Analysis of Leading Change Strategies for Sainsbury's (BUS123)

This report delves into the intricacies of leading change within Sainsbury's, a prominent retail entity. It commences with a comparative analysis of Sainsbury's and Morrisons, examining the impact of operational and strategic changes on their respective business models. The report then me...Read More

Understanding and
Leading Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Comparison of impact on operations and strategy of organizational changes:...........................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of external as well as internal drivers of changes that affect or influence individual,
team and along with it leadership behaviours within an organization:........................................5
Evaluation of measures that business can implement for minimization of negative impacts of
change on organizational behaviour:...........................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
Barriers of change and its influence in decision making of leaders:...........................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
Application of different leadership approaches for dealing with changes in organization:......11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Change in business refers to alteration in alteration in its routine process. In this
constantly evolving dynamic environment, change is essential for businesses to align with
changing trends and customer needs. Hence, understanding and leading change refers to
initiating changing in working pattern or process of an organization with the motive of coping up
with organizational, political, psychological and other issues related to enterprise (Bason, 2018).
This report is based on understanding and analysis of leading changes in Sainsbury's. Entity was
founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury. It is headquartered in United Kingdom and operates
in retail sector.
This report incorporates impact of organizational and strategical changes on company in
relevance to its comparison with another entity. Further, internal as well as external drivers of
change are evaluated in consideration to its affect on behaviours of team, individual and
leadership. Measures that can reduce negative impacts of change are identified. In addition to it,
barriers of change are determined in context to its influence on decision making of leaders. And,
different leadership approaches and its application in organization for the purpose of dealing
with change assessed.
TASK 1
Comparison of impact on operations and strategy of organizational changes:
Organisational change refers to change in firms operating system, it may involve a
change in firms structure, strategies, rules, policies, technology, procedures and culture. It
considers any alteration that occurs in its working environment. Change plays crucial role in any
organisation for making success in it (Venet and Monneret, 2018). Operational change can leads
to strategic change if the change in operations effects the mission as transforming and culture as
well as. It involves identifying and implementing essential alterations in an organization with the
perspective of long term success and higher sustainability. Goal of organizational changes is
development of business in such a way that entity responds to customer expectations and market
trends in most productive manner. Following is the comparison of Sainsbury's and Morrisons in
context to its operations and strategies:
Basis Morrisons Sainsbury's

Strategy Morrisons changing its strategy to
provide products to customers as
feeding the nation. This includes launch
of a new range which is simple to food
parcels including vegetarian food. The
supermarkets uses dedicated customer
call centre for taken over the phone to
influence those people who are not
using online shop can still order food. It
recruiting around 2500 pickers and
drivers for delivery of food at door
steps. It is the first company which is
resulted as 3% increase in pre-tax profit
for the year in UK. As others now
Morrisons gives compromising
customers dedication in time slot
between 9pm to 10 am.
Sainsbury's used high price strategy
but in today's time it changes its
strategy for pricing. As now its
products available at lower price to
customers because in before customers
faces various problems regarding
price, not everyone can afford its
prices. But now it sales its product on
less price with higher quality, it uses
campaign as higher quality at lower
price. This helps firm to increase its
sales and that leads to generate more
profitability. Now the company is
looking for customers point of view
that helps it increasing customers base.
Now customers has higher bargaining
power in Morrisons because now it has
wider customers range.
Operations Firm has changing its flat structure to
matrix structure that helps firm to
increase in productivity as well as
profitability because in flat structure
only one head leads all employees but
now in matrix strategy more than one
supervisors reviewing and guiding the
employees that motivates them and
improving quality of productivity. It
helps firm into collaboration between
different departments, allow
interdepartmental communication and
employee can develop new skills in
Sainsbury's uses new technology for its
operations as it provides its goods or
services at home that helps firm in
order to expand its business. That
covers new customer market for the
organisation, this helps it to improve in
brand image as well as profitability.

