Principles of Management
Explaining Change to Employees
How changes within an organization are understood and perceived is an important aspect of management. Explaining change can make the difference between having employees who are accepting of the change and having employees who feel a lack of control or a lack of trust in management. Effective communication can determine the success or failure of major organizational changes, such as layoffs or the cutting of employee benefits or retirement plans. It is not only important to explain major changes but to explain even minor policy changes as well. Employees understanding why a requirement or standard has been set can decide whether or not that requirement will be accepted and met by employees.
An example of why explaining even small changes such as product requirements or standards is important can be seen in an article titled How Understanding the ?Why' of Decisions Matters from the Wall Street Journal. The article gave the example of a cheese manufacturing company that set a new weight requirement for their large blocks of cheese. The reason they set this weight requirement is so customers could cut the cheese into smaller blocks without having to weigh each piece. At first, the workers met the requirement, but once the management stopped monitoring the weights, the workers went back to producing the cheese as they previously did: producing the cheese as quickly as possible without worrying about the weight. The management never explained to the employees why the requirement was made so the employees assumed that the requirement was unimportant. Ensuring that even small changes like this are adequately explained to employees can be critical to a company's short term succ ...