Understanding and Leading Change: Aston Lark Report Analysis

This report delves into the critical aspects of leading change within the context of Aston Lark, a UK-based insurance service provider. It examines the impact of both internal and external factors on organizational strategies, operations, leadership, team dynamics, and individual behaviors. The report provides a comparative analysis of Aston Lark with Touchstone, highlighting structural and technological changes, and evaluates measures to mitigate the negative impacts of change, such as the PDCA model. Furthermore, it identifies and analyzes various barriers to change and their influence on leadership decision-making. The report concludes by exploring different leadership approaches applicable to managing change within organizations, offering a comprehensive overview of change management principles and practices. The assignment covers topics like political, economic, and social factors affecting the business.

Understanding
and
Leading Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1: Strategy, Operation and Behaviours ................................................................................3
A) Comparison of different organisation and impact of changes on organisation operation and
strategy.........................................................................................................................................3
B) Evaluation of ways in which Internal and external drivers of change that effect leadership,
team and individual behaviour in organisation............................................................................5
C) Evaluate measures that minimise the negative impact of change in organisational behaviour
......................................................................................................................................................7
TASK 2: Barriers to change.............................................................................................................8
A) Different Barriers for change and determining its influence on leadership decision making 8
TASK 3 Leadership Approaches ..................................................................................................10
A) Different leadership approach which deals with change in organisation context................10
Covered In PPT..........................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In present business scenario, it has been observed that internal and external environment
have a significant role to play for a business firm that support them to understand the sudden and
ongoing changes so that advantages of competitive market can be achieved. It is necessary for
management of company to understand the changes that aid to examine the problem and
overcome them by adopting changes (Kotter, 2012). This support company to survive for long
run in market and achieve their predetermine goals and objectives. To understand the importance
of leading changes within market Aston Lark is selected. Respective company provide number of
insurance services to a large number of customer in UK.
In this report, the impact of internal and external factors of change that have impact on
the organisation polices and strategies, leadership, team and individual behaviours are discussed.
Apart this different measure that help to reduce the negative impact of changes, different barriers
for changes that impact the decision-making are shown.
TASK 1: Strategy, Operation and Behaviours
A) Comparison of different organisation and impact of changes on organisation operation and
strategy.
In business world companies operate their operation with almost same motive, to provide
best services or product to customer and earn huge profit that help them to survive for long.
Business firm operate in changing environment thus they need to acquire changes for the
betterment of services or product. There are number of sudden or planned changes that can
influence the strategies and policies of company such as advancement in technologies,
government rules and regulation, customer taste and preferences etc. For example, particular
hotel operating in hospitality industry need to upgrade their system on regular basis otherwise
customer may move to other option. Recently in UK, government have introduce some changes
to the working of insurance companies such as “The Third parties Act, 2010”. The law states that
based on an earliest consultation and improved the mechanisms by which a party with a claim
against an insolvent insured can recover compensation from the relevant insurer. Aston Lark
have to consider these changes as there are other companies also that may influence the business
of company (Doppelt, 2017). Therefore, it is significant for Aston Lark to adapts these changes

in order to attain goals and gain advantages from competition. Comparison of Aston Lark with
Touchstone is discussed below:
BASIS ( CHNAGES) ASTON LARK TOUCHSTONE
Structural changes In Aston Lark hierarchical
organisation structure is followed. The
structure defines that each task has
their specific process that is needed to
be followed. From upper management
to entire staff member according to
their job duties and responsibility.
This is because due to changes by
government in insurance term
management of Aston Lark decide to
have hierarchy structure.
Touchstone also provide
insurance services to customer
in UK. They also offer mixed
insurance cover and
investment option to their
customers. The company has
flat organisational structure in
which they use to record
operation and function of their
day to day business.
Managers has also change its
structure that help to bring
level of authority among team
member and higher staff so
that they can perform allotted
work in meaningful manner.
Strategy Aston Lark adopt hierarchical
organisational structure that support
management to remove the chances
of issues and resolve battle/problems
between manager and team member. It
help to modify the strategies such as to
make insurance sales strategy
company can add new factors like
providing 2 months pre locking
period, providing credit card to
Touchstone adopt flat
organisational artefact so that
worker and director are equally
involved in decision making
process. This lead to modify
their existing strategies so that
sales ratio can be increased.
(Salmela, Eriksson and
Fagerström, 2012).

