AEGON: Understanding and Leading Change in Organizational Context

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of how AEGON, a financial services company, approaches and manages organizational change. It begins by comparing AEGON's strategies and operations with a competitor, The Hartford, highlighting the impact of structural changes like adopting a flat organizational structure. The report then delves into the internal and external drivers of change, utilizing SWOT and PEST analyses to identify factors influencing leadership, team dynamics, and individual behaviors. It explores measures to mitigate the negative impacts of change, specifically focusing on the PDCA model for continuous improvement. Furthermore, the report examines barriers to change, employing the force field analysis model to understand driving and resisting forces within AEGON. Finally, it discusses different leadership approaches to dealing with change in various organizational contexts, providing a holistic view of change management within the company.

Understanding
and
Leading Change

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change on an
organisation’s strategy and operations...................................................................................................3
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................5
P2 Determine ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviors.................................................................................................................................5
P3 Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of change on organisational
behavior..................................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership decision-making
in a given organisational context.............................................................................................................8
TASK 4.....................................................................................................................................................10
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organisational contexts.
...............................................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................11
REFRENCES............................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
For an organization it is necessary to adopt change so that they can conduct their work in
effective as well as proper manner. This is so because through changes a company able to
identify and adopt new technology which helps in product process as well as through it they also
able to produce goods and services which attract more and more customer (Alavi and Gill,
2017)). Through which company able to gain high profitability ratio and market shares.
Organization taken for this assignment is AEGON that is founded in the year 1983 and its
headquartered is situated in Hague, Netherlands. It is operating its business in financial sector at
worldwide level. Their offerings are life insurance, pension and assets management. There are
approx 28,000 employees are working in this company. Topic covers in this report are
comparison of diverse companies on the basis of impact of changes on their operations and
strategies. It will also include internal and external drivers of change that will impact on
leadership, team and individual behaviors at an organisation. Along with this it will mentioned
measures which are taken by company for minimizing impact of change and it include barriers of
change and its impact on decision making. It will also explain different leadership approaches
used for dealing with change within an organisational.
TASK 1
P1 Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change on an
organisation’s strategy and operations.
In order to identify effectiveness of strategy AEGON conduct its comparison with its
competitive company, which is mentioned below:-
Changes AEGON The Hartford
Structure Respective company is
operating its business
operations and functions in
hierarchical structure in which
The Hartford is operating its
business function through
hierarchical structure but now
they are facing some problems

there are different different
stages i.e. upper, middle and
lower. In this structure
decision making take very
long time because for long
process (Anderson, 2016). Due
to which AEGON decide to
switch their structure to flat.
Through which they able to
take decision quickly as well
as performance of employees
also get improved through this.
Strategy: Strategy develop by
respective company in order to
adopt flat structure is that
respective company train their
employees so that they operate
their work properly and
effective.
Operation: By adopting flat
structure respective company
feel various positive impact
such as timing of decision
making get reduce, employees
also feel motivated because
every employees treated at
same level due to which they
accomplish their work
effectively at proper time.
which impact in their
production as well as
profitability ratio. Due to this
after consulting with expertise
they change their structure and
adopt flat structure. Through
which communication process
gets improved and now staffs
able to communicate each
other properly which motivate
them as well as encourage
working for attaining goal and
objective.
Strategy: The strategy adopt
by respective company is that
they provide training and
development session to their
employees so that they able to
accomplish their work properly
and this will also reduce
wastage which obtain during
production process. This is so
because every employee
knows their work and right
process to complete it
(Doppelt, 2017).
Operation: Through this
respective company able to
treat their employees effective
at same level and this will also
leads to attainment of goal in

more effective manner. Along
with this will also reduce
wastage because every
employee get training and
know how to conduct work
properly.
TASK 2
P2 Determine ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviors
A driver of changes is defined as an element by which change will occur within a
workplace. These drivers of changes are available or present in each and every situation as well
as it will impact differently on diverse situation. The drivers of changes are majorly classified
into two type’s i.e. internal driver and external driver, which directly and indirectly impact on
business operations and functions (Fragouli and Ibidapo, 2015). AEGON adopt SWOT analysis in
order to identify internal drivers of change, whose explanation is given below: -
Strength Weakness
 The respective company is covering
large market area by offering its
products online.
 They have very strong team of staffs
which help them in attaining goal.
 They are operating its business in
international market which helps them
in maintaining huge customer’s base.
 Respective company also introduces
innovative technology which helps
them in gaining high rate of return.
 Respective company has less presence
in rural market.
 Small agents of financial services have
more huge customers’ ratio in
comparison to large companies (Fullan,
2014).
Opportunities Threat
 They have the opportunity to expand its  Respective company have number of

