Beneath and beyond organizational change - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Questions: 1.Identification and discussion of two different theoretical perspectives. 2. (a) Brief of theorganisation. (b) Identification of changes. (c)Explanation. 3. SWOT of Coles. 4. Critical analysis of the role of change agent. 5. The identification and explanation ofthe ontologicalperspective of organizational change. Answers: Introduction Change management refers to a structured approach in order to ensure that in an organization changes are implemented smoothly and thoroughly. The main aim of a change management is to get a positive outcome from these certain changes in an organization (Hayes, 2014). However, change can be positive or negative for an organization. Change leaves a great impact on the organizational system and the people who are associated with it. This study deals with the change management process in the context of Coles Supermarket. However, two theories that are ontology and epistemology have been selected to analyze the change management process. Answer 1 Among various theoretical perspectives, ontology and epistemology are crucial to address the change management in an organization. Ontology is a method of sharing knowledge. This theoretical perspective includes a traditional system through which the change can be analyzed (Zablith et al., 2015). From the ontological perspectives, the higher level of change can be described in a meaningful way. Ontology includes four phases the major three are operationalization, detection of higher level change and representation. Change semantic capturing is another phase of such theory Change operationalization is a domain specific process highlights the activity of change operator (Klakegg, 2015). According to this phase, the real changes that occur in a specific domain can be addressed by this phase. Operator framework contains many layers while the first two layers focus on the generic changes, which occur in any domain. Change representation is the second phase of the ontology, which highlight s on ontology change log and change log supports the evaluation of the ontology. On the other hand, higher level change or phase three of ontology refers to the atomic change, which is addressed by the addition or deletion of any specific knowledge during the organizational change. This phase focuses on the reusable change method that can be incorporated into an existing system in order to manage the knowledge. Epistemology is another popular theoretical perspective of change management. This is the study of knowledge, thinking, justification and rationality (Sosa, 2017). Epistemology focuses on the scope and source of the knowledge, problem identification, justification of the knowledge and philosophical analysis. The extent of human knowledge can be determined by epistemology. In order to bring a change in an organization it is crucial to determine the nature of the knowledge that needs to incorporate new changes in an organization to get the success of the evolved system. As per the ontology perspective change in an organization can be termed as the transformation of the existing knowledge to achieve the organizational goal. It is crucial for an organization to share the knowledge between the stakeholders in a proper way to improve their existing knowledge (McBrideWuebker, 2014). Epistemology reveals that organizational change can be defined as the inculcation of the new activities in an existing system after addressing the issues. The main similarity between the ontology and epistemology is the knowledge sharing, identification of the source and scope of the knowledge (Klakegg, 2015). In order to give shape the implemented change within an organization, it is vital to enhance the knowledge of the employees. Accumulation of the more knowledge enables the employees to cope with the new environment and to manage the change in their organization. However, without having a proper knowledge regarding the implemented change the employees of an organization can be affected. Based on the ontological perspective the organization can share the knowledge among the employees while epistemology helps the organization to detect the major issues during the implementation of a change. This highlights the link between ontology and epistemology perspectives in the context of change management within an organization. Answer 2 Brief of the organisation The organisation came into being in 1914 and after 50 years entered the retail market. With the change in the focus and value of the organisation, they evolved and changed their strategies. The convenience and innovation added value to the shoppers of Australia. With the confidence, growth of technology, Coles continued to incorporate the advance technologies in their everyday operations. Australian giants Wesfarmers acquired the company in 2006 (Coles Supermarkets, 2018). The decisions changed and improved their management, delivering quality and service and values of the company. The company sources from the different suppliers of the farmers in Australia. The fresh produces, as well as the canned, frozen foods, stationeries, baby products, dairy products, delis and bakeries, meat, liquor are also part of their products portfolios. It also has an ecommerce website exclusive for its online customers. Identification of changes The change that Coles have undergone can be described as the leadership change, which has influenced them to revise their strategies they have previously taken. The leadership change through the managing director of Coles was very essential to remain competitive in the Australian retail market. The dynamic nature of the external and internal