Change Management in Woolworths: An Analytical and Critical Perspective

This assignment focuses on the analytical and critical perspective of the theoretical models of the change interventions in Woolworths with proper recommendations for more effective system and strategies for the change management and for the simplification of the identified risks and the problems in the business.

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
Woolworth limited ranks among one of the few and renowned companies that are operating in
the sector of retail. It has one of the biggest supermarket chains in the country of Australia. It is
one of the main contributors towards the economy and the rising GDP of the Australian
economy. With the help of series of acquisitions, Woolworth is trying to expand its empire
rapidly after taking entrance in the foreign markets. The assignment focuses on the analytical and
the critical perspective of the organizational behavioral theoretical models of the change
interventions in the business with recommendations for more effective strategies for the change
management and for the simplification of the identified risks and the problems in the retail
market business.

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Table of Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Organization Profile.........................................................................................................................3
Body.................................................................................................................................................4
Needs...............................................................................................................................................4
Interventions....................................................................................................................................5
Diagnosis.........................................................................................................................................7
Planning and implementation..........................................................................................................9
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................11
Recommendations:........................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Background
The retail industry in the country of Australia is one of the most developed marketing
chains around the multiple companies that are under operation in the wide market of business.
The retail market features the characteristics of the oligopoly market. Over the last 50 years, the
country has been enjoying fine environment of the business with increasing population and
development of shopping centers that are renowned in the world. The evolution of the existing
range of the supermarkets came with a very big impact over the landscape of Australia. By
effectively riding on the strength of the retailing of the supermarket, Woolworth utilized the
opportunity to become one of the leading and the biggest retailers. Woolworth limited ranks
among one of the few and renowned companies that are operating in the sector of retail. It has
one of the biggest supermarket chains in the country of Australia. Established in the year 1924,
the first store of Woolworth opened at the imperial arcade of Sydney. The company was founded
by Stanley Edward Chatterton, Ernest Robert Williams, Harold Percival Christmas, Cecil Scott
Waine and George William Percival Creed (news.com.au 2018). In the current share of the
market Woolworth has more than 31 percent of the market share in the sector of retail and is
generally considered to be one of the main contributors towards the economy and the rising GDP
of the Australian economy (Keller, Pham and Warren 2017,p.5319). From the very initial stage,
the company grew towards the concept of innovation which is one of the main reasons behind its
growth in the market of business. Woolworth became the very first store in the entire world that
initiated printing of the receipts by the registration of the cash by the consumers in the retail
super markets. With the help of series of acquisitions, Woolworth managed to expand its empire
rapidly after taking entrance in the foreign markets. The assignment focuses on the analytical and
the critical perspective of the theoretical models of the change interventions in the business with
proper recommendations for more effective system and strategies for the change management
and for the simplification of the identified risks and the problems in the business.
Organization Profile
Woolworth is one of the proud domestic company of the country of Australia that
originated in the year 1924 with the principle that each and every man, woman and the children

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requires a handy place or a region where the good things comes cheap (Woolworths Group
2018). These words of the principle of the company are still as important as it was year back.
The company offers the best values that is possible furthermore providing easy and equitable
access and range of offers that the customers and the shoppers can ever find. Woolworth takes
the ultimate pride in working closely with the suppliers for bringing the best products at the best
offer price to the millions of customers that the company serves every day. Apart from this, the
company is one of the Australia’s major employers that employees over 180,000 Australian that
includes persons both from the rural and the urban areas (Devin and Richards 2018, p.201). The
company has more than 42 thousand shareholders, the vast majority among which belongs from
the Australia. The company is furthermore committed towards the partnership of business to
many of the local farmers, manufacturers and the producers (Goetsch and Davis 2014). In the
current date, Woolworth has over 3 thousand stores located in the entire country of Australia and
New Zealand with the entire span of the food, general merchandise, liquid, home improvements
and petrol. The company exist to provide its customers with the best values, access and the range
of offers. Woolworth significantly furthermore contributes to the economy and the jobs being
proudly the part of the local market communities where the main operation takes place.
Woolworth are the leaders in case of the innovation and the multi option retailing with the online
super market sales growing about 50 percent in the year 2013 and the facility of the home
delivery over 90 percent of the households in the Australia (Grimmer 2018,p. 5). The company is
furthermore one of the preferred and the best choice of the customers in case of the fresh foods.
These days, Woolworth has just a single solid contender, Coles Ltd., and it was conceded that
because of serious rivalry between them, it turned out to be relatively difficult to enter retail
market for a newcomer.
Body
Woolworth has an unrivalled record of tracks of the employment and training of the hard
working Australians. This portion of the assignment focuses on the glossary of the key
management concepts together with the intervention and the diagnostic model of change.

