Leadership and Change Assignment Sample
Introduction
This report throws light on the analysis of a change experience that a retail company of Australia and also illustrates that if the change process can not be maintained with effectiveness and been supported by proper skills and knowledge then initiating of this process can affect the company and also more resources will be required to finally clear the way for the process (Jonick and Benson,2018). In this report, first a short and brief introduction of the company will be discussed which will also mark off the issues related with the company. And after the introduction, the change recognition analysis along with the analysis of the company with the help of SWOT model will be done to recognize the change processes of the company. And then finally some categorization of the change process together with indication of change by applying Kotter and Lewin models will be critically analyzed and will portray some recommendations about the process of improving change by applying SMART matrix.
Organization background
In the retail company of Australia, I worked as the finance manager and the company designs and manufactures a very own brand of their own (Roca-Fernandez,2021). For the cost cutting strategy, the company had to go through many changes of various processes in all of their departments. As in this report the change process has been analyzed and this will show how they have been failed at communicating the changes in their company and this has caused increased turnover and high resistance (Wentworth et al.,2020). A critical reflection on the change process of the organization with theories for understanding the context of the company better and their need for changes in various departments and suggestions for applying successfully the change process will be discussed broadly in this report.
Change recognition
For the success of the organization, change recognition is very important. For the company to stay competitive and make changes in the company the important forces are industry evolution with diffusion of evolution approaches (Rosenbaum et al.,2018). Different organizations have different approaches for responding to changes. Below the SWOT analysis of the company has been described and itt can be seen that the company has ignored changes in their external environment which made them an emergency need for changes and by a reactive approach they shifted towards the change. But the company is left with no time for planning and also has the option of reacting to the changes and has limited themselves to searching for any creativity. Also there was much difficulty with involvement of people and even the communication problem. The analysis below will demonstrate the continuous process of innovation and improvement and on the other side reactive adaptation of external threats which has risen unexpectedly.
SWOT analysis
| Strengths | ● The company is designed in Australian brand which has high value among people
● Customer database of high volume ● The team has huge skills. ● A very strong organizational culture |
| Weaknesses | ● Online presence is very weak
● The fabrics which are made in china has affected the quality ● Decreasing of sales
● Very high returns |
| Opportunities | ● Expansion of presence of brand in different states
● Innovative experience of online sales ● Expansion of product segment for targeting additional groups of customers. ● For higher income there is growth in customer segment ● Strengthening the culture of organiztaion |
| Threats | ● Increasement of online shopping can threaten the closing of stores
● Domination of market by the competitors ● Reducing of customer database for the quality problems |
There is failure of communication in the company for their need of change which depends on trust and effective organization culture for supporting their top down approach. From the research of the company it can be seen that lack of quality upward communication very often leads to the unseen obstacles which block the change (Bashori et al.,2020). And for this reason, some issues have been created such as staff insecurity, loss of trust and loyalty which resulted in turnover and high resistance. The research suggests that employees will like to search for opportunities outside the company which is really a big threat and this also will influence their motivation, performance and also engagement.
Change Management approach
Some factors have been discussed below which have created obstacles for the company to implement changes in the company:
- No strong vision of the company has supported the change initiative of the company. And every staff member of the company was not sure why there is implementation of change or what will be its impact and its effects on the employees and the company (Alimjan et al.,2021). There was a lack of communication about the restructure and new expectations.
- During implementation there was no realistic evaluation of the situation. Though the company culture was great, there was no surety that all employees will heartily welcome new changes. Without any staff involvement the company made assumptions. There was disbalance in the workplace of the company due to changes and also promoted insecurities and demotivation and dissatisfaction and losing of trust.
- The concerns of different staff were not being communicated. There was an absence of open and two way communication (Selwyn et al.,2022). Employees had to depend on the information which they got from other employees. And these kinds of assumptions caused unsupported conclusions that created fear, resistance and uncertainty.