business in rural market.
 They must also develop services which
attract urban youth.
 They can also introduce cross selling
through other financial services such as
banks.
competitors which impact on their
business such as Bharti AXA Life
insurance, Sahara life insurance and
many more.
 New entries of NBFC are in respective
sector of financial services.
Moreover in order to analysis external drivers of changes respective company conduct
analysis through PEST analysis, which some factors are explain below:-
 Political: By adopting this driver of change in effective manner respective company able
to conduct their work or adopt change in more effective as well as appropriate manner.
This will include rules and regulation made by government such as taxation rate, export
and import tax, employment tax and may more (Gupta, 2011). So it is essential for
AEGON to conduct their work in effective manner according to this factor so that they
can attain goal as well as objective properly. Economical: It include factors like economic rate, employment rate, income rate and
many more. A company must consider this factor while developing their products or
adopt changes. This is so because if a company having bad economic conduction adopts
very expensive change technology. Then in this situation they not able to conduct other
activities properly. So it is necessary for a company to develop products and services
according to economic conducting of customers, company and country so that they can
sustain in market for a long time.
P3 Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of change on
organisational behavior.
An organization needs to evaluate its factors so that they can avoid negative impact of
change at their working condition. This will also help them in conducting work or activities in
effective as well as appropriate manner (Hillson and Murray-Webster, 2017). Along with this it
will also help a company in enhancing moral of staffs so that they conduct their work in effective
way which leads to attainment of goal as well as objective successfully. But while they adopt

changes they face some negative so in order to avoid it they adopt PDCA model, whose
explanation is given below:-
Plan- According to this stage manager of a company conducts analysis and identifies
need of change within a workplace. In respect of AEGON they conduct evaluation on regular
basis in order to identify issues, problems and requirement within a workplace. By this they able
to develop strategies and plans so that respective firm adopt changes in more effective way. For
example respective company analysis that they are facing issues in attracting customer and its
reason is that they are using less attractive promotional channel (Jones and Harris, 2014). So they
decide to adopt change in promotional activities and adopt digital as well as social media like
facebook, e- mail, instagram and many more.
Do- According to this stage leader of a company develop strategy and plans in order to
adopt changes in effective and appropriate manner. For which they conduct analysis on small
scale as well as determine effectiveness of outcome. Such as in respect of AEGON they conduct
evaluation and identify that they need to update their promotion technology for which they
develop plans and strategies (Komives, 2016). Like they decide to adopt new promotional
techniques such as social media as well as digital media. For which they decide to train their
employees so that they learn how to use social and digital for advertising and its effectiveness.
Illustration 1: PDCA Model
(Source: PDCA Model, 2019)

Check- At this stage leader conduct analysis of strategy which they develop are
appropriate or not. For this respective company may compare their expected outcome with the
actual outcome and evaluate that new strategy or plan is effective or not, if the result is satisfy
the company will develop another strategy in more effective way. Along with this if a leader files
whole process or strategy ineffective they will drop it and again develop new and more
innovative technology.
Act- It is a last phase of PDCA model and at respective phase if a firm identifies that
strategy and plan is appropriate then they will adopt it effectively as well as successfully
(Lawrence, 2015). Such as in respect of AEGON, they identify that plan or strategies develop by
them are appropriate and that will help them in attaining their goal but for this they need to
conduct some work. Such as design training and develop session for staffs so that they can
conduct work in proper way.
TASK 3
P4 Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership decision-
making in a given organisational context.
An organization go through various barriers when they adopt changes at a workplace,
sometime these barriers develop or create some gap in actual activity practice and standard
practices conducting by a company on daily production activities at workplace. This will impact
negatively at working condition so it is necessary for leader of company to develop strategies
and policies by considering these factors. In respect of AEGON company they use force field
model to analysis in order to identify changes properly, whose description is given below:-
Force Field Analysis Model:
This model is generally used by a company in order to analysis and evaluates changes at
a workplace so that they can develop decision according; it mainly includes two forces which is
driving and resisting force (Lloyd, Boer and Voelpel, 2017). Here, driving force helps a firm in
determining changes and they develop strategies according in order to adopt it properly. Along
with this, resisting force refers to a kind of barriers that is occurring among conducting work as

