Mnagement of a Change - Essay Example

Introduction Marks and Spencer or M&S is one of the largest retailers in UK with presence in clothing, home products and luxury food items. It was founded in 1884 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange and over the period of time developed itself into one of the leading retailers in UK. M&S was the first organization in UK to actually make over a £1 billion in profits however, its performance, over the period of time, declined. One of the key reasons for the decline of the profitability of the firm was the economic recession which started during 2007. The recent reports suggest that M&S has been facing serious issues regarding the delivery and its supply chain. During last Christmas, M&S missed deliveries on lot of orders and ran the serious risk of loss of reputation. Though M&S success was considered as one of the best success stories in UK however, just after 1998-1999, its performance has been on the decline. Not only profitability of the business declined but also the competition increased at the domestic level. M&S continued to work with British suppliers which increased the overall cost of operations and made M&S a second tier organization and succumbed to the competition. Increased competition from the local competitors with improved supply chain management and low cost allowed them to dominate different segments of the business. This shift in competitive landscape of clothing market in UK made it difficult for M&S to dominate the market again. The recent expansion and the modernization of its warehousing system have actually resulted into delays. The delays in online deliveries especially during the Christmas seasons created significant reputation risk for the company. What is also critical to understand that M&S is going through transformation therefore such loss of reputation created significant cultural and strategic management issues within the organization. M&S though has been recovering from the business slowdown however, the recent episodes of the delayed deliveries created significant The above indicates that M&S is going through a transformation and change and despite recovering through a serious strategic challenge; M&S is facing still facing difficult situations due to technical and other issues. This paper will therefore discuss and explore the culture issues and management of change within M&S considering the overall current situation of the company and how it is actually dealing with the change process and bringing in required cultural change within the organization. Analysis and Discussion Considering the overall situation being faced by M&S and the rapid loss of reputation due to failed deliveries and other related issues with the supply chain, it is clear that besides bringing in more changes, it is also critical to focus on the cultural change. UK along with other developed countries faced strong economic recession which resulted into decline of consumer demand and subsequent reduction in profitability and revenues of the big organizations. Owing to the tough economic situation, suppressed demand as well as reluctant of banks to lend money, overall consumer demand remained at lower level during last many years. Considering this situation, it is critical for M&S to actually make a strategic shift and bring in the required cultural change within the organization. Though M&S is being going through the transformation process however, to make it more robust and a competitive player within the market, it becomes important that M&S must take important strategic changes to improve the overall situation. Alignment of vision and change Cultural change within an organization is always viewed from a broader change in perspective. In order to achieve the desired change, it is important to actually create a sense of urgency within the organization and make sure that all stakeholders are aligned with the overall purpose of change. To achieve successful cultural change, it is important that the vision for the change and the actual cultural change must be in synchronization. It is extremely important that the organizational vision and mission must be aligned with the proposed cultural change. Since losing the market to competitors after the current economic crisis, it became a challenge for the company to turnaround. However, one of the key steps taken by the company was the realignment of its change process with the overall vision and mission of the organization. In order to bring in the desired cultural change, listening to stakeholders issue is the key because for M&S, the problem involves multiple stakeholders’ involvement. Addressing the issues of people who will actually experience the change therefor needs to be prioritized and singled out. Managers must be able to address their issues before planning on any new change process within the organization. Lewin’s Three Step model of Change This model tackles the change management process from the point of view of the field force analysis. Considering the issue of late deliveries, one of the driving force for this problem clearly indicates that there is a need to improve the overall reputation and a promise to deliver on time. The resisting forces however, were based upon the lack of coordination between different departments and the lack of proper system integration which resulted into the delays. In order to overcome this, M&S has to actually either increase the influence of driving force to change or decrease the resisting factors. Planned Change The planned change theory has been put forward by Bullock & Batten which view organizations as machines. As such the overall change process within the organization therefore is also driven by the need to change and improve things in general therefore a phased and planned change process to overcome the late deliveries issues can be initiated. The exploration phase will require understanding the need for change including the resources required to correct the issue of late deliveries. At this stage, it becomes important for M&S to actually look towards the reasons for the change and what issues are causing the problem to occur. Subsequently, it is critical to also diagnose and plan