themselves. That helps organisation for
clear and easy communication network.
In this employees answers to multiple
managers from this it helps in resolved
issues quickly and firms wide
interaction is increased.
TASK 2
Evaluation of external as well as internal drivers of changes that affect or influence individual,
team and along with it leadership behaviours within an organization:
Change can be derived through various internal and external factors. This factors serves
as a reason for opportunities or barriers. Hence, inspecting such drivers of change plays a vital
role in transformation and development of organization (Burns and Matthews, 2018). In
relevance to Sainsbury's, managing and understanding changes is crucial for enhancing
efficiency of company and ensuring its sustainability. Internal and external factors or drivers of
change and its impact on functioning of Sainsbury's are further explained below.
Internal drivers: It involves factors that influence internal management and
methodology. It involves how organization evaluate internal environment and implement
required changes for enhancing its efficiency. Hence, it covers changes in mission,
communication, leadership, learning or structure of organization (Crawford, Walker and Valle,
2018). Sainsbury's applies SWOT analysis with the intention of evaluating internal changes in
business. This framework analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats of
enterprise minimizing risk and maximizing profitability. Swot analysis of Sainsbury's is
described below:
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 Sainsbury's is the largest chain of
supermarket in UK and hence, leads the
market in the area in which it serves its
operations.
 Brand loyalty of this organization is
 Enterprise serves only in United
Kingdom which deters it from
expanding its customer base.
 Prices of products of Sainsbury's is
higher as compared to competitors

high because it is one of the oldest
entity in UK in the field of
supermarkets.
 Firm has high brand recognition as it
sponsors various events such as,
Paralympics which provides
competitive advantage to an
organization (Uhl-Bien and Arena,
2018).
which serves as a reason for criticism
among customers.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 Sainsbury's has the opportunity of
internal expansion. Expanding its
operations in developing countries may
benefit firm in providing workforce at
lower costs and extending business and
brand value in overseas market.
 Increment in research and development
will bring forth opportunities such as,
implementation of self checkout
machines. This results in enhancement
of company's efficiency.
 Transforming and dynamic era has
increased tend of globalization, as a
result of which competitor threat of
Sainsbury's has also escalated. Some
major competitors of firm are, Asda,
Morrisons, Tesco, Lidl etc.
 Rising costs of business, such as
increasing raw materials cost, cost of
implementation of advance equipments
and many more has hindered
profitability of business.
SWOT Analysis of Morrisons
Strengths Weaknesses
 Morrisons have diverse product
portfolio for attracting customers from
different locations.
 The entity have efficiency supply chain
together with distribution network
 Geographical reach of the company is
limited that restrict it to increase its
market shares in international scenario.
 Morrisons have faced various issues
concerned with right of stakeholder

which help in meeting requirements of
all its target audiences.
which affected its brand image in
international retail industry.
Opportunities Threats
 Morrison have opportunity to grow
market for healthy and organic products
to penetrate in untapped market.
 By acquiring smaller companies
addition to strategic partnership, the
company can grow or expand diversely.
 Increment in taxation along with
changes in trade policies of government
is biggest threat for Morrisons.
 Businesses including E-commerce
websites are creating the industry more
competitive which reduces potentiality
of Morrisons to sustain.
External drivers: External drivers of change indicates external forces that impacts
productivity of business. External forces pinpoints factors which are outside the control of entity.
One the the major techniques that evaluates and monitors external changes is referred as
PESTLE analysis (Driver, 2019). This tool is utilized by Sainsbury's to analyse external drivers
and evaluate its influence on profitability and sustainability of business with the motive of
efficient strategical formulation. Following are the factors which instigate pestle analysis along
with its consequences on entity:
 Political factors: it covers stability or instability of government, regulations imposed by
authorities of government, trade policy, tax policy etc. In context to impact on political
factors on Sainsbury's it can be evaluated that emerging uncertainties in trade relations
due to Brexit has negatively impacted business operations of Sainsbury's. As, it has made
it complex for business to import products from foreign countries. It increased cost of
products which ultimately improved its prices which leads to emergence of
dissatisfaction among customers.
 Economical factors: It includes rate of exchange, interest rates, changes in demand and
supply, inflation, deflation, disposable income, wages rate etc. Rising wage rates in UK
improvised salary amount of employees of Sainsbury's which increased expenses of
company and affected its profitability.

