Raymond Caldwell Lecturer in Management, Birkbeck College, University of London

Virtually every change management initiative extols the virtues of ‘communicating like never before’. Communication is seen as a way of informing, involving and, ultimately, motivating employees to participate fully in the change process (see Box insert).

A recent study of change initiatives in 15 mainstream British companies and public sector organizations found that 14 used ‘direct communication’ in the form of briefing groups as an essential component in their change processes. A t Austin Rover, for example, the task of building employee commitment to quality ‘was sought through a cluster of measures which hinged on direct communication with employees’ (Storey, 1992, p. 52). It was also a ‘pivotal device’ in managing change at ICI Films, and at Peugeot-Talbot a sophisticated, multi-media employee communications programme was viewed as one of the ‘main factors’ in facilitating the company’s remarkable recovery in the mid-to-late 1980s. The study concluded: ‘While communication might, on the face of it, appear to be at the ‘soft’ end of the continuum of initiatives it could prove to be the most significant’ (John Storey, Developments in the Management of Human Resources, 1992, p. 101).

In practice, the mixed results and failures of many well-conceived change programmes are often attributable to an inability to persuade employees of the ‘need for change’ or gain their support in bringing it about. Invariably, managers understand what has to change, but are unclear as to how, when, where and by whom the changes should be communicated. ‘We seemed to be making the right noises, but nobody listened, nobody cared’. Inevitably, this kind of

Is anvone listening? Communicating change to employees

communications failure can lead to a negative reversal of goals-managers adopt a ‘drive it through’ approach, which may undermine the very thing that the change programme may seek to create: a flatter, leaner and more responsive organization that relies less and less on top-down communication to ensure effective decision making.

Six steps to success

So how does a company develop an employee communications strategy for implementing change more effectively? The answers will differ for each company, but there are some well tried and tested steps that can help to formulate the right answers. Six steps are proposed here, although one or more of them can usefully be applied on when addressing a particular communication need. The six steps are:

0 Clarify your goals 0 Identify your audiences 0 Assess resistance 0 Get your message across 0 Train the communicators 0 Media choices

Step 1: clarify your goals

Communication becomes meaningful to employees when it stems from a clear sense of purpose and direction. Without specific

R. Caldwell 84

With0 u t specific and measurable goals communication can become fragmented

and incoherent

and measurable goals communication can become fragmented and incoherent; a con- fusing collection of random information.

Goals can range from the most general to the very specific: ‘We want to create a climate of openness’. ‘We want at least 75% of our employees to feel that they are kept well informed about company goals and strategies’. Once expressed, goals can be refined. Openness, for example, may be translated into sharing information with employees about pay, grades and perform- ance targets. Being ‘well informed’ may mean running regular employee briefing sessions to outline business objectives and seek feedback and involvement. The essential point is that a coherent communications strategy is unlikely to emerge if goals are not discussed and reasonably well defined at the beginning.

One of the major dangers with a large and complex change programme is that there is no concerted effort to develop and communicate a coherent set of goals. Each discrete initiative is communicated in terms of its own limited boundaries and priorities; or, perhaps more disconcertingly, it is assumed that communication will ‘happen’ as some kind of natural event. There is no need to plan or manage it.

Changes in strategic direction, the espousal of a new mission and values, initiatives on quality and customer service, and the implementation of a new reward strategy may all form part of a grand plan conceived by top management to realize its vision. From the recipients’ point of view, how- ever, they may be perceived as a series of separate events, reinforcing uncertainty and creating confusion.

Even less programmatic changes may fail to have the desired effect. This is especially true in the area of pay, rewards and incentives, subjects of considerable complexity and great employee sensitivity. Enormous effort usually goes into designing bonus plans and other performance-related incentives, but very little into communica- ting them effectively. The consequences are all too familiar: employees are unconvinced of a positive link between performance and reward; they fail to understand how per- formance objectives are set or appraised; and they are uncertain as to why they received or failed to receive an award. Ultimately, these misunderstandings can undermine the integrity and fairness of such schemes, neutralizing their motivational effect.

In implementing change, communication must be an integral part of the process -not tagged on, not subsumed and certainly not left to chance. It should be a distinct goal-setting activity that seeks to manage employees expectations and perceptions from the beginning.

Step 2: identify your audiences

The most effective communication is aimed at a specific audience. So audiences need to be clearly segmented. The most common

The most effective communication is aimed

at a specijic audience

divisions are between the initiators of change, the managers who have to implement it, and the employees, who are the winners, losers or bystanders. Each of these groups will have different perceptions and expecta- tions about change and this will determine how, when, where and by whom messages are delivered.

Some preliminary employee research can help to identify audience groups. Research is often an invaluable listening device, an antenna that can pick up important

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Communicating change to employees 85

information and feedback on audience perceptions. The research does not have to be very grand. It can be a series of well-chosen interviews, informal focus group discussions with groups of 8- 10 employees, rather than a large quantitative exercise.

Once you ‘know your audience’, it is possible to home in on their concerns. For example, the introduction of a new job evaluation and grading system may have the effect of creating a large group of perceived losers, when in fact there are only a small group of real losers. This is a perception problem based on a misunderstanding of the facts. A well-orchestrated communication effort can help to shift these negative per- ceptions and smooth the implementation process.

Step 3: assess resistance

Change is natural, desirable and inevitable; but for many employees it is unsettling, negative and hopefully, avoidable. Resistance to change is almost as inevitable as change itself.

