Understanding and Leading Change in Organisations

This document discusses the importance of change in organizations and its impact on employees and the company. It covers topics such as internal and external drivers of change, measures to minimize negative impact, barriers to change, and different approaches to leadership. The document also includes a comparison of Santander and Lloyds Bank and the use of Kotter's eight-step change management model.

Robert Andrei Chirita
Understanding and Leading
Change
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Robert Andrei Chirita
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Robert Andrei Chirita
Introduction
Change in organisation takes place for the betterment of the employees and company.
The change could be anything whether related to the policies, strategies, culture or technologies.
The company adopt change for increasing their growth and development which leads them with
huge profitability. Change in organisation makes the company to deal with everything that could
give them success and great result. There are four types of organisational change they are
transformational change, people centric organisational change, structural change and remedial
change (Nelson‐Brantley and Ford, 2017). COVID 19 has affected many organisations by which
they are not able to fight and could not handle the situation. The businesses get shut down for a
long period of time and they are not getting any source of income during pandemic. In this report
the topic covered are Internal and external drivers of change, measures to minimise negative
impact of change, barriers to change and different approaches of leadership.
TASK 1
P1
Organisational Change takes place when there is need or requirement in the functioning of the
company. The change is important to survive in future market, the organisation have to change
their policies and strategies to adopt a new change. COVID 19 has created a great impact on
functioning of the company, the businesses are changing their way of conducting activities due
to pandemic (Nadim and Singh, 2019). The companies must work according to current scenario
of pandemic and implement their strategies according to the situation. Banking and financial
sectors are also a part which gets influenced by COVID 19, the banks face a heavy loss due to
pandemic. The banks face two problems they are credit loss and operations challenge, they have
faced loan loss due to Coronavirus Pandemic. The banks are speeding up and shifting towards
digital banking to increase their productivity (Glow, Kershaw and Reason, 2021).
Comparison of Santander and Lloyds Bank
Basis Santander Lloyds
Overview It is a Spanish financial
services company which is
suited in Spain. Santander is
Lloyds is a financial institution
which is formed by the
acquisition of HBOS in 2009
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one of the Fourth largest banks
in the entire Europe.
and acquired by Lloyds TSB.
Lloyds is one of the largest
financial institutions in UK.
Changes occur Santander make changes in
dealing with its customers as
they have more focused on the
digital banking due to COVID
19, people cannot visit Bank.
They have also changed the
banking facilities due to the
disease which require no
human interactions.
Lloyds have changed their
operation activities such as
they have added extra security
check up when individual use
internet banking. They also
announced a closure of 56
banks. They have changed
their way of services their
clients and opt for new
technologies which help
customers during COVID 19.
Aim The aim of Santander Bank is
to meet the targets which are
designed to fulfil the goals and
objectives of retail bank the
targets are to strengthen the
balance sheet of bank and
consistently growth or
profitability of Bank.
Aim of Lloyds is to make their
customers and employees feel
comfortable by fulfilling their
demands and needs. The Bank
improves their service
proposition and creates a value
for their customers so it makes
them sustainable for long term
business.
Product or Services Santander offers various
services they are current
account, saving account,
Master card, Mortgages,
Investments, savings, travel
insurance, Car insurance,
personal loans and various
Lloyds provides a various
service to their customers from
current account to saving
account. The Bank also
provides facilities of Credit
Card, ISA's, Investing, Home
insurance, Wealth
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other facilities. management, pensions,
mortgages, loans, Car
finances, Insurance and Travel
services.
Santander has faced a heavy loss due to COVID 19, they experienced first loss in its 163 years
even the bank have closed its branches because people are moving towards digital. The usage of
consumers in branch gets fallen down so bank decided to consolidate their presence in areas
where they have multiple branches within three miles of Santander. The transaction in braches
gets fallen down from the starting of pandemic. The bank is also shifting headquarter from
London to Milton Keynes to reduce their rent in UK capital. Lloyd’s also saw a profits fall in
2020 and battling with economic fallout of COVID 19. The bank is supporting their customers if
they face any interruptions and also providing extra finance facilities to businesses.
TASK 2
P2
If business wants to be successful and competent in the market, they have to understand
the driving forces of change and should know how to manage and lead change (Alavi and Gill,
2017). Changes make the company profitable or can also reduce the profit margin it depends on
how efficiently they know about change. The manager must have good understanding of two
driving forces of Change they are internal change and External Change.
