Woolworths' Business Disruption: Leadership, Staff Impact & Strategies

This report examines the impact of disruptions to Woolworths' old business model, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It quantifies the disruptions, such as supply chain delays and reduced product availability, leading to decreased profitability. The report discusses leadership and management challenges, including decreased profitability, improper team working, and a lack of readiness for uncertainty. It describes the organizational leadership's responses, focusing on an autocratic leadership style and the formation of response and action teams. Furthermore, it addresses the impact on staff, increased work stress, and strategies implemented to improve employee morale and productivity, such as providing technical training. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of preparing leadership for future uncertainties and offers recommendations for developing effective leadership skills. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and past papers for academic support.

Business Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
a. Explaining and quantifying the impacts of disruptions to the old business model..................3
b. Discussing leadership and management challenges................................................................4
c) Describing the responses of organizational leadership with critical evaluation......................5
d) Impact on staff and the strategies used to deal with the identified problems..........................6
e) Explaining why and how the leadership should prepare for next twelve months...................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Business management refers to the coordination and the proper organization of the
business activities. By having the proper management, it helps the company to grow in the
market. The current assignment is based on the Woolworth and this is the Australian company
having supermarket and grocery stores. The current report will outline the impact of disruption to
old business model and the leadership and management challenges faced by the organization.
Further this report will outline the response of the leadership with the challenges. This report will
also outline the impact on staff and strategies and recommendations to dealt with this problem.
MAIN BODY
a. Explaining and quantifying the impacts of disruptions to the old business model
As the Covid-19 pandemic came upon activation in the world it had major impacts to all
the organizations which were not prepared. During that time period Woolworths experiences was
also very similar to all the other business. Being a supermarket organization this company very
quickly started to experience delays with some stock and deliveries of their products
(Seetharaman, 2020). This was due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on the
supply chain of the organization. The result of this was seen on the stores in which they reduced
availability of some products at the point throughout the day before they receive their next
delivery.
The impacts of the pandemic started to show its peak as the lock-downs were
implemented due to isolation and blew out costs in the grocery (Woolworths statement on
COVID-19 impacts on stock availability, 2020). The shortage of the grocery lead to the increase
in the prices of the products. This is one of the largest companies in Australia which was had a
fall of 6.5% to 7.6% of profit. The business model of this company at that time was of a basic
supermarket retailer. It was the time during which the company has just started to adapt to online
deliveries of the groceries to the customers.
This pandemic was the reason for changing the external environment of the organization.
All the political, social, economical and technological changes took place at once. There were
development of future trends of business in which the retailers had to adopt online deliveries in
the market. This is going to be the factor which has been said to be the factor which is
responsible for the creation of the organizational operations (Carracedo, Puertas and Marti,
2021). The post covid-19 agendas are considered to be the factor which are related to the ways in

which the business would like to receive the ways in which it can support the online delivering
system. The leaders of the organization during this period had to take decisions very quickly in a
way that they would affect the growth of the organization.
This was the indication of the change that was required for the organization. Hence, there
was a completed change of system in the organization that changes the business model and as a
result the company was able to gain back its position in the market. The focus of this
organization has been to be at the top of the Australian market which was able to develop new
strategies in the organization.
b. Discussing leadership and management challenges
A leadership and management challenges refers to the challenges that used to have direct
impact on the company's profitability. At the time of external threat like COVID-19 Woolworth
has faced lots of challenges which are as described below:
Decrease in profitability: The company is the supermarket chain and have the grocery
store in the Australia but by the happening of COVID-19 it has affected the profitability. As the
market were closed due to lock-down which has the great impact on the management of
company (Hai And et.al., 2021). The managers used to face the problems as there was decrease
in the profits which was also decreasing the market share of the company. This is the main
problem or challenge facing by the management of the company.
Improper team working: As there was lock-down in the market so there was improper
management of the team. This used to affect the team and their working and has direct impact on
the management of the company. As the employees are not working properly which makes the
leaders to face the problem by the happening of COVID. This used to have direct impact on the
growth of the company. The old employees left the job which is difficult for the leaders to make
new employees to know about the work.
Not ready for uncertainty: As this threat was the sudden which used to have the impact
on all over the globe. This was very uncertain threat that has appeared and the company was not
ready to dealt with it (Kirchner, Ipsen and Hansen, 2021). This has the great impact on the profits
of the company and suffers the management to face this threat in the competitive market.
Improper working arrangements: As due to sudden changes in the market the leadership
and management of the company has faced this problem. Because of sudden lock-down in the
market it ha affected the work of the company. In order to remove this the company must

