Understanding and Leading Change: A Report on Kuoni Travel

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UNDERSTANDING AND LEADING
CHANGES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
P1 Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change on
an organisation’s strategy and operations....................................................................................2
P2 Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drives of change affect leadership, team
and individual behaviours in the organization.............................................................................4
P3 Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on
organisational behaviour..............................................................................................................6
M1 Assess the different drivers for change in each of the given examples and the types of
organisational change they have affected....................................................................................8
M2 Apply appropriate theories and models to critically evaluate organizational response to
change..........................................................................................................................................8
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................9
P4 Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership decision
making in Kuoni travels...............................................................................................................9
M3 Use force field analysis to analyse the driving and resisting forces and show how they
influence decision-making.........................................................................................................11
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organisational
contexts......................................................................................................................................13
M4 Evaluate the extent to which leadership approaches can deliver organisational change
effectively..................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19

Introduction
The organizational leading changes need to be understood by their employees so that proper
support during implementation can be received by the organization. The report will discuss the
case of Kuoni tourism organization which provides various tourism services in the market but
due to internal and external factors it become essential for them to implement some changes. The
report will discuss those types of changes and its impact on the employees as well as entire
organization. The report will also discuss models through which changes in the organization can
be managed. Few barriers for changes that are facing by organization will also discussed in the
report along with the strategies to overcome the changes.
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Task 1
P1 Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change on an
organisation’s strategy and operations.
Medium size firms can have huge impact in their working and growth because of the changes
applied in the strategies and functioning of the organization. Given below are the examples of
two firms in which change can affect organization’s operations and strategies.
Carnival Corporation & plc: it is a travel organization that is combined with two firms, one is
Carnival plc and the other is Carnival Corporation. It is a type of public company which is dual
listed. It deals with brands like AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises, Fathom, etc. It
focuses on customer satisfaction by providing great facilities and accommodations to them in the
holiday and tour packages (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
Kuoni Travel: Kuoni Travel is a travel and tourism organization that deals with services like
providing holiday packages, Charter, cruise lines, destination hotels, etc. They provide package
holidays to their customers including all the facilities including food, accommodations, stay, etc
are as per the interest and desire of the customers.
Changes related to innovation, new technologies, and competitive environment, environmental
changes, etc are developing in these two firms which are discussed below. Adoption and
application of the above changes can have a direct effect on the firm’s operations and strategies.
Innovation: by making innovation and change in the current products, these enterprises can
attract more number of customers. Adoption and implementation of innovative tactics in holiday
packages by Kuoni Travel and Carnival Corporation & plc will lead to gaining competitive
advantage and more customers (Bradley, 2016).
Environmental changes: this driver of change deals with making changes in firm’s operations in
terms of environmental protection. Kuoni Travel and Carnival Corporation & plc are required to
protect the environment by minimizing the wastage during holiday tours. These wastes are
mainly to food items and drinking products that can affect the environment during tours.
Competitive environment related changes: competition in tourism organizations can be
increased because of offering of same kind of services and products to their customers. Thus,
2

Kuoni Travel and Carnival Corporation & plc are required to offer products and services that are
attractive as well as different and unique from their competitive firms so that they can have
benefit and their customers can get satisfaction. Gaining competitive advantage will help in
attracting large pool of customers for both the firms (Hayes, 2018).
Kuoni Travel and Carnival Corporation & plc are compared below as per the change drivers
including some similarities and difference:
Similarities:
Both Kuoni and Carnival provides guides for the tours as additional services so that their
customers cannot face any problem. The services provided by both the organizations are in
varieties like packages holidays, destination tour packages, etc. For minimizing competition from
other tourism firms, these organizations focus on preparing various and effective strategies and
policies. These organizations provide online booking services which are affordable for their
customers for booking holiday packages (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
Differences:
As compared to Kuoni Travels, services and products of Carnival Corporation & plc are in
bigger and wider range. Customers of Carnival Corporation & plc are more satisfied as
compared to Kuoni Travel because of more facilities in terms of food, various accommodations
and entertainment.
3

