UKCBC Unit 17: Understanding and Leading Change Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of understanding and leading change within organizations, focusing on Softwire and Captify as case studies. It begins by comparing how technological advancements, competition, changes in management, and innovation impact the strategies of both firms. The report then evaluates how internal drivers (training, communication) and external drivers (change in organizational culture, adopting new techniques) influence leadership, teamwork, and individual behaviors. Furthermore, it outlines strategies to mitigate the negative effects of change, such as training programs, effective communication, and strategic leadership. The report also identifies barriers to change and their influence on leadership decision-making. Finally, it presents different leadership approaches to effectively manage and navigate organizational change. The report concludes with recommendations for Softwire to successfully manage change and improve its performance.

Understanding and Leading
change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Presenting different organisational examples that impact upon organization's strategy ..1
P2 Presenting the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect the leadership,
team work and individual behaviours.....................................................................................3
P3 Describing measures to minimize its negatives impact of change on the organizational
behaviour................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P4 Presenting different barriers for change and how it influences leadership decision making.7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P5 Presenting different leadership approaches to deal with change.......................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Change management is the process and a basic requirement of a company because it
helps to reach at further level of success. The report main aim is to describe the changes which a
company faces and how leaders and managers helps to accept those in the working environment.
The chosen firm for this report is Softwire which operates as a medium scale firm in UK and
provide software engineers, digital design solutions to their customers. Report compares the
different organizational examples which creates the impact of change upon the organization's
strategy. Further it also evaluates the ways in which the internal and external drivers of the
changes are directly affect the leadership, team and individual behaviours. Beside this, report
further describe some measures which helps to minimize the negative impact of the change in an
organization. Moreover, it describes different barriers for a change and how it influences the
leadership decision making.
TASK 1
P1 Presenting different organisational examples that impact upon organization's strategy
There are different changes of drivers which also affect the changes of an organization.
The comparison chart of these drivers are as follows:
Drivers of change Impact upon Softwire Impact upon Captify
Technological changes The technological change creates
impact upon Softwire in positive
way such that the firm also uses
its online store in order to sell
their products into a market which
helps to increase the competition
(Scott, 2019).
Captify also adopt different
technological change in order to
sustain its brand image and this
creates positive impact upon firm
performance. For instance, the
firm recently introduce new
technique which helps to reduce
the cost effectively.
Competition This factor also creates negative
as well as positive impact upon
firm position. Such that the
quoted always adopting different
As the firm also faces some high
competition in market and that is
why the organisational strategy
also affected. Thus, the leaders
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pricing strategy in order to creates
high competitive advantages.
Further this factor also forced to
bring some improvement in its
operational system thus it helps to
decreases its cost and maximizes
the profitability.
and manager of a firm have to
apply different pricing strategy in
order to gain high competitive
advantages.
Change in a management As the firm follows the flat
structure, thus it will be helpful to
alter the changes in its
management system which helps
to creates positive impact upon it.
This affect the internal
environment of the firm and also
helps to keep their employees
involve in the decision making
process.
This change is identified as a long
term operational change because
it also affects the business
internally with its financial
performance (Al-Haddad and
Kotnour, 2015). Thus, Captify
should have to alter its
management structure which
helps to leads towards a change.
Innovation As Softwire is one of digital
company and it always creates
some innovative ideas which
helps to creates positive impact
upon firm performance. For
instance, to changes in its existing
offering products helps to draw
attention of many customers
towards them.
The innovation also affect the
business of Captify internally
such that it always uses advances
way in order to attain the
objectives of a business.
Different approaches used by both firms in order to overcome the impact of driver:
 Both the firm adopt new and advance technologies in order to adopt the technological
change. Such that they offer the products online which further helps to maximizes the
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sales as well as profitability. On the other side, the firm also changes its pricing strategy
in order to gain high competitive advantages in market.
 Moreover, Softwire offer the products at discounting rates seasonally because sudden
changes in the prices helps to draw attention of the customers which leads to affect the
profit. This strategy helps to overcome the high competition driver of change in Softwire.
In the same way, Captify always offer the products at reasonable rates and it uses cost
leadership pricing strategy that helps to keep holding their customers and accept the
changes in easy manner (Banks, Ledbetter and Greenhalgh, 2016). Thus, the sudden
change in the system also affect the organization strategy in positive as well as negative
way.
