Change Management Process In Carrefour And MAF Collaboration - Essay.

Organization's Background

Discuss about the Change Management Process within an organization.

As a result of tremendous global changes, many companies across the world are striving to restructure their ways of operations in order to counter the competition witnessed in the world of business (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014, pp. 52). Change can therefore be used as a technique by most organizations aiming at adapting to the new business environments-an aspect that ensures that a company survives in the competitive global market. However, change must be managed well in order to bring the desired outcomes. Managing change can only be effective when the whole organization is convinced that adopting the new ways of operating will solve the current problems and offer opportunities for future growth (Brown and Osborne 2012, pp. 105). Therefore change management is essential in persuading the employees and the whole organization that altering the current mode of doing business is important to the organization’s survival and growth in the market (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014, pp. 50).

However, the organization’s management should be keen during the change process to ensure that all issues arising from the implementation course do not lead to the failure of the whole process (Qadri, Hussain and Bin Ahmad Dahlan 2015, pp. 278). These issues can be either structural, cultural or leadership and they can highly affect the entire change process either negatively or positively (Vohs and Baumeister 2016, pp. 502). For instance, cultural issues such as norms, beliefs and values of the organization may hinder the whole process of organizational change. Leadership styles many also hinder the process of change since change process needs a leadership style that is transformational in nature. Structural issues that are brought by change may include change in the chain of command, job structure, management systems and administrative procedures (Gollenia, L.A., 2016, pp. 42).

Therefore, to deeply analyze these issues and link them to the whole process of change management process within an organization, the essay addresses the problems encountered by Carrefour during its collaboration with MAF. Carrefour is one of the largest retail group not only in UAE but also in the world (Carrefour 2018). Therefore, the report thus cover the structural, cultural and leadership issues that were encountered during the change process resulting from the collaboration between Carrefour and MAP in UAE (Saifur 2013).

Carrefour is a multinational company and it is ranked the second largest retail group globally. Hence, the company has its retail outlets and stores across the whole world. Carrefour began its operations in UAE in the year 1995 during the company’s strategic plan of expanding its operations across the Asian Market (Carrefour 2018). Currently, the company deals with retail services as well as real estate activities with a total number of eleven (11) retail stores.

Change Situation/Change Process

Carrefour has been striving implement its strategic plan of increasing their market share within the Asian Continent by establishing their operations in all the Asian countries. One of their main target was UAE due to its tremendously growing economy. As a result, the company decided to open a popular hypermarket at Dubai Sports City along Emirates Road in Dubai. However, it is important to understand that doing business in UAE as a foreigner is not easy due to the barriers put by the foreign policy. The policy stipulates that any foreign company hoping to operate in UAE must collaborate with a company from within UAE and the native company must own at least 50% of the shares in the newly formed company.

Nevertheless, Carrefour needed to do everything possible in order to capture the Asian market and diversify their operation in UAE. Thus, for the purpose of working as per the stipulations of the foreign policy investment, Carrefour decided to collaborate with MAF shopping Mail from Abu Dhabi. MAF is also a well-established and known construction company in UAE (Saifur 2013). Since MAF is a well-known company, Carrefour saw it as the right opportunity of entering into the market since the company has a lot of popularity (Kavoura and Katsoni 2013, pp. 120). The move was meant to fulfill the company’s goal to open and run one of the biggest hypermarket at Dubai Sports City. The collaboration was also meant to expand Carrefour’s market dominance in UAE and increase their market share. That would see the company emerge the best by beating all its competitors and gaining the competitive advantage in the retail market across UAE (Nof, Ceroni, Jeong and Moghaddam 2015, pp. 35).

As a result of the collaboration, a lot of changes were witnessed including change in: human resource activities within the company, the procedures of undertaking some work, the change in job requirements of employees including their roles and responsibilities, change in management, leadership, structure, policies and the company’s atmosphere (Lämmer-Gamp, Köcker and Nerger 2014, pp. 1). These changes are seen to have brought a lot of issues ranging from cultural, structural and leadership issues that must be addressed effectively and carefully for the purpose of ensuring a successful change. Thus, the collaboration process brought a lot changes as discussed below.

