Report on Change Management: Sainsbury's Strategy, Approach, Outcomes

This report provides an analysis of Sainsbury's change management strategies, approaches, and expected outcomes in light of the post-pandemic economic climate. It explores the current and desired states of the organization, highlighting the need for transformation to achieve profit targets and adapt to changing market trends. The report discusses the application of Lewin's change model (unfreezing, changing, refreezing) and the VUCA model (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) to manage organizational change, particularly in the context of technology adoption. It also details Sainsbury's change management plan, including activities, milestones based on Kotter's theory, and potential risks, emphasizing the importance of communication, leadership involvement, and long-term commitment to successfully implement and sustain changes within the organization. Desklib offers a wealth of resources for students seeking similar reports and study materials.

Organization Change
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
The current and desired state of the organization-.......................................................................3
The change strategy and approach and expected outcomes:.......................................................4
The change management plan-....................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Sainsbury is one of the leading departmental stores in UK. The organization deliver their
services and products at stores as well as online. It has happy and satisfied customers as the
quality of their products is very good (Ahmed, Qin, and Martínez, 2019). This report shows the
current and desired state of Sainsbury and their changed strategy , approach and their expected
outcomes . The complications that are expected by the company and why transformation is
needed in the firm. It also shows the changes of the management plans and the result after the
change and also the risk factors involved in the change management plans and strategies.
MAIN BODY
The current and desired state of the organization-
Key characteristics and context for the organization:
After the pandemic situation the current state of the organizations in UK as well as in the
whole world is not up to the mark because all countries are facing the problem of inflation, high
interest rates, taxation level, etc (Rajabi and et.al., 2019). in the economy. Sainsbury is a UK
based company and the economic condition of the UK is not good after the covid-19 so the
organization is also facing the problem of inflation that directly affect the profitability and the
productivity of the firm. On the other hand the desired state of Sainsbury is to achieve the profit
targets and the goals to become the world's largest chain of departmental stores. Sainsbury has to
pay high tax rates as the government of UK imposed taxes on the overall income or revenue of
the enterprise and the profits gained by the company from the worldwide.
At the present state the institution has to reduce the price of its products in order to
increase the sales of the business. Sainsbury also tries to attract the new customers through
online platform as after the pandemic situation consumers are using social media for online
shopping (Baran, Filipkowski and Stockwell, 2019). Transformation is required for the company
so that they can achieve the new targets and cope up with the current situation of the market.
The trends of the market and the preferences of the customers are changing day by day that
influence the overall growth of the enterprise. The firm is now changing the form and nature of
the business by making new plans and strategies such as free delivery services, discount
vouchers, complementary gift items, etc. to the customers who place the orders online.

Transformation or the changes help the Sainsbury to enhance the efficiency , profit margin and to
achieve success.
Lewin's change Model:
Lewin's change model includes three steps that are unfreezing, changing and refreezing.
Sainsbury use this model for their business in order to set out the complications and to
understand the change process and implement the new plans and behaviour to achieve new goals
and objectives.
 Unfreezing- Sainsbury implements the change in the business by using the unfreezing
method to check the current situation or level of suitability that will become the obstacle
for the organization (De Massis, Wang, and Chua, 2019). Organizational structure,
thinking ways, customers, old behaviour, etc. are examined by Sainsbury in order to
maintain the competitive advantage according to the market situation. The main and
important component of this method is clear communication between the top level
management and employees. The workers must be informed about the new plans or
strategies and the advantages of change for the employees. Sainsbury tries to motivate
the members of the firm to implement and accept the change made by the institution to
achieve the desired as well as new targets.
 Changing- After the method of unfreezing the process of changing starts that includes
movement of the business into a new state, thinking and appropriate mind set. Changing
is a process of moving an enterprise in a new form or appearance that takes the change as
reality (Luburić, 2019). In Sainsbury the employees learn the new behaviour and the new
ways of thinking during the process of changing and tries to prepare themselves for the
changes on the basis of the changing trends of the market. Sainsbury planned and execute
the changes carefully so that the workers can get advantages from it.
 Refreezing- Refreezing refers to the process of supporting, maintaining and setting the
new sate of being after the change. After deciding the appropriate changes Sainsbury
starts the process of refreezing to set the new standards for the employees. Sainsbury
give rewards and appreciation to the members of the firm in order to reinforce them to
think positively and creatively for the changes that lead the company towards success.
The change strategy and approach and expected outcomes:
Main features of organizational change management strategy and approach:

