Organizational Change and Leadership Management at ANZ Bank: Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of organizational change management and leadership at ANZ Bank. It examines various change theories, including the general theory of change, emergent and incremental change, temporal planned change, and strategic change complexity, illustrating how ANZ Bank has applied these theories to adapt to market demands and maintain its position as a leading financial institution. The report also delves into the Lewin's Change Management Model, detailing its unfreeze, change, and refreeze stages, and how ANZ has used this model to implement changes. Furthermore, it discusses the critical role of leadership in driving change, focusing on aspects such as creating compelling statements of change and fostering communication between leadership and employees to overcome resistance and ensure successful transitions. The report highlights ANZ's strategies for maximizing employee engagement and achieving organizational stability during periods of transformation, making it a valuable resource for understanding change management in a large financial institution.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Organizational Change Management
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Executive Summary
The following report is about the change in management and change in leadership of
Australian and New Zealand Bank (ANZ Bank). It is one of the biggest companies of Australia
and is the largest company of New Zealand. The company also happens to be the most successful
business ventures of Australia and New Zealand. It has a rich and inspiring history which is
about 170 years ago when it happened to be Bank of Australia at the time of its inception and has
evolved from there. Its evolution has witnessed many alterations and modifications in its
management which has led it to become the leading business enterprise in Australia and New
Zealand. Being a banking institution it has to undergo many changes with the changing
economic structure and demand of the market and ANZ has premiered in every aspect of
management change. It has become a public listed company with its shareholders who number in
lakhs. The following report will discuss and examine in details the theories and models of change
in management of ANZ and the models and theories of change in leadership which ANZ has
experienced in its way to become one of the biggest banks of two neighbor countries.

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Theory of Change Management
There are a number of change theories which are implemented in the management of an
institution such as ANZ bank which has proven to be fruitful for the company. ANZ has
expanded its business in 5 different divisions which comes with a requirement of change in the
management of the institution. ANZ has its main branches in New Zealand, Australia and Asia
Pacific and its divisions are based in these countries with an addition of shared and institutional
services (Stockport et al. 2012). There are five main theories of change which ANZ has
implemented in its management. These changes describe why and in what way ANZ has
executed these changes and it also illustrates the process ANZ has undergone and the directions
it has followed. The change theories are:
1. General Theory of Change: This particular theory is comprised of four sub-theories
which are implemented by ANZ bank in its management. These theories are:
 Life Cycle Theory: There is a linear path followed by the change in which the
next change is executed only when the previous change has completed its
implementation (Heijungs and Suh 2013). ANZ educated and introduced its
customers with products and services such as credit cards, mortgages, personal
loans and transaction banking. After the implementation of this retail plan it
introduced Commercial Banking.
 Teleological Theory:It is determined by the concept of strategy. It focuses on
having a target and completing it with a proper strategy and within time before
making any further changes (Burke 2017). ANZ has been a beacon of financial
educator by making significant changes in financial inclusion. It has introduced
Saver Plus scheme for financial inclusion and implemented it like an expert.
 Dialectical Theory:This theory states that ANZ bank has put itself at the center
of a conflict between internal and external competing conflicts. There is always a
hunt of power in an organization such as ANZ but the notion to maintain the
stability by making changes in the organization at the same time is established by
the this theory (Halbesleben, Whiteman and Crawford 2014). In 1990 ANZ made
John McFarlane its new CEO with a completely new team in its higher
management which was done to achieve a sustainable growth in the long-term.

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 Evolutionary Theory: It is concerned about the competition, survival and
innovation in the organization. This is supported by the process of selection and
change in structure (Crawford and Krebs 2013). In 2000, ANZ went for a
transformation which was taken forward as “bank with a human face”. It altered
the nature of work, the structure of work and induced growth in the business of
bank in quick time.
2. Theory of Emergent and Incremental Change: This theory states that the change can
be executed in an unplanned manner when there is introduction of new technology
(Nyberg and Ployhart 2013). When ANZ bank went through such a change its
organizational efficiency improved a lot and the members were benefited by this change
as their work become easier and they had the leverage of technology to get their work
done with much accuracy.
3. Theory of Temporal Planned Change: This theory of change is comprised of four
aspects of change which are socializing, engineering, commanding and teaching
(Cummings and Worley 2014). Each aspect is separately implemented such as in
commanding the coercive agents are deployed to make changes, in engineering the
analytics play the major part such as designing the process of work to speed up the work.
Teaching refers to a planned and logical way of learning the work process and socializing
insinuates towards making relationships with the customers.
4. Equilibrium Model of Strategic Change: This theory is separated between the
convergence of equilibrium in which slow and gradual changes take place and the sudden
changes which reorient and reshuffle the entire management of the ANZ bank (Smith
2014). The former one takes longer durations to happen and the latter one is fast.
5. Theory of Strategic Change Complexity: It says that organizations are complex in
nature and the environmental uncertainty changes the status and nature of management
(Eden and Ackermann 2013). It makes them more complex with introduction of rules and
regulations that governs the strategy of the ANZ bank.