environment of Australian industry has affected the process and thus they had to adapt to the process. This change affected them to initiate the adaptation of the change in the operational strategy as well as the inventory management. The suppliers are the main source of change management chain. As they saw change in the customers preference to online shops, they also developed a separate site for their online customers and delivery system (Sturdy Grey, 2013). The political and legal system of Australia has also affected their company. The carbon tax affected their pricing mechanism. They also focused on the sustainable change development under the leadership of McLeod. The emission trade scheme in effect in the recent years happened to channelize their corporate social responsibility regulations in the company (Coles Supermarkets, 2018). With the change in social conscience of the managers, they have adapted to different environmental sustainability rules of the industry and recycling services competing with the Kmart. The evaluation of their internal operations the change strategies has affected the employees, while enhancing employee values. The change was implemented by changing the management styles and implementing through the process of unfreezes, change and refreeze. Explanation Ontology is known as the information science in the company. The main criteria related to ontology are to establish the link between the variables that are related to the entity. Simultaneously, as the discussion here is about the change management of Coles Supermarket, this text considers the variables in change that affects the management of the organisation. The definitions here contain the explanation of ontology and epistemology. As ontology studies focuses on the transformation of the existing knowledge, the existing procedures of Coles were not very fruitful, as they did not have the competitive advantage. The change in the technological process and leadership change, which lead to change in the internal process and regulations identified above (Sturdy Grey, 2013). The epistemology is concerned with the identification of the issue and then improving the knowledge. To implement the change, the current situation must be identified and then to improve the current operation, proc ess, leadership it should be given emphasis in changing the management process. Answer 3 Strength The company has more experience in the retail industry than other competitors Largest share in the domestic food and the liquor market Attractive pricing strategies Active corporate social responsibility Impressive online delivery and pickup services Major suppliers of the company are related to this organisation. Weakness The carbon tax implementation of the Australian government affected their pricing strategies The suppliers are not satisfied with their margin in the company The market expansion strategy of the company was not impressive and they were going through a stagnation process though the industry was in growth stage Opportunities As they are in the business for more than 100 years, they have a better suppliers base in the company Control in supply chain and profit through sourcing inventory from the suppliers also can be done exploited Sponsorships and marketing in the target customers place is also a better opportunity for Coles. Threat Intense competition in the supermarket can be very challenging to overcome. The low margins provided by them can backfire in their suppliers relationship Lack of clear communication in the company hindered their strategic ability to be implemented Table 1: SWOT of Coles Ltd. (Source: Coles Supermarkets, 2018) Ian McLeod was a UK retail executive when he joined Coles in 2008. Under his supervision, the company had gone through an essential change process that was identified previously. The first initiative that was taken by McLeod was to visit the coalface and gauge the presence of the outlets. He also identified the current issue was no innovation strategy was implemented. Therefore, his layout of complete change in the chain of the supermarket Coles was necessary made Coles rip more profits from the market compared to its competitors. The MD also identified the change in the suppliers relationship. His method of strengthening the suppliers relationship was very important part of implementing the strategy. After the suppliers were satisfied and understood the retailer and suppliers alliances can achieve they agreed to the reduction of prices and that helped them to rank fourth in the company. Another weakness of the company was in innovation. The company faced tremendous competition with the retail giants. McLeod also identified the communication need of the company. He implemented the direct marketing strategy which improved their state in the industry. Another thing that was alleviated after McLeods change management strategies was employee value. He was successful in creating and enhancing the employee value in the organization. According to him, if the customers are to be fully satisfied the employees as well as the stakeholders should be the focus of the management and he implemented that strategy in the company (Coles Supermarkets, 2018). From an ontological perspective, it can be said that the knowledge that they had was not implemented before Ian McLeod became the managing director of the company. The change management practitioners like Ian used that knowledge of operationalisation. He also understood the need of change in the activity of the operational framework. He also identified the activities that needed change. Though the change was very domain specific and new operational framework was introduced in the system. From the social