Report: Understanding and Leading Change, Module 17, BTEC Level 5

This report examines the critical aspects of understanding and leading change within an organization, using Blake Logitech Management as a case study. It begins by exploring the influence of both external and internal forces on organizational dynamics, including demographic, social, technological, and economic factors, as well as internal drivers such as low performance, employee satisfaction, new missions, leadership changes, and conflicts. The report then analyzes methods to mitigate the negative impacts of change, emphasizing the importance of proactive communication, employee engagement, and a supportive learning culture. Furthermore, it discusses Kurt Lewin's three-step model of change (unfreezing, changing, and refreezing) as a framework for organizational adaptation. The report concludes by examining the decision-making processes of leaders during times of change, considering the various factors that influence their choices and the impact of these decisions on the organization's overall success.

UNDERSTANDING AND
LEADING CHANGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
Influence of Change.....................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
Decision Making of Leaders........................................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Understanding and Implementing Change in any organization is very necessary
as it keeps the momentum of the company accelerated. It helps in facing all the
challenges occurred due to implementation of any change (Neumann, James and
Vince, 2019). It analyses all the changes and the solutions to handle those changes.
Blake Logitech Management is a medium-sized organization which is planning to have
a growth in the coming years and this will the time when the company will undergo
many technological, political, environmental and many more changes (NHS, 2016). So,
the report will help the company to have an effective growth by handling all the
changes.
The report will discuss the influence of any change in the company whether external or
internal. It will also analyse the effect of internal and external drivers on the behaviour of
leaders. The report will finally discuss the change in the decision-making of the leader.
TASK 1
Influence of Change
Change is necessary for the overall growth of the company. Some changes
happen automatically and some changes are made to be happened by the members of
the organization. But, the members must know the ways to handle those changes and
implement them effectively (Byers, 2017). Every change has some forces associated
with it. Those forces can be external and internal both. The research mentioned below
describes the external and internal forces and their impact on the organization:
External Forces: These types of forces play a role when the changes happen by the
business and the general environment of the organization. These can be classified as
follows:
Demographic
This happens when there is any cultural change happening in the company. For
example, if a company Avon is providing door-to-door services to the customers with 1
or 2 persons at the front line initially. After some days, the business grew rapidly with

more people willing to work with them. Then, this change in the employees will change
the productivity as well as the extent of services.
This is depended on the perspective of the owner that how it takes the changes to
impact the company positively or negatively.
Positive: This situation can bring a positive change that the more number of employees
will do more amount of work collectively by giving more number of suggestions which
will result in efficient productivity.
Negative: But, the negative point is more number of members can create increased
clashes which will disturb the overall environment of the company and thereby
decreasing the progress.
Social
These factors force the company to bring certain changes to make their company
more productive. It is mostly depended on the culture if the society in which the
company is providing the services. For example, a supermarket named Tesco sells all
types of food products. But, suddenly there comes a change in the demand of the
consumers of UK to consume dietary food as they are becoming health conscious
nowadays.
Positive: This change in the customers can be good for the company as it will give the
producers to manufacture the organic food with less sugar content which will help them
to attract more number of customers towards it.
Negative: It can bring negative change as it becomes difficult for the shops who only
produce fast food to shift to the dietary food which will cost them high along with more
number of resources.
Technological
These changes can either grow the company rapidly or can decline its
performance. For example, the Sainsbury which deals with the food products and
clothing provided the services offline at its established stores. But, now to become more
advanced, it is carrying all its promotional activities online through sites along with

accepting the orders at the platforms. The more number of customers preferred
shopping online and delivery at their doorsteps.
Positive: This will help the company to reach more number of people who were
unaware of the products and services of Sainsbury. It will also help to make the process
of promoting and advertising easy.
Negative: The use of advanced technology required more capital and the resources.
There will be need of the employees who know hoe to work with the latest technologies
and they will be hired at a high price.
Economic
After the economic recession of 2008, the financial stability of the country
disturbed. This changed the overall productivity and the performance of all the
businesses. The banks have faced a lot due to this change.
Positive: This had given opportunities to companies like Netflix who promoted their
shows at a great extent and entertained the people sitting at homes (Turner, 2020).
They have increased their subscribers to millions.
Negative: Some companies like General Motors faced bankruptcy which have dropped
down their overall budget. The companies which provides fuel also went out of their
business as majority of the people were sitting at home and the transportation of good
was strictly prohibited.
Along with the external changes, the companies also faces some changes which
happen within the company and are described as below:
Internal Forces
These forces can relate to the external forces but these occur inside the
organization and impact its internal functioning. These include following factors:
Low Performance
This impacts the productivity of the organization thereby destroying the image.
The best example to understand the impact of lower performance is the Harley-

