Strategic Planning and Change Management in the Era of Globalization

Introduction

In the recnet era of globalistaion, all the multinational corporate firms aim at restruturing their policies and orgnaistaional practice to develop apprripate orgnaistaional behaviour through change managemnet. The aim of the study is to analyse the startegic plannin of the orgnaistaion and the tactics of change managemnet in near future by cnsiderign the change mangemnet mdoels and recomending startegic evalutaion for better change managemnet. The study is also helpful to discuss the change managemnet startegic plnnign of the ognaistaions Marks & Spencer and House of Frazer to identify the internal and external drivers of change as well as evaluating the impacts of change initiatives in the organisational context. In addition to this, in the second part of the report is related to determining how barriers to change influence leadership decision-making as well as evaluating the leadership style which would be helpful to tackle the change initiatives in the organisational context. In this regard, the leadership style and the change initiatives for appropriate decision making practice in Nokia will be evaluated and proper recommendations will be suggested through which Nokia can improve their decision making practice and enhance the cooperative leadership style to manage change.

LO1. Comparing ways in which change impacts on an organisation’s strategy and operations

Comparing the impacts of change for the organisational strategy and operations

Change management practice and strategic planning is appropriate to lead the organisational activities through creativity and innovation where the multinational corporate firms aim to manage change and enhance their efficiency to handle the operational activities in near future (Hayes, 2018). There are both positive and negative impacts of change where the positive impacts are such as improving employee confidence, gaining high competitive advantage, ensuring sustainable growth, developing suitable corporate culture, enhancing team work and improving creativity and innovation of the organisation. On the other hand, there are some negative impacts of change management in the workplace of the organisation, which are such as lack of management, absence of skilled workforce, internal conflicts, resistance to change and cultural diversity and the change initiatives also have negative effects on the customers service management, where the first desk mangers sometime fail to handle the customers.

The organisation Marks & Spencer is a famous retail organisation, but it lacks to gain high competitive advantage and maximise their profitability in the recent era of globalisation due to retain on investment and lack of retention of the customers across the international markets. In this regard, the company aims at establishing the high street retail with more than 85000 people in the organisational workplace, who are working efficiently to achieve future organisational success. In this regard, the organisation Marks & Spencer focuses on deciding creative strategic planning of entering into digital world and digitalising the business activities to retain the customers across the globe. This is the major strategic planning of change in the organisational context, where the leader of Marks & Spencer aims at digitalising the whole operational system to serve the customers in a better way. There are both positive and negative impacts of such change in the company Marks and Spencer (Marks & Spencer, 2020a).

The positive impacts of such strategic planning of digitalisation of the retail business are such as Marks & Spencer can secure future sustainable development, gain high competitive advantage, and have the opportunity to expand the business internationally through online supply chain and retaining the customers through e-commerce. Through digitalisation of the business, branding of Marks & Spencer can be improved and the organisation can improve technological activities including supply chain management, digital system of warehouse management and customer service management, where the customers can get 24*7 assistance and continuous support from the representative of Marks and Spencer. On the other hand, there are some negative impacts which are internal conflicts among the employees, lack of motivation and fear of job loss due to lack of technical skill to handle the operational activities. The resistance to change is another major negative impact of such change for which the leader may face difficulties to handle the workforce and mange change in long run.

on the other hand, the organisation House of Fraser aim at acquisition with Mike Ashley’s Sports in order to run their business efficiently and in this regard, the leader of the company House of Fraser aims at restricting the business process and manage more than 17500 employees with the help and cooperation of Ashley. The major cause of such change is due to high cost of running the stores across the UK and Ireland. The company is suffering from high cost to manage the employees; maintain the physical stores which deteriorate the profitability volume of the company. In this regard, the company must change the strategic planning and choose to have proper acquisition under Ashley in order to run the company efficiently and gain high competitive advantage over other competitive brands in the market. Here also, there are both positive and negative impacts of such strategic change in House of Fraser. The positive impacts are proper planning to run the stores, expansion of the business can be possible through change management, generating profitability, brand promotion with creativity and reallocating the resources for fruitful investment as well as proper management of the employees and operational activities of the brand House of Fraser. On the other hand, the negative impacts of change management in House of Fraser are such as employee’s resistance to change, misunderstanding among the customers, lack of management of the employees, poor employee morale, poor communication and non-cooperation as well as mismanagement of the organisational activities ad these need to be tackled properly, so that the company House of Fraser can expand the business through such change management practice.

