Understanding and Leading Change - Marks and Spencer

The main aim of developing this report is to understand importance of change at a business. Topics included in report are examples of different companies related to how their operation and strategies impacted as well as it will also include internal and external drivers of change which may influence leadership. It will also describe about factors which can adopt in order to minimise negative impact as well as it explain several leadership approaches that aid an organisation in resolving issues related to change effectively.

TASK 1

P1 Compare different organisational examples where there has been an impact of change on an organisation’s strategy and operations.

In present era, the main aim of an organisation is to grow business by attaining high profitability and market shares for which they need to adopt change in respect of their operations as well as functions. In respect of respective case of Marks and Spencer, they are operating in retail industry and they want to compare their strategies with competitor in order to understand their similarities as well as difference among the firm in respect of dealing with change (Caton and Mistriner, 2016). For this Marks and Spencer activities or strategies are compare with its competitor i.e. John Lewis Partnership. Explanation of difference are given below:-

Furthermore, there are several similarities in Marks and Spencer as well as John Lewis Partnership in respect of implementing change at workplace such as both companies conduct all activities in transparent manner so that employees feel valuable as well as encouraged for adopting change. Along with this both retail organisations also create proper roadmap and invite participations so that all activities related to implementation of change will conduct effectively as well as successfully.

TASK 2

P2 Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and individual behaviours within an organisation.

Drivers of Change is considered as elements by which change may occur in the business operational and functional activities of a company. It is a disruptive force that are present at almost all situation as well as it also impact differently on the specific situation. There are generally two types of drivers of changes i.e. internal as well as external drivers and these also affect business operations in positive and negative manner (Head and et. al., 2018). There are also several internal as well as external factors which impact on Marks and Spencer operations, from all factors some are given below:-

Internal factor- It is considered as that force which are exist within an organisation as well as these are in control of management, they generally impact on the management at workplace. This factor will include plans, design, services, products, strategies and operations. There are several internal factors which impact on the Marks and Spencer operation, from which some are given below:-

• Organizational culture:It is defined as several aspects such as value, assumptions, beliefs and style of interacting which contributes to specific psychological as well as social environment of a company. For Marks and Spencer it is essential to develop and maintain effective organisation culture and for that they can develop strategies such as create rules and regulation. This is so because if there is no proper organisational culture then individuals behaviour get impacted that lead to conflict situation which influence productivity of team and decision making of leader.
• Employees moral: It is determined as overall attitude, outlook, satisfaction as well as confidence that is feel by employee at workplace. It is necessary for respective company management develop several strategies in order to enhance their employees moral because if moral is low performance of staff get reduce which lead to decrease in productivity(Hughes, 2016). For which this firm need to organize training session, parties, get together, motivational session so that individual moral get high because it lead to increase in team productively. Along with this high moral of employee's also help in leadership in decision making process.

External factor- It is defined as that factor which affect a company from the outside as well as these force are not being controlled by a management. In respect of external driver firm need to develop strategies or action plan accordingly. This will factors like rules and regulation, economic change and so on. There are numbers of external drivers of change which affect Marks and Spencer, from which some are given below:-

• Political factors: In an organisation political factor directly impact on the funding as well as priorities as well as it is essential for management to develop proper strategies or action plan related to political factors(Iles, 2017). In respect of Marks and Spencer it is essential for them them to develop proper rules and regulations related to change in political factors because if they not do so they may face legal action which impact on their individuals behaviour in respect of their workplace. Along with this, that will also directly impact on the team working or productivity as well as it will also impact on the decision making of leader.
• Economic factor:This external factor will include tax rate, interest rate, wage, law, policies as well as government activities. These factors directly impact on the business activities and decision making of leaders at Marks and Spencer. This is so because leader need to change their strategies according to economy of country, company and customers and according to which individual need to conduct activities which shows economy also affect individual at workplace. Along with this when individual behaviour get impact then performance of team also get affected.
• Social factor:Through this factors company able to under need as well as demand of their potential customers according to which they can develop decision. This will include factors like religion, buying habit, wealth, education level, structure, family size and population (Komives and Wagner, 2016). In respect of Marks and Spencer they are operating in retail clothing industry, in which trends are changing on continuous basis due to which sometime old design and products get waste. This will directly impact on employees moral because their hard work get waste as well as due to which team performance get also decreased. It will also directly impact on the decision making of leader because they need to develop decision according to new trends on regular basis.
• Technological factor:According to this factor by adopting new and advance technology company able to increase its productivity as well as work quality because all activities will conduct properly and it will also help in minimising wastage. So in respect of Marks and Spencer by adopting advance technology individual or employees able to conduct their work properly as well as it will also help them in minimising wastage (Lawrence, 2015). Along with this it will also help a team in conducting their work in effective manner as well as in proper time. This will also help leader in developing new strategies according to implementation of new technology and demand of customers.P3 Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on organisational behaviour.

