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Introduction- strategy leadership and change management in International business
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This assignment is about change management. Change management is the process of managing changes for the improvement in work performance to increase the profitability and productivity of organisation. Change management involves the process of identification, planning and implementation. Problems identification is main step of change management where all employees' involvement is required.
This assignment includes a literature view on “ can strategy and leadership impact change management on international basis”. Different authors views are presented in this literature review. One author states about creative thinking skills of employees in which they discuss about the ideas' formation. To give ideas regarding solutions of problem needs creative thinking skills. Training factor is also analysed in this assignment which stated about that training improve work performance and helps to win competitive environment.
This assignment includes a case study on Marks & Spencer organisation which operates globally. Marks & Spencer is a British multinational retailer company which provides service of clothing, food products and home products. In this case study, a challenge is discussed in which M & S faces problems. M & S faces challenge of re- establishing clothing stores in UK.
This assignment also incudes recommendations for managers to bring changes in organisation. This recommendation involves the overall step procedure of change management which will be helpful for organisation to deal with problems and solutions. At last, this assignment includes a conclusion in which overall study has been summarised and lead to a conclusion for organisation to bring changes.
Literature Review
According to Lozano, Nummert and Ceuleman (2016) leaders are more responsible for change management. Leaders have the authorities of bringing change in organisation. Organisation which operates on international basis require regular changes for improvement in their work process. Leaders are responsible in their leadership qualities to make a decision in welfare of organisation for increasing market share across boundaries. Leaders have a duty of effective interaction with their team members so that sharing of information take place which helps managers to make decisions easily. Team that is chosen by managers of a company plays an important role in bringing changes. Strategies that are made by managers are need to be followed by team members for achieving business goals and objectives. Leaders are not only strategy people but an important part of a business for its growth. If initiation step is taken by managers, then their responsibility is to take feedback after implementing changes to know the effectiveness of strategies. Feedback gives information regarding the weaker areas and helps to make more strategies against those weaker areas. It helps in boosting morale of company to increase their distribution network to more countries.
On the other hand Booth (2015) presented view on leader's role to involve every layer in organisation. Here, every layer represents the each employee form low level to top level. Leaders have the responsibility to take every employee in its change management process. Sometimes, strategic planning also fails due to non involvement of mid and front line employees. Front employees have more knowledge and included in top list of organisation so, to involve them in change management will be beneficial for organisation to operate on international basis. If employees are loaded at entry level, it will be beneficial to make more positive outcomes and issues will be solved at initial level. More people involved in change process, faster will be the process and result will generation soon. Suggestions are given by team members to leaders for more improvement in work process. An instant response is taken by leader through step of involvement of all mid, low and front line employees.
Strategies for Creative Change Management through Training and Communication
As per view of Cox (2016) for bringing changes, creative thinking is required. For making strategies, a proper planning is done by collective information first from every sector. Behavioural change between team members impact on change management and will result in negative sense. Behaviour of very employee is recorded which helps to make decisions for leaders. According to behavioural change, specialisation of employee is noted and training is provided accordingly. Proper training to employees is a strategy of company to bring changes for working on international basis. To handle market on international basis require proper knowledge which is to improved through training process. Training is the process of improvement only. Changes are done for improvement. So, training and changes are interrelated. Proper training increase creative thinking skills and helps to make new ideas for bringing changes to improve work performance to operate on international market. To win competition against other favourable brands need good strategies and proper implementation. So, training is very important part of job to have a competitive advantage by implementing changes in efficient manner. Competition is a risk factor for organisation to increase their marketing network and to win the trust of customers toward their product or services.
Carasco-Saul, Kim (2015) noted that communication is very important for operating international business. For collecting information regarding weaker areas need healthier discussion between headquartered and other branches in different countries. Mass communication can be held by using channels like email, memos, newsletters. This mass communication is efficient for bringing regular changes. Face to face communication will clear queries and lead to more positive outcome. Immediate questioning and answering will be held in face to face communication and enables employees to receive information in efficient and effective way. This consumes time but more productive. Information sessions are also effective communication channel in which different people from different countries participate and have a discussion about the services that they are offering to consumers. Communication strategy will let to know the important messages that are missing from leaders view. But, it is necessary to have an honest communication to highlight the weaker points where organisation is lacking. Social media is one of the most effective communication channel where current news are highlighted in the form of stories. These stories will help organisation to know the information regarding competitive strategies that other brands are using. It will result in effective way to bring changes and for improvement in marketing network across boundaries.