P2 Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drives of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviours in the organization
The driving changes in the internal and external environment may affect the current pattern of
leadership, individual behaviour and team within Kuoni travel and tourism industry. Following
are the changes along with its impact on various factors of Kuoni Travel:
Current changes and its impact on leadership
The internal changes occurred within the Kuoni travel is related to the resources and capabilities.
For instance, the employees of Kuoni travel need to be trained so that they can use the resources
effectively which will motivate the team leader for managing their entire team. The leader of
Kuoni travel brings few changes in their strategies that are related to involving their leaders in
decision making through that they achieve employee’s interventions (Neves et al, 2018).
On the other side, external factors are related to the factors which occurred outside the
organization but put indirect impact on the Kuoni Travel. The business act environment need to
be effective so that Kuoni travel can manage the relationship with their customers, employees
and investors. The changes in technological factor, economic, social and environment may also
affect the leader’s decisions and they need to make changes as per these changes. The leaders of
Kuoni travel need to adopt digital technology tools for improving their service quality.
Current changes and its impact on team
The resources of the organization mainly act as their internal factors that may change which also
influence the functions and performance of the team. For instance, Kuoni Travel have skilled and
qualified employee’s that help them to achieve their set aim and objective in this competitive
market of tourism. The travel and tourism sector industry also achieve success with the help of
their efficiency team members (Day et al, 2016). But the internal structure and function changes
may affect the performance of their team which influence them positively but sometimes
negatively also. If internal conflicts and issues occurred between team members then this may
affect their performance. The external changes such as- technology change affect the employees
because these factors may increase their professional skills but sometimes affect their current
skill. It becomes essential for employee to gain the technology knowledge to increase their
efficiency level.
4

Current changes and its impact on individual behaviour
The internal motivation level provided by the organization and leaders will influence the
behaviour and attitude of the individual while working for Kuoni Travel. If leader motive
employees to take active participation in the business discussion then this will positively
influence the employees to increase their efforts. But if leaders avoid employee’s efforts then this
may affect the positive behaviour of the employees (Hayes, 2018).
On the other side, external factor like changes in social values and technology also affect the
employee’s behaviour. If leaders protect the social values of their employees then this will
motivate employees to give their more efforts to achieve the Kuoni travel objectives. Proper
training sessions need to be provided by leaders in respect of technology changes which
influence the behaviour and attitude of their employees positively. The growth and development
opportunities provided by leaders may satisfy the employees and improve their current working
efficiency.
5

P3 Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on
organisational behaviour
The negative impact due to the leading changes in Kuoni affect the various factors of the
organization which are discussed in the above task. But it is important for the team of Kuoni
Travel to use some of the methods to minimize that negative impact for further improvement.
The leader and manager of Kuoni travel may use various measures or methods to minimize the
negative impact of the changes on the Kuoni behaviour:
Equal role and responsibilities distribution
To minimize the negative impact due to the leading changes it is important for the leader or
manager of supervisor to identify the current skills and knowledge of their existing employees so
that roles can be distributed between them accordingly. The role distribution equally and as per
their skill will motivate them and help them to complete their target. Inequality issues and
internal conflicts can also be avoided through this measure (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
Interact with employees
Proper communication is the best and the most effective measure for minimizing the negative
influence. The manager or leader of Kuoni Travel needs to improve their communication and
interaction with the team members. Conduct official meeting with the employees and share all
the changes and reason behind the changes with them to avoid the resistance of change. Involve
them in the discussions to avoid the internal issues and resistance to change from the Kuoni
travel.
Take employees suggestions and commitment
Taking prior suggestions and permission of the employees will avoid the negative influence of
changes from the mind of the existing employees. With the help of the official meeting it
becomes easy for leader to take different suggestions of the team members which will help to
take their prior permission about the changes (Foerstl et al, 2016). The leader of Kuoni travel
needs to ask employees for their commitment so that future resistance issues can be avoided.
This measure taken by the leader may also help employees to understand the importance of the
change and its reason for the Kuoni growth in the tourism sector.
6

