Analyzing Change Management and Leadership at Morrisons UK

This report examines the corporate strategies and management practices at Morrisons Supermarket in response to the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) environment. It discusses how VUCA factors influence business approaches to planned and unplanned change, using the example of Morrisons' adjustments to its supply and delivery services, including ceasing home delivery operations in some stores and launching Morrison.com. The report applies Kotter's eight-step change model to analyze these changes, highlighting the importance of creating urgency, forming a powerful coalition, creating a vision, removing obstacles, and anchoring changes in corporate culture. Furthermore, it explores how business policies and practices evolve to support employees and minimize resistance to change, emphasizing communication, employee participation, and effective team structures. The report concludes with recommendations to support the business in managing change effectively, ensuring sustainable competitive advantages.

Leading and Managing
Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Corporate strategies and management practices have been affected by the current VUCA
environment, and how this has influenced business approaches to planned and unplanned
change.........................................................................................................................................3
Gives an example of a recent or current change (planned or unplanned) which is supported by
relevant change management theory...........................................................................................5
Examines ways that business policies and practices have had to evolve to support employees
and minimise resistance to change..............................................................................................7
Makes recommendations to support the business.......................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In business various changes are occur in organisation that help to improve business
structure, efficiency and effectiveness of business to sustain in competitive business environment
for long period of time. Now these days business understand wider context of change and adopt
them to meet new needs, demands and expectations. Organisation should communicate these
changes to staff members that enable to adopt these changes and perform accordingly (Buttrick,
2018). Leading as well as managing changes are essential for organisation to develop
experiences for people that reveal new possibilities and uniting them to drive strategies properly.
It is important for business to optimising the culture of organisation and making investment that
drive business towards growth and development.
In this report chosen organisation is Morrison which is fourth largest supermarket chain
in United kingdom. It is established in the year of 1899 by William Morrison. Organisation deals
in range of products such as food and drinks, clothing, magazines and home ware, petrol and
books. Headquarter of organisation is situated in Bradford, UK. This report covers corporate
strategies and management practices that have been affected by the VUCA environment. Recent
changes with change management theory is mentioned. Furthermore, business policies, practices
that minimise the resistance of employees and recommendations regarding changes are discussed
in this project report.
TASK
Corporate strategies and management practices have been affected by the current VUCA
environment, and how this has influenced business approaches to planned and unplanned
change
VUCA environment: VUCA stands for Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
It is the combination of various qualities that implemented together in organisation with the
objective of dealing some difficult conditions and situation in efficient manner. These factors
affect business corporate strategies and management practices (Dastagir, 2019). Managers of
Morrison analyse these factors and their impacts on business than take suitable decisions to gain
competitive advantages than other competitors.
Corporate strategy: Corporate strategy is defined as the unique and effective framework that is
developed by organisation for long period of time and provides competitive advantages to

organisation than other participants through fulfilling stakeholders and customers promises.
There are various Corporate strategies that are adopted by Morrison are mentioned below:
Growth strategy: Main objective of adopting growth strategy is to attain considerable
business growth in terms of enhancing revenue, market share as well as penetration. Morrison
concentrates on core operations and assure business growth is same space. Organisation adopts
vertical as well as horizontal integrations in which it add more value in activities or offer same
product on different geographical areas. On the other hand, business can attain the objective of
growth and development through adopting diversification strategy that is related to introducing
new products and moving into entirely new space (Ghadge, Wurtmann, and Seuring, 2020).
Uncertainty is the factor that impact business growth and development strategy, because there
are various unpredictable situations are raised in business that affect business overall
performance in positive as well as negative manner.
Stability corporate strategy: Stability strategy is related to concentrate towards enhancing
potentiality and effectiveness of existing business rather then developing growth strategy and
developing new business. Morrison adopt this strategy because current situations are in favour of
business. Respective organisation adopts status-quo strategy that concentrates on maintaining
existing performance of business and profit-driven strategy in which organisation linked to a
desire to boost organisational evaluation. Ambiguity is the aspect that impacts in business
corporate strategy. Lack of clarity in strategies among employees as well as difficulty to
understand real situation enable business to implement strategies in effective manner.
Management practices: Management practices are defined as the process that are developed by
organisation and provide guidance to entrepreneurial actions and plays important role in
influencing behaviour of people. Basically, management practices are the working methods and
innovations that are used by the managers to improve overall effectiveness of working system of
organisation (Kosterich, 2020). Morrison adopt various management practices are adopted by
Morrison are mentioned below:
Communicate with clarity: It is the most effective management practice that is use by
Morrison to convey all business strategies and planning to employees clearly that enable them to
perform defined functions in quite manageable way. It is enable organisation to resolve various
issues and problems among employees and lead them toward contributing in attain business
objectives efficiently. In VUCA environment, complexity is the factors that impacts management