LO2. Evaluating the influences that drivers of change have on organisational behaviour

Internal and external drivers of change affecting leadership, team and organisational behaviour

There are different factors that drive changes in the organisational context. the major internal factors of driving change are such as culture of the organisation, training for the staff, working practice with communication and collaboration, technology, organisational resources and capabilities and on the other hand the external factors of driving the change successfully are such as technological advancement, political stability, social and economic development, environmental sustainability practice and legal compliances which influence the companies to drive change successfully (Hussain et al., 2018). In this regard, the internal factors of Marks & Spencer are such as organisational capabilities, strong employee base, technological advancement, organisational culture and behaviour, communication and internal collaboration, which are major factors that drive change. The company is efficient to manage change with technological advancement for digitalising the organisational process, where the appropriate organisational structure and internal culture of working with others are also beneficial for the company to manage the changes in the workplace. In addition to this, the organisation Marks & Spencer has the capability to invest adequate resources and monetary assets to develop the technological infrastructure and it is also possible for the organisation to arrange the technical training and development program for improving the skill and knowledge of the employees in the workplace. On the other hand, there are some external drivers which are political stability in the UK, government cooperation for international trade, skill transfer activities and technological advancement as well as the social developmental activities, where most of the people prefer e-commerce activities and online shopping and these drivers further influence the organisation Marks & Spencer to manage change and adopt new strategic planning for digitalising the business in near future (Marks & Spencer, 2020b).

The company House of Fraser also has some internal and external factors that influence the company to make the decision of acquisition and expand the business with the help of Ashley. In this regard, the internal factors are such as organisational training and development program, string employee base, technological advancement in the organisation as well as internal organisational culture and behaviour. In this regard, the organisational behaviour and internal working practice with communication and cooperation in the workplace of House of Fraser are effective to manage the change and drive the changed strategic planning for achieving future sustainable development. In addition to this, the organisation has strong employee base and they has induction process and proper training and development program to enhance the skill and intelligence of the workers in long run. on the other hand, there are external factors that also influence the change strategic planning in the House of Fraser and the external factors are such as economic responsibility of the firm to maximise profitability, political stability in the UK and Ireland, support from the stakeholders and economic growth and social development which influence the company to drive change in long run (House of Frazer, 2020).

Evaluating measures to mitigate negative impacts of change

as per the able analysis, the major negative impacts of change management in both the organisations House of Fraser and Marks & Spencer are such as resistance to change, internal conflicts, lack of skill among the employees, poor communication and non-cooperation, cultural diversity, misunderstanding, poor leadership style and poor employee morale. It is the responsibility of the leader and the management team to develop effective strategic planning for the benefits of the organisation so that the managers can tackle the negative impacts of change positively and ensure future sustainable development. The strategy of enhancing communication by implementing the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), arranging group discussion at the workplace and encouraging open conversation which are useful tactic to communicate with each other and improve understanding and trust. The management team may develop proper induction process and provide technical training program to the employees to enhance their skill and abilities in long run. This is also effective for the organisations to tackle the negative impacts of change (Marks & Spencer, 2020c). The leadership style is also another crucial factor to manage change and in this regard situation leadership style is effective where the leaders must cooperate and support the employees to lead the change and achieve future success. In this regard, the leader tries to share the purpose of change and empower the employees for making effective decision and this practice further helps the leader to manage change by improving interest of the staff and encouraging them with invectives according to their performance. on the other hand, the resistance to change and cultural diversity as well as internal conflict need to be mitigated through improving cooperation and understanding, where the leader must be collaborative and share all the necessary information with all the employees so that the staff members can rely on the leader and follow the direction of the leader to achieve future success through change management practice.

Applying the change management models to response to change

The theories and concept are effective for the organisations to develop effective way to manage change in the organisational context, where the system theory, continuous improvement model and Burke-Litwen Model are effective to develop the tactics of handling the change in the organisational workplace. In this regard, system theory is an interdisciplinary theory about the nature of complex system in society and science and it is the framework through which the organisational environment can be analysed for better change management practice. It is a systematic process to response to change where the organisation can develop proper structure in a systematic way to manage the change perspectives (Akingbola, Rogers and Baluch, 2019). As per the system theory, the strategy of people, culture, technology, strategy, design and organisational task are effective to mange change. The leaders need to structure the whole process as well as develop strategy for people management by providing monetary and non-monetary incentives, developing organisational culture with transparency and accountability, and these strategic planning are effective to lead the changed situation towards success.

