Marks and Spencer: Leading Change in an Organisational Context

This report examines organisational change within the context of Marks and Spencer, comparing it with other companies like ASDA and Bentley Motors Ltd. It analyzes the impact of change on business strategy and operations, focusing on structural and strategic adjustments. The report evaluates both internal and external drivers of change, such as financial management, resources, organisational culture, employee morale, political factors, and economic conditions, and assesses their effects on leadership, teams, and individual employees. It further explores measures to minimize the negative impacts of change, identifies barriers to change and their influence on leadership decision-making, and applies different leadership approaches to address change in various organisational settings. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and recommendations for effective change management.

Understanding
and
Leading Change

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
P1 Comparison of different organisational examples there may be an impact of change on an
enterprise's strategy and operation...............................................................................................3
P2 Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of the change affect leadership,
team, individual in any company.................................................................................................6
P3 Evaluate the measures that can be taken by the organisation to minimise the impact of
change..........................................................................................................................................9
P4 : There are various barriers for change and their influence on leadership decision making 11
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organisational
context........................................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Organisational change refers to the changes which occurs in total work environment. This
is an important factor for any company. The organisation have to develop the adaptability to
change their structure or make decisions on the basis of the changes occurring in external
environment. The organisation have to be dynamic, versatile and adaptive as there are multiple
changes occurring in the external environment. The change in organisation makes a company to
change in their structure and in the job role of the people. The changes can be happen in
technology, structure and people and other elements that can be changed. The organisation
chosen for this report is Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer is a multinational retailer and its
headquarter established in Westminster and they sell high quality products, home products and
food products. This company was founded in 1884 and it was established by Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer. The report will cover comparison of different organisations and at which area
the changes has impacted the strategy and operations of the company and assessing the different
drivers which causes change. The evaluation of ways in which internal and external drivers
affect leadership and evaluation of the measures which is used to remove the negative impact of
the change. There are different barriers for change and applying various leadership approaches.
MAIN BODY
P1 Comparison of different organisational examples there may be an impact of change on an
enterprise's strategy and operation
Organization is the collection of number of employees who make efforts to increase
production and raise profits. All company consider different types of business activities which
helps to make profits and maintain a good business. All business needs to bring changes in their
organisation so that it can influences customers in order to make profits. Such as Mark and
Spencer is a multinational company that deals in different types of products and services which
influences customers. The management of such enterprise run its operations and provide better
quality of products to its customers. By providing better quality of products it is gaining
competitive advantages and also sustain long term development. There are various changes
which is adopted by organisation for the purpose of improving products and attracting customers.
Therefore, it is important for business industry is to make strategy and focus on

operations of business organization. Mark and Spencer build business strategy and maintain
productivity in their business. Strategy is a tool which is used by management for the purpose of
running a business after accepting challenges and make efforts to complete objectives. A good
business concern does not keep same technology and strategy to run their business but also it
innovates new ideas by using new technology for accepting the technological changes that helps
to sustain in competitive environment.
In context to Mark and Spencer company that is a customer centric industry give
preference to its customer and their needs and manufacture that kind of products in order to
attract customers. The marketing manager of Mark and Spencer analysis the market and get
information about new trend which influences people and then provide that products in order to
make profits. The changes impacts on business strategy and operation such as it introduce from
new products and services. For example, Bentley motors Ltd that is a engineering company deals
in different products. The management of such company build new strategy such as bring new
technology that will helps to reduce waste and increase production of motors. This company
bring changes time to time which influences customers and increase their interest for the purpose
of purchasing new products. Therefore, adoption of such strategy by management of Bentley
motors Ltd impacts positively as they influence customers and sale their products at large
number. Strategy helps to run a business continuously and to focus on operations.
Moreover, ASDA is a retailer company that sales its products by making strategy. It build
new strategy every year and set goals for selling number of products and raise profits. If it
changes its existing strategy to sale its more products like it has started to give offers, discounted
price and more which helps to perform operations in effective manner. Hence, organization
should adopt new strategy that can help to increase production and profit margin. The
comparison of changes are shown as below:
Basis Mark and Spencer ASDA
Structural changes Mark and Spencer adopts
Horizontal structure in which
management share information is a
horizontal way that means no all
employees are consider to provide
information and make correct
ASDA is super retailer market that is
following hierarchy structure in
which some people who has power
only they can make business decision
for the better performance of
company. The structure is helpful to

