Communication Process: Atlantic Power Corporation

Final Course Project
MGMT591: Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Professor Darr

Ana Perez ana1025@gmail.com
October 2012

INTRODUCTION
The Energy industry is a very dynamic one and volatile at the same time. In order to be successful in this industry a power producer has to identify the right market according to the type of fuel used to produce the power. There has been a surge of many independent power producers (IPP) that build power plants and sell to either the open market (the power grids) or to a specific customer. When these IPPs are not successful they are usually acquired by a bigger IPP. This was the case I found myself in at Atlantic Power. Atlantic Power is a leading publicly traded, power generation and infrastructure company with a well-diversified portfolio of assets in the United States and Canada. The Company’s power generation projects sell electricity to utilities and other large commercial customers under long-term power purchase agreements, which seek to minimize exposure to changes in commodity prices. Atlantic Power has a combination of natural gas plants, hydro plants, bio-mass plants, and wind projects. The headquarters is in Boston and has satellite offices in Downers Grove, IL and Toronto, CA. I am currently the Operations Controller for the wholly owned plants of the limited partnership of the company. I am accountable for the execution of the monthly accounting close of the legal entities, managing the internal controls and financial audits, and delivering certain financial statements to the Corporate Controller in the Boston office for further consolidation and to internal management for review of operational results.
On November 6, 2011 Atlantic Power Corporation acquired the Partnership plants from Capital Power Income LP, where I was formerly employed at. In fact I started my career with the Partnership when the company was Primary Energy then sold to Epcor Utilities and then sold to Capital Power Income LP and finally sold to Atlantic Power. The acquisition by Atlantic Power resulted in many losing their jobs as well as increased responsibilities for others. Prior to the acquisition, Atlantic had only 12 employees in their Boston corporate office and outsourced many of the shared services and operations of the plants. The leadership of the company wanted to take advantage of the existing established functions of the Partnership to become a full operational corporation. This created a challenging integration process between the Boston and Downers Grove (DG) offices.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The integration of the acquisition began way in advance of the transaction date. Both offices met regularly from August of 2011 when the transition teams were formed. It was a rough start because many changes needed to happen in a very short period of time. Prior to the acquisition Boston was accountable for all of the financial reporting, plant accounting, operations, and human resources; and where they weren’t the company was outsourcing these functions but nevertheless managing the process. It was hard for the Boston office to let go of some responsibilities that were now going to be handled by the DG office. The transition and essence of time made the efforts very tasking and led to problems. Problems were mainly on communications and dealing with a key management employee with an aggressive personality. So Atlantic Power had not only to deal with the continuous transition but also the problems at hand that resulted from the new acquisition. The problem that needs resolution is “How can Atlantic Power’s leadership improve communication and teamwork in spite of post-merger downsizing and resistance to change?” The problem exists because the Boston Corporate office is having a hard time adjusting to the bifurcation of responsibilities between the DG office and the Boston office. The existence of one employee who can become aggressive makes it more difficult for the rest of us to keep communication lines harmonious. The problem affects professionals from both offices as well as the auditors engaged who certify that the financials of the company are accurate and in accordance to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles as well as the internal controls of the organization. Indirectly it is also a problem for the senior leaders of the company because the work being produced by senior management is not efficient and at times inaccurate. Senior leaders were not addressing the problem for the first nine months of post-acquisition; their main concern was ensuring that the transaction was accounted for accurately and timely and that the shareholders would still be paid their dividend. The lack of communication is causing the finance group to spend too much time footing numbers, tying out reports, and duplication of work efforts by both Finance groups, again because Boston was having a hard time delegating and letting the DG office take ownership of their accountabilities. This paper will show that this is not part of a larger problem but more of a recurring problem and one that spans across all departments of the organization and not just Accounting/Finance. Collectively both offices believe in the company’s mission, strive to ensure that the financial position of the company is accurately filed with the SEC, and share in the CEOs vision of collaborating to make this company the biggest independent power producer in the industry.

