Organizational Change: Understanding and Leading Change Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of change management within organizations, using Zara and H&M as case studies. It begins by exploring the impact of change on organizational strategies and operations, examining how changes in processes, systems, or procedures are driven by both internal and external factors. The report then delves into how these drivers affect leadership, team, and individual behavior, highlighting the importance of understanding these influences for successful change implementation. It identifies measures to minimize the negative impacts of change, such as effective communication, employee involvement, and providing support. Furthermore, the report discusses various barriers to change, including resistance from employees and lack of clear understanding, and their influence on decision-making processes. Finally, it examines different leadership approaches to manage change effectively, emphasizing the need for adaptable and proactive strategies. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and offering insights into how organizations can navigate change successfully.

Understanding and
Leading change

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:..........................................................................................................................1
P1 The impact of change in organisational strategies and operations....................................1
P2 How internal and external drivers affect leadership, team and individual behaviour.......3
P3 Measures taken to minimise the impact of change in organisation...................................4
P4 Different barriers of change and its influence in decision making...................................5
P5 Different leadership approaches to deal with change........................................................7
CONCLUSION:...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION:
In every business, there comes a stage where they have to make changes in strategies and
plans. This helps in growth and development of business. These changes are related to process,
systems or procedures. Changes are made due to internal and external factors that directly affect
the business operations (Mackey and et..al., 2017). It helps business to deal with future changes
in long run. This report throws light on ways in which change affects business operations and
strategies. How internal and external drivers affects change to be implemented. It also shows
barriers in implementing change and different leadership approaches that should be followed to
deal with change.
For undertaking present assignment, organisations selected are Zara and H&M. These
organisations belong to retail sector and are operating their business all over the world. The
existence of companies on global level requires frequent change management to identify and
fulfil customer’s demand. Thus, this report will show impact of change in their strategies and
operations
P1 The impact of change in organisational strategies and operations
Every business requires change at a particular stage and time. It helps them to grow and
expand. Also, by implementing change they can survive in long run. Making changes in business
is known as change management. It states that business goals and objectives are modified with
regards to customer demands (Anderson,., 2016). Implementing change affects organisation in
negative or positive way. This depends on how managers and employees react to these change
and adopts them. Also, what and were changes will be implemented depends upon the nature of
organisation and type of change. However, with this there is increase in business efficiency and
performance. It enforces them to modify or develop new strategies to achieve their goals and
objectives.
Now, in Zara changes were made to develop new products to fulfil the needs of
customers. It was done to expand their business in new and existing markets. Managers
developed strategies on how to create new products. Employees were given tasks to identify
change in taste and preference of customers (Meredith, , Rosell, and Davis,, 2016). For this Zara
implemented new technology in production process. This forced workers to adopt this process
and improve their efficiency. With this Zara developed new products. Managers created plans
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and assigned tasks to employees. They were given new roles and responsibilities. New process
was developed and new people were hired to work upon it. It encouraged older ones to adopt and
implement change.
On the other hand H&M implemented change to improve their product quality. It was
done to retain their customers and increase customer satisfaction. For this H&M adopted new
ways of producing products, they provided training to employees on how to work in creative way
so that product quality can be improved. Also, managers assigned new roles and tasks to
employees for improving their performance (Hay,, 2017). Moreover, leaders changes their style
and encouraged employees to adopt changes. New techniques and tools were installed in H&M
to improve product quality. This enabled employees to work in different way. With this H&M
operations and goals were modified. Also , it helped them to create product at low cost and of
high quality. Thus, by implementing change in process H&M were able to retain customers and
gain market share.
Types of organisation change-
 Structural- This change occurs within the organisation. It is related to change in
employees, managers, etc. and policies, procedures, etc. It is done to bring ease in
business operations and maintain the smooth flow of organisation.
 Strategic- In this changes are done in goals, objectives, etc. of organisation. The external
factors have a great impact while making these changes. It involves changing the
products, services, etc.
 Process- In this the process or methods are modified to bring efficiency in working of
employees (Ryan, 2016). It is done to get better results and bringing creativity in
business operations. This affects the employee productivity and improving overall
business performance.
