Analyzing Leadership and Change Management Theories

The provided document is an annotated bibliography on the topic of leadership and change management. It presents a collection of references from various sources, including academic journals, books, and conference proceedings. The references cover a range of topics related to leadership, HRD, system theory, identity theory, risk management, and quality management principles. The document also includes a selection of relevant headings from the original sources, providing context for the references. This assignment is likely intended for students or researchers in the fields of organizational change, leadership, and human resource development.

LEADING
AND
MANAGING CHANGE
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1.Report for “White Water Metaphor” is apparent in Shell. Likewise, evaluate whether it has
resulted from planned or unplanned approach to change............................................................3
2. In the context of Royal Dutch Shell company, evaluate the shift from calm waters took
place after considering both strategies of business and external factors impacting on the
business.......................................................................................................................................5
3.Theory and its implications for human resource department...................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Changes are vital in the business environment as no company or industry can avoid
changes. Changes is the process of modifying or changing strategies, technologies, process as
well as on culture. The impact of these changes influenced each and every functions and
operations of the company (Carter, 2015). It is very important that organisation should access
resources and motivate employees in order to build strong platform for the change. To sustain in
the business environment it is very important to lead as well as to manage changes within
organisation. In addition to this, resistance of changes is one of the biggest challenge that
organisation have faced. Changes are very important for the continuous development and
consistence growth of the organisation. This present report will discuss about the factors,
challenges, opportunities in leading and managing changes whether planned or unplanned. In
addition to this, Royal Dutch Shell company will be chosen for assessment. It is a British Dutch
Oil and Gas company. Its headquarters are located in Netherlands and United Kingdom. It is one
of the sixth largest oil and gas company in the world. Its revenue is in $305.1 billions in 2017.
MAIN BODY
1.Report for “White Water Metaphor” is apparent in Shell. Likewise, evaluate whether it has
resulted from planned or unplanned approach to change.
Calm Water changes are the view of organisational changes envisions the company as
large ship is crossing a calm sea. All the crew members and other ship members know exactly
there path where they have to go. Changes occurs in the form of an episodic storm, a small
confusion in other than calm as well as predictable trip (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Thus, in calm water
metaphor. Changes are seen as an episodic distribution in the normal flow of events. In simple
words, when company is prepared to face as well as to respond such changes are known as Calm
water metaphor. On the other hand, White water metaphor changes are those which are pre
decided by the organisation and the changes just occurs on random basis. However, these
changes are not intentionally from the company or industry as these are the changes which are
occurs due to changing environmental as well as uncertainty in the business environment. In this
situation, it is not possible that any organisation can ignore the changes if they want to sustain in
the market. They have to respond to such changes in order to achieve the height of growth and
success. However, it is also very important that organisation should be prepared in advance
because it is sure that changes will definitely occur in the business environment. Business
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environments are dynamic and it is very important that company should be well prepared to face
as well as to respond those changes. Royal Dutch Shell company is also operating in dynamic
business environment and they are also aware of the unplanned changes.
It is fact that changes occur either on rapid basis or occasionally. When an organisation
faces changes on regular or continuous basis like a raft in a raging river is to managed with the
water rapids. Due to environmental conditions, changes are very frequent. Thus, it is very
important that it should be managed in a very systematic manner (Mariani and et.al., 2014).
Changes might be planned or unplanned because they are leading of dynamic business
environment. Royal Dutch Shell organisation is one of the biggest company in the world, still
they also face changes as they are also working in the dynamic business environment.
In case of Royal Dutch Shell company, a big player in natural gas for many years with
the specified focus on liquefied natural gas. The strategies and plans of action made by the
company are very effective as they are ready to face all the changes. In 2014, Royal Dutch Shell
company faced the biggest challenge operating in Nigeria. They had faced the theft of oil,
vandalism as well as an attack on the infrastructure of oil in that have resulted in the loss of some
100,000 barrels a day during the second quarter. This is one the biggest loss that company has
faces and they are not planned that this will happen with them. This is the one of the example of
white metaphor water as smooth working of the company has been drastically affected by this
loss in Nigeria. Still, Royal Dutch Shell company does not loss their hopes. Thus, in order to
combat or overcome these threats, they decided to revamp there strategy in the nation by
depriving many of its onshore filed rather than focusing on offshore areas, where the threat of
destruction as well as theft is comparatively low. Therefore, it shows that Royal Dutch Shell has
capacity to make balance in unplanned changes.
