Leading Change: Impact on Organisational Strategies Report - Module

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leading change within organizations, using Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser as case studies. It begins by examining the impact of technological and environmental changes on the companies' strategies, highlighting the drivers for change and their effects on business operations. The report then delves into the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic drivers, such as innovation, employee morale, and economic factors, on organizational change. It also explores leadership approaches for tackling changes and discusses barriers to organizational alterations and their impact on leadership decisions. Furthermore, the report assesses leadership strategies and models used to navigate and implement change effectively within the retail sector, covering areas like technological advancements and environmental sustainability.

Understanding and
Leading Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Changes in 2 companies and impact over organisational strategies................................3
M1. Assessment of different drivers for change....................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P2. Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of alterations....................................................6
P3. Efforts to reduce adverse effects of alterations................................................................8
M2. Critical evaluation of the applied theories and models...................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
P4. Barriers to organisational alterations and simultaneous impact over decisions taken by
leader....................................................................................................................................10
M3. Force field analysis impacts over leader's decisions.....................................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
P5. Approaches to leadership for tackling the alterations deal with changes......................13
M4. Leadership approach at the time of application of model of change............................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Change can be referred to as a process of transition in current situation of an organisation.
It is aimed at facilitating betterment within the organisational premises in terms of business
efficiency, productivity, performance and time for attainment of goals. As the business
environment is dynamic in nature, changes are inevitable and are required to be executed
according to the current organisational situation. There are a number of factors which foster the
implementation of changes within the entity (Doppelt, 2017). Business environment consists of a
number of companies which are adaptive, dynamic and progressive in terms of understanding
and leading change. This report is based on Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser which are
based in UK. Both the companies have their retailing store in UK and deal in clothing. The
following project consists of distinction made between 2 companies with respect to effects of
change. Also, it covers internal as well as external drivers for changes. Further, it constitutes
initiatives to reduce effects of alterations upon the company. Apart from this, barriers that
restrain the acceptance of change are discussed along with their influence on decision made by
leader. Lastly, some leadership approaches to deal with organisational alterations are discussed.
TASK 1
P1. Changes in 2 companies and impact over organisational strategies
Change is an inseparable part of a company and needs to be executed in order to ensure
timely accomplishment of objectives. Change can be structural and functional as well and has a
significant impact over the organisational strategy. Various types of changes taking place within
the organisation impact on the overall system and functioning of enterprise. Therefore, it is
important that appropriate and effective measures are adopted by company in order to deal with
changes (Espedal, 2017). There are many drivers which create a need for bringing change in an
organisation. Such alterations affect the strategies and tactics of company. Furthermore, impact
of these drivers can be extensive for company. Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser have
recently undergone significant changes to remain aligned with the needs of customers. Both the
companies are globally reputed for providing excellent quality clothing and customer services.
Thus, the changes tend to have a significant influence over their business operations as well as
strategies. Such alterations and impact of both the companies are mentioned below:-

Basis Marks & Spencer House of Fraser
Technological
change
Marks & Spencer follows the trend
of making changes and updating its
technologies on a regular basis.
Technological transformation is
aimed at delivering business
efficiency and facilitation of
customer centred approach towards
services.
Driver of Change: The retail
operations across the globe are over
the course of time becoming
digitalised. This drove Marks &
Spencer to come up with
technological transformation to
disrupt the market place.
Impact on Strategy: For this, M&S
has announced new technology
programme which helps the entity to
become the first digital business. It
will improve the customer
experiences by using self driven
auto-mobiles to potentially deliver
products to people.
Impact on Operations: For
implementing this technology,
company needs to conduct research
House of Fraser makes use of
advanced technology in its stores in
order to meet the interests of customers
and attract them to visit their stores.
For this, the entity renewed and made
innovative changes in its technology.
Driver of Change: The constant
changes taking place within the
technologies used in retail sector
facilitated the firm to come up with
this change so that it can effectively
appeal to customers at international
scale.
Impact on Strategy: House of Fraser
has introduced Artificial intelligence
(AI) in its stores in order to automate
the operations of company and produce
high quality products. In this relation,
entity has chosen some innovative
technologies like Magic Mirror, Smart
Fitting Rooms and so on to appeal to
public.
Impact on Operations: This
technology is tested in around 10 of its
stores and has resulted in less burden

