Leading Change: Organizational Strategies and Leadership Approaches

This report examines the dynamics of leading change within organizations, using Sainsbury's as a case study. It delves into how change impacts a company's strategies and operations, considering both internal and external drivers such as political, environmental, and economic factors. The report evaluates the effects of these drivers on leadership, team, and individual behavior, while also assessing measures to mitigate negative impacts of change. It explores various barriers to change and their influence on leadership decision-making, including an analysis of force field analysis. Furthermore, the report applies different leadership approaches to address change, evaluating their effectiveness and offering recommendations for effective change management and planning.

Understanding and
Leading Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Discuss various organizational examples to highlight impact of change on companies
tactics and operations.............................................................................................................3
Drivers for change in each example and types of organisational change they affected.........1
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P2 Evaluation of the ways in which the internal and external drivers can affect the leadership,
team and individual behaviour...............................................................................................1
P3 Evaluate measures that will help to reduce the negative effect of change........................3
Appropriate theories and models to evaluate organisational response to change..................5
Conclusions and recommendations with valid justifications for planning change effectively5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
P4 Describe different barriers for change and their impact on leadership decision-making..5
Critically evaluate the use of force field analysis in the context of meeting organisational
objectives................................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change.......................................8
Evaluate effectiveness of leadership approaches and model of change management..........10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Change in the present competitive environment inevitable process as it help the
organisation in becoming highly competitive in the marketplace. Due to the availability of
various factors like newer technology development, liberation of markets, higher level of
international competition and the diverse changing demographic conditions insist an organisation
requires to consider the changes in their business. By adopting the effective changes in the
business a firm can operate their business activities as per the current market trends which will
enables them in attaining higher profitability and recognition in the marketplace. This following
assignment is based on the Sainsbury's which is a second largest chain of supermarkets which
headquarters are situated in UK and London. This file will cover about the how the changes lead
impact on the strategies and operations of different organisations. Also, effect of different
barriers of changes on decision-making of leaders along with the several leadership approaches
will discuss in this report.
TASK 1
P1 Discuss various organizational examples to highlight impact of change on companies tactics
and operations.
Organisational strategies refers to a plan which specify that how the business will operate
their activities in terms to achieve its long term aims and objectives(Alavi and Gill, 2017). It is
essential for an organisation to make effective strategies which will support in carrying all the
operations like production, marketing, inventory management and other significantly. It becomes
more essential when an organisation concern for adopting changes like at present Sainsbury's is
focussing on adopting changes in their methods so in case it is necessary for them to formulate
impressive strategies otherwise it will lead the impact on their existing strategies and operations.
Basis Sainsburys Lidl
Political change Over the years fluctuation in
external market has lead UK to
Political instability has
impacted grocery

face many political instability.
Due to this governing bodies
has to modify their policies
and regulations in United
Kingdom. In order to compete
with this dynamic changes
Sainsburys management has
implemented certain changes
in strategies and operation.
Strategies: Changes occurring
in the external environment
leads in downfall of economic
in UK. Due to which
customers changed their mind
set regarding purchasing of
high quality grocery goods
and services. In the earlier
days company adopted
skimming strategy to sell the
product in supermarket but
now premium pricing strategy
is implemented so as to raise
sales volume in open market
place(Bolton and et. al., 2013).
Operation: Sainsburys
management has executed
certain changes in their day to
day operation activity. The old
machines and tools are replace
with modern plant and
machinery so that labour cost
supermarket to a large extent.
It has directly or indirectly
decreased sales and revenue
ratio. In order to over come
this firm need to modify
strategies and operations in
effective manner. Below are
mentioned changes in
strategies and operation for
productive outcomes as
compare to rivalry.
Strategies: In order to raise
sales in the past days LiDl
used economic pricing tactics
but now they are adopting
high-low pricing strategy in
order to capture huge market
ratio.
Operations: In order to resole
the problem of inventory
control Company is adopting
lean manufacturing. This
leads in cutting down
operation cost that results in
accumulation of huge profit
by timely meeting customers
needs.

