Leading and Managing Change

This assignment is based upon The Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel which is situated on the Scottish coast. This organisation is at a small distance from market town due to which it gains attention from a large number of people. This assignment includes a case scenario along with the challenges faced by management while implementing wholesale cultural change. Besides this, a planned approach to implement changes have been discussed. Furthermore, effective leadership style and strategy have been inculcated for incorporating changes in future.

Case Scenario

The Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel commonly referred to as 'Barnacles' is a lavish hospitality organisation. It functions in a manner which is aimed at providing luxurious standard of living for people such that they can be significantly satisfied. The hotel has 100 en-suite bedrooms, an outdoor swimming pool, restaurant and a nine-hole golf course. This organisation had been very profitable in past when high-profile celebrities and members of royal families visited the bar to experience the luxurious scenario of place. The old charm of hotel has faded with passage of time. However, the enterprise is still deriving profits by focussing upon retention of customers. Over years, company's major strategy to deal with competitors has been focussing upon the old clients and satisfying them fully by providing a high-profile living style. Such guests have been loyal towards the hotel and thus, visit it on a regular basis. Also, the traditional Sunday lunch menu of restaurant within the hotel is tempting enough to attract local people.

Barnacles has been functioning satisfactorily with time. One threat that has emerged for the hotel in last some time is Peacock Hall, a large stately home which has been converted into a plush, four-star hotel. It is a few miles away from Barnacles and is ready to operate in marketplace with widespread publicity. This hotel is planning to capture the hotel industry by introducing facilities like leisure club, ravishing bridal suite, health spa along with hi-tech conference amenities. This is becoming a threat for Barnacles and thus, the management of company is considering to bring certain necessary changes. These changes are being brought keeping in consideration the queries and complaints of customers over years.

Difficulties in implementation of 'wholesale cultural change' at Barnacles?

Considering the threat posed by Peacock Hall, Barnacles is planning to bring necessary changes so as to decrease the effects of competition. Management of hotel understands the significance of bringing timely changes so as to ensure its sustainability in industry for long duration of time. For this purpose, owner of Barnacles has taken a loan. These funds will assists in wholesale refurbishment of the hotel. This concept refers to the practice of restoring old items in a way that they seem to be newly prepared. Through this, the hotel is going to have new furnishings, décor, carpets along with a newly developed indoor pool with sauna and a fitness centre. For this, management is planning to consider the option of wholesale. This will imply lower cost for company as items will be second hand but these will be structured and placed in a way that they seem to be just taken out of package (Anderson, 2016). By saving the funds in acquisition of items, company can invest the uninvested proportion into necessary functions and activities like marketing, human resource, IT etc.

Wholesale cultural change consists of a number of factors like norms, beliefs, values of people along with the interior and overall vision and mission of entity (Doppelt, 2017). To deal with existing competition within market, Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel has to do required alterations. Considering Peacock Hall which offers high tech facilities, Barnacles has do some modifications so that customers stay loyal to the hotel. While implementing these changes within entity, Barnacles might face a number of difficulties and barriers as specified below:-

Lack of planning: The foremost challenge which management can face is lack of a well structured plan to execute wholesale cultural change within Barnacles. If adequate and proper planning is not done, then it is implied that changes will not take place in a favourable and desired manner. If a budget is not made by managers, then fund can not be managed well and money will be spent on the activities which are not beneficial for company's growth (Fragouli and Ibidapo, 2015). Each segment of the execution of change must be planned in a systematic way. This should be followed for effective working of plan. When it comes to facilities, then Hotel must ensure that they must analyse needs of customers and provide latest amenities as per requirements. This will provide Barnacles a strong competitive edge.

Lack of funds: Hotel exists in market from around late fifties. At that time, it received huge popularity but as competition has increased, Barnacles need to have some effective changes. They are looking forward for wholesale refurbishment and for this funds are required. Either they can go for this or they can can buy new products for their Hotel and this also require funds. But when wholesale refurbishment is taken into account, funds required are lower in comparison to acquisition of new products (Gupta, 2011). As Barnacles is considering the option of taking substantial funding from the bank, it is highly required that management save money for repaying the loan. With the funds obtained from bank, Barnacles will enhance the quality of their existing products in a way that they look like a new commodity. This can be done by polishing of their products.

