Business Communication Case Studies

CASE STUDY:12

MANAGING CULTURAL CHANGES AT PROCTER & GAMBLE

In September 1998, the Procter & Gamble Company, Cineinnati, USA, announced a major global structural change programme. Organization 2005. The mission of the programme was to take V & G global turnover form $ 38 billion to $ 70 billion by 2005. The objective was to raise profitability by changing the work culture at P & G. The change drives identified were the attributes of Stretch, Innovation and Speed (SIS). The structural changes to be initiated included setting up of four global business units based on product lines, eight market development organization based on regions, and one global business service centre. A 14 member cross-functional team was set up to oversee the management of change. The achievements of the organization 2005 programme were to be seen in terms of:

A. Changing P & G from being a misaligned organization to one aligned on common goals, with trust as the foundation.

B. Evolve from an intense inspection-led organization where everything is kept under control to one that is a team-collaborating unit.

C. Shift from a risk-avoiding culture to a stretch taking one.

D. Move from running down on complexities to taking of challenges.

E. Heave from a slow-moving organization to one which hurtles through goals.

As the news of Organization 2005 programme reached the P & G hygiene and health care

Head quarter at Mumbai, India, there was a lot of apprehension about the employees. Uncertainty and suspicion to the continued existence of the business division they worked in, it took about a year for the apprehensions to fade away and be replaced by clarity and confidence.

P & G, India adopted motto SIS of its parent. A cultural team was set up to communicate the goals of SIS internally to the employees and to seek their involvement in creating a new P & G. The team sets out to identify projects to help achieve the goals of SIS and to get employee feedback periodically. Outdoor meetings of all P & G India employees were conducted to drive home the SIS message. Weekly Indoor meeting were held both department wise and across hierarchies and categories. Team members were made responsible for communication formal and informal feedback to their department. Monthly updates and communication through newsletters were extensively used. Question and answer session were held to clarify doubts of employees. Reassurance of employees thus became an ongoing continual process. Says a P & G employee: Initially, when the global changes were announced, we were a little skeptical as to what will be its impact on the Indian operation. Now, after so much communication and interaction at all levels, we are confident and look forward to this change.

Questions(5M)

1. Comment on whether the cultural changes at P & G are supportive of the strategy being implemented.(2M)

2. What, in your opinion, are the chances, of the cultural change being successful?(2M)

3. What needs to be additionally to ensure success?(1M)

CASE STUDY-13

CONVERSATIONS IN THE OFFICE THE CASE OF THE MISSING

SERVICE ENGINEER

Jo Brown is General Manager of ABC Computer Services. Jo receives an urgent call from XYZ, an important customer in Durban, who has a major fault in his computer system and demands a service engineer immediately as his whole operation has ground to a halt. Jo tries to contact Edward Smith, the Service Manager, at once but finds he is out visiting PRQ Engineering, another important customer. As Jo considers that the Durban problem is urgent, she goes to the service department and finds service engineer Helen Jones working at her desk. They have the following conversation:

JB: Have you any really urgent work on hand?

HJ: Well, Im sorting out a few patches for the new system weve sent to PRQ. Mr Smith is expecting me to have them done by tomorrow.

JB: But is it really urgent?

HJ: Well, I dont know . . . I dont suppose so.

JB: Good you can sort out the Durban problem first.

Jo then decides that Helen should fly to Durban on an afternoon flight so she can start work at XYZ first thing in the morning. Jo suggests that she leave the office immediately to pack and get to the airport. As she is about to leave, Helen says, I had better leave a message for Edward Smith. Jo says, Dont worry, I will let Edward know what is happening so he can reschedule your work for the next few days. Jo returns to her office and phones XYZ to confirm that Helen Jones will be there first thing in the morning. She then calls Ann Botham, her personal assistant, leaves a number of messages and instructions, and answers some queries. At the end of the call, she says, Oh, by the way, let Edward Smith know that Helen Jones will probably be in Durban for a few days working on XYZs computer problems.

When Edward Smith returns just after 2 p.m., he finds that Helen Jones is not at her desk, so he leaves a note instructing her to drop everything and go to clear up an urgent problem at PRQ Engineering first thing in the morning. He then leaves the office at 3.30 p.m. to meet another customer and does not return that day.

After working through the other jobs from Jo by around 3.45 p.m., Ann Botham sends an email to Edward Smith saying that Helen Jones will probably be in Durban for a few days on the XYZ job.

Next morning, Edward Smith arrives, notes that Helen Jones is not there, and assumes that she has gone to PRQ Engineering. He has an urgent report to finish, so does not check his email as he usually does first thing. About 9.30 a.m., he receives an irate phone call from PRQ Engineering saying that the promised service engineer has not arrived and threatening to cancel the lucrative service contract. At first no one else in the office knows anything about Helen Joness whereabouts. As a last resort he checks his email, to find the message from Ann Botham: Jo has asked me to let you know that Ms Jones will probably be in Durban at XYZ for a few days. He is both puzzled and annoyed by the brief message.

About five minutes later, Smith storms into Browns office and says, How the hell do you expect me to run an efficient service department, when you send my staff round the country without letting me know? We will probably lose the PRQ Engineering contract because Helen Jones did not report there this morning as I promised.

Before reading on, you might like to consider the following questions (10M)

1. What are the most important problems of interpersonal communication illustrated in this case study?(3M)
2. What are the key factors (both process and meaning) which have created these problems?(3M)
3. Who was responsible for the problems?(1M)
4. How could the participants have behaved differently to avoid these problems? (Both short-term and long-term).(2M)
5. Does this case study simply illustrate poor interpersonal communication? Or do you recognize.(1M)