This study critically several areas of change management process and identify the factors of creating success for M&S with the help of using theories and examples.

From this survey it was show that almost three-quarter of the British population is concerning about the green issues or taking care of environmentally friendly products. These people are concerning about satisfying the social demand and thinking about which is creating a big interest in consumer’s mind and influencing the consumers to buy the products more. Change management plan of M&S is considering creation of new interest for customers and thinking more about the creating the customer’s relationships. It is helping them to gain the competitive advantage and increase the social relationships with the organisation. By creating the good image in the consumer’s mind M&S is accelerating their sales and creating new market opportunities (Jobber, 2010). This study critically evaluates several factors which are making the change for M&S and explores the challenges of the change management by using theory and models. Ideas from this study can help the managers to evaluate a successful method for managing the change.

Factors of change:

Before evaluating the change management process it is important to identify the key factors that are creating the change for M&S. There were two major factors which are creating the change for M&S such as:-

1. Internal Factors: Different types of internal factors are creating the change for M&S including the structure of the organisation, changes in the technological process, organisational culture, interest of the employees, decision made by the top level management of M&S. Because of increasing customer’s awareness top management of M&S is aware of the changing demand issues and they made a massive change in their internal organisation. Because of these internal factors they have change the inside decoration and try to be green in several aspects (M&S, 2011). Changing in the company policies are also affecting M&S to make some changes in the process of delivering the services.
2. External factors: In addition, to the internal factors there are some external factors which are also influencing the M&S to make the change. Increasing social awareness programme made the changes in the buying habit and creates a big influence for M&S to make some changes. In addition, government new regulations regarding the green issues, social development programme from external organisations, pressures from the environmental protections agencies or labour laws made a big change for M&S to create some changes in the product design. Because of changing consumer’s demand customers are now looking for environmentally friendly products and they want to give some donations for social work. M&S also taken some social development programmes where customers can make their contributions (M&S, 2011).

External factors which are affecting the M&S to create some changes can be evaluated by using the PESTLE factors. For example, some economic factors are also influencing M&S to create some changes including the income status of the customers; recession and income status are also affecting the consumer’s buying behaviour and creating direct influences in consumer buying process. To some extent technological changes such as digital advertising, social networking, improving the communications medium is also influencing customers to make some changes for M&S (Jobber, 2010).

Change Management Models:

Ads discussed earlier, there was a big change for M&S when they are introducing their environmentally friendly products. It was a big challenge for them for setting up the new system and to gain accessibility to the process. M&S needs to evaluate some of the change management models and need to create an effective planning for managing the change such as:-

Lewin’s three stage change management model:

According to Lewin’s there are three several stages which can help them to create an effective change management plan.

1. Unfreezing: At this stage, M&S will try to find out the key factors of change management such as identifying the reasons that are creating the change, creation of a change management plan such as the resources requirements to implement the change process. For example, M&S has increased their digital advertising plan for creating customer’s interest and to increase more sales. At this stage, they need to think about the costs of implementing the change process such as creation of the financial planning, identifying the factors that may create customer’s interest and some factors which are creating the interest of the customers towards making the change process (Jobber, 2010).
2. Movement: At the second stage, customers will move into the change management process such as they will be influenced towards making the change. At this stage, some customer’s motivational forces such as creating customer awareness programme, digital advertisement, personal selling process and some other key factors will be considered to maintain the change process. They can also introduce some new technology or technological development for creating the interest towards the consumer buying process (Peter, et al., 2008). They also need to develop the skills of their employees and need to improve their capacities for providing the quality services. In these types of situations providing the quality services is important to create the change process in the organisation.

(Fig-1: Lewin’s three stages model, adapted from, Boddy, 2010)

3. Refreeze: Finally, last stages M&S will make ensure that the change management will take place permanently such as here M&S will think about the measurement of the sustainability issues of the change process. Change management need to be long term and it can be possible to make it long term by identifying the demand of the customers and by taking considerations of the potential threats of the change management process (Stone, 2006). By making an opportunity-threats analysis M&S can find out the potential threats for the change management process. Potential threats for the M&S can be the high competition in the market, changing nature of the consumer buying process and high competition in the market.

From this three stages model it was found that in order to manage the change process M&S has to take number of key issues and they need to evaluate many areas for managing the change process. They need to evaluate the impact of the competitors and the problems that may arise from the competitors. If they can successfully make an evaluation of the competitive challenges than they can reduces the potential threats of the change management process. Another change management model known as Lewin’s force field analysis can also be useful to evaluate the change management process and can create new opportunities for a successful change management process such as:-

(Fig-2: Lewin’s force field analysis model, adapted from, Boddy, 2010)

From fig-2, Lewin’s can measure the positive forces such as the driving forces to create change. It also depends on the present conditions. If they want to make some changes or want to sustain their change factors into the competitive market than they need to increase their driving forces and need to reduce the restraining forces and if they can do this properly than there is a possibility of making the change process. If there is an equal amount of driving forces with the equal amount of restraining forces than there is a possibilities of creating the change (Jeremy, 2009). Lewin’s force field analysis can be useful to identify the driving forces for creating the change such as M&S can identify the consumer’s demand and make some changes in their new product development process so that they can increase more sales and satisfy the consumer’s demand.

M&S can also introduce new technology for creating the change or to reduce the forces for restraining the change. They need to create a balance between the driving forces with the restraining forces and if they can do this properly than there is a possibilities of creating the change (Peter et al., 2008). M&S needs to reduce the potential competitive challenges by creating good market research and by developing the new areas of development. M&S need to create a long-term strategic plan if they want to be successful in the competitive market.