constructionist perspectives, the communication between the suppliers and retail managers were key to their shared assumptions or predictability of success in the cost reduction process. This also helped them in reducing their price, which was a value addition to their customers. The directors approach to the direct marketing through sms, emails and utilising the internet communication channel was very important from the constructivist perspectives. McLeods change management was also effective because of the strategy he implemented with the constructed understandings of the retail market (Coles Supermarkets, 2018). Answer 4 Several internal and external agents are associated with the change in an organization. One of the most important agents is the technology that facilitates changes in an organization (Kuipers et al., 2014). In the context of Coles Supermarket changes in the leadership is a big incident in this organization that has taken part in the recent years. McLeod is appointed as a leader in this organization, which turns this organization from donkey to racehorse. A change in the leadership makes the management of this organization more customer-centric and suppliers become close to this organization. In this situation technology play, an important role as to cope up with the new technology Coles Supermarket needs to change their leadership as a new leader may utilize the technology properly and improve the performance of the organization. Globalization is a major external factor that influences the change in an organization. However, due to the rapid globalization, many organization face leadership challenges. Thus, the organization often decides to make the change in their existing leadership (Radebaugh, 2014). In the context of Coles Supermarket, they have appointed McLeod as a new leader to improve their organizational performance. Hence, in order to deal with the various leadership challenges this organization needs to recruit new leader to cope up with the emerging changes in the global market. Competition is another agent that influences an organization to implement change in the workplace. However, entry of a new competitor in the market forces an organization to change their business strategy to get sustainable growth in the global market. For Coles Supermarket huge competition in the global market may lead them to change their leadership to compete in the international market. However, change in the leadershi p is an effective process to enhance the performance of an organization. As commented by Al-Haddad Kotnour, (2015), huge competition often affects the growth of a business. As argued by van den Heuvel et al., (2017), competition strengthens the business and motivates the employees to facilitate change in an organization. Government regulation is another external factor that brings change in an organization. However, it is crucial for an organization to comply with the government rules and regulation while operating in a new country (Cummings Worley, 2014). In the context of Coles Supermarket their new leader McLeod needs to understand the rules and regulation of a country to enhance his performance otherwise the organization may face legal obligation. However, in order to comply with the government rules the organization needs to incorporate the change in their existing system, which will fulfill the legal requirement. A change in the managerial personnel is important to introduce change in the existing process. However, old leaders are replaced by the new leaders over the time. In the case of Coles supermarket McLeod is their new managing director this ensures the leadership change in their organization. New leader executes a new idea that is beneficial for an organization. For this reason, it is i mportant for Coles Supermarket to develop a new leader to maximize the performance through the change. Deficiency in existing organizational structure is a big agent that brings changes in an organization (Heuvel et al., 2017). In an organization, changes occur if there is a poor structure. A large number of managerial heads and lack of co-ordination lead an organization to face challenges in their business operation. In the context of Coles Supermarket poor interpersonal relationship between the stakeholders influences them to recruit new leader in their organization. Change in the leadership allows this organization to improve the communication level in this organization, which also enhances the collaborative work in the workplace. Employee motivation is associated with the performance management. In order to encourage the employees in their work, an organization needs to motivate the employees through the establishment of an effective leadership. Coles Supermarket has changed their leadership, which is an effective initiative for their organization. New leader comes with the new id ea and new thoughts (Radebaugh, 2014). To motivate the employees it is crucial to make a proper communication with them. On the other hand, the performance of an organization depends on the employee motivation. However, if the new leader is able to insist the employees in their work then it will improve the performance of the organization. It is a great challenge for McLeod to deal with the new people in a new organization. Hence, the current changes in Coles Supermarket will be beneficial for this organization to enhance its growth. Answer 5 Ontological study is has very essential contribution to the organisational change management study. Ontology based context helps in identifying the change content. There are four different process related to ontology based on the phases. To transform the organisation in a desired state and be successful both the