Understanding and Leading Change: A Report on Tesco and Asda

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UNDERSTANDING AND LEADING
CHANGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
TASK 1 STRATEGY, OPERATIONS AND BEHAVIORS........................................................................4
a)................................................................................................................................................ 4
b)................................................................................................................................................8
c).............................................................................................................................................. 13
TASK 2 BARRIERS TO CHANGE..................................................................................................... 19
a).............................................................................................................................................. 19
TASK 3 LEADERSHIP APPROACHES...............................................................................................23
a).............................................................................................................................................. 23
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 26
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................27
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: SWOT Analysis of Tesco..................................................................................................9
Figure 2: PESTEL Analysis of Tesco...............................................................................................11
Figure 3: Kurt Lewin Theory.........................................................................................................15

Figure 4: Bridge transitional theory.............................................................................................17
Figure 5: Burke Litwin theory.......................................................................................................19
Figure 6: Force Field model..........................................................................................................20
Figure 7: Analysis of force field model.........................................................................................21
Figure 8: Situational leadership theory........................................................................................24
Figure 9: Kotter's eight step model..............................................................................................26

INTRODUCTION
In this report of “Understanding leading and Change”, the main aim is to outline the impact of
organizational change on the planned organization strategies as well as behavior. The report
will highlight different leadership styles that will be adopted by the organizations in order to
bring a positive result in the period of change. In the first part, the report will discuss how the
strategies, behaviors and operations of different organizations are impacted through change. It
will also highlight the impacts of change on the team members, leadership or an individual
behavior. Later the report will move on by explaining the barriers for change & its impact on
decision making. At last, the report will go through analyzing and recognizing different
leadership approaches that are useful in dealing with the change.
The above points will be covered on Tesco and Asda, two retailing organizations based in UK.
As of now, both of the supermarkets together monitor around 60% of all groceries sold in UK.
The supermarket wishes to bring a positive change in the company processes in order to create
market-leading chain with convenience stores. Thus, the report will point out the strategies and
leadership behavior in Tesco-Asda merger.

TASK 1 STRATEGY, OPERATIONS AND BEHAVIORS
a)
Change is the constant reality of real as well as professional life. Learning and managing
changes takes efforts, time and relevant strategy to positively cope up with the period of
change. If the changes are concerned with the employees, it usually comes to the success very
positively (Yrjölä et al., 2019).
Asda had introduced its business in UK as a British supermarket in the year 1949. It was
founded by Peter & Fred Asquith. Tesco had come into the retailing industry in 1919 which was
founded by Jack Cohen. Both of the businesses was facing several marketing and selling issues
due to which they decided to bring some relevant change in the business. The purpose for
introducing change is to bring improvement and betterment in the performance so as to deal
with the issues effectively (Yrjölä et al., 2019). To bring a positive change, it is required for
companies to analyse the working of the employees as well the demands of the customers.

Basis TESCO ASDA
Drivers of change There are four major drivers
of change in Tesco that are
the organizational structure,
management, products or
services and technology. The
factor where Tesco needs to
bring some change is the
customer base, technological
innovations, cost of labour
and a very common trigger
Competition (Yrjölä et al.,
2019).
Asda has been facing the
issues relating to its poor
quality of products and
services, thus innovation and
change is the top driver forces
for Asda. Also, the manager
has found that Asda is facing
financial crisis from past years
thus it becomes necessary to
bring changes in the
organizational processes.
Strategy Tesco wants involvement of
all level management in the
process of change and thus it
adopts the strategy of sharing
responsibility among each
level to together found the
work based problems while
developing relevant solutions
(Rossi, 2019). Also, Tesco
introduces the digital
equipment to improve the
way of selling products and
Asda adopts the strategy of
first improving the core
business & pausing operations
in other areas to effectively
understand the exact
problems occurring in the
quality of products. This will
ensure that Asda is not
spread too thinly. As a result,
Asda becomes the second
largest supermarket after
Tesco in UK.

