Change Management: Structural, Cultural, Leadership Issues in UAE

This report examines the change management process within the context of the collaboration between Carrefour and MAF in the UAE. It begins by highlighting the need for change management in response to global business competition. The report then provides background information on Carrefour and the circumstances that led to its collaboration with MAF, a local company, to meet UAE foreign policy requirements. The core of the report delves into the structural, cultural, and leadership issues that arose from the collaboration. Structural changes involved modifications to the organizational hierarchy, management systems, and job structures, including the merging of departments and introduction of new policies. Cultural challenges stemmed from the differing organizational cultures of Carrefour and MAF, with potential conflicts in norms, values, and beliefs. Leadership issues emerged due to differing decision-making processes and leadership styles between the two companies. The report emphasizes the importance of effective change management, including advance planning, identification of potential issues, and the formation of a team to manage the change process. It highlights the need to understand change management theory and apply it to real-world scenarios, with a focus on managing structural, cultural, and leadership issues for a successful outcome.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT
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Introduction
As a result of tremendous global changes, many companies across the world are striving
to restructure their ways of operations in order to counter the competition witnessed in the world
of business (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014, pp. 52). Change can therefore be used as a
technique by most organizations aiming at adapting to the new business environments-an aspect
that ensures that a company survives in the competitive global market. However, change must be
managed well in order to bring the desired outcomes. Managing change can only be effective
when the whole organization is convinced that adopting the new ways of operating will solve the
current problems and offer opportunities for future growth (Brown and Osborne 2012, pp. 105).
Therefore change management is essential in persuading the employees and the whole
organization that altering the current mode of doing business is important to the organization’s
survival and growth in the market (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014, pp. 50).
However, the organization’s management should be keen during the change process to
ensure that all issues arising from the implementation course do not lead to the failure of the
whole process (Qadri, Hussain and Bin Ahmad Dahlan 2015, pp. 278). These issues can be either
structural, cultural or leadership and they can highly affect the entire change process either
negatively or positively (Vohs and Baumeister 2016, pp. 502). For instance, cultural issues such
as norms, beliefs and values of the organization may hinder the whole process of organizational
change. Leadership styles many also hinder the process of change since change process needs a
leadership style that is transformational in nature. Structural issues that are brought by change
may include change in the chain of command, job structure, management systems and
administrative procedures (Gollenia, L.A., 2016, pp. 42).

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Therefore, to deeply analyze these issues and link them to the whole process of change
management process within an organization, the essay addresses the problems encountered by
Carrefour during its collaboration with MAF. Carrefour is one of the largest retail group not only
in UAE but also in the world (Carrefour 2018). Therefore, the report thus cover the structural,
cultural and leadership issues that were encountered during the change process resulting from the
collaboration between Carrefour and MAP in UAE (Saifur 2013).
Organization’s Background
Carrefour is a multinational company and it is ranked the second largest retail group
globally. Hence, the company has its retail outlets and stores across the whole world. Carrefour
began its operations in UAE in the year 1995 during the company’s strategic plan of expanding
its operations across the Asian Market (Carrefour 2018). Currently, the company deals with retail
services as well as real estate activities with a total number of eleven (11) retail stores.
Change Situation/Change Process
Carrefour has been striving implement its strategic plan of increasing their market share
within the Asian Continent by establishing their operations in all the Asian countries. One of
their main target was UAE due to its tremendously growing economy. As a result, the company
decided to open a popular hypermarket at Dubai Sports City along Emirates Road in Dubai.
However, it is important to understand that doing business in UAE as a foreigner is not easy due
to the barriers put by the foreign policy. The policy stipulates that any foreign company hoping
to operate in UAE must collaborate with a company from within UAE and the native company
must own at least 50% of the shares in the newly formed company.

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Nevertheless, Carrefour needed to do everything possible in order to capture the Asian
market and diversify their operation in UAE. Thus, for the purpose of working as per the
stipulations of the foreign policy investment, Carrefour decided to collaborate with MAF
shopping Mail from Abu Dhabi. MAF is also a well-established and known construction
company in UAE (Saifur 2013). Since MAF is a well-known company, Carrefour saw it as the
right opportunity of entering into the market since the company has a lot of popularity (Kavoura
and Katsoni 2013, pp. 120). The move was meant to fulfill the company’s goal to open and run
one of the biggest hypermarket at Dubai Sports City. The collaboration was also meant to expand
Carrefour’s market dominance in UAE and increase their market share. That would see the
company emerge the best by beating all its competitors and gaining the competitive advantage in
the retail market across UAE (Nof, Ceroni, Jeong and Moghaddam 2015, pp. 35).
As a result of the collaboration, a lot of changes were witnessed including change in:
human resource activities within the company, the procedures of undertaking some work, the
change in job requirements of employees including their roles and responsibilities, change in
management, leadership, structure, policies and the company’s atmosphere (Lämmer-Gamp,
Köcker and Nerger 2014, pp. 1). These changes are seen to have brought a lot of issues ranging
from cultural, structural and leadership issues that must be addressed effectively and carefully for
the purpose of ensuring a successful change. Thus, the collaboration process brought a lot
changes as discussed below.
Structural Changes
As a result of the change witnessed as a result of collaboration between the two
companies, there were a lot of changes in the management structure of Carrefour and MAF. The
structure of the organization had been changed to match the structure of the two collaborating

