Case Analysis on BBC Worldwide

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

Your Name (First, Last)

Course Information (Code, Name)

Professor’s Name

Institution Name

Assignment Due Date

Table of Content

PART ONE: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF BBC WORLDWIDE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of the Change Process

1.2 The Change Process

1.3 Change Achieved

2.0 REVIEWING THE APPROACH OF THE ORGANISATION TO THE CHANGE PROCESS

2.1 The Role of the CEO

2.2 The Role of the People Director

2.3 The Role of the WEx Team

2.4 The Role of the GLT

2.5 The Role of the HR

2.6 The Role of the Management Overall

2.7 The Change Model Through Transformational Leadership

2.8 SWOT Analysis

2.9 Assessing Change by Kotter and Lewin Model of Change

2.10 Implementing the Lewin Force Field Analysis

.3. RECOMMENDATION

4. CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

PART TWO: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ON MY LEADERSHIP SKILLS

1. REFLECTION OF MY LEADERSHIP SKILLS

2. RECOMMENDATION

3. CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Table of Figures

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: How Proactive change affects Productivity

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2: The Four Elements of Transformational Leadership

Figure 3: SWOT Analysis Chart

Figure 4: Kotter’s Eight Step Change Model

Figure 5: The Lewin Force Field Analysis

Figure 6: Skills for effective leaders

Figure 7: Features of Participative Leadership

Figure 8: Pros and Cons of Democratic Leadership

Figure 9: Types of Leadership Styles

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BBC had a goal to increase revenue in five years through its subsidiary company – BBC Worldwide. This work analyses a case study on the changes towards this goal in BBC Worldwide through 2014-2015 conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Appropriate leadership and change theories, models and concepts were implemented. The analysis revealed that the change process was proactive and discontinuous, and the leadership was transformational. BBC Worldwide prepared for change in 2012 by creating a balanced regionalisation, having a presence in the global market and clarifying the vision of change. The change process involved communicating the vision through conferences and workshops, introducing tasks and rewards schemes, creating operational themes and headings, operating a clear desk policy and promoting the culture. The effectiveness of the changes was indicated through a £226.5 million increase in revenue; however, the exact change process which produced the result can not be tracked. It is therefore recommended that a SMART goal to track the effective change(s) be tracked, avoid wasting efforts on random acts and have a focus.

I also reflected on my leadership skills and recommended areas for development.

PART ONE: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF BBC WORLDWIDE

INTRODUCTION

BBC intended to increase revenue in five years through BBC Worldwide, its subsidiary, which is responsible for content creation and the promotion of the BBC brand on a global scale (Liu, 2015). BBC Worldwide is a global content distributor that helps homogenise European audiovisual culture (Donders and Van den Bulck, 2016). Since content is dynamic, ever-changing and complex (Holzinger et al., 2008), it becomes imperative for BBC Worldwide to be prone to change in order to meet up BBC’s goal of increasing revenue. The executive team of BBC Worldwide, known as the Worldwide Executive Committee (WEx), which is part of the Global Leadership Team (GLT) (Liu, 2015), took a proactive discontinuous change channel since they were trying to stay ahead. A transformational leadership style was implemented since they served as role models of change, and the workers were made to personalise the goals of the company.

1.1 The Background of the Change Process

1. Preparation for change: By preparing ahead, BBC Worldwide was being proactive to change.

Balanced Regionalisation: BBC Worldwide prepared for change by creating a balanced regionalisation and restructuring in October 2012. The company switched from divisional to geographic operation, with a presence in four regions: the UK, North America, Australia, New Zealand and global markets (Liu, 2015). This positions them in the global market and promotes social cohesion through globalisation (Sehoole and De Wit, 2014).

Driving clarity on strategy: In April 2013, when Tim Davie became the CEO, his first call to action was to clarify the goals and communicate the strategy. This is an appropriate step, as goal clarity has proven to have a positive impact on the performance of workers (Anderson and Stritch, 2016).

Dialling up the culture: The staff in BBC Worldwide began to experience the culture in October 2014, owing to a six-month initial introduction. It is important to get staff to experience culture because it also promotes their commitment to BBC Worldwide (Manetje and Martins, 2009).

1.2 The Change Process

Setting up Conference to enable Conversation with the GLT: To promote communication as a company operating on a global scale, a virtual conference which was implemented in September 2014, created easy access for the staff to their leaders. Virtual conferences are more convenient for diverse classes of people and are good for breaking barriers (Sarabipour et al., 2021).