 Systematic approach towards human resource- Human resources and relations are the
main components of an organization (Love, and Matthews, 2019). Sainsbury made
systematic strategies and approaches to manage the change and to improve the
relationship among the members of the company. The strong and clear bonding build the
trust of the employees so that they can easily accept the change.
 Long term commitment: Sainsbury use the strategy of long term commitment to facilitate
the employees. As employees are dependent on top level management for the decisions,
support and direction about the changes that are implemented in the organization. So, it
becomes the responsibility of the seniors to establish a model of new behaviour and
motivates the workers to implement the change in an effective manner.
 Leaders involvement: It is the main feature of organizational change management
strategy so Sainsbury involve the leaders at every step or level as change is a process that
affect all the levels of the institution (Mariam, and Ramli, 2020). Identification of leaders
is the important step to achieve successful change strategy and also plays a vital role in
making new plans for business growth. Sainsbury give rewards to the leaders as they tries
to recognize and solve the problems.
 Clear communication: Clear and regular communication is one of the essential or main
feature of change management. Sainsbury supports and motivates the employees for
timely and effective communication at the time of delivering messages. These efforts
help the members of the firm to take quick and adequate decision in order to solve the
problems related to the change program. Importance of corporate culture: Sainsbury analysis the organizational culture in oreder
to prepare themselves for change and problems. The analysis provides information about
the internal and external factors that influence the stakeholders. Stakeholders directly
affect the new plans and approaches executed for the change.
Why organizational change management is needed:
Organizational change management is necessary for the enterprise to achieve success and
growth as it includes the acceptance and proper use of change in the business (Långstedt and
Manninen, 2021). According to the changing trends and situations of the market as well as the
change preferences or demand of the customers the firm has to change its form, nature and
appearance of its trade. Sainsbury implements technology change on the basis of current market

situations in order to reduce the risk and to attain the competitive advantage. Sainsbury will
immigrate the data of the firm on clouds and will try to motivates and trained the employees to
accept and implement the technology change. It also enhances the organizational effectiveness
and the efficiency or productivity of the institution. It helps the enterprise to make smart choices
and provides a scope of adapting or accepting the new technologies introduced in the market.
In order to introduced the technology change Sainsbury use the VUCA model of change.
VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Volatility- It includes rate of change and requires continuous analysis of the change. Sainsbury
prepares the resources and trained the employees to meet the change.
Uncertainty- This challenge includes uncertainty of things and the problems that Sainsbury will
face like the staff is not familiar with the new technology.
Complexity- This includes complex factor of the technology change for Sainsbury and the
informations are predicted in this situation.
Ambiguity- This challenge includes only unknowns and there is no possibility of the casual
relationship.
On the basis of this model Sainsbury comes under uncertainty category as the technology
change is based on predictions. Change is required to reduce the cost, increases the profitability
and for the growth of the firm. Rapid growth of digital technologies and globalization forces the
organizations to make technology changes in their business strategies (Kotlar, and Chrisman,
2019). These new digital solutions assist the firm to reach the new as well as old customers
easily and quickly. Digitalization helps in increasing the sales of the company and also makes the
payment procedure easy and safe. It improves internal and external services , manages the issues
and tries to solve the problems. Sainsbury involves the members of the staff in the change
process and communicate with them before making the plans for change. It will inspires the
employees to have good and effective communication among the team members. Sainsbury will
change the structure of the business operations and will process for improving the performance
and capabilities of the employees.
The change management plan-
High level activities and milestones in change management plan:
Sainsbury use Kotter's theory in order to see the milestones and activities that are applied
in change management plan. They are as follows:

1. Sense of urgency- Sainsbury creates a sense of urgency that means why it is necessary to
make urgent changes in the management plan of the company (Karaxha, 2019). There is
urgency of change so that the firm can improve and advance its technology and can cope
up with the new market trends and situations.2. Change Team- According to this theory building of a change team is very important, so
Sainsbury make a new team to implement the change. Sainsbury communicates with the
members of the team and make them aware of the change process in order to achieve the
new targets.3. Strategic vision- Sainsbury make the strategies and take initiatives for technology change
that to make every person familiar with this new change.4. Communication- Clear and effective communication is required for the change in order to
involve every person and make them understood their role. Sainsbury communicate with
the workers before starting the process of change so that their should be no confusion and
conflict among them .5. Remove barriers- Sainsbury remove the barriers of technology change by giving the
training to the workers and tries to solve their problems involved in the change process.6. Short term objectives- Sainsbury create short term objectives in order to manage the
organizational change so that there is less possibility of failure and also give rewards to
the members of the change team.7. Maintain Momentum- Sainsbury maintain the momentum of the change through
continuous analysis and evolution of the information provided regarding the change.8. Implement change- Sainsbury implement the change by establishing the connection
between the new strategies and the success of the business and tries to replace the old
behaviour.
Risks Involved:
Risks involved for Sainsbury in the change management plan is that it is a time
consuming and step by step process so sometimes it becomes difficult for the team members to
understand their role. As Sainsbury is making the change of technology or will try to introduce
the new plans to shift its data on cloud technology it becomes difficult for them because the
organization have to put inputs and efforts in understanding this technology. This change is
expensive so it increases the cost of Sainsbury. The institution have to trained the staff about the

new technologies as some of them are not familiar with this change. Risk of uncertainty is also
involved in this process as the provided information of change is totally based on predictions. So,
the enterprise don't know the problems or the situation that they have to face at the time of
change.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the current state and the desired state
of Sainsbury is showing the huge difference between them after the covid-19 pandemic situation
and the organization needs to change the business policies and plans. Sainsbury uses the Lewin's
change model in order to manage the complication or the problems that arise because of
transformation process. However, it can also be concluded that Sainsbury implement the new
strategies and the approaches for the organizational change management and also analysis the
expected outcomes or results. It outlines the change management plan and the risk factors
involved in it.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ahmed, F., Qin, Y.J. and Martínez, L., 2019. Sustainable change management through employee
readiness: Decision support system adoption in technology-intensive British e-
businesses. Sustainability. 11(11). p.2998.
Baran, B.E., Filipkowski, J.N. and Stockwell, R.A., 2019. Organizational change: Perspectives
from human resource management. Journal of change management. 19(3). pp.201-219.
De Massis, A., Wang, H. and Chua, J.H., 2019. Counterpoint: How heterogeneity among family
firms influences organizational change. Journal of Change Management. 19(1). pp.37-
44.
Karaxha, H., 2019. Methods for dealing with resistance to change. Baltic Journal of Real Estate
Economics and Construction Management. 7(1). pp.290-299.
Kotlar, J. and Chrisman, J.J., 2019. Point: How family involvement influences organizational
change. Journal of Change Management. 19(1). pp.26-36.
Långstedt, J. and Manninen, T.J., 2021. Basic Values and Change: A mixed methods
study. Journal of Change Management. 21(3). pp.333-357.
Love, P.E. and Matthews, J., 2019. The ‘how’of benefits management for digital technology:
From engineering to asset management. Automation in Construction. 107. p.102930.
Luburić, R., 2019. A Model of Crisis Prevention (Based on managing change, quality
management and risk management). Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice.
8(2). pp.33-49.
Mariam, S. and Ramli, A.H., 2020, July. Peran Mediasi Strategic Change Management pada
Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah dalam Kondisi Pandemik Covid-19. In Prosiding
Seminar STIAMI. (Vol. 7, No. 2. pp. 46-52).
Rajabi, Bassam Atieh, and Sai Peck Lee., 2019. "Change management framework to support uml
diagrams changes." International Arab Journal of Information Technology 16, no. 4,
720-730.
Online references
A, B., 2018. [Online]. Available through <>
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