can be reduced. It will aid in
reducing wastage of resources
to a large extent and raises
revenue generation.
Environmental Change Customers are more
concentrated in purchasing
those goods which do not
deplete the environment. So
Sainsburys adopted some
change in their operations and
strategies to bind customers
with their product.
Strategies: Firm is adopting
tactics such as, purchasing
systems along with inventory
control. This aid in using the
resources in renewable
manner. Sainsburys provide
benefits to staff who willingly
take part in campaigns like
keeping UK clean and plastic
free.
Operations: Management in
order to eliminate problems
related to environmental
implement sustainable
business operations so that
renewable resources can be
used in effective manner.
In order to run the business
smoothly despite of
environmental changes
occurring in the market. Lidl
has adopted changes in
strategies and operations ,
explained beneath:
Strategies: In order to save
environment firm has adopted
online payment method as
there will less use of paper.
Also clothes bags are
provided in every shops to
reduce use of plastic bags.
Operations: Six Sigma is
effectively used in the
business operation as it is
successful in reducing waste
and motivate to use resources
which are not synthetic in
nature. Buy this step to some
extent environment issue can
be resolved(Choon and Embi,
2012).

Drivers for change in each example and types of organisational change they affected.
Each business within the competitive era is affected through drivers these drivers may be
internal or external. Internal drivers consists of the functioning of the business whereas external
is comprises of the drivers are those which directly affect the business. There are various drivers
apart from these which affect the business or organisational changes such as remedial and
transformational changes these changes occurs due to inefficiency within the employees
performance whereas the transformational changes are due to rapidly changing
environment(Gnan, Hinna and Scarozza, 2013).
TASK 2
P2 Evaluation of the ways in which the internal and external drivers can affect the leadership,
team and individual behaviour
The consideration of changes within the business organisation is essential in order to get
higher success and growth in the marketplace. But while adopting changes an organisation have
to face various challenges from their internal and external business environment. In this, internal
factors are those which are occurring inside the organisation like communication, culture,
leadership and many others. Whereas, external factors are those which incurred due to the
outside environment of business like political, environmental, social, economical etc.
Undertaking of all these factors within the organisation of Sainsbury's in necessary for the
business manager in order to operate all the activities smoothly. Otherwise it will direct impact
on their performance which can be understood by following points:
Internal drivers: These are the factors which are remain stay in the organisational
boundaries in other worlds which are occur inside the organisation. It consist various factors like
physical resource, human resource, corporate culture etc. which have great impact on the
performance of the organisation. Here are describe some of the factors and their impact:
leadership: It plays an important role in implementing changes successfully as the leader
are responsible for influencing and guiding their team by telling them the various benefits of
changes for them as well as organisation(Hintz and Bahia, 2013). In this aspect, they make plan
to provide effective training programs to their employees so that they will be able to take
advantage of their enhanced skills and knowledge in successfully implementing changes and get
competitive benefits.

Communication: Adoption of effective communication channels or practices have huge
significance for Sainsbury's as it will enables them in making freely communication with the
team members which will allow the leaders to motivate the employees to give their high
contribution in adopting new changes so that they can easily meet their desired goals and
objectives.
In term to assess the impact of these factors on the performance of the company manager
of Sainsbury's can use SWOT analysis as it will give them brief exposure of their strength and
weaknesses along with this it will assist them in taking the benefits of opportunities and reduce
the negative impact of threats. SWOT analysis of Sainsbury's is given below:
Strengths Weaknesses
It is listed in largest super market in UK which
has huge number of employee almost 150000.
Change drivers: In order to gain higher
profitability and success in the market they
needs to expand their business in more
countries or nations.
Higher prices of their products become
weakness for them at the time of rising prices
of food products.
Change drivers: they needs to give their
emphasis on adopting economy pricing so that
they can attract various customers towards their
products.
Opportunities Threats
It is great opportunity for them to enter in new
markets of merging companies.
Change drivers: In this aspect, they need to
give their focus on join ventures or partnership
which enables them to explore new
marketplaces.
Due to the high recognised brand they have to
face cut-throat competition in the marketplace.
Change drivers: For competing their
competitors they needs to offer high quality
products in the market.
External drivers: These are those factors which are incurring because of the outside
environment of business(Leiceaga and et. al., 2015). The consideration of these factors are
essential otherwise it will lead huge impact on business performance which can be understood by
following model that is PEST which is describing beneath:
Political: These factors are related to the government laws and regulation which as
implied by them on the business like employment laws, tax policy, trade policy and many more.
2