regarding the manner in which its
execution can effectively take place.
on the sales force of company and
eased the way for customers to find
specific merchandise.
Environmental
change
In the current business environment,
there are several ongoing concerns
which are related to the preservation
of environment and natural resources
in UK. Government is paying lot of
attention in order to protect the
environment from getting damaged
through business activities. In this
relation, Marks & Spencer also
contributes in the preservation of
environment by launching a new
programme within its confines.
Driver of Change: The changing
attitudes and behavioural pattern of
customers towards the environment
facilitated Marks & Spencer to come
up with the proposed change.
Impact on Strategy: For this, Marks
& Spencer has set up its own Green
policy and named it “Plan A”. This
plan is aimed at combatting the
challenges of today and tomorrow
through adoption of sustainable
business practices (MARKS &
SPENCER. Welcome to Plan A,
2019).
Each nation has its own set of rules,
laws and regulations which impact
over the profitability of business. In
this regard, House of Fraser adopts
healthy and safe business practices
which help in protecting the
environment and its surroundings.
Driver of Change: The consumers in
the modern era are becoming
environmentally aware. This caused
House of Fraser to come up with
environmental changes in the premise.
Impact on Strategy: HOF has started
avoiding use of paper and adopts
paperless strategy. Through this policy,
company minimises the overall
wastage and environmental pollution.
Further, the entity has also cut carbon
emissions with its green manufacturing
drive (House of Fraser joins green

Impact on Operations: Marks &
Spencer needs to make a new team
who would take care of this plan and
help the entity in inflating its position
within the market.
manufacturing drive, 2019).
Impact on Operations: House of
Fraser's aim is to refurbish store
fixtures and for this purpose, it has
developed “Waste diversion plan”.
M1. Assessment of different drivers for change
Change is important in an organisation in order to increase its efficiency and
effectiveness but while implementing change, it is very important to manage it or the employees
resist during their adoption (Nelson‐Brantley and Ford, 2017). In this relation, the 2 changes that
have taken place within the confines of Marks & Spencer owe to the technological and
environmental drivers which encouraged the firm to modify its operations in order to stay
aligned with industrial standards. The firm executed the alterations to ensure long term
sustainability at market place.
TASK 2
P2. Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of alterations
Leadership is an art of managing and guiding group of people in achieving the
organisational goals. A leader must be full of qualities like motivational, communication skills,
inspiration and zeal. A leader must have control over the team to lead their behaviour towards
the successful implementation of organisational change. Marks & Spencer needs to continuously
review its existing process and activities to ascertain the necessary changes within the
organisation. These can be introduced for the betterment of their working and employees as well.
Internal drivers and its impact Innovation: It is the basic factor that an organisation needs to consider to inflate its
profitability in the market. Marks & Spencer also make some innovations in its
organisation in order to make it stronger. This driver has both positive and negative
impact in regard of team and individual behaviour. Positive is, they recognises that
company tries to increase its market share, increases the chances of career opportunities
and also boost the group behaviour in order to motivate the employees and increases their
productivity (NHS England, 2016). The negative point hereby is that employees feel