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Needs
Successful management is the key for the success of any organization. The change
management is an important tool towards the making of the better changes. Woolworths has
recently faced structural changes. These include the leaving of the company by many of the
senior employees, the fight for survival for many of the subsidiaries. The majority of the issue in
the organization inducing the need of the process of change management is for the failed SAP
structure (Wu et al. 2015, p.449). Woolworths is struggling and failing to deliver the specific
requirements of the customer resulting in the loss of faith in the structure of the management.
The company has furthermore faced a continuous down fall of morale together with the loosing
of the customer relations, loyalty and marketing.
To summarize the facts there are numerous of reasons for the need of the change
management of Woolworths. Increase in the market pressure together with the pressure from the
competitors has enabled Woolworths to take initiative for the change management (Chang 2016).
Furthermore, failing to satisfy the expectations of the customers together with the rapid
switching to other brands is causing a decline in the profit margin of Woolworths.
Interventions
The intervention and the approach of diagnostic aims towards bringing the needed
changes and alteration in Woolworths. The company needs a change and must recently go
through restructuring (Pulker et al. 2018,p. 202). The interventions are mainly defined as the
strategies of the business that targets to make difference and changes in the organization. The
following two interventions have been identified as the key factors of the change management
process of Woolworths.
First Intervention
a. Banning of the single use plastic bags
b. The super market giant. The Woolworth bans the single use plastic bags at all the stores
across the countries. Effected from July 1, 2018 the use of the plastic bags less than 35
microns in the thickness are banned by the retail chain. The plastic bags end up causing
environmental pollution, land fillings, polluting the rivers and the oceans in Australia.
For this reason, the light weight plastic bags are not allowed anymore (Cameron et al.

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2015,p.119). Bags that will not be banned includes garbage bags, the bin liners, the bags
for the fruit and the vegetables, the nappy bags, the dog poo bags and the departmental
store plastic material bags. Woolworth have introduced thicker plastic bags at their super
market chains. These bags are foldable and freezer type bags that are reusable in nature
and generally mad of thick cloth which is biodegradable in nature.
c. Intervention Typologies 2: On the basis of the above specified focal issues, the strategic
intervention is generally focused on the structural intervention. The context can be
furthermore seen as the continuing improvement towards the products and the services
though the innovation for saving the environment. The introduction of the thicker bio
degradable bags by the super market chain in the country of Australia is a smart move
towards the nature.
Second Intervention
a. The cutting down of the product range for increasing the market for the Woolworth brand
products
b. Woolworth aims to have private labelled products even at the cost of the reduced range of
the products in the super market shelves. The private labelling is taking over the super
market as a storm. According the reports and the claims by the Woolworth this increase
in the private labelling will apply across the multiple tiers of the range of the products
focusing of the quality, the range of innovation and the new strategic global relationships
(ABC News 2018). More supermarket brand will mean low price for the consumers and a
great deal of price for the retailers. Thou the wide variety of the product range of the
Woolworth will diminish and people coming to the super market will have to dump the
selected product range of Woolworth and join the home brand product range for
increasing the value for the price and the quality.
c. MMH356 intervention typology 2 – strategic intervention – As Woolworth tries to reduce
and cut down the prices together with the increase in the brand image for the products,
this change force can be categorized as one of the strategic interventions that target
towards generating more sales for the home brand product range (Wang 2015). This will
be a competitive move with the Aldi and Colas who are the main competitors of the
Woolworth.

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Diagnosis
Organizational behavior is a theoretical framework of the behavioral science that are
mainly focused for the understanding, predicting and managing the human behavior in the
organization for the achievement of the goals of the organization. The concept of organizational
behavior consists of three level of analysis. These are individual, group level and the behavior of
the organization itself. The five main evaluation model is the abstraction of the reality (Lewis
and Phillipov 2016, p.122). These models represent the simplified version of the real-world
phenomenon. Models are generally the replica of something representing the idea for the pattern
for being scientifically practiced for the achievement of something.
While some of the models of the organizational behavior tends to change or update as per
the time schedule, one of the most persistent model is the McKinsey 7-S framework model. The
model is useful for the evaluation of the strategies and the intervention of the Woolworths as
stated above (Bejinariu et al. 2017,p.322). The McKinsey model is useful for Woolworths for the
examination of the issues and examination of the changes and the factors contributing to the
process of change management in the organization.
Figure 1; The McKinsey 7-S framework model
Source: (Sullivan and Gouldson 2017, p.419)