business decision. Thus this
structure has adopted by
organisation to share information
and increase performance of
company.
maintain better communication and
coordination among employer and
employees in some cases. The
management of such company build
strategy and make business decision
for reducing overburden of company
and increase profits.
Strategy As Mark and Spencer accepted
horizontal structure in which they
cannot communicate with all
employees that creates problems
among them, as result low
production. Due to this, expert
manager of Mark and Spencer
company make changes their
strategy according to situation that
helps to get permission of all
employees for making business
decision. Moreover, by changing in
strategy it has started to follow
network structure that helps to
share information between all
members and perform business
operation smoothly.
ASDA adopted hierarchical structure
in which employer and employee
make business decision with the
concern of all and focuses on goals
and objectives of business industry.
The management of such industry
make changes in their strategy and
build new strategy that helps to
increase number of customers as well
profits for company. By changing
strategy it impacts on business's
operation such as maximize in
production and profitability.
M1 : Drivers for change in each of the given examples and the types of organisational change.
Organisation focuses on change drivers that helps to make correct business decision by
applying changes. Different drivers such as political, economical, social and technological
factors affect business entity. For example, Mark and Spencer has decided to bring changes that
will helps to reduce wastage and increase production by adopting new technology. For accepting

changes management of such company analysis market and update their knowledge for the
purpose of accepting challenges and maximize production.
P2 Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of the change affect leadership,
team, individual in any company.
There are various factors which causes the change in the company which affect
leadership, team and each employee of the company as people are change resistant and they want
to perform their duties very smoothly. There are various driveremployee morale which affect
their operations as if there is a slight change in the external and internal condition, people get
scared and they start feeling insecure which is not a right sign for the company as it decrease the
efficiency of those employees. The company is require to make decisions about these factors
affecting the operations so the company can prevent themselves from decreasing their
productivity. The company is required to tackle the internal and external factor in a manner so
this not affect organisation in a negative manner. The marks and Spencer is considering the
internal and external factors which impacts their operations of the company so that they can
remove the negative effects of it from the company. The explanation of the internal factors and
external factors are described below-
Internal factors
 Financial management- The management of finance is a necessity for the company to
accept the changes and any change in the financial factor of the company will affect the
operation of the whole company. The change in cash flow and decrease the financial
position of the company will impact the operations of Leader, team and individual. The
team gets affected because the finance budget is an essential factor for them to perform
their activities and the individual has their goals to achieve their objective and
organisation objective and this gets affected through in exchange of the budget prepared
by the finance department. They will start feeling dissatisfied as it will affect the
strategies of team, leader and individual.
 Resources – Resources are very essential part for the organisational day to day activities.
The behaviour of team, individual and leadership is affected by various available
resources. If there is proper avail;ability of resources then individual person, team and
leader of the organisation perform their task and duties more effectively or efficiently.
Mark and Spencer provide appropriate resources to its company so this will leads proper

and smooth working by individual person, team, and leader. As resources are very
important part of every enterprise without these resource it is not possible for the leader
to perform their task and also not able to use their leadership skills in effective manner
like encouraging and motivating them.
 Organisational culture – organisation behaviour consider scrutiny of the behaviour,
values and attitude of the individual as well as group in the organisation. Organisation
culture plays an essential role because it is based on individual shared beliefs,customs,
and attitude. So mark and Spencer focuses on the overall organisational culture like
involvement of staff towards decision making, communication skills etc. which affect the
working and performance of the team, individual person and leaders. Proper culture of
organisation positively affects the performance and productivity of the organisation
where as inappropriate culture will negatively affect the performance of the organisation.
 Employee morale – It refers to the job satisfaction and feeling of commitment derived
from the particular job. It is very essential part which encourage the employees to
perform particular job and task. Employees morale and satisfaction level direct affects
their performance in the organisation because employees can execute their task
effectively if they feel committed and attached with the work. So leader of Mark and
Spencer develop various programs to increase confidence level of team members and
individual working in the organisation.
External drivers
 Political – There are various political factors which directly and indirectly affect the
performance of individual, team and leader of the organisation. These political factors
includes political stability, policies of government, various tax policies and so on. Mark
and Spencer needs to follow all the policies and rules which are made by government
otherwise company is liable to pay huge fines and taxes. So such kind of political factors
also affect the overall performance of individual and team indirectly and leader of the
organisation not able to appropriate skills for the organisational growth because they feel
unconnected and demotivated at the time of performing various task and activities of the
company.
 Economical – whole performance of the organisation is depends on the economical
position of the country such as behaviour of the customers, currency fluctuation rate,

