Change Management Strategies

Part 1: Design and operationalize a change management model, from a critical perspective

Change management

Change management is a systematic approach to deal with the transition or transformation in the organisational workplace, in order to achieve the organisational goals and objectives. The organisational leader focuses on managing sustainable changes with the purpose of implementing new strategies effective change, renovation and ensuring organisational achievement. The corporate leaders try to understand the market trend and develop strategic planning in the workplace in order to meet the organisational goals. In order to implement new strategies, it is important to manage change and lead the employees towards meeting the corporate aim through sustainable changes.

Overview of the organisation

Sainsbury’s is the second largest chain of supermarket ion the UK with 16% market share. The major products of the company are hypermarket, supermarket, convenient shop and discounted store, where the company is successful to serve the customers with all the necessary products. Sainsbury’s is operating through 1428 shops across the UK and the total numbers of employees are more than 111900. The revenue generated by the company in the last year was £28.993 billion (Sainsbury’s, 2021). The major strategic change of the company is to ensure digital transformation in the recent pandemic era. The organisation must operate through online activities, for maintaining government rules of social distancing and lock down (Sainsbury’s, 2021). It would be the best strategy to increase the online selling activities through digitalising the whole process of the firm. This is one of the drastic change for Sainsbury’s to educate the employees and convince them to work through online websites by utilising attest software and mobile application, so that they can serve the customers and deliver the products at their home within effective time.

Analysing organisational change

During organisational change, it is important to strategize the business activities at Sainsbury’s and promote harmony and freedom to work in the workplace in order to encourage the employees and provide them incentives to work efficiently for meeting the organisational strategic goal. The Lewin's change management model is effective to follow suitable steps for managing changes and resolving the existing challenges. As per the model, there are three stages, unfreeze, change and refreeze.

Unfreezing is effective here the managers must determine the needs for change, ensuring strong support from the managers and corporate leader, creating the need for change and managing doubts and concern.

The change process includes communicating with others, dispelling rumours, involving the people and empowering the actions collaboratively.

The refreezing phase is important for creating changed culture at the workplace, developing ways to sustain the change and providing strong support and training to the employers for celebrating success.

Change management challenges

There are several challenges that the company faced during the change management process. It becomes difficult for the organisational leader to manage change at the workplace and lead the employees towards achieving the future success. The major challenges are such as,

Internal conflicts: Internal conflict is the major challenge that the corporate leader faces during the organisational change, as the employees do not trust each other’s decision and they cannot rely on others. There are conflicts of employee’s interest and manager’s interest. The employees cannot trust the management decision and they are not willing to accept the changes, which becomes a serious issue in the workplace for the leader to manage the conflicts of interest in the organisation.

Resistance to change: There is poor understanding and lack of respect and trust which raise internal conflicts among the individuals. Some of the workers data the changes positively for improving personal and professional skill and work innovatively, but most of the staff members are not ready to adapt new changes that raise the challenge of resistance to change.

Lack of communication: It is another serious challenge that the managers face during the change management practice, due to poor interaction, lack of interest of the staff members as well as confusion among the team. Without having effective internal infrastructure as well as Information and Communication Technology, the issue of poor communication is increasing over the period of time during change process.

Non-cooperation: The management team face challenge of non-cooperation during the adopting of new changed process and strategies, where the employees are not willing to cooperate with the managers due to new practice and complexities in the process.

Lack of empowerment and engagement of the staff: The managers face the issue of poor engagement of the staff and lack of empowerment, where they do not want to contribute positively during the changes. Some of the employees at Sainsbury’s do not accept the new transformation towards digitalisation of the process and the employees also face the issue of lack of empowerment for which they feel not to be engaged with the new process.

The Kotter's change management is another effective change management model, through which it would be possible to resolve the challenges and adopt the new changes systematically. The Kotter's change management includes the stages such as increasing urgency, building guiding team for educating the employees efficiently, developing the organisational vision, communicating with the workforce at the company, empowering the actions, creating short term wins, don’t let up and making changes efficiently.

Both the models are effective for change management as these models provide systematic steps to adopt changes and lead the employees towards achieving the future success. The Lewin's change model is much more effective, as it helps to develop training and development for the employees to educate them and improve their proficiency to work successfully and contribute in the organisational change.

Evaluating solutions to the challenges

The managers at Sainsbury’s must develop creative solutions to ensure systematic change management at the workplace and the recommended solutions are,

Enhancing workplace communication, where the leader must be engaged with the staff members, and share the corporate vision and the urgency of changes, where the managers can describe the requirement of digital transformation of the business in the recent pandemic situation.

Empowering the staff members in the change management process is mandatory, where they can learn how to access the online activities and support the customers of Sainsbury’s efficiently, as well as the managers must arrange technical training and skill developmental program for supporting the employees and leading them through developing partnership working practice.

