Assessment of Change Management in Woolworths - Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of change management within Woolworths, a prominent Australian supermarket chain. It begins with an introduction to change management principles, emphasizing its importance in adapting to evolving business environments. The report identifies and discusses two key theoretical perspectives: ontology, focusing on knowledge sharing, and epistemology, emphasizing knowledge, rationality, and justification. The study then provides an overview of Woolworths, detailing its operations, mission, vision, and organizational structure, along with key challenges such as adapting to technological advancements and intense market competition. A significant change within Woolworths, the reshuffling of the management team, is examined in detail, analyzing its impact on employee performance and engagement. The report then explores the relationship between Woolworths' change management practices and the ontological and epistemological theories, highlighting how the reshuffling of management aligns with knowledge sharing and the implementation of new practices. A SWOT analysis of Woolworths is presented, identifying the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, followed by a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of using SWOT analysis in a business context. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of effective change management in achieving organizational goals and maintaining a competitive edge.

Running head: MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Management of Change
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Question 1........................................................................................................................................3
Question 2........................................................................................................................................5
A) Brief introduction of the organization........................................................................................5
B) Identification and description of the change that occurred in Woolworths................................6
c) Relationship between the change management of Woolworths and ontological and
epistemological change management theories.................................................................................7
Question 3........................................................................................................................................8
a) SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................8
B) Benefits and drawbacks of SWOT analysis in context of business............................................9
Question 4......................................................................................................................................10
Question 5......................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
Change management is the process of to make the individuals flexible with the changing
environment in an organization. However, in a change management process different practices
are included that redefine and redirect the budget allocation use of resources and mode of
operation as these are necessary to manage the changes in an organization. However, in Australia
change management is considered as the formal vocation in the workplace in order to develop
the national competency standard (Albrechts, 2017). For any organization, it is crucial to
managing the new changes in their system as changes are crucial to meet the organizational goal.
This assignment deals with the change management in the context of Woolworths, which is a
popular supermarket in Australia. The analysis of the change management in this organization
will be undertaken based on the ontology and epistemology. However, such two theoretical
perspectives are beneficial to understand the change management process in an organization.
Question 1
Identification of the two different theoretical perspectives
Ontology and the epistemology are two well known theoretical perspectives that are
applied in the managing organizational change. Ontologies are associated with the knowledge
sharing methods. Models based on the ontology bring changes in a traditional system. However,
ontology makes the change in the business requirements. The ontology includes four phases that
reveal the change management system and identifies the higher level of the ontology pattern.
Change operationalization is the first phase of the ontology (Allen, Jimmieson, & Irmer, 2007).
This phase focuses on the domain specificity that is associated with the change operators.

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However, the real changes in a particular domain can be undertaken by this layer of change. The
first two layer of the operator framework is associated with the generic changes that can be
applied in any domain. Moreover, changes in a particular domain are identified by this phase.
Phase two focuses on the change representation in an organization. However, layered
change logs support the implementation of the operator framework (Alvesson & Sköldberg,
2009). The higher level of ontology changes highlights on the change pattern within an
organization.
Phase three reveals that the atomic change operation is associated with the addition or the
deletion of any particular knowledge associated with the change management (Sveningsson,
2015). Therefore, stage four focuses on the discovery of the change management in particular
domain in an organization. However, this highlights on the reusable change process that can be
incorporated into the existing system of the knowledge management.
Epistemology is another theoretical perspective associated with the change management.
This theory focuses on the nature of the knowledge, rationality of the thinking and justification.
Epistemology also includes areas like philosophical analysis, scope, and source of the
knowledge, identification of the problem and justification of knowledge (Anderson, 2015).
According to the ontology perspective organizational change can be defined as the
alteration of the existing knowledge to meet the organizational objectives. However, ontology is
associated with knowledge sharing. Hence, in order to bring the changes in an organization, it is
important to improve the existing knowledge that can be done by sharing the knowledge
(Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). On the other hand, according to epistemology organizational
change can be defined as the new opportunities to implement new practices in an organizational

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system by identifying the issues. However, epistemology is associated with scope, problem
identification, and justification.
Organizational change is based on the ontology and the epistemology has a relationship
as both theoretical perspectives focus on the sharing, scope, and source of the knowledge
(Ashforth, Harrison, & Corley, 2008). In order to bring changes in an organization improvement
of the knowledge is crucial. In the context of an organization, employees need to accumulate
more knowledge and to improve their existing knowledge to implement any changes in an
organization. However, incorporation of any changes in an organization without proper
knowledge affects the performance of the business. Hence, both ontology and epistemology are
linked with the framework of the change management. Ontology reveals the knowledge sharing
for change management while epistemology reveals identification of problem and scopes to
mitigate such problem. Hence, a close link can be found between two definitions as to implement
new changes by detecting the organizational issues knowledge sharing is crucial (Balmer, 2008).
Question 2
A) Brief introduction of the organization
Woolworths is a well known Australian supermarket and specialized for selling groceries
all over the Australia. Apart from the groceries, this organization sells stationery items,
magazines and DVDs also. At present Woolworths operates around 1000 stores in Australia and
968 supermarkets. This organization established in 1924 in Australia. They sell the variety of
consumer goods including vegetables, meat, packaged food and fruits as the grocery items. The
mission of Woolworths is to provide value to their customers and security to their employees by

