JS Supermarkets: Leading Change and Organizational Strategies Report

This report delves into the intricacies of organizational change and leadership, using JS Supermarkets as a case study. It examines the impact of changes on organizational strategies and operations, differentiating between positive and negative impacts. The report analyzes the effects of internal and ...Read More

Understanding and
Leading Change

Table of Contents
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2
P1 Impact of changes on organizational strategies and operation...................................................3
P2 Effects of internal and external driver changes upon leadership, team and individual
behaviour.........................................................................................................................................5
P3 Measures to minimise negative impact of changes on organizations.........................................7
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Barriers of changes and their impact upon leadership decision making in organizational
content..............................................................................................................................................8
TASK 3...............................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Organizational change refers to alterations or modifications made in order to gain some
profitability or competitive advantage. These can be internal or external like technological,
economical, structural or may be changes in policies of production and sales of products. Some time
in such changing environment, organization may come to face some problems which can affect their
working and profitability as well. In such conditions, leader plays a vital role and has to manage
their team so as to align their behaviour towards achievement of organizational change. Leadership
is a task, which is performed to achieve organizational goals and changes efficiently. A leader of an
organization must have ability to lead a team in difficult situations (Alvesson and Sveningsson
2015). A leader must have certain qualities such as they should be motivational, honest, good
speaker, supervisor and many others.
This report is based upon JS Supermarkets which is an elite supermarket that have such
facilities and amenities that are incomparable across the globe. It was initiated in 1986 with its
beginning operations in New Amsterdam Market. In this report, different roles, approaches, and
strategies of a leader while applying organizational change have been discussed. Also the impact of
driver change and the ways to reduce negative impacts have been highlighted. Besides this, barriers
of change have been analysed with reference to their influence upon decision making.
P1 Impact of changes on organizational strategies and operation
Changes are very common in a company and, also, it is a very healthy process for any
enterprise. Organisational change is a term which refers to the alterations introduced in organisation
related to employees, structure or processes used in entity. These changes have both positive as well
as negative impact over working of an organization. JS Supermarket is a company dealing in retail
sector of grocery and beauty products, they also need to review their current performance and bring
about modifications within organisational premises to ensure their sustainability in competitive
environment. On other hand, Unicorn Grocery is also a cooperative grocery store located in
Manchester (Aslan and Reigeluth 2013). Both of the companies have introduced some alterations
within the enterprise over the due course of time to sustain in marketplace. Organisational changes
not only have positive impacts but sometimes, it also possesses some negative impacts. Some of
positive and negative impacts of such changes are discussed follow:-
Positive impacts of organizational changes
Stay current – It is very important for an organization to keep them self up-to date and
introduce changes according to need. These changes help them to keep their - self a step ahead to
their competitors. JS Supermarkets and Unicorn Grocery have also made certain technological

changes in organization to maintain their position in competitive environment.
Negative impact of organizational change
Mental Stress – Changes in organization also leads to mental stress for owner as well as to
employees. This all is because the working and leading unit of organization have to opt those
changes and have to change their working styles as well. JS Supermarkets and Unicorn Grocery
make changes in their organizations many number of times, this make it very tough for them to
bring new changes and get settled with new techniques and, work efficiently as they were working
earlier.
Comparison between organizational change done by JS Supermarkets and Unicorn Grocery:-
Basic JS Supermarkets Unicorn Grocery
Technological Changes With passage of years, JS
Supermarkets follow a trend of
making changes and updating its
technologies and systems on a
regular basis of time period.
Analysing the competitive
environment, they have planned to
introduce many technical changes in
their delivery systems and operations
so as to stay ahead of its rivals. For
this, company has started using self-
driven automobiles and droids so
as to potentially deliver the grocery
products to customers by way of
home delivery. By the use of this,
company has gained strategic edge in
market as this is a new concept not
brought forward by any other
company.
Unicorn Grocery also has a strong
technical background in terms of
updating technologies. They had
analysed the need of ascertaining
and adopting latest technology
over last some years, which helps
them to invest in latest
advancements and innovations on
right time. Today, they are in the
list of very few companies which
are effectively making use of
RFID technology for their
products. With the help of this,
company generates radio-
frequency identification for their
products, which have a unique
digital tag or a smart label on
each of the product. This provides
safety from theft done by
customers (shoplifting) as well as
employees (shrinkage) by way of
making use of Electronic Article
Surveillance (EAS) along with

