Comparative Analysis of Change Management Initiatives

Introduction

Change management is the practice of restructuring the organisational activities and create new tactics to achieve the organisational objectives. In the recent era of globalisation, the multinational corporation try to manage change in the workplace and develop change initiatives to fulfil the organisational aim and objective in a more unique way (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019). The study explores the change initiatives taken by the organisations Tesco Plc and Sports Direct International plc, which focus on managing change for developing new strategic planning to expand their business efficiently in the market. The study provides a scope to compare the change initiatives taken by the organisations Tesco Plc and Sports Direct International plc and analyse its impacts on the organisational strategy and operations. The change management models and the leadership approaches will also be evaluated in order to identify the best way to manage change for the firm as well as recommend the best suited leadership style which would be beneficial for both the firms so that Tesco Plc and Sports Direct International plc can fulfil their aims and objectives. The force field analysis will help to identify the change forces and resisting forces which would also be beneficial to recommend some suitable suggestions for both the firms to manage change and gain high competitive advantage in the market.

Comparing ways change impacts on an organisation's strategy and operations

The change management activities are effective for the organisations, where the firm try to lead change for better innovation and creativity (Renz, 2016). Tesco Plc and Sports Direct International plc also focus on managing change in the firms in order to expand their business and make the firm successful in the market. Tesco Plc. is a famous retail supermarket chain based on the UK and it is also efficient to expand their business internationally. The major products of the company are such as clothing and accessories, gifts and electrical goods, groceries and health and beauty as well as other necessities in daily life. Though the customers are happy with the products and services of Tesco, the market share of the firm is deteriorating due to lack of management and innovation to serve the customers. There are increasing numbers of competitive brands in the market where they are successful to retain he customers and the market share of Tesco is affected during this year (Tesco, 2020a). The CEO of Tesco focuses on develop some change initiatives for managing their market share and in this regard, the firm mainly aims at developing the marketing strategy as the traditional marketing tactics such as mass social campaigning as well as the pricing offers such as buy one get one free are not working recently and the customers choose other brands over Tesco.

Hence, the strategy of marketing is being changed in Tesco which is a major change at the organisation to attract the audiences with the effective product portfolio of Tesco. It has crucial impacts on the organisational strategy and operations. The organisational strategy of marketing has been changed where the personal relationship, sending personal email and developing mobile application of Tesco are the new changes adopted by the firm for better promotional activities (Halkias et al., 2017). The marketing strategy is innovative and Tesco invests a huge capital for better promotional activities. The operations in the firm are also changing over time, where the sales representatives get proper technological training to improve their expertise to handle the customers online and develop one to one interaction with the consumers to influence their purchase decision making behaviour. As per the operations towards Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) for sales volume management as well as handling Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are the major changes taken place in Tesco (IGD, 2015).

On the other hand, the organisation Sports Direct International plc is also looking for better changes in the organisation to regain their market share as it is difficult of the company to retain the customers and improve their competitive advantage due to presence of other competitive brands in the market. Sports Direct International plc chooses to rebrand their products and services to attract the customers and Frasers Group Plc is the new brand name of Sports Direct International plc, which is known as Frasers. The rebranding strategy is hereby beneficial for the organisation to attract the customers and manage their operations efficiently. The brand also focuses on product diversification strategy to change their traditional product portfolio so that it would be possible for the firm to diversify their product category and attract the audiences in the market for better and quality products. The organisation is also efficient here to invest a large volume for product portfolio management, where the major products are such as Sporting goods, Fashion clothing, Shoes & boots, Accessories, Cosmetics, Home ware, Electricals, Furniture, Gifts and Toys and it can be seen that there are huge diversification in the product category. Frasers not only focuses open sporting goods, but also attract the customers by providing fashionable clothing, accessories, furniture and home ware appliances as well as gifts and toys. Hence, it also has major effects on the operations and strategy of the organisation. The major strategic change is product diversification and the operations are also changing over time, where the employees are able to handle the production of the diversify products by utilising latest technology, quality materials and organisational resources (Sports Direct International plc, 2018).

Thus, it can be compared between the strategy of Tesco and Sports Direct International plc as well as their operations is also comparable as both the firms choose different strategy to gain high competitive advantage over other competitive brands. The changes in Tesco are related to marketing strategic planning and on the other hand Sports Direct International plc focuses on rebranding and product diversification strategy for change management so that both the firms would be able to regain their market share and re-establish their business innovatively. The marketing operations at Tesco is changing where the staff members are able to handle the customers online through latest software design, sending personal email, developing one to one interactions and others, whereas Sports Direct International plc focuses on rebranding by develop Frasers to represent their diversify products including sport apparels, fashionable clothing and accessories, gifts and toys, home ware appliances and furniture.