inflation rate, rate of interest etc. organisational performance is directly affected by the
purchasing power of the individual customers like if purchasing power is low or reducing
then team and individual feel demotivated towards there task such as declining sales of
the company and vice versa. These factors also affect the leadership as any instruction of
the employer is not fulfilled by worker of the organisation. Mark and Spencer focuses on
all the economic factors of the present environment to ensure appropriate functioning of
individual, team and leader of the organisation.
 New competitors - Rapidly increasing competition in the market also increasing various
problems for the existing companies because all new companies in the market are come
up with innovative and new techniques by which they fulfil needs and demands of the
customer at least price. So, mark and Spencer focuses on the rapidly changing needs of
the customer by proper market research. Leader of the organisation also encourage the
team members and individuals towards the use of innovate techniques in the organisation.
 Customer satisfaction – Customer satisfaction refers the level of satisfaction that is
derived from the consumption of particular commodity. Customers are the heart of every
business enterprise because without customers there is no business. So mark and Spencer
focuses on providing maximum level of satisfaction to the customers by developing new
and innovative products according to their needs and demand. Individual, team members
and leader of the organisation feel motivated by providing satisfaction to the customers
according to their expectations and also build effective relationship among employer and
employee within the business organisation.
M2 : Theories and models to evaluate organisational response to change.
system theory is used to understand the effectiveness of the change in the workplace. It is a
secondary approach which analyse and examine the enterprise. Mark and Spencer reduces the
negative impacts of change by the help of this theory. It is also very helpful to solve various day
to day operational problems. As per this theory Mark and Spencer needs to follow all the policies
and rules that are defined by the government while implementing change in the organisation.
This theory figure out many issues and grievance procedures at workplace. This theory also
improve the overall productivity of the Mark and Spencer. But there are few negative features
are there like it only focuses on the rigid and stable system of the enterprise. It has ignored many
features which are not steady.

P3 Evaluate the measures that can be taken by the organisation to minimise the impact of
change.
The organisation have to manage the changes if they want to survive in a long run. The
change management] is a approach and a tool which is used to deal with the changes. This
process involve adopting and making changes in the strategies of the organisation such as
change in organisation structure, procedures and technologies. This process handle the changes
of external conditions by creating strategies through understanding the causes of change. This
allows to develop and implement new products or services in the market. This is not easy to
implement change as people resist the changes and there are several barrier as change in
structure causes confusion and take more time to adopt the new organisation structure. This is
important for the Marks and Spencer to identify the areas where changes are taking place and
the company has to respond in the specified otherwise company will not be able to cope up with
the market. The experts of the company has to develop the various approaches to remove the
barriers which do not allow to adopt the change smoothly. There are various steps that company
can take to overcome the barrier to change which are as follows-
 Structure the aim to maximise its potential- The roles and responsibilities are required to
be allocated in a manner as it utilizes the full potential of the employees. The roles of
their job should be enhancing their personal development. It is required to make them
ready so that employee can work with the team so that the changes can be adopted by
them effectively. The Marks and Spencer have to communicate the changes which are
taken by the company and provide their role according to the capability of each
employee. The company has to mark the ability of their employees and creating the
strategies and considering the process which will remove the weakness of the employees
and increase value of their strengths. This will make them to accept changes which will
result in removal of barrier and the personal collaboration will allow the company to
coordinate their work with the team and it will result beneficial for the company.
 Set challenging, achievable and engaging targets- This is necessary for the company to
communicate about the goals and targets to employee. Company can break their project
into smaller parts and when the goal of that smaller part is achieved company can
celebrate that. The goals of the company should be according to the values, beliefs,
norms so that this will do not result in conduction of any illegal activity. The Marks and

