Case Study Analysis: HRM and Change Management at Lion Nathan Company

This case study examines the HRM and change management issues encountered by Lion Nathan, an Australian beverage company. The analysis identifies problems stemming from a traditional strategic culture, hindering effective change implementation and employee recruitment. The case study explores the application of Kotter's 8-step change management model to address these challenges, focusing on creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding team, developing a strategic vision, and communicating that vision to all stakeholders. The study also highlights the reasons behind the problems, including lack of communication, motivation, and commitment. Recommendations include a focus on employee needs, transformational strategies, strategic recruitment, and cross-cultural diversification to improve the company's ability to adapt and succeed in a changing business environment.

Case Study About HRM And
Change At Lion Nathan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In this case study it has been described about what problems were been faced by Lion
Nathan in their organization. Also, it is discussed the reason due to which these problems arise
and what was the impact of it. Moreover, it has been explained about how change management
theory can be applied to solve problems. Alongside this, what changes may have occurred in
strategies and leadership style due to change management. At last several recommendations has
been given that how situation could have improved by working within interest of stakeholders.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview of the company............................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Identification of Problems............................................................................................................1
Application of Change management theory................................................................................2
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Overview of the company
Lion Nathan company is Australian company which is currently running its business in
Australia and New Zealand. It was founded in 1988. Its headquarters is in Syndney, Australia. It
has various beer brands such as James Boag's Premium, Boag's Strongarm, XXXX Bitter, Emmu
Bitter, Lion Red, Steinlager, Mac's Craft Beers and Hahn Premium etc. Its parent company name
is LION which was formed in October 2009 (McCaffery, 2018).
Present report will highlight the problems facing by company and reason behind that
problems. It will also implement the change management theory which will resolve the problems
and bring change in the organization.
MAIN BODY
Identification of Problems
In given case study it has been identified that there are many problems that have arise in Lion
Nathan. Usually, the company is engaged in alcohol and beverage. Moreover, with change in
business world, it is necessary or company to incorporate culture. It is been analyzed that when
focus is only on culture and values, then change can not be implemented effectively.
In Lion Nathan traditional strategic culture was followed. This was the major problem
due to transformational change was not implemented. So, it was restricting company to hire
skillful employees and apply change. However, they also have to change leadership style and
have to stick on traditional way of recruitment. With changes company have to develop new
strategies. They included checklist on basis of which candidate were hired. So, this was affecting
other employees as well (Magsaysay and Hechanova, 2017).
Furthermore, it can be determined that many problems occurred in order to develop
culture. In addition to it, the major problem was following of constructive leadership style. So,
due to transformation of style for command and control the overall behavior of employees were
modified. Alongside it, employees were not help responsible or accountable for their tasks.
Lion Nathan has to reframe their recruitment strategy. In this they added 6 more core
behaviors on basis of which candidate were hired. So, they focused on hiring on cultural fit. This
is because it will help in adding value to organization and attaining goals. It was not easy for
them to hire those candidates. Other than this, in term of evaluating performance those ten
behaviors were also taken into consideration. Hence, they started arguing that systems are
1

centralized and only attracts and retain employees who are fit for company. Also, emphasis is
only on company values and culture. Due to this change was not been implemented properly.
The company faced problem where applicants were only recruited on basis of their
competency and cultural fit. In this employees were not recruited on job roles and
responsibilities. It resulted in ineffective implementation of transformational culture. This
affected organization goals and objectives (Kim and Mauborgne, 2017).
The organization was unable to get desired outcomes as HR strategies were not helping
people to work together. Therefore, in order to improve effectiveness it was necessary to
implement change. In order to do so, leaders were responsible for it. They started focusing on
value and culture. But it was a challenge for senior management as it only focused on traditional
way. Due to this behaviour of employees were highly affected and they were not able to focus on
work. So, goals and objectives were not attained. But strategies modified were on basis of
company values and culture. So, the strategies failed and goals were not attained. However, the
commitment given by leaders was not fulfilled. The leadership model initiated by them was not
appropriate for company. In addition to it, there was only four core values on basis of it change
was initiated. Lack of responsibility and accountability was not followed by leader. Due to this
styles was constantly been changed. There was change in things due to which culture was not
modified. It forced company to define their strategies. The overall agenda was not specified and
employees were not able to work together. Hence, a decision was taken by senior management to
adopt constructive style. This was not fit according to Lion Nathan values and culture. The HR
policies were lacking leverage. It restricted company to analyze situation and make changes
accordingly. Hence, this highly impacted on employee behavior. They were not able to initiate
task and implement change.
Application of Change management theory
CHANGE MANAGEMENT THEORY
Change management theory is the process of managing the people and activities in order
to successfully adopt and implement the change in the organizational context. It is done to
achieve the desired output / results. There are various change management theories which are
being used by various organization in order to successfully change in their organizational aspects
(Doppelt, 2017). These change management theories are as follows -
 Lewin's Freeze Change Management Theory
2