a self-checkout process for the
customers.
Differences in Organisational Approaches to Change
JS Supermarket's core approach to change involves a structural process involving a series of
steps to execute the change. These include analysis of market gap, review of the variances between
organisation's current and desirable performance to fill the gap and then bringing alterations and
modifications in activities and processes. This is done so as to adapt itself as per customer needs
and requirements.
Contrary to this, Unicorn Grocery focuses upon continuously evaluating the internal and
external environment of organisation so as to ascertain any necessary changes that need to be
brought. These changes are then communicated to employees to gain their support and then
executed within the enterprise.
Similarities in Organisational Approaches to Change
There is one similarity between the approaches to implement changes in JS Supermarkets
and Unicorn Grocery. This is that both the companies adopt changes in a way that the new
operations or alterations in products and processes of company are able to fulfil customer needs.
P2 Effects of internal and external driver changes upon leadership, team and individual behaviour
Leadership is an art of managing and guiding group of people in order to achieve an
organizational goal. A leader must be full of qualities like motivational, inspire-able, deliverable,
have good communication, and most important, should know how to guide a team. A leader must
have control over the team to lead their behaviour towards the successful implementation of
organisational change. (Foltin and Keller 2012). JS Supermarkets is an enterprise which needs to
continuously review its existing processes and activities so as to ascertain any necessary changes
within the entity. These alterations are introduced for betterment of their working and also for
employees.
INTERNAL DRIVERS OF CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT
Some of the internal changes which can affect roles of a leader towards individuals and
teams in JS Supermarkets are:-
Innovation: In a world, where companies are continuously coming up with new and creative
ideas, innovation has become a key element that need to be considered by every organisation. It is a
basic aspect that an organisation needs to keep in consideration to ensure its sustainability in
market. JS Supermarkets also make some innovations in their organization to make their

technologies and other internal factors stronger, by which they can improve according to
requirements (Hintz and Bahia, 2013). Innovation has a positive as well as negative impact with
respect to individual and team behaviour. Most of the employees feel pressurised to change their
skills according to requirements and when they are not able to do that, they started considering the
option of switching job. With respect to team and individuals, it also has a positive impact as the
group recognises that company is making efforts to increase its share in market. Thus, the chances
of career enhancement and appraisals of personnel increase. In addition to this, it gives a boost to
group behaviour in JS Supermarkets as they feel motivated to increase their productivity.
Employee Morale: To grow with time, JS Supermarkets use to make changes in their
organization on a regular time period, but this also increases the weak points of them. When it is
concerned about weaknesses in changing environment, employee morale is one of the biggest
challenges that an organization faces. In such conditions where employees are getting their moral
down leader have to communicate with employees and have to motivate them by inspiring speeches
(Hintz, 2012). For an individual it is necessary for leader to understand its problem and encourage
them.
Wastage of resources: Often, in some enterprises, it is noticed that there is a lot of wastage
of resources within organisational premises. This happens because when a new technology or
process is implemented, employees are not skilled and competent to deal with such advancements
in an effective and efficient manner. Also, at times, when employees are adapting to alterations in
operations and structures, they may unintentionally lead to wastage of resources. This acts as a
driver for change in JS Supermarkets and has a significant impact upon individuals and team
behaviour. When a change is introduced, individuals are often hesitant to adapt to new scenarios.
Also, teams that are functioning within JS Supermarkets also have conflict of interests. This
happens because when leaders communicate the change within enterprise, personnel have diverse
set of responses towards the change. Also, some individuals within team feel the need of being
trained as per the new requirements, thus often the complexity levels among the individuals as well
as within the teams increases leading to bigger negative effects than positive outcomes.
EXTERNAL DRIVERS OF CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT
Customers: For any organisation, the biggest external driving force for change is customers.
It is imperative for leaders of any entity to continuously analyse the needs and requirements of
consumers so as to develop products that meet their demands. It is the culture of JS Supermarkets to
adopt a customer-centred approach and operate in a manner that is in public interest. Often, these
customers become the reason behind implementation of change within JS Supermarkets. Also, when