Evaluating influences of drivers of change on organisational behaviour

There are different drivers that influence the organisational decision making behaviour and the driver further provides a scope to the organisations to analyse the market and adopt new change initiatives for better performance and productivity so that the organisational objectives can be maximised in long run (Al-Ali et al., 2017). The drivers also have crucial impacts on the organisational behaviour, where the firm se able to manage change and lead the changes towards achieving future success. The organisation Tesco aims at establishing the brand and gaining high competitive advantage over other competitors in the retail industry across the globe. The organisations focus on creating values for the customers as well as making the business profitable in long run. For fulfilling the objectives, Tesco chooses to promote their products and services in a different way as the traditional marketing tactics do not work in the recent years as there are other competitors which run their business more innovatively (Attah, Obera and Isaac, 2017). Hence, the change drivers for Tesco can be analysed through identifying the internal and external drivers. The major internal drivers of change are such as new technological development and the change in the business process. In the recent era of globalisation, the multinational corporations focus on digitalising the business and developing strong communication and building relationship with the customers (Tesco, 2020b). Tesco’s change towards marketing promotional activities is influenced by these internal drivers of change. On the other hand, the external drivers that influence the barns to change their marketing strategy are technological advancement, customer’s attitude towards building personal relationship and online activities, strong legislations on technology and copyright in the firm’s own software application and the new social media marketing trend (IGD, 2015).

Drivers of change

On the other hand, the Sports Direct International plc focuses on rebranding their products by developing Frasers and product diversification to fulfil the brand objective of gaining high market share in the retail and supermarket chain. The major internal drivers at Sports Direct International plc are performance, brand capabilities to change, employee attitude towards new product portfolio and technological advancement (Golensky and Hager, 2020). The external drivers of change that influence Sports Direct International plc are government legislation towards business creativity, international trade enhancement, technological innovation, changing customer’s attitude and marketing trend for creative product range. These are the major drivers of change which influence the company for adopting the product diversification strategy and the tactic of rebranding to promote the products innovatively. The above mentioned internal and external drivers also influence the organisational behaviour in both the firms Tesco and Sports Direct International plc, where the leadership style, working practice, innovation and brand creativity as well as the organisational culture are changing over the time to adopt the change and lead the employees towards maximising the organisational objectives (Sports Direct International plc, 2018).

Determining barriers to change influencing leadership decision-making

In order to lead the changes in the organisation, the leaders and managers face serious barriers which may deteriorate the pace of change in the organisational context, where it becomes problematic to lead the change and fulfil the organisational objectives (Choromides, 2018). Through Force field analysis is effective to identify different barrier to change where the organisations face issues to lead the employees towards change management practice. Force field analysis explores the driving forces as well as resisting forces in the organisations. For Tesco, the driving forces are such as organisational capabilities, technology, intensity to competition, focused objectives, good leadership practice. On the other hand, the resisting forces of Tesco are, short period of time, budget constraint, mismanagement of the marketing operational activities, lack of skilled workforce, poor expertise of the employees, lack of efficient marketing strategic planning and fear of inability to cope with up (Tesco, 2020b).

Table 1: Force field analysis of Tesco

On the other hand, the organisation Sports Direct International plc is also able to manage change and it is necessary to conduct force field analysis for identifying the forces. As per the analysis, the driving forces of the brand Sports Direct International plc are such as customer’s changing attitude towards new products, new technology, product diversification strategy, rebranding tactics, leadership and management and organisational culture. On the other hand, the resisting factors to change are such as environmental impacts, budget constraint, and lack of skilled workforce, staff turnover, high cost and disruption. Hence, through the force field analysis, it is possible to identify the barriers to change which may affect both the firms Tesco and Sports Direct International plc. The challenges faced by Tesco are such as, lack of management, poor marketing strategic planning, lack o expertise o the staff and presence of unskilled workforce at the organisation. These are the major challenges for which Tesco may not lead the changes efficiently (Tang, 2019). On the other hand, the organisation Sports Direct International plc also faces difficulties to manage change in the workplace due to lack of budget planning, high cost and time duration to manage the rebranding and product diversification activities, negative environmental footprint in the society as well as staff turnover, which are also serious issue to lead the change in a systematic way (Sports Direct International plc, 2018).

