Cheetham and Wynne Law Firm: Case Study on Change and Communication

This case study examines the challenges faced by the Cheetham and Wynne law firm as it navigates organizational change, focusing on resistance to a new open office plan, communication barriers, and the impact of different power sources. The analysis identifies cultural and perceptual barriers to ...Read More

Introduction
This assignment is about an organization that is into the business of law. The organization was
started in the year 1976 by two partners namely Owen Cheetham and Jack Wynne. The clients of
this organization are mainly those who are in the fields of banking, insurance and finance. The
organization has a history of having employed mostly white males, after some time two young
brothers joined the firm who were friends. The organization has a staff of 13 people prior to the
joining of Mark and Cathy. Cathy and Mark being the young blood and new knowledge looks
wanted to change the workplace culture. This assignment requires us to answer some questions
that will better make the audience understand the concept of this assignment. The answers are
given below:
1A.Resistance to change is a very common thing that one can feel or see, when the usual things
become somewhat different or when the routine of our daily lives gets different its known as
change. The business environment is a dynamic environment that keeps on changing with the
every passing minute (Kotter 2017). So the employees of the business firms must be ready every
minute to undergo any change. Now the legal firm has changed its location to a new office plan
which has an open office plan. The main creator or the leaders behind this plan are the new
partners that joined the firm. The plan seems to be very much employee’s friendly but as change
means resistance, the employees are showing their resistance to this change because of the
following reasons (Hultman 2013):
 One of the main reason for this resistance to the change is the difficulty of talking to the
clients or with the relatives or with the boyfriends. As of now, because of the open office
plan anyone can listen to what one person is talking over the phone.
 Another reason was that the shops and the cafes were too far from the office place and
they were way too expensive for the staff.
 Thirdly, few of the staff members were talking about the new plan and they were heard
saying that they get the feeling of getting spy every time they talk or use their phones.
1B. It is a very common thing to see in an organization when the employees or the staff show
their resistance to new changes occurred in the organization (Anderson 2016). However, this
situation can easily be tackled if the owners or the senior management take some necessary steps
to minimize this resistance. The following things can be done by the partners in order to
minimize the resistance of the employees to the change (Golembiewski 2016):
 Communication: The partners can openly communicate with the staff through a speech or
they can personally talk to the staff about the benefits of the new change. By
communicating personally or by speech the partners can actually tell their vision about
the change to the employees and what benefits or positive results will come their way
because of this change (Maxwell 2016).

 No Bias: The resistance can also be minimized when there will be no bias policy in the
new office. The new office plan is an open plan, which means that there will be a large
open space with each employee having their desks. If the partners themselves will sit
along with the other employees in this plan then they will have a feeling of equality,
which will somehow reduce the resistance.
 Employees Suggestions: The partners can ask for the suggestions of the employees for the
new plan. This will not only minimize the resistance but will increase their excitement
about the new working space.
2A. Communication is a key to success for all the business organizations of this world. In short,
if the employees or the staff of an organization does not communicate healthily then the firm will
lead to the failure path (Goulston 2014). In the legal firm, the communication barriers are many
that need to be sought out as soon as possible. Some of the renowned peoples of the business
world have said in their interviews or books that maintaining a good communication
environment in an organization is as important as having skilled employees. The firm has good
growth graph comparing to its past and if these communication issues are solved then it might
become unbeatable on any front. The communication issues in the legal firm are as under (Bruce
Patton 2016):
 Cultural Barriers: The main barrier to communication is the cultural barrier in the
organization. The organization have a total staff of 30 peoples, some of them are from
South East Asia while the others are English men, North Asia etc.
 Noise: The new office plan may lead to communication barrier, as a new plan is a large
place having no walls or cabins but all the employees present in that place having their
desks, this is a good way of communicating to each other but it may also lead to the noise
origination which becomes barrier in the communication.
 Perceptual Barriers: These are the barriers that occur when the thinking of the peoples in
an organization is different from that of the others. The response to the new plan is an
example of this barrier, some staff members are of the opinion that the open place plan
will be effective while others are of the opinion that it will be a botheration in their work
(Agarwala-Rogers 2018).
2B. Now having so many communication barriers in an organization is definitely going to bring
negative result in an organization. The senior partners of the firm have already shown their
disagreement with the new plan but they have somehow agreed to it because of their children's.
The legal organization can overcome the communication barriers if the organization follows the
recommendations given below (Marisn 2016):
 Reducing Noise Levels:The open office plan has not been accepted well by the staff but
somehow they have started working in the environment full of noise. The first step to
eliminate the communication barrier is to reduce the unwanted noise in the office place.

