Leadership Development Assignment: Change Leadership in Beeston

The leadership of a business organization can be considered as the ability to lead and direct a group or an organization. The leader of the company guides and leads the people and organization in a specific direction to meet business objectives. Leadership development is considered as the process in which different activities are performed to improve the skills, knowledge and capability of a person to develop leadership capability (Daniëls, Hondeghem and Dochy, 2019).

This report is about Boots the Chemist company that is trading as Boots in the international market. It is a retailer of health and beauty products. Boots the Chemist was founded in the year 1849 by John Boot. The Headquarters of Boots the Chemist is in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom. Mainly, the organization is serving people within the UK. This report will provide a brief of issues that the organization is facing in the business process. Leadership aspects will be analyzed in the report. The challenges that are faced by company leaders related to change management will be explained in the report along with the impact of change on stakeholders. The process of implementing change within the organization will also be evaluated in the report.

Part 1: Issues Faced by Organization

The main problem that is faced by Boots the Chemist is related to the operational profit which is continuously declining in the target market. Due to low profit in the marketplace, the organization is continuously closing its stores in different locations. The organization has closed 18 of its UK stores in the last four months. The main reason behind the declining profit of the company is lower retail sales and margins. As per the statement of the organization, the company has also planned to close their stores consecutively. Till the year 2020, the organization has planned to close around 200 stores of the company. In the international market, the organization has faced a decrease in the gross profit of the company by 9.9% in 2018. This decrement was mainly observed in the United Kingdom market. The Pharmacy sales of company stores have also decreased due to lower National Health Services funding and lower volume in the UK. This is how the organization is facing critical decrement in marginal profit and sales in the UK.

Part 2: Leadership and Change Management

The role of a leader is high in the process of change management and managing failure conditions in the organization (Komives and Wagner, 2016). Here are some leadership aspects that can be used by the leadership of the organization to target the current issues faced in the marketplace.

• Leadership Styles

• Autocratic: This leadership style is considered as one of the most inefficient styles used by leaders of the company. The autocratic leadership style is also considered as person-centric where all decisions are taken by the leader. This type of leadership style is good for startups but can be ineffective for large organizations.
• Democratic: This leadership style involves different people in the decision-making process, leading to high employee motivation and satisfaction. It allows collaboration with employees to deal with problems faced by the company.
• Coach: This leadership style focuses on improving the skills and knowledge of employees. Leaders use their knowledge and experience to train and teach their employees, which helps in retaining talent in the organization.

From the above leadership styles, leaders can use both coach and democratic leadership styles to manage the challenges faced in the UK retail pharmacy market.

Leadership and Management

Leadership and management are two main parts of an organization's administration. Both are important administrative roles in the management of business operations. There are some differences in the roles of leaders and managers in business organizations:

• Leader's main focus is on goals and targets of the organization, while manager's operations are focused on various tasks provided by the leader.
• Leaders take risks on behalf of the organization, whereas managers reduce the level of risk in company operations.
• Leaders motivate employees and managers, while managers guide employees to perform certain actions.
• Leaders have the capability to break rules, while managers follow the rules and encourage employees to do the same.
• Leaders delegate power to managers, while managers assign tasks to employees.
• Leaders focus on the performance of the company in the marketplace, while managers focus on internal operations.

Leadership and Organizational Culture

The concept of leadership and organisational culture can be explained with the help of Handy's Cultural model. Four organisational cultures are considered in this model:

• Task Culture: Teams are formed to address specific tasks, with power distributed among team members.
• Person Culture: Power is assigned based on knowledge and experience, focusing on individual contributions.
• Power Culture: Power is held by a few individuals at the top management level, with decision-making concentrated among them.
• Role Culture: This culture is rule-oriented, with clear roles and responsibilities defined for all employees.

From these cultural settings, role culture is most effective in improving internal operations and reducing challenges faced by organizations in the marketplace.

Part 3: Challenges of Change Management for Leaders

There are different challenges faced by leaders in managing change within the organization:

• Handle the Resistance: Managing employee resistance against proposed changes is challenging for leaders.
• Handle Conflicts: Dealing with conflicts arising from change implementation processes is difficult and requires timely resolution.
• Deal with Failures: Leaders must take responsibility for failures resulting from change implementation.
• People Management: Developing teams and allotting tasks during the change implementation process is a significant challenge.
• Future Planning: After implementing change, leaders must consider further processes to improve organizational performance.

Impact of Change on Stakeholders

The impact of change is significant on the stakeholders of the company, including:

• Employees: Changes can cause demotivation and fear of job loss among employees.
• Investors: Investors may show uncertainty due to the risk of possible failure.
• Management: Management must adapt to changes and may require learning sessions to become comfortable with new processes.

Part 4: Change Management in Organization

Management can use different processes to implement change, such as Kotter's 8-step change management process:

• Create Urgency: Evaluate the need for change and analyse benefits and requirements.
• Form Coalition: Create teams and gather necessary information for change implementation.
• Create Vision: Leaders create awareness of the benefits of changes.
• Communicate Vision: Use various processes to communicate about the upcoming changes.
• Remove Obstacles: Identify and eliminate barriers to change implementation.
• Create Short Term Wins: Set short-term targets for gradual change implementation.
• Build on Change: Implement required changes according to the developed plan.
• Anchor Changes: Integrate changes into the organizational culture.

This report concludes the importance of leadership development in the organization. All the challenges faced by organizations in business scenarios have been discussed. The challenges faced by leaders and stakeholders in the change implementation process have been explained, along with the evaluation of the process for Boots the Chemist to implement required changes.