eliminate the unnecessary work that is not more important to them in order to have good
productivity and profitability.
c) Describing the responses of organizational leadership with critical evaluation
The organizational leadership at Worth wool effectively responded to the challenges the
company faced during the covid 19 pandemic situation. The leadership style followed by Worth
wool is autocratic form of leadership style. The autocratic leadership style is where all the
employees are expected to follow top to down approach (Fries, Kammerlander and Leitterstorf,
2021). The power is concentrated with the central authority and all the decisions are taken by the
highest authoritarian person and followed in the entire organization.
The situation of pandemic initiated the need for immediate response. Pandemic crisis
situation required leader of Worth wool to follow top to down approach in order to instil the
stability in the organization. The crises situation put leader in the situation were uncertainty is
not known properly and understanding of the crises is poor. So the best suited response that is
followed by the company is the few top executives on the basis of the information available
made quick decisions.
Rapid problem solving responses are created in the response of the crises being faced,
possible only through effective autocratic leadership style. The executive team divided the tasks
into two broader team namely response leadership team and action teams (Cummings and et.al.,
2018). The response leadership team dealt with the decisions regarding the perfect in depth
information of medical advisory and network project management the team was led by the
response team lead. Action teams initiated all actions at the ground level that involved external
communications, technology, finances, supply chain and staff outreach.
The use of autocratic leadership has proven highly effective during the pandemic
situation as the effective decisions taken by the top executive help in managing the situation in
the best way possible. The disadvantage that were faced because of the autocratic leadership
style being followed is that the employee contacts with the leader and fellow employees reduced
to a great extent, the regular schedule of the meetings was absent (Al Khajeh, 2018). This
resulted in reduced level of employee morale that negatively affected the organization. The
negative impact was reflected in the reduced productivity of the employees.

d) Impact on staff and the strategies used to deal with the identified problems
The covid 19 pandemic had worst impact over the employees of the company. Work
stress of the employees increased to a great extent. Work stress relates to both physical and
emotional effect that comes when the employee capabilities, needs and available resources do
not match the job requirements. The success and survival of every company depends on the
quality of the products and services offered by the organization and the capabilities of its
employees to maintain a good and interactive relationship with the customers of the company
(Gorgenyi-Hegyes, Nathan and Fekete-Farkas, 2021). The pandemic situation lowered down the
morale of the employees that resulted in weak communication between the employees and the
customers. Leading to low customer experience effecting the productivity of the company.
Strategies that can help to improve the behaviour and productivity of the employees. The
strategies by the Worth wool company are aimed to boost the employee morale. The pandemic
situation increased the need for every employee to use more of the technical applications on
regular basis to communicate better and perform their daily job roles. The company provided
effective training to the employees who were not comfortable with the technology (Rasool and
et.al., 2021). The training by the company increased the employee capabilities and enhanced the
skill related to technicalities in them. Being able to understand and do work more efficiently the
employee morale boosted. The customers interacting with the motivated and confident worker of
the company had good shopping experience with the company. This increased the sales of the
company and better the situation.
e) Explaining why and how the leadership should prepare for next twelve months
The pandemic situation came with lot of uncertainties and had major adverse impact over
the operations of the company. In this report it has been seen how effective leadership style
managed to respond effectively towards the situation. Planning effective leadership response is
essential so that any such situation is the future can be handle more effectively and quickly. As
the situation is not as unfamiliar as before that setting of leadership response to future will not be
difficult. Effective leadership style in advance will ensure the competitive edge for the company.
Leadership skills can be prepared in advance by effective thinking and systematic act, effective
communication, resilience and influence can help (Huertas-Valdivia, Gallego-Burín and Lloréns-
Montes, 2019). Self-awareness helps to prepare leadership response in advance. Being highly
accountable at all the times is one way by which the leadership style can be developed.

CONCLUSION
From this project it can be concluded that Woolwoths group was able to change their
operations very effectively in order to survive the ongoing changes due to Covid-19. This project
explains impact on the organization which happened during the covid-19 and the ways in which
its leadership and management was able to overcome it. This project also provides the
organization with the suggestions on how it needs to prepare itself for the upcoming future.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Khajeh, E. H., 2018. Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of
Human Resources Management Research, 2018, pp.1-10.
Carracedo, P., Puertas, R. and Marti, L., 2021. Research lines on the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on business. A text mining analysis. Journal of Business Research. 132.
pp.586-593.
Cummings, G. G. and et.al., 2018. Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing
workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International journal of nursing
studies. 85. pp.19-60.
Fries, A., Kammerlander, N. and Leitterstorf, M., 2021. Leadership styles and leadership
behaviors in family firms: A systematic literature review. Journal of Family Business
Strategy. 12(1). p.100374.
Gorgenyi-Hegyes, E., Nathan, R. J. and Fekete-Farkas, M., 2021. Workplace health promotion,
employee wellbeing and loyalty during COVID-19 Pandemic—Large scale empirical
evidence from Hungary. Economies. 9(2). p.55.
Hai, T. N. And et.al., 2021. Digital transformation: Opportunities and challenges for leaders in
the emerging countries in response to COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging Science
Journal. 5. pp.21-36.
Huertas-Valdivia, I., Gallego-Burín, A. R. and Lloréns-Montes, F. J., 2019. Effects of different
leadership styles on hospitality workers. Tourism management. 71. pp.402-420.
Kirchner, K., Ipsen, C. and Hansen, J. P., 2021. COVID-19 leadership challenges in knowledge
work. Knowledge Management Research & Practice. pp.1-8.
Rasool, S. F. and et.al., 2021. How toxic workplace environment effects the employee
engagement: the mediating role of organizational support and employee
wellbeing. International journal of environmental research and public health. 18(5).
p.2294.
Seetharaman, P., 2020. Business models shifts: Impact of Covid-19. International Journal of
Information Management. 54. p.102173.
Online
Woolworths statement on COVID-19 impacts on stock availability, 2020[Online].
Available through:
<https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/media/Press_Statements/woolworths-statement-on-
covid-19-impacts-on-stock-availability/>
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