Change Management

what is change management? This is something we hear every now and then. Many of us know intuitively what change management is but we still have hard time understanding the real meaning. To define the term, it is essential to provide the context related to the two perceptions. There are many different approaches and tools used to enhance organisations management, all of them prescribe adjustments in either processes, systems, organisational structure or job roles (McGuire, Palus, Passmore, and Rhodes, 2009). Change management is the process of maintaining the people side of change to attain the required business objectives (Prosci.com, 2019).

The amount of disruption in an employee’s everyday life depends on the change management. It also hinges on the organisation’s attributes, including culture, value system and history with past changes. On 29th March 2017, the UK officially publicised the plans to leave the European Union (Brexit). It was historically ground-breaking news, and it manifest the beginning of a two-year period in which the politicians, businesses and the people of must prepare for a life after Brexit (Market-inspector.co.uk, 2019). Brexit will unquestionably have consequences for British businesses, and it is supposed that London-based businesses will likely be most affected (Kotter and Schliesinger, 2008). These consequences might contrast from industry to industry; however, many London-based businesses are presently questioning what the future holds for them in the UK. Most banking jobs are moving out of London to Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Madrid and Frankfurt (David, 2019).

If we expect to see hard Brexit this means all the existing trading deals would disappear. This might sinew the manufacturers, retailers and designers to pay trade with the EU, therefore extra tariffs would be included to clothing and footwear which is assumed to be roughly 11 per cent (Adegeest, 2019). On the other hand if soft Brexit is to come in play that would mean free trade between the EU countries, but it is still unknown what strings would be attached as European countries would want full freedom for their citizens to operate openly in the UK and manage to export untaxed (Adegeest, 2019). Regardless of the outcome of Brexit, the cost of clothing will increase as the UK market is heavily dependent on importing raw materials for making cloths and exporting goods to other EU countries and the rest of the world (Kotter and Schliesinger, 2008). According to the Evening Standard: ‘The UK imports almost 10 billion pounds worth of clothes and shoes from Europe each year; more than 10,000 European staff work in the British fashion industry. It has become a microcosm of UK Plc’s struggle to deal with the referendum result.’ (Tobin, 2019)

As an example I would like to talk about Britain’s luxury sector, that would be highly affected by no Brexit deal, including names such as fashion house Burberry and car-maker Bentley, they brands could lose up to £6.8 billion pounds in exports a year if the world’s fifth-largest economy crashes out of the European Union without a deal (business of fashion). as I mentioned in my first blog about the how cultures can be managed within the organisation. Similarly, the change management is attainable int the fashion industry as well. As seen in the Emergent Change theory by Burnes which perfectly implies in this situation as well because the change in management is something that can be control, foreseen and managed. Burnes 2010, states in his model that emergent change is grounded on the hypothesis that change is a constant and impulsive process of aligning and manipulating an organisation to its altering atmosphere, exactly how Brexit is having a toll at the fashion industry due to its uncertainty (Burnes, 2010).

In this situation, Mckinsey 7s model could be used as a solution to the problem as it covers everything that is required to change management (Ravanfar, 2019). With the current situation of Brexit where designers do not wish to vote out because of the high investment risk and low revenue increase. Based on shared values, changes could be made within the systems, strategies and style of leadership and management (Ravanfar, 2019). That could be perceived in a positive way.

I would like to recommend Iceberg theory as an action plan for fashion industry, Burberry to be specific. I mentioned this theory in my blog 1. This framework is the study of both formal aspects as well as behavioral aspects. As all these attribute makes a lot of difference in change management. Factors such as communication patterns, conflicts and personality can have an effect on the management and people working around. This will give management to work on the areas that can be improved and will make the change acceptable and adaptable for everyone in an organisation.

References:

Adegeest, D. (2019). No deal Brexit could spell disaster for British fashion industry. [online] Fashionunited.uk. Available at: https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/no-deal-brexit-could-spell-disaster-for-british-fashion-industry/2019011641039 [Accessed 9 Jul. 2019].

Burnes, B. (2010), “Managing Change”, 5th Edition, Financial Times Press

David, D. (2019). How has business been affected by Brexit?. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47063405 [Accessed 9 Jul. 2019].

Kotter, J.P. and Schliesinger, L.A., (2008), “Choosing strategies for change”, Harvard Business Review, (Jul-Aug2008), Vol. 86 Issue 7/8, p130-139

Market-inspector.co.uk. (2019). Impact of Brexit on Businesses in the UK | Market-Inspector.

[online]

Available at: https://www.market-inspector.co.uk/blog/2016/10/impact-of-brexit-on-businesses-in-the-uk [Accessed 9 Jul. 2019].

McGuire, J.B., Palus, C.J., Passmore, W. and Rhodes, G.B. (2009), “Transforming your Organisation”, Centre for Creative Leadership

Prosci.com. (2019). Definition of Change Management. [online] Available at: https://www.prosci.com/resources/articles/change-management-definition [Accessed 9 Jul. 2019].

Ravanfar, M. (2019). Analyzing Organizational Structure based on 7s Model of McKinsey. [online] Journalofbusiness.org. Available at: https://journalofbusiness.org/index.php/GJMBR/article/view/1792 [Accessed 22 Jul. 2019].

Tobin, L. (2019). How will Brexit impact the UK fashion industry?.

[online]

Evening Standard. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/how-will-brexit-impact-the-uk-fashion-industry-a3931611.html [Accessed 9 Jul. 2019].