 Social factors: It involves factors such as, attitude of people towards career and health,
age distribution, size of population, buying trends of customers etc. Changing trends of
customers towards healthy eating has reduced demand for junk food and enhanced needs
of customers towards healthy food (Galuppo and et.al., 2019). It positively impact
Sainsbury's, as promotional activities of firm is directed towards supply of healthy food
that fulfils customers requirements. This can be evidenced by its slogans such as,
“Sainsbury's for quality, Sainsbury's for value”.
 Technological factors: Emerging technologies, automations, innovations, maturity of
old technologies, all these are considered in technological factors. In relevance to
Sainsbury's, it can be stated that technological advancements enable company in
satisfying needs of customers in better way. For example, offering online shopping
options to customers, effective tracking and analysis of customer experience. Such
processes encourages customer satisfaction level which further improves brand loyalty.
 Legal factors: Health and safety measures, quality standards, advertising standards,
competitive legislations etc. are involved in legal factors (Hayes, 2018). Proper
accomplishment of quality standards by implementation of efficient norms or techniques
for monitoring of quality improves trust of customers towards organization. Hence, it
enhances brand image of Sainsbury's. Environmental factors: It covers legislations related to environment, business ethics and
responsibility towards environment, climate change etc. Emerging concern and
awareness of people towards environment led towards incorporation of practices such as,
corporate social responsibility. in Sainsbury's. This on the one hand enhances brand value
in the eyes of customers while on the other hand improves expenditure of enterprise.
PESTLE Analysis of Morrisons:
Political factors: It plays significant function in determining what can impact of
profitability of company in certain market. In case with Morrisons, it is evaluated that stable
political system encourages businesses to tap into other nations for further expansion.. fir this,
various incentives and other facilitation are offered by political leaders to entity such as
Morrisons so that it can diverse its expansion which impacts positively, However, to manage
situations like Covid-19 pandemic, government have changed policies and reduced timings for
opening of stores that impacts negatively on the entity.

Economic factors: In context to Morrison, the business is required to keep its eye on
changing economic changes that are happening in the nation wherein it operates as economic
factor affects its sales volume and revenue generation. To leverage the benefits, managers of the
retail organisation keeps themselves awared and accordingly changes their strategies to deal with
uncertain changes positively. However, enhancement of prices and lower rise in consumer
disposable incomes results in reduction in sales of entity that impacts adversely on its image.
Social factors: In the fast pace, customers are preferring to buy products at one go that
meets their demand. Morrisons have designed its store location in such manner that attracts
wider consumers for bulk buying. Moreover, the company have switched towards food cum non
food structure from major food products that leads to huge sales resulting more revenues for the
entity.
Technological factors: For staying in present timings, it is significant for entity to keep
the business with changing technology. In case with Morrisons, it is experimenting with wider
technological aspects of retaining so to attain success in multiple endeavors. Furthermore,
adoption of online shopping, social media promotions and so on helps the entity to influence
consumers for purchasing. The entity have managed working by shifting trends of traditional
shopping to digital means.
Legal factors: Changes made by government in policies and regulations are key drivers
for company. In relevance to Morrisons, it is required to adhere local and international market
legislation for continuing smooth operations. It is evaluated that changes in legislation in both
international and national market act as drivers for business.
Environmental factors: In all nations, there are various initiatives that are undertaken to
improve environment as well as creating more sustainable society. In Morrisons, managers have
launched the mantra of Reduce, recycle and reuse that helps in reducing non recyclable plastics
and exploring opportunities to save environment of the nation. Moreover, the entity is working
hard for devising a system that reduces carbon emission by 30%.
Evaluation of measures that business can implement for minimization of negative impacts of
change on organizational behaviour:
Organizational change is associated with various impacts on business. These influences
can be positive or negative. On a positive note, changes in organizational behaviour are capable
of enhancing business efficiencies, providing competitive edge, encouraging innovations and

many more (Hjorth and Hinton, 2019). But, while considering its negative impact it can be
identified that it may discomfort employees as it hinders their routine procedures, involves
additional costs and time, etc. For measuring influence of change in Sainsbury's, Burke-Litwin
model is used. This model helps management in understanding component parts of organization
and its relation with change. Identification and dealings with change drivers in enterprise is
explained below:
 External environment: It covers economy, competition, legislation, as well as markets.
Continuous scanning of these environmental factors is essential for change manager of
Sainsbury's to eliminate or reduce negative impacts of change, such as implementation of
new legislation in working of business.
 Mission and strategy: Proper strategical formulation by management of Sainsbury's is
essential for implementation of changes in an effective so which enables firm to align
with transforming and global era (Holt-Lunstad, 2018).
 Leadership: The way in which leader perceives change has a vital impact on
implementation and acceptance of change in business. Change in enterprise leads to
change in work methodology of organization (Waddell and et.al., 2019). Such changes
may result in demotivation of employees of Sainsbury's. Hence, focus of management
and leaders should be on encouragement of employees for improving there productivity.
For this purpose, democratic leadership styles is applied in an organization.
 Structure: Sainsbury's utilizes divisional structure of organization for which ensures
adequate focus of change implementation in each departments. It further eliminates any
hindrances in management of change (Jesulola, Micalos and Baguley, 2018).
 Organizational culture: Handy's model of organizational culture is applied in
Sainsbury's for ensuring effective work environment within firm. This model states
various types of organizational culture such as, power, role, task and person. Among
these, role culture is implemented in enterprise which enables staff members to perform
task in accordance to their skills and capabilities. Hence, in such way firm is avoiding
negative impact of change.
 System: it refers to procedures, policies and regulations in organization. Systems of
human resource management, customer relationship management and enterprise resource