In addition to this, Another white metaphor change that Royal Dutch Shell company has
faced in Alaska Operations. They face the heavy loss of $5 billions by the legal as well as
regulatory challenges along with equipment failures. The entire operations in Alaska has stopped
as they decided to prepare the tools and equipment and plan for a recommencement of activity at
a later stage (Smits and Bowden, 2015). It is not the right decision of Royal Dutch Shell
company to stop the operations as they would give the regulatory as well as environment
uncertainties. It is fact that, company will not begun its operation before 2025. In order to
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combat these types of losses such as equipments and tools they have decided to give extra time
on planning of equipments.
These are two biggest challenges that Royal Dutch Shell faced and these are the
unplanned changes faced by them. The losses which they faced are also in a huge amount but
still company have make balance and overcome them. Beside all these, The CEO of Royal Dutch
Shell company says that the changes in climate are real but increasing growth in the demand of
energy is unstoppable. It is because the actions can be taken in order to reduce and combat the
threat of climate changes but growth in the demand of energy cannot be control by the company.
The reason behind these changes are globalisation, diversity in workforce, ethical behaviour and
technological changes (Rees and French, 2016). The growth are rising with the highest growth
rate and it is unstoppable. The above changes which are discussed are unplanned changes and
these are all white water metaphor. But the strategies, plan of action and all other decision are
outstanding and this is the reason why company is leading in the market.
2. In the context of Royal Dutch Shell company, evaluate the shift from calm waters took place
after considering both strategies of business and external factors impacting on the business.
Calm water changes are generally planned changes means company is prepared to
respond these changes in very effective manner. Calm Water changes are the view of
organisational changes envisions the company as large ship is crossing a calm sea. All the crew
members and other ship members know exactly there path where they have to go. Just because of
repetitive trips, ships members knows that where they are going. In addition to this, changes in
these situation's comes occasionally and else everything remains a same as before. Kurt Lewin
model is one of the best model that company used to handle changes in calm water. Royal Dutch
Shell company is also using this model (Lumbers, 2018.).
According to the Kurt Lewin, successful changes requires unfreezing the status quo,
changing to new sate and freezing the new change in order to make it permanent. In order to
move the equilibrium, unfreezing is very necessary. There are three ways to achieve these-
 The dynamic forces that direct the behaviour totally away form the position can
be raised.
 The resisting forces that hinder the movement from the present equilibrium can be
raised.
 These approaches can be united.
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There are three stages in this model which exhibit the entire procedure of change are as follows-
 Unfreezing- ready to change
 Changing- Implementation
 Refreezing- Making it stick
1.Unfreezing (Ready to change)- This is the first step in this model. In this stage,
organisation exactly knows that something will be going to change and they are dealing with
strong emotion like impatience, denial, doubt and uncertainty. It is very important for all
organisation to fully disclose all the related information about the change and all state of affairs.
In addition to this, it is also very important that company should make everybody knows that
why they are going for change (Hickman and Silva, 2018). Royal Dutch Shell company always
follow all these steps which are included in this stage as they communicate each and everything
to the employees about the reason of change and process of change. This will result in
minimizing the amount of resistance of employees. For instances, in Royal Dutch Shell company
they are planning to bring some changes in product which is crucial part of the organisation as
they are deciding to deliver ethical products. Thus, it is one of the biggest challenge for company
because green house gases are connected with each units of energy.
2.Changing (Implementation)- This is also one of the most important that change is
implemented within a short time. It will be very better for the organisation that it should be
implemented on time. It is fact that, if in implementing changes it will take long time, employees
will revert to previous stage of equilibriums such as old habits and rituals. This stage is also
called as move stage (Doppelt, 2017). Royal Dutch Shell company also implement the changes
as soon as possible in order to make the employees aware of the importance of implementation
of changes within organisation.
3.Refreeze (Making it stick)- This is the last stage of Kurt Lewin model. In this stage,
the management of company make become strict to adopt the changes. It sometimes happens,
that after implementing the changes, the workforce are inclined to revert to their old habits.
Hence, it is very essential that company should evaluate, measure, monitor as well as make
adjustments when required. This is only the way to stabilize the situations. Royal Duck Shell
company used to organize rewards and prices for successful implementation of changes.
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These stages of Kurt Lewin model is very helpful when changes are in Calm water
(Purohit, 2014). The changes can be sudden or frequent for being competitive but it is very
important the employees of company should be trained as well as motivated.
External Factors influencing the operations and function of Royal Dutch Shell company
Political Factors- Political factors plays an important role in identifying the factors that
influence the entire operation, function as well as profitability of Royal Dutch Shell company in
certain nations or market. Company is operating in major unified Oil and Gas in more than dozen
countries as well as expose itself to various types of political system and environment. In order
to accomplish the success is the industry across different countries (Hoffer and et.al., 2015).