The impact of this factors cam be determined by following example, like if government will
loose the trade policy then the organisation like Sainsbury's can easily deal with across UK
boundaries(Iles, 2017).
Economical: It refers to that factors which are incurring due to the changes in economy.
It includes interest rate, inflation rate, trade policies and many others. It lead huge impact for
instance, if the inflation rate will be increase the economy then purchase power of consumers
will negatively affected which will direct impact on the profitability and sustainability of the
business of Sainsbury's.
Social: It pertains that an organisation needs to give their focus on operating their
business as per the customers demand and expectations so that they can enhance their overall
performance. For example, if Sainsbury's will operate their manufacture activities as per the
customers demand and requirements them they will be able to meet their desired results easily.
Technological: The impact of these factors comes because of the changes in
technologies. It force business manager of Sainsbury's to adopt updates technologies in their
manufacturing activities so that they will be able to produce their products at lower cost and can
offer high quality to their customers.
P3 Evaluate measures that will help to reduce the negative effect of change
Adoption of changes are very beneficial for the organisation but it is not an easy task as
while implementing changes an organisation have to face various conflicts like employees
attrition, lack of communication, failed embrace, and many others which needs to maintain by
the manager of the business by applying effective strategies and making plan. Some of the
strategies which can adopt by Sainsbury's is given beneath:
 Enlargement of communication channels: By enhancing communication channels
within the organisation manager of Sainsbury's will be able to motivate and guide their
employees towards adopting the changes which will enables them in providing higher
satisfaction as well as get higher performance of them(Lozano, Martinez-Cerdeno and J
Hagerman, 2015).
 Increase the participation of employees in decision-making: This is the another way
of attain the employees attention and interest towards successfully implementing changes
as with the help of this employees will remain motivated and influenced as they will feel
that they are important part of the organisation.
3

In order to overcome all these issues or conflicts manager of Sainsbury's can adopt
effective techniques and tools which will help them in decreasing the negative impact of
adopting changes. In this aspect, they can use PDCA model which has four stages which are
describing below:
 Plan: This is the foremost stage of this model as in which plan related to execute the
changes has been made. At this phase, the manager needs to give their emphasis on
conducting effective research so that they can ascertain the demand and needs of the
consumers and can operate determine that in which filed they needs to implement
changes in order to meet the customers requirements and provide them higher
satisfaction(Nagarajaiah and Begum, 2014).
 Do: Herein, the plans or strategies which have made before will implement after
measuring its effectiveness. This stage requires higher efforts of employees in
successfully adopting the changes so that the desired goals and objectives can be
achieved.
 Check: At this step, manager of Sainsbury's needs to give their focus on evaluating their
strategies and methods that they are able to meet their desired results or not. For this, they
can use their estimated and actual figures which will enables them in finding out the
variations so that they can adopt required changes effectively.
 Act: This is the last stage in which Sainsbury's will document the results and make
appropriate recommendations for the issues which needs be addressed(Peters, 2012).
Hence, it can concluded that it is the most effective model as it will help the manager of
Sainsbury's to ascertain the success of adoptive changes at each stage.
4