At a company change is consider as necessary portion because it lead them in conducting business life cycle smoothly as in order to this firm adopt new technology and other related factor. This is so because through it an organization able to enhance its profitability as well as market shares. At Marks and Spencer, different drivers of change impact positively because through it leaders able to improve their staffs performance and increase employees moral. Along with this, it will also help in conducting all business operational activities properly as well as it also aid in conducting procedures effectively (Metcalf and Morelli, 2015). On other hand, there are some negative impact of change drivers because due to that leader need to develop new strategies which is time taking and stressful. Moreover, due to negative impact of change management need to do cost cutting which directly impact on staff's salary and other benefits provided to them as well as it will also reduce motivation and satisfaction level of employees. So in order to avoid these issues Marks and Spencer adopt PDCA model, that is explained below:-

• Plan:At respective stage company do analysis of market in order to identify opportunity and issues, so that accordingly they can develop appropriate strategies in order to grab opportunity and resolve issues. Such as in this stage Marks and Spencer will do market analysis in order to identify new trends, opportunities and issues. By this they able to develop strategies which help in minimising negative impact of change in successful manner (Painter and Clark, 2015). For example respective retail company is facing issue in attracting customers and reason is this there is lack of promotional activities. So management is planning to adopt digital and social media in order to improve their promotional activities.
• Do:At this stage firm's management will evaluate potential solution which they will develop at above stage. In respect of Marks and Spencer, management will conduct evaluation of strategy that they develop at above stage i.e. plan. For example in respect to improve their promotional activities they will conduct training and development session so that they can use different media in effective manner. Such as social media like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and many more as well as digital platform similar to pop up advertising, e mail marketing and so on.
• Check: In this phase company management will analyse whether the selected or developed strategy is effective or not. Moreover on this stage they will analyse that their expected outcome is similar to actual or not, if not then required modification will be done effectively(Salman and Broten, 2017). In respect of Marks and Spencer, they will analyse that the usage of digital and social media will be impressive for them or not. If management will identify any issue then they will conduct improvement activities as well as if they identify that strategy is inappropriate then they will drop idea and again analyse situation for developing proper strategy related to resolving issue of promotional activity.
• Act:It is the last stage of PDCA model in which an organisation will implement the strategy if that will be appropriate in respect of issue or situation. In respect of Marks and Spencer, if management find strategy of adopting social and digital media effective then they will implement it. Along with this management will also develop training and development activities in order to avoid future issues that may occur while implementing digital and social media for conduct promotional activities.

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TASK 3

P4 Explain different barriers to change and determine how they influence leadership decision making in a given organisational context.

During the implementation of change a company faced numbers of barriers which develop gap between standard and actual practices and that impact negatively on daily basis practices at workplace (Smith, 2015). So in this respect it will be responsibilities of manager as well as leader to develop strategies in order to overcome issues as well as it will also essential for them to create plan for resolving issues. In respect of Marks and Spencer, they adopt force field analysis model in order to identify barriers which impact on leadership decision making, explanation of respective model is given below:-

Force Field Analysis Model

The respective model is consist of two factors i.e. driving force and resistance force of a company. These are generally used to evaluate as well as analyse change that may occur at workplace.

• Driving force:It is consider as power because through this force company able to adopt change according to need and requirement of customers as well as it also help leader in developing effective strategy according to situation (Soehner, 2015). Such as customers of Marks and Spencer is demanding for new innovative design cloths for which they are adopt new technology which help them in designing new innovative cloths such as one size cloths, back support cloths for old age peoples and so on. By doing this respective company can plan innovative strategies in order to fulfil need as well as demand of customers in effective manner.
• Resisting force:This force is considered as threat for a company because it develop barrier which hinder company in implementing change at workplace. Implementation of change incurred numbers of barriers such as requirement of huge funds, less employees support, less skilled employees and so on. In respect of Marks and Spencer similar barriers may arise so it is essential for firm to develop proper strategies in order to motivate their employees so that they can conduct work effectively for attaining desire goal.