Organising Worldwide Workshops: Workshops were introduced from October to November 2014, where workers were engaged in the conversation around culture and personal stories were encouraged. Though working with stories has been thought to be effective in implementing organisational strategy, it should still be evaluated before implementation (Rossetti and Wall, 2017).

Involving leaders in Identifying the change required: Through the conferences and workshops held, 11 broad themes for change were derived.

Operating an organisation based on themes of change has proven effective in piloting work design and leadership style (Schwarzmüller et al., 2018).

Change Initiatives Driven from the Centre: One of the key ways change was driven was through the training of staff. This also involved high standardisation of operation and the introduction of an award scheme. By prioritising training, the well-being and behaviour of the staff are targetted with no necessary impact on the outcome of their work (Spector et al., 2016).

The GLT—Behaviour change and divisional action plans: The themes were used further to develop a quasi-contract known as the commitment. This gave guidelines on the conduct of the staff and what is expected of them. This promoted behaviour changes and the development of personal divisional action plans separate from that of the organisation.

New Office and New work policy:

When BBC London changed location, they took the opportunity to change their work policy to a clear desk policy. This made the workers more alert and conscious of time management and broke the hierarchy. The clear desk policy is also important in promoting information security (Martins and Elofe 2002).

Communications: The vision was continually communicated with storytelling and ambiguity. Storytelling telling makes communication and understanding easier and reduces complexity (Serrat, 2008).

Evaluation of change: Through survey, yearly feedback and comparing them. Success is the overall change drive. Look into this some more

1.3 Change Achieved

Increased revenue of £226.5 million for BBC. Actual action can't be traced but from over-change drive. Research proves that consistently applying transformational leadership methods and strategies are crucial for business success (financial performance and new product development) in competitive and dynamic businesses (Strukan et al., 2017).

2.0 REVIEWING THE APPROACH OF THE ORGANISATION TO THE CHANGE PROCESS

2.1 The Role of the CEO

The CEO, Tim Davie, who took up his role in April 2013, was proactive to change by preparing ahead for it (Reference for Business, 2023). He did this by driving clarity on the strategy in preparation for change. He demonstrated transformational leadership because he made efforts to coach workers and make the set goals clear. The CEO also ensured he modelled the culture creating an idealised influence of a transformational leader (Waham et al., 2020). The CEO was also involved in dialling up the culture to ensure the staff were able to align them with what he had modelled and not just what he had said (Liu, 2015).

In the Change Process, the CEO took it upon himself to emphasise the need for a conversation on culture during the workshops. He was also involved in the conversation as he communicated with storytelling which influenced the staff to get engaged (Liu, 2015).

2.2 The Role of the People Director

While dialling up the culture in a transformational approach to change (Stobierski, 2020), the people director Kirstin Furber was able to devise the vision through the input of the WEx members. The people director also ensured they exhibited the values and behaviours that promote culture (Liu, 2015). These are confirming the ability of the people director to stimulate the members and inspire them as transformational leaders intellectually (White, 2022).

2.3 The Role of the WEx Team

The WEx were proactive to prepare for change; this was indicated in their role to dial up culture six months prior to when the workers began to experience the effect (Abbas, 2023). This demonstrates the inspirational ability of a transformational leadership style. An organizational change that alters something major as culture is also transformational (Stobierski, 2020).

In executing the change process, the WEx set a virtual GLT conference in September 2014 to promote conversation and enable their international workers' access to the company. This is important to break the barrier of distance. This also helped workers battling with silo working and encouraged global operation (Liu, 2015).

Being discontinuously proactive (Abbas, 2023), WEx already anticipated the outcome of the workshop conversations. This enables them to prepare a list of actions and get staff to work on them. The output of the workshop was converted into 11 broad themes.

Being proactive, the WEx had identified the need for world-class development of its staff, requiring the minimum development bar at BBC worldwide to be higher than the standard development of the competitors (Liu, 2015).

2.4 The Role of the GLT

Following the conversation of the virtual meeting, the GLT took the time to process the message and give feedback to the WEx. Their action as idealised leaders helps to summarise the culture and cause a change in the key phrase of BBC Worldwide from wordsmithing to ‘be part of making history,’ (Liu, 2015).

Through October- November 2014, the GLT organised workshops in which the workers were carried along with the conversation about culture. They communicated the strategy and modelled the culture and values to the staff. This depicts the idealised influence of transformational leadership (Ghasabeh, et al., 2015).

2.5 The Role of the HR

The HR has been effective in piloting the affairs of the organisation, how the leaders should act and what is expected of the workers. The HR directed the course of the leadership at BBC Worldwide to follow a transformational path (Liu, 2015).

When the virtual conference was set up, HR allowed the GLT to practice idealised influence by giving them the space to evaluate the message of the company. The HR stipulated how the workshops would be carried out instead of dictating it to members. This enables the workers to relate to the process – in the course of intellectually stimulating the workers as transformational leaders (Ferozi and Chang, 2021).

Without the HR, the data from the themes derived would amount to nothing if they were not able to process it to the contract commitment and operational headings (Liu, 2015).

2.6 The Role of the Management Overall

The overall course of leadership in BBC Worldwide has been transformational and discontinuously proactive to transformational change.

Proactive Approach to Transformational Change

BBC Worldwide always worked ahead of events while preparing for change and during the execution of the change process. The very act of preparing for change is in itself proactive. The fact that several changes which were not correlated were implemented indicates that the transformational change process was proactive (Abbas, 2023).

BBC Worldwide had been discontinuously proactive in preparing for transformational change by creating a balanced regionalisation, clarifying the strategy and dialling up the culture six months before the workers experienced it. A major organisational change such as that implemented by BBC Worldwide which affects the culture and strategy is transformational (Stobierski, 2020).

In driving change initiatives, BBC Worldwide was proactive in identifying the need for world-class development of its staff, requiring the minimum development bar at BBC Worldwide to be higher than the standard development of the competitors (Liu, 2015).

BBC London had a change in location in April 2015. They used this opportunity to change the work policy and adopt the clear desk policy. To achieve this change, BBC London took a proactive approach to reduce the number of desks in the old building before the relocation. This was to prepare the workers beforehand (advantage of preparing ahead). The clear desk policy created unity, dislodged hierarchy and created information security. It, however, built up tension (Liu, 2015).

Figure 1: How Proactive change affects Productivity (Bridge Partners, 2015).

The leadership style was transformational. The culture was communicated by the leaders because it originates from them alongside the theme and the contrast. It was the duty of the workers to know and familiarise themselves with the culture. The leaders modelled the culture and values while the workers were to emulate the leaders. This is typical of the idealised influence of a transformational leader (Waham et al., 2020).

It was ensured that the workers could relate to the culture and not merely follow instructions depicting the effort of BBC Worldwide to stimulate their workers intellectually. Their opinions were sorted through feedback, survey and engagement in the conversation depicting individualised consideration of the workers as it gives them independence and ownership of the organisational goals (White, 2022).

In the course of driving the change initiative, a global awards scheme was introduced. This demonstrated consideration of the workers. They became committed as a result, and this motivated them to get a better understanding of the company which is an effect transformational leadership (Hay, 2006).

The virtual conference and remote work resulted in silo working; the conference helped a little with accountability and failing to be tough.

The working together workshops were threatened by national events such as one time in the US and different time zones, which were more prevalent in Australia. Workers in Australia had to work from 7 pm to 1 am, and this challenged the value of respect. Overall, the workshop was a success, and the workers enjoyed being part of the conversation (Liu, 2015).

Figure 2: The Four Elements of Transfomational Leadership(Beck, 2020).

2.7 The Change Model Through Transformational Leadership

Individualised Consideration

Members have also been involved in individual and team conversations. This coaches them and causes them to personalise organisational goals (Bass and Riggio, 2008).

Intellectual Stimulation

BBC Worldwide prioritised the opinions of their staff. These were sorted through 360 year-to-year surveys and feedback.

Involving the staff in seeking feedback and opinion stimulates their logic and intellect and gives them a sense of belonging (Waham et al., 2020).

It encourages a novel approach to organisational goals (Ghasabeh et al., 2015).

Inspirational Motivation

Davie took the initiative of communicating the vision of change and the strategy to the staff from the onset of his appointment as CEO.

The outcomes were communicated by the HR to the team and not dictated to motivate them and enable them to relate to the goals.

Idealised Influence

Davie also acted by example to influence the staff. He didn’t just give out instructions; after communicating the vision, he also acted on it. This charismatic act made him a model and attracted respect to himself (Waham et al., 2020).

The people dictator was able to interview the CEO on record as he interpreted the BBC Worldwide culture. It would serve as a forerunner for the rest of the staff.

Managers were allowed to personalise their operations. This enables them to express their creativity and originality in their various areas. This, in turn, attracts respect and recognition for their personal input.

2.8 SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis offers perspective on the strategic planning implemented by the company for its business success. SWOT analysis helps firms understand their internal and external business environment to create better strategic plans and decisions by analysing and positioning an organisation's resources and environment in four categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (Phadermrod et al., 2019).

Figure 3: SWOT A