Merging for Global Expansion: A Strategic Approach
According to Meissner (2015) identifying business problems by collaborative working gives more efficient results rather than individual working. Democratic leadership styles has been chosen the best style for managing changes in organisation globally. Democratic leadership style focus on joint working and lead to involvement of all team members. Bur team members that are hired should be skilled, talented and experienced one to give suggestions in their respective field. Effective communication is also a part of this leadership style. Important question arises in mind of leaders to identify business problems. This require deep analysis of previous work done by employees to achieve objectives. Involvement of all employees as a joint team gives an efficient database for leaders to reach to a decision. This can be related to profit margin to be increased or decreasing to have expansion in marketing network or to winning the competitive advantage. Employees who are facing problems gives appropriate solution for this because they have more experienced in their respective fields. But having a collaborative discussion will give assurance to leaders for changes that are to be made. Later, leaders can check the effectiveness and commitment of employees towards the changes to provide goods and services globally.
Petrou, Demerouti and Schaufeli (2018) stated that mergers will be a good strategy for business that are operating globally. Merger is a basic joint venture between companies for expanding their network. Its better to have a merger than opening a new branch in another city of another country. For example, if H & M company wants to expand its network to developing countries like India then, it can have merger with Indian Country like Biba. It will be beneficial for both H & M and Biba to have expansion globally. H & M will have marketing network in India in all branches of Biba showroom. And also for Biba, a chance is made to operate globally. Hence, merger is categorises as effective change strategies to increase profitability. This also makes them one of the top class brands because of their merger in investment cost. This makes profit for company to save from investment cost to establish a new business or new infrastructure to expand network globally. But this require more democratic strategies to have merger with good company which will be beneficial. This all depends on leadership qualities of managers to identify the effectiveness of merger before implementing. A proper analysis and deep researching is needed and it is to be done legally by having a proper agreement signed in presence of government officials.
Project management is the key approach Bradley (2016) to change management. Project management deals with existing and new projects in organisation. Project management have special team of managers and employees in which they research about current trend and new strategies. Team members are experienced one in handling projects from initial level to final level. It impacts change management in those organisations which operate globally because project management deals with competitive environment for tendering new projects to their organisation. New projects lead to more profitability and more productivity. It's not about only bringing new projects but also managing existing projects. It exercised the work in clear and coordinating track where so many activities held. An assurance is made in project management team for completion of project within scheduled time by having proper interaction with other service departments. A good planning is required to reach to completion level on time for increasing market share worldwide. It maintains continuous progress of organisation. Good project management in existing projects will require fewer efforts in handling new projects because experience has worth price.
Case Study
Marks & Spencer is British Multinational retailer company in which it provides services of clothes, food products and home products. In September 2015 Steve Rowe is selected as the head of fashion sector in Marks & Spencer. But then also, if faces some challenges in clothing sector which are described below:
It has been reported in 2016 that sale of clothing is not as much as efficient as food products in 2015. There is a disconnection between M & S clothing and its branding. Core customers and suppliers are oversupplied with cloth items and this also do not making a profit because of low position in competitive market. Customers were loosing interest in buying women wear clothes as they are being commented as old fashioned and not providing good service to customers like for solving their queries and to make them satisfied. Heads of M & S making efforts to revamping selling of clothes. As time is releasing, it was becoming a challenge for the head of M & S. due to this, they cut the price of approximately 3.5 million items of clothes which makes a huge loss for M & S. then, they plan to re-establish their price after some time to make profitability. They are also hired more employees for their stores to bring effective quality customers and to make them satisfied accordingly.
In September 2015, m & S started online retailing of clothes. Before clothing and home products has a sale in which it fell 1.9% in approximate three months time. In first six months of 2015, M & S make a profit of increased 2.6%. Therefore, it can be analysed during online marketing, it made more profit. It makes customers to turn from offline stores to online store. Due to online facilities, M & S closes approx 12 stores in UK and all Balkan region stores. This makes a loss of £27.6 million (Grant, 2016).
After closing so many stores in UK, it made a question on M & S about the quality of clothes. Previous head person Bolland answered by saying that closing stores is an industry issue not a quality issue. Public has assumed that due to less profit margin, M & S reduced the quality of cloths and due to fewer selling, they closed the stores. But this is not true (Waddock and et.al., 2015). Bolland has also added a point by saying that M & S is ready to work with third party by considering collaboration of celebrity designer.
Then again on Christmas that year 2015, it has been reported then sales of both clothing and home products fell by 5.8% for about 13 weeks up to approx 27 December. Reasons are investigated by news reporters and it has been analysed that this is not due to quality or trust among public. This is due to an issue which occurred at castle Donington distribution centre at which they are forced to distribute or deliver the products next day on Christmas occasion due to which previous products do not get delivered on time and they take 10 days to deliver so that customer face problems in having service from M & S. This issue suspended Bolland from M & S and replaced by Steve Rowe.
This challenge of re-establishing retail stores of M & S in UK has impact on its business culture and included in list of customer questioned. This becomes too typical for M & S to satisfy customers by giving clear answers to them and with attachments proof. Issue that was generated on occasion time of Christmas lead to so much loss for M & S and also lose trust towards customers (Imran and et.al., 2016). Then again they have to take a step to re- establishing stores and becomes again a challenging task for Steve Rowe.