LITERATURE REVIEW Communication is essential in any type of relationship for it to be a healthy and effective one. Communication is the social glue that holds an organization together. This is where Atlantic Power needs to shift their focus in the short term so that the problem at hand is resolved. Karyn Greengrove wrote a thesis where she presents a viable solution in the healthcare industry but that can be easily applied in my organization. In “Creating sustainable employee engagement strategies”, Karyn focuses on the concept of a positive environment in the workplace especially when satellite offices exist. Her statements would be a key solution to the communication deficiency in Atlantic Power. She states:
“Virtual teams are fast becoming the norm in many organizations (Hambley, O’Neil, & Kline, 2007). Leaders need to focus on the challenges of bringing these individuals together to form collaborative, caring networks that are able to work together on projects and assignments that will ultimately move the department and organization forward with their innovative and creative ideas (Solomon, 2001). Leadership styles will have to vary depending on the level of competence and commitment of the employee.” “Study results suggest trust builds collaborative work environments, and resonant leadership styles are key to sustaining high employee engagement levels both in traditional and virtual teams. Recruitment and retention strategies such as flexible work arrangements, career development, recognition, workplace autonomy, adequate resources, and work-life balance are key engagement drivers.” (2008).
She then goes on the point out some necessary inputs of the employees.
“Being aware of the characteristics that foster high levels of employee engagement is one of the first steps in creating sustainable engagement strategies and environment of empowerment in the workplace. It is also necessary to discover what kind of impact the lack of presence of engaged employees has on an organization. Acquiring a comprehensive understanding of employee engagement enables leaders to better adapt to the dynamic needs of their employees and their organization.” (2008).
The following excerpt hones in on two groups working remotely towards the same goal. Martha J. Fay & Susan L. Kline wrote the following:
“Although organizational researchers have shown that coworker relationships and informal communication are important processes between work colleagues in collocated contexts (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008), far less is known about the coworker relationships and informal communication practices of those who work remotely.” (2011).
One solution they suggest is:
“Specifically, we expect that informal forms of communication, such as talking about friends and family, informal socializing, and learning from coworkers, would help teleworkers acquire the person-centered knowledge useful for facilitating work flow, and that such communication would be associated with satisfying and committed work environments.” (2011).
In this publication the author stresses the importance that the leaders need to impose the communication on the rest of the organization. “This important need requires a new, more comprehensive way of looking at communication; one which uses a more inclusive model or paradigm that enables and empowers upper, middle and lower managers to manage the communication process in their workgroups, departments and divisions. By placing emphasis on communication as a process that "works" or doesn't "work," managers can become aware of how communication functions as a dynamic process and take steps to ensure that it is in fact working in their organizations.” (Robertson 2005).
As a solution to better communication Robertsons offers the following:
“The 11 interpersonal interaction skills that leaders at all levels of the organization can use to strengthen their competence as communicators and help their employees feel affirmed, supported, appreciated and valued are:
1. active listening;
2. empathetic listening;
3. checking accuracy;
4. clarifying meaning;
5. disclosing emotions;
6. encouraging input;
7. providing feedback;
8. soliciting feedback;
9. giving instructions;
10. managing conflict; and
11. constructive feedback” (Robertson 2005)
This article specifically speaks to integration by way of a merger and acquisition. In this article Barbara Fagan-Smith lists excellent reasons why there is a fail in communications during mergers and acquisitions for example, “being too busy to have a plan” or “trying to do it alone”. These were on point reasons as to why at Atlantic there was a bridge in communication amongst leaders and management. And following are some solutions:
Demonstrating consistent humility. Consider the example of Sir Richard Branson, who has even appeared naked in his commercials. If a billionaire knight has nothing to hide, can't we all become a little more comfortable with the risk of humility?
Being more transparent about company processes and performance.
Consider taking a look at the insights of successful entrepreneur Ari Weinzweig in
Zingerman's Guide to Great Leading, Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Building a Great Business. Weinzweig credits what he calls open book management— involving employees in the company's profit and loss reports and in weekly cost. revenue and training goals— with growing his delicatessen from a two-person shop in 1982 to nine businesses employing 575 people and generating US$40 million in annual revenue. And his team members agree. One line cook says that not knowing the score is like being on a sports team but not having access to the playbook. • Letting go of control, with a new emphasis on setting clear, realistic goals without micromanaging how people achieve them. Consider the Southwest Airlines flight attendant David Holmes, who turned the mandatory preHight safety announcement into a rap, earning plaudits from his passengers and fame on YouTube.” (Fagan-Smith, 2012).
Lewis and Romanaggi wrote an excellent article that supports the idea that mergers and acquisitions can never be pleasant, that they come with various types of challenges. In the following portion let me lay out some of the solutions they recommend:
“Although people in every business era commonly point to their own period of change as the most severe in history, there is good reason to believe that the pace and scope of changes today are unprecedented, at least in our lifetime. Economic uncertainty is only partially to blame. Far graver is the fact that changes are occurring on multiple concurrent paths - faster, more broadly and more globally than ever before - with little, if any time to rest. Distrust and uncertainty are widespread, and change fatigue has set in with many companies - too much change, too fast.
All these characteristics of the business environment mean that the ability to manage change, which really translates to the ability to move the people of an organization toward new goals and new ways of performing, now stands as a differentiating capability for executives and the companies they lead. Based on our experience of helping executives manage their organizations across multiple types of change journeys, we have found that successful management of organizational change can be summed up in six key imperatives: * Manage natural resistance to change. * Sustain performance in an environment of constant change. * Personalize the benefits of change. * Lead, sponsor and communicate throughout the change process. * Support people through the difficult points of the change journey. * Focus on new behaviours, not new attitudes.
Each of these areas involves new mindsets, skills and initiatives. Organizations that can operate successfully across these areas are able to work from a much stronger position when it comes to realizing sustainable competitive advantage and high performance in these uncertain times”. (Lewis, Romanaggi, 2010).
The last literary review speaks about the effects of downsizing and how to cope with it.
“Actions can also be taken to remedy the situation of employees who feel like victims because of the downsizing. One action which could be taken would be to counsel the victims and explain to them that downsizing was necessary for the company (either economically or structurally) and that the company values them. If managers can clearly define the victims' new roles and encourage them by giving them recognition, it is possible to move the victims out of their quadrant and into the followers quadrant. These strategies for managers of a downsized organization can be beneficial for the survivors as well as for future directions”. (Applebaum, 1999).
ANALYSIS
As I ponder on the problem that exists at Atlantic Power I realize that you have to explore the root cause of it in order to find solutions. Therefore, before laying out the potential solutions I’ve gathered from my literature review and textbook concepts I will first explore the root causes of the communication problem at Atlantic. The first root cause I will identify is the lack of teamwork by one employee and the reasons why. Amongst the two groups, the finance group in DG and the group in Boston, there is an aggressive employee that makes it difficult to bridge the lines of communication amongst the groups. This employee is from the Boston group and his role is Corporate Controller. Needless to say it is a key position in the company. Following are a few examples of his behavior and these examples will reveal that it is a direct cause for the lack of communication at Atlantic. The corporate controller has a tendency to “jump the gun” sort of speak; he is very quick to place blame, make erroneous assumptions, and vocalize his dislike of errors or changes to the norm. He has created a volatile environment and one where the rest of cringe at the sight of his phone number showing up on the caller identification. The rest of us in the finance team have become less motivated to continue on as working as a team; he has become an ineffective manager. Also, his negative personality traits and type A orientation has made it unbearable for the rest of us to put up with. Having been the only controller in the company and now sharing a similar role with me has made particular interaction and business relationship more straining than with others. When the acquisition occurred I became his peer, not his subordinate. To this day he has a hard time accepting that. This is clearly a case of substantive and emotional conflict. Our textbook stated that “when parties disagree over substantive issues and emotional issues create friction between groups”. (Schermerhorn, 2011). Both of these types of conflicts were a big factor to the problem encountered at Atlantic.
Another major contributor to the communication gap at Atlantic Power is that there is no transparencies to the workflows of each other’s groups that will help understand the overall picture of reporting requirements. As previously stated, Atlantic Power was a group of about 16 employees at the corporate office pre-acquisition. This meant that they were accountable for all of the accounting and external financial reporting requirements. When it came to sharing responsibilities as a result of the acquisition the Boston office had a hard time “letting go”, soon after the DG office realized that efforts were being duplicated. The DG office was given its new responsibilities but the Boston office was continuing to generate the same financial information. As this was addressed the Boston office got better at letting go but with that came other challenges. In the DG office we were being asked for financial information and when produced to them we were being told that it was wrong, or the wrong items or not tying out to previously submitted information. Since the flow of information was unilateral, those of us in the DG office did not fully understand the purpose of the financial request and more importantly we did not see the finished product. It almost seemed like we were just cranking out work and not being incorporated into the process. Personally I was missing the intrinsic reward of my hard work especially after the long hours and challenges with integrating two publicly held companies with by way of an acquisition. The consequence of this type of management was loss of commitment and motivation by many of us in the DG office.
During this time there was also an effort by leadership to eliminate dual roles caused by the acquisition. Many of my co-workers were let go and with that a sense of uncertainty fell upon the rest of the office. Was leadership truly eliminating dual roles or is this the beginning of functions being absorbed by the corporate office in Boston?

