Understanding and Leading Change in Waitrose

Understanding and Leading
Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Impact of changes on an organizations strategies and operations with the help of different
organizational examples..............................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2. The ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviours..................................................................................................................4
P3. Measures to minimize negative impact of change on organizational behaviour..................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Understanding and leading changes are the changes related to operation, structure,
culture, strategies etc. within an organization (Understanding and Leading Change. 2018).
Changes within an organization are must with time but sometimes changes are done due to
rivalry. These changes impact the strategies of organization in positive or negative way. The
organization here taken is Waitrose which is a British supermarket chain having its headquarter
at Bracknell, Berkshire, England. In this report, different ways are compared by which change
impacts on an organization's strategy and operations. Apart from that, influence of drivers of
change on organizational behaviour is explained.
TASK 1
P1. Impact of changes on an organizations strategies and operations with the help of different
organizational examples.
Changes are sometimes necessary for the organisation but sometimes these have to be
done in a force (Bannan and et. al., 2018). This forceful change occurs due to the changes
developed by the rivals. Here a comparison of change is done on the basis of operations,
strategies, process, technology and culture. The comparison is done between Waitrose and Marks
and Spencer.
Change Waitrose Marks & Spencer
Organizational structure The organizational structure of
Waitrose is hierarchical. In this
type of structure, the power is
in the hands of an official
person. This will help in taking
quick decision.
This company follows flat type
of organizational structure in
which all the employees take
part in the decision-making
process. This structure
increases the job responsibility
of an employee.
Marketing strategy Waitrose spent more on the
advertisement of its product.
This company follows the
bundle pricing strategy.
The advertising strategy of this
company also focuses on high
investment. This company
follows psychological pricing

strategy.
Pricing strategies This company follow the
specific strategy of pricing.
They provide discount for their
member customers rather than
providing discounts and offers.
This company follows the
pricing strategy of discounts in
seasons.
Technology This company follows the
technology advertisement
through their own mobile
applications to the customers.
This follows the advertisement
strategy of social media
platform.
TASK 2
P2. The ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviours
There are two types of changes occurs within an organization such as internal and
external changes (Lyons, 2015). The effect of these changes on the leadership, team and
individual behaviours are explained.
Internal Drivers of Change
The internal drivers of change are stated as follows:
Resources:
Resources are the basic building block of a business. In Waitrose if resources of an
organization are not managed properly than its affect on leadership, team and individual are as
follows:
Leadership:
The main work of leader is to set the aims and objectives of organization. If the resources
are not managed properly than the aims and objectives of organizations are not able to achieve.
Therefore the productivity and performance of Waitrose will decrease. Thus organizations
should manage the resources properly.
Team:
The main task of the team is to collaborate and coordinate with each other so that the
project can be completed successfully (Ramana, 2017). If the resources are not in the reach of

team members than the time to compete the project will increase. Thus success of the project will
not remain further. Therefore, Waitrose will face serious consequences of this.
Individual:
If the resources are not managed properly than the performance of an individual also gets
down. The resources are required at the time of building a product or task. If resources are not
available on time extra time will be consumed. Thus efficiency of employee will get down.
Activities and decisions:
The activities and decisions are taken usually at the time of making a project. If there is a
delay in the activities and decision-making the impact of it is:
Leadership:
If activities and decision-making is not done at proper time, it will adversely affect the
working of Waitrose (Mehta, 2015). Since decision-making is the task of a leader therefore
decision should have been taken at right time.
Team:
In the performance of a team the activities and decisions have important place. A team
has to take quick decision to successfully implement the project. Therefore activities and
decision-making should have been done quickly.
Individual:
If decision-making hinders the performance of an individual than the productivity of an
employee will gets down and thus Waitrose has to pay for it.
External Drivers of Change
The external drivers of change are stated as follows:
Political:
This of type changes occurs when government of a country changes the policies of
performing a business (Chugan, 2015). The impact of these changes are as follows:
 Leadership: When business operating policies has changed this will also changes the
working ability of a leader. The decision making power of it gets change according to the
new policies.
 Team: The impact of change in policies of business also impact upon the functions of
team. The members of team should have to understand the new regulations and thus
slowing down their decision-making and productivity.

