to the prevalence of diverse set of
cultures, beliefs and languages within the entity.
Besides this, there is also a probability that some employees facilitate change whereas the
rest resist it. This may lead to complexity of operations and further enhance the risk of conflicts
amidst the workforce. Furthermore, the different stakeholders of Barnacle Bay may have
contrasting views in response to formulation of wholesale cultural change. Thus, the
management of this hotel is required to devise and execute an effective communication strategy.
Furthermore, where the hotel is bringing such large scale cultural changes, these must be
communicated to the customers as well (Gupta, 2011). This provides assistance in influencing
them to stay at the hotel to experience its refurbished features. When essential information is to
flow within the organisational premises, it is imperative that an optimum strategy is devised with
a view to facilitate the changes in a desirable manner. When the administration of an entity is
taking any key decision, if effective communication does not take place, it may lead to lack of
loyalty and trust among employees.
Employees resistance: The workforce has become flexible in response to the existing
scenario which comprises of hotel's organisational structure, existing staff and policies associated
with customer handling. Employees have now gained comfort in the manner in which Barnacle
Bay is operating at present. During the course of application of wholesale cultural change in the
entity, some employees may resist the adoption of wholesale refurbishment plan. This gives rise
to the need of training sessions within the hotel premises to develop the current staff as well as to
equip the new staff with the the requirements emerging owing to the competition caused by
Peacock Hall. At present, the number of customers that take a stay at the hotel are less, thus
employees have idle time for refreshment and/or entertainment. When a change is introduced
within all the units and departments of hotel, new customers will be attracted towards the
facilities rendered by the entity and this will further imply increased workload upon personnel
(Fullan, 2014). So, it is essential that the management of Barnacles communicate the need of
bringing such a transformational change. Further, it is significant that the vision of hotel is linked
to the change and this relation is communicated to employees to gain acceptance and support
from workforce.
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Planned approach to implement change at Barnacles
While executing a change, it is essential that a planned and priorly set approach is
undertaken so as to ensure that the chances of failure of deriving desirable outcomes is
minimised. In this regard, owing to the immense competition from Peacock hall, Barnacle Bay is
intending to execute certain specific changes with a view to gain a strategic and competitive edge
in market (Hillson and Murray-Webster, 2017). The top management has planned to formulate
wholesale refurbishment of premises. This is being done with the motive of grabbing the
attention of new customers towards the services offered by hotel and tap advantage of the low
cost strategy used by organisation. To facilitate this, Barnacle Bay is using a change management
model so that the change can be successfully executed in the hotel premises.
LEWIN'S CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL
Lewin's change management model is used with a view to systematically execute
wholesale refurbishment of Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel. This will provide assistance to
the enterprise to attract new customers, thereby maximising their profits in long run. The three
stages that are presented by the Lewin's change management model are briefly described below:-
(a) Unfreeze: The first stage of this model ensures that company initiates the preparation
of its employees for the proposed change (Fragouli and Ibidapo, 2015). In this relation,
Barnacles has already acquired sufficient funding from bank to refurbish the hotel. For this, the
management of this entity has already begun looking into core areas associated with change by
comparing its existing service package with the facilities being provided by its rival, Peacock
hall. This has assisted the managers to identify the ways through which Barnacles can gain an
edge over rivals within hospitality industry.
(b) Change: This stage is concerned with embracing the new changes takes place within
an organisation. Barnacles is making use of optimum leadership strategies so as to acquaint the
workforce with change. This will make it easier for the employees to ascertain the changes that
take place within the hotel premises as an outcome of wholesale cultural change. Apart from this,
the leaders of Barnacles need to realise that it takes time to implement a change in an effective
manner. To facilitate this, a well structured plan is priorly made to feasibly introduce this change
in entity (Doppelt, 2017). Besides this, reassurance is another crucial factor for a change to be
accepted. This stage helps an organisation gear the employees for the large scale impact of
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change. Further, communicating the mission and vision of change would steer Barnacle Bay's
success. Thus, time and communication are the most essential elements at this stage.
(c) Refreeze: In the previous stage, wholesale refurbishment has been executed within
Barnacles. The next stage, refreeze, is about bringing stability within the entity after the
implementation of change. This is why this stage is referred to as “refreeze”. Here, the
management of Barnacle Bay ensure that things get back to normal as in past. This requires
support from current staff as well as the new employees. This will ensure that changes are
executed in a manner that the desirable outcomes are achieved.
