Employee Communication and Change Management

 

In the midst of a 3-year-old merger, DaimlerChrysler notes that “there has been an extended lapse of time without corporate communications. DaimlerChrysler has failed to keep the world abreast of progress cohesively and consistently.”

 

This lapse of corporate communications within the family of DaimlerChrysler employees (a major stakeholder group) can be remedied quickly and should become a priority in the overall communication strategies. Freda, Arn, and Gatlin-Watts summarize the importance of planned, proactive internal communication strategies within companies experiencing massive change. “The success of change initiatives depends on commitment by individuals as well as the organization,” they note. Step-by-step, they list the change elements that are standard in a change experience, and the communication priorities involved in each step.

 

• Change is inevitable, and there’s more in today’s complex world than ever before. “The acceleration of change in corporations has a dramatic effect on employees. Some of America’s biggest and most successful companies have been challenged or even brought down by change.”

 

• Individual reaction to change is unique to each person involved. “Serious ongoing discussions with customers, administrators, and workers can help managers avoid such knee-jerk reactions.”

 

• Before change is accepted by an organization, a sense of urgency must motivate the acceptance. For example, employees need to continuing communication regarding the urgency of the merger to capture opportunities that exist only now. DaimlerChrysler’s merger (and ongoing partnership acquisitions in Asia) is motivated by what economic and innovative conditions that exist only now? Employees need communication from every level of management and peers that support this urgent possibility that the company cannot afford to miss.

 

• “People want to know the specifics of any change—who, what, where, when, and how—and they want to know how it will affect them and how they can prepare for change. Messages are communicated through both words and deeds, with the latter often being the more powerful. When important people behave in a way that is inconsistent with their words, they can seriously undermine change efforts.” What does the exodus of key Chrylser management communicate to employees? Does this message support the “sense-of-urgency” message? Daimler’s reluctance to marry their image with Chrysler’s communicates to employees a message not understood to be consistent with top management’s “right thing to do at the right time” message. Employees need a consistent message supported by words and deeds.

 

• Managers and employees need role-clarification communication in the midst of change. What is going to change and what will stay the same?

 

• Who will implement the change? These key employees need knowledge, tools, and continual communication.

 

• Appoint a “guiding coalition of people with enough power to lead the change effort.”

 

• Create and communicate a vision, once change is acknowledged. Author Daryl Conner says that “change is a process of moving from the present state to a transition state and finally to a desired state” (quoted in Freda, Arn, Gatlin-Watts). This vision becomes the motivation to commit to change. DaimlerChrysler’s vision is to be the most admired global transportation company. How is this being communicated to employees?  Is the vision implemented in such as way that it is a company-wide commitment rather than company-wide chaos? What are the new shared values and cultural norms the vision calls for?

 

• “Communication of the goals and planned strategies is fundamental to the change process…. Everyone in the organization needs to become a change agent.”

 

Change will occur and it will occur, either well-managed and communicated with a minimum of confusion, crises, and disenfranchisement or it will occur in such a way that the corporate momentum (which is dependent in large part upon employee commitment) is channeled into chaos that destroys and potential for capturing the opportunities which motivate the need for change.

 

Source

Freda, Giulio G.; Arn, Joseph V.; Gatlin-Watts, Rebecca W. “Adapting to the Speed of Change.” Industrial Management, November/December 1999, p. 31.