any change gets implemented, it does not guaranty about its success. JS Supermarkets involves
many changes in their organization and sometimes, it leads to barriers of communication as some
individuals are facilitators while others act as resistors of change.
Technology: With rapid advancements in technology, there is a dire need for organisations
to bring external changes by adopting latest tools and technology. JS Supermarkets is making
continuous changes in their technologies to fulfil needs and requirements of customers. These
changes are not easy to be adapted by employees. At times, technological changes decrease the
morale of employees as they do not possess the required skills and competence to conduct activities
as per the latest technology within JS Supermarkets. This often leads to conflicts within team as
some personnel are equipped with technical skills while others are not. This implies that there may
be diversities in opinions of individuals within team which causes an atmosphere of tension within
the team.
IMPACT OF DRIVERS OF CHANGE UPON LEADERSHIP
When it comes to introducing changes within the entity, the role of leaders in JS
Supermarkets get increased towards individuals, teams and organisation as a whole. Many a times,
when a change is proposed, business personnel who are a part of entity start feeling insecure about
their job. It may not be suitable for them to adapt to such changes. In such cases, leaders of JS
Supermarkets have to understand the problem faced by employees and take appropriate steps to
develop solutions. Also, analysing the drivers of change assist the leaders in effectively bringing
about such changes within the entity that can improve the overall performance of organisation along
with its profitability in marketplace. Besides this, leaders have to take such decisions that can
facilitate the execution of change within organisation.
P3 Measures to minimise negative impact of changes on organizations
Organizational change is a crucial process which is done with the motive of maximising
internal as well as external benefits for organization. At times, these may also have some bad
impacts on enterprise as well as on employees (Latham, 2013). Some measures that JS
Supermarkets can take to reduce negative impact of changes are as follow:-
Train and prepare– When any change in organization is implemented, it is necessary for
employees to get adequate training to get comfortable with the changes. Also, this helps in
understanding the way to work and use that change to gain competitive advantage in marketplace.
Here, leaders of JS Supermarkets have to check and build communication with employees to know
about the problem being faced by individuals during adoption of new practices as a result of that
change. Leaders analyse the issues faced by staff and then develop appropriate solutions to deal
with such situation.

Positive attitude– While implementing change it is very necessary for JS Supermarkets to
show a positive attitude against their employees and to their problems. In such cases a leader have
to keep them self calm and have to be positive always.
Supervise employees – In changing environment it is very necessary for a leader to keep a
regular supervision on their employees, and on their performance. This help a leader to
communicate with their employees as soon as possible and this reduces problem in accepting
change.
Above discussed factors can help leaders of JS Supermarkets to minimise the negative
impact of change in organization.
The Burke - Litwin model – This is a model to understand change in an organization, which
was developed in 1922, by two organizational change consultants (MacKian and Simons 2013).
This tool was designed to identify the important components of organization which are related to
change. JS Supermarkets can use this model to identify the areas which will get affected during
change. Components of organization that can be identified in this model are:-
External environment: This component reflects that when change will be introduced in JS
Supermarkets, some external factors will be affected as a result of it. These components include
customers, competitors and marketplace in which JS Supermarkets. As a result of changes,
customer loyalty can increase or decrease depending upon the change that is introduced within
organisational premises.
Individual and organizational performance: This aspect deals with the impact of change on
overall performance of organization as well as the employees in JS Supermarkets. The factors that
come under this can be turnover, productivity and customer satisfaction. As a result of
organisational change, many a times, response of employees is unfavourable as they are not ready
to adapt to changes. On the other hand, by adopting effective alterations within processes,
productivity of staff is enhanced.
Leadership: To implement a change within JS Supermarkets, the most significant role is of a
leader. Leader communicates the need of change and the probable outcome associated with the
implementation of such alterations within the entity. It is duty of a leader in Marks & Spencer to
motivate the employees and align their behaviour towards positively accepting the change.
Strategies: This is a plan of action designed to implement the change within JS
Supermarkets. It is required that an effective strategy is devised so as to gain acceptance from
employees and tapping the advantage of change to gain a strategic edge in market ahead of its
competitors.

