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INTRODUCTION
Tesco is a multinational chain of stores for retail with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. In 2008, Tesco became the fourth largest retailer in the world, displacing the fifth largest distributor Metro AG, the first movement of positions among the top five companies in the sector since 2003. Although originally specializing in food and drinks, it has diversified into areas such as clothing, electronics, financial services, selling and renting DVDs, compact discs, digital downloads , Internet service , telecommunications , medical and dental insurance and software. Companies that are able to compete successfully in today's rapidly changing business environment, which is characterized by globalization of the economy, exploding information technology, downsizing, restructuring, and new employer-employee relationships, must be ready to make significant changes in the way they operate. Changes can be realized in a number of areas. They can, for example, be observed in attitude or behaviour. Many major organizational changes, however, are technological ones. Sometimes these changes are not intended to change behaviour, but they almost always do in some respect. Another type of change is replacement of personnel; when top management is impatient with the pace of productivity, they often replace key individuals. Changes also occur in organizational structure, formal roles and jobs, control systems, work processes, and other elements of the organization's internal environment (Hough, 2003). The motivation for change typically stems from the fact that something is not working (e.g., continued negative feedback from customers, reduced profitability, threats of acquisition, or other market pressures). For most organizations, a crisis is the catalyst for change. While a crisis may be sufficient to initiate a change, it takes much more to successfully integrate the change into the work processes. Managers must have more than an extensive knowledge of the marketplace, how to compete in it, and what internal structures must be in place to make the company successful (Atuahene-Giman, Li, 2004).
checkout system does not need any cashier. This Self-service brings a new procedure or method to facilitate the customers. The use of the new system serves customers in a better way and provides better service without having to spend so much time in the store. When introduced into Tesco, this self-checkout system helps clients improve shopping experience and also facilitate them for easy shopping. This was done to make customers feel part of Tesco. The customer in store will select the shopping from the shelves and move to the self checkout, scan and pay for the items. The intended effect is the synergy of both the self checkout and the cashier checkout. The objective of this task is to investigate the Tesco self-service machine. This introduction of self-service check outs was a strategic shift. It was first introduced in Dereham, Norfolk in 2003. The purpose of the system was to accelerate check out processes and reduce labour costs associated with retail outlets. This work is to study the triggers of change, the process involved and the benefits for the organization.
Unfortunately, as Thomas (1993) noted in an article for HR Focus, statistics show that many organizational change efforts fail. For example, 50 percent of quality improvement programs fail to meet their goals, and 30 percent of process reengineering efforts are unsuccessful. The most common reason that change efforts fail is that they encounter resistance from employees. Change appears threatening to many people, which makes it difficult to gain their support and commitment to implementing changes. Consequently, the ability to manage change effectively is a highly sought-after skill in managers. Companies need people who can contribute positively to their inevitable change efforts. The management at TESCO developed a set of objectives sales increment, cost effectiveness, customer satisfaction before implementing the change and measured these developed objectives to ensure success through the attainment of these developed objectives.
DRIVERS OF CHANGE
There are four primary drivers of major work-place change. They are a change to the organizational structure, a new product or service, new management, and new technology. Organizational structure may change through major downsizing, outsourcing, acquisitions, or mergers. These actions are often accompanied by layoffs, particularly as certain positions become redundant. A new product or service has implications for changes in production, sales, and customer service. Additionally, by changing product or service the organization may face new competitors or new markets. New management, such as a change in chief executive officer or president, often brings a period of transition during which upper-level managers are likely to alter existing business processes and personnel policies. Finally, new technology can create vast changes to the organization. Technology can change the production process or the working conditions (i.e., telecommuting), and these changes may influence the skills that employees use on the job (Gioia, Dennis , Thomas, James , 1996). The changes are caused by the interaction of forces, these are classified as:
INTERNAL DRIVERS
Internal drivers are those from within the organization, arising from the analysis of behaviour organizational and presented as alternative solutions, representing conditions of equilibrium, creating the need for structural rearrangement, is an example of these technological adaptations, changing strategies, methodological, policy changes, etc.
EXTERNAL DRIVERS
External drivers are those from outside the organization, creating the need for internal order changes are examples of this force: The government decrees, the standards of quality, limitations on the environment both physical and economic etc.
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS
In view of the growing age of technology, it is essential for all organizations to enhance their technologies if they want to be successful. TESCO implemented the self-checkout to improve upon its operational efficiency.
COMPETITION
Competition among organizations is one of the common triggers of change in most Industries. TESCO implemented the self-checkout system to gain a competitive Advantage against its competitors. This also led to differentiation in the market as TESCO distinguished itself from the other retailers by the use of the self-checkout System.
