Change Proposal and Implementation Plan for Coles Australia

Executive Summary

Coles has been one of the leading firms in the supermarket and Groceries industry for decades in Australia (PESTLE, 2019). The company has been declining its elegance by various aspects as competition and internal factors. The firm has been facing huge competition in Australia with outdated strategies. There is a requirement for the adoption of the change in the Coles organization. The company has an ineffective organizational structure where the companies are also facing complications with technical issues in payment transactions, the decline in the patron rate (Micheal, 2020). This report aims at the change proposal and implementation plan for the company. A detailed analysis has been done on the basis of the case, which includes the identification of all the problems related to the company and the key essence of change implementation n the firm. This report also addresses various models of change, barriers involved within the organization, and effective recommendations for adopting the change models in the firm environment with a complete implementation plan (Waddell, 2019).

Problem Identification

Coles is one of the leading organizations that being successful in the supermarket industry. The company has been maintaining its competitive edge within the industry by enhancing its opportunities to grow. As the competition is very high in the grocery and supermarket industries, there is a requirement for improving the business proceedings by fetching new opportunities (PESTLE, 2019). Many companies have overcome Coles by increasing the level of competition as Woolworths and Aldi are the biggest competitors of Coles (Micheal, 2020). These two companies’ expansion had a huge negative impact on the growth of the company. The structure of the company is also inefficient, and the company has been facing high employee turnover with low sales. The firm requires to adopt new strategies and changes that help in promoting the business.

Explaining the Change

The company has been struggling to expand its business as there are various factors that are leading to the downfall of the firm. The main aspect is competition, as there are many organizations which are growing up in the by becoming new barriers. Compared to its competitors, the company has a strategy with a lower margin. Something was desired for the commercialization of the products for improving its opportunities as a technology, and new marketing strategies will assist the company. Although the Coles products have been successfully sold, its position and unique sales proposals are not clearly defined, which could lead to competitors attacking this segment. The covid crisis is also becoming an aspect of the downfall of the firm. It is also facing technical problems at stores (Micheal, 2020). There is a requirement for addressing high employee turnover by lowering the expenses. The firm should focus on new product segmentation with new organizational culture. It should promote its business globally. By implementing the change in the business strategies of the companies, we can overcome all the weaknesses of Coles by maintaining a competitive edge in the industry.

Possible Barriers to Change

There are certain barriers in the organization’s culture that will lead to the obligations in adopting the change in the workplace. Coles is mainly struggling in overcoming these barriers for handling the various complications with implementing the change in the workplace. The leadership is very ineffective in the company, which is one of the key barriers where it is lowering the overall performance of the company (Waddell, 2019) (AlManei, 2018). The firm is also achieving a poor organizational structure that raises complications as lowered employee involvement. It is essential to have everyone involved in the change management process in order to achieve the desired results. The firm is also very complex with ineffective decision making, which leads to the declined patrons for the Coles with high employee turnover.

Change Model Alternatives

Action Research Model:

The action research model assists in handling the business processing by implementing a change in order to address various firm-level challenges. It will assist the Coles situation analysis for adopting the change by following a detailed process. The main advantage of this model is it will provide an analysis of the requirement for the change. As the company has been facing lots of complications in achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace, the adoption of new strategies will benefit the company (Jayatilleke, 2018). This model will also assist in the process of adopting the change and maintaining the change by stabilization and evaluation. After implementing the new strategies for the companies, this model will assist Coles in maintaining them by mitigating the obligations involved in adopting the change in a firm business environment.

Prosic Adkar Model of Change:

One of the complications involved in the Coles is poor internal management and decision-making process. It is having a huge impact on the downfall of the company by maintaining the company strategies at a very low margin (PESTLE, 2019). So, there is a requirement for the adoption of the model to implement the change in the firm. This model will assist in organizational change management. The first step is creating an awareness regarding the need for the change in the business where it mainly targets all the employees of the company by providing a piece of knowledge regarding the impacts and influences in the firm. This awareness will increase the success factors for achieving the change by the assistance of everyone in change implementation.

It also includes developing the knowledge on the change and implementing the process by ensuring the ability and skill. It includes the adoption of new strategies of marketing and globalization strategies for targeting more customers requires efficient knowledge in this area. So, an analysis of individual capabilities who are able to perform the specified roles will be asses using this model by assessing the knowledge we have on the particular aspect and gaining it. By this model, Coles can focus on the long terms goals and objectives through reinforcement (Errida, 2021). By, this we can implement the change and achieve the desired deliverables by improving the position of Coles in the industry by gaining a competitive advantage.

