Communication Issues in Open Plan System: A Case Study of a Law Firm

This case study discusses communication issues that have taken place due to the open plan system of a law firm. It identifies the reasons for employees resisting the change to an open-plan office approach and explains what the partners might have done better to have minimized the resistance. It also analyzes the barriers to communication (‘noise’) that appear to exist in the law firm and discusses how they could be overcome. The sources of power the partners and others appear to have and the impact this may have on other employees are also discussed.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
In this case study, communication issues that have taken place due to the open plan
system of a law firm has been discussed. The case study is based on two partners name
Cheetham and Wynne who started their business and eventually evidenced some
communication issues. In the following paragraph few question associated with the issues has
been answered.
1.
a. Identify the reasons for employees resisting the change to an open-plan office
approach.
Several reasons can be pointed out behind the reason some employees of the Law firm are
opposing the open-plan office approach.
1. The open plan approach is not liked by the founder of the law firm Jack and Owen
partly due to their conservative mentality. Besides that they also dislike the unofficial
conversations that they can now more evidently notice due to the open plan approach.
2. Secondly, since the office is multicultural, the choices of the employees are collapsing
and as a result there develops a potential chance of conflict.
3. Several employees feels that it is difficult to conduct personal conversation over
phone since all the employees are able to hear the conversation in the open plan
approach.
4. Some of the employees dislike this system since they were being warned to use social
media platforms for unofficial reasons within the office hours.
5. Some lawyers have complained that they often need to discuss private matters with
clients over the phone and can’t always take the calls in the meeting rooms.

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6. A good number of the employees feel being unrecognized since during the decision
making session, they were not involved by the management.
7. Finally, unethical gossips about the coworkers that may give rise to conflict or
attrition of skilled coworkers is another major issue faced by employees in the open
plan system.
Besides that, several other potential issues of the open plan approach can be detected. The
high level of interaction that occur in an undivided workplace often makes it difficult for the
employees to concentrate to their work (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). Besides that, the lack
of privacy is another potential issue where computer screens are easily visible from behind
and telephone conversation can be easily overheard.
b. Explain what the partners might have done better to have minimized the
resistance.
In order to minimize the resistance the following steps could have been taken by the
partners. The first thing that could have been done by the partners is to provide a separation
planks so that each and every cubicle can be separated from others. This would have been
prevented the coworkers sitting a adjacent sits to state at the computer screen of an employee.
Thus the privacy associated with the computer screen could have been resolved to a great
extent. Secondly, in order to provide privacy to employees while they are in a conversation a
separate room for conversation with the clients could have been created so that employees
can obtain privacy while conversing over the phone. Besides that, employees could have been
provided with the permission to move out of the office for a certain period of time, for
instance, for 15 mi ns per day so that they can attain personal calls at a isolated place away
from the office premises (Nankervis et al. 2016).

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Since communicating with other coworkers from different background d is a raising issue
that is lading to resistance of few employees, employees could have been trained and
educated about the importance of multicultural employees in the law firms. They need to be
educated about each other’s cultural heritage so that they can develop respect for each other’s
culture. Ice breaking sessions could have been organized where all the employees can
communicate unofficially. This in turn will help the employees to develop respect towards
each other’s culture (Aswathappa 2013). This will enhance their bonding and reduce the
potential risk of conflict within the organization.
Another step that could have taken by the partner includes incorporating the employees in the
decision making process. Considering the fact that the whole idea of incorporating the open
plan approach has been taken by one of the partners entirely by herself, majority of the
employees feel that this is unethical. Incorporating employees in the decision making process
would have been highly helpful since the supervisors would have got beneficial
recommendations from the side of employees which would have the potential to minimize or
even eradicate the resistance faced by the organization regarding the open plan approach.
2. a. Analyse the barriers to communication (‘noise’) that appear to exist in the law
firm.
Some of the major communication issues that has been detected in the law farm are as
follows:
1. Firstly, there is a major issue of overhearing the conversation of coworkers. One of
the employees, Anna Ivanova was given only 4 percent hike since one o the partners,
Jack had suspected her to share confidential information of the company with her
brother. Considering the fact that this unethical act , if done by Anna will impose
negative impact on the company’s revenues, the deduction has been done from her

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hike. However, there is no proof of whether this phenomenon has actually taken place
or not. Thus, it can be clearly understood that decisions are been taken in the
organization on he basis of mere assumption. This in turn is leading to job
dissatisfaction among the employees.
2. Secondly, the communication gap between the employees and the supervisors is
another issue of the organization. one of the employees Mai, had been told by the
Wayne that he is too bad at his work. However, when he asked about what are the
mistakes that he has conducted, he had been told that the mistakes had been corrected.
This response has imposed negative impact on not only the employee’s job
satisfaction but also on his profession. Bing unable to understand his mistakes, Mai
will not be able to correct them. This will not only reduce his motivation to work for
the organization but will also affect his future carrier.
3. Another communication issue that has been detected is unethical gossips. He gossips
that had taken place about candy is not only unethical but also has nothing to with her
professional life. Moreover, the information shared by Mai about candy is not proven
and hence can be untrue. This type of unethical gossips posses the potential to cause
conflict between the employees. Not only that, this may also result in attrition of
skilled workers fro the workplace.
b. Discuss how they could be overcome.
The mentioned issue could be overcome by introducing organizational socialization
into the organization. Along with that, several measures needed to be adopted by the
supervisors. Organizational socialization can be defined as the process by which individuals
learn the values, expected behaviors and social knowledge necessary to assume their roles in
the organization. Employees should be made aware of the fact that unethical gossip about the