approaches can be implemented in the same time. The dialogic approach to change is more result oriented (Cleland-Huang,Settimi, BenKhadra,Berezhanskaya Christina, 2015). It consists of the stakeholders dialogue and then it considers the structured implementation of the change plan. The dialogic approaches in the process take into account contemporary leadership. Re imagining, the organisation change through this process is done by the 8 main principles. Relationships with reality are constructed socially Organisations creates their own systems Language is the key to make change effective Before creating the change, the conversations may matter Organisations and groups among them are self organising The most important factor to be implemented is the communication and employee engagement (Cleland-Huang,Settimi, BenKhadra,Berezhanskaya Christina, 2015) Transformational change in organisation is more emergent in nature than planned Consultants must be considered as part of the process Organisational leaders considered this a main course of action to adaptive challenges. According to Bebbington, Brown, Frame Thomson (2012), the associative leaders objectives is creating good dialogues. The main objective among this is to generate good dialogues for the purpose of exchanges of information. The transformational change is dependent upon these dialogues and allows people in prevailing beliefs and images that may shape or enhance the meaning of the situation. Though the authors criticised the qualitative and subjective nature of this approach is rather a complex (Hatch Cunliffe, 2013). They also pointed out the period of time it takes is also not viable to consider. Though the communication among the stakeholders is inclusive and constant, the methodologies are also very much dependent upon the stakeholders group. Problem centric approach to ontology is quantitative in nature and known as the rational approach to change rather a contrast to the dialogic approach. Data is gathered in the process and then interpreted in the adequate way. Three main steps of the problem centric approaches are Environmental analysis and alignment of diagnosis focus of the organisational system design and outcome of the analysis must be timed in an adequate way The systems of the organisation must be aligned with a other part of the functions in the system. Diagnosiss main approach is to seek how much of the capability can be optimised There are obviously many criticism of this theory as suggested. The main drawback according to the author is the quantitative nature of the corruption or the interpretation; it lacks the human touch and their contribution. The organisational culture of the company is not affected by this approach (Hatch Cunliffe, 2013). Though the decisions are predictable and backed with concrete data, there are some elements that cannot be factorised; for example, stakeholders appreciative enquiry which is also criticised in the centre. The change operationalisation is the first phase of ontological change. The implementation of the change was supported to be discussed in different levels. This takes care of the generic change in the company. The changes at a higher level of the company are given by lower level changes, which are also domain specific, McLeod implements this. The domain specific changes is done in the customer relationship management, alleviating the customer experience of grocery shopping, making suppliers relationship stronger than before and integrating the operational framework (Fleetwood, 2013). The next stage of ontology is known as the change representation according the operational framework support of the organisation. The major change by McLeod was done in the operational framework (Cleland-Huang, Settimi, BenKhadra, Berezhanskaya Christina, 2015). The ontology change logs were done by the operational change logs and by pattern recognition techniques, by using the graphs. The more important part of change is this process and helps in changes that are implicitly expressed over the company (Kotter Schlesinger, 2012). The foundation of the change in the organisation is also built in this process. Under McLeods leadership, the company has gone through major changes regarding the retailer-suppliers relationship and increasing the market share of the company. The direct marketing space was also the most important decision that McLeods has taken the company to fourth position from fourteenth. He also has taken care of the supermarkets sponsorships in television (Tsoukas Chia, 2012). I would have chosen the same approach as identified in the ontological change as change operationalisation and change representation approaches. The main criteria for the change are the foundation of the Coles change in the leadership too. Change in the behavioural aspect also was done by the change in leadership. He was successful in transforming the organisations operational aspect, stakeholders analysis and approved the perception of the customers. He was also the stimulator behind the change that Coles has undergone when they were in the stagnant stage. From the two different approach identified there McLeods has taken dialogic approach in resolving the customer relationship and stakeholders analysis and problem centric approach in resolving the operational problems in the company. Conclusion The entire study reveals that Coles Supermarket is a well-known retailer in Australian retailer. This organization has made a change in their leadership in the recent years. However, ontology and epistemology are two major theories of change management. In order to bring change in an organization, such two theories are crucial. 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