Leading Change: Impact of Change on Strategy and Operations Report

This report delves into the complexities of leading and managing organisational change, focusing on Marks & Spencer as a case study. It begins by examining the impact of change on the strategies and operations of two companies, including Marks & Spencer and Tesco, highlighting technological and structural changes. The report identifies and assesses the internal and external drivers of change, such as technological advancements and competitive pressures, and evaluates their influence on leadership, team dynamics, and individual behaviours. It further explores measures to mitigate the negative impacts of change on organisational behaviour, along with an application of relevant theories and models to critically evaluate organizational responses to change. Barriers to change are also discussed. Finally, the report analyzes different leadership approaches and their effectiveness in driving organisational change, offering insights into how to navigate and manage change successfully within a business context.

Understanding and
Leading Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
P1. Impact of organisational change on strategy and operations of 2 companies..................4
M1. Assess the different drivers for change in each of the given examples and the types of
organisational change they have affected...............................................................................6
P2. Evaluation of ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership,
team and individual behaviours..............................................................................................7
P3. Evaluation of measures taken to minimise the negative impact of changes upon the
organisational behaviour........................................................................................................9
M2 Apply appropriate theories and models to critically evaluate organisational response to
change.....................................................................................................................................9
P4. Barriers for Change........................................................................................................10
M3. Force field analysis.......................................................................................................12
P5. Leadership Approaches..................................................................................................12
M4 Extent to which leadership approaches can deliver organisational change...................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Change is deciphered as a process involving execution of alteration into a product,
service, system or technique. In this regard, organisational change is a crucial decision for each
and every enterprise as it has a significant impact over the existing operations of company. To
execute a change, an effective leadership is required (Lillard and Al-Suqri, 2019). It provides
guidance and direction to employees regarding the manner in which they can contribute to
execution of change as per the requirements of corporation. Alterations are introduced within an
entity for a number of reasons such as adapting to changing business environment, adoption of
new technologies, meeting demands and preferences of customers etc.
The purpose of this report is to understand the manner in which change is lead and
managed within Marks & Spencer. It is a market leading company operating in retail sector and
providing a wide range of products to people across the globe. The project contains change
introduced within 2 companies of same industry and their impact on organisational strategy.
Besides this, it includes drivers of change and measures to reduce negative impact of change. At
last, some leadership approaches are given which provide assistance in dealing with proposed
alteration.
P1. Impact of organisational change on strategy and operations of 2 companies
Change is an important part of organisation which facilitate increment in business efficiency and
execution of smooth flow of operations. It is essential for a firm to make sure that the business
incorporates changes in an effective manner so that the trends pertaining to market place can be
adapted to, by the company. In this regard, it can be analysed that the nature of change
introduced within the company may differ from each other but definitely, every change tends to
have a substantial impact over the operations of business (Suriyantphupha and Bourlakis, 2019).
In this relation, 2 companies have been taken into account below in order to illustrate the
influence of change over organisation and its strategies.
Change Marks & Spencer TESCO
Technological
Need
Rapid changes take place within the
confines of retail sector giving rise to
the need of incorporating new
The constant changes occurring within
global retail market is facilitating
firms functioning under it to make use
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Impact on
Strategy
Impact on
Operations
technologies within the premises of
firm so as to out-power the top notch
rivals. Owing to this, the marketing
leading retailer, Marks & Spencer is
also bringing about new technologies
so as to appeal to customers more
effectively and thereby inflate its
existing level of revenues as well as
profits.
of latest and emergent technologies
that have the power to disrupt the
market place (The changing state of
Retail, 2019). Looking on this,
TESCO is coming up with
technological alterations in premises
with the help of which it would reduce
the time and efforts invested by human
resources in stock counting.
Marks & Spencer is undergoing
digital transformation through the
enhancement of company’s web site
as well as simultaneous elimination
of legacy IT systems by leveraging
on the partnership entered with TCS
(Marks & Spencer reveals
technology transformation
programme, 2019).
TESCO has come up with RFID
technology which provides aid to the
organisation in facilitation of fast
tracking of customers. RFID aids the
firm in accurate inventory counting
(FOCUS ON: RFID, as Tesco rolls the
technology out across its F&F outlets,
2019).
Owing to introduction of new
technology within its premises, HR
team now has to incur a large
amount on conducting training
sessions for staff members so that
they can become friendly with the
new technology introduced.
The impact of RFID is witnessed in
terms of savings of time, efforts and
money of company to appoint a person
for doing physical counting of
inventory. This has thus resulted in
decline in cost of operations for
TESCO.
Structural
Need
The environment in which a
company operates is turbulent and
thus present threat to entity if the
firm is not able to adapt according to
The constant changes taking place in
global retail market facilitates
companies operating in its confines to
make alterations within the structure
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Strategy
Impact on
Operations
it. of company.