well as adopting changes. In respective company Force Field Analysis model is used in order to
evaluate change, whose explanation is given below:-
Driving force: According to this factor it refers to when changes in forces during change
will occur in need and demand of customers of a company, for this leader has to conduct analysis
and then develop strategies respectively. In context of AEGON their potential customers are
asking for some change or up dation related to new life insurance, pension records, process of
assets management and so on (Painter and Clark, 2015). Along with this their staffs also required
new software for storing data in more safe form and in effective way. Due to which leader of
respective company develop strategies as well as plans so that they can develop strategies
appropriately this will help in adopting changes properly.
Resisting force: According to this force it is related to restrictions as well as barriers that
will help a company in adopting changes in effective and appropriate manner. This force
generally occur when a company decide to adopt new technique or any change and during this
their some forces get restrict. Such as implementing change of new process at workplace at
workplace because this will required huge cost or capital, lack of support of employees and so
on. This is so because employees get restrict to their work and they didn’t want to adopt new
change. So in order to overcome this situation manager of respective company will motivate
their employees and encourage them to adopt changes in effective ways. This will help them in
adopting change which leads to attainment of goal as well as objective.
There are some barriers that are face by a firm while they are adopting change and which will
impact on decision making process:-
 Lack of staff involvement- It refers to a situation when employees involve very less in
decision making process or any other activities at a workplace. Such as in respect of
AEGON when they ask their staffs about adopting change, they are not taking participate
in process because they have fear that their importance and responsibility get decreased at
workplace (Van der Voet, Kuipers and Groeneveld, 2015). Due to this decision making
of leader get affected due to which they not able to take proper decision because they not
able to understand appropriate issues of staffs.

 Lack of Finance and investment- It is most essential factor which help an organization
in buying proper resources in order to conduct procedure in effective way. Such as in
respect of AEGON they face barrier of finance because company required more budget
or money as compare to budget prepare for each and every company (Alavi and Gill,
2017). Due to this work get affected as well as decision making of leader also get
affected because they due to this they have to develop strategies and plans accordingly.
TASK 4
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organisational
contexts.
An organization can adopt various leadership styles so that they can adopt changes in
effective way. There are diverse types of leadership style that can be adopted by AEGON form
which some major of them are defined below:-
System Leadership Style: According to this style of leadership, leader develops a
condition that provides guideline to team members and other staffs so that they work accordingly
and in effective manner. That will help them in completing work in effective way which leads to
attainment of objective effectively. In context of AEGON, their leaders are experienced as well
as skilled through which they predict behavior of employees which help them in assisting their
performance. Through this respective business organisation able to sustain its productivity for a
long time period by adopting changes properly. Along with this, by using respective leadership
style AEGON able to adopt change effectively at a workplace, that directly and indirectly leads
to improvement or overall growth of business operations as well as functions.
The respective leaders are beneficial for a company because by it they able to adopt
change in effective way at frequent basis. Along with this, through situational leadership style
leader of respective company able to attain their individual and organizational goal as well as
objective properly (Anderson, 2016). But there are disadvantage of this style such as this it not
much profitable or effective for small business operations as well as sometime it will also take
time in decision making process.

Lewin's Change Model: - According to this theory there the respective model of
leadership style is based on three steps i.e. unfreeze, change and refreeze through which an
organization adopt effective change. The respective company adopt Lewin's change model which
explain is mentioned below:-
 Unfreeze- According to this stage leader of AEGON conduct analysis and identify
change and them contact to management in order to aware them about the change. For
example respective firm analysis requirement of updating their technique of promotion
that they are currently using (Doppelt, 2017). This is so because currently they are using
print media instead of digital ort social, due to which they have to take permission with
senior authority.
 Change- According to this stage manager of respective company conduct meeting and
communicate change plan to other staffs of firm and then make efforts in order to resolve
rumors that are related to change. Then leader will develop strategies as well s plans
according to requirement of employees for adopting change properly.
 Refreeze- According to this stage of a company leader develops strategies and plans so
that they can adopt change properly and effectively. At this stage leader also design
training and discussion so that they can explain why it is essential for a respective
company and how they can adopt new technology.
CONCLUSION
From above given point it can be conclude as well as analyzed that in an organization
change plays an essential role in order to operate business functions appropriately. When a
company implements change in its organization it will impact it in both negative as well as
positive manner. For implementing change in effective way a company needs to adopt or
develop various strategies, they must also company it with other competitive company so that
they can analysis its effectiveness. There are various types of drivers which will impact on
leadership, team and individual behavior. Along with this there are some factors which company
needs to compare while developing strategies and policies, so that they adopt change properly.
There are also barriers which may impact on company decision making in other to avoid it
company adopt various leadership approaches so that they can adopt change properly.

REFRENCES
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Online
PDCA Model. 2019. [Online] Available through: <https://www.quantumdiaries.org/tag/pdca-
cycle/>.