Understanding and Leading Change: Evaluating and Minimizing Impacts

This essay delves into the complexities of organizational change, examining the internal and external drivers that necessitate such transformations. It utilizes the Burke-Lewin's change model to analyze how companies like Apple manage these changes to foster innovation. The paper evaluates t...Read More

Running head: UNDERSTANDING AND LEADING CHANGE
Understanding and leading change
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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UNDERSTANDING AND LEADING CHANGE
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
P1.....................................................................................................................................................4
Change in Business Context........................................................................................................4
Two Approaches to Change.........................................................................................................5
Types of organisational change, structure, organisation and technology:.......................................6
Organisation wide-change:..........................................................................................................6
Transformative changes:..............................................................................................................7
Personnel change:........................................................................................................................7
Drivers of change PESTEL and SWOT:.........................................................................................8
SWOT of Apple:..........................................................................................................................8
P2.....................................................................................................................................................9
Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behavior within the organization................................................................................9
P3...................................................................................................................................................11
Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of the change on
organizational behavior.................................................................................................................11
Recommendation of a Solution to implement Change Successfully.............................................14
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Organisational changes are the outcomes of the factors or drivers of changes and have
significant impacts on the organisational strategies. Cummings and Worley (2014) mention that
the external environmental factors like political changes, competitive strategies of the
competitors, especially the strong competitors and customer preferences necessitate business
organisations to change their modus operandi to adapt to the changes. Similarly, internal factors
like change of leadership styles and management decisions are also responsible for necessitating
organisational changes. Organisational changes irrespective of their backgrounds have strong
effects on the organisational strategies. The management have to play the role of change leader
to initiate the process but eventually require the support of lower level employees as well to able
to implement the change process.
The aim of the paper would be exploring the process of organisational changes with the
help of Burke-Lewin’s change model. Then the author would go on to apply the model to
uncover how Apple manages organisational changes to introduce innovative products in the
market. The paper would also consider Samsung Electronics Limited, the toughest global
competitor of Apple Inc.
P1.
Change in Business Context
The companies operating in the modern business world must be willing to move along
with the times and adjust the operations of the business in response to the increased competition,
technological advances, stakeholder expectations and other kind of pressures. The change in the

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context of the business can be termed as the way of moving the company or the business
enterprise from the current state to the aim of the management on where it wants to be in the
future. According to, Benn Edwards and Williams(2014) the improvement of the company in
terms of the operations, strategies, business approaches can all be an example of the changes to
be introduced by the owners and the authorities of the organizations. The changes are introduced
to ensure new developments and innovations in the business of the organization.
Two Approaches to Change
The calm water metaphor includes there different elements namely;
a. Unfreezing- The main change will be the introduction of the new segment of Smartphone
of Apple in the market and a change in the approach of the organization. the new change
will enable the company to get hold of the Smartphone market.Samsung Electronics
Limited, the toughest competitor of Apple also brings about organisational changes in
order to retain its global position against Apple(Caspin-Wagner Massini and Lewin
2018). It can be pointed out that while the market of Apple is restricted to high-end
products, Samsung markets both high priced products as well as low price products.
Thus, while the unfreezing action of Apple involves staffs manufacturing high-end
products alone, the unfreezing action of Samsung requires involvement of employees of
all the divisions.
b. Changing to a new state- The new state of change will ensure the full conversion of the
change in the organization where the change will lead to the customers having the belief
about the new range of Smartphone manufactured by Apple and thus the following
transition will though take some time, will decide on the success and the future of the
new products.The customers of Samsung on the other hand expect the company to offer