 People- It refers to bring new talent in organisation to provide ease to business
operations. The new ones hired brings new ideas and innovation in work. It motivates
others to work harder.
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P2 How internal and external drivers affect leadership, team and individual behaviour
Internal and external drivers plays a crucial role in bringing change. It is because business
is directly related to these factors and it influences overall business operations. Therefore,
managers and leaders develop strategies by analysing these factors. Moreover, internal factors
affects the organisational culture to a great extent. Different types of Internal drivers are :-
Strengths- It shows the strengths of organisation which enables them to compete with
competitors. It describes business uniqueness in their product or services. Zara is known for its
high quality product (Hughes, 2016). Leaders have focused on improving employee efficiency
to maintain product quality. Leaders have adopted changes by using new methods. H&M
strength is providing variety in products. So leaders have to work with employees to develop
new strategies and process for product development.
Weakness- It shows weak areas of company for which they have to implement change. It is done
to transform it into strength. Here, Zara's weakness is, its products are very expensive. So leaders
have to implement new process to reduce its per unit cost while in H &M leaders have to develop
new methods to improve its product quality.
Opportunities- business implement change to grow and develop. While implementing change
vast amount of opportunities are created. So leaders have to adopt changes in order to expand
business. Leader implement change by developing procedures. Also, it affects employee
behaviour as they resist change.
Threats- This can also be called as barriers that affects business to implement change. They are
the factors which restrict business growth and development (Painter,. and Clark, 2015) It is
therefore needed to be removed. Leaders apply different leadership style to deal with these
situations. Employees are forced to bring creativity in work. This changes their behaviour and
forces them to improve their performance. For this leaders develop strategies and methods for
effective working in the organisation.
Business can not control factors that exists outside the organisation. These are known as
external factors. Generally, it refers to PEST analysis that is described below:-
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Political- It is related to change in political situation of a country or nation. It directly affects
business operations. It consists of laws and regulations that affect business strategy. It changes
behaviour of employees as new policies implemented reduces the work efficiency of employees.
Economical- These factors are related to change in economic condition of country. It includes
increase and decrease in currency rate, inflation, etc..For example- If inflation rate increases,
organisation reduces employees salary ( Power, 2016). This creates negative impact on them. It
reduces their confidence level and decreases productivity.
Social- Society plays an important role in contributing ton organisation. It consists factors such
as rise in level of income, improving lifestyle of people, etc. A change in these factors will
impact the culture of organisation. For this leaders have to make changes in policies and roles.
Therefore, employees resist change in policy because they want things to remain same.
Technological- Most of the changes occurs due to implementation of new technology or
processes. It provides a platform for organisation to grow and develop. With this they can
develop new product or reduces their per unit cost. Also, by implementing new procedure they
can improve their quality of product. For doing this leaders have to assign new roles and task to
employees (Byers, 2015). This brings change in their working and therefore, increases
efficiency. In addition to this enterprise hire new people to promote creativity in organisation.
This encourages old ones to improve their performance.
P3 Measures taken to minimise the impact of change in organisation
In order to implement change management effectively, it is necessary to minimise its
impact on organisation efficiency. If not, it can lead to huge loss and reduction in profits. If
change is implemented, it either impacts the employees negatively or positively. But there are
more chances of negative impact as employee resist change. For this, certain measures are taken
to adopt change. It helps in reducing impact and improving overall performance of enterprise.
There are various measures taken that are as follows:-
Communicating change- This is the best measure that can be taken to minimise the impact of
change. Regularly communicating with them helps in identifying their problems and issues.
Therefore, these can be solved in order to implement change (Burke, 2017). It will help
employees to know what modification have occurred and accordingly, they can work. If they are
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already aware about change, it will be beneficial for them to work effectively. It helps in
identifying in which stage employees are facing difficulty and what measures can be taken.
Helping employees to identify its benefits- If employees re well know about what benefits they
will have by implementing change, it enables them to work hard. Manager must help employees
to identify benefits that will occur. This gives them a clear insight of positive impact of change.
