Monologic communication is a mode of communication where one person speaks while the other listens. However, because communication is just one-way, there is no interaction between individuals. The monologic communicator is only concerned with achieving his or her objectives and shows no genuine interest in or care for the attitudes and sentiments of the audience. The speaker may also appear reluctant to discuss or hear other people’s viewpoints. He or she may frequently pass judgment negatively on the listener on a personal level.
Dialogic communication is a mode of communication where each participant assumes the roles of both speaker and audience. This communication enables the expression of all ideas; empathy and mutual understanding are essential components of dialogic communication. In this kind of communication, there is genuine care and concern for the other individual and their relationship with them. The speakers and listeners in this contact are free to decide for themselves without being forced, under duress, or in danger of punishment.
Resistant background conversation is characterized by people’s aversion to novel situations or methods of operation. It can occur in people, relationships, or workplace settings. Even though there are numerous roots for resistance, the key one is dismay at the unknown. Individuals are physically set to seek inclinations and predictability. Thus, even expected or good uncertainty can cause nervousness.
Netflix’s organizational and cultural changes, implemented in 2011 by the company’s CEO Reed Hastings, illustrate a change situation. Netflix is a firm that gives subscription amenities for streaming cinemas and TV shows online and for sending DVDs (Fagerjord, 2019). The business has struggled to modify its organizational design and pricing strategies. The corporation faced major crises as a result of the imposed modifications in 2011, which was the year that saw the most significant attempts to introduce such changes. However, it changed its business strategy to meet client demand, giving it a competitive advantage.
The CEO used monologic communication to share his ideas on change with the managers. This mode of communication was successful because the CEO was diligent in building a solid coalition by involving his co-founders in the decision-making process. With the aid of his coalition partners, he developed a compelling vision. One of the executives, however, publicly objected to the choice after employing monologic communication in 2011. Since this ineffective mode of communication, the CEO embraced dialogic communication and engaged his co-founders in his decisions.
Dialogic communication was used in the company’s change management as the managers interacted with the employees. The workers are honest and open with one another and freely exchange information. The organization values dialogic communication and personnel consider the circumstances before acting. Netflix frequently provides staff with frank and quick feedback. This further guarantees that the team collaborates and continually strives for improvement. Through dialogic communication, Netflix has made several improvements to its philosophy of being completely honest with its staff. Due to this, they now have more faith in one another and the management. They have effectively promoted ownership through flexibility by choosing employees who value and do not misuse the benefits offered. Independent judgment fueled by open information exchange has been credited with success.
When the CEO indicated in January 2014 that they intended to change the prices, there was a sense of resistance to communication. The clients voiced concern and worry that the plan would result in an event similar to what happened in 2011. Additionally, investors argued against the move since they do not seem to have much faith in Reed Hastings’ capacity to implement it successfully. Resistant communication was effective in this change situation since Hasting addressed the issue. However, he successfully persuaded the clients of the necessity of altering the price structure. Customers were interested in this argument because it demonstrated the company’s dedication to their well-being.
A change agent is an individual or group given the role of leading and guiding revolution within an organization. Internal change agents may include managers or staff selected to oversee the change course. Supervisors and staff receive training to get the essential skills to bring about a transition in many innovative firms. External change agents, such as advisors from outside the company, are another possibility (Ouedraogo et al., 2022). Change agents come in various forms, including Outside Pressure Type, People-Change-Technology Type, Analysis-for-the-Top Type, and Organization-Development Type.
Outside Pressure Type employs various forms of pressure, such as large-scale protests. Even though they are not employees of the corporation, they seek to alter. The People-Change-Technology Type can be worried about employee motivation and morale, turnover, absenteeism, and the caliber of work produced. Operations research, system design, policy analysis, and other analytical methods are used by Analysis-for-the-Top Type to alter the organizational structure or technology. Lastly, the organization-development type concentrates on internal processes, including intercultural communication, communication, and decision-making.
Reed Hastings is the change agent, an analysis-for-the-top type, in Netflix change management. Change can be successfully implemented if the sponsors actively participate in the process (Lin et al., 2017). The process of putting the suggested plans into action has involved CEO and pricing change backer Reed Hastings. He has been accountable for making important decisions in this respect, explaining those decisions to the public, and protecting the business against criticisms concerning the suggested adjustments. The implementation of the new payment plans has been significantly influenced by active participation.
Practically, not all of the steps outlined in the change models can be fully realized in real-world circumstances. The majority of the conceptual frameworks of change visible on Netflix, as a result, are not always comprehensive, following the academic requirements (Allegretti et al., 2021). In other cases, the change agents skip some processes or complete many stages at once, making it challenging to distinguish the different phases.
When reflecting on how Netflix intended to roll out the new price plans, the corporation was looking for a breakthrough, not a gradual transformation. Incremental change is a term used to describe situations where success is attained gradually due to initiatives that expand on the abilities and dedication of the members. In contrast, a breakthrough is a significant accomplishment that takes place quickly (Vito & Sethi, 2020). A corporation achieves a breakthrough when it shifts the organization’s paradigms. On the other hand, if it requires slight modifications, attention must be paid to the actions and attitudes of the many stakeholders. In the Netflix scenario, the CEO was primarily focused on altering the management structure by dividing the business and creating two new price levels. This suggests that the organization was aiming for a breakthrough instead of a slow, gradual adjustment that might not show benefits for a while.
