Managing organizational change is tough, but there is no escaping it. Every organization is in a state of continual change. Despite all the studies and books on change management (I have 500 articles on change communication/management in my collection!), two thirds of all transformation initiatives still fail, according to many claims. Every organization’s situation is different and requires a strategy tailored specifically to its unique requirements. This is difficult. However, Jennifer Frahm in an ...
Read moreThe ultimate objective of most communication activities is to change behavior. To achieve an employee behavior change, many communicators work on the principle that they need to change employee attitudes first. It is therefore mostly better to focus on attempting to directly change employees’ behavior. Even if attitudes are changed, habits may be too strong to break and therefore behavior may not change. And if behavior does change, it may take a while to ...
Read moreOne important factor to consider in your corporate culture is the range of unwritten or unspoken aspects of the culture – your organization’s ‘unwritten ground rules.’ These are the behaviors and routines followed by many employees which may or may not line up with their employer's business 'values.' Unwritten ground rules (UGRs) explain why many corporate vision, mission and values statements, policies and procedures don’t necessarily produce the desired result. Actions speak louder than ...
Read moreThe global financial recession affected corporations in every country. Global corporations have been hit by the economic downturn everywhere. To survive and pave the way for future success, corporations tightened their belts and try to change strategy in order to ride out the pressures. DuPont is one of those corporations. The company was really hit in September 2008 when the financial system in the United States came close to collapse. Sales in some DuPont ...
Read moreDestruction of various aspects of people's lives from the coronavirus catastrophe will persist for years in every society around the world. Every organization is being forced to review all aspects of their business and make dramatic, fundamental changes. For instance, even while the virus impact in the US was in its comparatively early stages, the New York Times observed in March 2020 that "Scary Times for U.S. Companies Spell Boom for Restructuring Advisers" - ...
Read moreGood communication is essential to successful mergers and acquisitions. The communication role needs to begin during the preliminary stages to set the scene. Too often the communication starts too late and doesn't deal sufficiently with the post-merger integration issues. Mergers and acquisitions go through three broad phases. As part of an AT Kearney global survey, the question, "Which phase bears the greatest risk of failure?", brought the following response: Strategy development, target shortlisting, due ...
Read moreJust as the seasons change continually, so does technology change our world. Despite the accumulation of new technological channels, employees still want to see the CEO and senior managers face-to-face more often, according to workplace research. When upper management do this, they improve employee satisfaction levels more strongly than arms-length tools such as newsletters, mass emails and intranets. The responses from focus groups confirm these findings. In view of these findings, you need to ...
Read moreIt is crucial for you to start each of your major change communication programs by showing how the changes are caused directly by pressures in the external business environment. This conveys important authenticity to your employees. They can perceive these pressures for themselves, becoming aware of what is happening elsewhere. Otherwise, they will invariably have doubts about your messaging when you start communicating at the team and individual level. Therefore, you need to set ...
Read moreIt is even more important to communicate well with employees when an organization is under financial pressure. The COVID-19 crisis has caused employees everywhere to be concerned about the security of their jobs. Employees worry about their retirement funds and even about the future of their organization. In their preoccupation with the problems they are prone to circulate rumors and lose productivity by speculating about the impact of the pandemic on them. So what ...
Read moreThe findings of a study into organizational downsizing indicate the types of communication that employees prefer during troubled times. The research was valuable because few studies have investigated the perspective of those affected while they are in the midst of turmoil. Downsizing is the planned, intended reduction in personnel in an organization. Retrenchments take place, the organization shrinks and is restructured. The purpose is to change processes and decrease size to improve efficiency and ...
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