Leading Change and Organizational Development

This assignment involves a comparative analysis of two companies to identify strategies used by both, as well as studying different drivers of changes to find their influence on employee behavior and organization. The barriers to adopting changes within a company are also examined. Effective decision-making through leadership styles is crucial in implementing these changes.

Understanding and leading
change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Comparison of different organizational examples where there has been impact of change
on organization's strategy and operations...................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P2. The ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviours..................................................................................................................5
P3 Measures to minimise negative impact of changes on organizations....................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P4. Different barriers for change and the determination of the ways through which they
influence leadership decision-making.........................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P5. Different leadership approaches to deal with the change...................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Understanding and leading change is an art of handling the issues that will come in
initiating changes in the organization (Understanding and leading change. 2019). Changing
process and different issues of change are identified by the participants. In order to accomplish
the changes in the organization, Aegon is taken. This is a UK based one of the world's largest
insurance and pension company. In this report, different ways are compared which help in
identifying the impact of change on organizations strategy and operations. Apart from that,
influence of drivers of change is also discussed. In the end, influence of different barriers of
change on the decision-making of company and a range of leadership approaches to a change
initiative is also discussed in this report.
TASK 1
P1. Comparison of different organizational examples where there has been impact of change on
organization's strategy and operations.
Changes are necessary for an organization in order to sustain itself in the competitive
environment. The companies should adopt the changes in order to implement the recent trends
and technologies. These changes will help the company to retain their customers among different
rivals. In case of Aegon, the company should develop some strategies in order to attract the
customers towards their premise (Chappell and et. al., 2016). Although company has good name
in the insurance and pension sector but it is still facing issues in sustaining its customers. To
sustain its customers the company should change some of the strategies which can attract the
customers. The company which is used to compare the organizations having impact of change on
their operations and strategy is Aviva plc. This is also a multinational company of insurance
sector in UK which is helpful in providing the pension and insurance facilities to their customers.
Both these companies are rivals of each other and thus their comparison of strategies and
operations is done here as under.
Changes Aegon Aviva plc
Technological changes Aegon insurance company should
use different technologies in order
to gain competitive advantage.
In order to increase the customer
base, Aviva plc has used different
strategies of technology so as to

These technology will increase
faith among the customers and
thus increases the customers base.
The company had used different
strategies but it was failed to
increase its customer base. The
company had not so much name
so that the investors can invest in
the company. In order to gain the
fame and name of company, they
should adopt block chain
technology within the company.
This technology will provide
security and safety of the data of
customers. As per the data
recorded, £2.1 billion of users of
insurance sectors had affected
with data bullying (Chatalalsingh
and Reeves, 2014). Block chain
technology will surely help the
company in gaining their name
and fame by increasing the
customer base.
increase the customer base. The
company had moved itself in the
era of digitization so as to provide
quality services to the customers.
This technology help the customer
in defy the uncertainty. Digital
technology help the company to
serve convenience, simplicity and
rewards to earn customer's heart.
The company has launched
different reward schemes which
allows the customers to win
prizes. These type of facilities
increases the customer base for
Aviva plc. Apart from that, the
company will get its name and
fame among its rivals.
Services In case of services of Aegon, the
company is proving good services
to the customers. They had
offered customer case services
and centre of presence also in
which customer can meet the
employee of company to know
about their issue. In other section
Aviva plc is providing its services
across the globe. In spite of that,
the company getting good
response form the customers. The
company is providing better
facilities to the customers of
different regions. They offer more
IDV value for their vehicles and

of services, the company is
lacking to provide proper
claiming facilities to the
customers. In case of company,
the customers had to comply
many of the formalities which are
irritating for the customers. In
order to satisfy the customer
needs, the company should
provide hassle free services to the
customers (Colmer,
Waniganayake and Field, 2014).
This allows them to attract the
customers towards their premise.
Apart from that company will
find its place among the rivals.
also for their products and
services. All these facilities not
only increase customer base but
also hep the company in gaining
advantage from its customers. The
changes captured by the company
are to increase the output of
insurance which customer is
going to use. These changes help
the customer to purchase services
form Aviva plc.
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 such as internal driver of change and external driver of
changes. These changes has a lot of affect over the behaviour of individual, team and leadership.
Internal drivers of change
Internal drivers of changes are the changes which have impact over the internal
functioning of a business. The internal drivers are:
Innovation
Innovation is the modification of recent trends and technologies so as to attract the
customers towards the premise of company. In case of Aegon, the company can provide paper
less facilities to the customers. This facility although impact positively to the company but in
case of employee it can have positive or negative affect also. The employee of company have to
learn all the aspects of computer systems so as to handle paperless working. This requires to gain

