Understanding and Leading Change Report

This report examines the impact of change on organizational strategies and operations, using Tesco and Marks & Spencer as case studies. It analyzes internal and external drivers of change, their effects on leadership, team, and individual behavior, and measures to minimize negative impacts. The report also utilizes force field analysis to identify driving and resisting forces associated with change, highlighting barriers and their influence on leadership decision-making.

UNDERSTANDING AND
LEADING CHANGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Comparison of different organisations to understand the impact of change on its strategies
and operations.........................................................................................................................1
P2 The ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviors within an organization..........................................................................3
Bohner's and Arnold change impact analysis...............................................................3
Comparison...................................................................................................................4
P3 Measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of change on organizational
behavior..................................................................................................................................4
Drivers for change.........................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P4 Force field analysis identifying the driving and resisting forces associated with change.4
Barriers of change and its impact on Marks and Spencer's leadership decision making.......6
Usage of force field analysis in context of meeting organisational objectives......................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5 (Covered in Presentation)..................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The below report is focused on the changes that occur within an organisation and in what
ways these changes impact its overall leadership. The report tends to compare different
organisational examples to identify the impact of change on its strategies and operations. It also
evaluates those ways in which external or internal drivers of changes impacts individual
behaviours, leadership and team. The leadership decision making has been briefly explored
below in which different barriers of change and their influence on leadership decision making
has been explained. Later the report moves towards leading change, in which different leadership
approaches have been applied in order to deal with change in context of a variety of
organisational context. At last, the report concludes with exploring the findings and evaluations
made to understand the overall impact of change within an organisational environment.
TASK 1
P1 Comparison of different organisations to understand the impact of change on its strategies and
operations
Tesco
Tesco is known as one of the largest food retailers in the world. The company operates
around 2,318 stores and employs over 300,000 people. When the organisation saw that its
consumers are shifting towards “bulk” and “one stop” shopping options due to a variety of social
changes. It adopted the strategy of discount provision to its consumers in order to attract them
and earn large profits. The strategy is to develop new consumer markets and providing them with
effective discounts and offers.
In the strategy Tesco made sure that its consumers are being provided with the decided
discounts(Aitamurto, 2015). This change impaccted the organisation in different ways where the
management team changed sales patterns, prepare a variety of discounts on a variety of products,
and guided its employees about the discounts provided etc.
The positive impact seen by this strategy made the consumers shift towards Tesco and the
organisation saw better growth than its competition. The organisation saw its profits growing on
a large scale because of bulk and one stop buying habits of these consumers.
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Its negative impact was that the organisation had to make fast changes. This impacted its
management team to work for long shifts and lacked their performance in their daily tasks.
Along with it, the consumer which were not able to buy bulk clothing suffered from no discount
options and they shifted towards its competitors.
The change impacted the organisations process in many ways where the management had
to urgently plan, monitor, implement and review the organisational strategy. The managers had
to set goals in order to determine what to achieve from the strategy. Although, it changed the
status quo and daily routine of few of the organisational employees impacting to shift their focus
on the strategy rather than on their tasks yet it proved itself as an effective approach in achieving
higher profits.
Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer is one of the leading retailers in United Kingdom. The company is
known for its variety of services such as clothing, home, furniture etc. The company was
planning to start its services and open its stores in the markets of India and China but the recent
trade war happened between America and China made it difficult for the organisation to
implement new strategies in order to keep its promotion going on and hold the impact of war
going on between two countries(Attal, and et.al, 2017). The organisation developed a strategy in
which it managed to promote its products and services in the cities which were less impacted by
the trade war and again start promoting them in other cities after the trade war ended.
The negative impact caused by its was Firstly the organisation's marketing department
has to understand new consumer markets to promote their products and services. Also, the
management of Marks and Spencer had to make sure that the strategies used in these promotions
are as per the set goals and objectives of the organisation. They created new strategies and plans
in order to understand these consumer markets. It shifted their focus from the usual priorities to
understanding these changes.
The marketing team of Marks and Spencer needed to invest a lot of time in order to build
new strategies and techniques to ensure the success of the immediate change brought by the
organisation. The overall process of organisation got engaged in implementing and monitoring
these newly built strategies.
