House of Fraser Company: Leadership and Managing Change

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Introduction

Leadership and the functioning of organizations are two processes that are closely connected. The fact is that in the modern business environment the ability to successfully manage organizations becomes critical as one of the aspects needed to generate a competitive advantage and ensure that the firm will survive. Moreover, regarding the tendency towards the emergence of multiple challenges in the course of the functioning of an organization, a leader’s ability to suggest the needed and in-time change becomes fundamental for the final success and further growth.

In the majority of cases, the offered transformation presupposes the radical reconsideration of multiple aspects peculiar to a company. For this reason, planning and implementing all alterations acquire the top priority. The given paper is devoted to the in-depth analysis of the role leadership plays in a change of the company’s work, using the specific case study.

Case

The following case study can be suggested for the analysis. House of Fraser is a well-known company that owns 57 stores in the UK and Ireland (BBC 2018). Being a popular chain, it managed to generate a high and stable income in the past. However, at the moment it faces some challenges, and the whole management team was fired to engage in change and create a new strategy (BBC 2018). It can be considered an unexpected transformation because it happened after the Sports Direct became the owner of the corporation (BBC 2018). The brand recognized the need for critical alterations to preserve the high level of competitiveness and the ability to generate income.

Reasons for Change

First of all, it is critical to evaluate the reasons for change as they will precondition the choice of the strategy and overall success of the company. One of the vital tasks of the modern leader is to determine the existing combination of factors that should be taken into account. As for the company, it experiences the need for change because of external and internal factors. First, the high level of rivalry in the sphere means that there is a need to find new ways to grow and evolve.

For this reason, the attempt to enter another phase becomes an appropriate solution. Second, at the moment, the company is limited in its abilities to evolve because of the peculiarities of its functioning which can result in stagnation and decrease in workers’ motivation (Cameron & Green 2009). For this reason, it is critical to engage in the change process.

Leadership

Leadership should become one of the main driving forces of this process preconditioning results. The fact is that in the majority of cases associated with the critical reconsideration of companies’ functioning, employees feel stress, anxiety, and uncertainty about their future (Boddy 2012). For this reason, a leader, as a person responsible for the whole company, should be able to eliminate all barriers to change and contribute to the improvements of all critical spheres of a firm’s functioning.

Regarding the House of Fraser, the utilization of the transformational leadership approach can be considered the best possible choice. It can be determined as the type of leadership focused on leaders working with teams to understand the areas of change together and generate a new vision of the company’s future to achieve success and high motivation levels (Boddy 2012). Peculiarities of the given approach demonstrate its ability to fit the current situation and promote better results.

Organization

At the same time, any change process presupposes the emergence of multiple organizational issues that should be solved to attain positive results. It means that the appropriate structure should be introduced to create the basis for the implementation of the needed change and ensure that the new project will not fail. There is a direct correlation between the success of this stage and leadership as top managers create a new vision that is expected to become a new course of the company’s evolution (Harrington 2018). For this reason, for House of Fraser, the alteration of the existing organizational structure should be preceded by the appropriate work of a leader who will explain the necessity of all changes and attain the needed levels of understating.

Organisational Culture

Organizational culture is one of the most important domains that are affected by the change and depend on leadership. It is the combination of all values, beliefs, behaviors, and communication patterns peculiar to an organization (Coyle 2018). In other words, the term affects all critical spheres and preconditions the final success of development or change. One of the leader’s unique qualities is the opportunity to impact all these elements by promoting appropriate behaviors and emphasizing the need for the creation of a new culture characterized by new priorities and a new focus (Palmer, Dunford & Buchanan 2017).

Replacement of the old organizational culture with the new one is fundamental for any change process as there ground for new constructions is demanded. For this reason, leaders should be ready to introduce a set of measures to affect this domain.

Climate

The climate within a company is another important factor that preconditions the degree to which employees are happy and satisfied with their current position. It depends on multiple components including relations between individuals, existing rewarding and punishing practices, and the company’s perspectives. Regarding the House of Fraser’s case, the climate can be considered critical as it is deteriorated by the dismissal of the whole management team.

For this reason, a leader should be ready to introduce measures to improve this very aspect. It can be performed via the introduction of specific reward practices, communication, and explanation of the new course that can generate benefits for a company and its worker (Ehrhart 2013). All employees should feel safe and demanded to improve the climate within the collective, and the leader is the main actor responsible for this aspect.