COST OF LABOUR
One of the major aims of every business is to maximize profit. TESCO wanted to Increase its operational capacity at the front end and at the same time saves cost hence the use of the selfcheckout. For instance instead of employing five cashiers to operate Five cashier checkout, only one cashier will be required to assist customers on five Self-checkouts.
task forces are composed of people who will be affected by the change and have some level of expertise in the areas that will be affected by the proposed change. The assumption here is that those who have the expertise to solve the problems are those groups that are closer to the situation. Also, the group's commitment to the change may be made deeper by this involvement. (3) Task forces composed of people from all levels are formed to collect information about problems in the organization and to develop solutions. The underlying assumptions in this approach are that people at the top, middle, and lower levels are needed to develop quality solutions and that commitment must build at about the same rate at all levels. These approaches emphasizing shared responsibility usually take longer to implement but result in more commitment from all levels of the organization and more successful integration of the change into the work processes (Hough, 2003).
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
Understanding the factors that drive change and how people react to change is critical to the successful implementation of change. It is part of human nature to resist change. People prefer the security of familiar surroundings and often do not react well to changes in their work or social environment. Resistance to change often takes some typical forms. One typical reaction is denial, which individuals use to protect themselves.
Many managers assume that if people think the change is a good idea, they will not resist it. Why would the work force resist changes if the changes will fix what they wanted fixed? People may want change, but not necessarily the changes that have been identified in the plan. Workers may have their own ideas about what should change, and frequently the changes they think fix the problem involve someone else changing, not them. In addition workers may think the ways to make things better is simply to adjust and manipulate their work processes, not to implement the drastic changes identified in the proposed plan. Alternatively, workers may not think that is wrong with the current way of working. Often the process of changing looks too hard, looks like it will take too much energy, and seems confusing. A strictly structured change process often ignores the ingrained human resistance to change. When that happens, people who are affected by the change end up expending most of their time and energy figuring out how to stop the change or altering the change until it looks like something they can live with. If the desired change is not very desirable to the work force, managers need to find out why. Insufficient information about the driving force behind the change and the benefits expected from it is likely to cause distress among those affected by the change. People tend to act in their own perceived self-interest. Managers often think of change initiatives in broader terms, while the work force tends to think of it differently, in more narrow terms of how the change will affect their work. Sometimes managers forget or overlook this reaction to change. Effective strategies for organizational change involve an understanding of the human beings in the work force.
and also impact positively on the sales of TESCO as an Organization. The major benefits of the self-checkout will be discussed below.
INCREASE IN SALES
In this marketing era where the customer is the focus of most companies, customers will always go to shops where they can get a good and timely service. TESCO being one of the worlds leading international retailers currently has 3000 self-checkouts in 750 stores. This is a great improvement since the self-checkout was first implemented. The number of self-checkouts in stores attracts more new customers as they know They can always leave the store in time through the use of the self-checkout. This Increases customer base which impacts positively on sales. 25% of TESCOs UK Transactions are through self-checkout (TESCO plc). This means that a quarter of UK TESCO sales can be accounted for by the use of the self-checkout systems. This is represented in the pie chart below as blue.
COST EFFECTIVENESS
This is an important factor to consider when planning any change management Process in any organization. According to TESCOs annual statement 2005, the self-checkout was introduced into 130 stores and over 850,000 customers use them every Week. The use of the self-checkout helps to save on labour cost as a number of the self-checkout systems could be operated without the need for a corresponding number of Cashiers. The self-checkout can compensate for the shortage of staff. However a Trained supervisor may be required to assist customers with the self-checkout in case Of any malfunctioning.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
The self-checkout has brought about good customer services as customers dont have To spend time in the store queuing to pay for their shopping. Datamonitor (2008) stated that the use of technology is one of the greatest ways to improve upon customer Satisfaction. This helps to build a good relationship with the customers which results in customer loyalty. In TESCOs annual report and financial statement, 1.5million customers prefer to use the self-checkout in more than 200 stores weekly. This shows that customers are very satisfied with the system and this also has a huge Impact on sales.
CONCLUSION
Although the self-checkout has been well received by retailers and their customers, there are a few challenges with the system. When customers buy loose items like tomatoes in a small bag without a barcode, it will be priced by the weight. The customer has to go through the menu of the self-checkout which often gets customers confused and frustrated especially those without any IT knowledge. Another problem is when a customer has only one item and scans it the system gives a warning if it is not placed in the bagging area. This often irritates customers.
Minors also use the self-checkout to purchase alcohol and this could result in Tesco losing its License to sell alcohol.