Part 2: Critically evaluate the impact of organisational change on people and propose solutions to the way this can be managed

Analysing the different ways of change management

The Lewin's change management model is effective for accounting the changes and creating good practices for leading the employees towards adopting the changed initiatives in the workplace (Al-Ali et al., 2017). As per the Lewin's change management model, it is important to ensure unfreeze in the process by creating urgency of change, managing doubts and concern and ensuring strong support from the management. It is hereby important for the managers at Sainsbury’s,

To ensure strong support and corporate at the workplace during the digital transformation process at the workplace, where the managers can guide the employees and lead them with continuous support and sharing adequate knowledge

To share the need for change, so that the employees can understand the requirement of the organisation, for strategic changes, and in such context, the managers can improve understanding and share the organisational vision and aim to guide the employees for better performance and contributing efficiently to adopt the changes

As per the second phase of Lewin's change management, the strategic changes must be implemented efficiently and in this regard the managers must,

Involve the employees in the change management at the organisational workplace, through working activities, designing teamwork and reallocating the resources

Communicate with each staff for improving their understanding and guiding them efficiently to work as a team, where open interaction, group discussion and implementing ICT in the workplace are essential for enhancing internal communication during strategic changes at Sainsbury’s.

Empower the employees in the organisation is another effective solution for leading the changed initiatives successfully, where the managers should empower the staff, understand their opinion, support them with adequate knowledge and strategies so that they can work cooperatively.

Moreover, there are other solutions to adopt the changes and celebrate success as per the refreeze stage of Lewin's change management, where the managers must,

Arrange training and development program to provide support to the employees and develop their personal and professional skill so that the staff members at Sainsbury’s can improve technical knowledge and expertise as well as manage the digital transformational process efficiently.

Develop good working culture, with harmony and freedom to work under flexible working practice and in such context, it would be beneficial for the management team at Sainsbury’s to create partnership working practice, so that the staff members can work collaboratively and contribute proficiently to meet the organisational aim.

Impact of change management on people

Organisational change management has significant impacts on the people’s lives, where the corporate leader of the firm aims at leading the employees towards achieving the corporate goal through strategic changes and innovation (Betancourt et al., 2017). In the organisation, the working culture is changing over the period of time during change management practice, and the people can get better working atmosphere to work with others. The change management practice is also helpful for the employees to ensure personal and professional skill through training program, support from the managers and learning new things during strategic changes (Lines and Smithwick, 2019). Hence, there are positive impacts of change management on the people lives, where they can learn more and explore new ways to work efficiently in order to contribute positively in the company. On the other hand, the people can acknowledge new job roles and their responsibility at the workplace that is supported by organisational resources and new technology (Kazmi and Naarananoja, 2013). The employees can get performance related pay and compensation for adopting the new strategic changes, which would be beneficial and motivating factors for the staff members to work more proficiently for gaining higher.

The employees can get new workplace and latest system for working in a systematic way and by utilising latest technology which would be beneficial for them to achieve higher and get future job opportunities (Sroufe, 2017). However, there are some negative effects of change management on people live, such as internal conflicts, threat of job roles and job loss due to adoption of new technology or system the workplace as well as poor communication, lack of flexibility and poor management of the employees, which affect the employees negatively. Due to adopting of new technology and innovative working process, the old employees may get terminated from their job role; hence there is lack of job security during change management (Arif et al., 2017). Moreover, lack of efficiency and poor knowledge of the staff members may lead them towards facing problems in fulfilling their job roles at the workplace, where they cannot cope up with the new changes (Cameron and Green, 2019). In this context, the people must involve with the strategic changes and cooperate with the managers for learning more and working proficiently in the workplace, so that they can utilise the changed process and improve own capabilities to earn more.

Part 3: Contribute to the introduction and effective development of organizational creativity

Introduction

In order to gain high competitive advantage and effective market share, the change management process is being adopted by the corporate leader so that the operations can be run efficiently and innovatively (May and Stahl, 2017). The corporate organisations aim at increasing creativity and technological innovation for meeting the corporate goal and fulfilling the objectives of the firm in long run. The aim of the change management process of the corporate leader of Sainsbury’s is to serve the customers efficiently through online and e-commerce activities, so that the customers can get the basket of products and services at their place within effective time (May and Stahl, 2017). This digital transformation of Sainsbury’s in such Covid 19 situation would be the best innovative strategy to serve the customers and maximise their values in long run. Sainsbury’s is one of the renowned retail organisations in the UK and there is strong employee base who can manage the operational activities strategically for ensuring organisational creativity in long run.