Barriers of communication: At present, Barnacles consists of 75 employees out of which 55 employees are of immediate locality and rest are from overseas. As a result of this, the cultural and national backgrounds of employees are diverse. This leads to cultural as well as linguistic barriers within the premises. However, since the hotel is in existence from long time, so they have got adapted to such situations. Hotel does not have such skilled and competent employees that can bring about wholesale cultural change by way of refurbishment. Thus, this gives rise to need for hiring more personnel to execute this change.

Now, when employees will be hired, there are two options available to company. Hotel management can either recruit personnel from local community or overseas (Fullan, 2014). If employees are hired from same locality, then 20 employees who were from different localities will face problem due to language barriers. However, if opposite happens then also this becomes a problem within the hotel. Conflicts can arise between employees and management due to the presence of diverse set of languages and cultures. When important information has to be communicated within the entity, it is required that an effective communication strategy is adopted that is not interrupted by any kind of barriers. authorities of hotel takes some decisions then if effective communication do not occurs then this will lead to lack of trust among employees.

Employees resistance: Employees have became adaptable to existing scenario which includes hotel's working structure, existing staff and policies related to customer handling. They have become comfortable in the way Barnacles is functioning at present. They are clear about their role and how it has to be performed. While implementing wholesale cultural change, there might be some employees who may resist adoption of refurbishment plan. This may give rise to need of training and developing the existing staff to meet the requirements arising due to increasing competition from Peacock Hall. Employees will now have to understand their role again and operate accordingly. At present, the guests are less, so employees get idle time for refreshment and entertainment. When change is executed at all departments of Barnacles, new customers will be attracted towards the organisation which would increase workload of personnel. Thus, it is required that hotel management communicate the need of bringing such change. Also, it is essential that vision of company is linked to change and communicated effectively within the hotel so as to gain acceptance and support from staff.

Planned approach to implement change at Barnacles

Due to the strong emerging competition from Peacock hall, Barnacles is planning to implement certain changes in order to gain competitive advantage in marketplace. The hotel management has decided to execute a wholesale refurbishment within the entity. This is done with an aim to attract new customers towards the hotel and tap advantage of low cost strategy adopted by company (Jones and Harris, 2014). For this, Barnacles is planning to use change management model so that change can successfully take place within the hotel. do my assignment australia

Lewin's Change Management Model

Lewin's change management model is adopted with a motive of structurally executing wholesale refurbishment of the hotel. This will helps the organisation in attracting new customers which will assist in maximising their profitability in long run. The three stages of Lewin's change management model is discussed below as:

(a) Unfreeze: The first stage of Lewin's change management model ensures that Barnacles must start preparing its employees for the change. In this context, the organisation has already analysed that changes are needed in order to be competitive in a business market (Lawrence, 2015). For this, Barnacles has already secured substantial funding from banks in order to refurbish their hotel which includes new carpets, décor, gym and indoor pool. In this regard, the hotel management has started looking into core areas of change by comparing its existing service package with the amenities being provided by their biggest competitor at present, Peacock hall. This has largely assisted them in recognising ways in which it can stay ahead of rival hotels operating within same industry. It will ensure that business sustains in marketplace for a longer duration of time.

(b) Change: This stage of Lewin's change management model refers to embrace new changes that takes place in a business entity. In this regard, the chosen organisation is adopting effective leadership strategies in order to make their workforce familiar with the changes that are taken place their operations. It will make it easier for the staff members of Barnacles to identify the changes that will take place within organisational premises as an impact of wholesale refurbishment. Besides this, there is a significant need for leaders and manager of Barnacles to realise that it takes time for change to be implemented in an effective manner.

For this, it is required that a well structured plan is made in advance to bring about this change within entity. This will allow the hotel to gain a strategic edge in market by adopting an effective strategy. To make the change successfully take place within the entity and give strategic advantage to company, it is required that company efficiently adopt communication strategies so that the benefits of change can be communicated to staff (Painter and Clark, 2015). In addition to this, reassurance is another key factor. This is because for a change to be accepted effectively, it is required that management pays attention towards gaining support from staff. This assists in gearing the organisation towards creating a large impact of change upon the overall working. Also, effectively communicating the vision and mission associated with change will steer forward the success of Barnacles in theright direction. Thus, it has been identified that communication and time are the foremost essential elements for this stage to take place effectively and successfully.