It boosts the morale of employee.
Listening to employees- Always listen to employees carefully. It helps in identifying what
problems they are facing and at which stage. Also, it is useful as employees share their ideas and
suggestions on how to implement change (Henderson, , Gulati. and Tushman,, 2015). Moreover,
it helps in identifying how change has influenced their behaviour. Furthermore, by solving
problems employee works independently.
Taking feedback- In this feedback can be taken in order to provide training to employees. It
will help them to adopt change. Also, it shows that how employee is been able to implement
change and to what extent. Moreover, they can freely discuses what issues they have faced while
working with change. It describes effect on their performance. This is useful as weak areas of
employees are identified and training is provided to them.
Employee contribution- Involving employee in decision making process can be useful to
minimise negative impact. In this employee participate with manager to develop strategies. With
this employee get clear about their goals and duties. Also, if any change is needed then
employees will be ready to adopt it.
Re- motivate employees- Employees who have not performed well after implementation of
change are provided training (Hughes, 2016) .This rebuilds their confidence and allows them to
work harder. Moreover, awards are given to those who have effectively adopted change. This
encourages others to put more efforts to adopt change.
P4 Different barriers of change and its influence in decision making
Barriers are common part of every organisation. They occur at every level and restrict
organisation to implement change. They affect strategies and decisions that are taken to
implement change. Also, these barriers affects the decision making process. So it is necessary to
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eliminate them in order to improve the efficiency of organisation. Some common barriers are as
follows:-
Resistance to change- It is related to work force of organisation. They prefer to work in same
way. These people do not want change to be implemented because they think that it will make
them lethargic. Also, things will get more complicated that will lead to reducing their efficiency.
They want that things should remain the same. This restrict the organisation to implement
change (Ryan,, 2016). Leaders handle this situation by taking effective decisions and motivating
employees. They show them benefits of implementing change.
Unknown current state- It refers to predicting what will happen next. It means finding out what
impact will it have on organisation by implementing change. This situation affects the whole
organisation goals and objectives. If enforces employees to change their working style. In order
to control these situations strategies are developed by leaders. It helps them to apply effective
leadership style to adopt changes.
Integration- changes implemented modifies the process and procedures. Employees as well as
leaders working efficiency is highly affected. Also, the team is not able to work properly due to
changes in roles and duties (Boyal, and Hewison,, 2016). Moreover, managers do no understand
that what changes are made in and where these changes will be applied. Also, how these changes
will be beneficial for employees and business. Therefore, to implement changes effectively
strategies are developed.
Competitive forces- There exists some forces that affects the change to be implemented. These
forces are often external forces such as market conditions, political factors, etc. It highly affects
the business operations and decisions. It creates a dilemma that if changes implemented will be
beneficial or not. Then it becomes difficult for business to take decision. They have to do
thorough research on impact of implementing changes.
Complexity- Change management makes the works more complex. With implementation of new
methods and procedures employees find it difficult to work. Also, change is implemented not in
one particular area but in overall organisation (Bushe,. and Marshak, , 2016). So this changes the
entire functioning of employees. Thus, to deal with it highly experienced managers and leaders
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are required. They have to take decisions to control these situations. It affects their decision
making as a lot of risk is involved in this.
Zara implemented change to develop products and improve their quality. It affected
employees as new techniques and methods were implemented in production process. For this
leadership style was followed to motivate employees. This influenced their behaviour as they
were not ready to adopt them. Also, leaders followed specific style to implement change. The
overall functioning of Zara was modified (Power,, 2016.) .Workers roles were changed, this
affected their productivity. Also, they were not able to perform same as before.
On the other hand H&M provided new resources to employees to work. This affected
them as new process were developed. The sales force were given training on how to deal with
customer and identify their needs. Moreover, H&M hired new leader to train the employees. It
had a huge impact on behaviour as they were not comfortable with new leader. Also, employees
were trained with new leadership style. It affected their working performance.