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providing them financial service. Their vision is to provide excellent service to their customers
with low price. Woolworths follows matrix structure in their organization. Their main strategy is
to reduce the operation cost and to provide high-quality product at low price. One of the major
issues of Woolworths is to maintain the speed of utilizing the technological advancement with
other competitors. In the recent years, a large number of retailers are operating in the same
market segment in Australia that may bring a major challenge for Woolworths to gain
competitive advantages in the global market. Apart from this the low pricing strategy of
Woolworths will be beneficial for them to get the valuable position in the market (Woolworths,
2017).
B) Identification and description of the change that occurred in Woolworths
Several changes have taken place in Woolworths since last few years one of the most
important changes is the reshuffling of the management team in Woolworths. In order to
measure the performance of the employees and to introduce the new strategy for the
development of low price, Woolworths has reshuffled its management team. Woolworths is
associated with the home improvement besides selling the food products. This change has been
done to analyze the effectiveness of the implemented strategies in achieving the organizational
goal. This change is applied in the home improvement segment of Woolworths. The reshuffling
of the management team for the performance measurement of a specific domain involves in
generating detailed information of such specific unit (Burke, 2017).
Performance measurement is crucial for every organization as based on which an
organization is able to gain the success (Bauman, 1988). Performance of such domain has been
measured based on their income. Performance measurement of such group not only includes a

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review report but also financial cost, revenue, and expenses of such group that is calculated in
this process. The CEO, human resource director, and the hierarchy are involved in this change
management process. However, reshuffling of the management team causes the employee
engagement those are associated with the administration. Therefore, it also creates a difficult
situation for some team members in the management of home improvement group as it leads
them to become worried about their work. However, the team members are habituated with their
particular team work. Hence, reshuffling of the team creates an uncomfortable and challenging
working environment for them as the employees have to work with the new team.
c) Relationship between the change management of Woolworths and ontological and
epistemological change management theories
According to the ontology, the change in an organization is the improvement of the
existing knowledge (Beech, MacIntosh, Krust, Kannan, & Dadich, 2017). In the context of
Woolworths, they have reshuffled their management team for the home improvement domain
that focuses on the enhancement of the existing knowledge of the employees. However,
reshuffling of the management team leads the employees to work with new people in a new
environment. That allows the employees to share their knowledge with other team members and
to learn new things from their team members (Berger & Luckmann, 1991). On the other hand, as
per the epistemology change brings new opportunity to establish the new practice in the
organizational system. However, reshuffling of the team in Woolworths is a new practice that
will enhance collaboration between the employees and bring new opportunity to improve their
learning skill to maximize their performance.

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Question 3
a) SWOT analysis
S-Strength
 Market leader in the Australian retail
industry
 Having strong resources
 Low price with high-quality product
 Effective operational approaches
W-Weakness
 Adoption of later online marketing
 Growth strategy is affected by the
external environment
 Low price leads to face huge
competition
T-Threat
 High price of the raw materials affects
the profit margin
 Economic recession resists the growth
strategy by opening more store
O-Opportunity
 Brand promotion through advertising
 Expand the growth through franchise
models
Table 1: SWOT analysis of Woolworths
Source: (Woolworths, 2017)
Analysis
According to the above SWOT analysis of Woolworths, it has been found that
Woolworths is one of the leading brands in the Australian retail sectors and has strong resources

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that lead the organization to show effective operation management. However, one of the most
important weaknesses is poor growth strategy and huge competition in the market. Therefore,
rising price of the raw materials and economic recession affects the business profitability in
context on Woolworths. Hence, it has been addressed that to reduce the high competition in the
market Woolworths needs to increase the performance of their team members. For this reason,
the reshuffling of the management team has been done by this organization. Team reshuffling
leads the employees to learn more and to take challenges. In order to minimize the huge
competition employee development is crucial for any organization (Boje, 2012). For this reason,
team reshuffling is a good idea of Woolworth. However, there is the opportunity for the brand
promotion for Woolworths based on their strengths that also can be achieved through the team
shuffling of management.
Based on the SWOT analysis of the Woolworths, their current market position is good in
Australian retail industry as they are the present market leader in the retail markets. However, an
emerging competition is noticed for the Woolworths that highlights on the present threat for such
organization. Hence, implementation of the team reshuffling is a big initiative for the
Woolworths to maximize the performance of their employees in their organization that will
enhance their profitability as well as their competitive advantages (Anderson, 2015).
B) Benefits and drawbacks of SWOT analysis in context of business
Business SWOT analysis is used by the organization to understand the strength and
weakness of an organization (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). However, the strength of an
organization enables them to accomplish their objectives while weakness affects the efficiency of
the organization. In the context of Woolworths through the business SWOT analysis, this