customer etc. This overall impact to
organisation improvement and help
company to attain future goals.
Change in
technological factors
On the basis of working structure
Aston lark technological changes can
be considered. With the current
changes manager can make use of
software that support them to make
record about customer in easy way so
that information can be ascertained at
any point of time. This will definitely
help respective organisation as
customer feel easy to connect to the
team member and know as much as
they want about their insurance.
The changes are determined in
Touchstone technological with
the help of social media
marketing process and it is
promoting insurance products.
This changes will help to
increase market image and
customer can easily know
more about their terms and
condition regarding various
insurance cover.
B) Evaluation of ways in which Internal and external drivers of change that effect leadership,
team and individual behaviour in organisation.
In today's era, companies are needed to consider internal and external factors of changes
that help in achieving objective and attain profitability within business operation. These factors
play a significant role that aid to run and manage business activities in meaningful manner.
Internal and external factor of changes have impact on the leadership decision-making, team
working and individual behaviours. In Aston lark large number of worker are working in order to
deliver different best insurance and investment services to customer (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Thus
there is a need to analyse the factors of changes that support in the functioning of employees and
attainment of companies goals. Some of the external and internal factors are defined below:
External factor: These are the factors which are not in control of an organisation but
affect the functioning. Thus, after analysing all external factor that is PEST for company must
move forward for long term growth prospective.
 Political factor: Political factor is a part of external factor that includes government
intervention, political stability, foreign trade policy, tax policy etc. These factors directly

impact the working of an organisation. Therefore, it is very necessary for Aston Lark to
have the present knowledge of political factors. Along with that, Aston Lark must
anticipate future policy factor otherwise, it will affect leadership style, team work and
individual decision behaviour within an organisation. For example political parties made
changes in tax policies and manager of Aston lark do not have proper knowledge about
these modification than leader would not be able to deal with sudden changes and thus
overall performance of company will be reduced. Economic factor: Economic factor are associated with macroeconomic factor (demand
and supply) and micro economic factor (purchasing power, inflation rate). In Aston Lark
these economic factor affects the functioning of team player as well as individual player.
For instance, high inflation rate reduces the purchasing power of an individual. Hence,
lead to decrease in overall demand in an economy. Social factor: Social factor plays a vital role in Aston Lark as it directly affects the
buying behaviour of a consumer. These factors include population size, demographic
factor, culture and distribution channel. Aston Lark must analyse the culture and demand
of its prospects and then cater them otherwise, Technology factor: Technology factor include innovation, new trend and technology
awareness. Manager makes use of latest techniques in order to promote about their
product and services. These changes in their operation will make leader to hire more
skilled staff member those can deal with online site and may promote company product.
This also help team member to take useful step in order to increase sales through online
portal so that proficiency can be increased.
Internal factor: Internal factor are the factor which are in control of an organisation. It
include factors like financial management and cultural differences that affect leadership, team
work as well as individual behaviour in an organisation. Financial management: Financial management include activity like procurement as well
as utilising of fund. Funds are important to meet day to day expenses and long term
requirement of firm. Aston Lark must have sufficient fund to attain profitability. Making
changes in distribution of funds can lead to both positive and negative impact on
company performance. Such as in case if manager engaged lot of fund on promotion
activity and not able to generate any sales lead than it would have negative impact and