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In respect to the above two interventions, the factors of the model can be illustrated as follows.
Strategy - The first intervention of Woolworths illustrates the ban of the plastic bag for the
customers The employees of the organization needs to have focused approach together with the
development and implementation of innovative measures like use of bio degradable bags for
building competitive advantages in the competitive retail market chain. The second intervention
illustrates the expansion of the market of the Woolworths brand product (Cameron and Green
2015). The organization needs to expand its product range together with formation of reduced
priced structure of its products to attract new customers towards the Woolworths brand products.
Structure- For the first intervention the organization and the employees of Woolworths needs to
initiate a change inside the organization and propagate the motto to follow the greens and
support the biodegradable products to support environmental safety and ban against the pollution
of the environment (Safa, Von Solms and Furnell 2016, p.75). In case of the second intervention,
the organization needs to restructure the retail stores, develop new manufacturing units for the
introduction of new product range and cut down the range of products from the other brands it
sells in its retail super markets.
Systems- In case of the first intervention the organization must introduce some environment
friendly carry bag for the customers who come to buy in the super market. Furthermore
awareness regarding the environmental pollution, water clogging and the land filling due to the
use of the plastic bags must be made to the customers to encourage them use the reusable
clothing and fiber bags (Mitchell, Fredendall and Cantrell 2015, p.21). In case of the second
intervention, the organization must develop a new team that will suggest the organization to
maximize its range of branded products with the Woolworths labeling in the competitive retail
market.
Shared Values- The organization and the employees of the organization must has super ordinate
goals in case of the development of the model. In case of both the first and the second
intervention, the employees of the organization must have core corporate cultures and values
related to general work ethics to help Woolworths stand out in the crowd of retail market
(www.forbes.com. 2018).

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Style – In case of the first intervention, Woolworths must adopt the leadership skills to introduce
the use of the bio degradable range of bags and stick to its decision of banning of the plastic
bags. The company should serve itself as an example and an inspiration for the other retail
marketing chain towards the ensuring of the environment safety (Jie, Parton and Chan 2015,
p.130).In case of second intervention, the organization must develop strategic goals prior
introducing their own brand range of products for increasing its profit margin.
Staff- The employees and their general capabilities are one of the key ingredients of the
Woolworths to succeed in the market of retail and expand its empire through out the world.
Skills – The skills of the employees and the competencies of the companies regarding both of the
above stated intervention is required for Woolworths to succeed in expanding its range of
business in the both the local and the international market.
To summarize, the McKinsey 7-S framework model has been used for the diagnosis of
the framework of the Woolworths for the proper identification of what required to be realigned
and focused for the improvement of the performance of Woolworths in respect to the two
interventions namely the ban of the plastic bags and the expansion of the brand image for
increasing the market range for the brad product of Woolworths.
Planning and implementation
The goals and the planning of the Woolworths supermarket are to put the customers in
the 1st priority. Effective planning is thus required even with the help of the change management
process for aiming the above stated interventions of Woolworths (Wallace et al. 2016,p.840).
The process of the planning in respect to the interventions includes the development of
objectives for use of bio degradable bags for the product range, introduction of new strategies to
expand the brand of Woolworths product, determination of the resources for the implementation
of the tasks, creation of an effective time line, determination of the assessment and the tracking
method and finally the distribution of all the involved measures in the process.
The implementation of the strategy for the expansion of the business of Woolworths includes
the development of one string team base, reduction of the cost and improvement of the process,
refreshing the stores (Wallace et al. 2016, p.840). Besides this, Updating of the offerings of the

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products and the development of the brand image are some of the ways the company can initiate
implementation of the goals and the targets by effective planning.
One of the best models that can be used for the analysis of the process of implementation in
case of Woolworths is the Kotter’s 8 step change model. The 8 vital steps can be illustrated with
the implementation of the factors of diagnosis that are required for the process of change
management in Woolworths for the above stated interventions.
Figure 2; Kotter’s 8 step change Model
Source: (Safa, Von Solms and Furnell 2016, p.75)
The model illustrates the process of the implementation of the changes in Woolworths that
need to be initiated for the application of the interventions stated above. The employees and the