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employees within the office premises could result in termination. In order to make all the
employees aware of organizational socialization, a policy and procedure needs to be
developed by the organization. In order to deal with the overhearing issue, the supervisors
should be educated about the negative impact of overhearing the conversation of the
subordinates. They should be made aware of the negative consequences of taking action
based on assumptions that includes employee dissatisfaction and employee attrition. Finally,
in order to ensure that all employees could understand their mistakes, the communication gap
between employees and supervisors needs to be reduced. For this the organization could opt
for intranet or any other internal communication tactics.
3.a) Discuss the sources of power the partners and others appear to have and the impact
this may have on other employees.
Owen Cheetham and Jack Wynne are the oldest partner in the firm and there are the
founder as well. Mark Cheetham and Cathy Wynne are the two new partners of this firm. In
the new office, Mark Cheetham and Cathy Wynne have the major regulatory power. The
open-plan which was not supported by all the employees were imposed depending only on
the decision of upper management. From the scenario, it is also clear that the founders
namely Owen Cheetham and Jack Wynne are not involved enough in the current internal
conditions in terms of employee-employer and employee-employee relationship. At the same
time, Mark Cheetham and Cathy Wynne does not has enough experience about human
resource controlling considering all their emotional, psychological, social and cultural
interference within the organisation’s culture (Cameron and Green 2015). The less frequency
of visiting the office by the older partners namely Owen Cheetham and Jack Wynne may not
change the current situation. Moreover, the two major powers are utilised by the new
partners, including the identity of their parents and the absence of the superior monitoring.

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The power and influence of older partners on the new partners who are their children
are not appreciated by significant amount of the employees, who have been working in this
firm from the beginning when the senior partners were controlling the organisational process
and policies (Cameron and Green 2015). As per the discussion of the employees, it is clear
that the two younger partners are not prioritising the perception of the subordinates. At the
same time, because of the low involvement in the internal factors of the organisation the
unethical cultural factors are growing rapidly including gender discrimination, lower mutual
respects and others. On the other hand, Owen Cheetham and Jack Wynne do not interfere or
monitor the internal operation or employee management system of the organisation that
reducing the efficiency and sequence of the organisational workflow. At the same time, the
older employees who used to perceive the Owen Cheetham and Jack Wynne as their superior,
are facing some ego problems to accept the new partners as the superior. The new partners
did not taken any steps to normalise all these major discrepancies that are bounding the
potential growth of the employee performance.
b) What influence tactics have been used by some of the partners and employees and
how effective might they have been?
In the critical situation of declining mutual respect, cooperation some significant
strategic human resource plan should be incorporate in the organisational policies and
procedures. In the refreezing section of the change management procedure the management
of the organisation especially the older and new partners should work together to get the
maximum support and collaboration. Refreezing is not a strategic implementation of
finalising the project, it ensures the sustainability and the future progress of the new changes
as well (Daley 2012). Therefore, both older partners and new partners have not prioritise the
value of all the employees by collecting their reviews and feedback. Apart from that, the
direct monitoring system through the social and friendly gathering within the employees has

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helped the upper management to understand the feasibility and profitability of new changes
implemented by the new partners. However, lack of collaboration within the older partners
and the new partners has made some major discrepancies in the interpretation process and
perception of the workforce.
One of the major strategic activity would be minimising the resistance force against
the changes. To incorporating the changes and make the employee flexible in this situation
acceptation the management of the organisation can follow the formal change management
procedure while taking care of the need and expectation of the employees (Doppelt 2017).
Communication, learning, involvement, stress management and negotiation can be the most
effective implementation framework. In this framework both new and the old partner and the
other upper management employees should listen the opinion of the ground level employees
through effective and consistent communication. From the scenario, it is also clear that the
founders namely Owen Cheetham and Jack Wynne are not involved enough in the current
internal conditions in terms of employee-employer and employee-employee relationship. By
learning from this communication, the management can develop several negotiation
procedures to help the ground level and other resisting employees interpreting the purpose
and vision of the changes (Daley 2012). Convincing the resistance perception by focusing on
the potential positive outcomes of the new changes is the only solution.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the power and influence of older partners
on the new partners who are their children are not appreciated by significant amount of the
employees, who have been working in this firm from the beginning when the senior partners
were controlling the organisational process and policies

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