Analyze the external and internal factors
Before implementing the changes in the business function and operation it is important for the
Kuoni leader to analyze the internal as well as external affecting factors. By using the Burke
Lewin model it become easy for Kuoni leaders and managers to control the changes and then
they can take effective decision for business growth.
For instance, Kuoni is the travelling organization as they are providing tourism services in the
UK but they are currently facing employee turnover issue because of the employee’s personal
changes (Sadgrove, 2016). To remove this type of problem it is important for manager or leader
to give some non-monetary or monetary rewards to employees to covering their personal needs
also. The Burke Lewin model offer proper strategy for Kuoni business through which they can
align their objective with their employee’s performance.
Use continuous improvement model
The leaders and manager of Kuoni organization can use continuous improvement model for
monitoring their performance against the set aim and objective. This model helps the team of
Kuoni to analyze their service quality and help them to identify the ways for improving their
current performance. By applying this model the leader of Kuoni can monitor employee’s
performance on regular basis and take decision for further changes in respect of implementing
some improvement.
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M1 Assess the different drivers for change in each of the given examples and the types of
organisational change they have affected
External and internal driving factors affect the current performance of the organization and these
factors influence the organization to implement some changes. With the implemented changes it
helps organization compete with these factors. In the current time, many changes occurred in the
tourism sector and that affect the current performance of Kuoni organization as they are
providing tourism services to their customers. The internal driving factors cover- product quality,
organization culture, financial status, customer’s quires, and innovation in the market, waste
management and employee morale (Hayes, 2018). Because of the increased competitive factor in
the tourism sector has influence the internal operations of Kuoni and Carnival travel industries. It
becomes essential for both the tourism industry to provide training for improving the technical
skills of their skills. This technology training helps them to provide online tour package booking
facility to their tourist. On the other, monetary and non-monetary benefits provided by
organization to their employees also motivate them to increase their efficiency level.
M2 Apply appropriate theories and models to critically evaluate organizational response to
change
Burke Lewin model is used by the Kuoni travel organization so that they can implement the
change and monitor its progress for further improvement. This model helps Kuoni to manage the
implemented change impact on the performance and function of the organization. This model
mainly defines the changes concept by the three main stages related to ice block which help to
manage the changes effectively (Burke and Noumair, 2015). In the first stage is related to
unfreeze that cover employees and stakeholders in Kuoni for planning the change and further
implementing it as per requirement. The second stage is related to the actual change
implemented in Kuoni like- technology factor for online tour package booking and digital
marketing. The last stage is freeze stage in which change will become permanent and it become
essential for employee to perform it. This model can be applied by both the organizations to
manage their changes and to achieve positive outcome.
8

Task 2
P4 Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership decision
making in Kuoni travels
The change barriers occurred in Kuoni organization because of the unorganized and unplanned
events which take place within the Kuoni business environment. Following are some barriers for
changes that are faced by Kuoni organization along with its influence on the leadership decision
making:
Resistance to change
Resistance to change is the barrier for change that can be faced by Kuoni during the
implementation of changes in their business functions and operations. This barrier occurs in the
organization when employee realizes that the planned change in the organization is not under
their favour and that may harm their rights in the organization (Burnes, 2015). After realizing
this employee’s conduct resistance to change event and become barrier for the change. To avoid
this type of barrier it is important for leader and manager of Kuoni to take their prior permission
and involve them in the discussion so that importance of the planned change in respect of
business can be explained to them.
Improper management
Due to lack of management process it become difficult for the team of Kuoni to take the proper
actions. The improper management strategy may affect the performance of employees as well as
organization due to which uncertain events may occur. Lack management planning will also
lower down employee’s morale and responsibilities which affect the existing productivity of the
Kuoni organization in the tourism sector.
Differences in employee’s culture
Every employee of Kuoni has different type of culture and values which may create differences
in their thoughts and views which also become one of the barriers for the changes planning by
Kuoni to be implemented (Ashikali and Groeneveld, 2015). The differences factors are related to
the culture, religion or caste due to which resistance to change events may happen in the
organization. It is important for the Kuoni leader to manage balance between their team members
and try to promote the team work for improvement.
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Lack of employee’s commitment
Sometimes lack of employee’s attention and commitment towards the organization aim and
objective related to leading change may become one of the major reasons behind barriers for the
change. It is important for the team leader or manager of Kuoni to take the prior permission and
commitment of their employees so that future issues and resistance actions taken by employees
can be avoided. This will help to reduce the negative impact of the change from the functions
and performance of the Kuoni organization (Sadgrove, 2016).
Influence of these barriers on the leadership decision making
The above discussion analyzed few barriers for the changes that are faced by the Kuoni when
they plan to implement the change. Due to these barriers it becomes difficult for leaders of Kuoni
to take the effective decisions because employees are not in the favour of the change and due to
the restraining factors (Bradley, 2016). In the Kuoni organization there is lack of skilled and
qualified employees to perform leadership act and that lower down their productivity also. The
barriers for change mainly act as the obstacles for Kuoni which sometimes hinder their
performance and actions in respect of achieving their goals and objectives. It is important for the
leader of Kuoni to overcome the barriers so that they can influence their team to apply the
change for the benefits of their business.
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