Change Model Recommendations

I would like to recommend the Prosic Adkar Model of Change for the Coles, where according to the analysis of the company situation, it is an effective model which can address the obligations in the company growth. The success of any company will rely on the management of the business proceedings, whereas Coles mainly lacks Unstable Leadership, Poor Organizational Structure (PESTLE, 2019). So, for this case, we need mainly handle the situations internally by accelerating the business proceedings through implementing the change required. So, the Prosic model will assist the company in performing these activities by following sequential steps from desired change to successfully achieving the outcomes.

Implementation Plan

a. Strategies to Manage Resistance to Change

Communication

It’s one of the key strategies for any change where it plays an efficient role in achieving the resistance in change. It will create a sense of urgency by lowering the uncertainties (Waddell, 2019). But it is a very time-consuming procedure and ineffective in terms of cost.

Learning

Learning is a strategy of managing resistance through gaining a piece of knowledge and skills regarding the change. It helps in achieving the goals with new roles and abilities. But it is a very time-consuming procedure and very expensive.

Involvement

The involvement strategy will help in providing an opportunity for everyone to get involved in the change. It helps in handling the unknown risk through various events and task forces. But it is very time-consuming with various rising conflicts between the people.

Stress Management

This strategy will focus on the various complications faced by the employees involved in the change management. But, it will be considered when other strategies are ineffective in the situation. But it may not be effective for everyone.

Negotiation

It will be appealed in the sense of urgency where there is a requirement for the change, or there is a requirement for new aspects for creating a value for the change (Waddell, 2019). It will support new situations in the workplace, but it is very expensive.

Coercion

This strategy will be applicable where all the strategies are ineffective in addressing the change by managing the resistance. It will have an assertive influence by creating a requirement for urgent change in the company. It will also lead to job politics.

b. Specific intervention activities and Timeline

• Motivating Change

Motivating a change is essential where it will increase the desire for the need of a change in Coles organization (PESTLE, 2019). It is essential for implementing the change where everyone in the organization is a participant in this activity.

• Creating a Vision

Vision is setting up the goals which need to be accomplished. In this case, we need to perform change implementation in Coles organization by enhancing its business proceedings.

• Developing Political Support

Identifying the key stakeholders, Change agents, formal groups, and social networkers for achieving the political support for the organization (Waddell, 2019).

• Managing the Transition

a. People & Process Improvements

Peoples plays a key role in achieving the change in the organization whereas there are certain methods that help achieve the process improvement. They are Goal setting, performance appraisal for the people, and Reward systems (Waddell, 2019).

b. Organizational Structure Changes

There is an interdependency between change processes where strategy, structure, and processes. Every employee of the firm is a participant in this model. McKinney’s 7S model will assist in this process (Waddell, 2019).

• Sustaining Momentum

a. Strategies to build a learning organization:

It will help in gaining a competitive advantage. The human resource and leaders are the participants of this aspect (Waddell, 2019). It will help in achieving business success through acquiring new knowledge.

b. Performance management strategies

There are various strategies for performance management where employees, leaders are the participants in this activity.

• Performance Appraisal
• Reward Systems
• Interpersonal Process Approaches
• Goal setting

c. Timeline of Activities

Timeline of activity will help in setting a specified timeframe for each activity by handling overall procedures. It consists of certain steps by defining the milestones for each activity. All the employees in the organization are participants in this activity (Jalagat, 2016).

References

AlManei, M., Salonitis, K. and Tsinopoulos, C., 2018. ‘A conceptual lean implementation framework based on change management theory.’ Procedia cirp, 72, pp.1160-1165.

Errida, A. and Lotfi, B. (2021) ‘The determinants of organizational change management success: Literature review and case study,’ International Journal of Engineering Business Management. Doi: 10.1177/18479790211016273.

Jalagat, Revenio. (2016). ‘The Impact of Change and Change Management in Achieving Corporate Goals and Objectives: Organizational Perspective.’ International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR). 5. 1233-1239.

Jayatilleke, S. and Lai, R., 2018. ‘A systematic review of requirements change management. Information and Software Technology, 93, pp.163-185.

Micheal McGowan .2020. ‘Coles supermarkets across Australia closed after computers go offline.’ <https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/09/coles-supermarkets-across-australia-closed-after-computers-go-offline>

SWOT& PESTL.com. 2019. ‘Coles Group limited SWOT& Pestle analysis’.< https://www.swotandpestle.com/coles/>

Waddell, D, Creed, A, Cummings, T & Worley, C 2019, ‘Organizational change: development and transformation,’ 7th Ed, Cengage Learning Australia.