for the change by involving the key decision makers at this stage. Once the resources are identified and key management personnel are taken on board, it is time to take action. This would require either taking corrective measures or identifying external sources which may be causing such delays. Integration is the later step which would require the company to assimilate and integrate everything together. Kotter’s Model for Change This issue can also be tackled from the point of view of the Kotter’s model for change. Kotter suggests that in order to bring in the required change, it is important to first establish a sense of urgency. As discussed above that M&S has been going through a transformation process and during this phase, delayed deliveries can further damage the reputation and change process within the organization. Since this issue is related with the supply chain management, it is therefore critical that a group of individuals must be assembled together in order to create a guiding coalition of all the stakeholders. What is also critical to note that to achieve the desired change and to improve the overall online delivery segment of the business, a vision need to be created and communicated. It is critical that all stakeholders must be able to understand why change is urgent and what needs to be achieved through this change. It is also critical to empower others to take action and act on the vision for the change however, this can only be possible if there is a greater focus on the overcoming unhelpful structures and systems. One of the key reasons for this problem was a particular distribution center at Castle Donnington with problems with the online orders too. As such the immediate issue to be resolved is to go for smaller wins and attempt must be made to consolidate overall improvements and institutionalize new approaches to change. Congruence Model The congruence model for change clearly suggests that organizations are interacting subsets. However, these interacting sub-systems must have the ability to scan and sense the external changes which might occur. Viewed from the perspective of M&S, it is clear that it has been able to scan and sense the external change required to be made considering the rapid changes in online market. In order to bring in the required change, this model indicates taking inputs from the external as well as internal sources and transform them into the required levels of output. This model is critically important because it can help identify as to why changes didn’t worked in the past and what needs to be done now in order to achieve the desired results. By using this model, M&S can actually focus on highlighting the resources, the resistance which may be witnessed as a result of the proposed changes as well as the changes made in the past. Alignment of different interests i.e. various components of supply chain with that of the marketing and sales department of M&S is critical to achieve the desired results. Transition Management Considering the recent history of M&S it is clear that it is going through a transition and requires a deliberate attempt to recover itself from the competitive pressures. This therefore requires a much bigger change as compared to planned change wherein organizations attempt to make changes in the allocation of physical resources. In order to better address the issue of late deliveries and poor online presence, M&S therefore needs to make a transition towards new thinking, systems and procedures under which it change has to be planned in much larger context. To manage this change, it is therefore important that not only people get access to the decision makers but also ensure that a swift transition is made by breaking from the past. Change Management Model According to this theory, the change, whether cultural or otherwise needs to be managed through effective managerial skills. A change can only be successful if it is actually being managed by skilled managers who have the skills to manage the transitionary phase of change. M&S is now working under the new leadership to make a turnaround and is also showing the results as it witnessed a surge in its sales. However, considering the recent issue of late deliveries it may still be possible that overall managerial skills are still lacking in integrating all the components of organization during the transition period. To effectively make a change, it is important to not only manage transition but managers also have to deal with the organizational culture and the organizational politics. To overcome this issue, managers at M&S has to therefore consider both along with managing the transition. It is therefore critical to actually view this one-off problem of late deliveries and poor online sales and delivery services within the overall transition management and how the managers of M&S can actually integrate this with the overall change management process. Conclusion This paper discussed the issue of late deliveries and ineffective supply chain management problems in M&S, one of the leading British Clothing retail chain. The overall discussion indicates that there are different approaches to bring in the required change and overcome the cultural barriers to the same. Paper discussed some of the theories which can be used to actually overcome this issue. Besides discussing their organizational significance to bring in organizational changes, these theories and models are actually a way to tackle different strategic issues which require significant cultural change within the organization. The overall analysis indicates that M&S faced a problem of late deliveries to its customers and it became clear that the overall problem was deeply rooted into the challenges being faced by M&S during the recent past. As such this paper discussed the issue from the perspective of how M&S can bring in the required cultural change within the organization and make it more suitable for existing competitive landscape within the country. It is argued that for a successful cultural change, it is important to align the need for change with the mission and vision of the organization and take into consideration the issues and problems of all stakeholders. Read More