This
is a case study that touches on making sweeping changes to the corporate
culture without engaging in proper communication with the stakeholders. The
case is based on Rakuten which is the most successful Japanese online retailer.
Its CEO who is also the founder, Hiroshi Mikitani, aspires to grow his company
to the level of Amazon Inc. One way he feels this can be achieved is by
introducing an English only policy in his firm. He therefore goes ahead to make
an abrupt announcement to all 7,100 employees that an ‘Englishnization’ program
will be rolled out and all employees must learn and become proficient in
English within two years. At the present time, over 90 percent of the workforce
cannot run official duties in English. The CEO has set some punitive measures
for those who will fail to achieve set scores – they will face demotions. As
the program is rolled out, employees struggle to learn English. There are many challenges faced including loss of
productivity, insufficient time to conduct studies, and internal resistance
from managers. It is very clear employees are disgusted with the new policy and
are only learning English to avoid being demoted or losing their jobs. Nine
months to the deadline, the employees are growing desperate as they are
realizing that it is increasingly becoming clear that they are not going to
meet the set scores by the deadline. This has created anxiety and generally
disrupted the workplace (Tsedal, 2011). In this paper, this case study is
critically analyzed by examining the key communication challenges that are
evident in the case study, suggesting alternatives to these challenges and showing
why the alternatives will work. The challenges which are likely to be
encountered in implementing the alternatives will also be highlighted.
Case Analysis
Key
communication issues in the case study
Radical
changes in any organization require good preparation. In the case of this case
study, the radical change was the change in the official language of the
organization. The biggest communication challenge which can be identified here
is insufficient of it. The manner in which the change in policy was
communicated was clearly not the best. It was clearly going to draw resistance.
Employees were never given time to internalize the new changes which were going
to take effect. Everything around them was changed overnight including the menu
language at the cafeteria.
Hiroshi
Mikitani relegated communication in this sense to a very naive position. According
to Griffin (2003), communication should not be viewed naively as just a
transmission of information. He argued that this notion often breeds
“managerialism, discursive closure, and corporate colonization” (Griffin, 2003,
p. 495). It is clear that Hiroshi Mikitani did not have the patience to engage
his employees and collect their opinions on what they thought of the new
policy. This challenge was similarly seen in the managers – the managers were
clearly complaining and not on the side of their boss. The implication is that
they had no prior information about the change in policy. This is a complete
communication breakdown from the side of the CEO and such breakdowns often lead
to very slow and reluctant adoption of new policies especially when such policies
are radical as is the case here.
Alternatives
to the challenges
There
are many alternatives that Hiroshi Mikitani could have used to ensure that his
communication was welcomed.
There was a need to involve the
employees
Hiroshi
Mikitani did not involve his employees in deciding on the new policy. Their
opinions did not seem to matter to him and therefore by assuming this he was
indeed communicating other messages such as they really do not matter to him.
According to Tsedal (2012), engaging employees in decision making or in change
of policies creates a platform to explain the rationale of creating a new
policy.
The policy should have been
implemented at the managerial level first
It
could set a great precedence if the policy was implemented at the managerial
level first. The CEO should have ensured that the managers agreed to adopt the
policy first before moving to the general employees. Even in the case where the
adoption of the policy was going to be uniformly implemented, the CEO should have
started by convincing the managers of the need to adopt an English language
policy as their official workplace language.
Open expression
Lastly,
Hiroshi Mikitani should have allowed some form of an open expression to be
carried out whereby employees could have aired their views and challenges as
they progressed in gaining English language proficiency.
Why
these alternatives
The
above three alternatives could have worked so well because they could have
effectively solved the communication lapse which was witnessed and which
actually caused all the challenges that the company employees had to go
through.
Involving the employees
Involving
the employees could have given Hiroshi Mikitani the platform to explain his
views and his vision for Rakuten in regard to its global expansion. He could
have used this chance to explain to the employees how the competitive advantage
of the company was going to be improved. Through such platforms, he could have
addressed any fears that the employees aired. In such a manner, the employees
could have adopted the policy with a higher level of acceptance and this could
have probably reduced their negative attitude towards the policy.
Involving the managers first.
The
managers closely interact with the employees and therefore ensuring that they
agree with new policies is a step ahead in ensuring that the general employees
will be persuaded to adopt the policy (Tsedal, 2012). If managers complain
against the CEO especially against learning where they ought to be better than
the other employees, then that is an indication that the general employees will
even complain more. Furthermore, implementing the policy with the managers
first could have acted as a pilot project such that implementing the same
policy with the general employees becomes easier.
Open expression
Allowing
some form of open forum expression of the experiences of the employees could
have helped employees to suggest ways in which they would have been assisted to
perform better in learning the language (Nielsen, 2008). Through such forums,
they could have requested the company to create some time for their classes or
even pay part of their tuition fees for the English classes especially for the
young employees who had not worked for long.
Obstacles
and difficulties of implementing the proposals
Time
Any
effective communication requires time. Discussing such a radical policy change
with over 7,000 employees will definitely take a lot of time. It will equally
take a lot time to convince the employees that indeed the English language is
what the company needs. This will be the case because the company has so far
expanded and flourished internationally without the English language as an
official language.
Resistance
Due
to the fact that some managers complained alongside the general employees
against the new policy shows that even the senior management were opposed to
the idea. It is therefore clear that giving prior information to such people
who seem to be so much polarized against learning the English language could
have led to some form of resistance against the introduction of the policy.
Taking into consideration that the policy was a good one, such a resistance is
a great threat to the policy. The resistance will also put the employees on a
collision course with the CEO’s vision for the firm becoming the top world online
retailer. This would consequently lead to the CEO overriding the opposing views
of the employees against the policy and at the end of the day; it would have
defeated logic why he wanted their views in the first place.
Frustration
There
are possibilities that informing the employees of a change in policy which is
such radical can discourage them. This may affect the productivity of the firm
if they are informed a long way before the policy is implemented. This may make
them anxious and those who might feel inadequate enough may plan to switch
workplaces. Generally, such a notice may cause a general disruption in the firm
as employees will spend considerable time thinking on how they will adopt or
circumnavigate the policy.
Conclusion
In
the case study, Hiroshi Mikitani introduced a very radical policy in a very
abrupt manner which caught every employee unawares including the managers. The
policy of using the English language as the official language at the workplace
was going to benefit the company but it was not gladly welcomed. In the
struggle to achieve set scores, employees were overwhelmed leading to
frustrations and reducing their productivity levels.
Hiroshi
Mikitani should have considered involving the employees in making the decision
by giving them a chance to learn about the new policy which was to take effect.
Specifically, he should have allowed them to air their views and give
suggestions on what they thought about it. He equally could have used this
opportunity to explain why the company needed to switch to an English only
policy. It could have been worthwhile had the CEO informed his managers first
so that on introducing the policy to the general employees, he could have
easily counted on their support.
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