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more facilities in the low priced or medium priced products as well. The high-end
products or Samsung like Apple are expensive and have advanced configuration, often
surpassing their Apple counterparts Thus, changing to a new state is more complex and
lengthy in Samsung compared to Apple.
c. Refreezing-The organization will have to refreeze the new change in order to stabilize the
process of the new change. The refreezing of the change will help the customers to adapt
to the changes and make the organization more stable on the following product. The new
sense of stability will make the employees of Apple and Samsung feel confident and
comfortable with the new product category.
Types of organisational change, structure, organisation and technology:
The following are the types of organisational changes and their structures including the
technological aspects:
Organisation wide-change:
Organisational wide-changes are changes which affect the entire organisation and require
prompt actions from the management. Hussainet al. (2018) mention that organisation wide-
changes are the outcome of significant changes in the external environmental conditions like
changes in bilateral relationship between home countries and host countries. These changes are
capable of impacting the businesses in several ways like requiring the companies concerned to
withdraw from specific markets, thus losing customer base and revenue from the customer base
altogether. Kostova and Hult (2016) strengthens the argument by pointing out that effective
management of these changes are crucial in order to minimise the negative impacts of these
changes, if any. As far as Apple Inc. is concerned, the company operates in more than a hundred

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countries. The changes like tax structures and changing relationship between its home country,
the US and in specific host countries require the management of Apple to take accurate decisions
to adapt to such changes and sustain in the market. Thus, in short organisation wide changes are
so crucial and have such strong impacts on the business of the organisations that the management
require to manage these changes very strategically. Failure to manage organisation wide changes
efficiently can lead to massive loss to the companies concerned.
Transformative changes:
Transformative changes require the companies to bring about changes in specific areas of
operations instead of targeting the company as a whole unlike organisation wide changes.
Jordan, Werner and Venter (2015) mention that transformational changes have significant
impacts on the operations of companies. As far as Apple is concerned, the American
multinational IT giant brings about innovation and improvement in its products which in turn
requires the company to bring about continuous transformations in its manufacturing process.
Caspin-Wagner, Massini and Lewin (2018) mention that companies in order to respond to
transformative changes.
Personnel change:
Personnel changes refer to the changes which comes about in companies as outcome of
mass hiring or layoffs. However, it can be pointed out that unlike the two previous changes,
personnel changes result in massive damage to the organisational productivity. This is because
loss of staff also leads to loss of talent and skills. However, it can be pointed out that
multinational companies generally aim to resist such changes in order to retain employees.

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Drivers of change PESTEL and SWOT:
The drivers of change can be both external and internal. The management of the business
organisations like Apple in order to manage changes efficiently and effective conduct PEST
analysis. The following are the PEST analysis of the United States of America, the country of
domicile of Apple Inc.
Political
1. The United States of America is politically
stable.
2. Have strong bilateral relationship with both
developed and emerging countries.
Economic
1. Economically strong
2. High GDP
3. Strong supply chains
4. Strong network of banks and non-banking
financial institutions.
5. Home to top stock exchanges like NYSE.
Social
1. High per capita income among consumers.
2. Huge demand for technological gadgets in the
American society.
Technological:
1. Technologically strong
2. Deep internet penetration.
Environmental
1. Disposal of used and nonworking
device is a major environmental issue
2. China’s efforts to cut the emission of
greenhouse gases has led to the rise of
costs for Apple in the country
3. Climate change has badly affected the
suppl chain of the company
Legal
1. The company has recently entered
the highly regulated financial sector
of the market through Apple Pay.
This can increase the level of
regulation and Government oversight
2. Apple may face increased cases of
litigation by offering financial
services
SWOT of Apple:
Strengths:
1. Global presence
2. Financial strength
3. High-end product line
Weaknesses
1. Cannot target middle class customers unlike
competitors like Samsung.
2. Samsung is both a supplier and competitor
Threats:
1. Weakening USD.
2. Volatile political relationship
3. Competition from low cost competitors.
Opportunities
1. Expansion into new countries.
2. Expansion of product line.
3. Introduction of new medium priced products like
Samsung.