According to Blake and Mouton’s Behavioral Approach to Management and Leadership, the CEO of the Netflix Corporation has concerns for both production and people. Netflix has evolved into a business that pays attention to its staff and clients. Numerous changes have been made to the critical competencies, collaborations, and work expectations for people. Consistency is something that the whole Netflix organization, including the leadership, continually strives to avoid. Each member of the Netflix leadership is in charge of setting an example for others. It is an ongoing aspirational process for Netflix. These principles aid Netflix in assembling its ideal workforce, enabling them to constantly learn, perform, and advance while providing its customers with the best content and experiences.
It is clear from Netflix’s management that the corporation attempted to implement two significant improvements to its organization and pricing strategy. Pricing and management structures were delicate areas that, if changed carelessly or poorly, could result in insolvency. In essence, the company’s decision to split its services into streaming and DVD-by-mail meant that most customers had to discontinue one service while maintaining the other. Practically, separating the business meant that clients would have to visit two websites to look for movies. Throughout the transition, Netflix has made numerous errors. It decided to make long-term investments based on the idea that adding entertainment space would increase shareholder and client value. The solution to every problem was to practice effective product management and leadership. Netflix is now investigating consumer science, which involves analyzing recent data, research, and surveys to create ideas that can help them improve their products.
To surge productivity and adjust to the shifting environment, the company made small or large adjustments. In an organization, there are two different factors triggering change: internal and external forces. Technological change, urbanization, political and cultural change, and upholding moral performance are external forces. Urbanization and technological progression are the central outside weights that pushed Netflix to modify the feature.
The structures, tools, and habits of a firm’s product are altered due to new technology’s impact on people’s outlooks and habits to effectively steer the change forces and deliver victory and wealth to the company. Internal causes such as altering executive people, workplace subtleties, productivity, employee prospects, and calamities can also make a firm alter its organizational style. For example, Netflix approved that the price of entertainment, as well as the conveyance crisis, would be condensed by watching cinemas at home. Netflix consequently settled into the structural shift.
Lewin presented a paradigm in which a change is introduced in three stages; unfreezing, moving, and freezing. After experiencing difficulties attempting to create pricing structures that reflected the price of the internet and the licensing fee, Netflix adopted techniques based on Lewin’s Three-Step Model. This change management paradigm is demonstrated in practice through the organizational shift at Netflix. Every organizational change goes through a few stages before being finished. Technology, culture, and surroundings are the essential variables that encourage an organization to embrace change.
Unfreeze and change are elements seen in this change situation. The CEO initially voiced his consumers’ displeasure with the single-price plan. Given that each consumer has a particular requirement, he claimed that not all customers are pleased with a single-price plan (Allegretti et al., 2021). This strategy was to unfreeze the current pricing structure and get clients ready for change. Second, the business has stated that it plans to launch the suggested model. This suggests that the business is ready to implement the transition. Regarding its goods and services, Netflix was not in a difficult situation. They chose to concentrate solely on organizational culture because, at the time, they were setting the bar for innovation in the entertainment sector. Nevertheless, this was wholly dependent on intrapreneurship to remain viable. They plan to modify three things as a result: they will appreciate cultural differences, they will communicate honestly, be flexible with hierarchy, and will not have a holiday policy. They have not, however, finished the process of reverting to normality.
Although Netflix has implemented Lewin’s three-stage Force-Field model, there are some areas they need to improve. Managers must take a proactive approach to introduce and manage change by controlling the approach. In this sense, they must anticipate and identify issues and dangers that can call for a transition (Goswami, 2019). This suggests that the business may be prepared to slowly start the process of transformation to prevent illnesses that could cause the organization to become paralyzed. The element that organizational revolution is a methodical and detail-focused exercise instead of an incident where management positions that the adjustments it must undertake in the business to survive are something that executives at Netflix Blockbuster do not understand. Change administration affects the organization’s values and basic standards and operational procedures.
They also need to undergo the last stage, identified as Refreezing. In this stage, individuals can adopt new ways of undertaking things or altering them, embrace them as an aspect of their lives, and generate novel connections. Workers need to be pleased, rewarded, and given encouraging support for their new manners and transitions in their work. Helpful guidelines or frameworks may also help in inspiring the adapted means of operation.
References
Allegretti, S., Fischer, H., & Seidenstricker, S. (2021). Executing a business model change: identifying key characteristics to succeed in volatile markets. Springer Link.
Fagerjord, A. (2019). Spotify and Netflix as innovations: Streaming media history in the light of innovation theory. Air Selected Papers of Internet Research.
Goswami, M. (2019). Developing social intelligence among employees for effectively managing organizational change. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 34(4), 13-15.
Lin, H., Chen, M., & Su, J. (2017). How are management innovations successfully implemented? An organizational routines perspective. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 30(4), 456-486.
Ouedraogo, N., Ouakouak, M., & Hewapathirana, G. (2022). The role of leadership political skills in the context of organizational change. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2022(1).
Vito, R., & Sethi, B. (2020). Managing change: Role of leadership and diversity management. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 33(7), 1471-1483.