As a result of the change witnessed as a result of collaboration between the two companies, there were a lot of changes in the management structure of Carrefour and MAF. The structure of the organization had been changed to match the structure of the two collaborating companies. The structural issues witnessed during the collaboration between Carrefour and MAF include changes in chain of command, change in the organization’s hierarchy of management, management systems changed as well, change in administrative processes and also change in job structure. As a result of the collaboration between the two companies, many departments were eliminated. For instance, it was unnecessary to maintain the same HR departments meaning that they were merged and some employees were discarded, new procedures and policies were introduced to help in realigning the company to the new structure as well as the introduction of new job functions. That meant that the whole structure of the organization had to be changed bringing a lot of structural issues. Performing all those structural adjustments needed much planning so as not to alter the company’s operations. The change is seen to have led to changing the level of departments, change in the units of business process units, change in level of systems and the working processes of the individual companies (Samuels and Sommers 2017, pp. 22).

Structural Changes

Carrefour is an Australian company whose organizational culture is totally different from that of MAF since UAE is comprised of various people from across the world. As stipulated in the foreign policy, a foreign company merging or collaborating with a native company, the native company should produce the highest number of employees. That means that the newly formed company has a combination of employees from both companies whose culture is different and conflicting. The atmosphere of the whole organization had been affected. The culture of the organization had to be changed to fit the culture of UAE (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015, pp. 105).

The culture in an organization is a very important determinant of the organization’s success. During planning, a company like Carrefour should have considered its culture of doing things and how it will be affected by its collaboration with MAF. The two companies are from different countries with different cultures, Carrefour is a French company and MAF is a company from Abu Dhabi. The culture of these two countries is totally different. There is a difference in their norms, values and beliefs that a witnessed in their daily operations. Integrating the two cultures is not a simple thing. Due to that, there could be a lot of conflicting issues resulting from the integration of the two cultures-an aspect that could lead to failure in the process of executing the operations of the new company (Buchanan and Huczynski 2017, pp. 625).  

The leadership issues are well witnessed during any change process involving collaboration between two companies (Alexander 2013, pp. 81). Different companies have differing leadership styles. That means that the way leaders make decisions in various companies is totally different. The issue of leadership issues becomes a key when two companies are integrated. The working processes and leadership styles had also changed. The policies, procedures and processes of doing things had also changed due to varying procedures and structure of doing things between the two companies. For instance, the process of making decisions at Carrefour might be totally different from that of MAF. When a manager from Carrefour is heading a certain department in the merged company, he or she will use his/her own style to make decisions based on the previous leadership style. On the other hand, a manager from MAF who has been assigned a certain role in the newly formed company which have a different way of making decisions based on his/her previous experiences (Bratton and Gold 2017, pp. 72). Therefore, the difference in the issue of leadership would lead to failure in the integration of the two companies which would consequently lead to the unsuccessful change management process.

Cultural Changes

As discussed above, the collaboration between the two companies brought a lot of changes to their working environment. These changes brought a lot of issues ranging from cultural, structural and leadership issues that must be addressed effectively and carefully for the purpose of ensuring a successful change (Buchanan and Huczynski 2017, pp. 628). Therefore, to counter the issues resulting from the changes, the two companies should engage in managing the change process in order to ensure that collaboration course is successful.

Change is a very key element in today’s business operations. Managing change calls for the organization’s capability to prepare well before initiating and implementing a certain change. To succeed in managing a successful change process, the organization’s management must plan in advance (By, Ford and Randall 2017, pp. 15). The planning process involves the identification of key issues that might arise in the process of change implementation process. Once these issues have been identified, the organizational management or the team managing the change process plans effectively on how to handle those issues to ensure that the company realizes and benefits from the planned change process (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis 2015, pp. 82). A successful change process is the one that helps the organization achieve the desired goals and objectives.

In any change process like the one witnessed during the collaboration between Carrefour and MAF, an effective management is required. A change process involves a lot of issues like structural, cultural and leadership issues. Thus, any change management process should take into consideration all those issues and manage them effectively for a successful change process. At the core of every change management process, effective planning is significant. It will involve looking at the current state of the situation and the desired situation. In the case of Carrefour and MAF, looking at the two companies including their culture, structure and leadership would be crucial. It would enable the management of the two companies to develop the right ways of integrating the systems of the two sides without so much hardships (Alexander 2013, pp. 81).