Management policies: While introducing a change, it is largely required that strong and
effective management policies are introduced so that changes can be effectively formulated within
the enterprise. Also, in this regards, it is required that the behaviour of leader within JS
Supermarkets is positive and friendly for employees so as to allow them to adopt that change easily.
Work unit climate: It is largely required that work atmosphere facilitate the implementation
of change within the organisation. In this regard, it is necessary that the work climate within JS
Supermarkets is made by a leader in a manner such that it is cooperative and comfortable for an
individual to easily and effectively understand and adapt to the changes.
TASK 2
P4 Barriers of changes and their impact upon leadership decision making in organizational content.
Understanding change management helps a business concern in forming new and innovative
strategies that help in identifying and implementing changes (Mukherjee D. and et. al., 2012).
Change is a key aspect of all organisations. It targets shifting from one state to another for growth of
a business concern. Main aim of managers of JS Supermarkets behind bringing about a change in
their business is enhancing and maintaining production environment of a business on daily basis.
Barriers of change management: Not every individual prefers or is ready for changes.
Hence, this creates barriers in bringing about any change in an organisation structure. Barriers
always create a gap in initiating changes and eventually have a negative effect on day to day
production process of JS Supermarkets. There are numerous barriers of change management that
have been explained as under:
Lack of Employee Involvement: This is most widely noticed barrier of change management.
Employees always have a negative approach towards change and feel that they may get replaced. In
case of JS Supermarkets, even the most loyal employees tend to resist change unless they feel that
they are a part of change management. This creates a sense of fear among employees and they do
not support in formation and implementation of policies. This greatly affects decision making of
managers as they forget to involve employees.
Lack of Effective Communication Strategy: Many business concerns lack communication
strategies which means they do not convey any policies to employees. Managers and top leaders of
JS Supermarkets assume that employees will easily adapt to any rules or policies once they are
implemented (NHS England, 2016). This strongly forces employees to resist any changes and leads
to ineffectiveness in decision making and leadership as they lose trust of employees.
Influence of Barriers of Change upon leadership decision making
While implementing changes within the organisation, leaders at time experience certain

barriers to change. It is then that the role of leaders and their decision making gain importance.
Leaders of JS Supermarkets gain knowledge of the barriers within and outside the enterprise and
then take decisions related to change strategies and models accordingly so that these barriers can be
tackled in an effective manner.
Furthermore, for change management, leaders of JS Supermarkets have made use of Force
Field Model which has been explained as under:-
Force Field Analysis: Force field analysis is a key approach for studying change
management. This approach was developed by Professor Kurt Lewin. It involves five phases which
help in motivating employees so that they can accept change management. These phases have been
explained as under:
Phase 1: This happens to be an initial stage in which managers and leaders need to make
effective use of tools and techniques for assessing current market situation. By doing so, managers
of JS Supermarkets can measure requirements for changes and also fields where change is needed.
Phase 2: Changes that are brought in an organisation always involve some kind of risks
within them. Therefore, second phase analyses risks while initiating any changes. Managers can
also assess the strategies which help in reduction.
Phase 3: In this stage, managers and leaders of JS Supermarkets can effectively find out
areas where necessary modifications are to be made. They can also assess how to create these
changes.
Phase 4: This happens to be the second last stage of Forcefield model where superiors of JS
Supermarkets are entitled towards formation of an action plan in an effective manner. It also
involves entire process of alteration.
Phase 5: This is last stage in which managers and leaders of JS Supermarkets should
evaluate existing strategies and policies. After evaluation, managers also to make necessary changes
are per their future requirements.
Forcefield Model also involve facilitating and restraining factors of change which are
explained below:-
Facilitating Factors: These are those elements present within or outside the business
environment which encourage change to be adopted within the enterprise. The factors that come
under this are outdated machinery that are inefficient in giving the desirable production. Also,
another factor that motivates leaders to bring about alterations in processes and structure is
declining team morale. Such factors influence leadership behaviour in JS Supermarkets as leaders
are the one who are responsible for communicating the need of change to staff of company. Also,
they align the behavioural characteristics of personnel towards facilitation of change across
organisational premises.