 ADKAR Model
 Kotler's 8 Steps Change Management Model
 Kubler – Ross Greif Cycle Change Management Theory
 McKinsey 7S Change Management Model etc.
According to the case study of Lion Nathan Company plans to change in some of its
organizational aspects such as its HRM strategy, its business culture, its core values, mission,
vision & objectives, its employees strategies and its leadership style etc. So that company can get
desired outputs. For the change, Company applies Kotler's 8 steps change management model.
KOTLER'S 8 STEPS CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL
John Kotler introduced this model in order to provide guidelines to the company to
successfully adopt the changes by improving the organization's ability and capabilities. This
model follows a particular 8 steps which are as follows -
 Increase Urgency
 Build Guiding Team
 Develop The Vision
 Communicate for Buy – In
 Empower Action
 Create Short Term Wins
 Don't Let Up
 Make Change Stick
3

In the case of Lion Nathan Company, Board of Directors (BODs) and management team
work together and implement the change by using Kotler's 8 steps change model (Diamond and
Spillane, 2016). Company, BODs and management team follows the procedure of change model
which are mentioning below -
Creation of sense of urgency – In this process, company needs change because company is using
traditional model, traditional strategies, traditional mindsets and traditional techniques which
lead company to not to able to cop up with modern environment, modern business and modern
policies. Also, due to modern era, company also faces a lot of competition. Thus, BODs and
management team feels the need of change and wants to become the market leader.
Building of guiding team – Management team and BODs change the leadership style in order to
improve the capacity of leaders who are working in the company. Change in leadership style will
change in leaders' strategies which will change his behaviour. This lead leaders to do adopt new
strategies and new group who will understand the needs of change and help company to adopt
the change.
Develop strategic vision – Company did change in its core value because of change in its
organizational aspects. This lead leaders, management team and BODs to create a new vision for
4
Illustration 1: 8 Steps
(Source: Kotter’s 8 step Model of Change, 2019)

the company. They should create the vision which make everyone understand that what company
wants and how company will achieve it.
Communicate the vision with other parties of organization – Now company will communicate
this vision with their employees, staffs, middle and front line managers and their stakeholders.
So that they can create support for the adoption of change in their organization. Also, it will help
leaders, managers and BODs to get to know about the response towards vision and change being
implement in their organization.
Enabling the actions by removing barriers in change –Employees are facing difficulties in
adopting new changes in the organization culture as they have already adjusted themselves
within the old organizational culture and are not ready to accept that. Thus, Lion Nathan's BODs,
management team and leaders are providing them trainings, seminars and various other resources
in order to put them out of their comfort zone and prepare them to accept the new changes.
Generate short term wins – After gaining support from everyone working in organization,
Company will decide everybody's roles, responsibilities and short term goals within a particular
time bound. After achieving that goals within the time bound, company will appreciate the staffs
and celebrate short term wins (Cameron and Green, 2015).
Sustain and don't let up – After implementing those changes in organization, Company's BODs,
management team and leaders will analysis the change implement process and identify the
loopholes in the process. After finding out any problems in change management, company will
plan and implement different strategies which will be suitable according to the situations.
Make change stick – After all above steps adopted by company, Lion Nathan will make change
stick to their organization culture by making part of it to their values, strategies, vision and
mission so that company can do adopt and accept the change successfully accordingly time to
time.
REASON BEHIND THE ARISEN OF PROBLEMS IN LION NATHAN COMPANY
There are various reasons which cause company to face a lot of problems which are as
follows -
 There was lack of communication between employees, managers, staffs and leaders
which lead company's activities not to co-ordinated and not to be done on time.
 There were lack of motivation in employees which lead them not to work properly and it
impacted the overall performance of the company.
5