practices. There are various departments are working in organisation, so it is quite complex to
communicate policies an strategies in right manner.
Use quantitative data to make decisions: Morrisons uses quantitative data to take
business decisions. It is an effective way to create employees training as well as development
programmes. The practice also considered as the data-driven decision-making. It enables
organisation to take appropriate decisions that fit in specific situation and helps organisation.
Volatility is the related to frequent and rapid changes that affect overall decision-making process
of organisation.
All these strategies and practices are adopted by the Morrison to manage employees
efforts and lead them towards attaining the objective of growth and development. These practices
and VUCA environment influences business approaches to deal with planned and unplanned
changes. Morrison implement Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity aspects in
business practices to make them more effective (Martinko, 2018). Properly execution of these
aspects make organisation able to handle all planned as well as unplanned changes and gain
sustainable competitive advantages. Through communicating advantages of changes and taking
effective decisions, Morrisons can influence employees to adopt change and perform properly.
Gives an example of a recent or current change (planned or unplanned) which is supported by
relevant change management theory
There are various changes are occur in business to attain organisational growth and development
objectives and gain various competitive advantages than other competitors. Planned changes are
occur when managers and employees make conscious efforts to implement change in the
response of particular problem. On the other hand, unplanned changes are happened randomly
without nay specific intention to address problems.
Morrisons makes changes in its supply and delivery in order to provide better services to
its e-commerce shoppers as well as handle additional supply chain cost. Respective organisation
implementing the change that includes ceasing home delivery operations in around 50 stores
from October. It facilitates organisation through improving online presence and enhance
efficiency of its store based services for customers (Moxen, and Strachan, eds., 2017).
Organisation launches Morrison.com site for its customer to book their order. Organisation
invest in picking capacity and dedicated delivery vans. It also provides same day delivery in
more than 60 towns and cities that covers 60% population of UK. It also launches HGV driver

recruitment programme for colleagues, friends and family with the objective of identifying
hundreds of potential drivers. Organisation provide them Morrison-funded training to improves
its logistic partners efficiency and effectiveness.
Kotter's eight-step change model: It is the leadership and change management process
that provides clear and descriptive guidance to organisation implement changes in effective
manner that are necessary for the growth and development of business in competitive business
environment. It is adopted by the Morrisons to execute all aspects of changes properly to attain
determined goals and objectives. Steps of Kotter's change model are mentioned below:
Create urgency: The idea of change which is important for the success of organisation
should be powerful. Morrison create the environment in which all employees are aware about
existing problems as well as they can see possible solutions that support the changes. As
Morrisons create changes related to supply and delivery that enhances organisational sales and e-
commerce activities. Organisation communicate these changes to employees provide them
direction to achieve them (Orpin, Judson,and Davis, 2020). Organisation create a forum where
issues are resolved and potential solutions are discussed. This step is related to creating need of
changes.
Form a powerful collation: It is not possible for the business to lead whole change
process, so it is important for developing collation that help to direct others as well. Morrisons
creates effective collation with range of skills, experience and include range of people who come
from different areas in business in order to maximise effectiveness. Through developing
collation, Morrison spread information regarding changes throughout the organisation as well as
allocate task and ensures support of whole organisation employees to implements changes. Team
members collaborate with each other and implement changes to attain success.
Create a vision for change: Initiating changes in organisation is quite complicated
process and very hard to understand for lower level hierarchical level employees. Morrison
create specific reason of change that can easily understandable and generating support from
whole organisation (Warrick, 2017). The vision of Morrison to create change in supply and
delivery is to reduce the cost of supply chain and improve efficiency of business.
Remove obstacles: All the above steps strengthen the change initiative of organisation,
whereas, it is important for the organisation to identify which factors are liable to reduce the
success chances of changes. Organisation individuals, traditions, physical obstacles and