In addition to this, the continuous improvement model for change management is also effective model to manage the organisational situation and develop appropriate strategic planning to lead the changes successfully. It includes the mindset and approach that help to lead the change towards achieving success through continuous improvement.

For continuous improvement in the organisations Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser, it is necessary for the organisational leader and the management team to restructure the strategy of the firm. For the company Marks & Spencer, it is necessary to restructure the working activities towards digitalised manner and develop technological infrastructure to manage the aim of digitalisation of the business. In addition to this, process mapping is the way to improve the organisational activities continuously and restructure the planning to human resource management as the people are the major stakeholders to lead the changes towards achieving future success. On the other hand, for House of Fraser, continuous improvement is necessary, where resource allocation, production and manufacturing activities and smooth transaction of the final outputs across the market are necessary to lead the changes.

In addition to this, the Burke-Litwen Model is also effective for managing change, where the strategic planning such as transactional factors, personal factors and transformational factors are important to lead the changes towards achieving future success. The personal factors during the change are task related guidance and support from the leaders, motivational factors including monetary incentives and rewards and fulfilling individual needs and preferences. On the other hand, the transactional factors organisational structure, management practice and system which are helpful to lead the staff towards change management practice. Apart from that, the transformational factors are such as organisational mission and strategy, leadership style and organisational culture which are important to manage change further.

Both the organisations Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser need to manage change through developing effective strategy and in this regard, the Burke-Litwen Model is effective to develop proper strategic planning for developing suitable workplace and lead the employees successfully with proper directions and support.

Recommendations by applying Bohner and Arnold change impact analysis

Change management practice is effective for the organisations to improve creativity and innovation of the business and manage the change practice to lead the employees successfully. The change management practice in both the organisations Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser are effective to stabilise the business and gain high competitive advantage, so that brand image can be developed well and it is possible for the organisational leader to make the business successful. In this regard, for analysing the change management impacts, it is necessary to apply Bohner and Arnold’s view so that the effects of change management strategic planning in terms of organisational perspectives would be analysed and evaluated well. The recommendations are necessary to manage change in both the firms.

Suggested recommendations for Marks & Spencer are,

The company Marks & Spencer needs to develop suitable organisational culture so that the aim of change can be fulfilled. For managing the change, it is necessary to improve communication and enhance cooperation so that the employees can collaborate with each other and maximise their performance successfully.

The organisation needs to develop supported workforce, where the leader must be supportive and directive so that the staff can understand he digitalisation process and accept the change at the workplace. The leader in this regard needs to arrange the technical training program to enhance the technical skill and capabilities of the employees.

The organisation also must focus on managing transparency and capability so that it is possible to treat the people fairly and empower them properly in the organisational decision making practice, where the leaders can interact with each employee and empower them in making effective decision.

The leader of Marks & Spencer also needs to reallocate the organisational resources and share the necessary information related to the organisational mission, purpose of change and other tactics to achieve success, so that the employees feel valued and they become interested

The leader of Marks & Spencer also needs to maintain transparency and accountability as well as lead the change by involving all the employees in the process so that they can be interested to participate productively.

Recommendations for House of Fraser are,

The company House of Fraser needs to focus on organisational vision and mission and in this regard before the joint venture with Ashley, so that the organisation can share the proper vision of the organisation behind the change.

The organisation also needs to focus on people management as it is necessary to handle the employees, who are the major stakeholder to run the business sustainably and in this regard.

The leader must focus on providing incentives to the employees for encouraging them to perform better.

The company needs to restructure their policies ad practice to develop suitable organisational workplace, where the staff members can collaborate and communicate whole working.

The leaders must be supportive and directive in this regard to promote partnership working and reallocate the organisational resources to improve performance.

For such change management practice, the leader of must enhance communication and arrange training program to provide personal and professional development planning so that the organisation can lead the staff towards achieving future success.

The recommended suggestions are effective to manage change in both the firms Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser as per the Bohner and Arnold change impact analysis, it can be stated that, the change management strategic planning is effective to accomplish the planning of the companies to run the business efficiently and maximise the organisational performance in long run.