Strategic planning of the organisation for creativity

The major strategy of the organisation Salisbury’s is to adopt digital transformation through online website management and providing e-commerce services to the customers. There is authentic website of Sainsbury’s, with adequate information about products and pricing along with quality and quantity, where the customers can review the products and make their orders as per their personal choice and preferences. In addition to this, the organisation aims at enhancing communication through ICT framework and handling customer’s portal, in order to improve market communication and interact with the customers for providing 24*7 services (Stouten, Rousseau and De Cremer, 2018). The distribution and supply chain management are also strong at Sainsbury’s to maintain online activities. Previously, the stores of Sainsbury’s were one, but due to this pandemic situation, it is risky to work with thousands of employees and customers at store, and for following the government guidelines of lock down and social distancing, the organisation start promoting their online activities to handle the customers by digital transformation as well as the workers are allowed to work remotely for serving the clients efficiently.

Change management model to support and encourage future innovation and creativity

There are various change management models, such as Lewin's change management and Kotter's change model, in order to adopt the strategic changes and lead the changes efficiently towards achieving the future success. As per the Kotter's model, there are eight stages including increasing urgency, building guiding team for educating the employees efficiently, developing the organisational vision, communicating with the workforce at the company, empowering the actions, creating short term wins, don’t let up and making changes efficiently (Baran, Filipkowski and Stockwell, 2019). This is a systematic strategy to adopt changes and lead the employees in a systematic way. On the other hand, Lewin's change model provides three stages including unfreeze, change and refreeze, which are beneficial for the managers to follow the strategies for managing the people and implementing the changes efficiently (Galli, 2018). The Lewin's change model is much more effective for Sainsbury’s to adopt the changes for ensuring digital transformation. It is important for the managers at Sainsbury’s to follow the stages of Lewin's change model, in order to involve the people and adopt the new strategies to run the operations efficiently. By applying the Lewin's change model, it is possible to adopt the new changes at Sainsbury’s, where the strategies will be evaluated further,

Unfreeze

For unfreezing the change at Sainsbury’s, it is important for the managers to provide adequate information about the requirement of such changes at the workplace, so that the employees can understand the urgency of change and involve with the process during change management. It is also beneficial for the managers to empower the actions with effective engagement of the staff at Sainsbury’s, so that they can feel encouraged and provide their full potential to follow the organisational working practice.

Change

Continuous communication and support are required at this stage to implement the changes, so that the employees doubts and queries are resolved by the senior management team and in such context, it is mandatory to lead the employees by sharing organisational vision, providing them adequate resources and continuous cooperation with partnership working practice (Tang, 2019).

Refreeze

Refreezing the change is the last stage as Lewin's change model, where the managers of Sainsbury’s must arrange training and skill enhancement programs, so that the employees can manage the organisational website and handle the online customers for ensuring digital transformation of the company (ChePa, Jasin and Bakar, 2017). Additionally, the organisational managers must lead the employees with good communication and cooperation, so that they can feel encouraged and motivated to perform better in celebrating corporate success.

Strategies to put the people at the heart of change

The employees are the main stakeholders of the organisation to meet the corporate goal by running the operations strategically and in this regard, it is the responsibility of the corporate leader and managers of the company to create values for the staff members to motivate them and enocu8arge their creativity in working efficiently. In such context, the strategy to put the people at the heart of change is to provide compensation and rewards to adopt new changes and work efficiently. It is beneficial or the staff to be encouraged and contribute with their full potential for achieving the organisational success (Idris, See and Coughlan, 2018). Moreover, arranging training and developmental programs is essential to create values for the staff where the managers can provide personal and professional development and increase their creativity to work. The employees are also necessary to be empowered well at the workplace during the change management process and share their opinion.

The managers must arrange group discussion and one to one communication with the employees, so that they can share their perspective and clear all doubts during changes it is beneficial to create values for the staff and involve them with the organisational changed initiatives. Sainsbury’s is financial stable organisation adopt digital transformation with ICT implementation, which further enhances communication and cooperation with the employees, where the employees feel special and there is the scope of fulfilling their needs and preferences at the workplace. Good corporate culture with harmony and freedom to work can encourage the staff members as well as the managers must provide flexible working culture to cooperate with the staff and ensure work life balance. On the other hand, there is the scope of meeting the needs of self-actualisation and self-esteem through promotion and providing monetary incentives, which would be advantageous for the staff to feel special and work proficiently for contributing positively in the workable.

Conclusion

Change management process is hereby managed well in a systematic way, so that the organisational leader can handle the employees. Sainsbury’s has strong employee base to serve the customers across the UK and in such context of change management for digital transformation, the managers must support the employees with adequate resources and information. There is good working culture and resources to support the staff for working through e-commerce service and handling the customers by online activities. The managers are efficiently to support the staff members and provide them monetary and non-monetary incentives for encouraging them and maximising their performance in long run. During the changed process, they try to put the people at the heart of change, as the employees are the main stakeholders to run the market operations in the retails sector of the UK. Hence, Lewin's change management model is beneficial to lead the employees and create values for them during change. It further helps the management team to adopt the strategic changes and reallocate the resources for achieving the organisational aim in long run.

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Reference List

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