Understanding and Leading Change Report: Supermarket Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of change management and leadership within the context of two major supermarket chains, ASDA and ALDI. It explores the impact of change on organizational strategy and operations, examining both technological and political factors. The report uses SWOT and PEST analyses to identify internal and external drivers of change and their effects on leadership, team dynamics, and individual behavior. It also investigates barriers to change and their influence on leadership decision-making, as well as different leadership approaches adopted during periods of change. The report offers a comparative study, highlighting how ASDA and ALDI respond to changes in the business environment and adapt their strategies accordingly, providing valuable insights into effective change management practices.

Understanding and Leading
Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 Managing the Impact of Change.......................................................................................1
P1: Impact of change on an organisation's strategy and operations............................................1
P2: Internal and external drivers of change that affects leadership, team and individual
behaviour......................................................................................................................................3
P3: Measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on organisational
behaviour......................................................................................................................................8
TASK 2 Leadership Decision Making ............................................................................................8
P4: Different barriers for change and its affects in leadership decision making:........................8
TASK 3 Leading Change ..............................................................................................................10
P5: leadership approaches in the the period of change:.............................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Development and change is the ultimate truth that needs to be adopted by each business
to sustain in long term. Understanding and leading change prepares businesses to meet the
problems that comes with initiating and implementing change. This process helps to assess
change and examine psychological, political and organisational issues that generate by such
changes. It is important for each business to adopt change to survive in long run. For this project
ASDA stores limited a British supermarket founded in year 1949 is taken. For comparison
another organisation ALDI another supermarket chain founded in the year 1946 is taken. A detail
analysis of impact of change in organisational strategy and operations, change in organisational
behaviours due to these changes (Kotter, 2012). Clarification regarding how barriers to change
influences leadership decision and leadership approaches applied to these changes.
TASK 1 Managing the Impact of Change
P1: Impact of change on an organisation's strategy and operations
ASDA is a British supermarket retailer, headquarters is situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire
and revenue of the company is 2.166.6 crores GBP. Peter and Fred Asquith Sir Noel Stockdale
are founders of this company that posses 165000 employees. On the other hand, ALDI is a
common brand of two German family owned discounted supermarket chain. Estimated turnover
of the company is €50 billion. It has 10000 stores in 20 countries and posses large group of
employees.
Both the companies are performing as large supermarkets and various changes in the
business environment is assessed by these companies. These organisations have to provide their
response to the emerging changes in the business world to make effective decision. Change in
the business environment can be similar but approaches to deal with these changes are different
of both the organisation (Doppelt, 2017). Comparison of ASDA and ALDI in response to change
in business environment is as follows:
Basis of change ASDA ALDI
Technological Technology is an area where there
have been a lot of advances. For
example- mass use of microwaves
Online and mobile shopping has
increasingly becoming popular
and supermarkets are turning
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is a technological advancement.
This advancement in technology is
addressed by the company by
launching a range microwaveable
foods. Adaptation of this
technology helps company to cope
with the changes and expand
business (Salmela, Eriksson and
Fagerström, 2012). New
technologies have positive impact
on strategy and operations of
ASDA as online shopping services
are introduced by the company.
New technology helps in
expanding market of company
and new consumer base is
generated by the company.
Company has responded to adopt
technological changes and use
these changes for expansion of
business.
towards technology. With this
increased technology number of
consumers expecting the
efficient self service checkouts
from grocery providers has
increased. ALDI has not yet
adopted such technology.
Although quick and efficient in
serving consumers. Response of
the organisation towards change
in technology is not as ASDA as
focus is provided on to serving
consumers. This efficiency of
serving consumers can not be
checked by consumers who are
buying few product from the
stores. Technological changes
have minimum impact on ALDI
as it is quite restrictive to adopt
these changes. It has minimum
or no response towards
technological changes and
termed consumer service as first
priority to have satisfied
consumers.
Political Change in various laws related to
business of ASDA like lows on
foods, competition law, tax
policies and price regulation have
huge impact on strategies and
regulations of the company.
Changing political scenario
imposes new regulations, tax
implications and market
conditions. This changing
political conditions presents
further risk to the company
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Planning permission is heavily
regulated in UK and ASDA is
aware of planning regulations.
Companies identifies relevant
planning laws and comply with
them to reduce any disruption to its
store expansion by any local
person or authority. Company has
responded positively to these
political changes that helps to
establish new stores in an area.
Government policies of UK
restricts company from growing
too large and to overcome this
situation various other services are
offered by ASDA such as “ASDA
money”, insurance and credit card
services. It also provides cheapest
mobile network services.
which needs to be addressed.
Employment legislation
continues to change on regular
basis and it become very difficult
to appoint staff at zero- hour
contract in busy periods. To deal
with the following changes
ALDI has adopted time based
management to reduce salary
cost (Van der Voet, Kuipers and
Groeneveld, 2015). Minimum
wage payment scheme of the
government made it difficult to
appoint different staff and
training is provided to the
existing staff to perform various
other activities. ALDI has
responded to change in political
environment for reducing cost to
the company.
