Morrison's Change Management: Strategies, Leadership, and Impact

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of change management and leadership within the context of Morrison's supermarket chain. The report explores the impact of change on Morrison's strategies and operations, comparing it with other organizations like Tesco. It examines internal and external drivers of change, evaluating their effects on various sections of Morrison's, including employee and team behavior. Furthermore, it investigates measures to minimize the negative impacts of change on organizational behavior, referencing Kotter's 8-step change model. The report also explains barriers to change and their influence on leadership decision-making, along with applying different leadership approaches to address change in organizational contexts. The analysis covers societal, technological, economic, and political factors impacting Morrison's, providing insights into long-term implications and strategic adaptations.

UNDERSTANDING & LEADING
CHANGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
LO 1............................................................................................................................................................3
P1- Comparing ways in which change impacts on strategies and operations of Morrison's.....................3
LO 2............................................................................................................................................................5
P2 -Evaluating ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect various sections within an
Morrison’s...............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Evaluating measures that can be taken to minimize negative impact of change on organizational
behavior...................................................................................................................................................7
LO 3............................................................................................................................................................8
P4- Explaining varied barriers to change and determine how they affect decision making of leadership
in an organizational context.....................................................................................................................8
LO 4..........................................................................................................................................................10
P5- Applying several leadership approaches to deal with change in a range of organizational contexts10
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Change in organization refers to all those factors which may affect its business
operations. Identifying and leading those changes helps a firm to achieve its desired objectives.
The current assignment will be based on Morrison’s, which falls under list of the biggest retail
supermarket chains in the United Kingdom. The study will explain, the comparison of various
organizational examples in which a change influences their business operations and strategy. It
will define ways in which internal & external drivers of a change affect team and individual
behavior as well as leadership. The report will justify the measures that can be taken to minimize
the negative impacts of change in the context of organizational behavior. Furthermore, it will
explain the different barriers to change with determining ways that influencing leadership by
them. Lastly, the assignment will clarify different leadership approaches to deal with change in
range of organizational context.
LO 1
P1- Comparing ways in which change impacts on strategies and operations of Morrison's
Every big organization operating in business sector is driven by changes which impacts
its management and growth. The influence positive or negative comprises of many factors which
are drivers of change. At all those different organizational examples including various
supermarket firms that are driven by different aspects. For example, due to the ongoing
pandemic, the standard operating procedure of the firm is being impacted (Dwivedi and et.al.,
2020). The store format witnessed decline in customers but on the other hand surge in online
shopping increased. It impacted the strategies and decision forming process of the firm.
Management implemented various newly formed procedures such as expanding online
purchasing options, commencement of home delivery to cope up with this aspect. Subsequently
Tesco also shifted its base to comply with its customers
The change in technology and innovation also led a direct impact on the operations and
strategy formation of the firm. Morrison’s adaptability of these changes led to the expansion of
its business. The management had to plan the extension of all its segments with hiring of new
people to fulfill those sections (Laužikas and Miliūtė, 2020). On the other hand, Tesco being the
largest firm primarily trained its staff for the same. The constant changing internal and external

business environment in Morrison’s has impacted its operations and management. The firm’s
offerings consisting of quality products has managed to increase its sales which directly
influenced expansion of its outlets and business. Constantly changing preferences of customer
led to adaptability of current market conditions by the firm, which resulted in increased growth.
Subsequently Tesco’s management also emphasized on standard enhancement procedure for its
services.
One of the major impacts created by change in Morrison’s is management of its work
force. In order to enlarge its operational base, the firm is constantly hiring candidates possessing
adequate skills and abilities for the job profile. Which is influencing the firm through inclusion
of new and creative minds. On the other hand Tesco is home to a big number of employees and
constantly provides training to them in order to adapt new changes. From past years change in
several policies and procedures of the firm resulted in its ineffective management of operations.
The management’s adaptability to several economical changes in the led to various restrictions in
achievement of its set organizational aims with limited revenue generation.
For example – constantly rising fuel prices is resulting in surging transportation costs, the
expenses on this sector is limiting the income formation, Thus, influencing it in a negative way.
Various strategies are implemented to cut or minimize the expenditures on this section. Another
major impact on the operations of Morrison’s currently is change of e- commerce industry and
its usage in the food industry. Current trend of online shopping made the firm to shift its major
concern to digital marketing of its products. On the other hand, Tesco has been leading the
supermarket sector regarding online marketing which resembles its adaptability to this change.
Assessing the different drivers of change in each organization-
The biggest driver of change in all the situations of Morrison’s and Tesco are
 Societal and behavioral change brought by the pandemic which resulted in changing
practices of shopping by the customers. This affected the operational mediums of
both organization from store format to online format.
 Technological change brought by constant new innovations across the world which
affected the adaptability of both companies.