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P2
Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team
and individual behavior within the organization
The Burke Litwin model aims to bring in a change in the organization that will help in
the change of the performance of the business enterprise by establishment of different kind of
links in between the performance and the internal and external factors that have an impact on the
performance of the business organization. The change Model is based on the assessment of the
organizational and environmental factors that can be implemented in the organization to ensure a
successful change. The change model starts with the outlining of the framework which comprises
of the different factors of business transformation.
The key factors of the transformation model are as follows;
1. External environment of the business enterprise is considered to be the most important
model of change and therefore it is the one that triggers the change in the organization.
2. The changes of the model are implemented mostly on the structure, policies and the
different practices of the organization.
3. All the different acting factors put together generally have an impact on the motivation
level of the different individuals which in turn affects the performance of the
organization
4. There are generally 12 different dimensions which includes the likes of the change model
and interact with and has a negative impact on each other
The development of innovative and quality products and services is one of the most core
business strategies of Apple Inc. The competitive edge of the business organization is mostly

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attained by means of the innovation and quality of the products. The following helps the
organization to stay ahead in the race and be unique from other kind of competitors in the
business. The change management strategies are helping the organization to implement it
successfully.
The concept of organizational change generally comes from the nature and environment of
the organizations. Change is generally defined as the different events that support the process of
development in Apple Inc(Cummings and Worley 2014). The management of Apple Inc. has
described the organizational change as the rightsizing, development of new products and
services, implementation of new technologies as the features of the change management process.
There are generally two kinds of elements that help the employees to perform well in the
organization. This includes both tangible as well as intangible elements. The tangible element
deals with the recruitment of the right persons for the right task and also implementing the right
technological tools for providing the best services and innovating the different kind of business
models accordingly.
Cummings and Worley(2014) in his study says that Employee performance is vital for the
success of a company like Apple where the employees are involved in the creation of high
performance technological devices like Mobiles, laptops and other technological appliances. The
constant review of the employee remuneration and increase in the remuneration of the employees
helps the organization to ensure a better and improved performance. The management of Apple
Inc. believes that the employee will only perform best when they are able to enjoy the jobs on
which they have been working on. The company uses both intrinsic as well as extrinsic awards to
ensure that the employees are always motivated. The tasks provided by the organization to their
employees are challenging and never easy(Cummings and Worley 2014). The challenges that the

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employee faces while completing the task automatically improves their performance. The
extrinsic motivation of the employees on the other hand can be provided through extrinsic
rewards like gifts, money, recognition that helps to motivate the employees accordingly.
The organizational strategy of Apple is dedicated solely towards innovating quality products,
totally different from the others in the market. The changes in the strategy of the company can
have positive effects. New strategic directions can help the company adapt to the different kinds
of changes in the legal environment as well as the marketplace of the business
organization(Hussain et al. 2018). The strategies adapted by the organization generally help the
management of apple to perform more effectively and develop new products that are totally
unique from the ones provided by the other companies. The changes in the strategies also help
Apple to enter into new markets and help them to target their niche customers(Kostova and Hult
2016). Though, most of the change management strategies have failed for Apple, the company
has been able to make a decent name for itself in the luxury product category which certainly
proves its competence strategy.
P3
Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of the change on
organizational behavior
Apple Inc. uses systems theory and continuous improvement models to bring about
changes proactively. The management at the apical level and middle level in order to ensure
efficient execution of strategies breaks them down into sub-systems. The multinational company
then integrates the functions of the different departments which ultimately culminates into the