a new skill which can help the employees to gain advantage. But some employees could become
frustrate with the time of learning new skills. They were happy in the previous technology they
used. In case of teams and leaders, change in paperless technology will allow them to develop
new strategies so as to implement the new technology among staff. This will affect the
productivity of employees at once but slowly it will come on track.
Strategies
The strategies of an organization also comes into internal drivers of change. Due to
change in the needs and demand of customers, sometimes the company should change its
strategies. This change is necessary for the company to satisfy the needs of customers. In case of
Aegon, the company have to change the pricing strategy of insurance policies (Diaz-Rainey,
Robertson and Wilson, 2017). This result in changing the procedure of employees to work with
new strategy. Although, employees have the chance of getting used to with new technology but
internally they were not interested in adopting those changes. Apart from that, the teams and
leaders should also work according to the new strategies of the company. These strategies will
help the company in gaining faith of the customers and add a bunch of customers into their
premise. Therefore the company will get competitive advantage.
External drivers of change
The external drivers of change allows the company to adopt the external changes into
their premise. Although these changes does not have direct relation to the company but still their
impact was higher in terms of operations and strategy of company. Following are the external
drivers of change of Aegon.
Customers
These are one of the important changes which comes in the company. In case of Aegon,
the company should change its strategies and trends so that they can fulfil the needs of its
customers. The changes of needs and demands of customers are frequent in nature and changes
from time to time (Doppelt, 2017). The impact of these changes will affect the working of
employees. Apart from that, they can also learn by adopting the needs of customers. In case of
teams and leaders, the changes also impact on their decision-making. The decisions made by the
team and leader before should have been changed as per the requirement. They have to form new
strategies and plans in order to fulfil the demands of customers.
Technology

It is another changes through which the external drivers of change comes into existence.
Technology is the factor which has to be changed by the management of company to keep
updated from the market. In case of Aegon, the company should adopt block chain technology so
that faith customer can be increased towards the security of their data. This technology help the
data to be protected from the external intruders. The leaders and team also have to implement the
new technology in order to accomplish the new changes in organization.
P3 Measures to minimise negative impact of changes on organizations
Changes in organization are crucial and affect the overall working of company in positive
and negative way. Negative aspects of change can harm the profitability of organization if the
company will not prepare itself for future (Espedal, 2017). The factors through which company
can prepare itself for the changes and minimize the negative impact of changes are stated as
follows:
Training and development
It is one of the important concept which can help the company in adopting the changes
easily. Training is a professional development of skills and knowledge of an employee within an
organization. Training provides necessary skills to the employee so that any new change will not
impact much on its performance. In case of Aegon, training of employees will allow them to
minimize the risk of change in the organization. The recent technology and trends should be
taught to the employees so as to prepare themselves for the future changes.
Attitude and motivation
The employees within organization should be motivated so as to adopt the upcoming
changes. They should taught that these changes will enhance their skills and abilities. This will
help the employees of Aegon to have a positive environment in the organization. The employees
can be motivate with the help of different rewards and promotions and that will surely give
belief in the employees to face any changes in the organization (Hillson and Murray-Webster,
2017). Thus management of Aegon can minimize the negative impact of changes with the help
of motivation.
Proper supervision
This is another option through which Aegon can minimize the negative impact of
changes. Changes are frequent but does not come instantly. The leader of company has the
responsibility to keep an eye over market. If there are any changes which seems to be

implemented in future the company should prepare itself in future. This will save their time to
make proper strategies so that maximum impact can be minimized easily.
Above factors will help the company to minimize the negative impact of changes over
organization. Apart from that, Burke - Litwin model can also help the company to be ready for
the future.
The Burke – Litwin model
This model is helpful in identifying the components of an organization in case of any
changes. This model was developed in 1922 by two organisational change consultants. The
component of organization which can be identified in changes are stated as follows:
External environment
The external environment include behaviour of customer, economy, competition, politics
and legislation. When the influence of these factors have identified within Aegon, it will help the
company to understand the positive and negative impact of change within company and act
accordingly (Metcalf and Morelli, 2015). Thus external environment can help the company in
minimizing the negative impact of change within organization.
Mission and strategy
Mission, vision and strategy of the company are planned by the higher management of
company. In case of Aegon, the company should understand the concept of change whether it is
valuable to the mission, vision and strategy of the company or not. This allows them to answer
whether it should be implemented within organization or not. Thus negative impact of changes
can be minimized easily.
Leadership
This is another concept through which the company can minimize the negative impact of
change on Aegon. The leader of Aegon should prepare strategies of adopting the changes within
organization. This allows them to prepare for the necessary changes within it. Thus minimizing
the negative impact of change.

TASK 3
P4. Different barriers for change and the determination of the ways through which they influence
leadership decision-making.
The barriers of change always produce hindrance in implementing the changes within
organization. These changes crates a gap between the implementing strategies and change.
Therefore they should be identified before so that at the time of implementing the changes these
barriers can be implemented. Following are the barriers of change:
Lack of employee involvement
Problem occurs at the time of adopting the changes when the involvement of employee is
not with their potential (Norman and Verganti, 2014). Employee involvement is necessary for
any company in order to implement some changes within organization. As such employees are
the end user of such changes within Aegon. The decision-making of leader will get affected as
the involvement of employees is not present. The strategies of leader and management will not
get implemented without the involvement of employees.
Lack of effective communication strategy
Lack of communication among the different department of Aegon will affect its working.
A change in company affect the overall departments and therefore any change should be
implemented in each department of organization. Every department within company should
interact with each other. This will help them in implementing the change effectively and
efficiently. Lack of communication among the employees will not allow the decision-making of
leader to be implemented successfully (Sayal and et. al., 2016).
Force field model for accepting the changes is explained as under:
Force field analysis
This is the model which is helpful in allowing the employees to adopt the changes.
Following are the forces through employees can be motivated and accept the changes within
Aegon.
Internal drivers of forces
 These are the internal sense in which by allowing the change the company will increase
their productivity.
 Reorganization of the strategies can also be done with the help of adopting internal
changes.

