Chapter 10

Strategies for Communicating Change

Learning Objectives

On completion of this chapter you should be able to: • Identify communication strategies appropriate to different images of managing change. • Appreciate a variety of strategies involved in communicating change. • Identify key elements involved in the communication process. • Describe appropriate communication strategies for announcing organizational change. • Understand how successful communication processes will vary depending on the stage and type of organizational change.

Chapter Summary

The way change is communicated is central to its success. Many problems can disturb the process of communication – message overload, message distortion and message ambiguity. Language, power, gender and emotion can also impact the communication of change. How change managers perceive their role in communicating change will vary; for example, their ability to shape rather than control information about the change will vary depending on their image of managing change.

This chapter outlines the variety of strategies that managers can use to communicate change including contingency approaches. It explores dilemmas underlying different change communication strategies such as whether you can communicate too much, how the strategy is linked to the type of change and the phases of a change and whether the strategy acts to “get the word out” or to get “buy-in.” Finally, it discusses options concerning the different media which can be used in the communication of change and the different “richness” attached to different media sources.

Case Study Discussion:

Cheryl Ways and Agilent Technology’s Layoffs

1. How would you describe Agilent Technology’s communication process for dealing with downsizing?

Students realize from this case that even if change negatively affects employees, an effective communication plan can still create commitment to change. At Agilent Technology the important issues in their communication process are: • They have an open communication style. • They used a “tell and sell” strategy to inform employees of the change. • Through a variety of media they kept staff well informed of the core issues affecting the organization. • They created and reinforced trust in the company by emotionally involving employees.

2. Which approach—”getting the word out” or “getting buy-in”—best characterizes the communication process? Why?

Students should understand the basic differences between these two approaches: • “getting the word out”: focuses on providing information • “getting buy-in”: the emphasis with this approach is involving employees both literally and metaphorically in the communication of change process Elements of both strategies can be depicted in the case although the emphasis appears to be on “buy-in” processes. For example, “getting the word out” strategies included emails, newsletters etc. However, “buy-in” strategies were more personal and enabled emphasis on two way communication such as coffee talks, face-to-face meetings, brainstorming meetings and the like.

3. Apply Stace and Dunphy’s contingency approach to the case. What emerges from your analysis?

The nature of the communication will be contingent on the type of change implemented. The nature of the change can be related to Stace and Dunphy’s types of organizational changes which include developmental or incremental transitions, task-focused transitions, charismatic transitions and turnarounds. Students are likely to argue that there are strong elements of a charismatic transformation in this case. In charismatic transformations, emotional commitment is the key to establishing a communication process. More personalized forms of communication that enable top-down communication with at least some symbolic two-way communication media are beneficial. Meetings were used to allow two-way communication between the management team and the employees that were facing job losses. The company drew upon the Hewlett Packard precept of honest and open communication, and even the tired sound of the CEOs voice in delivering the message of layoffs reinforced his own personal attitude to the problems facing the company.

4. What assessments would you make of the media used by the company?

The type and combination of media used when communicating change influences how the message is received. The key issues that students should identify in this area are: • The company used a variety of media that vary in richness to ensure that information was shared and that personal attention was paid to all employees. There was an emphasis on richer communication media – including training given to managers on how to convey delivering “bad news” • They enabled feedback channels through brainstorming meetings • The CEO made public speeches to show his openness in communicating the difficulties facing the company

5. What are the limits to an open communication style when faced with ongoing rounds of downsizing? What else might be done by management to retain staff motivation?

Students need to acknowledge that an open style of communication has limitations and should be used carefully. Some of the limits Agilent Technology faced when downsizing were: • Staff began to feel that layoffs were fruitless when the organization’s situation did not improve. • The staff became aware of their “failure” to help improve the performance of the company. Maintaining morale and motivation in the face of such issues becomes more problematic. Students should look beyond the case, and draw on topics from the other chapters to answer this question.

Tables from the Text
The following provides a brief summary of the key points in each of the tables in the text.