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customer’s needs to be awared abut the urgency to shift their preferences from using cheap
plastic bags to high quality re –usable bio degradable bags. The employees needs to be cautious
about the change that is initiated by Woolworth which will furthermore create the recognition of
the brand among the entire retail market of the Australia for taking a step towards wellness of the
environment. From convincing the employees regarding the necessary changes for the expansion
of the business market of Woolworth towards cutting of the product range from other brands and
introduction of the Woolworths brand products to the creation of a vision for the change
management required for the diminishing market value and the level of customer dissatisfaction
rate, the model illustrates the process of implementation. Furthermore effective communication
among the employees and the customers towards the awareness of the green products and the
newly introduced product range of Woolworths brand needs to be done for attracting new
customer base (Wu et al. 2015, p.449). Continual change of the barriers and anchoring changes
in the corporate sector, the process of implementation of the strategies for the change
management in Woolworths is thus best illustrated by the above stated model.
The approach of the Woolworth includes the formation of a solid foundation, leading by
the customer range, putting the people in the first priority, development of the relationship of
trust, the freedom towards free speech and meeting customer satisfactions.
Conclusion:
The supermarket of the country of Australia is highly competitive and concentrated in
nature. Despite of the fact of the intense competition and the potential for the vulnerable profit
margin, Woolworths is one of the best examples and a clear indication of the superior business
model in the Australia. Woolworths looks forward to serve the customers of both the Australia
and the world in a continuous basis in the upcoming future. The company aims to find new ways
for the satisfaction of the needs or the requirements of the retail and the empowerment and the
employment of more number of Australians across the regional and the metropolitan country of
Australia. The company furthermore welcomes the rigorous opportunities for the provision of the
value, the convenience and the choice of the customers irrespective of their living. The key
determinant and the factor as to if Woolworths will succeed in its objective is partially

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dependable on the government of Australia for the effective addressing of the significant
regulatory factors and the burdens that is generally faced by the retailers of the country. As the
company broadens its range of products, offerings and in the new markets, it is likely to get
benefited and a hike in the profit margin together with preserving the notion of sustainability in
the field of its competitive edges.
Recommendations:
One of the leading retail market chains of Australia, Woolworth requires some of the
strategic recommendation that will furthermore help in the expansion of its business. It is
recommended that the company should enable adoption of the strategies of social media for
taking the advantage of the low cost activities of promotion. Woolworths should offer organic
and GM-free foods to its customer base and also should participate in the CSR activities that will
have the tendency to improve the firm’s goodwill. These include the recommendations in the
short term for the Woolworths. In case of the long term strategies it is recommended that
Woolworths should increase the manufacturing and the investment finance for the research
regarding the diseases related to alcohol for the protection from the introduction of the new
regulations of the government that may put further ban or restrictions on the sale of alcohol.
Woolworths should furthermore diversify in new business where the growth in the sales structure
is projected towards the rise over the long term as the profitability attractiveness in the category
of the supermarket of Australia. Some of the basic framework for the protection and the
improvement of the framework of the competition for Woolworths include the following.
Recommendation for the first intervention- The first intervention of Woolworths includes the
ban of the cheap plastic bags and the introduction of re usable and biodegradable carry bags in
the super market. The three recommendations for the intervention is as follows.
 Woolworths should promote environment friendly bags, make the customer and the
employees of the organization aware about the negative effects of the use of the plastic
bags
 Since the plastic bags are harmful to the environment but at the same time easy and cheap
for use and carrying of the products Woolworths should make a biodegradable reusable

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carry bag made out of premium fibers that the customer can buy from the shop and use
number of times.
 In case of vegetables and perishable items, Woolworths must introduce two layered
packaging system of the product before displaying it on the retail stores.
Recommendations for the second intervention – The second intervention of Woolworths is to cut
down the range of the products for increasing the market share of the products from the
Woolworths brand. The three recommendations for the intervention is as follows.
 Formation of new retail outlets in different parts of the country so that the people can get
more aware of the new range of Woolworths product
 Woolworths must do brand promotions of their products and also provide high range of
discounts, and decreased price range for its products to attract new customers towards the
newly introduced brand products in the retail stores
 Innovative measures and introduction of new and variety of product ranges must be done
so that Woolworth can stand out in the crowd among the competitive market of retails.
It is thus recommended for the Woolworths to rely on the capacity to comprehend and react
towards the changing environment of the market. Being the leader in the retail market,
Woolworths must comprehend towards the maturity towards the unit of the business, take
sufficient risk for the uncertainty of the environment and generate sources of further
opportunities.

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