Communication often the missing element in changing businesses

Communication often the missing element in changing businesses

By HEATHER MCLEAN WIDERHOEFT
Special to the Rice News

As a society, people may feel they communicate 24 hours a day with the continuous buzz of instant messages and cell phone calls. However, communication strategies, particularly those that emphasize cross-cultural communication, are a neglected or missing element of even the most detailed change-management programs.

Deborah Barrett, a Rice professor of the practice of professional communication, stressed that ineffectual communication practices during times of great change, particularly during a merger, can be the downfall of any change-management initiative. ”With the national and geographical cultural diversity in most organizations adding to the challenge of reaching all employees with meaningful change messages, the greatest difficulty organizations face in bringing about change today is effective cross-cultural communication,” Barrett wrote in an article titled ”Successful Cross-Cultural Communication During Major Change,” published recently in The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management.

Embracing communication in each element of a change- management strategy may be challenging, but without it, the chance of true success is nearly impossible. Barrett encourages leaders within organizations to develop cross-cultural advisory teams that would provide both analysis and support to the change leaders. This team, which would have representatives from major cultural groups within the organization, should be made up of individuals who are culturally literate, exemplify open communication ability and have a strong sense of emotional intelligence.

Companies that have had success in communicating cross-culturally are applying both traditional and new media as a way to reach employees. Barrett recently worked with El Paso Energy and has high praise for the company’s organization of its intranet as a way to reach its varied employees. ”While El Paso may not have as many cross-cultural challenges as other organizations with more international operations, the tailoring they have done with their intranet is commendable,” Barrett said. ”For instance, when an employee who works in the regulated side of the business first turns on his PC, the message he’ll be reading via the company intranet is different from a fellow employee who works in the nonregulated arena.”

Barrett has spent more than 30 years studying, consulting and teaching communication skills to students, business professionals and corporate leaders. She was a lecturer in managerial communication at Rice from 1988 to 1991, and in 1998 she rejoined the university’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, where she built a highly successful leadership communication program for MBA students. She recently changed her focus from MBA students to teaching communication skills to undergraduates, and Barrett is working with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduates on developing a communication program for the entire Rice campus.

”President Leebron has emphasized that communication skills are fundamental for every Rice student, so we are working on strengthening communication instruction across the curriculum,” Barrett said.