Individuals

The unexpected change will affect the company at the individual level. Human resources are the main value of any company as they are responsible for the implementation of all planned measures and transformation. However, it is critical to ensure that their understanding of the new course is at a high level; otherwise, the resistance to change might occur. It is the phenomenon characterized by the employees’ unwillingness to accept new regulations, attempts to ignore them, disobedience, and poor working performance (Hughes 2010).

It can become one of the critical factors predetermining failure and inappropriate results. For this reason, transformational leadership becomes one of the best possible approaches as it presupposes collaborative work with employees to solve all problems emerging during change and eliminate causes for the growth of dissatisfaction.

Teams

Teams are another fundamental element of any company as they comprise the core of various departments and promote their results. The successful cooperation within teams is essential for the successful change. However, the transformation process can affect existing relations between members either by adding new elements or eliminating the traditional and ineffective ones (Schein 2016). For this reason, team-building activities should be encouraged by a leader to ensure that all members possess the needed understanding and are ready to engage in collaboration with new specialists who will replace the fired ones. It presupposes the establishment of clear goals, new and effective communication patterns, and specific hierarchy (Anderson 2016). Under these conditions, success can be achieved.

Motivation

Finally, speaking about the work with human resources, there is a direct correlation between the effectiveness of the current leadership strategy and motivation. The given aspect is responsible for the employees’ desire to work and contribute to the growth of the company (Mullins 2016). It is critical to achieving high levels as it is the main condition for the growth of the company (Mullins 2016).

At the same time, applying the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is possible to conclude that only when basic physiological and security demands are satisfied, a person enters a new level characterized by the need for self-actualization and achievement (McLeod 2018). For this reason, a leader should ensure that workers are provided with the appropriate level of salary and feel safe at their working places (Mullins 2016). Moreover, the existence of career opportunities is also critical which makes the company’s transformation more attractive for workers as there is a place for achievement.

Evaluation

Every change should be followed by the comprehensive evaluation of results and remaining problems to report the success or failure of the process and outline a new course. The leader’s main responsibility is to monitor this process to ensure that all critical elements are considered. At the same time, successful analysis becomes the key for the future achievement as it reveals all problems that emerged in the course of transformation and helps to select tools that can be used to ensure that all issues problems will be solved fast.

Moreover, analysis of all achievements and problems that emerged in the course of the company’s transformation is fundamental for the improved understanding of the future change and how it should be performed regarding the existing market conditions and demands.

Conclusion

Altogether, the company’s transformation is a complex process that demands multiple resources and attention from the top management. It affects all spheres of the company’s functioning and can be challenging for its employees. For this reason, leading and managing change are two central tasks that should be taken into account. The role of a leader and leadership becomes critical under these conditions. The choice of the appropriate model and monitoring of all phases mentioned above can help a leader to achieve success and transform the company for it to be able to evolve and overcome rivalry. In such a way, while managing change, such element as individuals, teams, organizational culture, climate, and motivation should be considered to achieve success.

Reference List

Anderson, D 2016, Organization development: the process of leading organizational change, 4th edn, SAGE Publications, Boca Raton, FL.

BBC 2018, ‘Mike Ashley sacks House of Fraser management team’, BBC News. Web.

Boddy, V 2012. Essentials of management: a concise Introduction. Pearson Education, London.

Cameron, E & Green, M 2009, Making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change, 4th edn, Kogan Page: London.

Coyle, D 2018, The culture code: the secrets of highly successful groups, Bantam, New York, NY.

Ehrhart, M 2013, Organizational climate and culture, Routledge, London.

Harrington, J 2018, Innovative change management (ICM): preparing your organization for the new innovative culture, Productivity Press, New York, NY.

Hughes, M 2010, Managing change: a critical perspective, 2nd edn, CIPD, London.

McLeod, S 2018, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Web.

Mullins, J 2016, Management & organisational behaviour, 10th edn, Pearson, London.

Palmer, I, Dunford, R & Buchanan, DA 2017, Managing organizational change: a multiple perspective approach, 3rd edn, McGraw Hill Education, New York, NY.

Schein, E 2016, Organizational culture and leadership, 5th edn, Wiley, New York, NY.

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