Marks & Spencer has restructured its
executive home and clothing team
within its outlet located in UK. For
this purpose, the organisation has to
hire sales and marketing personnel
so that revenues of firm can be
increased.
TESCO has simplified the operational
structure to enhance the efficiency of
business operations. The new
structural system of entity implied no
complexities regarding the chain of
command to be followed.
The impact can be seen on clothing
and home team as this has been
altered to meet the organisational
requirements.
The impact can be seen on HR team
which now had to recruit new
candidates and train them so that they
can work comfortably as per new
structure.
M1. Assess the different drivers for change in each of the given examples and the types of
organisational change they have affected
The drivers of change that facilitated both the firms to bring about the changes defined
above are given underneath:-
Technological advancements: This is regarded to be a key driver that facilitated both the
retailer firms to come up with technological changes in the organisational premises (Bogue,
2019). This would provide aid to the entity in ensuring that the systems and practices of entity
are aligned with the trends prevailing at market place and being exploited by rival companies.
Rivalry: Yet another driver that facilitated both the organisations to introduce
technological and structural changes within the premises was extensive level of competition
prevailing within retail sector across the globe (Perry, Kent and Bonetti, 2019). This made the
firm look upon the strategies and actions undertaken by rivals to realise that there was a need to
bring about changes in technology and structure of both the corporation in order to ensure long
term sustainability at market place.
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P2. Evaluation of ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team
and individual behaviours
Change is a crucial process that needs to be executed by each and every business concern.
In this relation, there are many internal as well as external aspects that tend to serve as drivers of
change for a company. With respect to this, the drivers of change which have facilitated Marks &
Spencer to bring about technological as well as structural changes within the premises are
explained as follows:-
Internal Drivers of Change
These can be regarded as the internal aspects of a company which have significant impact
over a firm and facilitate it to bring about the proposed change.
Organisational Culture: This encompasses facets such as traditions, values, customs and
ideologies possessed by a firm. With respect to this, it has been analysed that the 2 changes
introduced by Marks & Spencer has been done by making use of task culture. This is a type of
culture where roles and duties are allotted to personnel as per their skills as well as expertise.
This tends to inflate the productivity level of employees and instil a positive behavioural conduct
in them (Nash, 2019). As a result of this, the staff members facilitate Marks & Spencer in
executing the proposed changes in an effective manner and gain an edge over rivals present at
market place. This enhances the efficiency of business operations as both the changes are
proposed with the sole aim of facilitating smoother flow of operations in organisational confines.
Management Structure: The management structure of a business entity encompasses the
hierarchical order as per which chain of command is followed and decisions are communicated.
In this regard, it has been identified that this factor seems to have a significant influence over the
behaviour of individuals, teams and leader of a company. With respect to Marks & Spencer, it
can be said that this retail firm has applied top down structure whereby decision making vests in
the hands of top management and they communicate the command to lower management (Lillard
and Al-Suqri, 2019). This structure helps the respective corporation in undertaking quick
decisions so that the proposed changes can be timely executed within the premises of firm. This
structure seems to provide clear guidelines to employees regarding the manner in which they can
provide support and aid to leader in formulating the change in due course of time. This inflates
the behaviour of staff members and thus, they work in a collaborative manner so that
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technological and structural change can be duly incorporated in routine working of entity. This
implies that management structure also serve as a key driver for facilitation of change.
External Drivers of Change
Apart from internal drivers of change, it is also important for a firm to take into account
the internal aspects of business environment which facilitate the company to bring about a
certain change. Macro environmental analysis is carried out by firms by making use of an
excellent analytical tool named PEST (Yrjölä and et. al., 2019). This would stipulate the external
environment factors which encourage a firm to come up with changes within its confines. In this
regard, Marks & Spencer has applied this framework in order to ascertain the external drivers of
change and their impact over leadership, individual and team behaviour. The analysis is done as
follows:-
Basis Impact on Marks & Spencer
Political The stable world of politics of United Kingdom gives opportunity to Marks
and Spencer to think of positive changes inside the association so as to
increase business effectiveness (Pantano and Dennis, 2019). The utilization
of democratic leadership offers help and influence to workers through
which they can take key choices and complete tasks according to them.
Hence, it impacts extensively on individual, group and leadership conduct,
encouraging the firm to come up with innovative changes in an effectual
way.
Economic UK has solid financial conditions which impact firms like Marks and
Spencer to exploit services accessible inside its limits such as
infrastructure, transportation, supply chain, logistics etc. This energizes
people, group and leadership within the respective firm to benefit from
UK's economy so as to adequately execute the proposed changes inside the
organisational premises.
