Tesco’s Organisational Change: Leahy’s Resignation

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Introduction

The essay is an in-depth critical examination-a quantitative critique of an article (e-Journal of Organizational Learning and Leadership) titled “Managing Organizational Change: Leadership, Tesco and Leahy’s Resignation” written by Nwagbara Uzoechi published in fall 2010. It has been noted with concern that it is important for researchers and scholars to be capable to critically analyze studies done by others (Beth par. 1). This is one way of learning regarding research works for them to be able to better their knowledge on the same. However, this does not always mean finding flaws in research articles but also to bring forth areas strongly addressed by the author.

The problem

The problem that initiated the research revolves around the resignation of Tesco’s CEO Sir Terry Leahy and the change brought about by the resignation. Throughout the article, the author has pointed out that leadership, as well as management, is responsible for the well being of an organization and change is the only constant aspect within any organization. In the wake of such leadership change from Terry to Clarke Philip, there is a need to manage the anticipated change process so that it is a smooth process come March 2011. In the same line evaluating leadership styles of the retiring CEO is of importance. Similarly, the article sought to bring to light the dynamics of the transitional power structure within Tesco and how customers, as well as subordinates of the organization, react in respect to the process of change and transition (Nwagbara 1).

The problem is introduced in the third paragraph but adequately covered in the paragraphs and articulated with existing literature. The significance of the problem is adequately described in subsequent paragraphs. The researcher posits that once the although the two individuals have worked together and for the organization for long, there is still need of successfully managing the process of change through change management so that the problems associated with organization change are timely addressed (Nwagbara 2). This will ensure that Tesco will still be competitive in the business world, have employees that feel secure, customers that are satisfied and higher stock value.

The variables being under scrutiny in the article include leadership and management styles of Terry, the process of change, the impact of change, reactions of customers and employees to mention but a few. These variables in my view are adequate in addressing change that is to be experienced by Tesco. It is no doubt that the answers to the problem will have management implications as well as applicability. The finding will not only help the incoming CEO but also to other leaders outside the organization.

Research question or hypotheses

It is worth noting that it is a requirement that research questions and or hypotheses be stated under subheading research question/hypotheses. In this article, this is not done. However, the author has made readers be in a position to point out the questions that guided his study. Among the questions revolves around Terry’s leadership style, process/model of change management, the impact of the change brought about by the resignation of Terry, reactions of customers and Tesco’s employees (Nwagbara 12).

From the views of Beth par. 5 closely examining the research questions and the research problem at hand, there is a natural flow of the former from the later. The author in my view manages to successfully link change, its consequences and how to manage the process. It is no doubt that the wordings of the research question are clearly. Similarly, throughout the article, the objectivity of research questions can be easily derived from the purpose of the research.

Conceptual framework

A conceptual framework is an important tool in research that outlines possible actions to be undertaken. The researcher to bring to light his thought, views and findings, the author of the article comprehensively accomplishes this. This has been fully described in the article. We are made aware of the possible courses of action to be taken and similar the approach used by the researcher to arrive at the problem of the study.

I have also noted that the conceptual framework includes all the relevant variables and fits the problem at hand. The variables of the study flow from the theoretical framework from their identification, definition and elaboration to findings. Though the conceptual framework, it is easy to understand the relationship among variables under study (Nwagbara 3). This attributed to the efforts made by the author to describe and link them.

Review of the literature

The literature review for the article is comprehensive, logical and relevant to the study topic. The authors have successfully addressed all aspects concerning Tesco, its leadership style, success, challenges, as well as change and its constituents an impact. The literature review is logical as the information flows from one major point to the next (Beth par. 6). Similarly, all major variables have been fully defined and explained to the reader. Generally, going through the entire article it is apparent that the author did review various and sufficient kind of literature to back his statements and written in a manner that readers can point out strengths and weaknesses of the previous works in leadership and change process as well as management.

Additionally, the information used in literature seems to come from not only primary sources but also secondary sources. This kind of mixture of data sources counters the weaknesses of one another leading to more authentic and relevant information. On the same note, it is evident that readers can easily make a case of why the research was being carried out, addressing the changing that is to face Tesco in the wake of Terry’s resignation. It is apparent that if this is not done successfully, then the negative impacts of change might undermine future vitality of the organization.

More importantly, the kinds of references used to back the literature are from varied years that are recent and classics. This has made it possible for the author of the article to take readers through the past and rent handling of organizational change as well as the concept of management. With that, it is evident that some evolution took place over the years. In the references list most of the materials used are above the year 1990, some above the year 2000 and a few between 1951 and 1989 (Nwagbara 22).