Internal Drivers of Change-
Internal Drivers of Change are more controllable than external drivers. The organisation has
more control over these changes. The changes are extremely hard to adopt and this makes push
to the employees to get out of their comfort zone and work according to the change. When
organisation is implementing a change, a new product is launched, new employee gets hired or a
new policy is framed (Bohman, 2019). The internal change affect leaders if any conflicts arise
due to change process, they must solve the conflicts and make them assure that the change is
taking place for good reason. The behaviour of individuals also gets affect due to Change in the
organisation as most of the people do not accept change; they want an assurance from the
manager that their jobs are safe. Internal drivers of Change also affect team members as they are
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collectively working to fulfil the goals and objectives if Change takes place team get separated
someone will get to show exit gate of company. Due to COVID 19 many organisations is
changing in their way of functioning and operations as it brings a huge disadvantages. The
Internal drivers of Change are Capabilities, resources, inventions, dissatisfactions and desire.
These are the factors which are controllable and manager can handle the issues.
External Drivers of Change-
External Drivers of Change are uncontrollable and can't easily tackle by the companies. The
external change includes change in technology, regulations, customer’s preference, sourcing
instability or competitor’s moves. External factors may also affect the company by political,
technological, social or economic forces which influence from outside an organisation. Leaders
are one who guide and inspires employees and show them the way to achieve their vision.
Leadership get affected by external change as they have to take various decisions so if change
happens, they have to make new policies and strategies (Bohman, 2019). The banks must know
why they require change and its implications as COVID 19 affected the performance and
functioning of Bank. The External drivers of change are Customers, competitors, Investors,
Technology and Government. These are the factors which are uncontrollable and may create a
huge impact on organisation.
Kotter's Eight step Change Management Model
The theories which is been used is Kotter's eight step change management model. The Eight step
change model is framed for an organisation to bring change. The managers of the company who
is initiating, designing and managing change should understand properly each stage to
implement the change properly. These steps are as follows-
 Create a Sense of Urgency-
It is a first step in the change management models in this the leader and employees should be
getting out of their comfort zone. They should understand need and requirement for change, the
banks should also be aware of the urgency for Change. The employees must get involved in each
discussion related to Change process. They should give their suggestions, opinions and
feedbacks so that the manager may listen and take appropriate action accordingly.
 Form a Guiding Coalition-
For a change a team should be formed, a manager must build a team and select a group of people
who think that they require a need for Change and also understand the purpose or goals of
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Change. The manager should identify weak areas in coalition team and ensures they should
select a people who can influence other people of different departments (Wolberger and
Goldman Schuyler, 2018).
 Developing a vision and strategy-
The Manager of Banks should develop a vision and strategy that makes their employees to
follow and achieve it with efficient and effective way. They must determine the values, vision
and strategies for realising that a change is necessary for the welfare of organisation. The leaders
must ensure that the employees can easily understand vision and strategy it makes them clear
(Peters, 2019).
 Removing Obstacles-
The Santander and Lloyds bank should remove the obstacles which arise while implementing the
change. They must make sure that the organisation process should align with vision of the
organisation. The manager of the banks must check the barriers which could be arise due to the
employees who are resisting change. The Bank must reward people who are the part of Change
process.
 Create Short term Wins-
By developing short term wins, Bank can take a feel of victory in Change process. Manager
should create short-term targets instead of creating long term targets as short term targets are
easily achievable and it is also inexpensive. The people who achieve in meeting targets and
vision of the organisation should be rewarded (Flanding, Grabman and Cox, 2018).
 Consolidating Gains-
The Banks must achieve continuous change by an analysing the past experiences and improving
from that experience to gain success. The manager must ensure that the team must work to
achieve the vision and objectives according to the plan and strategies.
 Anchoring Change in the Corporate Culture-
A successful story should be discussed related to Change and Banks should ensure that the
Change must become an integral part of Companies culture. The leaders must continue to
support the change it includes existing staff and new staff (Chandra Handa, 2019).
Critical Evaluation
The long term implication of Internal and external drivers of change on organisational
behaviours is that company can lead to increase in growth and profitability in future if they adopt
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change in their working style and pattern. The Change in organisation is important as it motivate
employees to contribute their best in accepting and implementing new change that brings
success. If Company can easily manage internal and external drivers force, they can move
towards achieving success. For planning effectively for change kotter’s eight change model is
best for achieving goals and objectives of bank. The model is easy to understand and provides
guidance and description regarding the process of change and it can be easily implemented. The
model put emphasis on acceptability and involvement of staff members for getting success in
process. But for implementing this model it takes a time and even the workers get dissatisfied if
their requirements are not given enough attention.