Technological and political factors have impact on the organisation in different manner
as approach and response of ASDA for technological change was positive and initiate to adopt
the changes to increase productivity. On the other ALDI focuses on consumer services rather
then focusing on technological changes. Political changes helps ASDA to expand business by
new units and change in political scenario helps ALDI to minimise employee cost.
P2: Internal and external drivers of change that affects leadership, team and individual behaviour
Every organisation deals with the changes that takes place in day to day operations of the
company. The factors that drives these changes are considered as internal and external factors.
These factors affects style of leadership, team and individual behaviour in the organisation. To
analyse these changes PEST and SWOT is recommended which is as follows:
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SWOT analysis -
Particulars Strength and Opportunities Weakness and threats
ASDA Human resource and
organisational structure :
Experienced and qualified employees
in the organisation increases
efficiency of the organisation and
helps in achieving set business
objectives. Efficient human resource
have positive impact on leadership,
individual and team in the
organisation which is as follows-
Leadership- Leaders play important
in motivating human resource of the
organisation to achieve organisational
objective. A effective leadership
helps ASDA to comply with changes
in behaviour of human resource due
to various other changes and
motivating them to work effectively.
Individual- Change in human
resource reduces efficiency of a
individual who was attached to
previous staff. Having a
organisational structure that helps
ASDA to form good relation with
human resource at each level of
management will help individual to
increase efficiency.
Team- Human resource in an
organisation perform various task in a
Organisational resources and
Availability of capital :
Continuous change leads to
changing requirements for
resources that helps in performing
various business activities
effectively to increase productivity.
Non availability of capital to
arrange these resources creates low
moral in the organisation's
leadership, team an individual as
follows-
Leadership- Change in business
environment results in
requirements of various
organisational resources to have
effective leadership and non
availability of required capital to
introduce new resources in the
business affects various leadership
decisions.
Individual- Non availability of
required resources and required
capital in the business changes
behaviours of individual from
efficient and highly motivated to
demotivated and inefficient.
Team- While performing various
task in a team non availability of
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team and change in team of human
resource creates inconvenience.
Introducing a effective and more
efficient team in the company helps
to achieve objectives in efficient
manner.
resources in the organisation to
perform the required task will spoil
all the team work and team work
will not be preferred in the ASDA
(Glass and Cook, 2016).
ALDI Leadership- Change in pay scale by
the company by providing minimum
wage payments will mould leadership
style in company for preparing
human resource that can be
multitasking. A leader have to
motivate organisation's employees to
increase their efficiency.
Individual- When an individual is
trained to perform various other task
related to the organisation that helps
individual to develop various other
skills and personal efficiency boost
and contribution of individual
towards organisational objective will
increase.
Team- While performing task in a
team which is highly qualified and
multitasking is considered favourable
for all the team members as target of
the team will be met effectively in the
time provided.
Leadership- Availability of
organisational resources brings
effective leadership as training must
be provided to employees to make
them multitasking but non
availability of required resources
will make divert leaders mind to
some other issues.
Individual- Organisation that
possess lack of capital and required
resources will leads individual
employees of the organisation less
motivated and their efficiency in
performing various task gets
reduced.
Team- Performing task in a team
makes work easy but non
availability of resources and capital
makes it difficult to perform
various task and ultimately hinders
team performance (Hintz and
Bahia, 2013).
PEST analysis- Political and technological factors of changes are discussed in P1 and
there is not mentioned in PEST analysis.
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Particulars Economical social
ASDA Economical changes includes change
in interest rate, wage rate or change in
price. Positive economic condition
reduces risk related to business. These
economical changes affects style of
leadership, team behaviour and
individual behaviour to perform
various organisational operations
which are as follows-
Leadership- Global worming is
considered as one of the biggest threat
to a natural environment. ASDA
supports carbon reductions in most of
its stores. Company is working with
its suppliers to reduce amount of
carbon emitted during manufacturing,
growing and processing products. A
leader in the organisation motivates
all the workforce to work in
economical manner.
Individual- Individual of the
organisation will get motivated to
perform all the task efficiently when
it is noticed that company is keen to
work in economical manner.
Team- Decision of a team affects all
the team members and when a team in
the company is guided to follow all
economic rules set by the company
then decision of the team will
Social behaviour includes how
general public respond to a
particular trend. As both the
companies are in super market
business and businesses are highly
influenced by food habits of the
buyers. Generating more
employment in the businesses
creates positive image of the
business and its effect is as follows-
Leadership- Taste and preference
of the consumers are changing and
ASDA has responded to these
changes by introducing variety of
foods. For example- there is a full
aisle of Polish food in ASDA in
Boston. Behaviour of leadership
change to meet this new
requirement and to motivates
human resource to adopt these
changes (Peters, 2012).
Individual- Change in social
environment of business is because
of change in preference of a
individual and each individual in
human resource helps in adopting
these changes.