In order to manage change efficiently, it is mandatory for the organisations to tackle the issues and develop effective decision for the changes. The change management model in this regard is effective to be evaluated for identifying the tactics to manage change by mitigating the above mentioned barriers for both the firms Tesco and Sports Direct International plc. Lewin’s change management model is good to describe the ways to handle change which further helps the organisation to develop proper decision efficiently. As per the Lewin’s change model, there are three stages such as unfreeze, change and refreeze.

Lewin’s change management model

Under unfreeze phase, the need for change must be determined as well as the leader must handle the doubts and concern of the employees. Under the change process, the leader must focus on managing the organisational practice, create good corporate culture, arrange resources and improve the capabilities of the staff to lead the change efficiently (Schell, 2019). Refreeze helps to change the culture and lead the change and sustain it through providing support and training. The change management process is effective for the firms Sports Direct International plc and Tesco to manage the barriers and arrange the organisational resources and capabilities to sustain the change initiatives. Thus, the organisations are able to change their decisions and utilise the driving forces for managing change. Tesco can utilise their resources, latest technology and firm’s innovation to develop strong marketing team and manage the promotional activities through developing public relation, creating good software system to connect with the customers and present the products in the market innovatively (Tesco, 2020a). On the other hand, the company Sports Direct International plc can focus on rebranding strategy by naming the products with Frasers and expand the business by diversity product category where the product diversification strategy and rebranding are the major change initiatives taken by Sports Direct International plc.

Applying leadership approaches to a change initiative

During change, it is mandatory to develop suitable leadership approaches for the firms, so that the leader can lead the team efficiently. In this regard, the transformation leadership style refers to encouraging innovation and creativity as well as influences the team members through continuous motivation and support (Thorpe, 2016). In this regard, Sports Direct International plc must focus on developing transformational leadership through which the leader can manage change initiative and maintain the staff members efficiently. The individualised skill development as well as continuous motivation to the employees at Sports Direct International plc is also beneficial for the organisation to handle the change and secure future sustainable development. In this regard, the leader also develops the approach of managing the change through inspiring the employees by providing monetary incentives, performance related pay so that the staff members become interested to lead the change and contribute efficiently for better performance and productivity (Sports Direct International plc, 2018).

Transformational leadership approach

On the other hand, the leadership approach of coaching as per the situational leadership style is good for the organisations to manage change and leads the employees towards achieving future success (Armstrong, 2016). In this regard, Tesco also focuses on creating good team by handling the employees, giving them proper support and direction. Coaching leadership style is associated with high support and direction, where the leaders provide continuous support and direct the team with proper information. Tesco should focus on the coaching leadership approach to support the team members through providing them technical training and skill developmental program so that their knowledge and expertise would be improved and they would be able to manage the strategic change in the workplace (Tesco, 2020a). On the other hand, the leader of Tesco is efficient to manage the team through continuous motivation and encouraging the employee’s creativity at the workplace. This further helps the organisation to lead the change and mitigate the barriers for fulfilling the organisational objectives.

Situational leadership approach

Thus, as per the leadership approach, the coaching leadership as well as the transformational leadership approaches are effective for the organisations Tesco and Sports Direct International plc to manage change and develop strong bonding among the employees to lead them efficiently. The leader of the companies is efficient to handle the workforce and provide those proper training and development programs or better performance and convincing them to lead the change with technical innovation and creativity. Both the firms try to maximise the organisational objective of gaining high competitive advantage by ensuring sustainable development and the change initiatives through strategic management in the firms would be beneficial to meet the organisational aim and sustain in the market.

Conclusion and recommendation

It can be concluded that, the change initiatives at Tesco and Sports Direct International plc are effective to fulfil the organisational objectives, where the organisational infrastructure, skilled workforce, financial stability and leadership approach are the major driving factors to lead the changes in the organisation. For better management of change initiatives in order to mitigate the major barriers such as time and budget constraint, employee resistance to change and internal conflicts, the organisations must focus on improving leadership approach. The leader of both the companies must empower the staff members and share all the necessary information with them to develop bonding and empower them well in the organisation. The leader also needs to encourage their creativity and give them performance related pay for leading the changes efficiently. The organisational corporate culture also needs to be developed to lead the changed initiatives in the companies where the leader must direct the team by managing transparency and accountability as well as provide equal opportunity to the staff and arrange training program for them to maximise their skill and expertise so that they would be interested to develop creative decision to lead the change tactics and maximise the organisational objectives.

Reference List

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