Sample Understanding and Leading Change - Assignment

Understanding and leading
change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Impact of change on organisational strategies and operations...............................................1
P2 Internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and individual behaviour. . .2
P3 Measures taken to minimize negative impact of change on organisational behaviour..........3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P4 Different barriers for change and their impact on decision making......................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Different leadership approach dealing with change in a range of organisational context.....6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
“Understanding and leading change” explains everything about market observation, by observing
the market, and the opportunity how the leaders have to take risk, and the decisions for the
organisational growth (Doppelt, 2017). Leadership approaches plays a vital role in it. Current
report will highlight about “Smith Brothers (Constructing) Ltd”. This company is a constructing
company, which deals with the factors related to the property construction. This report will
highlight the leadership approaches which are being followed by “Smith Brothers(Constructing)
Ltd”, also highlight the comparison of another company with “Smith Brothers” and Different
measures which impact on the organisational changes, and the external and internal drivers
which change the leadership, team, and individual. Also, the barriers for the organisational
change and leadership quality.
TASK 1
P1 Impact of change on organisational strategies and operations
Smith Brothers (contracting) company is high voltage power engineering contractor.
There are various changes that has impacted on operations and organisational strategies such as
environmental issues, various rules and standards are pushing this company to consider
environment as a part of social responsibility (Renz, 2016). Company is ensuring that they
introduce sustainable strategies to support growing awareness. Smith Brothers (contracting)
company ensures that from manufacturing the product with chemicals and manpower till
customer use, environmental issues must be considered. While constructing high voltage projects
environmental conditions also impact on the company's operations. During installation of these
projects weather condition can be a big challenge and hazardous to equipment.
Change in technological capability and equipment advance also impact on organisational
strategies. Company need to be updated with new technologies and equipments to support
change. Transformers and switchgear need to be upgraded or replaced with innovative model but
it is necessary to deal with old systems as well. Company has installed new machines and
renovated or replaced old machines to increase in their operations. Company has also organised
training sessions to teach staff to maintain older equipments and install new technologies. This
change has a positive impact as all the equipments are upgraded, it is easy to compete with the
competitors and increase in productivity (Hayes, 2018). Technological advancement attracts new
customers and retain employees.
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John good shipping is a shipping agency and provides sea and air freight services. There
are various changes that can affect business strategies and operation. Change in the policies of
import and export has a negative impact on the company because due to change in policies
company cannot transport good in various parts which decreases market share. Transportation
cost increases, to reduce this cost company need to change their logistics and choose the best
mode of transportation.
Change in information technology also plays an important role, IT has replaced the
manpower with electronic data interchange systems which has reduced the gap between different
stages of supply chain (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019). By implementing this system
company has increased in automation. It also improves visibility during the supply chain process
and reduce human error. It is beneficial for company for making strategies for customers to track
their product easily. Digitalisation has changed the way customers interact, it can be beneficial
for future strategies in shipping line.
Rules and regulation are implemented for the safety of products being delivered. It is
necessary to adopt safety policy to maintain the standard of company. Regular track or products
makes customers feel safe. This change made company to implement safety policy. Transporting
hazardous goods is a community concern which has increased cost of safety.
P2 Internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and individual behaviour
External forces like technological, political, legal, environmental etc. affect the behaviour of
individual and team (Cameron and Green, 2015).
Political forces: It determines the interference of government in the economy or certain
industry. Change in the policies of government like import and export, tax duties etc. may
change the structure of revenue generation. Government use inflation rate, interest rates to
fluctuate the economy. John good shipping company needs to respond to the current and future
legislation. Company need to change the marketing policies. It affects the individual and team
behaviour by decreasing in the productivity, employees lose interest in work, it makes an
individual demotivated and increase stress. It forces leaders to treat employees carefully and
motivate employees to accept change. If there is changes in regulations, then it becomes essential
for company to implement such changes in workplace. In such condition employees start
resisting from such modification and staff turnover gets increased. By this way leaders have to
handle such situation and have behave softly with all workers. They develop healthy relations
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with staff members which makes the person positive towards the brand. By this way people give
positive response to leaders and support them in such conditions.
Economic forces: These factors determine the economy's performance that impact
company for longer duration. Rise in inflation rate affects the pricing of products and services
(Al-Ali and, 2017). This reduces purchasing power of customers thus changing in demand and
supply of economy. It also affects the team and individual behaviour such as their efficiency of
work becomes lower, employees get demotivated and lose their interest in work. Productivity,
profitability of company decreases. Leader cannot understand the change and it makes difficult
to manage the organisation. If demand is high due to strong economic condition, then company
needs support of employees to manage such workload. In such condition leaders make staff
aware with the working cycle and benefit for them to work in such heavy load. They find
innovative ideas to finish the work with quality on time. This influences behaviour of individuals
and make them positive towards the brand. By this way all the person performs better in team
and they work hard to accomplish team goal.
Social factors: Social factors determine cultural trends, beliefs, attitudes, population,
health conscious and demographic analysis. These determinants need to be taken care in the
organisation as it affects the team and individual behaviour. If employees are not treated equally
it reduces the productivity and increase employee turnover (McGahan, 2019). Leaders have to
maintain equality at workplace, they have to ensure that no one gets discriminated at workplace.
Leaders have to give respect to all candidates which influences behaviour of individual in
positive manner otherwise they may become negative in unequal workplace. This develops team
spirt and all the workers support each other in each critical situation so that firm can gain
competitive advantage.
Legal factors: Certain laws are made by the government which need to be applies in all
the companies such as health and safety law, consumer law and safety standards to protect the
employees. If company provides all the safety law to its employees, then it will motivate them
and build a trust between company and give their best performance in achieving goals and also
helps n retaining employees. This influences behaviour of team in positive manner and all
individual support each other so that overall organisational goal can be accomplished.
Internal forces also affect the team and individual behaviour as follows:
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Technological forces: Technologies are changing rapidly. It affects the productivity of
company. New technologies make it difficult for employees to produce products in new way.
Employees find difficulties in using technologies which affects the team work and increases the
cost and time of production. John good shipping company also faces technological change
through which it finds difficulty in facing competition and decrease in productivity (Halkias and,
2017). This is the factor which affect leadership, team and individual behaviour. If firm plans
technological changes at workplace, then leaders have to make people aware with benefit of
these technologies. This would be helpful in gaining support from all employees and they will
work in team well. This impacts positive in the mind of individual behaviour. But if resistance of
staff is increasing due to technological changes then leaders sometime have to behave hard so
that all people work in discipline which gives positive result to company as well.
Change in organisational structure: It is necessary to make changes in the structure of
organisation to achieve goals faster. Change in structure means changing policies, strategies,
procedures to achieve particular task. Sometimes organisational change makes it difficult for
employees to understand the work and accept changes. This may also effect in decreasing the
revenue and productivity. Some employees accept change and some not, this leads to conflicts in
the company. If there is tall structure, then people might face issue in communicating with higher
authorities which create problem for the team in understanding their job role. This can increase
chances of conflicts and may influence the behaviour of team in negative manner. Whereas if
there is flat structure then confusion will not be there because there will be smooth flow of
information which may build trust and all team members will support each other in order to
implement these changes effectively.
P3 Measures taken to minimize negative impact of change on organisational behaviour
Change affects company's most important asset i.e. employees. It is costly to lose
employees as company has to recruit new one and train them (Attah, Obera and Isaac, 2017).
There are various ways through which negative impact of change can be reduced.
Force field analyses is the tool which helps management in dealing with problems effectively.
Business has to emphases on the factors which are affecting business environment and
accordingly they have to take necessary measures so that issues can be resolved quickly. There
many internal and external forces of changes but entity has to ensure restraining forces can be
implement properly. For example enterprise have to create friendly atmosphere where no stress
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is there so that people can work comfortability in each complex situation. Comfort and security
must be considered by organisation on priority in order to minimise the negative impact of
changes. Firm has to improve communication process so because most of the people face fear or
feel sense of insecurity due to changes hence resistance of these employees get increased which
impact on individual behaviour. If there is effective coordination then leaders can make them
aware that they are not insecure which may develop friendliness among management and
employees and this will help in minimising issue of resistance.
Motivating employees: Motivation can be the best way in reducing negative impact of
change on organisational behaviour. Employee need to be motivated so that it is easy for them to
accept change as soon as possible. Company need to help employees to set clear goals and
expectation by making them comfortable with change and share information with employees to
help them in decision making. Company also provide power for decision making that empowers
employees to manage change in their own way, employees feel interested and easily accept
change. Company may also motivate employee's by giving rewards as per the performance of
employee which makes employee improve their performance by incorporating change. Company
need to celebrate success of employees or giving them appreciation and recognition for their
good work, it increases employee engagement and generate interest in accepting change to
achieve organisation goals and objectives (Hornstein, 2015).
Training and development: It is the most important process in reducing negative impact
of change. Training helps in expanding base of knowledge for employees, but some companies
find this opportunity expensive. Providing training to employee's help them learn how to manage
change. Training sessions will delay the completion of task given to employees however it is a
great investment in developing organisation and individual both. Training improves employee
performance, employees who are interested in accepting change will help company grow and
hold a strong position in industry. Training encourages employee's to improve morale and
satisfaction which reduces negative impact of change. If employees are satisfied and happy
organisational behaviour is also good. Providing training in new technologies and strategies
increases innovation of products, quality of work and increase in productivity (Neves and
Schyns, 2018).
Communication: Communication can be the best practice in reducing negative impact of
change. Change isn't easy to adopt, communicating with manager can help in accepting change
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easily. Regular communication with the employees helps manager to identify the problems in
managing changes. Channel of communication of John good shipping need to be flexible so that
employee can communicate with top management easily. By communicating employees can
express their problems and get answers. Internal communication plays a major role in
encouraging change.
TASK 2
P4 Different barriers for change and their impact on decision making
There are various barriers of changes and all these barriers create problem for the
company to implement changes at workplace effectively.
 Fear of unknown: It is considered as one of the major issue as employees of the company
has no knowledge about the changing element hence they feel unsecure in the
organization which create problem for business unit in implementing such modifications
effectively (Waddock and Bodwell, 2017). John good shipping firm is planning to make
technological changes at workplace but people are unable to accept these changes
because they feel that if they fail to operate these new techniques then firm may terminate
them on the bases of their poor performance. Hence this is considered as major barriers to
changes. This impact on decision making of leaders because they have to plan for giving
motivation to the workers so that they accept such changes and get familiar with such
new things.
 Poor communication: This is another barrier of change, as if John good shipping firm
wants to implement changes in the organization then it has to ensure that all workers get
this information. This increases clarity and help in boosting people so that they accept
such modification easily., Otherwise it can create big conflict at workplace. In such
condition leaders have to make changes in their practice decisions and have to organize
informal meetings with staff members so that they understand the need of changes and
give full support to their managers in such changing situations (Doppelt, 2017).
Furthermore, managers have to involve people in decision making process, open
communication supports in developing trust of employees and they contribute well in
implementing changes significantly.
 Poor leadership: This is the major barrier in changes, if leaders are unable to lead the
team well then it may create problem for the higher authorities to implement change
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modifications. Effective leadership aids in making people understand the benefit of such
modification so that people give support to the firm.
Leaders of John good shipping firm always have to understand that at the time of change
employees will resist hence they have to make changes in their decisions and have to involve
them in decision making process and have to give them opportunity to share their views (Renz,
2016). This thing always works and encourage staff members. This assists in minimizing
resistance of employees and making them ready to work in changed situation easily.
Furthermore, leaders have to arrange training sessions for them so that they get to know how
modifications in work practices will be beneficial for them and how this thing will minimize
their work load. After that employees will support leaders which will bring positivity at floor and
will raise relationship between employees and employers.
TASK 3
P5 Different leadership approach dealing with change in a range of organisational context.
Leadership approaches plays a very important role in “Smith Brothers (Contracting) Ltd”.
Because choosing a correct style or approach of the leadership decides the employee's motivation
technique. There are few leadership approaches which the “Smith Brothers (Contracting) Ltd”
follows.
Path Goal Theory:-
Path Goal Theory deals with the style which a leader has to follow by keeping the
employee's capability in mind to motivate the employee in the right way (Hayes, 2018).
Motivating the employee is equally important like any other activity in the organisation and
being in “Smith brother (Contracting) Ltd” level of motivation is really important for the
employee. Hence, its a contracting business level of stress is a normal thing for the employees
working in the firm. So the employee really needs a friendly environment to work with. So here
Path Goal Theory deals with the employee's motivation, growth, satisfaction and many more.