P5 Different leadership approaches to deal with change
Leader’s role is to deal with change and implement it within the organisation. They
develop strategies and motivate employees to adopt change. For this, they have to follow
different leadership styles. These styles are followed to bring effectiveness in employee
productivity. It enables managers to encourage employees. The leadership approaches are
defined below:-
Creative- It is an approach in which the leader finds out new methods or ways to complete task.
He thinks outside the box and implements change with creativity. They regularly communicate
with employees to help them to adopt change (Burke 2017). In this way, change management
can be adopted in organisation by following creative leadership style.
Open communication- In this approach, leader communicates with employee to implement
change. It is done to identify issues and problems so that it can be solved while implementing
change. Open communication enables leaders and managers to freely work with each other.
Also, in this staff can help others to adopt change. It creates a positive environment and allows
employees to share their issues. With this, leaders give suggestions to solve them.
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Situational leadership- This refers to leadership approach in which leaders take appropriate
measure by analysing the current situation. It allows leaders to implement change easily. This
approach is based on situation as leaders change their style accordingly. With this, they can
effectively control the change occurred (Byers,, 2015.).
Transformational- This is a leadership approach in which goals are set by identifying the
employees’ strengths and weakness. It allows leaders to assign tasks according to their skills and
abilities (Abernethy, 2017.). They improve employee performance by providing them new ideas
to accomplish tasks in easier way.
Cross cultural- It is the most commonly used approach to implement change. Employees are
allowed to participate in decision making process to share their ideas. With this, leaders develop
strategies to achieve goals and objectives. It is done to allow employees to work in more
effective way. It also shows the reaction of employees towards change. Leaders think that
working with employees will be helpful in dealing with change. Thus, if any change occurs
employees can give their views on how to implement change.
Servant- In this, the leader focuses on long term goals; for this, he creates team and allots tasks
to them. Also, the emphasis is on ethics rather than culture. In this way, it helps in growth and
development of employees (Mackey and et..al., 2017.).
Comfortable with ambiguity- The leader is already having experience on how to deal with
change. Therefore, they develop strategies accordingly as they know what will happen next. In
this way, they control change and effectively deal with it.
CONCLUSION:
From this report, it is concluded that every business requires change at a particular stage
and time. It helps them to grow and expand. Making changes in business is known as change
management. Internal and external drivers plays a crucial role in bringing change. It is because
business is directly related to these factors and it influences overall business operations.. In order
to implement change management effectively, it is necessary to minimise its impact on
organisation efficiency. Barriers occur at every level and restrict organisation to implement
change. They affect strategies and decisions that are taken to implement change. Leader’s role
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is to deal with change and implement it within the organisation. They develop strategies and
motivate employees to adopt change.
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REFERENCES:
Books and journals:
Abernethy, K., 2017. Brief Guide to Leadership: Leading Change, Strategy, and Culture.
Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading organizational
change. Sage Publications.
Boyal, A. and Hewison, A., 2016. Exploring senior nurses’ experiences of leading
organizational change. Leadership in Health Services.29(1). pp.37-51.
Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Bushe, G.R. and Marshak, R.J., 2016. The dialogic mindset: Leading emergent change in a
complex world. Organization Development Journal.34(1). pp.37-65.
Byers, V., 2015. The challenges of leading change in health‐care delivery from the front‐
line. Journal of nursing management.
Canterino, F., Cirella, S. and Shani, A.B., 2018. Leading organizational transformation: an
action research study. Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Hay, D.A., 2017. From Communication to Coherence: Leading Change (Doctoral dissertation).
Henderson, R., Gulati, R. and Tushman, M. eds., 2015. Leading sustainable change: An
organizational perspective. OUP Oxford.
Hughes, M., 2016. Leading changes: Why transformation explanations fail. Leadership.12(4).
pp.449-469.
Mackey and et..al., 2017. Leading change to co-teaching in primary schools: a “Down Under”
experience. Educational Review. pp.1-21.
Meredith, P., Rosell, S.A. and Davis, G.R., 2016. Catalytic Governance: Leading Change in the
Information Age. University of Toronto Press.
Painter, S.R. and Clark, C.M., 2015. Leading change: Faculty development through structured
collaboration. International Journal of Doctoral Studies.10. pp.187-198.
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