P2 Presenting the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect the leadership,
team work and individual behaviours
Factors Leadership Team Individual
behaviour
Internal drivers Training This internal factor
also affect the
leadership in positive
way. Such that if
proper training
sessions are provided
to the employees of
Softwire then it will
help to accept some
technological
changes. As the
employees are not
efficient to
understand the
changes (Doppelt,
2017). That is why
This factor also
affect the team
working
performance such
that it helps to raise
the working
performance of the
employees which
helps to create
positive impact
upon the
performance of
business.
Proper training
provided to
employees of
Captify then it
also makes
changes in the
behaviour such
that they
automatically
raises the level of
performance and it
helps to cope up
with the
competition factor.
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leaders provide
proper training
sessions to them.
Communicati
on
An effective
communication helps
to communicate the
things in proper way.
Such that if the
leaders did not
communicate about
the change to an
employees then it did
not attain the defined
goals.
An effective
communication is
necessary because
further creates
impact upon the
team performance.
for instance, if the
managers did not
communicate in
proper way then it
affect the
performance in
negative way.
This factor affect
the individual
behaviour in
positive way such
that a proper
communication
will help an
employee to
understand their
allocated task in
right way and thus
it helps to cope up
with some external
driver of change.
External drivers Change in
culture of an
organization
This way helps to
cope up with change
in management such
that as Softwire
follows flat structure
that the leaders of the
firm should develop
some strategy in
order to accept the
change in
management.
The organizational
culture is quite
simple and flexible
method and also
helps to creates
positive impact
upon the team.
Such that changes
in the culture of an
organization will
be complex then
the team will not
adapt and thus,
There is a need to
adopt new changes
because it helps to
change the
behaviour of an
individual and it
has been further
analysed that if the
organization
culture is complex
then they are not
easily adopt it and
hence, the
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their performance
may decline.
individual
behaviour got
affected (Peters,
2019).
Adopting
new
techniques.
This way helps to
cope up the
technological factor
such that leaders have
to develop new
strategy which helps
to minimizes the cost
and maximizes the
sales of the offered
products. Thus, it
helps to create
positive impact upon
the leadership.
When a new
technique is
adopted by the
company then it
may cause negative
impact upon the
team because for
this, leaders have to
provide training
session to them
which helps to let
the team
understand about it.
Thus, the entire
performance also
gets affected
(Lawrence, 2015).
New adoption of
techniques also
helps to creates
positive impact
upon individual
behaviour. Such
that it may also
help to learn new
things but on the
other side, when
they did not
understand these
new technique
then it may affect
them in negative
way as well.
P3 Describing measures to minimize its negatives impact of change on the organizational
behaviour
To minimizes the negative impact of the change, the Softwire also adopt different
strategy. It has been further analysed that if the firm did not reduce negative impact of a change
then it creates negative impact upon the firm as well as employees. The methods are as follows:
Training programs: It is one of the foremost measures which helps to minimizes the
negative impact. In this, the company should first introduce the change and for that, Softwire
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have to hire a trainer in order to let their employees train about the new changes. Apart from this,
it has been analysed that proper training also helps to raise the working performance and easily
adopt the changes as well.
Effective communication: Through communication, the employees are easily got
involved in the change process in easy manner (Baird and Boak, 2016). To let them involve
means that listen them properly and it is the duty of a leader to ensure that the changes are good
for the organization. Apart from this, the managers of the firm should also provide relevant,
sufficient resource in order to drive them towards the change and also makes them comfortable
in the working environment.
Effective leadership strategy: It is another strategy which also assist to minimize the
negative effect of driver of change. Leaders of a firm make new strategy and also helps to aware
their employees about the new laws and change in the management. Apart from this, leaders of
the Softwire also motivates their employees and provide different training sessions in order to
easily adopt the new changes and minimizes the negative impact.
Conclusion and recommendations: From the above, it has been concluded that the
change in management creates the positive as well as negative impact upon the firm's
performance and to overcome this, it is to be recommended to the Softwire to use the theory of
continuous improvement model in order to cope up with the negative situation. As this model
varies in their rigidity of the structure and its main aim is to improve the quality of offered
services or products to their customers. This model includes:
Six Sigma: This theory mainly focusses on the eliminating variability and improving the
quality of services which is offered by Softwire. Through this theory, the quoted firm also helps
to achieve the stable and predictable results to sustained the quality improvement (Fernando,
2018).
Kaizen: This means that change for a better and this continuous model also helps to
improve flow as well as process. This method is quite rigid as compared to six sigma. By using
this theory, the managers of Softwire also helps an organization to eliminate the waste, improve
the work quality, boost up the morale of employees in order to actively participate in the change.