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The positive impact of the adopted strategy was that the organisation found better ways to
promote itself. Along with it, the marketing team of the organisation improved its efficiency and
developed new skills.
P2 The ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and individual behaviors
within an organization.
Bohner's and Arnold change impact analysis
The change impact analysis uses two types of techniques:
1. Trace
2. Dependency
Below explained are the techniques to evaluate the impact of change in context of:
The trace technique in Tesco explores the scope of an initiating change which explains
what scope Tesco considered while applying the strategy. The scope used by Tesco in the above
strategy was to generate a new and large buyer base by providing them with the desired
discounts(Basran, and et.al, 2016). This is going to bring large amount of profitability to the
organisation as well as going to help the organisation in reaching towards new buyers.
The dependency techniques in Tesco explores the consequences of initiating change. The
consequences faced by the organisation after the application of change included that the
organisation saw a growth in its profitability and a major increase in its product's sales. The
employees of Tesco has to face a lot of problems in managing the process during the
implementation of the change.
In trace technique Marks and Spencer used the scope of promoting its products and
services in markets where it has yet to make it reach. Using this strategy Marks and Spencer
closely manage the impacts of Trade war on the organisation. Along with it, the organisation
with the help of its marketing ensured that its products and services are being promoted on a
wider range in China.
The dependency technique explores that Tesco faced consequences such as the
organisation's marketing department had to change its strategies in order to implement the
changes(Cuthill, 2016). The marketing department has to develop new and effective strategies in
order to deal with these changes that the organisation was about to implement in the market on
China.
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Comparison
From the above exploration it can be seen as the immediate strategies used by Tesco to
provide its customers with better discounts allowed the organisation to gain better profits in the
markets and made the organisation better in terms of achieving its goals and objectives.
Although, the organisation has to face minor difficulties such as to create immediate strategies in
order to bring the required changes and troubles in increasing its overall processes efficiency.
When we observe Marks and Spencer the organisation did face some difficulties in
implying its new strategies yet it found a better approach to deal with the change. It made the
organisation stand strong during the time of crisis and made sure that it does not face hurdles
while dealing with the current trade war.
P3 Measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of change on organizational behavior.
Drivers for change
The drivers for change that Tesco saw while making the above changes includes
customers where new customer awareness towards the organisation and gaining new methods in
increasing profitability of the brand. The used strategy ensured that the organisation is gaining
new consumer's awareness towards it and is not taking any large risks. Also, changes in
legislation and technology were other few changes the Tesco observed.
The drivers for change that Marks and Spencer saw is that the organisation is innovating
new marketing strategies in order to ensure its products and services promotion in its selected
places without being impacted by the political changes faced by it in other countries. Along with
it, the organisation is becoming better in terms of understanding what needs to be done if the
same situation occurs again(Doppelt, 2017). Competitors and changes in world and domestic
economy were some drivers that Marks and Spencer saw while implementation of the strategy.
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TASK 2
P4 Force field analysis identifying the driving and resisting forces associated with change
(Source: 4 amazing force field analysis examples, 2015)
The force field analysis are used in order to understand the driving and resisting forces.
Below mentioned are the driving forces and resisting forces of change in context of Marks and
Spencer:
Driving Forces
The external driving forces of change include economy, politics, technology and
competition. These forces impact the change in many ways. The good economy of a country can
make the organisational made change better and can lead towards its profitability. The political
forces can make the established change easy to implement for the organisation. The
technological aspect can make the change easy to deliver to its consumers and stakeholders.
Also, competition can also prove as a good driving aspect for the change. If Marks and Spencer
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Illustration 1: Force field analysis

is providing better services than its competitors then in that case their customers would also shift
towards Marks and Spencer etc. These are the external driving forces of the change.
The internal driving forces include the organisations leaders and managers and its other
stakeholders as well. If Marks and Spencer are having better stakeholders and leaders or
managers they can ensure that the change is being implemented as per their directions and
strategies. Along with it, they can follow up with the change and ensure its success and can track
it is moving as per the organisation goals and objectives. Along with it, the organisations
corporate policies are another factors driving change. If the corporate policies are in favours of
every change that an organisation makes then it might lead as a driving force of that
change(Emanuel, and et.al., 2015). The change is heavily impacted by the external factors than
the internal ones in Marks and Spencer. The external factors are sometimes in favour of the
organisation and sometimes are against. Marks and Spencer has to be very careful while
implementing any of the changes and has to take each and every factor into consideration to
ensure their success.