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companies. The structural issues witnessed during the collaboration between Carrefour and MAF
include changes in chain of command, change in the organization’s hierarchy of management,
management systems changed as well, change in administrative processes and also change in job
structure. As a result of the collaboration between the two companies, many departments were
eliminated. For instance, it was unnecessary to maintain the same HR departments meaning that
they were merged and some employees were discarded, new procedures and policies were
introduced to help in realigning the company to the new structure as well as the introduction of
new job functions. That meant that the whole structure of the organization had to be changed
bringing a lot of structural issues. Performing all those structural adjustments needed much
planning so as not to alter the company’s operations. The change is seen to have led to changing
the level of departments, change in the units of business process units, change in level of systems
and the working processes of the individual companies (Samuels and Sommers 2017, pp. 22).
Cultural Changes
Carrefour is an Australian company whose organizational culture is totally
different from that of MAF since UAE is comprised of various people from across the world. As
stipulated in the foreign policy, a foreign company merging or collaborating with a native
company, the native company should produce the highest number of employees. That means that
the newly formed company has a combination of employees from both companies whose culture
is different and conflicting. The atmosphere of the whole organization had been affected. The
culture of the organization had to be changed to fit the culture of UAE (Alvesson and
Sveningsson 2015, pp. 105).
The culture in an organization is a very important determinant of the organization’s
success. During planning, a company like Carrefour should have considered its culture of doing

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things and how it will be affected by its collaboration with MAF. The two companies are from
different countries with different cultures, Carrefour is a French company and MAF is a
company from Abu Dhabi. The culture of these two countries is totally different. There is a
difference in their norms, values and beliefs that a witnessed in their daily operations. Integrating
the two cultures is not a simple thing. Due to that, there could be a lot of conflicting issues
resulting from the integration of the two cultures-an aspect that could lead to failure in the
process of executing the operations of the new company (Buchanan and Huczynski 2017, pp.
625).
Leadership Changes
The leadership issues are well witnessed during any change process involving
collaboration between two companies (Alexander 2013, pp. 81). Different companies have
differing leadership styles. That means that the way leaders make decisions in various companies
is totally different. The issue of leadership issues becomes a key when two companies are
integrated. The working processes and leadership styles had also changed. The policies,
procedures and processes of doing things had also changed due to varying procedures and
structure of doing things between the two companies. For instance, the process of making
decisions at Carrefour might be totally different from that of MAF. When a manager from
Carrefour is heading a certain department in the merged company, he or she will use his/her own
style to make decisions based on the previous leadership style. On the other hand, a manager
from MAF who has been assigned a certain role in the newly formed company which have a
different way of making decisions based on his/her previous experiences (Bratton and Gold
2017, pp. 72). Therefore, the difference in the issue of leadership would lead to failure in the

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integration of the two companies which would consequently lead to the unsuccessful change
management process.
As discussed above, the collaboration between the two companies brought a lot of
changes to their working environment. These changes brought a lot of issues ranging from
cultural, structural and leadership issues that must be addressed effectively and carefully for the
purpose of ensuring a successful change (Buchanan and Huczynski 2017, pp. 628). Therefore, to
counter the issues resulting from the changes, the two companies should engage in managing the
change process in order to ensure that collaboration course is successful.
Change management
Change is a very key element in today’s business operations. Managing change calls for
the organization’s capability to prepare well before initiating and implementing a certain change.
To succeed in managing a successful change process, the organization’s management must plan
in advance (By, Ford and Randall 2017, pp. 15). The planning process involves the identification
of key issues that might arise in the process of change implementation process. Once these issues
have been identified, the organizational management or the team managing the change process
plans effectively on how to handle those issues to ensure that the company realizes and benefits
from the planned change process (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis 2015, pp. 82). A successful
change process is the one that helps the organization achieve the desired goals and objectives.
In any change process like the one witnessed during the collaboration between Carrefour
and MAF, an effective management is required. A change process involves a lot of issues like
structural, cultural and leadership issues. Thus, any change management process should take into
consideration all those issues and manage them effectively for a successful change process. At