Change management process requires the company’s management to understand the change management theory and understand how to put such theory into real life scenario. That involves learning the nature of the change process and what is involved. Since employees remain at the center of nay change process, a team should be formed to initiate and implement the change process. It involves forming a team that can engage in understanding all the elements of the change process and planning on how to handle any issue that will arise in the process of change. For instance, a team would be formed by Carrefour and MAF prior to the collaboration of the two. The team would explore all the structural, cultural and leadership issues that would arise during the process and lay down measures on how to address them effectively without much resistance (Kazmi and Naarananoja 2017, pp. 7).

Leadership Issues

The vital element of any change management and implementation process is to ensure that there is uniformity in the new company and avoid conflicts that might lead to resistance (Rahim 2017, pp. 110). Employees are at the center of any change management process. The organizations striving to implement any change process, the might plan to address all the above discussed issues to avoid resistance by employees and other personnel required to initiate and implement a successful change process. Resistance can be defined as a situation that might hinder or slow down the process of implementing and accomplishment any change process. For instance, in the collaboration process involving Carrefour and MAF, there a number of changes witnessed in form of structure of the new company, the leadership process and the cultural aspects of the new formed company (Cascio 2018, pp. 128). For instance, the cultural changes many bring insecurity, uncertainty and stress to an employee. That could definitely lead to low performance and employee resistance to the new culture of working. Moreover, a leader whose leadership is differing from the new leadership style may feel inferior and undermined which may lead to resistance. Resistance is the only problem witnessed during the change process in any company. Resistance may lead to low performance, failure by the company to compete with its rivals, high employee turnover, conflicts and poor employee relationships, employee strikes and unconducive working environment (Pillai, Murthy, Sagar, Ramanujam and Mukhopadhyaya 2017, pp. 30).

However, failure to manage the change process would lead to a total failure of the new organization. Employees have been overwhelmed by the whole process since they feel to have no control over what is happening to them. Lack of proper planning, consultation and communication lead to failure in the process of integration. Thus, the company should ensure that it thinks ahead of any change process by looking at possible areas of conflict and addressing them effectively to avoid resistance or any failure of the whole process. The management of every change process should include the current situational analysis of the company or companies by highlighting all the key areas of concern and see how to effectively address them to ensure that the process is successful (Goetsch and Davis 2014, pp. 85).

Hence, a good planning by the company should have taken into consideration the uncertainties and preparing on how to adapt to various changes brought about by cultural, structural and leadership issues. Once they plan on that, the management at Carrefour can understand which change management theory model to adopt in order to push for a successful change process resulting from its collaboration with MAF. For a successful change management process, the chosen theoretical model should be integrated to the company’s real life scenarios effectively (Dalkir 2013, pp. 53). That would mean that the model is used in such a way that it addresses all the leadership, structural and cultural issues affecting change at Carrefour.

Change is a complex process that is bound to fail if not managed properly. However, proper management of the process can lead to a successful change course and the realization of the desired goals. Thus, in order for a company to engage in a successful change management process, there must be adoption of an appropriate change management model. Such model will guide the organization’s management on how to handle employees and convince them to embrace change (Rahim 2017, pp. 112). Employees remain at the center of any change process and thus need to be handled carefully to avoid resistance. A good change management model highlights the need to: Effective employee communication to explain the need for change, active employee involvement and consultation to ensure that they remain the part of the change process, employee training to understand new ways of operating as well as rewarding the cooperating employees to motivate them to continue supporting the change process (Hayes 2014, pp. 23).

Conclusion

Change is a very significant element of any company aiming at developing itself in the current competitive business environment. Due to global environmental changes, a company must be keen to change are realign itself to the latest trends in the business environment. However, change is not an easy task if not planned and executed effectively and efficiently. A poorly planned and implemented change process is bound to fail and end up putting an organization to losses. Therefore, the organization must establish a team to look at the cultural, structural and leadership issues that may affect its change process towards the achievement of its strategic goals and objectives. For instance, the goals and objectives of Carrefour were to expand its market share in UAE and also align itself with the government’s policies and restrictions involving foreign investment. Therefore, the company should look at whether issues addressed above would not alter their progress in achieving their set goals and objectives. Therefore, the main aim of any change management team is to plan efficiently by looking at the change process in advance and propose the best way to handle any challenges arising from structural, cultural and leadership issues that hinder the implementation of a successful change management process.