Research design

With regards to research design, the author of the article did manage to clearly and correctly specify the research design used. The theoretical and descriptive study design was employed by the author. Descriptive study design seems to be appropriate for carrying out the research (Nwagbara 15). Its suitability is on its ability to allow the researcher to link what is observed and what is in the existing literature. Theoretical is a study approach in which the goal is to prove/disprove a hypothesized truth or proposed future research plans that may be carried out in the future but not at the current moment. The choice of this method was as a result of its cheapness.

It is important to note that theoretical study calls for deeper digging of various literature ranging from journals, publications, books, other forms of literature and from the internet. What this implies is that most of the data required were collected by perusing through secondary sources of data as compared to primary sources.

The design, in my opinion, is appropriate in helping the author answer the research questions. Concerning replication of the research design, the authors did their best to ensure that other scholars who intend to carry out research using such similar design can successfully replicate it with some adjustments to suit their case.

Data collection and instrumentation

In my opinion and a close examination of the article, it is evident that the research exclusively relied on data from secondary sources. Even though the researcher intended to establish the reactions of customers and employs, there is no evidence of tools to collect primary data. This is my view did affect the conclusiveness of the study. The choice of using secondary data seems to have been guided by the various advantages that come along with it (Nwagbara 11)

The issue of reliability and validity are not that clear but the way the author arrived at using certain material to support his arguments, for instance, using Kottler nonetheless has not been fully supported but I bet the author leaves the reader to guess. This notwithstanding, the author adequately answered the research question which was how should Tesco manage the change brought about by the resignation of Terry as the CEO, the leadership styles exhibited by Terry and the reactions of customers and employees on Terry resignations.

Qualitative analysis and results

The research questions and the descriptive study design in my view fit the method of analysis. However, it could be better if the researcher could employ a better non-parametric statistics in analyzing the collected information but with also changing the way of data collection-using primary tools of data collection such as survey questionnaires or interviews to know the views of customers and employees. An analysis method such as cross-tabulation and or principal component analysis to rank the major or significant views of the stakeholders could give more insight on the same; nonetheless, the author achieves this (Beth par. 4).

Being a fact that the choice of the analysis method to be used depends on the kinds of levels of measurement, the author was careful to adopt parametric statistic to analyze the ordinal level of data. The analyses of the data collected from secondary sources were descriptive for instance tables and graphs. Although graphic displays of results are simple, clear and accurate as they are visible they are not well labelled, this being wrong. Presentation of the findings nonetheless is clear and neat (Nwagbara 18).

Discussion and interpretation of findings

Scrutiny of how the author discussed and interprets the research findings, it is apparent that the discussion fit with the data it is logically based on the data as well as results presented. Additionally, the author successfully linked his findings with other previous works finding agreement between what he found and what was found by his previous counterparts (Beth par. 3).

Although the researcher did not identify the limitations of the study he did manage to clearly and succinctly bring forth the implications of not managing the change process most rationally and suitably for Tesco. In my view, the author did his best in interpreting the research findings.

Conclusion

The article established that for Tesco to undergo a smooth change process there is need for the organization to undergo some organizational engineering to ensure that resistance to change among other issues as Terry leaves and Clarke takes over is minimized and the future success of the company is guaranteed. This is in line with the research questions and the findings.

From my close examination of the research article, there is no doubt that the author strived to meet the standard requirements of a research article based on the topic under study. From the research problem to a conclusion, through research design, conceptual framework, data analysis, interpretation of the findings, and presentation of the findings the author did make efforts in meeting basic standards of research. However, in my opinion, several areas were not brought out succinctly. A typical example is in the presentation of result particularly using tables and graphs. The author failed to properly label the tables and provide the source of such information especially the one w addressing the issue of the market value of Tesco shares.

Other areas of concern are about the way of data collection. Even though the research question was answered, the desire of the author to bring to light the reaction of customers and Tesco’s employees on the resignation of Terry could be better understood through a primary data collection tool such as interview and survey questionnaires.

Works Cited

Beth, Rodgers. Guidelines for Critique of Research Reports, 2010. Web.

Nwagbara, Uzoechi. “Managing Organizational Change: Leadership, Tesco and Leahy’s Resignation” e-Journal of Organizational Learning and Leadership, 2010. 8(2):1-23.

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