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employee improvement efforts, at the same
time bringing the improvements necessary
to support the change programme, such as
opening up the communication channels,
increasing the role management plays in
employee communication, and making communication
central to the change programme.
Summary
In summary, change communication consists
of the basic components of all good employee
communication: targeted messages, selective
media and clearly defined audiences,
but it needs to be much more to facilitate
change. During major change, effective employee
communication holds an organization
together, allowing the smooth operation of
the organization and linking all other processes
of the organization, such as the strategic
and business planning processes, together to
form the foundation for effective change communication.
Raising employee communication
to the strategic level is essential to the
success of any organizational change effort.
The strategic employee communication
model and best practices bring employee
communication to its necessary strategic level
of operation and facilitate the design of a
change communication plan that can make a
major change programme succeed.
In review, to develop a successful change
communication programme, you should do
the following:
1 Form a strategic communication team
made up of a cross-functional, multi-level
group of employees.
2 Assess current employee communication
practices against best practices.
3 Target any gaps in communication for
improvement immediately.
4 Work with senior management to develop
a vision and strategic objectives.
5 Conduct cascading vision, strategy, job
redefinition workshops.
6 Monitor the results throughout the
change programme and be prepared to
make adjustments if you find evidence of
breakdowns in communication.
NOTE
1 This research included secondary research as well
as interviews of Fortune 500 companies. The
resulting data base contains information on the
model components as well as information on the
communication staff functions, organization, and
budget for over 40 companies.
REFERENCES
Ashkenas, R. N. and Francis, S. C. (2000) ‘Integration
managers: special leaders for special times’,
Harvard Business Review. Nov.–Dec., 108–16.
Collins, J. C. and Porras, J. I. (1996) ‘Building your
company’s vision’, Harvard Business Review
Reprint, Sept.–Oct., 65–77.
Eccles, R. G. and Nohria, N. (1992), Beyond the Hype:
Discovering the Essence of Management, Boston:
Harvard Business School Press.
Jick, T. D. (1989) ‘The vision thing’, Harvard Business
School Case, Boston: Harvard Business School
Press, 1–7.
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors