Understanding Change and Resistance

The provided report discusses the importance of understanding change properly so that leaders can give proper guidance to their followers. It covers various aspects of change, including positive and negative changes, and barriers that impact company functioning and performance. The report also references several academic sources on the topic of change management, including articles and books on leading practice development, managing the dynamics of change, and tracking improvement initiatives.

UNDERSTANDING AND
LEADING CHANGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Impact of change on two organisational strategy and operation ...........................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
P2 Impact of internal and external drivers of change that affect team, individual and
leadership ...................................................................................................................................1
P3 Measures undertaken so as to minimise the negative impact of change ...............................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
P4 Different barriers to change and how they influence leadership decision making ...............5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P5 Different leadership approaches that deals with change .......................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In the business process , there are various kind of tools and techniques adopted by the
company in order to utilise them and thus conduct the operations in better and effective manner.
This mainly provides abilities to the business to adopt and implement the changes and thus
improvise the business operations (Caruth and Caruth ,2013). In order to gain the competitive
advantage, dynamic nature is must which should be present. Due to the rapid change in wants
and needs of the customer, there are number of changes which are mainly taking place. Smooth
and effective running needs to be made sure when the process of company get flexible in nature.
Company taken for this report is Costa Coffee and Starbucks and they both mainly deals in
coffee products and are competitor to each other. There are number of factors which will be
discussed within this report like structural changes along with operations along with its impact
on productivity. Besides this, there are various other sections which will be discussed like
various drivers who has made impact on the behaviour of team along with leaders in order to
attain the aims and objectives.
TASK 1
P1 Impact of change on two organisational strategy and operation
The term “change” plays a important role in every business for better growth which
directly and indirectly influences the functioning of business enterprise .It it process of causing a
function, practice or thing which is used to become different fro others. Companies can adopted
changes in a specific division, such as a marketing division, accounting, human resource etc. It
is used in making shift from one to another (Colcleugh ,2013). It is also known as organisational
change as it is modifying and reviewing the business process .It is necessary for every
organisation to adopt change in their system for better achievement of growth. Both Starbucks
and Costa Coffee have implemented change in their business practices to maintain and retain
their best customers.
STARBUCKS: It is an American coffee house company which operates its business
globally in many countries with near around 23,768 stores. They differentiate themselves by
offering different taste in coffees, quality products and customer experience. They mainly deals
in coffee , bakeries products, sandwiches and smoothies.
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COSTA COFFEE: It is a Multinational coffee house which is headquartered in Dunstable
England. It is subsidiary company of Whitbread. It was second largest company after starbucks.
It was found in the year 1971 by costa family. They are around 3,410 outlets in India in which
the UK is covering major share by 2121 restaurants. They mainly deals in iced drinks, tea ,
coffee to target its customers.
Below are various kind of changes and their impact on strategies of organisation
and their operations:
Change in Starbucks
Recently current CEO of this company deciding to switch off from his position. This
change will bring new strategies from the view point of management because thinking and
working pattern is different of new CEO from present one. Technological changes is other
important point of change in working patterns.
Old and new strategy
In present time , this company is not giving any extra benefit to its premium segment
customers because their main aim is to target every income group person. But now their plan has
been change and they mainly focus on their premium segment and fastly increase their expansion
in different part of this world. They are planning to opening their stores in developing countries
like India .This company is always believe in using latest techniques for making coffee. Earlier
they are not using latest technology in their system but now because of fast changing in
technology ,they are adopting digital platforms (Fernández-Guerra and et. al. 2014).
Change in Costa Coffee
Due to change in political environment made a huge impact on growth strategies of Costa
Coffee. Increasing in the wages is another change which forces this company to make
modification in their operations.
Old and New strategy
Costa coffee is also known for their more expansion. But Brexit constrained them to make
changes in their strategies because they known that in upcoming time they have to follow various
legal troubles at the time of opening new stores in European countries. This company make new
plans which help in increasing their size in global market.
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TASK 2
P2 Impact of internal and external drivers of change that affect team, individual and leadership
The impact of change drivers takes place in an organisation either in positive manner or in
negative. This depend upon the reaction of company and their employees towards the change.
These are usually referred as driving forces and classified as Internal and External Forces.
However, the impact of these driving forces can also been observe on the performance of
individuals, team members and leaders (Fernández-Guerra and et. al. 2014).
Internal Drivers: These are the situation, event or things that mostly takes place within the
business and these are usually under the control of company and its management. Some of the
main internal driving forces are discussed below:
11 Organisational culture: It is a systematic study that define the attitude and behaviour of
both group and individual within the company. It has been believed that organisation that
posses a powerful success spirit and always ready to grasp change and listen to customer
and staff are said to be forward looking.11 Employee Morale: The level of individual or group confidence and strength is very
essential for the company. The workers who has low morale and are not committed to
their job, often de-motivates other as well. In such type of situation, it become difficult
for the company to undergo change in a successful manner. For raising employee morale,
Starbucks has introduce many programs and they also render mental confidence to the
personnel as well.11 Strength: Starbucks relation with its supplier is getting better and this is making positive
impact on their leadership style as it is increasing their confidence level tremendously.
Different team like purchasing are able to learn new things from supplier that help them
in their production process. This is only possible because of company's fine relationship
with its supplier. Moreover, maintaining proper relationship with its supplier leads to
smooth and effective operational process, which is primarily important for earning more
profits and revenues.11 Weakness: In Starbucks, employees needs to report the head of two different division.
This leads to create confusion among them and there are high chances that it might
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hamper their work as well. This is the main reason behind large number of internal
conflict that arise in Starbucks.11 Opportunities: Scope of expanding its product or services in regions like European and
Latin America market is quite high. The company can also enter into contract with
Airlines that leads to increase their sales and enhance buyers perception regarding selling
decaffeinated coffee. Also these opportunities may result in some minor changes that is
going to impact leadership style and team formation.11 Threats: In upcoming time, there is high possibility that prices of coffee beans may
increase immensely. This will enable Starbucks to start involving employees in their
decision making process so that they can figure out the ways through which company can
at least able to maintain or reduce current cost of business. All the team and its members
needs to put some extra efforts such as using the available resources in an optimum
manner so as to overcome the influence of increased price in an effective manner.
External Drivers: These are those forces, events or situation that mostly originate from outside
of the organisation. Following are some of the common external forces that impact functioning
and operation of business entity are as follows:
1. Economic Condition: Business entity and the economic environment shares an intimate
relationship. The performance of any company depends upon the economic environment
of particular country. Situation like inflation, deflation adversely affect the functioning of
business. UK slow economic growth result in decreasing the overall revenue of the firm
and thus, it negatively impact promotion, incentives and behaviour of employees working
in the company.
2. New Competitors: Competition makes challenge the business world. Entry of new
competitors generate more trouble for the company in the form of introducing new idea,
innovation, technology and consumer satisfied product or services with affordable price
(Getha-Eby and O'Brien ,2014). Therefore, Leaders of Starbucks needs to formulate such
strategies that allow them to deal with competitors and gain high competitive advantage
over them in a constructive manner.
3. Political Factors: Political instability in the country also affect functioning of business
enterprise. Brexit brings political instability in UK that lead to impact Starbucks overall
operation and functions in a negative manner. Leadership style of Starbuck's leaders also
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get affected by Brexit as they need to change their existing leadership style into autocratic
leadership style so that they can smoothly enter into new market.
4. Technological Factors: It is an important factor as it shapes the company operation in a
cost-effective and timely manner. Businesses keep themselves updates with latest
technology so as to gain high competitive edge in the market. Even Starbucks has also
embedded advance technology in their business operation. The company has decide to
launch its online mobile application which leads ultimately leads to reduce the waiting
time of customers. In-fact their leaders started giving more priority to democratic style of
leadership because they all were aware of the fact that it become difficult for one person
to solely handle and embed latest technology in the company in an effective and efficient
manner.
5. Legal Change: UK Government has raised standard of minimum wages. With the
enforcement of such law or regulation, Starbucks needs to increase the pay of their
employees. This will positively affect individual and team members and also encourage
them to work incredibly hard.
P3 Measures undertaken so as to minimise the negative impact of change
If changes are not embedded in effective manner then their outcome may range from
inopportune to disastrous. Companies that are able to enforce changes properly can easily gain
high competitive advantage in the market (Grootenboer , Edwards-Groves and
Rönnerman ,2015). Change may sometime proves to be harmful for the company as it negatively
impact organisational functioning and operation. However, it can also influence company in
positive manner as well. This mainly depend upon how firm's management and employees deal
with such changes. In case of Starbucks and Costa Coffee, change has also impact their
performance as well. Leaders and managers of both entities have taken various steps in order to
determine the impact of change and take appropriate action regarding minimising its impact on
organisational behaviour. Some of the theories and model are discussed below:
Continuous Improvement Model: This model can be defined as an ongoing effort made by
company in order to improve its existing process, services or product through incremental and
breakthrough improvements. These efforts regarding improvement can be viewed over a time or
all at once. This model also provide assistance in reducing or eliminating the negative impact of
change and achieve company's objectives more effectively and efficiently. For successful
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implementation of Continuous improvement model, it is important to follow four-step-quality
model. This is also known as Shewhart Cycle or Deming Cycle.
PDCA Cycle: The model is mainly taken into account so as to improve organisational product,
process, or services which ultimately leads to yield more profit and revenues. It includes:
Plan: This step begin with analyse the market environment. Here the role of manger and leader
of Starbucks and Costa Coffee is determine available market opportunities and formulate plans
and strategies accordingly that leads to implement change successfully in the company. Further
managers needs to address the problem as well, gather relevant information and determine the
root cause of the problem. For example: Starbucks have identified that their customers needs to
wait for quite longer time which makes them shift to some other brand where there is no or less
waiting time.
Do: At this stage, changes are embedded by managers at small level so as to check the
effectiveness and efficiency of alteration process. Basically, both leaders and managers develop
and implement a solution to the problem. For example: Increased waiting time of customer is one
of the issue that Starbucks is mainly facing. So in order to overcome that, the company with its
managers and employees have decided to introduce its online mobile application where
consumers can place their order before they actually reach to their outlets.
Check: At this stage, actual results are examined as per the pre-determined standard i.e.
comparison is made between actual and set standards which assist the managers in identifying
the impact of change on organisational functions and operations. For example: After
implementing the change, Starbucks can take feedback from customer and
asking them to give their opinion or suggestion after implementing change in the company.
Act: If the result of change is positive, managers can further implement at higher level as well
and for this they need to guide their followers as well so that they can start working accordingly.
Starbucks has given training to its workers regarding their new mobile application so that every
employee should know how to use it.
Bohner and Arnold change effect analysis theory: This theory mainly laid stress on
determining the potential consequence of change or computing what needs to be modified so as
to accomplish change. This theory also evaluate the risk associated with change including effort,
resources and schedule. The given theory emphasize on eliminating the negative impact of
change on organisational operation. With the application of this theory, performance and
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productivity of team and its members increases and chances of accomplishing business goals and
objectives increased tremendously. Managers can easily examine the actual performance so to
figure out whether implementing change comes out to be successful for the company or not.
Managers and leaders both play crucial role as they inspire their followers to adapt changes
flexibly. For example: Starbucks manager provide proper training to its employees regarding the
change so as to aware and educate every employee regarding change. This can only be possible
if employee and management shares good relationship with each other. This also leads to
improve the performance of personnel as well.
TASK 3
P4 Different barriers to change and how they influence leadership decision making
Force Field Model: The model was proposed by Kurt Lewin in 1940. The main purpose behind
this analysis is to maintain an equilibrium between driving and resisting forces. For change to be
happen successfully, the driving forces must be strengthened and resisting forces must be
weakened. It consist of five phases which are discussed below:
Phase 1: Proposal for change:
This phase deals with defining company's goal or vision in regards of change. It is primarily
important to understand the need of change in an organisation.
Phase 2: Identify forces for change:
At this phase, manager of respective firm identify forces of change. This can be in the form of
Internal or External.
Internal Drivers: These are usually found within the company and its includes:
 Declining morale of team
 A need to yield higher probability and revenues
 Capture large market share
 Strong and customer base Uncertain operating environment
External Drivers: Such forces or factors found outside the organisation i.e. they are mainly
present in market. It encompasses:
 Disruptive Technology
 Rapid changing ideographic trends
 Strong competition prevails in market
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Phase 3: Identify forces against change:
This phase covers all key components that restrict the company to bring change. Some of the
main factors are discussed below:
Internal resistors:
 Existing organisational culture
 Fear of strong competition from competitors
 “That's not how we do it here” attitudes
External resistors:
 Government regulation and legislation
 Obligation towards potential buyers
Phase 4: Assign Scores:
After identifying both internal and external drives of change, the next step is to score each force
according to their degree of influence on change (Ielmini and Fugazza ,2011). Basically score or
rank has been assigned to each internal and external forces so as to figure out which force is
highly influencing. For example: Starbucks embedded change because the company wants to
increase the satisfaction level of customers that assist them in generating higher revenues and
profits. The rank has been given by company's manager on the basis of its influence. Here, the
manager of Starbucks initially investigate all factors and then rank them accordingly.
Phase 5: Analyse and Apply:
This is the last stage that determines:
 Whether the decision made regarding change proves out to be effective for the company
in terms of raising profit and sales figures.
 To determine which supportive force company can strengthen and which resisting force
company can weaken.
With the help of this step, it become easier for firm implement change in an organisation in cost-
effective and timely manner.
Barriers for change and their influence on decision making of leaders:
There are various barriers exist in the market that restricts company to adopt changes and also
affect the decision made by managers or leaders. Some of them are discussed below:
Lack of workforce engagement: Workers are change resistant i.e. they oppose with
modification that changes status quo in workplace. It is one of the common barrier as employees
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are always having a fear regarding change and this fear can only be overcome by involving or
participating in change process. One of the most common that every second company undergo is
they are not them in their decision making process. This may arise fear of unknown among them
and it ultimately leads to restrict change in the company.
Lack of effective communication strategy: At the time of implementation of change it is
important to communicate each and every aspect of change among employees in an effective
manner. However, there are certain situation when proper communication strategy is not
effectively formulated by company's manager. Due lack of effective communication strategy
organisation is not able to communicate change in proper manner. For example: When Starbucks
undergo change they initially they do not provide training to its employees which makes them
unaware about the change and they do not even know how to operate new mobile application.
After facing such problem the company has decided to conduct training programs for their
employees and also laid stress on building strong relationship between leader and their followers.
TASK 4
P5 Different leadership approaches that deals with change
There are various leadership approaches that can be taken into account by company's manager
and leader. These theories assist the managers to deal effectively with changes and encourage
workers to act and perform according to change (Jellison ,2010). With the application of all such
theories and models company can perform their operation smoothly and achieve organisational
objective in cost-effective and timely manner. Business can motivate and encourage workers to
perform systematically as per the changes. Some of the main leadership approaches that are
mainly applied by Starbucks manager are discussed below:
 Situational Leadership: Under this approach, managers adopt leadership style as per the
existing situation. This aid manager in providing guidance and direction to personnel so
that form's objective can be attained effectively and efficiently. It is chiefly important for
manager to alter or change strategies on frequent basis as this help in fulfilling diverse
needs of employees in different situation. This theory alleviate in enhancing overall
productivity and efficiency of both company and its staff members.
 Transactional Leadership: This theory laid stress on managing and controlling
organisational function which leads to improve its overall performance. Under this
leadership style, managers provide reward and punishment to respective employees on
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the basis of their work performance (McLaughlin, Afsar-manesh and Martin ,2013). For
example: Starbucks give rewards to employees if they work incredibly hard. Reward can
be in the form of monetary and non-monetary. Monetary includes higher salary, extra
incentives and non-monetary includes sense of recognition, accomplishment etc.
Application of transactional theory of leadership is effective in case of emergency
situation.
 Transformational Leadership: This leadership approach focuses on increasing morality
and motivation of leaders and their followers. Integrity and fairness are the two key
element of this approach. This theory help managers in formulating clear goals and
objectives and also inspire workers by giving them sense of recognition and support. In
addition to that, with the help of this theory manager can properly formulate effective
plan and policies as well that ensures proper working of all business operation and
activities.
Application of approaches in Starbucks:
The leader of Starbucks mainly follows situational and transformational leadership style.
With the help of these approaches company can achieve its goals and objectives in a proper
manner. When the company undergo changer, their leaders play key role in successfully
embedding that change in organisational culture and also enable their workers or followers to
perform accordingly. This leads to increase overall profit of the firm in an effective manner and
also enable Starbucks to gain high competitive advantage over rivals (O'Connor ed., 2015).
CONCLUSION
According to the above mentioned report it can be concluded that every company needs
to undergo change that gives them high competitive edge in the market over its rivals. It is
necessary for manager as well to understand change properly so that they give proper guidance
to their followers. Change can be in the form of positive and negative depending upon the
company how they perceive it. Various barriers also been discussed in this report that adversely
impact company functioning and performance.
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