It is important to understand the dynamics of employee resistance. Resistance can take various forms:

0 Defensive self-interest-‘I will lose something’

0 Lack of trust - ‘I’ve heard promises like that before’

0 Different assessments - ‘I assumed you meant something else’

0 Anxiety-‘I don’t know if I can cope’

The most common mistake is to assume that these forms of resistance are all of a piece and consequently, ‘the less employees know about the proposed changes the better’. This kind of attitude can sink even the most palatable changes designed to improve com- petitiveness and job security. Once critical constituencies of support are lost, and more and more employees feel uninformed and uninvolved outsiders, resistance can become pervasive and insidious.

The lesson is clear: resistance to change is going to be encountered to some degree, so manage it by building support, removing uncertainty and being clear about what the programme is trying to achieve.

Step 4: get the message across

Ideally, messages should be clearly received, understood and acted upon. To achieve

Ideally, messages should be clearly received,

understood and acted upon

this, the messages should be limited in number, coherently presented and repeated frequently.

That is what the theory says. In practice, successful communication in most organiza- tions depends less on sending messages than on getting them through the formal system of checks and controls. Moreover, what gets through is often as important as what does not - the potential for dis- tortion and inconsistency is ever present. In traditional, tall organizations distortion may simply be caused by passing information up and down through many hierarchical levels. The classic example is the subordinate who interprets as advice what is in fact a direct instruction. Careful pruning of hierarchical structures can often reduce significantly this kind of distortion. How- ever, even in a flatter and more open organization intentional distortion can occur. That is why it is important to identify the ‘gatekeepers’ who may control, block or simply absorb the flow of information and communication, up, down and across the organization. These people are often supervisors, middle managers and functional specialists who sit within and between departments. At the earliest possible stage, they must be brought into the loop to facilitate communication.

Journal of Strategic Change, April 1993

86 R. Caldwell

Once the preconditions for effective up- ward, downward and lateral communication have been established, the credibility of the messages delivered becomes paramount. The degree of employee cynicism in most organizations is inversely proportional to the credibility of the messages received. The clearest sign of a dangerous credibility problem is a growing gap between rhetoric and reality. ‘We are totally committed to teamwork as a way of delivering superior quality service to our customers’. In reality, ‘Tribalism is encouraged by the reward system and customer dissatisfaction is rising’. Pushed to extremes this kind of credibility gap can lead managers to espouse empty slogans, while employees withdraw further into cynical conformity. ‘Nobody believes in all this empowerment, involvement stuff coming from management. It means getting us to work harder because our jobs are on the line’. Only if communication is honest, open and true to company realities can this outcome be avoided.

Step 5: training the communicators

Managers often experience a significant shift in their roles during change programmes. They are expected to assume ownership for the change process, communicate its

Managers often experience a significant shift in

their roles during change programmes

key messages and win support for imple- mentation: ‘It’s up to you to sell the case to the workforce’.

This shift in roles can be very dramatic and disconcerting, especially for line managers. From a position of instructing or directing they are expected to ‘encourage commitment rather than compliance, participation rather than control’. In most cases, this means a

greater degree of ‘employee involvement’, underpinned by new forms of direct, face-to- face communication. ‘I used to give orders around here, now I spend most of my time communicating’. This is a fairly typical statement of how managers perceive their new role.

The manager as communicator is not new, but the communication remit of the role has broadened significantly. Good people management and presentation skills are assumed. What is also required now is the skill of communication management: deciding on the timing of various announce- ments, their sequencing, who makes them, to whom and by what media. In other words, managers must combine personal and tactical communication skills.

Not all managers will have this skills mix, and it is therefore essential that they are given the necessary encouragement and training to meet the new communications challenge that they face. Without this support for the ‘first line’, a communication exercise may falter, with all the associated risks. If managers cannot make the case for change convincingly, then employees are unlikely to feel motivated to participate and make their contribution.

Step 6: media choices

Why are so many employee communica- tion exercises plagued by media myopia- the tendency to see media choices as the starting point for every communication exercise?

There is, of course, always a natural ten- dency to focus on the form or appearance rather than the substance of communication. Newsletters, brochures and videos offer busy managers ‘quick-fix’ solutions. They provide the inevitable substitute for more thoughtful, face-to-face communication.

The preference for media rather than dialogue can often reduce communication to a remote purchasing decision: ‘how much does it cost?’ Budget allocations, rather than effectiveness will then determine the media chosen. As a result, media choices

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Communicating change to employees 87

A random series of one-off media events undermine any consistent, ongoing dialogue

can be limited to passive print material tagged on at the end of the implementation phase of a project. Invariably, this leads to fragmentation. Change is communicated to employees through a random series of one-off media events, which undermine any consistent, ongoing dialogue.

The choice of media should not be the starting point for a communications exercise, nor should media products become an end in themselves. Media myopia can be disastrous: loss of overall programme coherence, style over substance and the failure to build a face- to-face dialogue with employees.

Conclusion

Good communication is not a panacea for successful change management. A flawed change initiative or a badly executed programme cannot be made to succeed through the enabling power of communi- cation. Nor can the most appropriate and well-intentioned communication work on its own. Good communication is most effective when it is embedded in broader employee involvement initiatives, which may in- clude feedback from attitude surveys, focus group sessions, team-building workshops and related training programmes. Used effectively, in this broader context, well managed and sensitive communication can help to facilitate the change process and encourage greater employee commitment to making it a success.

Journal of Strategic Change, April 199.3 1057-9265/93/020083-05$07.50 @ 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.