Social The consumer trends and lifestyles within UK keep on advancing with the
passage of time. This influences the behaviour of leader of Marks &
Spencer and by way of stipulation of rewards and incentives, they make the
workforce act as change agents. When staff is motivated in an effective
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manner, they work with the exploitation of their potential for the growth
and development of Marks & Spencer.
Technological UK being a technologically strong country provides scope to employees
and team within Marks & Spencer to apply their creativity and come up
with rapid innovations. In this regard, the leadership is aimed at stipulation
of aid and guidance to staff members so that they can help in effective
implementation of positive changes within Marks & Spencer.
P3. Evaluation of measures taken to minimise the negative impact of changes upon the
organisational behaviour
Change is regarded as a crucial process pertaining to company. It has positive as well as
negative effects over the operations of the firm (Gersch and Franz, 2019). This gives rise to the
need of taking measures by way of which the negative impact over the company can be reduced
by a significant margin. Such efforts that can be taken by Marks & Spencer are given as
follows:-
 Marks & Spencer should ensure that it conducts constant market researching so as to
identify the trends prevailing in the business environment. This enables the respective
firm to implement changes and make the employees ready for it by communicating to
them about the alterations well in advance. This would ensure receipt of adequate support
and aid from employees.
 Marks & Spencer can also carry out training in order to communicate to employees the
manner in which a sudden change can be adapted to. These training sessions would be
aimed at preparing the staff members for worst situations well in advance so that they do
not panic at the time of actual occurrence of change within the premises of respective
retail firm.
M2 Apply appropriate theories and models to critically evaluate organisational response to
change
To reduce the negative impacts related with a change, a firm applied PDCA model. The
stages of this model are briefly described below:-
PDCA Model
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Plan- This marks the first phase of this model whereby initiatives are taken up by a firm to
ascertain the main cause of issue (Nash, 2019). For this purpose, entity conducts market research.
In this relation, the management of Marks & Spencer has evaluated that a number of
technological changes keep on taking place within the confines of global retail environment. This
gives rise to the need for firm to prepare itself by way of effective planning and strategy
formulation to conduct training sessions for staff members so that they can deal with change
appropriately.
Do- Post the preparation of proper plan for probable constrains at the time of introduction
of change, the next stage is concerned with effective execution of such planning so that positive
outcomes can be derived for Marks & Spencer. Hereby, technological and structural changes are
brought by Marks & Spencer. This stage results in reduction of wrong decision making.
Check- The next phase of PDCA marks the contrast between actual and desired performance
with a view to carry out the control activities. Hereby, effective application of monitoring
techniques provides aid to Marks & Spencer in checking or evaluating the effectiveness of both
the changes (Seethamraju and Diatha, 2019).
Act- This being the final phase of this model marks the documentation and reporting for
change. Hereby, changes are actually put to use practically. Thus, this stage provides assistance
to Marks & Spencer in provision of information about success or failure of the changes.
Thus, the execution of all the stages of PDCA model provides aid to Marks & Spencer in
reducing the negative impact associated with change.
P4. Barriers for Change
Change is a key procedure for every company which requires rigorous efforts taken on
the part of employees and leader to ensure its effective delivery. In this process, it has been
analysed that a number of elements tend to act as constraints or barriers to change. It is important
for a firm to identify the probable barriers to proposed change so that measures can be taken up
by firm to reduce its adverse impacts. With respect to Marks & Spencer, the probable barriers to
execution of technological and structural changes are briefly explained as follows:-
Lack of Employee Involvement
This is considered to be one of the most apparent barriers to change identified in relation
to an organisational change. Thus, staff members do not get engaged in the change strategies and
thus the entity needs to provide them with sufficient information so that the proposed changes
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can be effectively executed within the premises (Caro, Kök and Martínez-de-Albéniz, 2019).
Inside Marks and Spencer, it is examined that a critical extent of workers limit from executing
the proposed changes as they are not given appropriate direction and supervision by leader about
the change. Absence of initiatives taken up by a leader leads to lack of enthusiasm within the
representatives of Marks and Spencer. This makes them oppose the innovative changes to be
executed in the business association. In this manner, it very well may be said that communication
is the sole way to gain help from staff members and make them contribute their part to viable
execution of change into the activities of Marks and Spencer.
This barrier, to a great extent, impacts upon the leadership as the concern is about
stipulation of sound information to workers about the vision related with introduction of changes
inside Marks and Spencer. Further, the leader of respective retail firm would give motivating
incentives and rewards to those people who contribute effectively in execution of change in the
organization. Also, if necessary, training or meetings would be conducted to equip workers with
the basic skills for applying the changes inside the organisational premises.