these changes are consider bad for company. On other side changes in incentive scheme
to sales person makes them more motivate towards their job role thus it help to increase
sales for Aston lark.
 Cultural difference: Aston Lark's manger and employee share different values, norms
and culture as they come from different background. For example, manager use to
promote the favourable employees that could lead to disatisfaction among other team
member thus it reduces their performance. Similarly when team member or an individual
dislike and do not obey the decision of leader than performance of leader gets affected
and lead to mismanagement within Aston lark.
C) Evaluate measures that minimise the negative impact of change in organisational behaviour
It is very important in the organisation to identify some measures which help the
company to minimise the impact of negative forces. Most of the time employees of the company
refuse to adopt changes because they are not comfortable with the changes. After analysing the
above issues, manager of the Aston Lark company prepare some strategies for the adoption of
changes in the organisation (Hrebiniak, 2013). Strategy includes such as incentives, rewards and
promotions to the employee which give them motivation regarding their work. It influence them
to accept changes on continuous bases which further helps in achieving organisation goals and
objective. It is very difficult to adopt changes because management as well as manager required
time to implement these changes. They also required to maintain operational function in an
effectual mode. So manager of the Aston Lark adopts PDCA (Planning, Do, Check and Act)
model which helps to reduce negative impact over company's behaviour.
PDCA Model: It is a four step inter related management method which is continuously
used for the improvement in product and processes. It is also known by the Deeming cycle,
control cycle etc. This model includes the Planning, Do, Check and Act process for reducing
negative effect on the business. Manager of Aston Lark use this model in their organisation are
as follow:
 Planning: - Planning is the most important process of management which give company
an overview of the problem. In this part manager need to identify the problem and it's
causes which is related to the changes in the strategy of the Aston Lark company.
Manager of the organisation plan to change their technology in respect of maintaining

customer's record. Employees need to work on updated software that is easy to handle
customer's queries and reduce the negative impact (Wagner, 2016).
 Do: - In this process manager fix a suitable solution to overcome this problem or issues.
Leader of Aston Lark's company introduce a program of training and development for
their employees. This can make them sufficient to handle their task and be flexible with
the changes. This program enhances employees knowledge and skills which is helpful for
the organisation.
 Check: - In this model, management compare their standard performance with the actual
to check the impact of organisational change. Manager of the Aston Lark identify the
changes and take corrective action according to it. After analysing all changes, manager
build strategies which is beneficial for the Aston Lark organisation according to its
requirement.
 Act: It is the last stage of PDCA model, where leader generate suggestions or an effective
idea to overcome the issues related to the change in the organisation. If Aston Lark fail in
their work to solve company's problem than they are not able to sustain in the market. So
because of this reason, leader of the company need to show some excellent ideas which is
different as well as innovative. Than it helps to solve the issues regarding adoption of
changes in their organisational behaviour.
This PDCA model, help the Aston Lark company to reduce the negative impact of
change in the behaviour of organisation. As well as this model introduce the different ideas,
innovation and plans that change the working culture of the Aston Lark company (Aslan and
Reigeluth, 2013).
TASK 2: Barriers to change
A) Different Barriers for change and determining its influence on leadership decision making
In business world, there are many barriers to change that have immense impact on the
decision-making process of an organisation. In order to analysis and determine the driving and
resisting forces associated with changes so business operation is operated in a significant
manner. Aston Lark adopt the Force Field analysis that help management to examine the
resisting and driving forces of changes that are discussed below:

Force Field analysis Model: This is one of the most effective model that help an
organisation to analyse the exact driving and restraining factors that may impact the decision
making process (Force field analysis, 2018). The model basically deals with analysing and
evaluating the forces that can bring effective changes within an organisation. This help
management to know about the factor and need for changes as well as they receive the valid
arguments to bring about the changes actually into effect. Driving change are those that makes
the valid changes in an organisation whereas restraining forces are those that hinder the changes.
For example, clients wants more secure feature in car insurance form Aston Lark it is driving
change for company. Whereas on the other side if company is not able to deal with government
laws and regulation then it is restraining changes for Aston Lark.
Change substance: In this state, Manager of Aston Lark examine requirement for
alteration and determine cause which are essential for a business firm to bring change in future.
Change force identification: In this stage management of Aston Lark need to investigate
factors of risk while making changes in ongoing process. Therefore, it become essential for
manager to reduces those risk factors and develop and applies effective strategies accordingly.
Force against alteration identification: At this stage manager of Aston Lark are require
to have different options so that changes in any form can be managed in an befitting and suitable
manner. They essential to find out region and consequently apply secondary sources to bring off
changes with Insurance company.
Score assign: Within Aston Lark, the managers are needed to allot with definite score to
every modification implemented in order to attain the advantages of changes. The main motive
to give marks or score is to modulate the full procedure of changes.
Evaluate and execute: This is considered to be the last stage in which manager of Aston
Lark measure the changes in a significant manner so that meaningful decision are made. This
help them to execute changes in and efficiently and effectively mode so that sustainability can be
achieved (NHS England, 2016).
Driving forces of Aston Lark
 Company have applied the concept of “The Third parties act 2010”.
 The have main focus to meeting customers demand by introducing new services such as
pension cover and mutual funds investment (Brown, 2012).
Resisting forces to change in Aston Lark