 There was lack of commitment which lead company, leaders, managers, staffs and
employees not to able to adopt the changes on time to time.
 Also, company adopted every aspects of organization traditional whether its culture or its
business model or its strategies or mission, vision, objectives and goals etc.
Overall these reasons become problems for the company and company starting loosing its
leading position in the market which lead company to adopt the changes in order to sustain the
company for the future (Appelbaum and et.al., 2015)
.
RECOMMENDATIONS
There are few recommendations based on above case study of Lion Nathan Company.
These recommendations are as follows -
Company should not only focus on the culture and values of the organization, they should
also focus on the employees' needs & wants, company's procedures and business environment
because these terms play an important role in company's success. For that company can use
various motivational incentives and strategies which will motivate the employees.
Company can use transformational strategies for the change implementation. For that
company should focus on the strategic vision and communication of strategic vision. In case of
opposition from employees, company can organize training, induction programs, coaching in
order to make them understand the importance of change and provide them required skills and
knowledge in order to adopt the changes with the ease and experience.
Company can hire employees on the basis of strategic recruitment so that company can
get the desired employees. For that company can do promotional strategies in order to enhance
its employer brand and provide them various incentives such as sharing in profits, commission in
case of better performance, give right shares and provide them insurance etc.
Company should focus on the implementation of cross cultural diversification so that
employees can easily co-operate with each other. For that company can organize various cultural
and entertainment programs or events so that employees can understand the values of other
cultures and start respect that. This will bring employees close who belong to different cultures.
Also, it will strengthen the communication and make organizational environment friendly.
Companies can ask for suggestions from their employees, in fact they can plant
suggestion boxes within their organizations so that employees can remain anonyms and can give
6

suggestions that can be implemented in order to bring changes within the company. Similarly
organization can take feedbacks from their employees so that they can explain all of their
problems and five feedback on the current environment of the company. Weekly meetings can be
conducted where all the employees will be asked for their work progress and all kinds of issues
or problems that they are facing so that all such issues can be addressed and changes can be
brought.
Company should implement the flexible policy, flexible working hours and flexible
communication system so that employees can use their skills and knowledge to work on the
changes and can focus on their work peacefully due to management between their personal and
professional life. This make them more focus on their work and they become efficient which lead
them to become satisfied. Their performance improves. It impacts the overall organization
performance which lead organization to become efficient and gain competitive advantages over
its competitors.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarised that change is an important term in the
context of organization. It brings a lot of modification in the organizational aspects. Along with
that, it brings some risks which need to be address on time to time. Company should understand
the need and importance of organizational change so that company can upgrade itself and sustain
its business and profitability for the longer time. Also, there are various change management
theories and model, through which company can accept and implement the change in the
organization. But which theory or model, company should adopt, it depends upon the
organizational situation and organizational aspects on which company needs change.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Appelbaum, S. H and et.al., 2015. Organizational outcomes of leadership style and resistance to
change (Part One). Industrial and Commercial Training. 47(2). pp.73-80.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Diamond, J. B. and Spillane, J. P., 2016. School leadership and management from a distributed
perspective: A 2016 retrospective and prospective. Management in Education. 30(4).
pp.147-154.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Kim, W. C. and Mauborgne, R. A., 2017. Blue Ocean Leadership (Harvard Business Review
Classics). Harvard Business Review Press.
Magsaysay, J. F. and Hechanova, M. R. M., 2017. Building an implicit change leadership
theory. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 38(6). pp.834-848.
McCaffery, P., 2018. The higher education manager's handbook: effective leadership and
management in universities and colleges. Routledge.
Online
Kotter’s 8 step Model of Change. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available through:
<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/kotters-8-step-model-of-change.htm>
8