Leadership and Culture in Organizational Contexts: ASDA Report

This report examines leadership and culture within ASDA, a British retailer, focusing on the challenges posed by a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) environment. The introduction highlights the importance of effective leadership and a positive organizational culture for busines...Read More

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Managing and leading culture in VUCA environment with skills and agility............................3
Theories, tool and models assist in leading and managing culture in VUCA environments.......6
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Maintaining the leadership and culture within the company is very necessary. This is
majorly because of the reason that without effective leadership the company cannot work. The
underlying reason behind this fact is that without leadership and management of the culture the
company cannot run successfully and productively (Porter, 2019). This is majorly because of the
fact that leadership ensures that proper guidance and direction is given to the employees when
they are working within the company. On the other hand, the culture ensures that the employees
feel comfortable and relaxed in the working environment of the company. Both the leadership
and culture need to maintained in the business.
The present report is based on company ASDA. This is a company which is British
retailer which was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The present
report will discuss the fact that the environment under the VUCA model which impact the
culture of the company. Further, in the end the report will outline some models and theories
which will help in dealing with the different situation of VUCA that is volatility, uncertainty,
complexity and the ambiguity within environment.
MAIN BODY
Managing and leading culture in VUCA environment with skills and agility.
VUCA is an acronym which stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity
which is the combination of qualities that taken together, characterize the proper nature of some
difficult conditions and critical situation. The term is also sometimes said to stand for the
adjectives such as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Examples include uncertainty,
turbulence, rapid change, dynamism, disruption, complexity, hyper-competition, high-velocity
markets and flux. In the year this gaining popularity as a term to cover the various dimensions of
this uncontrollable environment. The detailed explanation of those types of condition and
situation are as follows:
Volatility:
This is the nature and dynamic of changes and the nature and speed of change force and
changed catalysts. This is created situation in organization which are related to quality of being
subject to frequent, rapid and significant changes. Situation is the price of commodities can rise
or fall considerably in a short period and the direction of a trend may reverse suddenly. This
creates more problem for ASDA company. For example: the price fluctuate after a natural

disaster takes a supplier off time (Esmi, Piran and Hayat, 2017). Through that all the suppliers
are off-line who supply product and material to ASDA because of natural disasters. In that case
price of product are increases and customers are moved another side for purchase their needy
products. This situation is unexpected or unstable and may be unknown duration but it is not
necessarily hard to understand knowledge about it is often available for more businesses. This
affect ASDA culture in volatility environment. In these employees required more skills for sets
approach in order to deal with this problem in effective manner because. Through that company
face problem because price of product is increase and company losing their high customer base.
In this required skill is build in slack and devote resource to preparedness. This help to handle
any situation in proper and respective manner. For instances, stockpile inventory or overbuy
talent. These steps are typically expensive and little risk to solve this problem in an effective
manner. On the other side, required critical thinking skills for handle this problem. In that case
company can provide product on higher prices through using discounts cards in the future
(Eisenberg, Davidova and Kokina, 2018). Also, required managerial skills in order to deals with
this situation in proper manner.
Uncertainty:
The uncertainty is lack of predictability, the prospects for surprise and the sense of
awareness and understanding of issues and events in proper manner. This is a component of that
situation, in which events and outcomes are unpredictable. This type of situations are created
suddenly at the workplace because of higher profit margin. This is very important to understand
effective communication in that processes with any of the department. The characteristics of this
type of situation is despite a lack of other information, the event is basic cause and that affect to
employees, ASDA and customers. Those changes are possible but not given in the workplace in
advance. For example: a competitor are taking pending their one product in order to launch at
marketplace but after some time they are make strategy to launch this at market place and after
then they launch this product at marketplace. This case can affect to ASDA and its culture
because through that customers are attracted towards ASDA competitors. This creates
demotivated culture at workplace as well as marketplace which is not good for company growth
and its profit margin for work goals. Through these customers are highly demotivated with their
ideal company because company have not any unique product to sell in market and also not have
quality. In this company required better researching skill for search competitors strategy. This