There are several barriers through which a company face by adopting change at their workplace. From which some major barriers are given below that may faced by Marks and Spencer while implementing change:-

• Less employee involvement or support: It is one of the most common issues or barrier which a company face when they implement change at their workplace(Tombetti and Mason, 2019). According to this staff of firm not show appropriate interest or involvement in adopting change. At Marks and Spencer it occur because they think their work will get increase or their importance get reduced. In order to resolve this issues respective company management may conduct meeting in which they motivate their staffs so that they get ready to adopt change in effective manner.
• Lack of source of finance or investment: At workplace for conducting any activity or implement change management required funds. Such as when Marks and Spencer adopt new technology or innovation they need to funds and investment so that they can provide proper resources to their staffs. So it is essential for respective company management to develop proper strategies or budget as that will help in planning other activities accordingly for implementing change.

TASK 4

P5 Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organisational contexts

When there is implementation of organisational change, it is necessary for the company to have appropriate and effective leadership so that all the management activities as well as business activities are done effectively (Weston, Ferris and Finkelstein, 2017). There are some leadership approaches used by Marks and Spencer and these are described below -

• Transformational approach: This is a leadership approach which is used by managers and leaders when there is any type of change within the organisation. This type of leadership approach is able to cause change in individuals and social systems. This can create positive and valuable change in the subordinates.
• Autocratic approach: This is also known as authoritarian leadership. According to this type of approach, the managers and leaders make decisions on their own and all other subordinates have to follow this decision. Marks and Spencer leaders do not consider the thoughts of their subordinates while making decisions.
• Situational approach:This type of leadership approach is defined as an approach which includes set of values, behaviours and belief. This leadership approach is used for managing different business situations by following different beliefs, values and behaviours.

Lewin's change model

This is a model that is analysed when there is any kind of organisational change within the organisation. This model was given by Kurt Lewins. There are three stages in this model of change – unfreeze, changes and refreeze (Salman and Broten, 2017). When there is any kind of change occur in the company, the stages of this model are considered. Thus, Marks and Spencer is using this model of change for developing strategies and plans. This model in context of M&S is mentioned below-

• Unfreeze: This stage is the unfreezing stage and according to this stage, when there is need of any organisational change within the company, the first thing is to analyse all regulations and rules of the company. It is recognised by managers of Marks and Spencer that it is important to have change in the organisation. Thus, at this stage it is seen that there is need for considering new rules and regulations followed by this company.
• Changes:In this stage, there is need for developing strategies and plans for implementing the change discussed in the above step. There is need for developing effective and strong strategies that will help in engaging employees towards the new idea of organisational change. The managers and leaders of Marks and Spencer have to demonstrate strategies and plans to staff in an effective manner.
• Refreeze: As per this step, Marks and Spencer managers have to find a way for becoming competent and implementing changes that can survive within market for long time. The managers of M&S organises few sessions which help in communicating about the change to staff and workers (Tombetti and Mason, 2019). They have to do work accordingly. This is responsibility of managers to effectively explain all the strategies and planning used for implementing new change within the company.

It is concluded from the above discussion that there are various types of leadership including transformational leadership, situational and autocratic. The best strategy for M&S is transformational leadership when experiencing organisational change.

CONCLUSION

From above discussed topics it can be summarise that for every company it is essential to adopt change in their business operations and functions because through that they able to attain numbers of growth opportunity. While implementing change at the workplace it is essential for a company management to analyse the situation because through it they able to analyse negative as well as positive impact of change in effective manner. Along with this, a firm also need to compare their strategies and operation from its competitors because through this they can understand power of change related activities. There are mainly two drivers of change i.e. internal and external, these change drivers directly or indirectly impact on company's leadership, individual and team behaviour. During the implementation of change, negative impact may occur so in order to overcome impact a company can adopt several strategies. Moreover there are also numbers of barriers that occur while the implementation of change as well as in order to deal these change issues there are different leadership approaches. Along with this, a firm also need to compare their strategies and operation from its competitors because through this they can understand power of change related activities.

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REFERENCES

Books and Journals

Al-Haddad, S. and Kotnour, T., 2015. Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of organizational change management.

Caton, J. and Mistriner, M., 2016. Leading change: A case study of leadership practices from the development of the Niagara County Community College culinary institute. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. 40(7). pp.615-624.

Chappell, S. and et. al., 2016. Exploring the process of implementing healthy workplace initiatives: mapping to Kotter's leading change model. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine. 58(10). pp.e341-e348.

Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge.

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