|TABLE |Table Heading |Page |
|10.1 |Relationship of Change Images to Purpose of Communication |Text 267 |
| |the six images of change each have a differing purpose in communication about change. | |
| |students need to be aware that when they “choose” or favor a type of image there are strengths and limitations in| |
| |the associated communication style. | |
|10.2 |Principle Components of a Simple Model of Communication |Text |
| |part of the process of communication is an understanding of the components involved. |267 |
|10.3 |Getting Emotional Commitment |Text |
| |emotion is an integral part of communication |271 |
| |change management approaches need to acknowledge its importance. | |
| |this table gives information concerning the message and how to gain emotional commitment. | |
|10.4 |Communicating at Ford – Past and Present |Text |
| |a mini-case to illustrate the issue of communication in a well known company. |273 |
| |two approaches to leadership and communication are described. | |
|10.5 |Change through Value Propositions |Text |
| |determining the “value proposition” is very important in gaining employee buy-in or participation in the proposed|274 |
| |change. | |
| |the change manager would be well-served to identify what the (often differing) value proposition is for the | |
| |various stakeholders involved. | |
|10.6 |Communicating Change |Text |
| |a reference table for communicating change in an organization. |275 |
| |there are various approaches to communicating change - the most important feature is that change needs to be | |
| |communicated through an array of mediums and approaches. | |
|10.7 |Communication Strategies |Text |
| |five strategies for communication are described |276 |
| |each differs in the degree of effectiveness and the amount of information that is transmitted through different | |
| |methods. | |
| |although one change communication style will tend to be more natural change managers are best served by | |
| |understanding the variety of strategies available for communicating change | |

|TABLE |Table Heading |Page |
|10.8 |Issues in Announcing Major Organizational Changes |Text |
| |three aspects of communicating are: message, channel, and timing |281 |
| |outlines options in relation to each of these | |
|10.9 |Strategy for Briefing Supervisors about Major Change |Text |
| |communication is not a one-way process – others need to be “in the loop”. |282 |
| |the success of a change process lies in the ability to gather information from others and in reporting back | |
| |decisions. | |
|10.10 |Communicating Change with Tag Teams |Text |
| |utilizing informal as well as formal communication processes can increase the likelihood of success for |283 |
| |communicating change. | |
| |this can act as a way of gaining valuable information from the rest of the company. | |
|10.11 |Chapter Reflections for the Practicing Change Manager |Text |
| |the aim of this section is to crystallize the lessons learnt from the chapter and for the student to understand |284 |
| |more about their own approach to change. | |
| |the outcome of reviewing these reflections is to have clearer understandings of the nature of communicating | |
| |change and issues involved in the process. | |
| |answering these questions individually and then discussing their answers in small groups will help students to | |
| |understand the more subtle nuances of communicating organizational change. | |
|10.12 |Additional Case Studies |Text |
| |supplementary cases for further study. |286 |
| |more details on these cases are provided below. | |

Exercises and Answers

EXERCISE 10.1 (Text p. 270)

Listen to Who’s Talking

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to alert students to the impact of power and gender on the communication process and get them to reflect on how these issues impact on communicating change. It does this by requiring students required to attend a work meeting and identify how power and gender influence the communication process.

Options/Techniques/Requirements

Format:

Individually or in pairs.

Materials: • Review first section of Chapter Ten Strategies for Communicating Change (Text p. 265 to end of p. 271). • work meeting (or other sort of meeting as suggested below). The size of the group would ideally be from 6 up to 12-15 people.

Time Required:

Some students, although employed, may not have the opportunity to attend a work meeting for a few weeks due to the timing of the meetings compared to when this exercise is assigned. Therefore it is expected that this exercise would take more time than other exercises in this manual. The suggested time period would be three to four weeks to complete the exercise.

Undergraduate:
These students are likely to face some challenges in attending a work meeting if they are not employed. Alternatives would be to watch a group interview they can find on TV or cable, attend a local meeting of any group where issues are discussed, e.g., local council, housing associations, an open meeting for charities, etc. Other alternatives would be to attend a meeting of a local club on campus, student committee, students, association where proposals or ideas are discussed etc.

MBA/Executive:
Students with professional experience are likely to have better access to attending a work meeting. If they are not working and do not have access to a work meeting, the alternative would be to have them follow up one of the suggestions made for the undergraduate students.

Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

• Students can be told that their ability to observe the language in use will be easier if they know the language styles well before the meeting. • Students should be encouraged to complete their review of the meeting on the same day as the meeting so they are able to recall as much detail as possible. The longer they leave the time between the meeting, the review, and completing the answer to the questions, the less detail they will remember.

Debriefing

In class discussion about what they found in their observation of meetings, start the debriefing by reminding students not to mention names or the company they are talking about. Then ask them to share the observation that surprised them the most, or where they learned something new. Follow this by a review of the language styles and an overview of the way language, communication and change are inter-linked and affected by power and gender differences.

Guidelines for Answers to Questions

The answers to the questions in the exercises will need to be assessed according to the experience and education level of the students. The answers given here are only a guide.