Restraining Factors: These are those elements present within or outside the business
environment which encourage change to be adopted within the enterprise. Such factors can include
employee resistance, governmental regulations and customers who may not be willing to accept the
change. These are such individuals or groups associated with JS Supermarkets that restrict the
change to be adopted in organisational context.
TASK 3
P5 Leadership approaches to deal with organizational change
Role of a leader in a changing organizational environment is the most significant part for
organization as well as for employees. The success of change is more dependent on the behaviour
and approaches of a leader, that who they handle the problems and how efficiently they provides the
solution for that problem. To achieve the organizational change in JS Supermarkets, there are
different leadership approaches that a superior can adopt, which are as follows:-
Laissez–Faire- It is also known as delegative style of leadership. In this style of leadership,
leader of JS Supermarkets releases the power in organization and allow their employees to take
decisions. This style is generally work in a team which have skilful and highly competent members
(Salmela, Eriksson and Fagerström, 2012). In JS Supermarkets, changes take place as per internal
and external requirements of organisation. This leadership style is effective when the change
introduced in company is not that big and necessary decisions related with implementation of such
changes can be delegated to staff of JS Supermarkets. In this, leader have to provide relevant and
suitable information so that a team of employees can collectively execute the change (Laissez-faire,
2018). This helps in boosting the morale of workforce and influence them in a way that they work
in a more effective and efficient manner.
Advantage: Employees working under this leadership style within JS Supermarkets are motivated
when they find out that managers possess confidence in them so as to delegate them important
work. Thus, they operate in a more effective and efficient manner.
Disadvantage: By using this leadership style within JS Supermarkets, organisation can get posed to
risks related to ineffective and inefficient working by employees with less knowledge and
competence.
Example: Leaders within JS Supermarkets make use of this style when decisions have to be taken
on less important tasks like operational and functional decisions.
Autocratic- It is also known as authoritarian leadership. In this type of leadership, only
leader of JS Supermarkets is responsible for the outcomes and results of the organization. As in
this, leader have all the rights reserved with it for taking decisions, it is very rare that leader take

any advice with other. This type of leadership approach is suitable in situations where necessary and
big changes have to be brought about in JS Supermarkets. Such changes can include introducing a
new brand, product or product line, bringing a new policy or regulation, restructuring the
organisational structure or planning to expand in a new or existing location. Such decisions form a
major part of JS Supermarkets and thus, require a firm leadership to be brought about effectively
within organisational premises. This leadership approach assists in making quick decisions. In such
situations, leader have a good command over employees. Thus, this is optimum where strong and
directive leadership is needed.
Advantage: This leadership style is highly beneficial for such employees who do not possess the
right skills, potential, motivation and lack the direction to carry out tasks in a prescribed manner.
Disadvantage: Highly skilled and efficient personnel within JS Supermarkets are not willing to be
told what to do and how to do it as they already possess the skills and competence to gain such
knowledge. Thus, this leadership style dampen the morale of skilled workforce.
Example: When the leaders within JS Supermarkets were working on a short term goal of
“increasing the sales of company by 5% within a month”, they communicated the manner of
operating to all the employees. Here, while the unskilled employees got the direction to perform
tasks, competent workforce got discouraged.
Participative- This is also known as democratic leadership. In this, leader of JS
Supermarkets invite all the employees of organization to participate in effective decision making.
Here, leader provides opportunities to communicate and give suggestions. Also, under this
leadership approach, people are open to share information, knowledge and ideas, and after getting
all the informations, leader summarise the findings to ascertain the need and areas of change. This
helps the leader of JS Supermarkets to take the best decision in relation to bringing about changes
within the organisation. Also, once the change is implemented, it is then optimally communicated to
all the employees. This leadership approach increases the creativity level of employees and help
them in increasing their morale to perform in a more productive manner once the change is
executed.
Advantage: Leaders who adopt this leadership style are able to keep the employees motivated and
encouraged at all the times so as to ensure that operational activities are being carried out in an
effective manner.
Disadvantage: Such leaders lose the right to take final decisions upon important matters that are
key to an organisation's goals and objectives.
Example: Leaders in JS Supermarkets organise meetings at regular intervals wherein they take

suggestions and feedbacks from workforce so as to enhance operational performance.
Above discussed may be the different approaches that a leader in JS Supermarkets can opt
according to situation, in order to achieve organizational change effectively. This also help leaders
to have a control over organization during period of change.

CONCLUSION
Above it is discussed it is concluded that organizational change have both the positive and
negative impacts over strategies and working of an organization. Organizational change have many
positive impacts like new opportunities, innovation and many more, but also have some negative
impact also like loss of loyalty, moral stress and other. Also, a discussion took place on different
changes introduced in organisational premises. Leadership in these conditions are very important
part for an organization, as in organizational change leader have to keep it-self cool and have to
understand different problems, which their employees are facing, and have to provide best solutions
for it. A leader have to adjustable in terms of their roles, as it is not sure that at what time which
conditions will get appear. A leader can follow some basic practices in their organization, which can
help their employees in adopting the changes easily. A leader can make changes in their approaches,
which will depend on the conditions in which they have to lead a team or individual.

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