legislations that create barriers in change path. Morrison identify these obstacles in early stage
and develop effective strategies to overcoming them.
Create short-term wins: For business, it is very important to demonstrate the advantages
of changes and new process that are implemented by the organisation through developing short-
term wins (Turnbull, 2020). These goals motivates employees and provide them direction
Through using these wins, Morrison can justify investment and efforts that are put to execute
changes in efficient manner.
Build on the changes: The process of change fails if the project is not finished in desired
manner. Morrison change its supply chain and provide home delivery option to its e-commerce
shoppers. It ensures that these changes are sustain in business for longer period of time.
Organisation establishes goals as well as analyse what could be done for continue improvement.
Anchor the changes in corporate culture: Changes in habits and processes of employees
is not enough for executing culture changes across the organisation. Morrison ensures that
changes regarding supply and delivery system become the core part of organisation and have
lasting effects (Pulcini, 2017). Respective organisation keep all senior stakeholders on board and,
inspire and encourage employees to adopt changes as well as celebrate the individuals who adopt
changes and perform accordantly.
Examines ways that business policies and practices have had to evolve to support employees and
minimise resistance to change
There are various business practices and policies are implemented by the organisation to gain
gain support of employees and minimise the level of resistance towards adopting changes. Some
business practices are mentioned below:
 Communication is the effective business that enable organisation to gain support of
employees and lead them towards adopting changes in efficient manner. Morrison
communication advantages and reasons changes to ensure that teams and individuals
receive adequate information and make positive judgements.
 Morrisons enhances participation of employees in business decision-making process
related to the changes (Rosa, and Hastings, 2018). It enhance employees morale and
reduce resistance.

 Morrisons structure effective team in order to maximise its potentiality and resolve
conflicts that are raised during the process of implementing changes and encourage them
to adopt changes.
Force field analysis: A force field analysis is defined as the framework that consist various
factors or forces that influence the situation. There are various factors are included which either
drive movement towards goals the forces that blocking the movement towards a goals. It is the
analysis that shows an equilibrium between various forces that drive changes as well as forces
that resisting the changes within organisation.
Some forces that drive changes within organisation:
 Morrison implementing changes in supply and delivery system through adopting online
home delivery option to e-commerce shoppers (Scheller, 2020). It reduces organisational
cost of through finding efficient supply chain. Through executing change within business, Morrisons can attracts large number of
customers that enhances organisational sales and profitability ratio. These are the reasons
that motivates managers to implement changes.
Forces that resistance the changes within organisation:
 Implementing changes within business requires providing training to employees as well
as supply chain that needs lots of investment. It is the important barriers of change within
organisation.
 Some times technical or network errors are occur that limits customers to place their
order through business sites and other modes. It impacts overall procedure of business to
provide organisational products to customers.
There are various actions are taken by the Morrison to gain support of employees and reduce
resistance such as provide training to employees to become familiar with change process, create
small wins that motivates employees, use social media platforms to collect data and enhance
engagement rate of employees through asking related questions (Soehner, 2018).
Makes recommendations to support the business
In order to implement changes, business consider various things that are necessary for
lead business towards growth and development. Morrison create changes in business supply
methods and starts online delivery of its products that enhances organisational market share and

customers. Some recommendations that support business to implement changes are mentioned
below:
 Morrison clearly define business goals and objectives before changing implementing
changes. If employees properly understand reasons of creating changes in delivery and
supply system and their roles and responsibility than it lead them towards adopting
changes and perform operations accordingly.
 It is recommended to Morrisons to make aware employees regarding on-going changes in
organisation and communicate them the progress of business after implementing changes
(Sroufe, 2017). It reduce the resistance level of employees regarding changes.
 As there are various employees work in an organisation who have different point of
views, thoughts and understanding level. It is inevitable that some of employees
resistance the changes that are occur in organisation. So, organisation be prepared for
resistance and try to influence employees to accept changes.
 Morrison develop effective plan that directs changes within organisation. Plans provide
guidance how changes are implemented and how success of these changes are measured.
Respective organisation develops planning and strategies to executes changes in proper
way.
 It is recommended to organisation to acknowledge feeling in the process of managing
changes and invite employees to helps the problem of business related to supply chain. It
enables employees to bring new innovative and creative ideas to resolve business
problem.
 Morrison should determine the impacts of changes on organisation, develop effective
communication strategy and provide training to employees that enhance their efficiency
and effectiveness to implement changes in appropriate manner (Subaciute, nd Rao,2019).
 It is recommended to Morrison to measure the change process and its success on regular
bases such as the changes regarding delivery and supply system enhances customer base
of business, reduce cost and enhance business sales and profitability ratio.
All these recommendations should be considered by the Morrisons in the process of
implementing changes in business.