Tannen[1] points out that the way we communicate reinforces differences in power and gender relationships. This can affect our interpretations of what we think is going on in a particular situation.
1. Observe a work meeting—preferably with up to 10 people.
2. Listen to the language being used: What different types of languages in use can you observe (e.g., commanding language, respectful language, concern language, condescension language)?
A very good answer to this question would include a note on who used the different types of language that were be observed - probably linked to the description of the person’s position in the organization. There is often a strong link between a person’s company position and the language they use. An excellent answer would be to include an organizational chart with the position of the person and their language style.

3. Do individuals tend to use one type of language in their interactions?
The answer to this question will rely on the student’s attention to detail. They may need to concentrate on a couple of individuals in the meeting and then in the review time add more details.

4. Who does most of the talking? Who asks most of the question?
5. To what extent does the talk convey information about power and gender differences? (Who takes credit? exudes confidence? asks questions?)
The answer to these questions will rely on how well the student observed the people in the meeting.

6. What general conclusions do you draw from this analysis about the way language constructs and reinforces differences within the organization?
The conclusions that the student draws from the analysis and the way that language constructs differences within an organization will need to a) reinforce their answers to the earlier questions, and b) realize their observations are provisional as they are only observing one meeting.

7. As a change manager, how will your awareness of these differences influence your future interactions with staff?
The answer to this question will be quite revealing of the way that the student has thought through the consequences of the observations from the meeting. They need to explore how they will use language in future change situations, how they will ensure they are using appropriate language and how they will take into account the way gender and power impact on the communication of change.

EXERCISE 10.2 (Text p. 277)

Opening up Your Information Coffers?

Purpose

This exercise is designed for students to assess the type of communication they observed in a change they experienced in their organization. This approach could be applied to other situations, and by following the technique used in this exercise they could learn from mistakes. The hope is that students will be able to apply this technique to change programs in the future and avoid the problems from the past that they experienced.

Options/Techniques/Requirements

Format:

Individually.

Materials: • Figure 10.2 Communication Change Continuum[2] (Text p. 276), Table 10.6 Communicating Change (Text p. 275) and 10.9 Strategy for Briefing Supervisors for Major Change (Text p. 282).

Time Required:

In-class time can include 30-40 minutes in groups for students to share their findings, with another 10-15 minutes for reports back to the class and broad conclusions to be drawn.

Undergraduate:
Students may need to use alternative examples such as a change they experienced at school or in a program they have been involved in over time, or a change they experienced at any part-time employment or summer job.

MBA/Executive:
Students with professional experience will have experienced organizational change at different stages of their employment.

Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

• Ask students whether they were passive recipients of the organization’s communication strategy – and what role they did/could have played in changing this strategy. This gets them to think about what proactive actions they might take.

Debriefing

The debriefing should encourage students to assess (in a balanced way) the communication of a change in an organization. They need to realize that hindsight has its advantages, however the process they have learned in this exercise can be used as a method to continue to improve their skills as a change manager.

Guidelines for Answers to Questions

The answers to the questions in the exercises will need to be assessed according to the experience and education level of the students. The answers given here are only a guide.

Think back to a recent organizational change.
1. Did your organization have a strategy for announcing the change? (See Tables 10.6 and 10.9 for some examples.)
The answer to this question involves the student reporting the strategy in their organization as they experienced it and then discussing the type of language in the organization using the terminology in Tables 10.6 and 10.9.

2. What information strategy did it use for conveying information during the change? Did it adopt one or more of the strategies outlined by Clampitt et al. (see Figure 10.2)? Was the same strategy adopted consistently and for all members of the organization?
The type of answer for this question needs to be consistent with the previous response and then assessed against Figure 10.2. Students are asked to make a judgement as far as they can for the answer to the second part. Their answer needs to be validated with examples and illustrations.

3. On a scale of 1 (= ineffective) to 5 (= very effective), how would you rate the overall communication strategy?
This is an interpretative question and the student needs to give a reason for their response.

4. With 20/20 hindsight vision, what changes would you make?
An adequate answer for this question involves the student being able to explain why they would make the changes.

5. How appropriate are your recommendations likely to be for future organizational changes? Will they depend upon the changes themselves?
Students will need to assess the level of appropriateness of their answer to Question 4 and to be consistent across the answers they have given. They will need to write about the dependency of the recommendations on the type of change(s).

EXERCISE 10.3 (Text p. 281)

Getting the (Change) News: What Media Works Best for You?

Purpose

Successful change relies on clear communication with all participants. Students are asked to think through what information they would like to have if they were in an organization that is going through a change. This is an extension of the last exercise in that it requires student to apply what they have learned so far and think more deeply about the issues in managing communication about change.

Options/Techniques/Requirements

Format:

Individually.

Materials: • Review Communicating Media ( pp. 279-284). • Figure 10.3 Media Richness Hierarchy (Text p. 280)

Time Required:

Total time for the exercise would be approximately 40 minutes.

