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The report would provide detailed information about the different procedures by which change generates huge impacts on the operations and strategy of an organization. On the other hand, it would also reflect analysis about the drivers of change’s influences on organizational behavior. The study would also enhance knowledge about the way barriers to change impact the decision-making of leadership. Finally, it would provide a suitable conclusion about overall lessons that had been learned from this analysis.
John Lewis Partnership is an organization of Britain that deals with the operation of Waitrose and Partners Supermarkets, John Lewis and Partners supermarkets, their financial and banking services, and other retail functions. It has a net income of £ 146 million and an employee strength of 80000 (Johnlewispartnership, 2022).
Conclusions and recommendations with valid justifications for planning effectively for change and applying change impact analysis
There are several organizational examples of John Lewis Partnership under which they have faced the impact of change on their strategy and operations. For example, it has been noted that John Lewis Partnership had bought and implemented several new advanced technologies that will help them in enhancing better surveillance of the entire floors of their stores and activities of the retail workers that generated huge impact on their strategy and operations in terms of changes in monitoring system and methods. As per Sadler-Smith et al. (2018), the acquisition and mergers of John Lewis with Waitrose and Partners have generated far more impact on the strategy and operations of this company as the former one has to look after the development and progress of the entire groceries business. On the other hand, it has also been recognized that there had been a significant change in leadership from the time of Sir Bernard Miller to the current Dame Sharon White.
This change in leadership has a huge impact on the strategy and operations of this company in the sense that some leaders as CEO tend to be very autocratic in their leadership style while some were very democratic too. Thus, change in functioning of the operations took place very rampantly with the advent and implementation of different styles of leadership by the CEOs of this organization (Sammour et al., 2020). Moreover, another example is the change in the culture of the organization that pertains to impact largely on the operations and strategies of John Lewis Partnership. The different methods by which organizational culture impacts the strategy of business are generating scopes for creativity and innovation, providing dignified, empathetic, and respectful treatment to employees. Moreover, building a diverse team, using the values of the company in an explicit method, enhancing employee empowerment, and creating unique recruitment criteria are also ways through which organizational culture impacts strategy (Buckley, 2018).
The different drivers for change in the given example of adoption and implementation of advanced technologies are the strict global competition from rival companies, urgency to increase the efficiency and skills of the workforce, developing quality of retail service, and others. On the other hand, the major drivers for change in the given example of acquisition and mergers of John Lewis with Waitrose and Partners are a broad vision of expansion and growth of their retail business, increasing the market share and revenue in the global market. Moreover, other major drivers of mergers and acquisitions are the gaining dominant position in the British retail grocery business along with increasing the brand value and number of independent foreign investors (Rimmer, 2020). The distinct drivers for change in the referred example of change in leadership are the voluntary retirement taken by early CEOs, urgency for creating new approaches to leadership depending on the productivity in terms of sales and revenue generated by past leaders. The drivers behind a change in organizational culture are the necessities for building strong relationships between employees and managers, creating an enthusiastic working environment and workforce, and others.
Evaluation of the procedure in which external and internal drivers of change affect leadership, team, and individual behaviors within an organization
Strength
As per Teoli et al. (2019), the biggest strength of John Lewis is their huge market dominance and annual income that is being generated by them in the retail industry of England. Moreover, it also provides the customers a broad variety of brands of fashion to select from them the best dresses along with their own brands. Its large employee strength is also a huge positive component that acts as a drive for improving the quality of services and retail goods.
Weaknesses
The biggest weakness of John Lewis is that they do not have a broad sphere of a market outside of the UK that limits the awareness about their brand among the foreign population. Moreover, they have also not taken any prominent steps to develop their overseas market (Vlados, 2019). On the other hand, their products are very much expensive compared to local grocery stores and supermarkets.
Opportunities
The company should focus on targeting the youth professionals that live abroad and also be very much image and brand conscious. This will further boost their international reach in the future along with increasing their popularity. Moreover, the rise in the purchasing power parity is a big scope for John Lewis as it improves lifestyles thereby, making a path for selling their clothes at an expensive rate (Benzaghta et al., 2021).
Threats
The current economic depression that increased due to the pandemic situation and its related strict lockdown led to the shutdown of all retail stores and shops that also served as the biggest threat for John Lewis (Vlados, 2019). This is because it generates huge disruption in the flow of revenue thereby, compelling them to sack many of their talented employees as they do not have enough funds to give them a salary.