 If the departments are having conflict-ion among themselves than internal drivers of
change comes into existence.
External forces of change
Following are the external forces of change through which company have to adopt the
changes.
 Greater competition
 Higher cost of inputs
 Legislation & taxes
TASK 4
P5. Different leadership approaches to deal with the change.
There are many approaches of leadership which help the company to deal with the
change which are as follows:
Situational leadership
This leadership style does not focus on the any specific leadership style. According to
this approach of leadership style, the leaders should act according to the situation when ever is
needed. In case if Aegon, the leader of company should behave according to the condition of
change (Schneider and et. al., 2014). It should find out the ways through it can help the company
in adopting the mandatory changes. Apart from that, it should also motivate the employees so
that they can prepare themselves for the next change. Although this theory is helpful in adopting
the changes but this theory also increase the chances of risk within it. Since, leader has to take
decision of its won therefore the chances of risk increases within the company.
Autocratic leadership theory
This theory allows the leader of Aegon to take the decision of its own to adopt the
changes. This theory is helpful in quick decision-making and therefore the company can
motivate the employees to accept the changes. Therefore this leadership style is helpful for the
company to adopt the changes. Although there are many positives of this theory but the biggest
drawback is that this theory leads to conflict-ion among the employees. When decision-making is
done by leader of its own, the employees feel demotivated itself.
Democratic leadership style

This leadership style is just opposite of the autocratic leadership style. In this leadership,
the leader takes any decision after consulting with the stakeholders. This allows to increase
democracy in the working culture of Aegon (White and Robinson, 2014). The employees feel
important themselves and motivated enough to work hard for the organization. Thus company
can easily deal with the change implementation and allow the employee to support the
implementation of changes within company. This theory also has many positives but still it takes
a lot of time while making the decisions. Although this theory is one of the best theory of
leadership to adopt the changes within Aegon.
CONCLUSION
In this report, it can be concluded that changes are must for any organization to sustain
itself in the rivalry market. Changes could be strategical, technological, etc. These changes
allows the company to increase their customer base. Comparison of two companies help in
identifying the strategies used by both. Apart from that, different drivers of changes also studied
so as to find the influence of changes on the behaviour of employee and organization. Different
barriers allows to find the issue of adopting the changes within company. In the end, different
leadership styles also help the company to make effective decision-making in order to implement
the changes.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Chappell and et. al., 2016. Exploring the process of implementing healthy workplace initiatives:
mapping to Kotter's leading change model. Journal of occupational and environmental
medicine. 58(10). pp.e341-e348.
Chatalalsingh, C. and Reeves, S., 2014. Leading team learning: what makes interprofessional
teams learn to work well?. Journal of interprofessional care. 28(6). pp.513-518.
Colmer, K., Waniganayake, M. and Field, L., 2014. Leading professional learning in early
childhood centres: Who are the educational leaders?. Australasian Journal of Early
Childhood. 39(4). p.103.
Diaz-Rainey, I., Robertson, B. and Wilson, C., 2017. Stranded research? Leading finance
journals are silent on climate change. Climatic Change. 143(1-2). pp.243-260.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Espedal, B., 2017. Understanding how balancing autonomy and power might occur in leading
organizational change. European Management Journal. 35(2). pp.155-163.
Hillson, D. and Murray-Webster, R., 2017. Understanding and managing risk attitude.
Routledge.
Metcalf, M. and Morelli, C., 2015. 10/9-The Art of Leading Change: Innovative Leaders
Transformation Model. Integral Leadership Review.
Norman, D. A. and Verganti, R., 2014. Incremental and radical innovation: Design research vs.
technology and meaning change. Design issues. 30(1). pp.78-96.
Sayal and et. al., 2016. Fostering systems thinking for Youth Leading Environmental Change: A
multinational exploration. Ecopsychology. 8(3). pp.188-201.
Schneider and et. al., 2014. Understanding TiO2 photocatalysis: mechanisms and
materials. Chemical reviews. 114(19). pp.9919-9986.
White, V. and Robinson, S., 2014. Leading change in policing: police culture and the
psychological contract. The Police Journal. 87(4). pp.258-269.
Yoder-Wise, P. S., 2014. Leading and managing in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Online
Understanding and leading change. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.esmt.org/executive-education/executive-development-programs/
leadership/understanding-and-leading-change>.