Personal calls must not be allowed in the working area. Generators, noisy fans must be
replaced with the ones producing minimal or no noise.
 Taking Care of Cultural Differences: In the legal organization that we are talking about,
the staff has increased to a number of 30 people including the partners of the firm. The
conversation or the discussion of some of the employees and the senior partners are an
example of people having cultural differences. The senior partners must bring every
culture on the same platform to end the differences and to ensure effective
communication (Daniels 2014).
 Creditability Gaps: It can also be seen that one of the employees is not happy with the
increase that she has got despite good results for the organization. Hence this has not only
affected her mindset of working hard but the relationship between her and the
organization as well. The legal organization if wants to eliminate the communication
barriers then they must learn to fill all these creditability gaps. They must have to keep
their words of rewarding the employees upon their successful accomplishment of goals
for the organization (Matthew Seeger 2017).
 Increasing Staff Involvement: The New office plan is seeing resistance because the
employees were not asked for any of their suggestions on the new office place plan. The
senior partners or the new partners need to increase the staff involved in these activities
of the organization; this will not only increase their interest in the working of the
organization but will also eliminate the communication barriers. Involvement of the staff
will also bring in new ideas that even the partners are not aware of or have ever thought
off; hence staff involvement must be encouraged.
3A. In this answer, we are going to discuss the different sources of powers that the partners of
the firm and the other employees appear to have and their impact on others. In an organization
there are different types of power sources, some of these are mentioned below (Bhasin 2016):
 Legitimate Power: This is the power of a person that he/she enjoys when they have a
particular position with their name. In simpler terms, it is the power that a person has
because of the position that he holds in an organization. Hence the partners have the
legitimate power source; they have all the power in the legal organization because of their
position in the organization. This source of power allows the person having the power to
assign work to the employees working under them and also they can review or correct the
subordinates. This is the source of power of the partners in the legal firm (Merchant 2014).
 Expert Power: This is the power that a person possesses because of the high knowing
that he/she has in a particular or in different areas of business. Anand Moodley was hired
by the young partners and his entry in the firm took lots of persuasion by the young
partners as Mr Anand has a great knowledge about environmental issues, he holds an
expert power in this area.
 Referent Power: This is the source of power that a person has in their personality or in
their way of building relationships with the inner and the outer peoples of the

organization for the betterment of the organization. Pauline Hirata, who is hired by the
young partners, is because of her referent power source. She has very good connections
with community business organizations, which will prove out to be very beneficial for the
legal firm in the future (Kale 2016).
These types of power directly or indirectly leave an impact on the other employees of the
organization and these are discussed below:
 Inspiration: The legitimate power may have an inspirational impact on the employees
when they see a person having it. Although it is only inspiration unless the person having
it is not using this power in any wrong way.
 The desire to Learn: The source of expert power will increase the desire to learn in the
other employees, that type of knowledge which the person possessing the expert power
has. When someone has deep extensive knowledge about different things or areas of
business, this encourages others to learn and have that kind of same knowledge.
 Jealous: Referent power or even the legitimate powers may have an impact on the other
employees that may give birth to jealousy in them. Legitimate power is sometimes not
rightly used by the person having it or is used in a way that shows the arrogant behaviour
of that person hence that leads to jealousy in the heart and minds of the other people.
3B. Influence tactics are the way of using any data or information or an argument to prove others
and convince them that your viewpoint is the best alternative that one can have in the current
situation. In the legal firm the following influence tactics have been used by the partners and
employees (Chandwani 2016):
 Ingratiation: This is the influence tactic which is used by a person on the other when the
other person is in good mood. This tactic was used by none other the young partner Mark
Cheetham when they were at the club and met John Carlton. The young partners were
looking for an accountant for the firm and found John suitable candidate and they used
their influence tactic to make him work for the firm.
 Personal Appeal: This is the influence tactic which is used by a person towards another
person talking about a third person. In this, the speaker praises the third person in front of
the listener so that the listener develops the same feeling for that person. This tactic was
used by Anand Moodley on Pauline when he praised Mark and Cathy for being really
supportive.
Now if we talk about how effective the partners and employees were in using this tactic, then
Mark used the tactic very effectively as John agreed to his offer and started working for the
organization, on the other hand, Pauline disagreed to Anand saying that the young partners are
not really that supportive. Which means that the tactic used by Anand was not effectively used?
Conclusion

The Legal firm has taken steps that will prove out to be beneficial for the staff as well as the
organization as a whole, all the young partners need to do is to take the whole staff together as a
family and should involve them more in any decision-making process, this will ignite the feeling
of belongingness in the staff.
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