chapter 14

Group 4
Chapter 14
The business of change

When customer interests and needs change, business must change. Change is often inevitable and necessary for business to expand and progress into the future. From a business perspective, change means that an organization begins to transform the way work is accomplished-which means breakdown of business as usual. Change can involve everything from what products the company manufactures or sells and from what services it offers to what job responsibilities are assigned, and what procedures are followed. Change makers also called change agents are people who facilitate the coordination of change effort. They plan, experiment, communicate and coach throughout the process of transformation. Some of the reasons for organizational change are: competition, corporate mergers and acquisitions, changing consumer demands, globalization, technology, government regulations and policies, change of management. Globalization is the manufacture and sale of goods or services to multiple markets around the world.
During a period of change, employees often become confused and insecure. Employees experience great distress when they perceive a communication vacuum, a void in which they are not given adequate information about what is happening in organization. Resistance occurs when employees either do nothing to enact the expected changes, or actively resist and undermine the change effort. Without knowledge, understanding and participation, employees are not likely to help organization to reach the goals. Fear, interruption of routine, loss of faith, and feeling that past efforts are meaningless contribute to change resistance. It‘s possible to reduce most fear and resistance trough productive change communication. Trouble can arise when change makers ignore the importance of change communication. They want employee buy-in, which is acceptance of and agreement to change. Change communication is both multidirectional and multimedia communication.
Multidirectional communication is the design of messages that can reach all employees throughout organization.
Multimedia communication is the use of many channels to transmit a message.
If you want other people to buy-in, you need to design a compelling argument that details the purpose of the change with concrete reasons and advantages. You also need to present information on what your competitors are doing, what your costumers want, and what the consequences may be if you don’t change. Finally you need to communicate a vision that describes where the organization will be in the future.
Messages also need to be conveyed using good timing. While employees need a chance to process the information they also need opportunity to talk about the change. Messages presented before the change provide reasons, explanations, expectations, and plan strategies. Messages exchanged during the changes can enhance or alter process improvements and experimentation. Finally messages shared after the change can include feedback, evaluations and new directions.
A natural outgrowth of change is conflict, and workplace conflict is not unusual. Conflict is an event expressed trough communication when individuals or groups behave in ways that indicate they have incompatible positions or goals.
Disputants are the different parties involved in a conflict.
Intragroup conflict is a problem that occurs within a single group of people.
Intergroup conflict is a problem that arises between two or more groups.
Behavior and verbal statements are conveyed during the initial stages of conflict reflect the position. A position is a definitive goal or demand advanced by one or both parties that underscores an attitude or disposition. Interests on the other hand, are the reasons or motivations underlying the position. Interests can be basic feelings, needs, or desires that may be fulfilled trough achievement of the certain positional goals.
Several basic communicational skills are called on in conflict situations:
Active listening is an important skill in a conflict situation because it enables disputants to learn about opposing party’s needs and feelings and gain their perspective about the problem.
Verbal diplomacy- speaking diplomatically involves tact and self control. Framing the message in a way that avoids irritating or offending others is a valuable skill in conflict.
Flexibility in interpersonal style means the ability to change and adopt verbal and non verbal behaviors.
There are four main types of conflict, which can combine in several ways:
Communication conflicts arise as a result of interpreted meaning, styles of communications and behaviors.
Social view conflicts concern basic values, beliefs, moral, ethical or philosophical perspectives.
Fundamental interest conflicts comprise emotions, needs, self defense, ego-centered interests and expectations.
Business conflict tend to combine all types of conflicts including personality clashes, disagreements about how to interpret tasks or procedures, power and decision making, resource competition, and entitlements, and turf issues.
Traditional conflict strategies focus on a desired outcome, such as settlement. Negotiation is a give and take technique to achieve accord trough a process of compromise or the offering of proposals and counterproposals. Some forms of negation are used depending on the conflict: positional barging, meditation, conflict management, arbitration. No matter which traditional strategy is used or what outcome is achieved the disputants may still come back to conflict. Transformative communication focuses on interaction and relationship building by reframing the terms and concepts of conflict rather than focusing on a finish line. Dialogue transformation is a relationship-dialogue process that can be used to modify differences and disputes.
At same point of conflict disputants are encouraged to share and explore their honest emotions about the conflict, any stereotypes they hold about others and the interests or reasons behind their position. It’s a stage of exploring interests and emotions.
In a stage of re framing and replacing expectations disputants jointly begin the process of recasting the terms and meanings of various words, concepts and ideas embroiled in the conflict.
Converting and resolving-at this stage parties further explore their feelings about the conflict and specific interests using the reframed terms. Conflict conversation allows disputants to refocus on the issues and collaboratively move the discussion toward mutually agreed-upon solutions.
We can conclude that the most important thing for successful change to happen is appropriate change communication because shared knowledge is far more powerful and leads to greater productivity. Business must be able to adapt to the changing world of business or face an uncertain fate.