Resistance to change process:

For evaluating the sustainability issues of the change management process for M&S they need to evaluate the critical factors which are creating the resistance to the change process such as the following:-

1. Objectives: Company objectives may create some resistance to the change process. If the change management issues will not comply with the organisational objectives than it may create the barrier in the change process. Company objectives need to be relevant with the business processes. Lack of clarity in creating the organisational objectives may create a big challenge or resistance to change (Jobber, 2010).
2. People: New change process can be challenging for M&S if they don’t consider their customer’s interest. They need to develop their internal staffs for creating the awareness and need to involve their staffs in the change management process. Success of the new changes can be successful if M&S can consider the people’s interest, demand and preference levels (Stone, 2009).
3. Technology: Technology can also create a barrier of resistance in the change process such as any new changes require some technological advancement which can direct M&S to achieve the target sales. Work which will be done for developing the workforces need to be incompatible with the new changes and it should increase the quality and effectiveness of the process (Jenny and Hossam, 2000).
4. Business Process: New changes should run within the existing business process and if that failed to work along with the business processes than it may create a big pressure for the M&S and create losses (Jobber, 2010).
5. Financial resources: It is required to have financial strengths in the process of new change management. Lack of financial resources creates a barrier and creates difficulties for making a new change plan for M&S (Stone, 2009).
6. Structure: Structure of the organisation is also a big problem for developing new relationships and it also create a big challenge for developing the creating the working relationships and developing the capabilities of the workforces (Jobber, 2010).
7. Culture: Culture of the organisation is also important in the change plan such as existing culture may not be interested in changing something new but if the organisation can create a strategic fit with the new cultural changes than they can be successful in the competitive market (Edward and Rees, 2010).
8. Power: Power can also create the problem for developing some new changes such as sometimes leaders can take the initiatives for making some new changes or create a power conflicts in the organisation. M&S needs to be careful about these issues if they want to control the power differences (Jeremy, 2009).

From the above discussions it was found that change management can be a big challenge for M&S but they need to create a good plan for reducing the possible challenges of the change management process.

Process of reducing the challenges:

M&S needs to apply some strategic decisions if they want to reduce the possible challenges of the change management process such as the following:-

1. Creating customer’s engagement: M&S needs to increase the customer’s engagement with the customers by talking more with the customers and by evaluating the consumer’s demand. They can evaluate the consumer’s demand by identifying the expectations and by making a good segmentation planning. Effective segmentation planning will consider about the consumer’s demand and find out the possible challenges that may create more sales (Stone, 2006).
2. Cultural Variables: M&S also needs to think more about the cultural variables such as they need to identify the demand from the customers and need to create the culturally adaptable variables. In this green issues programme they can consider some cultural factors by creating awareness programme in the cultural festivals. They can make some discounted offers for several cultural programmes and create an interest in consumer’s mind (Dessler, 2008).
3. Developing the workforces: By developing the workforces such as developing their skills, level of competence, their ways of decision making and capabilities of taking high pressure can also help to develop an effective change management plan. They need to consider about the employee’s feedback and if they can successfully considers the feedback from the employees than they can make a good change management plan for M&S.
4. Strategic planning: By creating the strategic planning M&S can identify the possible problems or it can help them to develop a contingency planning method for improving the service quality. Strategic planning also considers about obstacles to make the gain the market share or reducing the potential challenges from the customers (Jobber, 2010). Before implementing the change plan M&S needs to identify the problems and they need to develop their planning perfectly for creating success history.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, change management is a big challenge for M&S when they are going to increase their sales or want to be competitive in a challenging marketing environment. Change management will consider about several issues such as consumer’s demand, cultural factors, effective segmentation and positioning plan. It is required to increase the awareness programme of the new product so that it can create more customers’ demand for M&S. In order to reduce the challenges of change management M&S needs to reduce the options into the minimum level and they need to increase online advertising programme. By evaluating the resistance to change M&S can also reduce the possible barriers of change process and accelerate sales frequently.

References :

1. Jenny P., and Hossam I., (2000) "New developments in innovation", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 15 Issue: 8, pp.795 – 811
2. Jeremy G., (2009) "Building corporate social responsibility into strategy", (European Business Review), Vol. 21 Issue: 2, pp.109 – 127
3. Jobber, D. (2010), Principles and Practice of Marketing, (6th  edition), McGraw-Hill, UK
4. M&S, (2011), Investing the change plan for M&S, (online), adapted from, , [accessed on 10.12.11]
5. Stone, B. (2006), “Successful Direct Marketing Methods”, (5th edition), NTC publishing, Lincolnwood, Illinois, USA.
6. Ayse S., (2003) "Internal change agents’ view of the management of change problem", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 16 Issue: 5, pp.480 - 496
7. Boddy, D. (2010), “Management an introduction”, (4th edition), Prentice Hall, UK
8. David, R. (2010), “Managing People Performance & Performance”, (1st edition), Prentice Hall, UK
9. Dessler, G. (2008), Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, (11th  edition), Pearson International Edition, UK
10. Edward, T. and Rees, C. (2010), “International Human Resource Management”, (2nd edition),  Prentice Hall, UK
11. Peter J. D., Marion F., Alan D., (2008),        International Human Resource Management, (5th Edition), Thompson Publishers