Leading Change Report: ASDA, Change, and Leadership Strategies

This report examines the process of leading change within organizations, using ASDA, a British supermarket chain, as a case study. It begins by outlining measures to minimize the negative impacts of organizational changes, referencing the Burke and Litwin change model. These measures include addressing external environmental factors, formulating strategies with employee input, establishing a clear leadership structure, aligning organizational culture, and implementing effective systems and management practices. The report then identifies barriers to change, such as resistance from employees, motivational challenges, communication issues, government regulations, and fear of the unknown, and discusses how leadership decisions are influenced by these barriers. Finally, the report explores various leadership approaches, including situational and contingency leadership theories, and how these can be applied to manage change effectively within ASDA. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of change for organizational growth.

Understanding and
Leading Change

Table of Contents
Introduction:.........................................................................................................................................3
TASK....................................................................................................................................................3
P3.Measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on organisational
behaviour.........................................................................................................................................3
P4. Barriers related to the change and there influence upon the leaders decision making. ............4
P5. Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organisational
contexts............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................6
References .......................................................................................................................................7

Introduction:
Leading change is defined as a process which is used by the organisations for a continuous
development with the help of required changes in the business activities (Yoder-Wise, 2014). This
report consist of measures that are required to minimise negative impacts of change on
organisational behaviour. Further report involves the barriers for changes and various leadership
approaches which organisation follow to implement on the changes in context of the organisation.
The report is based on ASDA which is a British supermarket and they have their headquarters in
Leeds, West Yorkshrine.
TASK
P3.Measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on organisational behaviour
ASDA has made some changes in their business structure and they have made the operations
of their organisation in online format from offline process. The change has resulted in negative form
for the organisation as many employees around 2600 lost their jobs. To control the negative impacts
some measures are been used with Burke and litwin change model. The following change model
consist of various dimensions which are as follows:
 External Environment- the external factors play a influential impact on the organisations.
ASDA should identify these external environment factors and measures should be taken
according to the changes the company has made in the structure. It will result in dwelling
the external factors according to the changes and will result in continuous development for
ASDA.
 Mission and Strategy- the strategies are required to be formulated with the help of the top
management and with the considerations of the employees regarding the changes ASDA has
planned in it business structure (Kotter, 2012). As the change is effecting in loss of jobs for
the employees the management can formulate some measures like golden handshake in
which the employees are provided with the advance income of few months at the time of
losing a job. So, that they can manage their life in a stable manner while finding a new job.
 Leadership- A proper leadership structure should be constructed according to the changes
ASDA is implementing to clearly state the role for the working force in the business
structure. This measure will result in minimising the miscommunication within the
organisation.
 Organisational culture- the changes should be measured according to ASDA organisation
structure and should be formulated according to the rules, customs and values that result in
affecting the organisation behaviour.
 Structure- the structure should be followed in a proper manner and should not be limited to
the hierarchical structure and should be focusing on the responsibilities, good
communication and decision making within the ASDA to run the business activities
properly.
 Systems- measures including policies and procedures in accordance with the ASDA changes
to control the negative impact in functioning the business activities. So, these policies has to
be formulated according to the employees and people for better results.
 Management practices- these practices has to followed by the managers to make a balance
between the employees and resources due to the change in organisation structure.
 Work unit climate- the working atmosphere should be managed in a way that it can be
assessed that what are the views of the employees on the changes the company is
implementing.
 Tasks and skills- tasks should be distributed according to the skills of the employees as per
the require changes demand it will minimise the negative impact on the ASDA maanagerial
functions.
 Motivational level- the company need to find ways for motivating the employees for the