Resisting Forces
The resisting forces of change for Marks and Spencer includes the fear of unknown in
which the organisation finds it hard to decide whether they should make changes or not because
of the unwanted situations they might face while dealing with the implied changes.
Other resisting forces include the risk of loss in which there's a fear associated of the
change leading towards organisation losses and decreased profitability.
Barriers of change and its impact on Marks and Spencer's leadership decision making
The barriers of change can make Marks and Spencer suffer while implying new changes.
These barriers can include not having much understanding of the change and its impact, poor
communication, not having proper management support for the change, not having required
resources and budget, lack of commitment towards the change etc.
These barriers can impact the leadership decision making in many ways. Such as while
making decisions related to change the leader of Marks and Spencer is going to feel unconfident
if he is not having proper management support(Espedal, 2017). During the implementation of
change if a leader is facing poor communication problems with its employees he might see it as a
hurdle and there's a chance that the leader will procrastinate in coming to a final decision. These
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barriers can impact a leaders decision making in a lot of ways. It is important for Marks and
Spencer to ensure these gaps are filled are there are no barriers when it comes to decision
making.
Usage of force field analysis in context of meeting organisational objectives
The force field analysis explores an organisation's driving and resisting forces associated
with change. From the help of analysis Marks and Spencer can understand which of the driving
forces of the change are impacting the organisation. Also, the organisation can study in advance
about the resisting forces that is making the change unsuccessful. After observing the driving and
resisting forces Marks and Spencer can easily move towards implementing the change. The
implemented change if proved successful can make the organisation achieve its goals and
objectives.
In force field analysis it can be seen as the external driving factors such as political,
economic, technological etc. can help in understanding the organisational external business
environment. This understanding can help the organisation to explore the risk factors that can
hinder its growth while applying any strategies (Fellows, 2017).
TASK 3
P5 (Covered in Presentation)
CONCLUSION
The above report explores the comparison of different organisational examples which identifies
the impact of change on its strategies and operations. The report also tries to evaluate the ways in
which external or internal drivers of changes impacts individual behaviours, leadership and team.
The report in brief puts light on leadership decision making and different barriers of change and
their influence on leadership decision making. In the report a variety of leadership approaches
have been applied in order to deal with change in context of a variety of Marks and Spencer.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Attal, M., and et.al 2015. Impact of change in erosion rate and landscape steepness on hillslope
and fluvial sediments grain size in the Feather River basin (Sierra Nevada,
California). Earth Surface Dynamics.3(1). pp.201-222.
Basran, J., and et.al 2018. Styles of leadership, fears of compassion and competing to avoid
inferiority. Frontiers in Psychology.9.p.2460.
Cuthill, M., 2016. Responding to Change: Foundations for an Integrated Regional Approach to
Community Safety and Social Cohesion. Urban Policy and Research.34(2).pp.152-165.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Emanuel, R. E., and et.al, 2015, December. Salinization of Freshwater-Dependent Coastal
Ecosystems: Understanding Landscapes in Transition Along the Leading Edge of Climate
Change. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts.
Espedal, B., 2017. Understanding how balancing autonomy and power might occur in leading
organizational change. European Management Journal.35(2).pp.155-163.
Fellows, M., 2017. Responding to change in local government-Self Managed Learning in Arun
District Council. In Self Managed Learning in Action (pp. 95-106). Routledge.
NHS England, 2016. Leading change, adding value. British Journal of Healthcare
Assistants.10(6).pp.302-303.
Romager, and et.al. 2017. Influences of Authentic Leadership Styles and Challenges to Enduring
Pervasive Leadership Models.
Salman, Y. and Broten, N., 2017. Leading Change. Macat Library.
Teishima, J., and et.al. 2016. The impact of change in serum C‐reactive protein level on the
prediction of effects of molecular targeted therapy in patients with metastatic renal cell
carcinoma. BJU international.117(6B).pp.E67-E74.
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