 Change in quality preference of customers is one of the biggest driver of change in
Morrison’s. It affected the organization through changes in strategies of production to
enhance standard of its products.
 The next cause of change in the firm is employee management system which affects
both firms in effective achievement of its organizational aims.
 The change regarding the rising operational costs in Morrison’s is which directly
affecting the revenue generation.
 The next cause of change is the expansion of e commerce in food industry which
impacts the marketing practices of both companies.
LO 2
P2 -Evaluating ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect various sections
within an Morrison’s
Internal drivers of change-
Strength –The biggest strength of the organization is the strong workforce of the
organization, which is formed by the level of satisfaction of employees and its behaviour. One
of the biggest internal driver of change which may affect the leadership in the firm is employee
behaviour as strong base of workers resembles effective leadership and team management
(Inegbedion and et.al., 2020). This also impacts the individual behavior of employees resulting
in determination of performing.
Weakness – Unequal distribution of work or change in management are those factors of
change in organizational culture which may impact the team behaviour in Morrison’s. Another
weakness displayed by the firm is delayed response to the changes which influences the
leadership. Low customer recalling regarding its products has affected individual behaviour of its
employees.
Opportunities – The opportunity to the management of Morrison’s is gauging the
individual objectives of employees which forms the change in his individual behaviour. Another
objective of the firm is to become the largest supermarket in its region. To achieve this outcome,
leadership will affected and tested in order to motivate the departments to achieve those goals. It

may also affect the team behaviour as the departments will indulge in implementing various
strategies to ensure firm’s growth.
Threat – The biggest threat to Morrison’s currently is changing rules and regulations of the
governing body in its operational region. These changes will directly affect the operations and
leadership of the firm. Another threat of growing competition may impact team and individual
behaviour in order to derive performance from them to sustain.
External drivers of change
Political factor- Fluctuation in Political factors such as trade regulations may impact the
management and operations of the firm. The managers at Morrison’s implements different
strategies that copes up with the ongoing political environment in its operational region. The
approach of officials decides the negative or positive affect of their leadership, which is
determined by the success of company in handling these factors. The multiple restrictions on
usage of toxins like plastic has impacted the team and individual behaviour in the firm as they
had to frame policies regarding the use of paper in packing process.
Economic factor – In order to manage the operations and growth, the management has to
deal with increasing costs on fossil fuels due to hike in its price. To cope up with these
increasing expenses all the sections within the firm follows a coordinated work approach to
generate revenues for the firm which impacted the team and employee behaviour of the firm.
Sociological factor– Growing education and health of the people in UK forms as a major
social factor for Morrison’s. The leadership is getting affected due to rising demand of
supervision in product design to manage this sociological factor. The new task of marketing and
selling new product design will also impact the team and individual behaviour of the company.
Technological factor– With the constant change in technology and innovations, it became
crucial challenge for the organization to adapt these aspects. It resulted in reduction of manual
work base and hiring of skilled professionals which benefited Morrison’s. It affected the leaders
in terms of providing training to their staff . Rising need of training impacted the team behaviour
as well as the individual behaviour within organization.
Implications of long term internal and external drivers of change