LO3. Determining how barriers to change influence leadership decision-making

Barriers of change and its influence to decision making practice

During the changed initiatives in the organisational workplace, the organisations face barriers to change, where the leaders face problems in managing the changed strategies at the workplace due to poor leadership style and inappropriate practice at the workplace (Sætren, and Laumann, 2017). In this regard, Nokia is also suffering due to poor leadership style, where there is CIA trap (Complacent, Inward Focused and Arrogant), for which the leader of Nokia fails to handle the workplace and lead the employees towards achieving future success. The major barriers faced by the organisation during the changed initiatives are such as resistance to change among the employees internal conflicts; misunderstanding among the staff, cultural diversity and lack of shared roles and responsibilities. The leader of Nokia fail to support the team members and thus their problem of resistance to change and misunderstanding arise at the workplace. The employees are not sure about the new changed initiatives and they are confused about the changed strategic planning as the leader is not cooperative and supportive. The staff members are also unknown about the facts of change and the information regarding the necessities of change and the benefits of adopting the change. There are other barriers of change management, which are lack of communication and poor collaboration among the employees which are caused due to the poor leadership style where the leadership style of Nokia is not appropriate in the organisational context. these change barriers further raise problems in making collaborative decision, where the organisational leader fail to maximise their performance and empower the staff to develop creative decision for adopting the change and celebrating the success in near future (Nokia, 2020a).

Using force field analysis for evaluating driving and resisting forces surrounding Nokia

As per the force field analyse, there are some driving factors for change as well as some resisting forces which are negative factors to adopt the changed initiatives. On this regard, the driving forces of Nokia in managing change are such as organisational capabilities, financial strength of Nokia, technological advancement, customer’s demand for latest goods and services, creativity and innovation, research and development and gaining competitive advantage which are influential factors that further influence the leader of Nokia to manage change and develop changed initiative to represent the brand efficiently in the global technology industry. On the other hand, the resisting forces for change in the organisation are such as poor leadership style, lack of support and direction from the leader, mismanagement in the organisational workplace, lack of proper strategic planning and poor management of people at the workplace, which create issues in managing and leading the change in Nokia (Nokia, 2020a).

Force field analysis for meeting Nokia’s objective

The force field analysis is effective to meet the objective of Nokia, where the company needs to mitigate the resisting forces and utilise the driving forces for better change management practice (Dawson, 2019). The organisational leadership style need to be improved and there must be proper support and direction where the staff can follow the direction and be motivated to achieve success in near future by maximising the Nokia’s objective. The objective of the company is to maximise performance by change management and gain high competitive advantage sand in this regard the resisting forces need to be minimised through developing proper leadership style, arranging training and development program for supporting the staff to adopt change, creating good organisational practice for team work and shared decision making behaviour through empowerment of the staff which further help the employees to cooperate with the leader and achieve future sustainable development through changed initiatives (Nokia, 2020b).

LO4. Applying a range of leadership approaches to a change initiative

Leadership approaches in the organisational context

Change management is necessary for the organisations to manage the changes taken place in the organisational context and lead the changes towards fulfilling the organisational aims and objectives. In this regard, Kurt- Lewin’s change Model is effective to manage the changes at the workplace (Ten Have et al., 2018). As per the model, there are three phases which are unfreezing, change and refreeze. Under unfreeze, the leader needs to determine the needs and necessities of change strategic planning ensure strong support and create the need for change. In this regard phase, it is also necessary to manage and understand the doubts and concerns among the employee, so that the leaders can support the workforce for managing change.

Under the change phase as per the Kurt- Lewin’s change Model, the leaders of the organisations need to communicate the practice, dispel rumours, empower the actions at the organisational workplace and involve the people in the process. Additionally, in the refreeze phase, it is necessary to anchor the changes into the culture, develop the ways to sustain the change and provide training and continuous support to celebrate success. In this regard, it can be stated that the support and training program as well as enhancing communication are necessary to tackle the change management process in the organisational workplace, where the leaders can handle the employees and lead them efficiently towards fulfilling the organisational aims and objectives.

According to the Kotter’s eight step model, there are eight consecutive steps through which the leader can manage the changed initiatives at the workplace. The steps are such as, creating urgency, forming a powerful coalition, creating vision for change, communicating the vision, empowering the actions and creating quick wins as well as building the change and making it stick to celebrate success.

The eight steps are effective to handle the change management process, where the leaders must focus on haring the organisational vision and necessary information with all the employees to inform them about the need for change and improve their undertaking so that interest can be grown up among the staff. Their participation must be encouraged and the employees must be empowered into the actions which further help to develop trust and loyalty among the employees, where the staff members can rely on the decision making practice of the leaders in the company (Hodges, 2016).

In addition to the change management model, it is also necessary for the leaders to develop appropriate leadership style so that the changed initiatives can be handled properly and in this regard, the leaders must be cooperative and collaborative at the organisational workplace, so that they can motivate the staff an lead them with support and proper direction. As per the situational leadership style, there is delegating, supportive, coaching and directive, where the leaders must choose the leadership style to support the staff in the changed environment.

