Tyco the Turnaround Team Needed

Tyco

The turnaround team needed to address the frustrations of the employees in order to help generate a climate of change. The employees clearly saw the need for change, so they had motivation, but they were also faced with low morale. The employees needed to be given a clear vision in the form of the letter and website on ethics. They also needed to be given an ethical leader they could believe in, which was the case with Breen especially given some of his highly symbolic moves. In general, the turnaround team needed to demonstrate to the employees the sincerity of its mission and the degree of turnaround that was going to happen. When the employees saw this commitment, they would be willing to engage in the transformation themselves.

A vignette that could be used would show the old ethical standards of behavior contrasted with the new ones.

Manager to employee: "We need to show a profit this quarter, but it looks like sales are down."

Employee: "Maybe we can create some sales."

Manager: "That's a good idea. Well sell that stuff next quarter anyway."

Announcer: "This is unethical behavior. To see how this situation should have been dealt with, keep viewing."

Manager to employee: "We need to show a profit this quarter, but it looks like sales are down."

Employee: "We should find out why sales are down, so we can present a plan to senior manager about how we are going to fix the problem and increase sales next quarter."

Manager: "That's a great idea, get a team together and put a plan in place to have results for me in a week."

There are a number of international issues that need to be considered when putting together such a vignette. First, the dialogue needs to be adequately translated. Second, the cultural messages must be appropriate. This includes non-verbal communication and the methods of interaction between the employee and the manager. Local locations could be included as well to provide a greater sense of relevance.

3. The first type of conversation is to introduce the idea. After years of unethical behavior, Tyco employees had low morale and had to be introduced to the idea that senior management was now serious about reforming the company's culture and ethics. The second type of conversation is where people must be helped to understand a new process. The means by which the ethics of the company will be changed would be part of this new conversation. The third type of conversation is the performance conversation, where specific results are requested. This would take the idea of ethical reform and put specific desired outcomes and measures on it, so that employees would have objectives to work toward. The fourth conversation is the closure conversation, which gives the employees a sense of accomplishment. This is particularly important because it will give the Tyco employees a sense of accomplishment that they might not otherwise feel, and show them that they are in fact on the right track. This conversation also gives management the opportunity to provide feedback about the progress everybody has taken on the change initiative.

4. "After 18 months in this position, it is hard to believe that people still view the old leadership as being anything indicative of what this company is about. Those days are over and those criminals are on trial where they belong. This is a new company, a new Tyco, and we do things differently. We have a strong company, one that makes a lot of money for our shareholders. We are better people than our reputation would have you believe -- there are 260,000 people who are not on trial, but who conduct themselves with utmost integrity every day. This is not a change conversation -- this conversation has already taken place and it continues to take place as we work towards improving this company and restoring it to the glory it deserves. Any talk of the "unethical" Tyco from this point forward will be met with the derision that any factually inaccurate statement should be faced with. We are Tyco, we are not Dennis Kozlowski. It is important that all shareholders understand this -- it means the value of the company is going to go up and any shareholder who fails to believe this should sell now and lose their money like fools."

There is no need for metaphor, as metaphors might confuse the message. The message here is simple and blunt, that the past is the past and not to be confused with the present under any circumstances.