The long term internal driver of change that may be implemented in Morrison’s should
be proper coordination between all the departments. This implication will maintain the effective
management of operations in the firm. On the other hand the long term external driver of change
should be assessing the economical factors to increase the revenues for the company. This
implication will motivate employees to work hard for achieving the organizational aims.
P3 Evaluating measures that can be taken to minimize negative impact of change on
organizational behavior
The measures that leaders and managers within Morrison’s may take to minimize the
negative impacts of change on organizational behavior , may define by implication of Kotter's 8
step change model. These are the major components stated by this model.
o In term of measures, the leader should emphasize on creating awareness
amongst the employees and management of the firm about negative effects of
changes. Generating conversation about what is happening and what measures
organization may take will help to achieve this process. This step is all about the
preparations done by Morrison’s to counter those effects.
o Then the measures to counter those negative effects is to form and lead a team
through motivating its members (Tetteh, 2020). This process will help the
management to minimize the negative effects in group rather assessing it alone. A
strong coalition indicates great leadership qualities possessed by leader.
o The management should engage in creating a proper vision or a strategy to reduce
those negative effects. Both the internal and external sectors of Morrison’s consist
of various counter decisions which are introduced by its management team in
order to minimize risks and improve productivity for the firm.
o The management should also indulge in communicating those strategies or vision
to the prior formed coalition. The briefing should be proper with focus on
mentioning each detail to them. This forms an excellent opportunity to utilize the
team which is built by the management in order to reduce negative effects of that
change.

o Then the manager should focus on removing the obstacles which might affect
this counter practice. Availability of resources, determination of employees,
market conditions are some of those aspects which may create problems for the
management of Morrison’s. They should be identified as early as possible with
relying on existing factors to manage them.
o The management should resemble feeling of achieving small victories while
eliminating major negative effects of change. It is important to demonstrate the
advantages of the counter strategies by creating some short term wins by the
management. This will help the team to gain sufficient level of motivation in a
short span of time.
o There will be situations where the management formed strategies will fail. The
leaders in this case should build on the change and take the failure to create new
strategies. The firm should analyze the aspects which may improve their chances
of minimize negative effects.
o At last the management shall implement all those strategies by making it core of
the organization. This will help the management to reduce the risks related to
change in future also. Subsequently appraising the team performance in adapting
these strategies will benefit in promoting the improved productivity of
Morrison’s.
LO 3
P4- Explaining varied barriers to change and determine how they affect decision making of
leadership in an organizational context
There are varied reasons behind any type of change exist and emerging in the world of
business. Just like these, COVID-19 pandemic is the one, which drive the attention of Morrison’s
and other brands as well that has been operated in retail sector from longer time to make a
change like organizational to grow. It is not that easy for the organization to take action related to
modification or implement in effective manner. They may face varied issues or barriers to
change, which may influence leadership in several manners and also affect the way leaders take
decision within brand.

Here, Force field analysis model is use in the context of chosen supermarket, to
determine barriers to change in term of forces by applying this concept below-
Forces for change Forces resisting change
 Technology advancement
 Customer demands
 Competitiveness
 Sustainable business practices
 Employees resistance
 Lack of awareness regarding change
 Lack of coordination and
communication
 Increasing work pressure
As discussed above, forces for change and factors that resist for modification are the two
sub parts of overall analysis. In which some contribute to consider and implement organizational
change decision into practical manner, while rest of the factors emerge as key barrier to alter
within Morrison’s.
For example, employee’s resistance for organizational change adoption is quite common
reaction that they give after listening about it at workplace within company (Force Field
Analysis, 2021). They resist for it, because of several reasons, like unable to understand its
importance and benefits, in the context of venture and their self as well.
Lack of awareness, communication and coordination are also included in the list of
barriers to change, which may put negative influence on decision making responsibility of
leaders, in term of putting a lot of pressure on them to take better action or chose approach that
they may use to remove each barrier.
It is not that easy for leaders to make a decision regarding situation, where employees
deny to accept organizational change (Suprayoga, Witte and Spit, 2020). It may influence in term
of driving their attention and attempts towards developing effective plans, strategies and using
methods that help to overcome employee resistance appropriately, which is actually quite
essential as it may hamper the productivity of company and lead to decrease operational
effectiveness. The extent of work pressure upon leader may increase due to emerging barriers to
organizational change.