Recommendations
It has been recommended for managers that adopting democratic leadership style in organisation will lead to more market share. For operating globally, it is necessary to have sharing of information in effective manner. Identifying problems is the first step of change management. Take initiation step for mangers is challenging task and to have positive outcomes, democratic leadership style will be more beneficial. It suggests having collaborative working nature in organisation. Collaborative working will analyse problems in every sector in every city of every country. Operating globally is not an easy task. It is like a joint venture where all different branches have own their own target. To achieve those targets, individual person can make their own strategies but all branches have same strategy and works on same principle. Democratic leadership style improve leadership qualities in managers and suggested them to have involvement of every layer of organisation.
It is beneficial to have feedback from those employees who are facing problems because managers are responsible to make changes but work is done by lower level employees and organisation profit is because of employee's work. After identifying problems, its step to make strategies against problems. This is a planning process which require healthy discussions between employees. Individual people uses their creative skills to give ideas to solve problems in less time. Employees who are facing problems are best recommended asking solutions. It is also beneficial to those employees who are facing problems in achieving business objectives to have an exclusive training in their respective field. Training improves their will performance and will indirectly lead to growth of organisation.
Communication skills of employees should be effective and efficient because for every work process, interaction is must and will be worth full by having attractive interaction. Last step is to implement changes which again needs involvement of all employees to make changes efficient. Some employees do not support changes but this is the responsibility of mangers to make them interested in implementing changes. It is also recommended that managing projects will require active participation who take feedback from every country managers about issues and solutions. This process will take organisation to top level and included in list of favourable brands worldwide.
Conclusion
Above study summarised about the factors which influence change management in organisation that operates globally. A literature review has been discussed in which different authors views are presented on change management. It has been analysed that managers should have good leadership qualities because managing changes require instant decision making process. This requires involvement of every team members and to identify their problems and by healthy discussion reach to a conclusion. Conclusion should be in favour of every team member. It had been outlined that every team member participation is necessary and this is the responsibilities of managers to make every individual satisfied.
Change management will motivate employees to improve their work performance. Changes can be related to time, training, work schedule or process, changes in aims and objectives. This all be in term of organisation growth. Managers have the responsibility of employees as well as organisation they have to think for both of them. Employees do not feel stresses and give positive outcome in favour of organisation. This becomes challenging task for managers to manage both of them.
Merger was analysed a solution for change managers to increase profitability and productivity of organisation. It's not possible for every organisation to establish new infrastructure in other country. It required huge investment. So, to overcome from this, merger realised to be the best option for expanding network globally. It gives profit to both organisation which involved in merger. Competition is increasing more and more. So, to have competitive advantage, managers need to plan strategies against other brands.
A case study has been summarised about Marks & Spencer organisation in which it faced a problem of marketing in clothing stores. M & S loses trust in public and being questioned about quality. So its become typical task for any organisation to answer such questions and to regain the same image. This consumes time to stand in saBradley, G., 2016me market and same profitability. Collaborative working lead to overcome from such issues and also result in positive outcome. Hence, it can be concluded that both strategies and leadership has a great impact on change management.
References
Books and Journals
Booth, S.A., 2015. Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern enterprises. Routledge.
Bradley, G., 2016. Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving benefits through change. Routledge.
Carasco-Saul, M., Kim, W. and Kim, T., 2015. Leadership and employee engagement: Proposing research agendas through a review of literature. Human Resource Development Review. 14(1). pp.38-63.
Cox, J.A., 2016. Leadership and management roles: Challenges and success strategies. AORN journal. 104(2). pp.154-160.
Haines, S., 2016. The systems thinking approach to strategic planning and management. CRC Press.
Imran, M.K. and et.al., 2016. What's organization knowledge management strategy for successful change implementation?. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 29(7). pp.1097-1117.
Lozano, R., Nummert, B. and Ceulemans, K., 2016. Elucidating the relationship between sustainability reporting and organisational change management for sustainability. Journal of cleaner production. 125. pp.168-188.
Meissner, W. and et.al., 2015. Improving the management of post-operative acute pain: priorities for change. Current medical research and opinion. 31(11). pp.2131-2143.
Morden, T., 2016. Equality, Diversity and Opportunity Management: Costs, Strategies and Leadership. Routledge.
Petrou, P., Demerouti, E. and Schaufeli, W.B., 2018. Crafting the change: The role of employee job crafting behaviors for successful organizational change. Journal of Management. 44(5). pp.1766-1792.
Schridde, H., 2019. Change Management. Handbuch zur Verwaltungsreform. pp.1-13.
Waddock, S. and et.al., 2015. The complexity of wicked problems in large scale change. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 28(6). pp.993-1012.
Online
Deanne Aguirre. 2014. 10 Principles of Leading Change Management. [Online]. Available through. <https://www.strategy-business.com/article/00255?gko=6c601>.
Grant. 2016. Marks and Spencer – Facing the Challenges Ahead. [Online]. Available through. <https://www.koganpage.com/article/marks-and-spencer-facing-the-challenges-ahead>.