management is applied in Sainsbury's with motive of terminating restraints or negative
influences.
 Motivational level: Level of motivation of employees has a huge impact on their
performance. If workforce is not motivated it ultimately leads to negative impact on
working efficiency. Hence, leaders of Sainsbury's implements various motivational tools
and strategies for boosting motivation of their workforce (Kelly, 2018).
 Individual values or needs: Sainsbury's instigated authorised department of customer
relationship management for evaluating changing needs and values of individual so that
firm can align with it and negative impact of not meeting expectations of individual can
be neglected.
 Management practice: Management of Sainsbury's regularly implements innovative
ideas in entity for ensuring proper management of change.
 Working climate: positive working climate is maintained in Sainsbury's for boosting
productivity of organization and avoiding negative implications.
 Task and skill: In Sainsbury's, regular training is provided to workforce and clear
guidelines is provided by superiors for task delegated for associating with change.
TASK 3
Barriers of change and its influence in decision making of leaders:
Barriers of changes refers to hindrances face business faces in implementing change. In
Sainsbury's following are the barriers of changes:
 Deficiency of employee involvement: Employee involvement in change indicates
resistance of employees for change. Workforce of Sainsbury's have their set routine of
work. If it is changed or modified by executives of business employees feel demotivated.
Hence, this comes out as a barrier in implementation of change strategies in an
organization.
 Inadequate technique of change management: No proper team is executed in
Sainsbury's for management of change impacts in an organization. Hence, various
hindrances and problems are to be faced by firm in applying changes.
 Improper communication strategy: Communication structure or channel adopted by
Sainsbury's is not adequate for accepting and explaining changes to staff members.

Leaders perceive that announcement of change is enough but in practical situation, for
making change accepted by team members, leaders should introduce change, its
implication strategies and benefits instead of just announcing what the change or
modification is applied.
 Complexity of organization: It indicates complexities in processes, systems or products
(Lindgren and et.al., 2019). As, Sainsbury's has large number of staff members, various
departments and wide variety of products. Hence, assessing changes and managing them
effectively come out yo be a difficult task.
To overcome above mentioned barriers that are related to Sainsbury's, Force-field
analysis is followed by an organization. This model was introduced by Kurt Lewin in 1940. it
provides approaches to manage business changes effectively and efficiently with the motive of
achieving organizational objectives and avoiding barriers that hinder changes (Mahoney, 2019).
That is, it provides overview of problems in change that business should focus of tackling. It
involves five stages which are described as follows:
 Change substances: It suggests firm to ensure proper description and explanation of
changes to the taskforce that management of business is forecasting ton adopt in
upcoming time. This ensures improvement of efficiency as well as productivity of
employees.
 Identifying forces of change: Management of Sainsbury's evaluates different forces of
change, that is, internal and external forces for the purpose of understanding its influence
on performance of business. This techniques enables firm in effective implementation of
required modifications which increases sustainability of an organization.
 Alternatives identification: this technique suggests different ideas or alternatives for
accomplishment of desired objectives of Sainsbury's. In context to change management,
it refers to identification of available alternatives for adoption of change in business.
 Assessment of score: Sainsbury's assess scores of performance of business with the
motive of identifying growth or improvement opportunities and developing action plan of
changes required in applying them.
 Execution and evaluation: This stage refers to execution of strategies formulated for
change implementation for pertaining proper implementation of assessed changes in