By using force field analysis, it can be analyzed that both resisting and driving forces
influence decision-making of leader in Morrison’s in negative term, because now they
accountable to take judgement and develop strategy according the situation, especially
considering workers need and expectations, which enable them to motivate each candidate and
engage in procedure of organizational change because of pandemic or more logical reasons like
to increase productivity, gain competitive advantages and to serve a fast moving market in retail
industry that lead to increase profitability and sales.
LO 4
P5- Applying several leadership approaches to deal with change in a range of organizational
contexts
In the world of corporate, leaders have used different leadership approaches in order to
deal with change for which they may take many initiatives within companies.
Situational leadership-
It is one of those effective and beneficial leadership approaches that support leader to
deal with organizational change, which create many issues at workplace in term of employee’s
resistance, decreasing productivity and high employee turnover that is not good success and
progress of Morrison’s. Situational leadership is appropriate in regard to this circumstance,
because it drive the attention and concentration of leaders towards understanding overall things,
like reason behind employee resistance to change (Wuryani and et.al., 2021). After analyzing
overall situation, they may take action and decision under which staffs concern also take into
consideration by them. By conducting each activity in appropriate manner, they deal with
change.
Advantages-
 The best thing about situational leadership approach is that it helps to recognize needs for
flexibility.
 It drives the attention of workers towards taking initiative to implement change at
workplace.
Disadvantages-

 The worst thing about this approach is that it just concentrates on immediate needs
instead of considering long.
 It may be ineffective in regard to task orientated situation.
Democratic leadership approach-
This method of leadership is used in term of participative approach, with leader may take
action to take part in daily activity of workers, just to motivate them and feel free from stress. It
deals with change in Morrison’s, by taking initiative to participate in group or individual work
and provide suggestions by working with them, which enable everyone to continue change and
make is successful as well as beneficial for all. It strengthens the power of leader to contribute to
deal with change by gathering workers together and by encouraging them to accept what happen
within company, because it occurs for their as well as organizational benefit in the future.
Advantages-
 It helps to solve workers issues in effective manner and assure them that change provide
benefits to them (Adha and et.al., 2020).
 It contributes to build strong relationship between leaders and workers as they perform
together, which in return provide desire outcomes in term of dealing and successfully
implementing organizational change.
Disadvantages-
 It may lead to procrastination, which is not good for everyone at workplace.
 Another disadvantage of this approach is that it may consumes a lot of time to reach at
target aim.
Lewin’s change management model-
Unfreeze-
Here, to deal with change this concept may apply within Morrison’s context, according to
which leader at first stage, provide all the information to their workers about organizational
change and reason behind it. This kind of initiative provide desirable outcomes in term of dealing
with modification by overcome negative impact of resistance regarding it.

Change-
Now, leader may move to this phase, where workers are reading to accept change and
support in this process by making flexibility in their nature and changing the way they work in
productive manner, without making compromise on quality.
Freeze-
After encouraging employees and engaging them to continue process, leaders and
managers successfully deal with organizational change that have been taken place due to
COVID-19, globalization and other major reasons.
From above analysis, it can be said that situational leadership is appropriate to deliver
organizational change effectively.
CONCLUSION
From above analysis, it has been concluded that leaders have successfully overcome the
influence of factors upon strategies and operations of the company. The leaders by assessing the
the effects of change successfully implemented various decisions in order to overcome them. The
report also justified the drivers of change responsible for influencing. Furthermore, it defined the
internal and external drivers of change within the firm and how it affects the leadership, team
behavior and individual behavior by SWOT and PEST analysis. The long term implications of
both drivers of change has also been assessed by the management. Next the report also justified
the measures implemented by leaders in order to minimize the negative effects of a change. It
also showed overcoming the barriers of a change by management by practicing various
measures. Lastly it showed different leadership approaches used by the officials to deal with a
change.