also conducted training &
development programs for its
employees.
People Expertise people are involved
in making the organizational
change a success not failure.
The top level managers and
senior executive are involved
in planning the strategies and
decisions and the team
members are involved in
analyzing the market so as to
implement the strategies at
right place at right time.
Asda conducting the training
programs for its existing as
well as new hired staff to
build the required skills and
knowledge in them. The
employees having proper
knowledge about the market
and customer demands lead
to bring betterment in the
production and ultimately
enhance the company
performance (Rossi, 2019).
Thus, employees are the key
people in Asda to bring
positive change in the
company.
Process To bring a digital change,
Tesco introduced self-service
machine which directly
reduces labor cost and
accelerate check out
processes (Lewis, 2019). The
self -checkout was
implemented as its process of
bringing change for improving
upon its operational
Asda in the process of
bringing change more focused
on the profitability as it have
to overcome the factors
influencing its financial
management. The seniors
have found that products are
reliable but still facing falling
sales due to high price. Thus,
Asda have to bring cost

efficiency. effectiveness in the process of
change (Lewis, 2019).
Types of organizational change
Type of Change Tesco ASDA
No technical capabilities Tesco do not have a complete
knowledge of technological
aspects. In this world of
technology, the employees of
Tesco are not ready to face
competencies due to
technical in-capabilities. Thus,
this is a major area to bring
change (Blanco-Portela et al.,
2017).
The people at Asda are
somewhere weak in the
technical skills due to which
they lack in bringing
technological advancements
in the company
Resistance of employees Employees at Tesco do not
have cooperative behavior
and thus not ready to
cooperate at workplace
Most of the Asda people lies
in the age group of 30-45 and
thus not willing to make any
changes due to their beliefs

b)
Tesco has been found that the external changes are highly affecting the operations of business
which has been shown in falling sales and decreased customers. Drivers of change &
organizations stage are directly linked in the change process. The changes in any organization
are driven by range of factors which is also in the case of Tesco.
INTERNAL DRIVERS OF CHANGE
SWOT
Figure 1: SWOT Analysis of Tesco
Source: (Phadermrod et al., 2019)
 Strengths
 Leading retailer in the world
 Strong diversification strategy (Phadermrod et al., 2019)
 Strong product portfolio
 Weaknesses
 Failed its operations in the countries like Japan & USA
 Tesco was fined by Serious Fraud Office in UK

 Infringement controversies (Phadermrod et al., 2019)
 Opportunities
 Strategic Acquisitions
 Tesco can explore many emerging economies (Phadermrod et al., 2019)
 Investment in R&D
 Threats
 Intense competition in grocery market
 Price war from LidI and Aldi (Phadermrod et al., 2019)
 Economic environment
Technological innovation
In this growing era of technology, Tesco needs to bring several technological introductions in its
business so as to successfully earn the objectives. The self-checkout systems in Tesco bring
improvement in its operational efficiency (Blanco-Portela et al., 2017).
Organizational culture
It is necessary for Tesco to build a strong culture for the employees and teams to improve their
performance. Thus, Tesco formed a team oriented culture to foster personal growth,
innovation and empowerment (Král and Králová, 2016). Also, it operates in unique workplace &
desire to serve quality products & meaningful solutions to the customers.
Employee satisfaction
The very first responsibility of Tesco is to keep its employees happy by offering them salaries on
time while treating them as a family member and fulfilling all of their needs (Král and Králová,
2016). This will lead to motivate them for performing better while gaining their satisfaction over
the workplace.

EXTERNAL DRIVERS OF CHANGE
PESTEL
Figure 2: PESTEL Analysis of Tesco
Source: (Sammut Bonnici and Galea, 2015)‐
 Political factors
As Tesco operates in various countries, it has to face many political influences such as the tax
rates, unemployment rates, current legislations, political instability of the country of
operations. For e.g.: “Tesco Tax”, EU referendum, Import duty on goods is highly influencing
Tesco operations.
 Economic factors
Labor cost is the biggest influencing factor for Tesco. The upward shift in UK wages rates may
cost Tesco millions of pound in UK and affect its cost leadership strategy and brand reputation.
It is worth showing that Tesco is dependent on UK market with 27.8% share in UK grocery
market (Sammut Bonnici and Galea, 2015).‐