Undergraduate:
Although these students may have limited professional experience they should enough experience of change to answer the questions.

MBA/Executive:
Students with professional experience are likely to have exposure to a greater variety of changes (what worked and did not work from their point of view) to draw upon in answering these questions.

Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

• No major problems anticipated for this exercise.

Debriefing

Insights can be shared in groups and reported back to the class. The debriefing can review the different type of media sources that could be used to get the information about the restructure. Understanding the value of the media source can give students ideas about which type would be best for various situations.

Guidelines for Answers to Questions

The answers to the questions in the exercises will need to be assessed according to the experience and education level of the students. The answers given here are only a guide.

Imagine that you are an employee of a large organization about to go through a restructuring. Think about the following issues:
1. What information would you like?
This question should be answered in some detail, indicating that the student spent some time considering the issue. If the answer lacks detail, the student has either not spent much time on the question or is not very good at thinking through issues from other’s viewpoint. This may need to be discussed with the student as the ability to apply this type of information to other change situations is a necessary skill for the management of a change process.

2. From whom would you prefer to get this information? Why?
The answer to this question needs to be considered in context e.g. a line worker would not realistically expect to be the first person to be individually informed by the CEO of a major strategic change; at the other extreme neither would they be expected to receive a memo one day to tell them start to do a new task/job the next. There is a realistic medium between these two extremes, and the student should answer that they would like to hear of the change in a number of ways and explain who, what, when, where, and how the communication was to occur and why the change was happening.

3. In what format would you prefer to get it: individually, in a group, other?
This would be a personal preference of how they would like to have the information. Whatever their answer is, the student would be expected to give reasons for their selected preference(s).

4. What would be the best source (media) for you to get this information—consider the range of media referred to in this chapter, from low to high media richness? What would be the worst way of getting this information? Why?
The answer to this would be a personal preference but should be in line with the information in Figure 10.3

5. As a manager of change, in the future, how might you use these insights in terms of forming a media communications strategy?
This question is designed to raise students’ awareness of what they have learned from the exercise. It is an application question and requires a thoughtful answer about their own future role as a change manager.

Additional Case Studies (Text p.286)

Airbus: from Challenger to Leader

Case & Teaching Note
Subhadra, K. & Dutta, S. (2003) ICFAI Knowledge Centre, India
Managing change requires positive communication with the market, customers, government bodies and a number of other stakeholders. Successful change impacts internal factors such as product development and production, as well as re-shaping the external aspects of a business e.g. how they compete in the marketplace. The case introduces the student to the recent battle between Boeing and Airbus for a greater share of the aircraft supply market.

Louis V. Gerstner Jr - the Man Who Turned IBM Around

Case & Teaching Note
Gupta, V. & Prashanth, K. (2003) ICFAI Knowledge Centre, India
Successful leadership involves the development of a vision and the ability to communicate this throughout the company - and beyond. Lou Gerstner’s strategy for change was to “…focus on immediate problems and evolve strategies to solve them” (p. 1 of the case). He developed his leadership style through his employment at a number of companies: these included the management consultancy firm McKinsey and Company, American Express and Nabisco. He brought this experience to IBM. His strategy there was to have a consultancy approach to problems encouraging staff to contribute their opinion of business situations. The information he gained from IBM staff was combined with his knowledge of the company and used in an adaptive approach to the problems in IBM. This case can also be used to illustrate a number of issues in other Chapters such as 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Redesigning Nissan (A): Carlos Ghosn takes Charge

Case & Teaching Note
Manzoni, J-F; Hughes, K. & Barsoux, J-L. (2001) INSEAD, Fountainbleau

Redesigning Nissan (B): Leading Change

Case & Teaching Note
Manzoni, J-F; Hughes, K. & Barsoux, J-L. (2003) INSEAD, Fountainbleau
Carlos Ghosn was sent by Renault to Japan to help its alliance partner Nissan to transform its business. His focus was on helping Nissan improve its poor financial performance, but not to change the company’s Japanese culture into a European one. His strategy included consultation with staff and an emphasis on communication of what was happening, as he believed that change could only be successful if the company was a credible and transparent business (both internally and externally). The effects of his change approach brought about positive financial results within two years. This case can also be used to illustrate issues raised in Chapter 11.

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[1] Tannen, D. 1995. The power of talk: Who gets heard and why. Harvard Business Review 73(5):138–48.

[2] Clampitt, P. G., DeKoch, R. J., and Cushman, T. 2000. A strategy for communicating about uncertainty. Academy of Management Executive 14(4):41–57.