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the core of every change management process, effective planning is significant. It will involve
looking at the current state of the situation and the desired situation. In the case of Carrefour and
MAF, looking at the two companies including their culture, structure and leadership would be
crucial. It would enable the management of the two companies to develop the right ways of
integrating the systems of the two sides without so much hardships (Alexander 2013, pp. 81).
Change management process requires the company’s management to understand the
change management theory and understand how to put such theory into real life scenario. That
involves learning the nature of the change process and what is involved. Since employees remain
at the center of nay change process, a team should be formed to initiate and implement the
change process. It involves forming a team that can engage in understanding all the elements of
the change process and planning on how to handle any issue that will arise in the process of
change. For instance, a team would be formed by Carrefour and MAF prior to the collaboration
of the two. The team would explore all the structural, cultural and leadership issues that would
arise during the process and lay down measures on how to address them effectively without
much resistance (Kazmi and Naarananoja 2017, pp. 7).
The vital element of any change management and implementation process is to ensure
that there is uniformity in the new company and avoid conflicts that might lead to resistance
(Rahim 2017, pp. 110). Employees are at the center of any change management process. The
organizations striving to implement any change process, the might plan to address all the above
discussed issues to avoid resistance by employees and other personnel required to initiate and
implement a successful change process. Resistance can be defined as a situation that might
hinder or slow down the process of implementing and accomplishment any change process. For
instance, in the collaboration process involving Carrefour and MAF, there a number of changes

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witnessed in form of structure of the new company, the leadership process and the cultural
aspects of the new formed company (Cascio 2018, pp. 128). For instance, the cultural changes
many bring insecurity, uncertainty and stress to an employee. That could definitely lead to low
performance and employee resistance to the new culture of working. Moreover, a leader whose
leadership is differing from the new leadership style may feel inferior and undermined which
may lead to resistance. Resistance is the only problem witnessed during the change process in
any company. Resistance may lead to low performance, failure by the company to compete with
its rivals, high employee turnover, conflicts and poor employee relationships, employee strikes
and unconducive working environment (Pillai, Murthy, Sagar, Ramanujam and Mukhopadhyaya
2017, pp. 30).
However, failure to manage the change process would lead to a total failure of the new
organization. Employees have been overwhelmed by the whole process since they feel to have
no control over what is happening to them. Lack of proper planning, consultation and
communication lead to failure in the process of integration. Thus, the company should ensure
that it thinks ahead of any change process by looking at possible areas of conflict and addressing
them effectively to avoid resistance or any failure of the whole process. The management of
every change process should include the current situational analysis of the company or
companies by highlighting all the key areas of concern and see how to effectively address them
to ensure that the process is successful (Goetsch and Davis 2014, pp. 85).
Hence, a good planning by the company should have taken into consideration the
uncertainties and preparing on how to adapt to various changes brought about by cultural,
structural and leadership issues. Once they plan on that, the management at Carrefour can
understand which change management theory model to adopt in order to push for a successful

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change process resulting from its collaboration with MAF. For a successful change management
process, the chosen theoretical model should be integrated to the company’s real life scenarios
effectively (Dalkir 2013, pp. 53). That would mean that the model is used in such a way that it
addresses all the leadership, structural and cultural issues affecting change at Carrefour.
Change Management Theoretical Models
Change is a complex process that is bound to fail if not managed properly. However,
proper management of the process can lead to a successful change course and the realization of
the desired goals. Thus, in order for a company to engage in a successful change management
process, there must be adoption of an appropriate change management model. Such model will
guide the organization’s management on how to handle employees and convince them to
embrace change (Rahim 2017, pp. 112). Employees remain at the center of any change process
and thus need to be handled carefully to avoid resistance. A good change management model
highlights the need to: Effective employee communication to explain the need for change, active
employee involvement and consultation to ensure that they remain the part of the change
process, employee training to understand new ways of operating as well as rewarding the
cooperating employees to motivate them to continue supporting the change process (Hayes 2014,
pp. 23).
Conclusion
Change is a very significant element of any company aiming at developing itself in the
current competitive business environment. Due to global environmental changes, a company
must be keen to change are realign itself to the latest trends in the business environment.
However, change is not an easy task if not planned and executed effectively and efficiently. A

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poorly planned and implemented change process is bound to fail and end up putting an
organization to losses. Therefore, the organization must establish a team to look at the cultural,
structural and leadership issues that may affect its change process towards the achievement of its
strategic goals and objectives. For instance, the goals and objectives of Carrefour were to expand
its market share in UAE and also align itself with the government’s policies and restrictions
involving foreign investment. Therefore, the company should look at whether issues addressed
above would not alter their progress in achieving their set goals and objectives. Therefore, the
main aim of any change management team is to plan efficiently by looking at the change process
in advance and propose the best way to handle any challenges arising from structural, cultural
and leadership issues that hinder the implementation of a successful change management
process.
Recommendations/Suggestions
To succeed in planning, initiating and implementing a successful change management
process, it is recommended that: a company should adopt a change management model that is
efficient and effective. An appropriate change management model allows for effective
communication and employee participation during the whole process. The company should also
consider a good plan that puts into consideration all the issues that might arise during the change
process and plan well on how to counter such challenges. The organization’s management should
also ensure that it weighs the benefits of the changing and adopting to new ways of doing things
as compared to the current mode of operations. That is, whether the company will add any value
to itself by changing from one way of operating to another. Finally, the company should ensure
that it puts in place a team which will monitor the whole change process to ensure that the

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strategic goals of the change process are being achieved. Therefore, any change process requires
efficient and effective management in order to ensure that it succeeds to bring the desired results.
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Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
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Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave, pp.
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Brown, K. and Osborne, S.P., 2012. Managing change and innovation in public service
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