Assessing Change Readiness in Woolworths: Strategy, Culture, Stakeholders, and Resistance

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Organisational Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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1ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion.........................................................................................................................................2
2.1. Strategy and Change...................................................................................................................2
2.2. Culture........................................................................................................................................4
Organisational culture and its importance while assessing Woolworth’s change readiness...........4
Organisation’s culture of Woolworths (Hofstede Model)..............................................................5
How cultural deficiencies can negatively impact your organisation’s ability to successfully
implement change initiatives and be a change-ready organisation.................................................6
2.3. Stakeholder identification and Management...............................................................................6
Explain why stakeholder identification is crucial when implementing change initiatives and how
this can impact change readiness...................................................................................................6
Explain how stakeholders are managed in your immediate area and to what extent this impacts
change readiness............................................................................................................................7
2.4. Resistance to Change..................................................................................................................7
2.5. Findings......................................................................................................................................8
3. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................8
References:..........................................................................................................................................10

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1. Introduction
In this highly competitive business environment on a global basis, each and every
organisations are now subjected to highly unprecedented degree of change. Therefore, the
change managers world-wide are required to vigilant in addressing and monitoring any of the
internal or external issues that may negatively influence the change programs of their
organisations. This report is going to elaborate on assessing the level of change readiness in a
chosen organisation. The chosen organisation for this purpose is that of Woolworths Limited
Australia. The strategic mission, the goals and objectives along with the change initiatives
taken by the organisation would be highlighted in this report. Furthermore, the culture of the
organisational as well as its stakeholders shall also be assessed and identified in this report.
Lastly, a clear and concise list of findings that would determine the level of change readiness
within Woolworths shall be presented.
2. Discussion
2.1. Strategy and Change
The Strategic mission of Woolworths Limited is to deliver the best value, convenience
and quality for all its customers. It has employed over 200,000 team members for serving
over 25 million of its customers all around the world per week (Nilssen, Bick and Abratt
2019). The company is a trusted business partner for thousands of local manufacturers and
farmers. The main goal of the company is to ensure that its customers put it first over all the
other brands. However, according to Head (2017), developing a customer and store led team
and culture is the crucial strategic objective of Woolworths. In order to achieve its mission,
the company has implemented six priorities in place and they are as follows:
a) Customer 1st Team 1st Culture
b) Differentiating the Food Customer Propositions

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c) Unlocking the Value in the company’s Portfolio
d) E2E Processes like Simpler for the stores and better for the customers
e) Accelerating innovation in its Drinks business
f) Convenient, Connected and Personalised shopping experiences
It is important to have an alignment of the change initiatives with the strategic goals and
objective in order to strengthen the leadership and to create the organisational agility. With
the same, it also ensures that the valuable time of the business is not waster on the other
unrelated tasks.
However, it is to note that the internal and external views of strategy, organisational
structure and value proposition are also very important while deciding whether or not the
organisation is change ready.
a) The internal and external views of strategy- The clear internal views of the goals and
strategies of the organisation helps the employees to feel the necessity of implementing
change in more serious manner. This helps the company in ensuring easy acceptance of the
changes that are planned to be implemented by the company. With the same, the external
views of the strategy let the customers and the stakeholders know about the same and to
improve their perspective towards the company.
b) Organisational structure- According to Bryson (2018), organisational structure refers to the
system that helps in outlining the organisational goals. It includes the roles, responsibilities
and rules of the organisations. It helps in determining the flows in between the different levels
present within the firm. In case of Woolworths, the organisational structure of the company
provide a clarity and guidance on its managerial authority. With the same, it also helps in
maintaining and influencing the culture of the company and hence, helps in deciding where
the organisation is ready for the change.
c) Value proposition- Customer are less likely to buy any product from Woolworths if they do
not like what they are receiving at the price they are giving. Hence, value proposition is very