Apart from this, by using the Burke Litwin model for an organizational change also helps
to establish the cause and effect relationship. This model is further consist of 12 organizational
elements such as:
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External Environment: There are many external factor that affect the system of a
company such that economic factors, competition and customer behaviour etc.
Mission and strategy: It describes the goals and objectives of the firm and it is also
recommended to Softwire to keep check whether the defined goals are suit the position of the
employees.
Leadership: The leaders provides the direction to the employees and also influence the
employees to accept the change.
Organizational culture: It includes the regulation, principles and also have their own
values. Thus the employees and the leaders must have to follow all defines rules (Bolden, 2016).
Structure: It describe the structure of an organisation and Softwire have flat structure
and also have different departmental channels for taking their own decisions.
System: It covers both employees and organizational activities which helps to keep
providing support to the employees.
Management Practices: This includes the activities of a manager such that their
relationship with employees and how effectively they apply the changes.
Working climate: this directly relates with the employee’s experience such that through
mutual cooperation, they easily attain the goal of the company.
Task and Skills: The managers assign different duties to their employees and then the
leaders provide direction to the employees in order to complete the task (Marshall, Coleman and
Reason, 2017).
Individual value and needs: This describe the demands as well as expectation of the
employees which they want in return of their work such as remunerations.
Motivational level: It is about inspiring the employees and if the employees motivates
then it helps to raise the production level of the firm.
Individual and general performance: This helps to measure the basis of turnover and
productivity or the quality of the offered products.
TASK 2
P4 Presenting different barriers for change and how it influences leadership decision making
Ineffective leadership: It is one of the most affecting barriers among all because leaders
of the firm generally motivates their employees for better performance, but if the leaders are
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ineffective and did not support the workers then it creates barrier in a way of success. On the
other side, leaders should provide proper guidance in order to deal with the change such that
provide training sessions.
Lack of effective communication strategy: Some organization have no effective
communication strategy such that the leaders are always realize that once they announce the
change, then the other employees have to adjust and even ready to accept the change as well (5
Barriers of change management, 2018). While on the other side, if the leaders are not properly
communicate the changes to their workers then they are not able to produce the things as it is
defined earlier.
Lack of employee involvement: As employees have always fear of change and that is
why the firm has to involve their employees in a change process. It means that listen their
opinions and assure that the changes are good for the company. Even though the employees are
not involves in the process of change then it also creates a barriers and as a result, it affects the
change leadership strategy as well.
In order to overcome this, Force Field Analysis is the change process which helps an
organization to implement the changes. This is a method in which a team as well as a firm can
easily predict in advance what resistance are to be occur when the changes are proposed (Taylor
and et.al., 2019). Therefore, Force field analysis also helps Softwire in order to manage the
change as well as develop strategies for implementing a change. This model also analyses the
force driving movements that helps to achieve the goals and restraining movements towards a
goal i.e. hindering forces.
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Driving force: These are the positive force for changes that helps a system to reach
towards a goals and as Softwire wants to introduce the new techniques into the working area. For
the quoted firm, the driving forces for adopting the change are training, knowledge and
competitors. As the firm wants to makes changes in its existing technology, therefore it is quite
essential for the firm to provide training sessions to their employees in order to make them aware
about new change in the firm.
Restraining Force: this force basically creates obstacles in the way of adopting changes.
For Softwire, lack of training and individual fear of failure can be consider as a restraining force
because if the employee in a firm did not get proper training sessions then it will create obstacles
in the field of success (Galli, 2019).
TASK 3
P5 Presenting different leadership approaches to deal with change
Enclosed in PPT
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report, it has been concluded that changes are quite necessary and
it sometimes creates positive as well as negative impact upon the firm. As report concluded that
Softwire wants to makes changes in its existing techniques which helps to creates positive impact
upon the firm as well as employees. Beside this, report concluded that drivers of a change
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Illustration 1: Force Field Analysis
(Source: Force Field Analysis, 2018)

definitely affect the company's strategy as well as its operations and there are many ways
through which these negative impact can be minimized such as Burke- Litwen Model and
continuous improvement model. Moreover, the present study also concluded that there are
different barriers for changes and it also affect the leadership decision making process and to
overcome it, report also uses Force Field analysis. Beside this, further report concluded that by
using situational leadership approach and Kurt Lewin change model, the Softwire can also deal
with a change.
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