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organization is able to carry out to give shape their strategic planning for the implementation of
the new change in an organization. On the other hand, for the introduction of the new approach
in a business SWOT analysis is vital for the business organization (Allen et al., 2007). However,
the current need of the reshuffling of the management team is understood by the SWOT analysis.
SWOT analysis reveals the current strength of the Woolworths that ensures the success of the
team reshuffling while the weakness and threat of the Woolworths are also determined by the
SWOT analysis.
According to the business SWOT of Woolworth's huge competition is the major
weakness of such organization in the recent years. In order to cope up with such challenge, they
need to increase their team performance, which can be done through team reshuffling. SWOT
analysis is a cost effective manner that can be done without any special training and
technological skill (Brown, 2017). This analysis reveals the current position of Woolworths and
the need of implementing new changes in this organization.
SWOT analysis has some disadvantages besides its advantages. However, the SWOT
analysis reveals the issues only based on the weakness while there is no account of alternative
ways to minimize the issues (Malgas & Benedict, 2017). However, in the context of Woolworths
their weakness is defined in the SWOT analysis that shows the huge competition and poor
growth strategies. However, the solution is not mentioned to come over such weakness.
Therefore, the SWOT analysis gives a lot of information regarding the organization while all
information is not vital to identify the current position of the organization.
Question 4
Role of the change agents

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Several factors are associated with the change management in an organization one of the
most important is globalization (McCalman, Paton, & Siebert, 2016). However, due to
globalization, the leadership challenges occur in an organization that leads the organization to
manage the changes. In the context of Woolworths, they have implemented the reshuffling of the
management team in order to enhance the team performance. In order to cope up with the
leadership challenge, the team reshuffling is crucial for the Woolworths to bring improvement in
the performance of such organization. On the other hand, workforce diversity is another agent of
change management. Workforce diversity refers to a variety of people based on the religion, age,
cognitive style, culture and education (Morin, et al., 2016). However, it is important for any
organization to bring cultural diversity in the workplace to enhance the collaborative work in an
organization.
Team reshuffling is a vital approach to maintain the workforce diversity in Woolworths.
The reshuffling of the management team leads the employees to interact with the people belong
from different cultures, which enable an organization to share information and improve the
performance level of the organization (Rosenbaum, More, & Steane, 2017). Organizational
structure is another change agent that invites the implementation of the changes in an
organization. Woolworths made the changes for their home improvement domain thus they have
reshuffled the management team. Such particular domain is associated with the organizational
structure of Woolworths. Hence, to improve the organizational structure for their home
improvement team reshuffling the team members can give significant outcomes for Woolworths.
Financial performance is another vital agent that facilitates changes in an organization.
However, to enhance the financial performance some specific changes have been done by the
organization (Volberda, Mihalache, Fey, & Lewin, 2017). Employee performance is related to

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the financial performance. Thus Woolworths has reshuffled their management team to bring
opportunity for their home improvement domain. Team reshuffling leads the team members of a
particular team to work with another team. This allows the employees to learn a lot of
information from their colleagues and to develop the innovative idea that will enhance their
performance level as well as the profitability of the organization.
Performance measurement is a big change management agent that brings changes in an
organization (Balmer, 2008). It has been addressed previously that in order to measure the
performance Woolworths has reshuffled their management team. Team reshuffling changes the
working procedures of the employees and they have to work in a new environment with the new
team. This is a good process to measure the performance of the employees as through this
process the organization will analyze the skill of the employees. Hence, this change agent
enables the Woolworths to understand the level of skill of the management team in the home
improvement domain. Accountability of the leader can be addressed through the change
management (Berger & Luckmann, 1991).
Team reshuffling in Woolworths also enables this organization to measure the
accountability of the employees. However, it is a big challenge for the leader to lead the new
people in the team as this situation occurs through the team reshuffling. Hence, if the leader is
able to cooperate with the new people and to improve the team performance this will ensure the
accountability of the leader. Thus the implementing new changes in an organization reveal the
performance and the accountability of the leader of a team. Hence these above agents are
associated with incorporation of the new changes in an organization and role of such agents are
addressed in the context of Woolworths to manage the reshuffling of management teams within
this organization (Roth & DiBella, 2016).