Reflection learning
Reflection 1
According to me there are various kind of corporate practices and management strategy
which can help a company to grow well. Every company should focus on their growth strategies
because this will help company to expand their business to new market and create a strong
customer base which will further help them to maintain their organizational reputation. From the
above report I also learned that management practices are also helpful to manage human resource
and other essential resources within an organization. A good management skill will help to
influence employees to work better and increase overall productivity of a company I also learned
that communication is one of the most essential skill which should be there in each and every
employee of an organization because communicating well will help to identify main objective of
company. It is a essential for every organization that their management team and employees will
have good communication strategies between them which will further help them to make
effective decisions and to maintain their organizational culture. According to my personal
perspective I thought quantitative data should be updated to make any decision rather than
qualitative data because quantitative data represent exact value in numbers. On the other hand
qualitative data refers to analysing data by predicting behaviour of employees which might be
possible that it is predicted wrong by managers.
Every organization face some issues and challenges which can be mitigated by adopting
some effective changes within the company. Turn are babies kind of change management
theories and one of them is kottler 8 step change management model which consist its stages of
adopting a change for an organization. First stage of kottler eight step model is create urgency
where employees and management are allowed to identify the problem and idea of change.
Second stage consist of spreading awareness among other employees about the problem face by
their company. Another stage is Create vision for change. In this stage companies decide in our
objective that which kind of change will help them to mitigate the issue. Another stage is remove
tickle which is one of the most essential stage of this mode.l Here employees remove the
obstacle or the issue which they are facing by the effective working and strategies update for the
main reason to remove this obstacle. After removing the issue it is essential that the company
should control the change which means they can identify the advantages or profit gained by
companies after adopting the change this will help to identify whether the company has opted

effective change or not. From this model I have also learn that the change which is opted by
company should be finished in a desired manner to make it effective and profitable for the
company. When managers and employee identified that the change which they had opted is
effective and useful for them to increase their productivity and profitability than they must adopt
the change as their corporate culture which means they can continue working with new change.
I also identified that there are being is kind of business policies and practices which help
to support employees and minimize resistance to change for example effective communication
between employees. When employees communicate well with each other than they build trust
with each other which is essential for a company to achieve their task. Here employees can help
each other, make clear ideas about each other thoughts and many others. I also thought that
participation of employees in decision making skill will help companies to mitigate risk because
front line employees bare the one who directly communicate with customers. Hence, they are
well aware about the needs and wants of customers. Therefore participating employees in
decision making process will help to make good decisions to make Customers more satisfied
which further help to mitigate issues and problems.
Reflection -2
From the above report I learned that corporate practices and management strategies will
help a company to grow well in the market there’s a term named VUCA refers to deal with
difficult situations within an organization. Here are few factors by which some companies can
grow high by dealing with their situations.
While performing this project I identify that my communication skill is getting enhanced by
communicating more with my team members.
First is corporate strategy here companies make few strong strategies to deal with their issues
and problems which they have.
Few of the companies formulate those strategies by which the performance and productivity of
their employees raises. Some of the SME focus on stability corporate strategy where they
tried to grow well with their existing business. This strategy consists no change in the
business but it mainly focus on the performance of their employees.
According to me effective management practices also help a company to grow well by
handling their situations. It is essential for a manager to have those skills which can influence
their employees and motivate them well to achieve their target. Secondly it is also a essential that

employees and management team will develop a good communication strategy between them
because having good communication and clear communication will help them to achieve their
aim without any confusion. I also learnt that Transparency in communication will help to receive
correct message to correct person so that they will perform decision-making process correctly.
When a company analyse any lack of resources than they will perform change in their
organization. For example, when a company is lacking behind to produce qualitative products
then they adopt a change and that is to choose those tools and machines which will help them to
produce quality products and services. Secondly they also make sure that their employees will
work with new tools and machines perfectly. There are various change model which can help to
analyze how a company adopt change. Can clear eight step change model is one of that model
which will help to analyze how a company adopt change and maintain it well. From this model I
have learned that first of all the change is identified by an employee or a group of employees.
They identified the move issuer problem and then they spread about the threat throughout the
organization and also spread task for mitigate the challenge. when management team receive
information about the issue then they make a vision for change formulate few strategies and
vision statement to achieve success by adopting a good change.
Few of the recommendations are made to reduce the chances of occurring issues and
challenges which will further help a company to become stable for a longer period of time. This
recommendations are given below
 It is essential for every employee to make a clear idea about their business goal that what
their business want to achieve and how they are performing to achieve their goal.
 In case of companies adopting any chance then it is essential for them to aware their
employees well about the change and make sure that they will receive a positive idea that
companies adopting change for the benefit of both organization as well as for employees.
 It is also essential for a company that they should have a effective plan for change
management.
Reflection 3
According to my preference, it is essential for every organisation to make some decisions
which provide benefit to them to handle their bad situations which impacts badly upon
organisational growth. Handling organisation issues and problems effectively help company to
gain competitive advantage in market. There are various kind of strategies which can be used by