help to company in order to know about their strategy related to sells (Demir, 2015). With the
help of this skill, ASDA manager is highly able to make the best strategy against of their
competitors in order to pending products because this situation is created more problem for
company bacause through that customer loss their loyal and higher customers base. On the other
side, company have to more invest on researching information and collect interpret and share it.
This involves best in conjunction with structural changes like as adding information analysis
networks that can reduce ongoing uncertainty from workplace.
Complexity- the third aspect of the model of VUCA is the complexity. The complexity is
defined as the multiple factors which impacts the different factors because of the interrelation
among them. There are many different factors which are interrelated with one another and
change in one factor impact the other factor as well. And this in turn impacts the overall culture
of the company. Like for instance ASDA works in multiple countries and the profits are earned
from all of the countries. Thus, there are many different rules and regulations which ASDA
needs to follow. But if there are some changes in the rules of the one country then this impacts
the overall culture of the business. This is due to the fact that the change in rules affect the
working of the company and this result in loss for the company. this is a situation of complexity
because of the reason that now the company has to learn for this new change in the structure of
the business with other country (Lee and Cho, 2018).
But this situation of complexity can be solved with the skills and traits of the manager.
The skill of proper knowledge of the manager will be helpful for company to maintain good
culture even in the situation of losses. This is because of the reason that manager has skill of
improving its knowledge and this will help him to learn the new changes and then implement in
the business.
Ambiguity- this is defined as the lack of clarity of the information or the difficulty in
understanding the actual situation. This can be majorly because of the reason that there is lack of
communication or even the people are not able to understand the situation properly. More
ambiguity leads the people to assume different things and make assumptions for the different
people and different situations (Firmansah and Supriyadi, 2018). For instance, in ASDA the
employee was promoted to a higher post because of the capabilities that employee was having.
But the other employees perceived the promotion of that the employee was because he was much
involved in organization politics and was always buttering the higher authority.

Thus, this situation created a very bad culture within ASDA as all the employees perceived that
the working is not much important rather buttering the higher authority is necessary. But in this
situation the manager of ASD could have used some skills to deal with the situation of
ambiguity. The major skill here is the communication skill which could have been used in by the
manager. This is because of the reason that the manager must clear the reason for the promotion
of the employee is because of his capability and not any other reason. This clear communication
will help the other employees in understanding the fact that the company considers the capability
of the employee and not any other thing. This will create a culture of equality within the
company and all the employees who earlier perceived wrong things will be clear. And thus, the
environment of the company will be more comfortable and friendlier for the company and
employees will perform the work with more efficiency and productivity in order to get
promotion. And hence, this will result in increase in overall efficiency of the company.
Through this, company is able to solve all this problem by using appropriate skills in
effective manner. This help to increase proper growth of company in an effective manner.
Theories, tool and models assist in leading and managing culture in VUCA environments
VUCA environment in company bring many issues and create difficult situations that
impact on growth and success of business within marketplace. It is acronym that stands for
volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of qualities. Unpredictable changes under
VUCA environment create complexity and demotivate workers which is not suitable for long
term success of ASDA within retail sector. In order to manage and lead culture in this
environment leaders can apply different type of theories, models, tools and techniques that
provide better outcomes.
Theories-
Situational theory (leadership) help manager or leader to match the specific situation and
lead culture in VUCA environment effectively (Salehzadeh and et.al., 2015). According to this,
leader analyse the current work environment, issues and problems that affects organization
productivity and create negative atmosphere in workplace. Situational theory of leadership
proceed on assumption that effective style of leadership modifies accordant to situation. In
context of VUCA environment, this theory work effectively as it helps to evaluate the whole
condition, consider the point of views of all the people regarding environment in order to take
better actions. Leader with the cope of situational leadership, set goals and aggressive standards

to reach at positive outcomes. This work with highly competent and motivated staff to perform
appropriately. VUCA environment create many challenges for company to lead in sector, they
cannot be able to progress within market with this atmosphere because it directly impacts on
productivity and revenue. Unpredictable changes under this environment, increase level of stress
and effect behaviour of staff which is not acceptable (Perna, 2016). But with the support of
situational leadership, ASDA leaders will enhance their workers motivational level better than
before. By understand the demand and requirement of people they can manage and create
collaborative culture in VUCA environment efficiently without making any compromise on
service quality. They do not insist on particular set of rules that can be followed by staff, instead,
create an environment in workplace where individuals are encouraged to share and come forward
so that everyone find greater success in current situation.
Situational leadership allow leader perform to create style that is relies on readiness level
of their group and its needs within workplace. Some employees do not expect changes in
business because it impacts on productivity and working style. But leader leads and manage each
and every thing effectively in this situation or VUCA environment, they create environment
which permits people to be comfortable with their job roles. When employees is satisfied, leader
keep more productive, it helps to motivate people in way that meet with needs, give a chance to
reach better results.
Models and tools-
By using task culture in Handy's model, leader can mange and lead in VUCA
environment with positive results that enhance the performance of ASDA company in market
better than before (Sheldrake, 2015). According to this model, leader divide task based on person
personalities, skills and abilities that create good and innovative culture in workplace. Task
culture forms when people in firm is defined to address issues and specific projects progress.
With the help of this behaviour and practices, leader put the right applicants at right place and
give them work without favouritism that help to lead VUCA environment and increase level of
loyalty. It also helps to build strong relationship between leader and its team members, as they
can perform together for achieving common objectives (Amiri-Tokaldany and Darby, 2018). It
depends on integrative power of team to improve and enhance efficiency and help people
determining with objective of company.