 Individual: Whole organization has to change its policy including an employee also.
Therefore performance of an individual also gets down when this change occurs.
Economical
When economic condition of a country changes than the impact of such changes are:
 Leadership: The decision-making of leader get influenced by the economic instability.
Leader has to take decision by cutting the cost of product and services which will be
beneficial for the company.
 Teams: The economic instability also impact on the working of team. The team has to
work in collaboration but economic instability affects its working style they have to work
for the survival of the company. Individual: In the economic instability employee has to work for the company. The
working of employee will be on the benefit of Waitrose. The decision-making of
individual has to be in favour of cutting the cost of their product.
Social
The social changes occurs frequently (Schlappa, 2016). The impact of these change are
stated as follows:
 Leadership: If the changes in social affect occurs than the leadership decisions should
have been changed. The product manufactured should match with the requirement of
customer.
 Team: The decision-making of team should be to reduce the risk of failure of product in
market due to the changes in social aspects. Individual: The change in demand of the product will change the decision-making of an
employee. This will help Waitrose to accept the change.
Technological
The impact of technological changes are stated as follows:
 Leadership: The changes in technology will change the working style of a leader. The
decision-making should be which accept the new and advanced changes (Souza, 2016).
 Teams: The working of team will gets affected with the new technology updated in the
company. This will decrease the productivity of employees and company.
 Individual: The working of an individual also gets affected when the technological
changes occurs in Waitrose. The employee should adopt the advanced technology.

P3. Measures to minimize negative impact of change on organizational behaviour.
The organisation can minimize the negative impacts of change in the organisational behaviour in
the following ways, These are discussed as under:
Remove Fear From Employees:
Sometimes, the change made in the working of the organisation cannot be easily
acceptable by the employees. Employees do not fear from the change but they fear from the
unknown. They are not sure about what kind of change will come? Will they be able to learn that
or not ? So, before making changes, employees must be proper guided throughout the change.
They must be proper informed and communicated regarding the change. In this way, through
communication and proper guidance, the fear from employees can be removed.
Work in Simple Doses:
Whenever, the changes are made in the working of an organisation, at the first instance
the employees must not be overloaded with the work (Ward and et. al., 2018). They must be
provided with limited work because initially they will try to how the things go on. This will take
sometime and the employees must be provided with that. They will be less likely to absorb it and
may become resistant. So they work must be divided into parts in order to get the successful
accomplishment of the work.
Providing Suitable Authority:
Many a times employees are provided with those tasks for whose accomplishment they
need special authority. This restricts the speed of work and also consumes more time. It makes
the employees rigid and they will not adopt the change because a feeling comes that what will
happen when they will not be provided with the suitable authority for the work that they did not
know. So the importance of providing authority must be understood by the organisation and
provided to the employees in order to increase their morale. It will also help in increasing the
efficiency of the work provided.
Providing Training and Education:
Lack of knowledge is also a reason why people resists change. The organisation must
focus on the weak points of the employees, where the employees are lacking behind and in what
thing? After checking this, the company at first must provide the theoretical knowledge about the
change so that they may understand what is going on. After this, the practical knowledge about
the change to be given so that it will be easy for them to understand.

CONCLUSION
In this report it can be concluded that changes in an organization sometimes be good and
sometimes be bad. The affect of these changes are explained in this report. Comparison of two
companies is done by which their structure, technology and strategies are known. Apart from
that, impact of internal and external drivers of change on the functionality of leader, team and
individual are shown. In the end, measures that can minimize the impact of change on
organizations are also explained.

REFERENCES
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Online
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