Spencer have to create smaller parts of works so that it allows employees to accept the
change and this will motivate the team to work with their full potential as it is important
for the company to consider their individual progress and seeking ways to create goals
which will increase the ability of employee and implement the change.
 Providing guidance- The management of change is never easy as it includes more
complexity. It is the duty of the human specialist to manage the change as they are
required to provide guidance regarding the change occurred in the company so they can
receive the change positively as when they are aware about how to perform the task they
will get motivated which will allow them to work effectively and helps in achieving the
target of the company.
 Resolve conflicts – The Marks and Spencer is require to provide their attention on the
conflicts which are occurring in the company. The strategies to remove the conflicts is
required to be necessary for the growth and survival of the company. The changing
period is tough for the company as this causes resistance to change. The conflicts if
handles effectively it will motivate the employees of the company and they will work for
the company which is necessary to make them adopting the change. This will bring
feeling of value and trust which will be highlighted. The conflict can be resolved through
conducting team meeting to know the views of the employees which help in removing
their personal anxieties and help them in facing challenges for the company. When the
problems of the employees are solved and it will help the people in understanding the
reason of conflicts which is beneficial for the future as well. The Marks and Spencer will
work towards this issues so that they can make their employees in order to resits the
change which will allow company to achieve their targemployee moraleets and
objectives. employee morale
 Remain positive and support- The company is require to remain positive and supportive
which will be utilising the change and it provides positivity among employees and it
encourages the employees to perform better. The manager should fulfil the expectations
of their employees by maintaining decorum in the company. Employees will accept the
changes if they are getting positive working environment as they will not feel scared
about the cutting out from the company ad leaders are require ton inspire their team and it
helps in developing high performance of employees. The employees have some creative

ideas in their head which are related to the change and if they any fear about not valuing
their creativity will make them resist from change so the manager is required to ensure
the creativity and innovativity. This also allow to held employees for their accountability
as if there is any mis conduct is happened. They encourage their employees to discover
solutions for the company and the company is required to make them handling their
failures. This will increase their power of creativity which will increase the strength of
the company as the employees are taking part in the decisions of the company.
P4 : There are various barriers for change and their influence on leadership decision making
There are different barriers which directly effects decision making of leaders. These barriers are
the obstacles for implementing change. There are various barriers in context to Mark and
Spencer are as follows :-
Poor employees participation :- It is not possible for the organisation to adapt change
effectively without the involvement and participation of employees. So employees participation
and involvement is very necessary to implementing change in positive manner. If proper
participation of employees is not there then this will increase the employees turnover ratio which
is great loss for the organisation. So it is a responsibility of the managers of Mark and Spencer to
communicate all the necessary information of change management to the employees present at
workplace to increase their level of participation. Also, treat every employees of the organisation
as a valuable asset so this is the only way by which managers and other professionals effectively
implement the change in organisation.
Rules and regulations of government :- There are various rules and regulation are made
by government of UK and every company needs to follow all such rules if any one is not doing
so then that company is liable for huge fines and taxes. So government also considered as a
barrier for the the organisation to adopt changes. These kind of barriers will decrease the profit
level and employees potential. So, Mark and Spencer must follow all the rules and regulations
that are set by the government to avoid fines as well as to protect the company from huge losses.
These rules and policies are also very beneficial for the company to capture wide marketplace.
Because of such barrier, decision and policies of enterprise will get influenced in a appreciable
way.

Lack of proper communication strategy :- It is necessary to have effective and proper
communication within the working environment of the organisation. Mostly all the top leaders
think that it is very important to communicate particular change before the implementation of
change so that people which are working in organisation will get adjust and ready for the
particular change. Employees also need to know about the type of change and how they will
adapt are particular change in the organisation. So Mark and Spencer managers must
communicate all the necessary information like type of change, how employees will adapt the
change, how much it affect and so on to the employees of organisation so that they will get
ready.
Cultural barriers :- If any particular company is spread at geographical level or world
wide level then these type of cultural barrier emerged because if particular changes are
implemented in the organisation then some region population are in favour or some of are in
against for such changes. So Mark and Spencer must analyse the whole market by proper market
research of every region after analysing whole region market company needs to implement the
changes. Market research is done by professionals and other researcher. It is necessary to analyse
whole market before implementing any changes otherwise it will become barrier for the
organisation.
M3 : Force field analysis to analyse the driving and resisting forces and decision-making.
Forcefield analysis :- As per this model people faces many problems and issues which
implementing any type of change. Some of the people thinks that implementing any type of
organisational change is just wastage of time and efforts. By the help of this model Mark and
Spencer adapt the changes in more effective and proper way. Through this mangers also identify
the personal and professional benefits of implementing change. Two forces are there restraining
and driving. Restraining forces are the large barrier for the Mark & Spencer because it effects the
company negatively. Whereas, driving forces are very beneficial for the organisation which is
very helpful in adopting change in a effective manner and it is also very essential to achieve
organisational goal in a effective manner .