They face many situations such as different tax rates, risk of political stability, level of
corruption, employment laws etc. These changes can be implemented only if the company switch
to white water metaphor. It is fact that changes which are unpredictable have huge impact on the
entire operation of company. Thus, in order to combat such threats, Royal Dutch Shell company
should switch from calm water to white water.
Economic Factors- This is another most important factor that affect the entire
organisation in both positive and negative manner. There are various factors such as inflation
rate, foreign exchange rate, interest rate as well as the entire cycle of economy identified the
aggregate investment and demand in an economy (Scott, 2019). Royal Dutch Shell company
could use the economic factors of nation such as inflation and growth rate. The prices of the
product changes because of these factors like inflation and these are not planned. Thus, these
sudden changes are white water metaphor changes that aids company in dealing with the changes
in cost of labour and rates of inflation.
Social Factor- This is also an important factor that affects the entire organisation
performance and profitability of company. These factor include the culture of the society as well
as the way of conducting business activities influence the culture of the company. The attitude of
people, belief, attitudes of the population plays a vital role as how Royal Dutch Shell company is
understanding the needs and expectation of customers. The level of education of customers also
affect the organisation as with the increasing globalisation people are becoming very concern
about the hygiene and safety (Jarvis, Bell and Sharp, 2016). Thus, Royal Dutch Company is
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prepared for these changes as it is not white water metaphor change. They are making strategies
in order to provide the best products as they can in order to satisfy the needs of customers.
Technological Factor- This is also an important factor in external environment as it
directly influenced the organisation profitability. This is factor which is very fast disturbing facto
in the world. Company is facing the recent technological development in the market, offering of
product with the use of advance technology, the structure of cost is also influenced by the
technological factors etc. Technological changes are white water metaphor as it is not possible
that these changes can be ignore if company wants to sustain in the competitive world. In order
to combat the threat of technology, Royal Dutch Shell always be aware of new technologies and
they adopt new technologies as soon as possible (Freshwater, 2014).
Environmental Factor- Royal Dutch Shell company is influencing by this factor too as
different markets have different standards and norms that impacts the profitability as well as the
operations of the company. All countries have there own laws and liabilities. For instance in
United Kingdom, Florida and Texas have various liability acts in case of environmental
disasters. It is very important for Royal Dutch Shell company that they should consider climate
and weather changes, laws of environment pollutions, air and water pollution, waste
management etc. These changes are not white water metaphor as they are planned for these to
respond these changes effectively.
Legal Factor- This is also one of the important factor that need to be consider while
operating in any country because all countries have their own laws and legislation that is
mandatory for the organisation to follow. Sometimes government makes sudden changes in them
which influence the operations and function of organisation (Dunbar, Reddy and Zwanenberg,
2017). For example, anti-trust law in Oil and Gas industry, law of discrimination, consumer
protection act etc. For these changes, Royal Dutch Shell company is prepared.
3.Theory and its implications for human resource department.
In order to accomplish desired results and outcomes, it can be stated that inhuman
resource department HRD functions consider in wide variety of perspective. In Royal Dutch
Shell skills and knowledge assists to focus on more human resource development program that
assists to accomplish desired level of results (Chalofsky, 2014). In this regard, following relevant
theory can be successfully implemented:
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 Behaviourism: In order to consider behaviourism theory, strategy has been successfully
develops positive and negative reinforcement that create impact on learning. Changes in
behaviour ascertained success in which employees adopt new policies and procedures
(Gibb and Wallace, 2014).
 Cognitivism: With the help of cognitivism learning theory, employees of Royal Dutch
Shell need to focus on improvement in mental processes instead of physical actions.
These instructions believe that strategy successfully encourage employees to improve
their strategic thinking practices. As a result, speed, flexibility and ingenuity promote
well being and workplace productivity. Furthermore, it also assists to focus on build up
problem solving skills so that attention span, speed, flexibility and ingenuity can easily
promoted for workplace safety (Reio Jr, Nimon and Shuck, 2015).
 Constructivism: Constructivism learning theory ascertained people to take active
participation in own learning and development program. Small business owners
recognise to bring experience, cultural background and personality with their current
roles. People also takes responsibilities for career development to improve job
satisfaction. In order to maintain security in Royal Dutch Shell, experience, cultural
background and personality essentially implemented with several responsibilities for own
career development. It typically improves effectiveness to promote more effective results
for satisfaction increment (Jacobs, 2014).
