¶ … organizational change by using Tesco plc as our organization of choice. The concept of change is explored from definition to effects that it has on an organization. Change resistance and the resulting conflict are also discussed. Finally, a recommendation of how to effect change is provided.,
Organization culture, a term that which refers to a collection of policies, values, beliefs as well as attitudes (Mullins,2010) is a very critical element of any organization. This term is roughly used to denote the rather universal as well as general context for all the things that we think and perform within a given organization. In this paper, I discuss the implications of culture change in Tesco plc in order to exemplify the concept of organization culture as the effects that it might have on the operations of the company. Ways of managing organization culture are also presented. The company is famous for its loyalty as well as dedication to its customers. The staff as well as workplace policies of Tesco plc are tailored in a manner that creates the best experience for its customers. In order to achieve excellence, the staff at Tesco plc is trained to be extremely polite, helpful, and friendly and to be generally well-mannered. Tesco employees are instructed to do all that they can in ensuring that customer inquiries are appropriately answered and dealt with. As a perfect example, all Tesco stores have an employee on the shop-floor whose role is to ensure that the customers are satisfied. Their role is to check the welfare of the customer as well as aid them in the making of their purchases. Tesco has an approach that can be described as a 'people culture' in which it trains its staff to be very helpful to the customers.
Apart from the exceptional customer service, Tesco plc has made efforts of creating a formal and yet professional environment that is reflective of the quality and yet affordable nature of the products that it stocks. Tesco employees are always dressed professionally and the company's policy demands that they must be well-groomed in terms of their appearance scat every moment. This is in line with the level of professionalism that is required in the product retail industry. Tesco staff must also be polite and well-spoken at all times in line with the company's policies. This is because the company aims at presenting a professional appeal as well as reputation that is necessary in realizing its primary aim and objective of gaining customer loyalty.
The formal organization structure of Tesco is an emphasis of its organization culture. The organization structure is made up of a rather rigid and hierarchical structure that is top down in nature. The management is at the top of the organization structure and the bottom-tier employees being at the other end. The attendant on the shop floor for example reports directly to the departmental managers. This is an illustration of the rather formal and highly autocratic nature of Tesco. This structure is what helps the company in providing the high quality of services that is seen in the Tesco stores.
Organizational culture change at Tesco
For quite sometime now, experts in the field of organizational studies, leadership and management have noted that the concept of change is one that is unavoidable in many organizations if performance is to be at its peak. Organizations there must adopt certain changes in order to effectively conform to the new set of demands in their operating environment. Armstrong (2009) pointed out that change is the only constant thing in any given organization. This inevitability of organizational change is noted to be a permanent element of organizations especially those in the quest of adapting to new challenges, innovation as well as approaches as pointed out by Mullins (2010).In reiteration of the significance of organizational change, it has indicated that market situations such as the dynamic nature of products and services as well as the market itself are able to bring down a business entity if the business is never prepared for change (Nwagbara,2011). Change therefore comes about in the process of new strategy formation as well as the gaining of new insights. Experimentations and the corresponding results and feedback also bring about change. At Tesco, there are several changes that can initiate organizational change. We are however, providing an example of management change that was experienced from 2010 after the announcement of its CEO, Terry Leahy's resignation as exemplified by Nwagbara (2011). Organizational change has been indicated to have the capacity of affecting all business operations in all departments and branches of a given organization. Kanter (1992,p.11) defined change as the organization's behavior to one degree or another. While holding this thought, it is worth noting that organizational change can effectively affect all operations...
Organizational change also involves the dismantling and/or the restructuring of the structures within an organization, culture, hierarchies as well as strategies so as to ensure that new and improved flexible working patterns are adopted in order to accommodate all of the potential problems that arise from the resistance to the process of change as pointed out by Czerniawska (2005).
Even though change is a critical and yet inevitable process of the structure of an organization, it can elicit a lot of resistance from the employees in regards to changes in their working conditions, managerial issues as well as the general fear of the unknown. It is important to note that the consequences of the change process are equally inevitable. These inevitable effects of change affects all elements of the organization.The affected areas include; general operations, functions as well as the well being of the firm (Senior and Fleming, 2006).
At the moment, Tesco is facing organizational change that came about as a result of the announcement of its CEO's resignation on 8th, June 2010. The CEO, Sir Terry Leahy was the CEO as well as the individual responsible for the aspects of transformational leadership that become widely practiced at Tesco from the moment he joined the corporation (Nwagbara, 2011).
According to Nwagbara (2011),the departure of Leahy marked significant changes in the organizational culture of the company. Also changed were the leadership model, level of productivity, level of entrepreneurial yield as well as change management that resulted as a result of leadership transfer from Terry Leahy to the new CEO Philip Clarke in March 2011. The manner in which the transition of power is handled as well as the new CEO, Philip Clarke's leadership and management styles would help in bringing back the required level of confidence among the customers, shareholders as well as employees. The manner in which change is managed would to some extent determine the future of the company's organizational structure. Companies perform better is they have an effective interaction with their internal environments. This idea is reinforced by the work of Senior and Fleming (2006) since they hold the view that the concept of change is very synonymous with the development of the organization.
Forces that initiate organizational change
Mullins (2010,p.752) lists the following factors as the ones that may trigger the phenomenon of organizational change; Uncertain corporate economics, globalization as well as the stiff competition in the global market, government intervention, social legislation, scarcity of natural resources, political forces, rapid development of cutting edge technology as wellas the information age.
Kanter (1999) however identified certain key points on the triggers of organizational change in a given organization. These factors included; information technology, consolidation of the industry and globalization. The other factors that have been indicated to cause organizational change are; rapid rate of change, the interdependence of the economies, emerging nations, the emergence of new as well as diverse organizational practice, the need to maximize the economies of scale.
There are different types of organizational change; some of which are; planned organizational change, evolutionary organizational change, and incremental organizational change, reactionary organizational change, strategic organizational change, unplanned organizational change, operational organizational change as well as transformational organizational change.
From a managerial viewpoint, there exists three main elements; the people behavior, management process as well as organizational context as pointed out by Mullins (2010).
The first element, people behavior is noted to be very deep in its nature. This is because there exists several behavioral influences like individual, group, organization as well as environment-based behaviors.
The second element, called the psychological approach in Mullins (2010) is concerned with the contractual terms of people and the organization as well as relationship management. The third element comprises of cross cultural approach to the management as well as the management of individuals from different cultures. The lack of proper change management initiatives results in cultural conflict within the organization. It is therefore necessary for organizational conflict to be avoided since more often it results in failure. This failure can occur irrespective of the size of the organization as well as the competencies of the organization's management.
Tesco plc should therefore embrace change management as well as an elaborate conflict management strategy in order for it to operate successfully in…