SOLUTIONS
“How can Atlantic Power’s leadership improve communication and teamwork in spite of post-merger downsizing and resistance to change?” Without a doubt there may be more than the few solutions to the communication problems at Atlantic than I will list; but any one of these would be a giant step towards forming a sustainable team.
The first potential solution is the formalization of processes and procedures for new integrated Finance Group. The initial step would be to have both groups come together in person to discuss the different methodologies currently in place and decide which is the most effective and sharing best practices. This first step in fact has already taken place between both groups, leadership identified the need for teamwork in order to prevent failure within the reporting requirements and the complete integration of the two companies. The Boston group came to DG and a third party consultant also joined the meeting. At this meeting the requirements were laid out and then each group had a chance to walk through the process by which the work is performed. In some instances we debated which methodology was best and in other cases both groups were sharing best practices. The consultant took notes, asked some key questions, and most importantly head speared the discussions. The next step is for this consultant to come back with a plan that would allocate responsibilities to each group and suggest the best methodologies in order to have uniformity amongst the groups. The result…team effectiveness!
Another solution would be to offer coaching seminars to the individual who becomes aggressive with the rest of the group during stressful times; encouraging self-help programs. Leadership has to realize that having this type of personality within the group can become detrimental to the whole company. The acquisition and downsizing are two major events that a company can go through and every party involved in these events needs to maintain professionalism and learn to work with satellite offices. Steps to effect this change would be to administer harassment training for all employees and secondly to make it a requirement for all employees to attend seminars that will help managers become good mentors, adapt to teams that have different types of personalities, and learn the ability to learn to deal with stressful situations.
And lastly another solution would be to create a calendar that shows the different deadlines that both groups need to adhere to in order to meet filing deadlines. This solution targets the communication gap with the groups. An accounting calendar should also include the different expectations from each group in terms of deliverables. Maintain and distribute monthly or quarterly. The most important step in this solution is to assign the creation of this calendar to one person and that person solicits the feedback of all of those in the distribution list of this calendar. The inputs of all parties involved would make the calendar’s deadlines realistic. By having leadership implement this solution they would be rest assured that the company’s shareholders would have timely results presented and timely and accurate distributions.