In case of change management practice, it is necessary for the leaders to be a coach rather than holding the position. The leader must be cooperative and supportive in any situation in the organisational workplace. coaching style of leadership is helpful, where there is high supportive and highly directive behaviour of the leaders and it further influence the leaders to develop suitable working culture where the leaders become successful to lead the employees towards achieving success through change management practice (Bank et al., 2018). Hereby, the change management model and the leadership style, both are appropriate to choose proper way and develop appropriate tactics to handle the changed initiatives in the organisational workplace and motivate the employees to achieve future success through the changed initiatives.

Applying the best model and leadership style for managing change at Nokia

In the present case study, the leadership style of Nokia needs to be developed to avoid the adverse circumstances at the workplace where it becomes difficult for the leader to mange change and lead the employees towards achieving future success. In this regard, the situational leadership style is good for the organisation Nokia, where the company can develop property leadership style to lead the changes towards achieving success the leader must be supportive and directive so that the leader can lead the team members and create values for them. Arranging training and development program and group discussion session are effective, where the leader of Nokia can communicate with all the staff and develop strong corporate relationship for achieving future success. Additionally, it is also possible for the leader to provide proper direction to all the employees about the changed initiatives, setting the working practice, giving personalise roles and team objective and responsibility, and enhancing cooperation for developing partnership working, and these initiatives further influence the employees to participate productively and cooperate with the leaders for organisational achievement.

In addition to this, the Kurt- Lewin’s change Model is appropriate for the leader of Nokia to be supportive and lead the employees efficiently. The major issue in Nokia is related to leadership for which the decision making practice is being hampered at the workplace. In this regard, the leader must focus on organisational vision and share the vision with all the staff. Additionally, the leader also needs to determine the need for change and create urgency at the workplace to accept the change initiatives (Neisig and Hansen, 2020). Moreover, the leader of Nokia also needs to ensure string support and develop proper management style with transparency and accountability so that it is easy to strengthen relationship with the staff and improve trust and loyalty among them. Sharing the necessary information about the change and providing the information about the changed initiatives and its benefits are also necessary in which the leader is responsible to manage the doubts of the employees and give them support for managing the changed strategic planning successfully. Additionally, the leader needs to make effective decision by empowering the staff and sharing their experience and skill so that the best solution for change can be explored. Involving all the people in the process and enhancing communication further influence the workforce to lead the change with the help of organisational resources and strategic planning. The leader must also focus on arranging training for supporting the workforce and give them performance related incentive to motivate them and develop the ways to sustain the change in the organisational workplace.

Evaluating effectiveness of the leadership approach and model of change

In order to mitigate the barriers of change in Nokia, it is necessary to choose the Kurt- Lewin’s change Model and situational leadership style of coaching so that the leader can expand the business of Nokia and fulfil the organisational aims and objectives of change management. The leadership style of coaching is beneficial for the organisation Nokia to develop string and supportive workforces where the member can encourage each staff and perform as a partnership basis. The employees can develop team work and share their experience and skill to maximise their performance to fulfil the organisational objective of Nokia. The coaching leadership approach is also good for the Nokia’s leader to be supportive and directive, where the leader is able to give proper direction and support the workforce with appropriate training and development program. The leader is also able to develop suitable organisational culture with harmony and freedom to work as well as by managing transparency and accountability so that every employee can be treated fairly. Moreover, the leadership style is also advantageous for empowering all the members during the changed initiatives and develops creative decision for achieving future sustainable development. On the other hand, the change management model is also appropriate for Nokia to achieve success by developing suitable workplace where the employees can understand the changed perspectives and the need for change. The employees can be empowered and they can participate and share their experience to make cooperative decision. This is effective for recognition of the employees and motivating them to perform better. Proper working atmosphere and organisational behaviour can be built through such change model, where Nokia’s leader can lead the employees by enhancing communication, empowering the staff and develop partnership working practice at the workplace.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, change management practice is effective for the organisations in the recent years to achieve future success by developing appropriate decisions for the benefits of the organisations. the companies Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser as well as Nokia need to focus on managing change through restricting the organisational policies and practice as well as developing suitable leadership style, so that it would be possible to secure future sustainable development. Additionally, the change initiatives and the cooperative leadership style further influence the stakeholders to participate efficiently and manage change to achieve future success.

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