Lack of Effective Communication Strategy
This is duly considered to be one more hindrance that is experienced by a firm while
executing changes inside the organisational premises. In this relation, extensive communication
is regarded as the route map by way of which leader of respective company conveys the
advantages of carrying out changes inside the organization to employees (Kolokotroni and et. al.,
2019). The goal here is to avail help from them to ensure fruitful execution of change in Marks
& Spencer. It has been acknowledged that the lack of initiative on the part of leader to embrace
an extensive correspondence strategy to transmit the vision of changes to workforce resulted in
occurrence of barrier for the retailer. In this regard, it is seen that whereby the management is not
able to set a co-operation with employees, the workforce is not much keen on accepting the
changes and applying them into their everyday activities.
This barrier substantially affects leadership inside Marks and Spencer as hereby the
leader utilizes an extensive communication strategy through which fundamental information is
conveyed to staff members of company (Pantano and Vannucci, 2019). Furthermore, the
advantage of bringing new technologies and encouraging new structure would be transmitted to
the individuals working within Marks & Spencer. Whereby the employees would successfully
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comprehend the advantages of embracing both the transformations, it would offer help to the
management in executing the same in a quick manner.
Thus, it can be easily stated that barriers to change have a significant impact on execution
of change and decision making of leader in Marks & Spencer.
M3. Force field analysis
Force field analysis is an effective change management approach which consists of
facilitating and restraining factors, explained as follows:-
Facilitating Factors: This element of force field analysis consists of facets pertaining to
the business environment of company, which facilitate an entity to come up with change. Such
aspects comprise of outdated machines and business processes, decrease in morale of employees
and teams, changes in preferences of customers, technological advancements and many more
(Cruz Roche, Romero and Sellers-Rubio, 2019). With respect to this, facilitating factors for
changes within Marks & Spencer were acknowledged to be emerging technological trends in
retail sector and complex corporate procedures.
Restraining Factors: This consists of aspects belonging to the business environment of
company which cause hindrance in execution of change within the confines of a company. Such
elements may include employee resistance, changes in government regulations, negative laws
etc. With reference to Marks & Spencer, it has been ascertained that the restraining factors fir
both the changes were excess staff resistance and failure to use a strong communication strategy.
Such elements can be dealt with, by Marks & Spencer by way of execution of training sessions
and exploitation of extensive communication channels.
P5. Leadership Approaches
It is important for a company to ensure that change is effectively implemented within its
premises as per the requirements so that it can yield positive outcomes. Changes provide
assistance in inflating business efficiency as well as ensuring smooth flow of operations. In this
relation, Marks & Spencer has made use of 2 approaches to leadership in order to ensure that the
structural as well as technological change gets delivered as per organisational targets.
Democratic leadership style
This leadership style is taken into use by companies with a view to ensure active
participation of employees in the operations of company. This is a style which provides
flexibility to employees so that they can leverage their creativity and innovation in the right
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direction for the growth and development of company in the long run (Hüseyinoğlu, 2019). In
this regard, this style has been taken into use by the leader of Marks and Spencer to implement
and ensure effective delivery of technological change within the premise of enterprise. Thus, it
can be said that this leadership style would be suitable for the firm to execute the respective
change and thereby gain an edge over rival firms present in global retail sector.
Autocratic leadership style
This leadership style is adopted by a company whereby the authority vests in the hands of
single or few individuals who have the power to take key decisions for the company. In this
regard, Marks & Spencer is using this style to implement structural change within its home and
clothing team as this style facilitates quicker decision making with low risks of wrong decisions
being taken. This is so because the leader already has all the knowledge about the company and
its internal affairs and thus has the capability to undertake important decisions which will
facilitate the respective change to be implemented as per the target set by Marks & Spencer
(Rogers, 2019).
M4 Extent to which leadership approaches can deliver organisational change
Leadership approaches tend to serve as an effective tool which aids an entity in
successfully delivering an organisational change such that the firm can attain growth as well as
development as a result of it. In this relation, it has been identified that autocratic as well as
democratic leadership are 2 of the approaches which have been adopted by the leader of Marks
and Spencer to execute and deliver changes in technology and structure. Looking upon the
advantages of both the approaches, it can be said that they are quite effective in providing
assistance to company in delivering change as per the requirement of entity.
CONCLUSION
As per the discussion done above, it is inferred that introducing change within a company
is not an easy process. It involves a number of considerations by the management such as
restraining factors of Force Field Analysis. Further, it has been analysed that changes are not
always easily accepted within a firm. To reduce the negative impact related to any change, a firm
can apply PDCA model. Further, it has been analysed that an effective leadership is required to
deal with apply and deal with impacts of change. In this relation, it is identified that autocratic
and democratic are 2 of the most suitable approaches that can be applied by an entity.
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Additionally, it has been acknowledged that there are many barriers to change which should be
timely handled by an enterprise to ensure that they do not interrupt the execution of alteration
within the firm.
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REFERENCES
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Online
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Tesco to simplify operational structures. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
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