 Company incurred high expenses while implementing advance technology and giving
training to employees related to same.
 Company faces the problems such as lack of worker support as they are not satisfied with
the introduction of new laws in insurance policies.
Different barriers of change-management
Ineffective communication: Within an organisation it is very important to have a strong
communication network that help in transfer of ideas and message. In case lack of
communication develop barriers in impressive decision making process. Thus the manager of
Aston Lark needs to communicate useful information in proper manner to entire staff related to
change and innovation which support in proper functioning.
Lack of employee’s involvement: In Aston Lark, employees do not support the rapid
changes that are made due government policies. Thus management must regard all worker and
staff-members in decision making process so that they are able to provide their viewpoints. This
help them to feel motivated and provide innovative ideas for the betterment of company
(Stanleigh, 2013).
Driving and resistance forces influencing leadership decision making process
Driving forces are depended on consumer demand such as for new services and
advancement of technologies that unit a business firm to apply change in working process. It
impact the manager in decision making process so that effective policies, plan, strategies are
made. Furthermore, it also influences manger to provide proper content and motivation to its
employees in future time.
Resistance force are high cost investment and lack of support of employees which
adversely influences leader’s decision making process. Basically, this type of barriers influences
in decision making process as well as implementing plans and strategies in an effective manner.
Herein, leader should involve its employees and staff member in decision making process so that
they can over come with such barriers in an effective manner.

TASK 3 Leadership Approaches
A) Different leadership approach which deals with change in organisation context
Covered In PPT.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion it is stated that changes are needed to be adapted as early as possible as it
may impact the business and reduce the market value. It is therefore very necessary to analyse
the external and internal factors of changes that have direct or indirect impact on the decision
making of leader of Aston Lark. Management of company measure and applies the concept of
PDCA model that help in proper planning, doing, checking and acting so that negative impact of
changes can be minimised that may impact the overall behaviour of business firm. Force field
analysis model help an organisation to deal with problems and increase profitability and
productivity during a time frame.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Kotter, J. P., 2012. Leading change. Harvard business press.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Yoder-Wise, P. S., 2014. Leading and managing in nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Salmela, S., Eriksson, K. and Fagerström, L., 2012. Leading change: a three‐dimensional model
of nurse leaders’ main tasks and roles during a change process. Journal of advanced
nursing. 68(2). pp.423-433.
Hrebiniak, L. G., 2013. Making strategy work: Leading effective execution and change. FT
Press.
Wagner, W. E., 2016. Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of
leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
Aslan, S. and Reigeluth, C. M., 2013. Educational technologists: Leading change for a new
paradigm of education. TechTrends. 57(5). pp.18-24.
NHS England, 2016. Leading change, adding value. British Journal of Healthcare
Assistants. 10(6). pp.302-303.
Brown, B. C., 2012. Leading complex change with post-conventional consciousness. Journal of
Organizational Change Management. 25(4). pp.560-575.
Stanleigh, M., 2013. Leading change. The Journal for Quality and Participation. 36(2). p.39.
ONLINE
Force field analysis, 2018. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.change-management-
coach.com/force-field-analysis.html>.