Managing change is often a difficult task, particularly in a culturally diverse company. The necessity for reorganization and change may occur but to address the arising concerns successfully, the management should consider workforce diversity (Petrou, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2018). This case study explains the challenges and barriers to change management, in addition to effective communication, concerning BANKS Industries. Effective change management and cultural communication ensure the process proceeds smoothly since vital information is issued opportunely to all workers with a uniform comprehension of the message.
Challenges Signified by Change
Some of the challenges signified by change when mulling over the reactions of a diverse team encompass communication failure and resistance. In a situation such as in BANKS Industries, resistance to change signifies the denial that reorganizations will happen. Such a reaction arises when workers are not prepared to accept reforms for different reasons, for example, suppositions that the management is not fully dedicated to the anticipated transformation. Reactions to the proposed reorganizations at BANKS Industries may offer the management an opportunity to find problems existing in the organization and tackle them amicably.
In a different turn of events, resistance to change may elicit the desire for sabotage hence making the proposed reorganizations impossible. Resistance may also make some workers consider themselves specialists in a given task (Smet, Vander Elst, Griep, & De Witte, 2016). Attempting to make such employees leave the job functions that they had perfected and engage in new ones endangers their comfort zones compelling them to resist the planned reorganizations.
Considering that communication failure is a great challenge represented by change when taking into account the reactions of a diverse team, BANKS Industries should develop effective ways of convincing employees to support the proposed reorganizations.
If not effectively addressed, the endeavors to reorganize different departments might fail to succeed for lack of clear communication among the management and heads of the affected departments. In a diverse team, communication is usually affected by characteristics such as differences in nationality, age, gender, and ethnic group. Cognitive diversity pointers, for instance, international experience, education, work, and job position, may also cause communication failure (Smet et al., 2016). In such occurrences, the realization of a common point or understanding demands much time and effort, which may increase teamwork expenses.
Barriers that Might be Encountered
The failure of employee support could be the strongest barrier to successful change in BANKS Industries. Workers are always afraid of change, and if they are not adequately involved in the entire process, there is a possibility that even the most loyal ones will reject the reorganization plans. The buildup of the anxiety of the unknown and impetus to resist a new culture create a strong hindrance to change (Tanner & Otto, 2016).
Another barrier that could be encountered during the change process is the lack of an effective communication approach. This could happen if the management of BANKS Industries presumes that just by announcing reorganizations employees will adjust and be ready to embrace the new strategy. Workers do not just require knowing that a change is being implemented. To avoid resistance, employees need to understand that reorganizations will not affect them negatively.
How to Communicate the Need for Change with the Team
Communicating the need for change, while handling the team members’ varied needs, necessitates understanding that their cultural background will influence their comprehension of the information provided. This calls for the management to develop cultural competence to know the best approach of communicating with employees from diverse backgrounds. In some cultural backgrounds, pausing regularly for response shows respect while in other cultures it could be an indication the person does not have a thorough grasp of the information being presented. Such differences in the team members’ diverse needs cause communication breakdowns where there is no cultural competence (Oreg, Bartunek, Lee, & Do, 2018).
Another successful manner of articulating the need for change with the team is through the provision of visual communications, which make the message apparent, direct, accurate, and easily understood by members of diverse cultural backgrounds. Embarking on increased illustrations could be a means of eliminating miscommunication.
How a Lack of Consideration for Differences Cause Communication to Fail
A lack of contemplation for differences among employees may fail the moment communication becomes one-directional. For example, the management of BANKS Industries can fail in their reorganization process if they do not create a culture of collective values and objectives. The management fails if the application of language is meant to impress and shun responsibility. More effective leadership deals with the intricacy that obscures notions and priorities while employing understandable language that prompts action (Ocasio, Loewenstein, & Nigam, 2015). Furthermore, careless and tactless communication upsets and sidetracks employees from understanding the primary message and achieving the main objective.
Conclusion
The management of change is often a complicated task, mainly in a culturally diverse corporation. This case study elucidates the challenges and obstacles to change management, over and above effective communication in BANKS Industries. Since communication failure is a great challenge when considering the responses of a diverse team, BANKS Industries should develop successful ways of convincing workers to accept the proposed reorganizations.
References
Ocasio, W., Loewenstein, J., & Nigam, A. (2015). How streams of communication reproduce and change institutional logics: The role of categories. Academy of Management Review, 40(1), 28-48.
Oreg, S., Bartunek, J. M., Lee, G., & Do, B. (2018). An affect-based model of recipients’ responses to organizational change events. Academy of Management Review, 43(1), 65-86.
Petrou, P., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2018). Crafting the change: The role of employee job crafting behaviors for successful organizational change. Journal of Management, 44(5), 1766-1792.
Smet, K., Vander Elst, T., Griep, Y., & De Witte, H. (2016). The explanatory role of rumors in the reciprocal relationship between organizational change communication and job insecurity: A within-person approach. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(5), 631-644.
Tanner, G., & Otto, K. (2016). Superior-subordinate communication during organizational change: Under which conditions does high-quality communication become important? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(19), 2183-2201.