Implementing Organizational Change

Implementing Organizational Change
Everyone acknowledges that communication within the organization is important. Sometimes a manager can communicate by fiat when that person founded the company and there is universal trust among the workers that proper decisions will be made and that they (the workers) are important to the organization. In all other organizations of a size exceeding the span of control of one manager, the situation is more complicated. This handout describes an actual process of implementing multi-level communication. Let’s look at such communication in project management.

The Linking Pin and Project Success
When your project directly impacts a specific department or specific workers, you can perform quite competently and professionally – and the project can still fail! Reasons for failure are rife: poor communications with the department or end-users, failure to meet the expectations within the department, organizational politics, etc. Successful project managers often employ a time-tested technique called the “linking pin” (Likert, 1961). This person, known as a linking pin,” is respected by many within the targeted department. The linking pin is invited and encouraged to attend meetings in which project development and planning occur, and this person may provide valuable advice during these meetings. Because of internal politics or because of ever-present misunderstandings or miscomunications, project stakeholders may disapprove of the project results. The linking pin can see all sides of any controversy and can keep emotions of the stakeholders under control by filling in any communications gaps which may have occurred. The linking pin ensures that end-user expectations are communicated and are appropriately set .

Organizational Change and Development
When higher management introduces changes, three things can happen: the results can be positive, they can be negative, or the results can be neutral. More often, as in political elections, all three results exist simultaneously. Once again, enterprise change can be implemented with the help of the linking pins from all relevant or interactive departments and groups. But remember, the linking pins cannot be just any employee from the target groups. Perhaps certain promising workers can be trained to understand the procedures I am explaining, but more often the linking pin has already been identified as a respected person within a work group. Organizational meeting and communications are “properly politicized” within the target work groups, and results, as represented by linking pin feedback to upper management, provide management with an indication of the “pulse” or worker feelings and attitudes.
Another avenue for organizational communication can be the intranet, an internal computer server which can be used for blogging within the organization. Feedback to upper management can also be produced here. Unfortunately, it takes a manager savvy in organization development (OD) and information technology to explain his/her needs to the technoids who will provide the computer infrastructure.
This handout has briefly introduced you to what is always a very complex procedure: multi-level communication, and this handout does not even consider internal politics!

Dr. Lou Gamble