Davidson. When it was started, it began with a bike which was not much efficient and of
poor quality which sometimes leaked the petrol on the showroom floors.
Positive: This change can give the opportunity to improve its performance by applying
certain strategies and policies. This will encourage the employees to begin from an
initial level.
Negative: This will not satisfy maximum customers, break many customers and will
destroy the customer loyalty towards the product and the company which results in the
rapid decrease of the sales and progress.
Low Satisfaction
This makes the employees less satisfied by themselves and their performance.
When the employees are not satisfied, they will be unable to make the customers
satisfied (Osman and Nelson, 2019). For example, the company Waitrose never
rewarded the employees for their good performance which resulted in the backing off of
many employees.
Positive: This will give the opportunity to the leaders to have personal communication
with the members thereby increasing the comfortability to work in the environment.
Negative: It will also demotivate the employees as their hard-work does not pay off
leaving them unsatisfied. This will also decrease the customers because the employees
will be inefficient to represent their company about the products and services.
New Mission
This happens when the company plans to create a new goal to be achieved for
increasing its progress. For example, the company Facebook planned of a mission to
make the people more connected to each other. The CEO of the company wanted to
expand the company in terms of connectivity.
Positive: This gives a clear objective to be achieved by the employees. The employees
do not face any issues for their tasks to be performed. It gives many opportunities like
trying new things, planning new implementations etc. which gives exposure to the
members.

Negative: Creating new mission sometimes demotivate the employee as they are not
aware of the policies of the company and are not skilled enough to perform according to
the new goal.
New leadership
This happens when the person leading the team changes . This creates a greater
impact on the personal and professional performance of the individual.
Positive: It is beneficial for the employees as they give them the opportunity to become
adaptable with everyone. They do not stick to the one leader but tries to build good
relations with every one because at every phase the person leading changes.
Negative: It sometimes disturbs the performance of the employees as they had a habit
to listen and follow their leader. Changing the leader changes the leadership style which
does not always make the employees comfortable.
Conflicts
Conflicts happen when one member does not agree with the other. These usually
happen when the employees have to work collaboratively.
Positive: These allow the employees to know each other and their like and dislikes.
This sometimes aware one employee to know the real face of other which increases
transparency.
Negative: This hinders the progress of the company as the employees become unable
to work in collaboration. The goal of the company becomes secondary and the aim to
resolve the company becomes primary which is not good.
The above mentioned external and internal factors are obvious in every business. So,
the company 'Blake Logitech Management' must be aware of the impacts and the ways
to handle those effects. Otherwise, these drivers can become a barrier in the progress
of the company.
Methods to minimize negative impacts of the change

The negative effects of the change can be minimized by the following ways to
ensure a comfortable and peaceful environment in the workplace:
No Surprises : The employees must be aware of all the things happening in the
company prior to its effects. So, that they can be prepared for all the things happening
and respond positively to it.
Increase Engagement of the employees: The strategies and the policies must be
discussed with the employees so that they become self-confident and valued
(Aitkenhead and et.al., 2019). This will increase their effectiveness in their performance.
Considering Notice: This is necessary during the transition as it will allow the
employees to find the another job before losing one and will be able to complete the
tasks within the given deadline.
Creating a Learning Culture: The culture of the workplace decides the performance of
the employees. It must help the employees to accept the challenges and develop their
skills which will help them in the future.
Support of Career Transition: This is important for even the skilled employees as loss
of job is very difficult to experience for everyone. This will help the employees to
analyse their own potential skills, strengths and weaknesses and their contribution to
achieve the goals.
The company 'Blake Logitech Management' must implement all the above mentioned
ways so that the negative effects of all the changes in the organization can be reduced
and the company attains a rapid growth.
Response of Organization to the change

All the companies face changes in any aspect but it must know the ways to react
to certain change. 'Kurt Lewin's Model of Change' describes the processes in a change
and the ways to give response to it. It is a 3 steps model whose steps are as follows:
Unfreezing
This process mainly aims to aware the employees about the need of certain
change and the contribution the change will bring in improving the overall performance
of the business (NHS, 2017). It is implemented by analysing the previous and ongoing
policies and their impacts. 'Blake Logitech Management' must communicate well in this
process which helps to know the employees about the change and its importance.
Changing
This transitioning step involves the moving of employees towards the change
process. The employees struggle initially then learn new things. Education and support
of all employees is necessary for making this phase effective. 'Blake Logitech
Management' must ensure that the employees learn numerous things from changing the
old policies to the new ones.
Refreezing
The final step in Lewis Model aims at sticking to the change (Amis and Janz,
2020). It must ensure that the employees do not go back to the old policies rather
implements the new policies effectively in the organization. This step must be followed
by 'Blake Logitech Management' also so that the necessary change can be
implemented successfully without focusing on the old norms.
TASK 2
Decision Making of Leaders
The leaders take decision of change by analysing all the points inclusion the
need of change, the effects, the thing which will support, the things which will
demotivate, its effect on the organization and the employees and the scope after its
complementation.
Analysis of Driving Forces in the change