Situational awareness is method or procedure of analysing the current environment in
working areas that affects on performance of business as well as workers. After observing the
VUCA environment and collecting information about employees resistance for change leader
can plan for make people ready to except the situation. It helps person to be aware of what is
happening around them in terms of where they work and whether anything around staff is threat
to its health and safety (Nicosia and Boeing, 2015). In context of employees, before analysing
the situation they can prepare themselves for making adjustment in their work, but few people do
not want to change their style accordingly. Awareness of VUCA environment and its side effects
allow people to take actions and prepare to that particular atmosphere. In simple words, staff
members can take change of situational awareness they can communicate with leader to make
some arrangements according to situation that do not affect its work and productivity level while
doing job. It can said that above statements lead and manage culture in VUCA environment
efficiently and effectively.
Techniques-
Managing resistance-
It is very important for the organisation to manage the resistance that occur in the diverse
working culture. It is harder to make people work in the business environment if the working
employees are diverse and have different interests. In order to avoid the impact of unpredictable
change at the work culture, leaders are required to be the change agents and they have to see the
problems as an opportunity that they have to convert by using win to win approach. There are
different ways that leaders can use in order to avoid the resistance with respect to the working
culture of the business:-
 In Volatility environment, leaders are required to manage the risk with respect to the
cultural differences and have effective control on the work environment(Duveneck and
Scheller, 2016). There are different collaboration tools that leaders can adopt as it allow
them to have control on the working culture by having proper management tools. It is
also very important for the business to assess the risk that is involved and work for the
controlling the same. Working employees can be motivated by ensuring them incentives
will be there, if they participate effectively for business growth.
 Many times, there are different unpredictable changes that arise in work culture and in
such environment, leaders are required to develop understanding between the employees

so that they can work effectively, in order to make the changes acceptable. Business is
required to have clear, concise and concrete intended outcomes as it helps to firm to make
the employees refocus on their goals and they can work together to achieve the business
goals(Kirton and Greene, 2015).
 In order to manage resistance in complexity, leaders are required to find alternatives to
make a decision and have to maintain an effective relationship among the employees so
that they can work effective in bringing change. The firm have to analyse environments
rationally and encourage interaction between the employees. For bring readiness to
change, business is required to prepare and seek opportunities and for the same, they have
to respond quickly and must sustain continuous improvement.
 It is very important for the leaders and employees to embrace ambiguity in order to
manage resistance at the workplace(Sharma, 2016). It is also required to have effective
communication as it overcome the resistance by facilitating effective interaction between
employees.
Training and development-
It is very important for the leaders to give training to the employees so that they can
accept the diverse working environment and this also leads to new vision for the employees.
Diversity management training helps the employees to work effectively in a team and brings
innovative ideas of the employees. This also brings an effective morale of the employees that
they accept the changes and works in bringing profits for the organisation. With effective
training and development for the leaders as well as employees, organisation is able to bring
effective communication and also inspire the teams to work effectively with all the employees.
Failure in managing diversity usually leads to negative employee attitude and unproductive
management behaviour(Popli and Rizvi, 2016). Training and development helps in bringing
change in diverse culture and also helps the business to maintain visibility and engage the
employees. With the help of these activities, business is able to adopt the changes in all the
VUCA environment. There are different diversity management training and activities in which
that leaders and managers participate that is conducted by the organisation in order to grow their
skills and improve their project results. There are different boot camps and advanced immersion
workshop that helps the leaders and managers to work effectively in diverse culture.

CONCLUSION
From the above study it is been concluded that the culture of an organization is the key
aspect that helps the business and to lead the culture in VUCA environment, there is requirement
of great skills, agility, energy and also insights. Report further concluded that there are different
range of theories, models and techniques that business can use in order to mange and lead culture
in VUCA environment. The leadership style that leaders can use for leading the business culture
is situational leadership style. Report also concluded the Task culture from Handy's model is also
effective to bring organizational culture. Report also concluded that in order to manage the
working culture, different training and development with respect to management of diversity
helps the business to bring an effective organizational culture.

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