Political factor
The current political environment is not all good as the current Boris Johnson government is facing a huge financial crisis and downfall of their GDP due to the pandemic condition that decreases global trade and disrupts the international supply chain. This led to the downfall of the business of John Lewis too (Perera, 2017).
Economic factor
As per Phan (2021), the economic condition of the UK was in bad condition during the lockdown due to shutdown of all business but after removal of restrictions things are becoming better as the stores and shops are again opening thereby lifting the GDP from negative to positive figure,
Social factor
The society of the UK is very advanced, modern, and educated which is evident from the literacy of 99% (Perera, 2017). Moreover, the people of their society are very adaptive to any type of new things that are emerging in different sectors.
Technological factor
The UK has seen very rapid technological advancement in the last few decades with the advent of new software and artificial intelligence like cloud computing, robots, automation tools, blockchain systems, and others. This would be beneficial for John Lewis as they can adopt robots for managing retail activities, thereby reducing workload of workers.
Legal factor
The legal regulations of the UK are very strict and frequently amended, hence, it is necessary for John Lewis to follow all the trade laws such as health and safety laws, consumer privacy laws, patents, antitrust laws, and others (Phan, 2021).
Environmental factor
The environmental condition of the UK is very stable and sustainable with effective governmental and NGO initiatives for generating greenery. This should be maintained by John Lewis through recycling, waste management, reducing carbon emission, and others (Perera, 2017).
The John Lewis Partnership is needed to generate an effective democratic leadership approach to reduce the lack of participation of the employees in the decision-making activities. This is because employees are often set to give very rational advice and innovative ideas about any particular issue related to operations and strategy. They are also required to create a realistic timeline so that employees could be mentally and physically prepared for completing their assigned task within the deadline (Nedelko and Potocan, 2021). Moreover, it is also necessary for the managers and CEO of this company to make frequent inspections of the way changes in organizational attitude are affecting the working pattern of the entire workplace. This will help in analyzing the regions where additional improvements are required to be done.
Lewin’s change management model:
Unfreeze:
It is defined as the starting stage under which the preparation for changes within a company is thought. This signifies that there must be recognition of the necessity for change, along with determining the things that need to be changed and enhancing the replacement of old attitudes (Bekmukhambetova, 2021). Under this step, there should be effective assistance from management and understanding concerns and doubts.
Change:
This step defines the planning of changes along with implementation of it and assisting the employees in learning new points of view or concepts.
Refreeze:
It signifies reinforcement and stabilization of changes along with its integration into the regular procedure of executing things. It also reflects the necessity of development of the process to sustain changes and thereby, celebrate success (Errida and Lotfi, 2021).
Valid decisions and outcomes depending on force field analysis in the pretext of meeting organizational objectives
Explanation of distinct barriers for change and determination of the way it influence leadership decision making in a given organizational context
The different barriers for change are the less involvement of employees in decision-making procedures that leads to generation of huge conflicts among the workers and managers. This is because it is the employees who will have to follow and practice the changes, hence if they are not taken into consideration then it would become impossible to gain fruitful results from the changes in future in terms of revenue, quality, and market share. The way it influences leadership decision-making is that it generates huge confusion and complexities as the employees do not get an idea about it from the root level of the hierarchy.
On the other hand, another barrier to change is the unavailability of an effective strategy of communication which influences the decision making in the sense that the leaders or managers fail to acquire timely responses and viewpoints of the employees thereby, failing the internal issues that could be created by the new changes (Khan and Smuts, 2019). Moreover, immature planning of cultural shifts is also another barrier to change that have huge influences on the leadership decisions making by enhancing failure in the finalization of changes depending on the intuitions and feelings of the people that would work as per the planned work region duties, administrative structure, reporting structure, and job duties. It has also been identified that the lack of knowledge about the present state of the culture and behavior of organization would also serve as a hindrance to the change. This leads to drastic rebellion not only from the employees but also from the team leaders thereby, creating a very chaotic situation in the entire workplace. This also leads to the downfall of goodwill and brand image in the eyes of the workers.
The force field analysis is a normal tool for the evaluation of the ground reasons that could assist the organization in taking steps after the identification of the root cause. The procedure is dependent on the prediction that any condition is the outcome of the forces against and for the present state to be in equilibrium (Mahmud et al., 2019). Thus, it can be said that this tool helps in understanding the different factors that act as strengths and barriers to the changes in the organizational behavior or attitude.