To succeed in planning, initiating and implementing a successful change management process, it is recommended that: a company should adopt a change management model that is efficient and effective. An appropriate change management model allows for effective communication and employee participation during the whole process. The company should also consider a good plan that puts into consideration all the issues that might arise during the change process and plan well on how to counter such challenges. The organization’s management should also ensure that it weighs the benefits of the changing and adopting to new ways of doing things as compared to the current mode of operations. That is, whether the company will add any value to itself by changing from one way of operating to another. Finally, the company should ensure that it puts in place a team which will monitor the whole change process to ensure that the strategic goals of the change process are being achieved. Therefore, any change process requires efficient and effective management in order to ensure that it succeeds to bring the desired results.

References

Alexander, K. ed., 2013. Facilities management: theory and practice. Routledge, pp.78-84.

Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge, pp. 100-110.

Argyris, C., 2017. Integrating the Individual and the Organization. Routledge, pp. 21-26.

Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge, pp. 45-60.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave, pp. 67-75.

Brown, K. and Osborne, S.P., 2012. Managing change and innovation in public service organizations. Routledge, pp.101-110.

Buchanan, D. A., and Huczynski, A.., 2017. Organizational behaviour. Harlow: Pearson, pp. 622-650.

By, R.T., Ford, J. and Randall, J., 2017. Changing times: what organizations can learn from Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election, pp.12-17.

Carrefour. (2018). About Us. Carrefour UAE. [Online]. Available from: < https://www.carrefouruae.com > [Accessed 13 May 2018].

Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education, pp. 121-135.

Clegg, S.R., Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T., 2015. Managing and organizations: An introduction to theory and practice. Sage, pp. 89-94.

Dalkir, K., 2013. Knowledge management in theory and practice. Routledge, pp.45-62.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson, pp. 78-90.

Gollenia, L.A., 2016. Business transformation management methodology. Routledge, pp. 34-50.

Hayes, J., 2014. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 21-25.

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning, pp. 56-66.

Kavoura, A. and Katsoni, V., 2013. From e-business to c-commerce: collaboration and network creation for an e-marketing tourism strategy. Tourismos, 8(3), pp.113-128.

Kazmi, S.A.Z. and Naarananoja, M., 2017. Collection of Change Management Models–An Opportunity to Make the Best Choice from the Various Organizational Transformational Techniques. GSTF Journal on Business Review (GBR), pp. 3-11.

Lämmer-Gamp, T., zu Köcker, G.M. and Nerger, M., 2014. Cluster Collaboration and Business Support Tools to Facilitate Entrepreneurship, Cross-sectoral Collaboration and Growth. En ligne sur le site web de la Commission Européenne https://ec. europa. eu/enterprise/initiatives/cluster/observatory/2014-10-10-eco-report-d4, 1.

Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge, pp.51-71.

Nof, S.Y., Ceroni, J., Jeong, W. and Moghaddam, M., 2015. Revolutionizing Collaboration through e-Work, e-Business, and e-Service (Vol. 2). Springer, pp. 23-46.

Pillai, C.R., Murthy, C.R.K., Sagar, M., Ramanujam, P.R. and Mukhopadhyaya, M., 2017. Unit-1 Models of Educational Change, pp. 21-39.

Qadri, M., Hussain, M.K. and Bin Ahmad Dahlan, A.R., 2015. Role of change management in the successful roll-out of IT projects: A case study of higher learning institutes in Malaysia. International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations, 3(2), pp. 275-281.

Rahim, M.A., 2017. Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge, pp. 101-120.          

Saifur, R. (May 2013). Majid Al Futtaim acquires full ownership of Carrefour franchise in the region. The Gulf News. [Online]. Available from: < https://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/investment/majid-al-futtaim-acquires-full-ownership-of-carrefour-franchise-in-the-region-1.1187332 > [Accessed 13 May 2018].

Samuels, M. and Sommers, S.L., 2017. What is the impact of leadership style and strategy on Business Performance and Transformation?, pp. 13-33.

Vohs, K.D. and Baumeister, R.F. eds., 2016. Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications. Guilford Publications, pp. 502-503.