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organizational productivity. This system is synergy which plays a very important role in driving
changes in the organisation.Change isinevitable in all of the industries in the modern market.
Most of the organizations in today’s competitive market are fearful and test the waters of change
after a detailed and scientific observation and analysis of other organizations and their process of
change management. The changes in the organization are met with different kinds of resistance
that tends to disrupt the policies of the organization. The resistance to changes can bring serious
problems to the organization as because the employees may not be satisfied with the change in
the business. The organizational change management strategies typically look at the people
within the business organization. The organization can expect most of the important steps of
managing change by keeping concentration over them. The management of Apple has identified
some of the steps that will cover the change management strategy of the business enterprise. This
includes;
1. Involvement- As mentioned earlier the management of Apple always involves the right
people at the right place. This involves the recruitment of the right people in the right
departments of the organization. The involvement of the right people at the right place
will help the organization to run the business smoothly and effectively.
2. Impact- Before the implementation of the changes the management of Apple considers
the impact that they generally have on the people who are involved with Apple. It is quite
likely that the employees of the business will certainly raise their concerns regarding the
same in the organization.
3. Communication- The existence of a high quality communication network is the basis of
the organization. Apple being one of the major tech giants of the globe has established a

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complex yet advanced communication network that helps an easy transformation of the
different information.
4. Readiness- Another major advantage of Apple Inc. is that the employees of the company
are always optimistic about the new trends. The employees of Apple are always ready to
accept the new policies and the changes in the organization.
The management of Apple Inc. however believes in continuous improvement process which
can be defined as a continuous process of improvement and is done with the idea of a long term
approach. The long term approach of the organization is beneficial as because it helps to
implement the change process in a gradual manner which can be helpful to avoid any forms of
resistance from the employees or any other kinds of sources. According to, Kostova and
Hult(2016) the continuous improvement process can also become part of the larger change
management initiative that helps to improve business conditions and increase efficiency. Apart
from such a process it is also important because the innovation of the company can be carried
forward with better accuracy in the continuous development process of the business enterprise.
Apple Inc. has evolved gradually in the last decade from a small computer manufacturing
firm to a global technological giant known for its ultra-luxury and technologically one of the
most superior brands in the market(Lubberink Blok van Ophem and Omta 2017). However, the
change in the operations model that is currently used by the organization will help to strengthen
the position of the company and provide them a competitive edge in the Smartphone segment.
The following sector has currently seen a large amount of companies that produce low end
Smartphone that are seen to be of a low quality. The field analysis of the company focuses on the
market position of the organization with the ultimate aim of strengthening the grip of the firm on
the premium Smartphone sector.

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The implementation of the FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS includes the organization will
involve a change in the mission of the organization. The new mission will be anchored on two
different fundamental visions. The very first vision will be to ensure smooth communication and
create strategic provisions for the infrastructure of the organization. The next vision of the
company is to capture and control the Smartphone industry accordingly. The management of
Apple has already thought about introduction of some substitute smart phones in the market with
a lower price tag to ensure the creation of a new Smartphone market and enjoy maximum
profitability.
Recommendation of a Solution to implement Change Successfully
The different departments of Apple share similar perceptions and commitments towards
the organizational performance, thereby getting involved in the operations. The managers in the
company use participative leadership style and encourage the subordinates to participate in
decision making. This creates an environment where the employees of all designations
participate in the operations of Apple with equal commitment. The managers are as a result
enable to manage the triggers to organizational changes. They mentor and train the employees
who resent the change in order to enforce commitment towards the organizational change.
The management of Apple, using the Burke-Lewin model take steps to make the
changes effective. The departmental heads of Apple and all the regional heads form strategies to
effectively manage the changes. The change management strategies involve training of all
employees to adapt to the changes. This ensures that the employees of the company remain at par
with the market requirements in terms of skills and competencies, thus making Apple one of the
most innovative companies all over the world. The change in communication nstyle and

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implementation of a participative leadership form will be essential for the business to move
forward and make it sustainable. Some of the recommendations in the following case are as
follows;
1. The company must target the middle class with some new and innovative products to
effectively compete with the likes of Samsung and other competitions in the market
2. It is important for the company to engage the workers in major decisions as it can be
helpful to gain success
3. It is also important for the business to expand to new countries and have a local domestic
structure in those countries
4. Bring about effective as well as collective change

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