Driving forces
The driving forces for the change in the organizational attitude and behavior are the urgency of making needed changes, presence or local expertise in terms of leadership and management that will bring changes, desire of improving the infrastructure of the workplace, and process of doing the manufacturing or retail activities. Moreover, the broad vision of the owners of the company in terms of expansion and growth also acts as the driving or supporting force that enhances support to changes (Imani Nasab et al., 2021). It influences decision-making through generating confidence and trust among the managers in terms of the fact that employees have a full understanding of the benefits that will be achieved from the changes.
Resisting forces
The resisting forces against the change are the lack of confidence among the staff regarding the new technologies that are being hired by companies. This is because the leaders fail to effectively communicate to them the way new technologies and machines should be used and the advantages they will receive from it while working. On the other hand, the lack of coordination and friendly relations between the managers and employees also leads to occurrences of differences in opinions thereby, acting as a hindrance in the path of implementing changes. The involvement of a high amount of costs in implementation of organizational changes in terms of increasing employee skills through learning programs can also make the board of managers against the adoption of changes.
Distinct leadership approaches to deal with change in a range of organizational contexts
In order to deal with change in a range of organizational contexts, the leadership approach that should be adopted by the leaders or managers of John Lewis is democratic leadership that will help them in generating meetings with employees and involving them in the process and activities of decision making. This will help the employees in expressing their views about the changes and thereby, innovative ideas. Thus, the leaders will be able to understand the hidden skills and positive visions of the employees too. On the other hand, the managers or CEO of John Lewis should also adopt and follow a transformational leadership approach that will help in bringing changes in the culture of the organization in the sense that it would be useful in improving the job performance and morale of the members of the team. Moreover, a transformative leader serves as the visionary person that seems to provide inspiration and encouragement to others in the process of innovation and critical thinking (Rustan Effendi, 2020). On the other hand, it has also been identified that sometimes after making the employees properly understand the new changes to be applied and their benefits, they still seem to be arguing and quarreling with the senior decision-makers. In that case, it would be very much effective for the senior managers to adopt an autocratic leadership approach for reducing the chaos and rebellious attitude among the employees who try to politicize it for their personal gains.
However, the situational leadership approach can also be adopted for dealing with changes in the different cultures and attitudes of organization. This is because it has been identified that situational leadership will help the managers of John Lewis in matching their way of leading the team members depending on the type of changes that are to be implemented. However, it is also necessary for situational leaders to diagnose and inspect the performance readiness of an employee for completion of the task (Minei et al., 2018). Moreover, they are also needed to interact and convey in an influential approach so that the team members could both accept and understand the changes. Thus, it can be said that managers of John Lewis can also adopt persuasive leadership approaches which will help them in convincing the employees in a soft manner to adopt the changes.
The democratic leadership approach can deliver organizational changes up to a very significant level. This is because it helps in generating involvement of employees in finalization of change, thereby creating a sense of attachment among them about the new changes that would serve as the betterment of the company. On the other hand, a transformational leadership approach would be able to deliver the highest level of organizational change as it is the best leadership style for change management. Moreover, it would also encourage complete alteration in the behavior of the employees towards their tasks and organization (Rustan Effendi, 2020). However, situational leadership will generate a very moderate level of delivery of organizational change as its impacts will fluctuate from time to time depending on conditions. The autocratic leadership approach will generate the least level of organizational change as employees do not like forceful attitudes.
Conclusion
From the above study, it has been analyzed that John Lewis Partnership had bought and implemented several new advanced technologies that will help them in enhancing better surveillance of the entire floors of their stores and activities. On the other hand, it has been observed that the acquisition and mergers of John Lewis with Waitrose and Partners have generated far more impact on the strategy and operations of this organization. The above study also assisted in knowing that the major drivers for change in the given example of acquisition and mergers of John Lewis with Waitrose and Partners are a broad vision of expansion and growth of their retail business, increasing the market share and revenue in the global market. It has also been observed from the above study that it also provides the customers a broad variety of brands of fashion to select from them the best dresses along with their own brands. Moreover, it has been recognized that they are also required to create a realistic timeline so that employees could be mentally and physically prepared for completing their assigned task within the deadline.
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