Appropriate theories and models to evaluate organisational response to change.
The business organisation of Sainsbury's must give their emphasis on considering
different theories and model as with the help of this they will be able to determine that where
they needs to do more efforts. In this aspect, they can use PDCA cycle which help them in
making effective strategies and plans that would give their contribution in responding towards
the rapid changes which will helps them in gaining higher competitive advantage and attain
profitability within limited period of time. In case if the business will not consider the
appropriate theories then their succession chances and organisational position might go in
downfall position(Rocha-Santos and et. al., 2016).
Conclusions and recommendations with valid justifications for planning change effectively
From the mentioned study I can be concluded that business of the Sainsberry is impacted
by both the drivers in a affirmative as well as pessimistic manner. Due to which the business is
recommended with some of the suggestions so that they can enhance their overall performance
such as it is recommended to the business to predetermine the cost which they are going to incur
through the operating so that they can reduce the chances of the risks and uncertainties along
with this they are also suggested to involves their employees in the decision making processes so
that effective performance can be carried out.
TASK 3
P4 Describe different barriers for change and their impact on leadership decision-making.
As it can be seen from the preceding discussion that changes are necessary for the
organisation as it helps them in carrying out all their activities as per the current market which
enables them to open up paths of their succession. But espousal of changes is not easy, an
organisation have to face various barriers which lead the impact on the performance and
leadership decision-making which can be ascertained by following points:
Lack of employees involvement: This is considered as a most basic issue which is
facing by a business organisation at the time of proceeding changes. As it is because employees
have fear to consider the changes as they have to do more efforts towards adopting the changes.
In this aspect, leader of Sainsbury's needs to take effective decision related to inspire the
employees to take participation in decision-making process by providing them sufficient
resources, training programs and welcoming their ideas and thoughts in decisions.
5

Improper communication: This is the another issue of adopting changes which pertains
that leaders of Sainsbury's must give their focus on regulating proper communication channels
within their organisation so that free flow of information, ideas, opinions can be maintained.
In the present world, diverse customers are existing who has different choices, needs,
perception and requirements which makes essential for the organisations to consider it in order to
operate all the business operations as per the current market scenario. It is same applied on
Sainsbury's that they must adopt changes in their existing products and give their focus on
launching new products by adopting new technologies and working procedures so that they will
able to get higher success and recognition in the marketplace. Apart form this, various factors are
available who has impact on changing process(Stanleigh, 2013). The analysis of these are
essential for Sainsbury in order to operate all the activities smoothly. For this they can use
Force Field Analysis model which is describing below:
Forces against changes:-
 Increasing cost:- At the time of introducing new product in the marketplace manager of
Sainsbury's have to give their focus on adopting updates technologies which will enables
them to deliver higher quality products at lower price but due to this the overall cost of
the firm will be increase as because it requires more training programs to the employees.
 More labour turnover and absenteeism:- Employees have always fear of changes as it
demands their more time and efforts which decrease their interest from the new changes.
This will also give results as highly employees attrition rate which will direct impact on
the brand value and sustainability of the business.
Forces in favour of changes:-
 Customers want new product:- Due to the higher quality of the products Sainsbury's
always able to attract a range of customers towards their new development which enables
them to gain higher profitability and success(Thomas and et. al., 2013). Increase in product category:- Development of a new product will take place in
increment of their product category which results the huge customers base of firm.
 Governmental support:- As Sainsbury's is listed in well-known organisation because of
their influence to the economy due to this they are always giving their major concern to
the government rules and regulations which enables them to attain higher support of
6

government in introducing new product in market. For example, government give them
some tax relief so that they can launch their product successfully without any crisis.
Kotter and Schleinger's model: The changes is important for an organisation to implement in
order to ensure their survival. But such change is initially resisted by the employee which can
affect the culture of the organisation. The six change approach which can help Sainsbury's in
dealing with resistance is:
 Education and communication: With the help of this the leaders can provide
information about the benefits and opportunities of the change. This will influence them
to willing get involve in the implementation.
 Participation and involvement: As per this the team members are involved in the
decision making and participate by allowing them to provides their suggestions and
opinions.
 Facilitation and support: To reduce the resistance the training and development
sessions need to be provided to them so that they will feel motivated and also they must
be provided emotional support.
 Negotiation and agreement: With the help of financial incentives the resistance can be
reduced. Also it will help them to bring change in the ways the employees work. This is
the easiest way to reduce the resistance.
 Manipulation and co-optation: The leaders in the organisation can use selective
information to encourage the employees to behave in the way they want. While in co-
optation the individual are make responsible and part of change management. This is
used by the leaders when all other options fail.
 Explicit and Implicit coercion: This is the last option which rest with the leaders to
reduce resistance. In this the employees are forced and threaten to adapt the change.
Critically evaluate the use of force field analysis in the context of meeting organisational
objectives.
Implementing force field analysis within the business will enable the firm like Sain'sberry
in their effective performance and increment within their profitability and productivity. This will
support the business of the Sainsberry in dealing with the complex and dangerous circumstances
in a appropriate manner but in some moral situations this can be a less impactful. Therefore, this
7

