Effective Communication Practices during Organizational Transformation: A Benchmarking Study of the U.S. Automobile Industry and U.S. Naval Aviation Enterprise
Abstract
This study explores effective communication practices during organizational transformation, change, and turnarounds. The U.S. Navy, the sponsor of the study, has been engaged in Enterprise transformation efforts for several years, introducing changes to improve combat readiness while simultaneously reducing costs and increasing efficiencies. Many of these changes call for shifts in the business side of the Navy. While the traditional hierarchical structure is necessary on the battlefield, the Navy seeks to change the business side of their military operation to a more collaborative, matrix-like structure that makes better use of the combined strengths of the organization. Leadership and management communication have been consistently identified in management research as the foundation for creating and sustaining organizational changes. Consequently, the Navy commissioned the Center for Defense Management Reform (CDMR) to conduct a research study that would provide insights into effective communication practices during organizational change. Our approach to this study was to identify companies or organizations with enough organizational and management similarity to make them good candidates for benchmarking and a two-way exchange of best practices. Benchmarking research suggests that both external and internal benchmarking candidates provide useful information in evaluating best practices. For the external benchmark candidates, we examined four companies in the U.S. auto industry: GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota. For our internal candidates, we investigated Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE). NAE was formed in 2004 to implement the aviation components of the Navy's future strategy, and to support the Navy's efficiency-seeking business management goals. In this benchmarking study, we were primarily interested in the perceptions of executives and senior managers who had lived through -- and learned from -- the many organizational changes they had experienced.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA479913
Entities
People
- Cynthia L. King
- Douglas A. Brook
- Timothy D. Hartge
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School