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Question 5
Critical discussion of problem centric and dialog approaches of change management
Problem centric approaches focus on the learning environment to improve the
knowledge and to solve the organizational problem (Seipel, Weth, Abreu, Nogatz, & Werner,
2016). However, the problem centered approaches act as the vehicle in order to meet the
organizational objectives and goals. One of the most important stages of problem centric
approach is to engage the individuals in their work and to improve their performance level.
Problem centric approach insists the employees give more efforts to implement changes in an
organization. However, problem centric approach allows the people to get experience by facing
any problem. One of the important characters of the problem centric approach is it allows the
individuals to be capable to direct themselves and also guide themselves to resolve any problem.
Hence, the employees are able to guide themselves through the problem centric approach in
change management. On the other hand, identification of the civic responsibility of the
employees regarding their work is another part of the problem centric approach.
Direct participation in various activities is a good example of the problem centric
approach. In the context of Woolworth's change can be implemented in this organization by
adopting the problem centric approaches. Such curriculum enables the employees to recognize
the exact problem and to develop the possible solution to minimize such problem. Therefore, the
individuals are considered as the problem solver in this phase of the change management (Roth
& DiBella, 2016). Problem-based learning is the main stage of the problem centered approach
that is significant for the employees to gather knowledge from solving any problem.

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One of the major mistakes that occur during the change management is the failure of the
proper communication. However, often the leader fails to develop cooperation and to bring
positive effect on the change management through the dialog. Expansion of the involvement and
influence are the core areas of the change management. According to the core belief of the dialog
approach, it is important for the organization to initiate and sustain the changes in an
organization by involving people in an organization (Balmer, 2008). This strategy enables an
organization to maximize the cooperation between the employees. However, the dialog is a vital
element of the change process as though this approach the leader gets the scope to share and
communicate with the vision of change management. Therefore, the employees also show their
concern and ideas regarding the implemented changes in an organization.
Ontology theory has four stages among these stages phase two that refer the change
representation is associated with both dialog and problem centric approaches. However, change
representation is a process that enables the organization to communicate with the implemented
changes (Berger & Luckmann, 1991). In the context of the dialog, approach leader needs to give
proper dialog to their employees regarding the new changes in an organization. Hence, this
focuses on the representation of the change management as communication with the
implemented changes is categorized under the representation of the change management.
Through the specific dialog, the leader in an organization gives the idea to the employees on how
the change can be implemented. Moreover, it can be said that dialog approach is a practice to
represent the change elements in an organization. On the other hand, problem centric approach
highlights on the problem-based learning. Hence, employees in an organization can represent
their skill and knowledge to bring changes in an organization that they have achieved from
resolving any problem. However, employees obtain knowledge from facing problems. In order to

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implement new changes in an organizational system, the employees shared their experience and
knowledge with other. This makes them cooperative and to represent the way to manage changes
in an organization. Hence, it is justified that representation of the new changes can be done by
using problem centric and dialog based approaches (Volberda, Mihalache, Fey, & Lewin, 2017).
Benefits and drawbacks of the problem centric and dialog based approaches
Long term retention of the knowledge is one of the advantages of the problem centric
approach. However, problem-based learning enables the employees to improve their capabilities
in solving issues (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Therefore, continuous engagement is another
benefit of the problem centric approach as it increases employee engagement in the change
management process. This approach also improves the interpersonal skill and the teamwork. One
of the major drawbacks of problem centric approach focuses that it is very time-consuming.
However, this approach takes more time to make the communication in a team and to complete
the task that hampers the efficiency of the team. On the other hand, employees can be benefited
from the dialog based approach as the leader is able to share detailed information regarding the
change management and the employees are able to get a clear idea about the new changes. The
drawback of dialog approach is it often causes isolation as the employees prefer to learn based on
their own capabilities rather than taking instruction from the leader.
In the context of Woolworths, they have implemented reshuffling of the management
team in their organization as a change to measure the performance of the employees. For this
change management problem, the centric approach will be beneficial. This approach will
enhance the skill and knowledge of the team members and they get experience from different
challenges. Application of such approach will improve the employee engagement and the team

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performance as the reshuffling of the team leads the team members to work in a new
environment and with new peoples. For this reason, they understand the needs of sharing
information and knowledge through collaborative work to cope up with such new changes
(Albrechts, 2017).
Conclusion
The above piece of work reveals different elements of the ontology theory and
epistemology to understand the change management in an organization. However, ontology
theory includes four perspectives to evaluate the change management process. Woolworths has
reshuffled their management teams to identify the performance level of the employees.
Therefore, problem centric approach is beneficial for Woolworths to give shape their
implemented change by improving the knowledge of the team members.

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Woolworths. (2017, September 9). Retrieved from Woolworths.com.au:
https://www.woolworths.com.au