When the company plans to have a change in any aspect, there exists various
forces which drives or resists the changes. The case study of 'Blake Logitech
Management' will help to analyse these forces using the Force Field analysis. It is a tool
to analyse the strengths and weakness of the change along with the driving and
resisting forces. Following are the steps of the Force Field Analysis:
The above figure shows the impact of forces on the goal through Force Field Analysis.
Defining Problem
This enables the company to make the list of all the issues and the changes to
cater all those issues (Al Barwani, Flores and Imig, 2018). The company has also listed
the problems it produced are not according to the changed demands of UK people.
Defining the Objective of Change
This describes the benefits after the implementation of the change. The company
analysed that if it changes its pattern of products and services then it will be able to
attract more number of customers.
Figure 1: Force Field Analysis
Source: Force Field Analysis,2020

Identifying the Driving Forces
It is important to recognize the factors which help them to implement the
changes. The company has driving forces like capital, resources and the effective public
relations to help it succeeds in the change.
Analysing the Restraining Forces
Some factors act as barriers in change which are important to be identified
(McClements, 2020). The company has competitors as the restraining forces which
were pushing it back in implementing the change.
Developing a Strategy
Certain strategies can be made either by strengthening the driving forces or by
reducing the restraining ones. The company used this step by using the capital and
resources and by making good relations with the competitors so that they cannot push it
back.
Restraining and Driving Forces
The company 'Blake Logitech Management' faces many forces when it decided
to bring change in the products and services (Neumann, James and Vince, 2019).
Some of them supported it while the other hindered the change.
The main barriers were the competitors which implements the strategies when the
company plans it. When the company implements it, it was already existed in the
market. The other obstacle was the changing demands of the people. The company has
to make modifications in the products regularly which needs large amount of capital and
resources.
The thing which supported it was the enough capital and resources to implement the
change. Along with this, the company has already built up enough relations with public.
So, they trust the brand name and products. Also, the idea of change was unique which
attracted more number of customers.

TASK 3
Covered in ppt.
CONCLUSION
The report above concluded the impact of drivers of change whether internal or
external. It also described various methods to reduce the negative effects of the
changes along with the organizational response towards it. The report finally examined
the decision of leadership by analysing the resisting and driving forces which hinders or
fosters the change by using force field analysis in 'Blake Logitech Management'.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Aitkenhead, S. and et.al., 2019. How the Leading Change, Adding Value framework
enables nursing, midwifery and care staff to transform practice. British Journal
of Nursing. 28(18). pp.1210-1212.
Al Barwani, T., Flores, M.A. and Imig, D. eds., 2018. Leading Change in Teacher
Education: Lessons from Countries and Education Leaders Around the Globe.
Routledge.
Amis, J.M. and Janz, B.D., 2020. Leading Change in Response to COVID-19. The
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, p.0021886320936703.
Byers, V., 2017. The challenges of leading change in health‐care delivery from the front‐
line. Journal of nursing management. 25(6). pp.449-456.
McClements, D.J., 2020. Future foods: a manifesto for research priorities in structural
design of foods. Food & Function, 11(3), pp.1933-1945.
Neumann, J.E., James, K.T. and Vince, R., 2019. Key Tensions in Purposive Action by
Middle Managers Leading Change. Res. Organ. Chang. Dev. 27.
NHS, 2016. Leading change, adding value. British Journal of Healthcare
Assistants. 10(6). pp.302-303.
NHS, 2017. Leading Change, Adding Value: NHS England case studies 5–9. British
Journal of Healthcare Assistants. 11(1). pp.43-47.
Osman, M. and Nelson, W., 2019. How can food futures insight promote change in
consumers’ choices, are behavioural interventions (eg nudges) the
answer?. Futures, 111, pp.116-122.
Turner, A.J., 2020. Developments in Secondary Food Education in England Since the
1970s: A Personal Perspective. In Food Education and Food Technology in
School Curricula (pp. 81-95). Springer, Cham.
Online
Force Field Analysis,2020.[Online]. Accessed through:
<https://egyptinnovate.com/en/innovation-tool/force-field-analysis>
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