CMI 514 Assignment Example

CMI 514 Managing Change is designed to help learners develop the skills and knowledge needed to manage organisational change effectively. It covers key topics such as the principles of change management, managing change programs, and evaluating change initiatives. By completing this unit, learners will gain a clear understanding of how to handle organisational change and its effects on individuals, teams, and the organisation overall.

Everdon Leisure Trust is a charitable trust operating 68 leisure centres, swimming pools and community sports facilities under long-term contracts with fourteen local authorities, employing 2,900 people. Facing reduced contract values at renewal and falling wet-side participation, the Trust is introducing a new operating model comprising app-based membership and booking, self-service entry replacing staffed reception at 41 sites, redeployment of reception staff into customer experience and coaching roles, and closure of three centres. Implementation runs over 24 months. The author is Director of Operations. Organisational detail is illustrative and anonymised.

Introduction

Everdon’s change touches every one of its 68 sites, alters the daily experience of members who have used the same reception desk for years, and removes a role that many staff chose precisely because it is sociable. It is also unavoidable: contract values at renewal have fallen and the Trust cannot deliver the current model within them. This report analyses the drivers, evaluates the models available for managing change, and sets out how the programme will be initiated, planned, communicated, supported, monitored and sustained.

Task 1: Understand the reasons for change in organisations

AC 1.1 Analyse the environmental factors which influence change in organisations

Political and funding factors. Analysing the primary external driver, local authority budgets have been under sustained pressure and leisure contracts have been retendered at lower values, with three of the Trust’s fourteen contracts renewed at an average 11 per cent reduction. The Trust does not set these values and cannot decline to operate within them if it wishes to retain the contracts.

Economic factors. Analysing the cost side, energy costs bear disproportionately on an operator of swimming pools, and rises since 2022 have not fully reversed. On the demand side, pressure on household budgets has moved members towards lower-cost gym alternatives and pay-as-you-go usage rather than committed membership.

Social and demographic factors. Analysing participation trends, wet-side usage has declined while demand for flexible, self-directed exercise has grown, and members increasingly expect to book, pay and enter without speaking to anyone. Analysing the counter-current, the Trust’s charitable purpose commits it to community participation, and the groups least served by digital self-service, including older users and those without smartphones, are among those the Trust exists to reach.

Technological factors. Analysing what has changed, app-based booking and access control have become inexpensive and reliable, which converted self-service from a capital project into an operating decision.

Competitive factors. Analysing market pressure, low-cost operators run comparable gym provision at a fraction of the staffing cost, and members compare the Trust to them regardless of the community facilities the Trust also provides.