When stability is attained in the hotel in response to wholesale cultural change, the
workforce (old as well as new) becomes comfortable with respect to the new operational strategy
and structure. Some of the other significant signs of 'refreeze' are clear job description to
employees and development of a systematic organisational chart whereby individuals have
proper knowledge about their roles (Alavi and Gill, 2017). Further, this also provides assistance
to the entity to equip the employees with knowledge regarding their reporting manager. In
addition to this, a feasible change implementation ensures that Barnacle Bay will now capture an
enhanced share in market. Further, this will allow the hotel to stay ahead of its competitors
present within hospitality industry, specifically, Peacock Hall.
How leadership style and business strategy could enable to design future successful change
initiatives
It is essential for organisations and individuals to appropriately use several effective
strategies in relation to introduce a change within a company. Barnacle Bay, in order to
appropriately introduce wholesale cultural refurbishment, must adopt several strategies which
help the company in successfully ensure positive change within the organisation. Such change
would help the firm in ensuring effective and essential growth in customers. Furthermore, such
appropriate and necessary change would allow the firm in gathering more customers which
would ensure the firm with consistent growth and productivity (Lloyd, Boer and Voelpel, 2017).
As for Rita, she must adopt a strategy which would help her in implementing the
wholesale cultural refurbishment within the organisation. For the same, she could use 3C's of
Change Leadership which are as follows: Communicate: The first and foremost aspect of change leadership which must be
followed by Rita is communication. Change must be communicated well within the
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company and to employees to ensure proper and effective implementation of change.
Furthermore, Rita must appropriately explain purpose of change to her subordinates and
must state as to why this change would contribute to the value as well the vision led
down for the company. The agenda of such communication must be regarding developing
a positive perception of change in minds of employees. Collaborate: Another aspect which must be followed by Rita is collaborating its
employees towards the implementation of change. It is an essential strategy which
focuses on gaining effective support from the staff. Their efforts are required to be
integrated towards refurbishment which would help Rita in ensuring better and effective
management of the same along with strengthening the commitment of her employees
towards the change.
 Commit: Rita must align employees' behavioural characteristics towards change
acceptance. It is a very complex task to appropriately implement change and ensure
effectiveness in operations. However, Rita must appropriately negotiate the change with
her employees and commit herself and her team towards successful implementation of
the cultural refurbishment in Barnacles.
As for leadership style, it is very important that appropriate leadership style is utilised by
Rita to ensure effective implementation of change. For this, the most prominent style which
would be appropriate for Rita and Barnacle Bay is Transformational Leadership (Leadership
Skills, 2019). This would ensure effective setting up of vision and appropriate integration of
efforts of individuals towards its implementation.
CONCLUSION
It could be well concluded from the information above, that leading and managing
change is a crucial and necessary concept to be followed by companies in order to ensure
effective execution and implementation of change within the company. It is necessary to
determine problems and challenges in implementation of change to identify areas which are
necessary to be worked upon to implement change successfully. Lewin's Change model could be
used to develop a planned approach in execution of change within the company. Lastly, 3C's of
Change Leadership and Transformational Leadership Style could be used for successful change
implementation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Fragouli, E. and Ibidapo, B., 2015. Leading in crisis: Leading organizational change & business
development. International Journal of Information, Business and Management. 7(3).
p.71.
Fullan, M., 2014. Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John
Wiley & Sons.
Gupta, P., 2011. Leading innovation change-The Kotter way. International Journal of Innovation
Science. 3(3). pp.141-150.
Hillson, D. and Murray-Webster, R., 2017. Understanding and managing risk attitude.
Routledge.
Jones, M. and Harris, A., 2014. Principals leading successful organisational change: Building
social capital through disciplined professional collaboration. Journal of Organizational
Change Management. 27(3). pp.473-485.
Komives, S. R., 2016. Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of
leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
Lawrence, P., 2015. Leading change–Insights into how leaders actually approach the challenge
of complexity. Journal of Change Management. 15(3). pp.231-252.
Lloyd, K. J., Boer, D. and Voelpel, S. C., 2017. From listening to leading: Toward an
understanding of supervisor listening within the framework of leader-member exchange
theory. International Journal of Business Communication, 54(4), pp.431-451.
Painter, S. and Clark, C. M., 2015. Leading change: Faculty development through structured
collaboration. International Journal of Doctoral Studies. 10. pp.187-198.
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.
Online
Leadership Skills. 2019. [Online]. Available
Through:<https://www.skillsyouneed.com/leadership-skills.html>.
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