The Banks should effectively plan and draw strategies while implementing the Change.
They should know the pros and cons of the change and it effect on the organisation. The
employees should be involved in every part of the change process so that they didn't create any
conflict or trouble for the organisation.
P3
The Change also creates negative impact on organisation, to minimise the negative
impacts there are certain measure they are as follows-
 Active Participation of Employees-
For minimising the negative impact of the Change, the manager should ensure that employees
should actively take participation in the decision regarding the Change. They should give their
thoughts, perception, opinions and feedbacks in the meeting so that their point of view states in
front of seniors. The manager should provide the information of Change process it makes
employee feel that they are also part of the Bank.
 Provide Training-
The Change takes place with new technologies, new employees and new culture, it is important
for the employees to provide them training so that they can understand new process and concepts
it helps employer easy to adapt the change. The training helps to enhance their knowledge and
skills which makes them to achieve the objectives efficiently and effectively (Scott, 2018).
 Develop Communication Strategy-
There should be proper communication strategy between employees and the manager of Bank.
The manager should provide information related to the Change process and communicate the
Change to. They should determine the most effective means of communication that will be
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effective for the group and individuals. The communication strategy must include how the
change will be communicated to employees, channel and the medium which is planning to be
used.
 Determine the impacts of Change-
The Manager should determine the impacts of Change to their employees as they should know
the advantaged and disadvantage of Changes that is going to be taking place. They must conduct
a meeting and clear the Change process that helps employees to know about the implications of
Change.
 Clearly define the Change-
A change should be clearly defined by the manager of Bank as if it is not clearly defined a
miscommunication occurs between the employees and manager. They should ensure the
employees that the business will go in a right direction. It should be clearly explained what is the
need of change and how to implement the Change (Dick, et. al., 2018).
TASK 3
P4.
Change is necessity for every organisation as it provides an opportunity to enhance the
growth and development of the company. COVID 19 Pandemic create a huge impact on the
businesses, they are adapting a change to provide a better products to their customers as during
COVID 19 people want their product should be safe and healthy they should not get any harm
with the items. Harvey Nichols must take safety precautions for their customers and employees;
they should make changes according to it. Harvey Nichols is a department store that sells fashion
collections for women, Men, beauty products and fashion accessories. Headquarter of the
company is in London, UK. Force field analysis is a tool which is used by the organisation to
identify the factors which could affect the situations it can be social situation (Johnson, 2020). It
generally looks out the forces that can create a block or hurdle between reaching the goals and
objectives.
Here are the barriers of change which Harvey Nichols can face they are as follows-
 Lack of Change Management Knowledge-
By applying forced field analysis it is found that lack of change management knowledge is one
of the factors which could affect the Organisation. Harvey Nichols must have a knowledge of
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change management they should make a strategy showing the importance of communication and
planning (D’Allura, 2019). The organisation must involve employees in change process and they
should be informing about the change and why it is going to be happen as they influence the
leadership decision making in Harvey Nicholas. If the company have a lack of change
management knowledge it will create one of the barriers for Harvey Nicholas.
 Accountability-
Accountability is other factor which could create an impact on Company it is being identified by
using forced field analysis. The employees of the company must feel that they are the family
member and must give their feedbacks or opinions while implementing change in the
organisation. The leaders of the organisation must ask for the suggestions or feedback and
provide up to date information’s to its followers. Due to COVID 19 they are working from home
so they should not feel that they are not included in Change process. The employees are required
while taking decision as they can also influence the leadership decision making if they are not
valued and involves which create an impact on the performance of Harvey Nicholas.
 Lack of Employee Involvement-
COVID 19 pandemic has made the employees to take their work at home, even the link between
the managers and employees get reduced as they are far away from each other. It is the factor
which could influence the performance of Company, it is being identified when business conduct
forced field analysis. If Harvey Nicholas is implementing a change in their organisation, they
should make sure their employees should take participation as they have the doubt of change
until and unless they become the part of change process. If they are not satisfied with change
process it can affect the decision making of leader and also create a conflict between employer
and employee. The employees should get an assurance by the organisation that the change is
taking place for the betterment of them (Kroll, Kelly and Rates, 2019).