Sainsbury's. Further, regularly evaluation and monitoring of implied changes plays an
essential role in ensuring its success.
TASK 4
Application of different leadership approaches for dealing with changes in organization:
Leadership plays a crucial role in change management. As, leaders acts as a link between
vision of organization and perspective of employees. Change programs inculcate various
alterations and obstacles. Here, comes the essential role of leaders in understanding changes that
are to be applied and leading staff force towards its effective implementation (Nakkula, and
Toshalis, 2020).
For executing change management in Sainsbury's, Lewin change model is incorporated
by firm. According to this model, change occurs through various stages, i.e., unfreezing,
changing and refreezing (Okrent, 2019). Application of change through these stages in business
are expressed below:
 Unfreezing stage: Initial step of this model is unfreezing. It states that before
implementing change, organization should first make its workforce aware about it. That
is, this stages focuses on making awareness of change. This enables leaders of
Sainsbury's in evaluating current acceptability level, upcoming hindrances, status quo,
and thinking process of people. Examination of these factors enables leaders
implementing required changes in formulation of strategy and communication
methodology, so that acceptance level of changes improves. It makes imminent of
changes easily and ensures effective results.
 Changing stage: It can be referred as transitional or moving stage. During this stage,
change is implemented in business. This indications policies of change that management
has made is practically adopted by business at this time. It is the most difficult step as
team is not probe of changes. In this step team learns new ways and processes. Here, the
role of leaders of Sainsbury's is to guide team members in such a way that enhances their
productivity level and motivates them to align with applied changes. It involves
constantly reminding employees about reasons of change and benefits that organization
and workforce will gain from its adoption.

 Refreezing stage: It is the final stage of this model. It symbolizes reinforcing and
solidifying state of change. Focus of leaders here is on stabilizes change processes by
monitoring and mangling change processes to identify any issues in procedure and
eliminate them. Here, efforts are made on maintaining applied changes in Sainsbury's.
This can be achieved by rewarding and recognizing staff on their excellent performance
in accordance to new policies, that is, by acknowledging them for their efforts.
Leadership Approaches: It refers to the behaviour pattern of the leader as prescribed by
the people around him. Every organisation has a leader and it develops a pattern so that they can
handle their subordinates in various situations (Miller, 2020). This style is the result of
personality and the experience of the leaders. It also depend on the followers and the condition
prevailing in the organisation. Leadership approaches and its appliance in Sainsbury's are
classified below:
Autocratic approach: This approach is also known as authoritarian style of leadership
which implies the absolute power. In this style the leaders are expecting complete obedience
from his subordinates. Subordinates do not have power to take decisions. All the decisions major
or small are taken by the leaders only. Application of this strategy in Sainsbury's, ensure
delegation of clear instructions to subordinates which avoids chances of conflusion and enables
effective adoption of change. Advantages and disadvantages of applying this approach in
Sainsbury's is discussed below:
Advantages of autocratic leader:
 Clear leadership chain in entity.
 Clear workplace expectations in Sainsbury's.
 Leads inexperienced workers well which improves productivity of business.
 Decisions are made quickly which incorporates quick achievement of targets.
Disadvantages of autocratic leaders:
 Pressure on the leaders of Sainsbury's.
 Little or no flexibility in an organization.
 Can cause workers resentment.
 It create the system of dependence in the organisation.
Democratic leader:Democratic leaders are also known as participative style leaders
which implies the compromise between the autocratic and laissez fair style of leadership. In this

the decisions are to be taken only after consulting the subordinates. Incorporation of this
leadership style in Sainsbury's motivates employees and allow them to give suggestions and
make decisions.
Advantages of Democratic leaders:
 It works well when trying to solve complex problem.
 It encourages creativity in business.
 It strengthens the relationship of a team and enables formation of effective team in
Sainsbury's.
 Increases the team knowledge which further improves team performance.
Disadvantages of Democratic leaders:
 It can create negative emotions or conflicts among team members. As every individual
wants to showcase himself or herself as superior.
 Can lead to procrastination.
 Takes time to reach a consensus.
CONCLUSION
Above report concludes that, leading change initiative in business is essential for
understanding and aligning with dynamic environment in which business is operating in.
Understanding required changes enhances firm in determining available opportunities and
achieving better result. Further, this report states comparison of organizational changes along
with its impact on operations and strategy of business. There are various drivers of change which
can be broadly classified into two categories that is internal and external. Internal forces covers
internal influences of business which can be evaluated with the use of swot analysis. This
framework enables firm to grab opportunities and deter threats. On the other hand, external
forces involves drivers of change that are outside control of business. It can be studied with the
application of pestle analysis that mainly focuses on six factors which are, political, economical,
social, technological, legal and environmental. In addition to it, report further indicates that
negative impact of business can be minimized with the use of Burke-Litwin model which
suggests dealing with various change factors. And, Force-field analysis is an effective framework
that enhances decision-making capacity of leaders to cope with barriers that may occur during
implementation of change. Along with it, Lewin change model provides various leadership
approaches for dealing with organizational changes.

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