REFLECTION I’ve learned so much professionally from having gone through an acquisition with my organization. Not only did I gain knowledge on a few accounting topics I hadn’t been exposed to but I also learned to deal with stressful situations and how to work with others that have different personalities, good and bad. This paper though added something more to the experience itself; writing this paper and taking this class allowed me to do a true reflection of myself when dealing with different people and exposed the type of manager I am. The most important concept that will resonate with me throughout my career is the rule of conformity. This rule states that the greater the cohesiveness, the greater the conformity of members to team norms. I believe that with the steps that the leadership of Atlantic has already taken will only increase effective teamwork between the different groups and remediate the gaps of communication throughout the whole organization. In this manner leadership will be able to promote adaptive changes and management would promote in turn promote stability and enable all departments in the organization to run smoothly. Writing this paper has definitely helped me understand the steps in team building and its stages of development; understand the different types of conflicts and how to deal with them and finally the advantages of effective communication. After writing this paper I feel empowered in my current role to effect change that my leaders are promoting and identify a fail in any if the stages in team building in time to remediate. I’ve learned to be proactive instead of reactive.

WORKS CITED
Greengrove, K. (2008). Creating sustainable employee engagement strategies. Royal Roads University (Canada)). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 192-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304812951?accountid=44759. (304812951).

Fay, Martha J.; Coworkers Relationships and Informal Communication in High Intensity Telecommuting, Kline, Susan L. Journal of Applied Communication Research. May2011, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p144-163. 20p. DOI: 10.1080/00909882.2011.556136.

Robertson, E. (2005). Placing leaders at the heart of organizational communication. Strategic Communication Management, 9(5), 34-37. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203576150?accountid=44759

Fagan-Smith, Barbara., All Together Now, Communication World. Jul/Aug2012, Vol. 29 Issue 4, p35-36. 2p.

Lewis, E., Romanaggi, D., & Chapple, A. (2010). Successfully managing change during uncertain times. Strategic HR Review, 9(2), 12-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14754391011022217

Appelbaum, S. H., Close, T. G., & Klasa, S. (1999). Downsizing: An examination of some successes and more failures. Management Decision, 37(5), 424-436. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212073923?accountid=44759
Schermerhorn Jr, J.R. Hunt, J.G. Oldon, R.N & Uhl-Bien M. (2011) Organization behavior. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.