 Implementing New Technologies-
Implementing new technologies can also be a barrier to change and could also affect the decision
making of leadership, according to forced field analysis. If Harvey Nichols is adopting a new
technology, they have to convince their employees that the new technologies will reduce the time
and make their job easier. The Leader has to give an assurance that their job will not be on stake,
they will remain the part of company only. Due to COVID 19, the companies are adopting new
latest technologies to attract more customers. If employees are not ready to adapt new
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technology in Harley Nicholas, the decision of leader get influenced they can face heavy loss as
staff members are not convinced.
 Effective Planning-
Effective planning is another factor which could create an impact on organisation; it is identified
by a forced field analysis tool. Harvey Nichols must do proper and effective planning while
implementing the change as COVID 19 has influences the organisations functioning and its
operations. The company should know the changes which is been requires during pandemic and
should also know how the changes will lay to success. Without effective planning the leader
cannot decide for the betterment of the employees, customers and company it could also
influence the decision making of leaders. So, the decision is totally based on the proper planning
than only the decision could be taken (Cat and Carroll, 2019).
TASK 4
P5
Leadership is a procedure of guiding, inspiring, influencing and communicating the
behaviours of employees to follow their vision and make them achievable. The leaders are the
one who motivate their employees to work efficiently and effectively.
There are few leadership approaches to deal with changes in Harvey Nichols they are as below-
 Participative approach-
Participative approach is a leadership approach that could deal with changes in Harvey Nichols,
this approach determines that leader should involve all the employees of the organisation and
make them feel comfortable while giving their suggestions and feedbacks regarding the decision.
The leader should make sure that their employees should participate in every decision of the
organisation as the employees are working from Home during COVID 19 and they must have an
active role in accepting the workplace policies. This approach helps Harvey Nichols to overcome
the barrier of Lack of employee involvement.
 Trait approach-
Trait approach is one of the oldest approaches of leadership, this approach determines that leader
have given and take information nature, they look out to gain more information related to the
current situations (Clack, 2020). The leader can boost confidence and morale of employees in
COVID 19 by implementing a change that could bring betterment in the organisation and for
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employees too. Leaders can convince their employees for anything related to the welfare of
organisation as they have lot of follower who also want to become like them.
 Autocratic approach-
In autocratic approach leaders are the one who delegate task to individual and make them clear
the goals. The leaders in autocratic are not friendly with their employees they maintain their
seniority image. In this approach the leaders have the right to take decision for the betterment of
the Harvey Nichols and they didn't involve employees to be the part of the decision making
(Dudar, Scott, and Scott, 2017).
Harvey Nichols must go with participative approach to deal with the changes in
organisation. As this approach makes the employees to be the member of the decision-making
process and they accept the change. The employees also take an active participation in the
change management and avail it positively.
The models of change management are as follows-
Lewin's Change Management Model
It is a simplest and easiest model which helps organisation to manage the change. This model
starts with creating a perception of change is required, then moving towards the change and
finally implementing the change into daily routine. In this model there are three steps they are
unfreezing, Changing, refreezing.
 Unfreezing-
In unfreezing stage, the organisation prepares their employees to accept the change which is
going to be implemented. Harley Nichols must explain their employees why the change is taking
place and its usefulness for them. The goal of the organisation should be to overcome employee
resistance to change.
 Change-
After Unfreezing change, the change stage brings employees to accept and give their
contribution in change. The employees should understand the benefit of the change for them and
for organisation. They started to follow the direction and support the new direction by
participating in change.
 Refreeze-
Refreeze is the last stage of the change management in this the employees accept the change and
do work according to the routine. The leader of Harley Nichols has to make sure that the changes
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should use all the time and employee must feel confident or comfortable by working with the
new ways. In this stage the organisation have to make sure to celebrate the success of the change
which makes the employees feel that the change can be successful too and thanks them for the
pain that they have feel while implementing change.
Conclusion
From the above information it is been concluded that every organisation needs a change
to run their business for a long period of time. Change brings an improvement in the organisation
which helps in increasing its growth and development. The company should know the impacts of
Change in organisation strategy and operations. They should also know the factors that could
affect the employees and leaders as it helps them to overcome the problems and run their
operation smoothly. There are different barriers of Change which should be understand by the
manager before implementing the Change and should apply the leadership approaches to deal
with organisational Change. So, the company must understand the implication of the Changes
and make their employees feel comfortable that change will going to happen for the success of
the company and employee. The employee should be convinced by the managers to become the
part of Change and accept it without creating any problem or conflict.
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