pressurised to change their skills and requirements and when they are not able to do that,
they start finding options for switching jobs. Employee Morale: Marks & Spencer makes changes in its premises on regular basis and
this aspect also increases adversities. When the negative points are considered, employee
morale is the biggest challenge that a company faces (Hughes, 2016). When the morale
of employee gets down then a leader needs to communicate with them and try to
encourage them. Motivation is important in order to achieve organisational goals. Resources: When employees are adapting to alterations in operations and structure, they
may unintentionally lead to wastage of resources. It happens when they introduce new
technology and not skills and by this change employees does not know how to deal with
it. Sometimes, this act as a driver for change in Marks & Spencer and also have conflict
of interests. This happens when leaders communicate the change in an organisation and
set diverse response towards the change. Some individuals within the team feel the need
of being trained as per the requirements. Therefore, the level of complexities among the
individuals and teams increase leading to more of negative effects than positive
outcomes. Financial Management: This is another major driver of change in Marks & Spencer
which undertakes all the money management within and outside the company. Change in
this management might be challenging for the leaders as they should provide proper
training opportunities for staff members (Edwards-Groves and et. al., 2019). In relation to
individual as well as group behavioural pattern, it can be said that alterations make the
staff members resist changes as they are not comfortable in following the new operational
procedures.
External drivers and its impact Political: This factor consists of political elements which affect the company. Marks &
Spencer is affected by Brexit. This effect was quite evident and company needs to change
its organisational policies. This has put negative impact on leadership, team and
behaviour of individual. Reason was same that continuous change of policies within an
organisation develops stress among the workforce (Drago-Severson and Blum-
DeStefano, 2018). Moreover, it also has positive impact which is that employees gain

knowledge about a number of aspects after Brexit and realise how they ca survive in the
frequently changing environment. Economical: It consists of all the economical elements which impact on a company such
as disposable income, economic conditions of a country etc. The phenomenon of
BREXIT has had an adverse effect over the functioning of companies operating within
the confines of United Kingdom. As a result of this, value of pound has significantly
fallen down. In addition to this, unemployment has raised as a consequence of BREXIT.
Thus, this facilitates the respective retail firm to lower down its prices and stipulate
employment opportunities. In this case, it is essential for the leader to set communication
with groups and employees as their compensation may be significantly cut short.
Communication would serve as a tool to develop healthy organisational behaviour and
relations. Social: It is quite difficult for a leader to analyse the needs and requirements of
customers so as to develop products which meet their demands. For this, Marks &
Spencer adopt customer-centred approach and operate it in a manner with the interest of
public. Often, these customers become the reason behind implementation of change
within the company and when a change implements it does not guarantee about success.
Marks & Spencer makes several changes in the organisation and sometimes, it leads to
generation of communication barriers as some individuals are facilitators while others act
as resistors of change.
 Technological: With the frequent advancement in technology, organisations need to
bring external changes by adapting latest techniques. Marks & Spencer is making
continuous changes in its technology to fulfil the needs and requirements. These changes
are not easy to be adopted by employees because technological changes decrease the
morale of employees as they were not trained to perform with latest technology. This
often leads to conflicts within team as some individuals are equipped with technological
skills while others are not and leader needs to maintain a balance among both the groups.
P3. Efforts to reduce adverse effects of alterations
Change being a crucial component of any entity brings with itself positive as well as
negative influences within the confines of a company. In this relation, there are a number of
measures that can be taken on the part of company in order to decrease the negative effects of

organisational changes. Such initiatives would ensure that change gets executed in the company
in an effective manner and sustainability of the enterprise in market place in the long run. Thus,
for decreasing the negative effects of changes, M&S is applying PDCA model which consists of
4 comprehensive stages. The respective model is explained in a brief manner as follows:-
Plan: Marks & Spencer is performing an extensive marketing research in order to
examine the whole market and identify effective opportunities for the organisation. Company
would develop various strategies to ensure that these opportunities are working well (Salman and
Broten, 2017). For example, Marks & Spencer conducts research to gain knowledge of changing
political and technological scenarios and develop effective strategies in accordance with that.
Do: Marks & Spencer needs to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies against the
company and its plans. For example, company will make new strategies to provide its services at
a lower cost due to the impact of Brexit. It is essential for the organisation to conduct a deep
evaluation taking into consideration the forecasts and the possible outcomes.
Check: In this stage, Marks & Spencer measures effectiveness of strategies which the
firm planned to implement in respect of change. For this, company is required to compare the
attained outcomes and the expected outcomes to find out corrective deviations and corrective
actions to measure it. Therefore, deviated results are required to modify the plans in order to
achieve the required standards.
Act: This is the last stage of the model, in which company chooses a plan to implement as
per the analysis (Thompson, 2016). In addition to this, Marks & Spencer will provide training
and development activities for employees to enhance the scope of success for the respective
enterprise.
M2. Critical evaluation of the applied theories and models
Leadership is a process which is used in order to provide guidance and support to the
workforce. From the above section, internal and external drivers are ascertained which are used
in order to analyse the impact of these forces on the business environment and organisation.
Moreover, to reduce the negative influence of drivers and changes, PDCA model is used which
helps in overviewing the change implemented and achieve success for a company. This model is
beneficial for reducing the risk and resistance of employees.