new aspect in the organisational structure to eradicate the lack of interest in the companies
new policy and structure.
These dimensions need to be followed by the ASDA in proper manner to gather the
effectiveness of the measure to control the negative impact of changes.
P4. Barriers related to the change and there influence upon the leaders decision making.
In the present market scenario organisations are rapidly changing their business strategies to
achieve competitive advantage in the market and to remove the competitors from tough competition
and to rule the market (Thomasand et. al., 2013). For this ASDA has to implement changes in their
organisation structure according to the market requirements. But sometimes barriers can result in
not attaining the desired changes due to the resistance in change within the employees, which
means the employees does not want to acquire new skills and abilities to stand out in new work
assigned to them because employees choose to be in their comfort area. Different forms of barriers
which might face by employees and how leadership decisions will be influenced. These barriers are
as follows-
Resistance to change-
this problem is faced by all the organisations where the company employees are not ready to
accept the changes in their attitudes and working styles according to the changes organisation want
to make because it includes hard work and efforts to change working practices. If the employees are
not happy with the changes the company is acquiring then the motivation level of the workers will
go down and it will reduce the working abilities and their working potential. To curb this situation
the leaders of the ASDA should play important role in eradicating the doubts of the employees
related to the changes and to describe the goals and objectives of the changes which will help the
organisation to grow in the market. The leaders of the ASDA will figure out the skills which will be
required for future works and what type of training methods will be beneficial for the employees.
Motivating the employees-
keeping the employees motivated is very crucial for the organisation as, it results directly to
the growth of the organisation. If the employees of ASDA will be motivated at the time of carrying
organisational functions it will obviously increase the productivity of the company in the market. To
hold this motivation while applying the desired change, the leaders of ASDA should choose both the
plan of actions which includes monetary values and non monetary values for motivating the
employees (Salmela, Eriksson and Fagerström, 2012). If the working staff is not satisfied with the
salary, then the leaders should give bonus, incentives, hikes in salary and many more advantages
according to the presentation of work of the employees in the organisation. These are the major
reason which affects the motivation level of the employees and if these factors are not affecting the
employees then the leaders should construct a proper communication process within the
organisation and should remove the concerned obstacles.
Barriers in communication:
The essential role of communication in an organisation is to cut down ambivalence among
the employees and to get rid of rumours which have been scattering at the workplace because it
results in hampering the working environment of the company in a negative manner. So, ASDA
leaders are required to clarify the doubts of the employees and are required to distribute all the
informations which is essential for the employees to be aware of. Moreover, the leaders should
exercise the participative leadership style because it will lead the leaders to work with the
employees directly and to explain their doubts accompanying to the working styles.
Rules and regulations of government: This is one the influential barrier which directly has impact
on performance of the organisation. these barriers are mainly related to the external factors which

impacts the productivity of the company. It is required to precede the several rules and regulations
formulated by the government for the company when it enters the market for business purposes for
success. ASDA can acquire the market share when the company will follow the policies of the
government properly. This barrier also influences the decision making process of the company for
processing and applying new advantageous strategies and policies.
Fear of the unknown- this barrier is related to the facts which are unknown to the organisation and
related to the events which are concerned with the future occurrences in business activities. This
factor affects the company in making a decision regarding the implementation of changes in
organisational structure that it will result successfully for the ASDA or will turn out to be a disaster.
In this the leaders need to evaluate the market properly and to certain the organisation to apply the
changes.
P5. Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organisational
contexts
Leadership plays a very necessary role in the improvement and development of any
company. Impressive leadership styles must be utilized by leaders of the organisation for managing
and controlling the employees effectively. In ASDA the leaders play the crucial part in managing
the employees and to assist the employees in achieving their desired organisational objectives.
leadership styles and approaches which are used by the leaders of ASDA for overcoming the issues
of change are as follows:
Situational Leadership: this theory of leadership suggests that there is no single leadership style
which can be considered as best among all. The application of the leadership styles depends on the
requirement of the situations and what type of strategy is required at that point of time. The
situational leadership theory defines the value of a effective leader as the one who is able to adapt
the leadership style according to the situation and should be skilled in formulating the tasks
according to it (Doppelt, 2017). This theory is referred to as the Ken Blanchard’s situational
leadership theory. The situational leadership theory of Ken Blanchard’s defined 4 primary
leadership styles which ASDA should follow and they are as follows-
 Telling- this type of leadership style defines the role of a leader as to inform the employees
about the task they are need to perform in the organisation and the ways according to which
those task has to be completed. This style will help ASDA as it will describe the changes to
the employees which the company is implementing in the organisational structure.
 Selling- this style allows the leaders to to be directly involved with the employees and where
the leaders sell the ideas and employees are required to follow the process.
 Participating- in this leadership style leaders of ASDA will allow the employees to come up
with various ideas related to the changes they have planned. This style increases the
involvement level of the employees.
 Delegating- this approach is related to giving liberty to the members of the company to
formulate the action plans accordingly and to take decisions without any pressure. This kind
of leadership style tends the employees to be more responsible towards the organisation
objectives.
Contingency leadership theory: Fiedler’s contingency theory is also with the same approach that
other theories follow that there is no one described way to lead the organisation. The leadership
style which is defined in this model is of examining the natural leadership style a leader possess. To
apply this leadership style ASDA needs to examine the style of their leaders on the basis of the
scale method designed by the Fiedler. The scale describes the value of skills a leader has and the
method to measure the leadership style involves various steps related to the preferences of type of
workers (Hintz and Bahia, 2013). This leadership theory will help ASDA as the leaders will

evaluate their leadership theory and then they will analyse the situations the organisation is facing
regarding the changes they have implemented in the organisational structure. These leadership
approaches will help the ASDA in manage their organisational operations and the workforce
according to the changes the company has implemented.
Conclusion
From the above mentioned report it can be summarized that the changes are necessary for
the organisation to grow in the market on regular basis. These changes results in creating various
barriers for the organisation and many factors which occur due to marketing issues. To overcome all
these barriers manager needs to follow various measures to control the negative impact of the
changes on the organisational structure. Leaders need to adopt the leadership styles according to the
situation of the organisation functions related to the changes and the behaviour of the employees.

References
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