 Connectivism: In digital age, learning occurs in multiple environment so that it enable to
take advantages of global opportunities to develop new skills, knowledge and techniques.
In this kind of learning theory, Royal Dutch Shell recognise process for connecting
diverse opinion, information and resources so that successful entrepreneurs know ability
to mane connection equal with long term profitability. Successful entrepreneurs knows
ability to make connection and learn from them to ascertained desired results. Alicia
decisions also made in the chosen business because there is more security required to
protect oil. Furthermore, social networking technology also expanded with ability to
make connection with other people throughout the world. As a result, it stimulating topics
that can be successfully develop and utilise information in new ways. Well connected
leaders foster positive information which contributes to personal and professional
development with their subordinates (McINNES, Corlett and Coupland, 2017).
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 Strategy for strong safety and guard: Due to high amount of theft of oil barrel in Nigeria,
Royal Dutch Shell prepare strong safety and security with several people. It assists to
protect and promote active participation at workplace productivity. Furthermore, it also
encourages proper attention and speed performances, flexibility of working also
successfully increases that assists to focus on well being activities at workplace. Guard
are provided proper training and development program so that workplace effectiveness
can be develop successfully (Rocco, Bernier and Bowman, 2014).
CONCLUSION
From the above analysis it was concluded that changes are vital in the business
environment as no company or industry can avoid changes. It is the process of modifying or
changing strategies, technologies, process as well as on culture. Moreover, this report also
conclude and evaluate planned or unplanned approach to change. Furthermore, this assignment
also evaluate the shift from calm waters took place after considering both strategies of business
and external factors impacting on the business. Theory and its implications for human resource
department was also included in this essay.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Carter, A., 2015. Leading and managing change. Australian Educational Leader, 37(1), p.33.
Chalofsky, N.F., 2014. Handbook of human resource development. John Wiley & Sons.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Dunbar, J., Reddy, P. and Zwanenberg, Z.V., 2017. Managing change in primary care: the
contribution of a clinical leadership program.
Freshwater, D., 2014. Board editorial: The challenge of global leadership: managing change,
leading movement. Journal of Research in Nursing, 19(2), pp.93-97..
Gibb, S. and Wallace, M., 2014. Soul mates or odd couples? Alignment theory and HRD.
European Journal of Training and Development. 38(4). pp.286-301.
Hickman, C.R. and Silva, M.A., 2018. Creating excellence: Managing corporate culture,
strategy, and change in the new age. Routledge.
Hoffer, E., Shaw, G.B., Senge, P.M. and Drucker, P.F., 2015. CREATING A NEW MODEL OF
MANAGING CHANGE BASED ON QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND
RISK MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES 2. Journal of Central Banking Theory and
Practice, 4(3), p.94.
Jacobs, R.L., 2014. System theory and HRD. Handbook of human resource development. pp.21-
39.
Jarvis, J.M., Bell, M. and Sharp, K., 2016. Leadership for differentiation: An appreciative inquiry
of how educational leadership shapes pedagogical change. Leading and Managing, 22(1),
p.75
Lumbers, M., 2018. Approaches to leadership and managing change in the NHS. British Journal
of Nursing, 27(10), pp.554-558.
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Mariani, M.M., Buhalis, D., Longhi, C. and Vitouladiti, O., 2014. Managing change in tourism
destinations: Key issues and current trends. Journal of Destination Marketing &
Management, 2(4), pp.269-272.
McINNES, P.E.T.E.R., Corlett, S. and Coupland, C., 2017. Exploring Traditions of Identity
Theory for Human Resource Development (HRD). In Identity as a Foundation for
Human Resource Development (pp. 41-58). Routledge.
Purohit, R.P.S., 2014. Towards a participatory approach in managing change in multi-
stakeholder buildings of historical importance in London, UK (Doctoral dissertation,
Kingston University).
Rees, G. and French, R. eds., 2016. Leading, managing and developing people. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Reio Jr, T.G., Nimon, K. and Shuck, B., 2015. Preface: quantitative data-analytic techniques to
advance hrd theory and practice. Advances in Developing Human Resources. 17(1).
pp.3-11.
Rocco, T.S., Bernier, J.D. and Bowman, L., 2014. Critical race theory and HRD: Moving race
front and center. Advances in Developing Human Resources. 16(4). pp.457-470.
Scott, E.S., 2019. Leading change. Leading and Managing in Nursing, p.320.
Smits, S.J. and Bowden, D.E., 2015. A perspective on leading and managing organizational
change 1. Economics and Business Review, 1(2), p.3.
Yoder-Wise, P.S., 2014. Leading and managing in nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
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