Lakeland Wonders Report: Leadership and Change Management Analysis

This report examines the leadership challenges faced by Cheryl, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders Company, who is striving to implement significant changes within the organization. The report analyzes the nature and reasons for these changes, including entering new market segments, outsourcing, and restructuring. It critically assesses Cheryl's management style, highlighting her aggressive approach and the resulting lack of support from her team. The analysis explores the types of organizational change, Cheryl's adherence to a Theory E approach, and the importance of considering Lakeland's established culture. The report suggests alternative approaches, such as utilizing Lewin's force-field analysis, improving communication, and establishing a strong feedback system to address employee resistance and ensure successful change implementation. The conclusion emphasizes the need for Cheryl to build trust and incorporate employee feedback to achieve her goals.

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Executive summary
Cheryl, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders Company is the first woman to get the best job outside
Sweden family. Cheryl is very aggressive; she has a plan to bring changes in Lakeland Company
but she is faced with many challenges. One of the challenges she is facing is lack of support from
her management. And therefore, Cheryl needs to change her management styles in order to win
the trust of her team and succeed in bringing the change she wants.
Contents

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Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
The Nature of change.......................................................................................................................5
The reasons of change.....................................................................................................................6
An alternative approach...................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Introduction
Lakeland is undergoing a critical time with Hailstrom trying to implement change policies that
are not reinforced by the other management members. I will be discussing the reasons why

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Hailstrom is assertive for a change in the organization and what needs to be done to ensure that
an actual outcome is achieved (Bratton, & Gold, 2017). I will also be presenting critical analysis
about Cheryl’s management skills and her relationship with other employees. The remaining part
of the report follows with the reasons for change, the strategic response of Cheryl, and the
appropriate measures for ensuring that change is implemented successfully. All the points are
supported with examples and clearly explained along the report.
The Nature of change
There are four types of change that depends on the nature and the scope of change that is
required. These changes are discussed below
Hailstom had plans that she wanted to implement immediately ranging from entering middle-
priced toys market section, outsourcing the output for this section to the countries located in off-

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shores, changing the present Lakeland to Sampsen Design, recruiting potential persons like Cecil
and have an alliance with all the suppliers of the core parts.
Based on the above arguments, Hailstrom pursues a kind of change known as reconstructive
change. This kind of change does not alter the core of Lakeland activities but it is vital in
introducing new opportunities that needs the use of new techniques (Boisot & McKelvey 2010)
Hailstrom: visionary change leader?
The critical quality in this section is that the change vision is building of Hailstrom herself and
has posed diverse responses from the rest of her team. Whenever there is a need to change
management in an organization, it is critical to know if this should done bottom-up or top-down.
Lakeland wonders’ Code of Change
Cheryl has failed to embrace the Lakeland’s ancient culture and this issue has been brought up
by Wally, Lakeland’s retired CEO when he was mentioning to her that most employees have
been working at Lakeland for generations; and that her rapid alternations will scare them
(Wuorenmaa, 2012). The Beer and Nohria elaborates that for a leader to be ranked as Theory E
change, the crucial law is to be a shareholder and thus Hailstrom’s regular persistence on targets
achievement and growth boosting makes her to be in that side of style. However, Cheryl should
know that this concept approach could be devastating whenever it begins to challenge strong and
recognized cultures (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2016). Hailstrom is facing difficulties from her
employees simply because she did not take them in confidence and discussed with them about
the changes she wanted to make; it appeared that she dictated terms basing on what she was
feeling was the best for company’s economy. For instance, she insisted on the use of Sampsen
Design though her designer did not felt the same way.
The reasons of change
An Organisation is a communal system. Every part of an organisation has an impact on other
parts. While change is defined as an alternation that takes place in an organisation’s general
environment; therefore, organisational change is the creation of inequities in the current series of
condition (Bradley, 2016).

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Some of the reasons why change is needed in every organization is discussed based on the
internal reasons or the external reasons. The internal reasons are the reasons that are from inside
the organization while the external reasons are mostly the alternations from the market (Planning
Commission. 2012). Looking back at the case study, the internal forces are displayed when
Hailstrom insists that the directors of board need to set abnormal growth targets for the
management to achieve; and she believes that these targets are achieved by making some
changes in the company. Additionally, it is also clear that Cheryl’s persistence and
aggressiveness in pursuing new opportunities has assisted her in being a step ahead of the market
(Tibus, 2010)
From the external market view, the marketing CEO mentions that the middle-priced sector of
marketplace was the only sector that projected twice digit growths and the clients for the those
goods were shopping at Bull’s eye. Currently, Lakeland Wonder specializes in exclusive toys.
An alternative approach
Here are some of the suggestions that Cheryl would hopefully gather for her success
Firstly, is conducting Lewin’s force- analysis, this would greatly help weigh the advantages and
the disadvantages of change plans (Sekaran, & Bougie, 2016). It concerns weighing in all the
aspects that are in support of a certain change plan and all the forces that are against it. The listed
forces are then rated with one weak to a scale of five strong factors.
The problem that Hailstrom is facing in implementing the change she needs is worker’s
resistance; Cheryl has problems with Mark and other employees too. Therefore, she needs to deal
with this by changing her management skills, improving in communication and setting up a
strong feedback system.
Conclusion
Hailstrom is right when she proposes that change is required in the organization, it is only that
she has used the wrong approach. She is viewed as an outsider when she adopted a theory E
approach. And so, to solve that problem Cheryl needs to place her trust to her employees and

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other employees like Mark and consider their feedbacks to know what works well for the
company.
References
Boisot, M., & McKelvey, B. (2010). Integrating modernist and postmodernist perspectives on
organizations: A complexity science bridge. Academy of Management Review, 35(3),
415-433.
Bradley, G. (2016). Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving benefits through change.
Routledge.
Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Planning Commission. (2012). Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017). Economic Sectors. Vol. II.

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Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2016). Managing organizational change. McGraw-Hill Education.
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Tibus, C. (2010). Leadership beyond the glass ceiling: does ownership matter?. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal, 31(8), 743-757.
Wuorenmaa, A. E. (2012). The Lakeland Fires.