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Models of Change Management
There are many models of Change Management which are followed by number of
organizations according to their nature of work and requirement of the time. ANZ bank is an
organization which has undergone many changes in all these years. But mostly it has used the
Lewin’s Change Management Model (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown 2016). This model is
known to be the most widely accepted and used model of change across the biggest
organizations of the world. It is a common model which works for any type of business may it be
small, new or of any nature. This theory is the foundation stone for all the change theories since
it has been postulated in 1940. It simply says three things which are unfreeze, change and
refreeze. The revelations of these three aspects are:
Unfreeze: This dimension of the theory is about accepting the changes which are important at
the time and breaks the current status quo of the organization to make way for new changes to
happen. The main point in this aspect to make everyone believe that the current status cannot
continue and there is a need for change. This message can be argued on the base of declining
sales, poor customer satisfaction, deteriorating financial status etc. To implement this theory the
management needs to challenge the behaviors, beliefs, attitudes and results which exist (Al-
Haddad and Kotnour 2015). In context of the ANZ bank, bringing John McFarlane to head the
organization made this theory applicable as he talked about changing the current state of work in
the bank and introduced new changes which were radically different as compared to the ongoing
practice. He introduced three major leadership programs and emphasized on the culture of work
being practiced in ANZ. In the beginning these changes are very stressful to accept but after
some time people get used to the new set of methods and get comfy with it.
Change: After the phase of unfreeze has taken its course there is a feeling of uncertainty in the
management of ANZ bank. It is during the course of change that people of ANZ start making
peace with those uncertainties by the understating its implications and accepting it for future
purpose. People start to believe in those changes and see a way through towards new horizons of
work. This transition does not happen in quick time but settles down slowly and gradually (Al-
Haddad and Kotnour 2015). People take their time and accept it by participating actively in the
new courses. Change Curve is a related model which signifies the level of acceptance in the
management which includes personal change over into new atmosphere of work (Blozis and

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Harring 2015). It happens only when people get to know the benefits of change which is an
important motivation as not everyone is inclined to accept it just out of the goodness of their
hearts. ANZ bank has done a lot to make people believe in the changes which starts from
communication between the employees and time they are leveraged to embracethem. ANZ
started programs that connect its employees to the organization to conclude this transition.
Refreeze: When the transition is near completion and people feel comfortable in their new
environment ANZ was ready to refreeze. The methods used by ANZ to illustrate refreeze were to
prepare an organizational stability chart and to display consistent description of jobs (Al-Haddad
and Kotnour 2015). Refreeze state needs to institutionalize and adopt the changes which people
have undergone in ANZ bank. This directly implies that ANZ needed to use the changes more
often by inducing the in daily work of the bank. This displays the belief of ANZ that people are
now confident and stable in using the new ways in which the bank will work. It lays the
foundation stone for any further changes which ANZ will introduce as it checks the acceptance
among its employees. The successful change was celebrated by ANZ to acknowledge the pain
and efforts made by its employees in realizing the change process which is an award in itself.
Theory of Change Leadership
Leadership is a key factor in bringing about any type of change in the organization. It is
more of a psychological concept than a practice which needs only implementation. For the sake
of growth and progress in the changing world leadership must be dynamic which understands the
importance of change and that too at the right time (Saeed et al. 2014). At first ANZ bank has
overcome the FUD factor which states that every change initiated in any organization. Fear,
uncertainty and doubt are the main hindrances in any change to be accomplished. Psychology of
employees was observed to be in a state of comfort. Change makes them uncomfortable as it is
not familiar to them (Cameron and Green 2015). They start to doubt themselves as the new
environment is uncertain and there is as sense of incompetence which creeps in their minds.To
mitigate these challenges ANZ made its employees believe that the gains which they will get is
way more than the loss which they are feeling.ANZ bank changes the dynamics of human factor
as well as of the organization to make people believe that the change will pay them good
dividends. Some aspects of leadership change practiced by ANZ are:

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 Creation of compelling statements of change: ANZ bank made a point by showing its
employees the status of business of its various divisions across the world and also
compared it with other banking institutions who were making much more profits than
them (Jehanzeb and Bashir 2013). The current state of market and the trends which were
being developed in the banking world were some tools used by ANZ. Leadership
appealed to the competence of its employees to undergo changes which were
upgradations in the working methods which were needed to stay in the game.
 Communication between the leadership and employees: After the realization of
statements made by ANZ there was a need of continuous communication between the
management and the working staff so oversee the acceptance of change and the degree of
change which was going to take place (Zhang and Venkatesh 2013). Communication kept
the employees on a leash and proper monitoring was also possible due to that. More the
communication more the implementation. It helped the leadership to get into the
conscience of its employees which made them realize that how important these changes
are for ANZ bank.
 Maximization of Participation: As leading a change is not a one man job and it should
not be left on time to happen. ANZ deployed all its top level management to supervise
and participate in the change process proactively so that it does not make the employees
feel that they are the only one who are making the effort (Cameron and Green 2015).
Collective participation helped ANZ to bring out change in an efficient manner.
Models of Change Leadership
There are three models of Change leadership which can be deployed to successfully
mentor the changes. These three models and Group Leadership, Individual Leadership and
Societal Leadership, as the size of the ANZ bank organization is huge and ranges to almost all
corners of the globe they practiced two leadership styles to accomplish change. The two models
of Change leadership are:
 Group Leadership: John McFarlane joined ANZ bank in 1990 and was given the
freedom to choose its own team with new visions and ways of working. He developed a
team of like-minded professionals who believed in the visions and aims of ANZ bank and
collectively implemented the changes which were required at that time. John and his team

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brought many positive changes and achieved goals such as enhancing customer
satisfaction, improving employee engagement, increased community recognition and also
completely changed the financial performance of ANZ keeping the shareholders in
consensus (Paunova 2015). In accomplishing these goals the entire team worked together
to bring about technological change adopted from various business strategies practiced in
the world, financial schemes analogous to the market conditions and so on.
 Societal Leadership: The major change which was brought about by ANZ was cultural
one. Changing the working culture from the top level of management to the bottom level
of employees was a tough job for the management which was accomplished with much
precision. Working culture of internal staff showed significant improvement according to
the feedback given by the customers (Martin 2014). ANZ worked a lot to find and nurture
talent in its organization which proved to be very fruitful for them. Employees were duly
rewarded for their good performance which motivated them towards change. ANZ kept
everyone together as a group of people sharing same enthusiasm and interest to accept
change.
Recommendations
Global finance has faced a lot of atrocities such as Global Financial Crisis of 1930. At
that time the banking and finance sector took maximum hit as they are the fundamental entities
of global finance. However, banks of Australia and New Zealand are more robust and strong
than the banks in other parts of the world. This was due to the changes which they were willing
to adopt to sustain themselves. There are certain recommendations which can be useful for ANZ
bank if done before making any changes. Some recommendations are:
 Resource management: Available resources should be managed and used efficiently to
bring about any change. These resources can be monetary, technological as well as
human resources. Providing these resources to the employees can make things smooth
during a transition.
 Career Structure: When a staff is realized that the change can improve his career
prospect in the administrative matters and can lead him to greater heights he can be more
inclined towards change.

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 Strategic Approach: There should be a strategy which requires the employees to
enhance their skill set by educating themselves about the new trends and technologies
being used world over. They should feel the need of higher education which can be of
financial orientation. There should be an agreement that the support staff will work in
administrative field with definite roles and functions. There should also be a holistic plan
for all the staff who work in ANZ bank.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that change in the working culture of any
organization is inevitable. With rapid globalization there are numerous practices which are
coming into existence now and then and ANZ bank needs to keep up with the pace of change.
The above report contains all the theories of change adopted by the management of ANZ bank
and the consequences of change which they experienced in due course of time. The report also
mentions the theories and models of change leadership which ANZ bank deployed to
successfully transit from the previous working culture to new methods of work. The above
mentioned theories are derived from the case study of ANZ bank which was done in detail and
with much analysis. There is always scope for some modifications in the form of
recommendation which is also illustrated in the report. ANZ bank being the leader in banking
institutions in Australia and New Zealand has gone through much to keep its supremacy in the
market for over half a century and are justified so.

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