is because resisting power will increase stress level among employees(Tombetti and Mason,
2018).
TASK 4
P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change.
Success of changes depends on the leaders as they are only person who can influence the
employees to adopt changes significantly. As changes management is a process which requires
more dedication, expertise and efforts in order to effectively implement changes or run it. And
only the leader have the ability and capacity to motivate the people in contributing in
appropriately implement the changes so that they will also affected by the changes. In this
aspect, leaders of Sainsbury's needs to give their focus on adopting most effective leadership
approach among below define several leadership approaches:
Democratic leadership approach: It is considered as a most perfect leadership approach
as it gives their emphasis on involvement of the employees in decision-making process so that
the free flow of ideas and opinions can be maintained. The most impressive points of this style is
that it focus on keeping active communication between upwards authorities and downwards
employees. It is suitable in changing environment situation which enables the Sainsbury's in
regulating fairness, creativeness, spirit, intelligence within the organisation which results higher
profitability and succession of the business within a limited period of time.
Situational leadership approach: This leadership style is perfect in those situation when
the business is focussing on continuously adopting the changes. This will enables the leader of
Sainsbury' s in taking the higher support of employees in changing position of business which
are incurring due to the external environment of the organisation. For example, if the necessity of
innovative technology in the production activities is realise by the leader of Sainsbury's then they
will be able to gain the contribution of employees in adopting the new technologies in their
operations which will enables them to conduct all their activities as per the market which results
higher productivity and profitability of the business.
Transactional leadership approach: This leadership style is based on providing the
rewards and punishment to the employees for their outcomes. With the help of this approach
leaders of Sainsbury's will be able to motivate their employees to give their best results so that
they can get the rewards for their higher efforts. But it might can increase the bias and
8

discrimination along with it increase the fear in subordinates to get punished due to which the
higher employees turnover and lower succession have to face by the organisation(White and
Robinson, 2014).
As per the above discussion, it can be stated that form above all the leadership styles the
democratic leadership style is most perfect for Sainsbury's as it leads the positive impact on the
employees which results improvement in each employee performance as well as overall
performance of the organisation.
Approach of change management: In terms to successfully implement the change and manage
change strategies Sainsbury' must give their emphasis on adopting most relevant plan of action
or model. In this aspect, they first needs to evaluate that where they needs to change and what are
the adoption of changes and then they adopt an effective approach. For Sainsbury's the most
suitable approach is given below:
Lewin's change model: This is most perfect and popular model which allows an
organisation to interpret organisation and structural change. This will help Sainsbury's in
ascertaining that they should adopt the changes in their precesses or not. It consist three stages
which are define below:
9

Unfreezing: This is the first step of this model in which the employees resist changes in
their working processes. In this leader of Sainsbury's requires to give their focus on telling their
employees that why they are adopting the changes along with this they also needs to give their
emphasis on regulating effective communication channels so that they can stay connected with
their employees and tell them the significance of changes for them as well as
organisation(Wilkinson and Kemmis, 2015).
Changing: In this phase, all the changes take place due to which it requires more time to
happen. Herein, leaders of Sainsbury's give their focus on adopting good leadership so that they
can motivate the employee to go in right direction by making the change process easy for them.
Refreezing: Herein, all the changes are acknowledged, embraced and implemented by
employees due to this here leaders needs to give their concentration on establishing appropriate
control channels, provided healthy environment and adopt flat culture so that the employees
engagement towards changes can be increased and the overall success of the business can be
assured.
Hence, it is the most perfect model for Sainsbury's to manage their changes and attain
their desired outcomes in short duration of time. Along with this change model the company
need to use leadership style which can be :
Autocratic leadership style: In this style of leadership, the leaders give command to the
employees which they have to follow. The team members are not allowed to provides
suggestions to the leaders. This style of leadership has an advantage as the decision-making is
speedy which enhances the productivity of the company. It will help the leaders of the
Sainsbury's to implement change effectively by commanding their employees their specific roles
and responsibilities.
Evaluate effectiveness of leadership approaches and model of change management
From the above mentioned reports it can easily understood that the business of
Sainsberry will be at the stage of beneficial only if they focus on the style of leadership that is
situational and the model of the change management. As this both will enable the firm in
maintaining effective as well as the healthier work environment Along with this, this model is
will also be beneficial as this will not only increase the firm workers engagement but will also
minimise the chances of arising issues and conflicts at the workplace(Zeiler and Fergus, 2014).
10