This theory deals with 4 style which are as follows:-
Directive style:- In this style the leaders of “Smith Brothers” direct the employees to work in
proper manner or to follow a particular path to achieve the goal. Here leader's responsibility is to
direct and how guide them the appropriate path through which the goal can be achieve easily,
and in less time (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019).
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The Achievement:- This leadership style deals with the goal achievement, no matter which path
employee choose, or which method they choose. Task completion is the main motto of this
leadership style, which can be achieve by motivating the employees in a proper manner. Like in
“Smith Brothers” case, the company provide the target of selling the property of atleast 20
people now the employee has to achieve it, by following whichever path they wanted to. The
goal or target must achieve.
The Participative:- This leadership style deals with participation of the employees in the
discussion. By involving team members in to the discussion or into the decision making, it brings
a positive impact to the employee's behaviour as well as a thinking that their suggestion matter to
the company (Cameron and Green, 2015). So here leaders of “Smith Brothers” involve the
employee into some activity so that they will also understand the work process.
The supportive:- Here leader's main motive is to satisfy the employee psychologically. Like if
in “Smith Brothers (Contracting) Ltd” employee is not satisfied with the work environment, or
having problem with the collogues. Then its leader's job to solve the employee problem by
discussing it, and motivate them to work. So that they get the mental or psychological support.
Transaction Leadership
This leadership approach deals with the short term goals. Like in a company like ”Smith
Brothers” the company is dealing with constructive sites, so in this business the goal can be short
as well long. So the short term goals like to take care about the factors which are related to the
current site can be comes under short term goals. So these types of goals are being taken care
under Transaction Leadership approach (Al-Ali and, 2017). This leadership also focus on
motivating, controlling, organising on the short term goals. This leadership involve 4 dimensions
which are as follows:-
Contingent Reward:- Here the leaders of “Smith Brothers” follows the SMART technique to
achieve the goal which means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
Active management by Exception:- Here leaders actively monitor the activity of the employee
and correct them if they are doing it in wrong way. And motivate them if they are doing it in
right way by giving rewards.
Passive management by Exception:- Here the leader will interfere only when the goal is not
achieved in the way it was going to. Some time they also give punishment for the non acceptable
performance of the employee by giving them extra work and many more (McGahan, 2019).
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Laissez-faire:- Here the leader provides a friendly environment where they can take the decision
according to the situation. And the leader is not responsible for giving directions to the
employee. And the employee are responsible for taking the risk and the decisions.
CONCLUSION
By above report it is being concluded that for achieving the organisational goal, the company
must understand the market as well as the need of the market. And after understanding the
market and observing the market, the main factor which affects the company growth is
employee's work, and leadership is responsible to make sure that employees are working
properly, and does not have any issues regarding the project or the goal. Understanding the
market, and the leadership quality plays a vital role for the organisational growth.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al-Ali, A. A. and, 2017. Change management through leadership: the mediating role of
organizational culture.International Journal of Organizational Analysis.25(4).pp.723-739.
Attah, E. Y., Obera, V. A. and Isaac, S., 2017. Effective leadership and change management for
sustainable development in Nigeria.International Journal of Public Administration and
Management Research (IJPAMR).4(2).pp.37-42.
Bush, T., Bell, L. and Middlewood, D. eds., 2019.Principles of Educational Leadership &
Management. SAGE Publications Limited.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015.Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the
models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Doppelt, B., 2017.Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Halkias, D. and, 2017.Leadership and change management: A cross-cultural perspective. Taylor
& Francis.
Hayes, J., 2018.The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.
Hornstein, H. A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity.International Journal of Project
Management.33(2).pp.291-298.
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McGahan, A. M., 2019. My presidency of the Academy of Management: Moral responsibility,
leadership, governance, organizational change, and strategy.Journal of Management
Inquiry.28(3).pp.251-267.
Neves, P. and Schyns, B., 2018. Destructive uncertainty: The toxic triangle, implicit theories and
leadership identity during organizational change. In Organizational Change.(pp. 131-141).
Routledge.
Renz, D. O., 2016.The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John
Wiley & Sons.
Waddock, S. and Bodwell, C., 2017.Total responsibility management: The manual. Routledge.
Online
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