Team- Change in consumer
preference is met by ASDA by
working in team to have full
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motivate all members to work
economically.
analysis regarding change in
preference of consumers preference
regarding food. Fuller utilisation of
individual skills and helping
organisation in meeting
requirements of changing
environment.
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ALDI Leadership- An effect of Brexit have
risen in the UK and value of pound
has drooped. This is favourable for
the company as inflation rate goes up
and it attracts more consumers by
providing goods on discount basis.
Leadership behaviour changes to
bring benefit of Brexit in the
organisation in most effective manner
(Hintz, 2012).
Individual- When national living
wage of the UK is set at just £7.20 an
hour for workers over the age of 25,
ALDI announced lowest hourly rate
to £9.75. This makes each employee
of the organisation to work
effectively and earn more.
Team- Performing all the activities
to meet the challenges of changing
environment is managed by team
work in the company. As after Brexit
organisational team become more
concern to adopt these changes and
work efficiently.
Leadership- ALDI is highest
paying supermarket in UK and
employing a large work force this
leads leaders to motivate human
resource of the organisation to
work hard and help organisation to
achieve set objectives.
Individual- When organisation
pays more then average pay in the
market that motivates employees in
the organisation towards their work
and motivate them to increase their
efficiency.
Team- ALDI aims to teach 1.2
million children in UK healthy
eating habits and this aim of the
company is achieved by performing
various activities in team.
Behaviour of the team in the
company is to help in achieving
social objective.
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P3: Measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on organisational
behaviour
Change in business environment whether it is internal or external affects business
operations in positive and negative manner. As change in human resource of the organisation
brings new talent in the companies but together with this experienced person keeps on going. As
more and more competition is increasing in retail super market sector. This helps both the
companies to increase their efficiency to work hard and give a tough competition. More
competition makes it hard to survive for each business (Latham, 2013).
To know the impact of changes that takes place in internal and external business
environment Bohner and Arnold change impact analysis is used. It helps in identifying
consequences of a change or estimating what needs to be modified to accomplish the changes.
They focuses on impact analysis in terms of scoping changes within the details of a design.
Techniques that are used for Impact Analysis are as follows-
Track- Traceability of impact analysis links between requirements, specifications,
designs elements and tests are captured. Link between various factors can be analyse to
determine the scope of an initiating change. This helps ASDA and ALDI to have a track
regarding changes that are taking in the business environment. Together with this requirements
and specifications of the changes are identified to meet them positively by businesses.
Dependency- Dependency of impact analysis have linkage between parts, variables,
logics and modules. These are assessed to determine the consequences of an initiating change.
Dependency is checked at more detailed level then the traceability impact analysis. This analysis
helps both the companies to determine how impact of technological change affects operations of
business. Dependency of efficiency on qualified and experienced human resource (Bohner and
Arnold model, 2018).
TASK 2 Leadership Decision Making
P4: Different barriers for change and its affects in leadership decision making:
For better understanding of different barriers for change in any organisation in UK, there
is a requirement to select one organisation, which is ASDA Stores Ltd as given in task 1. this
company is engaged in trading as a British supermarket retailer.
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The different barriers to change in context of ASDA company are as follows:
Limited understanding of the change and its impact: The major reasons or barriers
due to which, ASDA is not able to apply changes required for survival of the company is to not
having the proper understanding of required change and not having knowledge about its impact
on the organisational perceptive. As a result, staff and employees of ASDA Store Ltd is afraid of
accepting changes because they feel that changes might be harmful for themselves and they
trying to resist the change. This barrier influence the decisions of leaders of ASDA by taking
measures like providing awareness among the employees and staff that, it is for the benefits of
both the organisation and employees (Ashley and Empson, 2013).
Negative employee attitudes: Sometimes, this is happened that employees show
negative attitudes towards the change because they think that due to change perhaps their job can
be gone and new persons with requisite knowledge about the changes can be hired by ASDA.
Due to this reasons, employees are often resist the changes. Due to this, decision of leaders of
ASDA is effected for implementation of change process successfully.
Ineffective Leadership: One of the major barrier to implement changes in ASDA is the
non active involvement of owners of company and top level management such as CEO, MD and
manager etc. Yet, if changes executed properly in the company through top level management
then the employees can also be supportive in the change management process. In fact, the
employees must be advocates of the change for the process to go smoothly. But if top level
management thinks that it is the biggest worry for them to implement this in the organisation
then top level management acts as a barrier for changes process (Holmes, Clement and Albright,
2013).
Broken Communication:When introducing change management to an organization like
ASDA, it is very important to communicate the changes being implemented to every level of the
organization. It is very important of everyone involvement and must be seen as a key
stakeholder to ensure a successful outcome. For overcoming from this barriers there is
requirement of clear and decisive communication is foremost at this stage.
Force field analysis- Introducing change in the organisation is very difficult as people in
the organisation resist change and focuses that everything remains the same. To deal with this
described issue Kurt Lewin developed the Force Field Analysis. This is a method in which a
team or an organisation can predict in advance expected resistance will be to a proposed change
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