TASK 3
P4. Barriers to organisational alterations and simultaneous impact over decisions taken by leader
Change is regarded as an important element of a corporation and thus it becomes
significant for the organisational leader to devise strategies through which barriers to alterations
can be effectively handled. With respect to the changes brought within the premise of Marks &
Spencer, the barriers that may be encountered by the firm are explained as follows:-
Ineffective communication: While introducing change in an organisation, it is necessary
to communicate properly to implement change without facing any conflict. Poor communication
leads to many issues like conflicts, dissatisfaction among employees and affects decision-making
(Bell, 2018). Along with this, it impacts on the productivity and sales of company. In order to
handle these barriers, a leader should have good communication skills and provide clear
information about change which is introduced within an entity to ensure creation of healthy
working environment for Marks & Spencer.
Lack of employee involvement: It is the common barrier in change management which
involves employees fear, dissatisfaction and also resistance to adapt change. Some organisations
does not involve employees while introducing change in the organisation and it is not good
because the loyal employees will also refuse the change (Tombetti and Mason, 2018). In the
context of Marks & Spencer, it involves the employees in the change process which reduces this
barrier of change. The respective retailer does this by involving them in decision-making,
listening their opinions and assuring them that change is good for them.
Resistance to change: This is one of the most apparent barriers that are witnessed at the
time of introducing a change within the entity. Hereby, the main constraint is the lack of
acceptance of change on the part of employees as they have become comfortable with the
conventional way of operations (Rogers and Marres, 2016). It affects Marks & Spencer, as
company finds it difficult to execute effectual decision making for the benefit of organisation. In
this regard, it is important for the management of respective retail firm to take measures through
which employee resistance can be reduced and positive outcomes of change can be facilitated
within the confines of entity.
On the basis of above stipulated information, it can be said that barriers tend to exert a
significant influence over the operations as well as decision making of leaders.

From the above discussion, it can be said that barriers to change have a substantial impact
on Marks & Spencer. With Force Field Analysis, company ensures that identifying the
challenges can help them to implement a change in an effective decision manner. The facilitating
as well as resisting factors pertaining to Force Field analysis are described as follows:-
Force Field Analysis
Illustration 1: Definition of Force Field Analysis
(Source: Definition of Force Field Analysis, 2019)
Force field analysis is divided into 2 segments, driving forces as well as restraining
forces. In order to effectively execute changes within the confines of an entity, driving forces
must exceed the restraining forces. Marks & Spencer introduced technological changes through
its transformation plan and delivers efficiency and accountability with respect to its technology
services. These forces are described as:
Driving forces for Marks & Spencer
New Technology: Technology plays a vital role in the growth of company and enables it
to survive for a longer period of time. Marks & Spencer fosters a change in its technology to
interact effectively with the customers. Company adapt several innovative technology to improve
its efficiency and meet customers efficiency (Al Barwani, Flores and Imig, 2018). Technology
which is adapted by Marks & Spencer is introducing self-driven auto-mobiles to deliver its
products to customers. By this change, they improve their service quality, gain competitive
advantage and performance effectively and efficiently.