(c) Refreeze: In the previous stage, the change has been brought about within Barnacles in terms of wholesale refurbishment. With this, new carpets, décor, gym and indoor pool have been introduced into the hotel, its rooms and surroundings. This stage is all about bringing stability into the company post the embracing and implementation of changes in the hotel. This is the reason behind calling this stage as “refreeze” (Komives, 2016). At this stage, the management of Barnacles will make sure that things are getting back to normal and all the routine activities have again started taking place as they used to happen in past. This requires the assistance from existing staff as well as the new employees. It will ensure that changes are used feasibly and implemented in a manner that the objectives attached to change have been achieved.

When stability is achieved within Barnacles in response to the change, existing staff as well as new employees become comfortable and confident with respect to the new working structure and strategy. Some other signs of the refreeze are clear and specific job descriptions to employees and a structural organisational chart where individuals know their roles (Lloyd, Boer and Voelpel, 2017). Also, this assists in making the employees gain knowledge about the business person to whom they are accountable and responsible for their work. Besides this, a successful change implementation reflects that Barnacles will now gain a substantial share in marketplace. This will allow them to stay ahead of competitors like Peacock Hall.

Leadership style and business strategy develop route way to design future change initiatives

To successfully introduced a change in any organisation, an effective leadership is required. Such leadership helps in aligning the behaviour of employees towards accepting the change in a positive manner (Leadership, 2018). Also, this shapes the way in which entity can adopt the change so as to gain a strategic edge in marketplace. Well executed and successful changes are one of the biggest challenges that organisations in modern era face. Organizational change initiatives fail more than they generally succeed, despite the resources put into creating change management processes. This gives rise to the need of an effective leader who can ensure that the change is efficiently executed within enterprise.

With respect to Barnacles, management is planning to bring a positive change in entity in terms of wholesale refurbishment. This implies that the hotel will have new products and services which will impact in a positive manner upon the success and growth of Barnacles. This will attract new customers towards the organisation as they will be tapping advantage of making use of a low cost business strategy to gain edge in market over its competitors like Peacock Hall.

In Barnacles, Rita should adopt the 3C's of Change leadership to ensure that the new strategy of bringing old products in a way that they seem new, becomes successful. By adopting this, people and processes can be aligned to meet the objectives associated with change.

Communicate: Successful leaders need to focus upon two aspects associated with change, “what” “why.” Both of these need to be communicated to the employees within Barnacles so as to gain acceptance and support from them. Leaders who explain the purpose of change and connect it to the organization’s values and vision often receive success in terms of least employee resistance. This tends to create advantage for Barnacles in staying ahead of rival hotels like Peacock Hall and increasing customer loyalty towards the brand.

Collaborate: Bringing people together in order to plan and execute change is an essential element of successfully executing the change. Leaders work upon this aspect and thus by gaining support from staff, they create an atmosphere of collaborative working where change brings about positive and effective impacts upon the current functioning and growth of enterprise. Also, leaders in Barnacles have planned to include employees in decision-making process so as to strengthen their commitment towards the change in terms of wholesale refurbishment.

Commit: Leaders need to make sure that their own beliefs and behaviours coincide with the change so as to align the behavioural characteristics of employees towards acceptance of change (Van der Voet, Kuipers and Groeneveld, 2015). Change is difficult to be implemented at organisational level. However, leaders who negotiate it successfully by being resilient and willing to move out of their comfort zone to introduce the change are often successful. They also devote more time to the change so that it can be successfully brought about in Barnacles. Besides this, a successful change implementation reflects that Barnacles will now gain a substantial share in marketplace. This will allow them to stay ahead of competitors like Peacock Hall.

Conclusion

From the above report, it has been concluded that changes are necessary for both organisation as well as individuals who are an important part of entity. Also, it has been analysed that in response to change, employees often feel uncomfortable and demotivated. This gives rise to the increasing importance of role of manager and leader in change management and implementation. In such environment, leaders are required to align the behaviour of employees by communicating the need and vision behind change. Besides this, it has been assessed that Lewin's change management model is effective in structurally executing the change within organisational

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