CONCLUSION
From the above file, it can be understood that in order to get higher profitability and
sustain in the marketplace for a longer period of time it is necessary for an organisation to adopt
effective changes in their business. If organisation will not operate their business as per the
current market then their business strategies and operations will be affected in a great manner. In
consideration of changes leaders plays a huge role as they helping effectively run the business
operation and define the ways of overcome the various barriers. In this aspect, several leadership
style has given from which a leader can adopt a most suitable approach for themselves which
will enables them in influencing their employees in a significant manner which results higher
success and growth of the business in marketplace.
11

REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Alavi, S. B. and Gill, C., 2017. Leading change authentically: How authentic leaders influence
follower responses to complex change. Journal of Leadership & Organizational
Studies. 24(2). pp.157-171.
Bolton, R.N., and et. al., 2013. Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a
review and research agenda. Journal of service management. 24(3). pp.245-267.
Choon, L. K. and Embi, M. A., 2012. Subjectivity, organizational justice and performance
appraisal: Understanding the concept of subjectivity in leading towards employees’
perception of fairness in the performance appraisal. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences. 62. pp.189-193.
Gnan, L., Hinna, A. and Scarozza, D., 2013. Leading organisational changes in public sector
building blocks in understanding boards behaviour. In Conceptualizing and
Researching Governance in Public and Non-Profit Organizations (pp. 57-89). Emerald
Group Publishing Limited.
Hintz, C. and Bahia, H., 2013. Understanding mechanisms leading to asphalt binder fatigue in
the dynamic shear rheometer. Road Materials and Pavement Design. 14(sup2). pp.231-
251.
Iles, V., 2017. Leading and managing change. ABC of Clinical Leadership. 24(1). pp.49-87.
Leiceaga, G.G., and et. al., 2015. Crosswell seismic applications for improved reservoir
understanding. The Leading Edge. 34(4). pp.422-428.
Lozano, R., Martinez-Cerdeno, V. and J Hagerman, R., 2015. Advances in the understanding of
the gabaergic neurobiology of FMR1 expanded alleles leading to targeted treatments for
Fragile X Spectrum disorder. Current pharmaceutical design. 21(34). pp.4972-4979.
Nagarajaiah, H. and Begum, N. S., 2014. Structural modifications leading to changes in
supramolecular aggregation of thiazolo [3, 2-a] pyrimidines: Insights into their
conformational features. Journal of Chemical Sciences. 126(5). pp.1347-1356.
Peters, L., 2012. The rhythm of leading change: Living with paradox. Journal of Management
Inquiry. 21(4). pp.405-411.
Rocha-Santos, L., and et. al., 2016. The shrinkage of a forest: Landscape-scale deforestation
leading to overall changes in local forest structure. Biological Conservation. 196. pp.1-
9.
Stanleigh, M., 2013. Leading change. The Journal for Quality and Participation. 36(2). p.39.
Thomas, T. and et. al., 2013. Leading change and innovation in teacher preparation: A blueprint
for developing TPACK ready teacher candidates. TechTrends. 57(5). pp.55-63.
Tombetti, E. and Mason, J. C., 2018. Takayasu arteritis: advanced understanding is leading to
new horizons. Rheumatology. 58(2). pp.206-219.
White, V. and Robinson, S., 2014. Leading change in policing: police culture and the
psychological contract. The Police Journal. 87(4). pp.258-269.
Wilkinson, J. and Kemmis, S., 2015. Practice theory: Viewing leadership as leading.
Educational Philosophy and Theory. 47(4). pp.342-358.
Zeiler, M. D. and Fergus, R., 2014. September. Visualizing and understanding convolutional
networks. In European conference on computer vision (pp. 818-833). Springer, Cham.
12

13