Modes of change: Kotter and Lewin’s model
Organizational changes take place in every company through the process of changing in the company’s culture, introduction of new technologies, new business processes and new strategies, etc. There have been modelling change management techniques created by researchers for providing guidance to a successful implementation of changes. Amongst the different kinds of models, the most effective and famous ones are Kotter’s model, Lewin’s model; among which the Lewin’s model is a simple and straightforward one and Kotter’s model is the complex one. According to Lewin, changes can be achieved through making needs for changes and introducing changes and stopping new behaviors which can become a norm. But Kotter put forward guidance in steps to prepare the employees for the required changes of the organization (Rosenbaum et al.,2018). Hence, as the Kotter’s model will be appropriate for this company and hence discussed below:
Kotter’s model
| Establishing sense of urgency | Though this step is not fully completed and there is a sense of urgency like a sense of uncertainty. The correct approach will help to communicate about the company’s requirement for change and also external and internal drivers, development of statistics for online shopping, poor performances of stores, increasement of rent and the price forces of the competitors. Avoiding communication can cause insecurity and also results in leaving of staff. |
| Making guidance alliance | Employees should be selected for the formation of a team which will be able to support the changes. The culture of the company and psychological contracts have an important role for the commitments and engagements of staff. |
| Making a vision of change | Like the first step, there was also no communication regarding the vision which can be helpful in understanding the change and strategy and how to conquer it. |
| Communication about the vision | What are the good things about change, how the employees will be benefitted, new strategies for online shopping, reducing numbers and size of the stores, etc. This step of the strategy can help the company to develop their cash flow and recreate their image and application of innovation and new processes. |
| Empowerment of others for acting on the vision | A manager can remove obstacles by empowering broad based actions which is blocking the change vision and forbidding staff with unachievable and unrealistic goals |
| For the going of of changes, planning short wins | If there is little success being recognized then motivation will further move the process. The organization can achieve competitive advantage if the employees are motivated enough. |
| Combined gains | Acknowledging the achievement of early success and discussing gains can enable for more changes in the future of the company. |
| Distributing of changes in the culture | The leaders can influence the culture of the company with practice of empowered delegations to assist in improvement of the approach for performing the best. |
Conclusion and recommendations
In conclusion it can be said that the company did handle their change process well enough as they lack strategy of how to implement the change, exhibiting a high uncertainty level of the management which causes the resistance, turn-over and insecurities (Yeole and Kalbande,2018). Leadership theories and change provide detailed guidelines for communicating about the vision, so that the employees can accept the change with less difficulties for them and the company. There is a SMART matrix below which will format the facilitation of the change process in effective ways:
| Specific | Improvement of communication skills by organizing weekly team creating workshops, monthly workshops for stress management, emails and a short meeting on a daily basis. |
| Measurable | From team alliance getting feedback, developing motivations, decreasing the obstacles. |
| Achievable | If it can be seen from the perspective of organizational culture and maintaining trust in relationships, then 75%-100% is achievable. |
| Relevant | Good communication skills are very important for the implementation of change processes in the company. |
| Timebound | Six months |
References
Jonick, C. and Benson, D., 2018. The New Accounting Standard for Revenue Recognition: Do Implementation Issues Differ for Fortune 500 Companies?. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, 29(2), pp.22-33.
Roca-Fernandez, G., 2021. Cross-Border Insolvency in India: A Resistance to Change. Tul. J. Int’l & Comp. L., 29, p.99.
Selwyn, N., Campbell, L. and Andrejevic, M., 2022. Autoroll: scripting the emergence of classroom facial recognition technology. Learning, Media and Technology, pp.1-14.
Alimjan, G., Jiaermuhamaiti, Y., Jumahong, H., Zhu, S. and Nurmamat, P., 2021. An Image Change Detection Algorithm Based on Multi-Feature Self-Attention Fusion Mechanism UNet Network. International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, 35(14), p.2159049.
Yeole, A. and Kalbande, D.R., 2018, January. Change management approach for integrating IoT technology in healthcare system. In 2018 International Conference on Smart City and Emerging Technology (ICSCET) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
Bashori, B., Prasetyo, M.A.M. and Susanto, E., 2020. Change Management Transfromation In Islamic Education Of Indonesia. Social work and education, 7(1), pp.84-99.
Wentworth, D.K., Behson, S.J. and Kelley, C.L., 2020. Implementing a new student evaluation of teaching system using the Kotter change model. Studies in Higher Education, 45(3), pp.511-523.
Rosenbaum, D., More, E. and Steane, P., 2018. Planned organisational change management: Forward to the past? An exploratory literature review. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
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