The Role of Communication in Change Management

Abstract

Change management has been a subject of interest for many researchers due to the rapidly transforming business environment. Communication, on the other hand, plays a critical role to decide the fate of these changes. Therefore, it has been a tricky subject to bring into analysis what counts as a ‗successful‘ communication approach to adopt during change activities. This thesis scrutinizes communication strategies adopted during a planned change process with the help of an empirical approach. For this specific study, the author aims to highlight a planned merger in two Swedish organizations with respect to the ubiquitous aspect of ‗communication‘ as well as the resultant cultural clashes. The study aims to investigate how did the top management of both organizations devised communication strategies in the context of the merger plan so as to deal with differences in organizational cultures. This research is qualitative in nature and semi structured interviews were conducted for the purpose of data collection. Data analysis is done using thematic approach which is a commonly used method of content analysis in the field of qualitative research. The study findings represent eight common themes that have a focus on different communication strategies employed by the top management of the merged organizations. Cultural differences in both firms were related to the aspects of working environment, mindset, expectations, behaviors and attitudes. Yet, at the same time a number of drawbacks were identified in communication. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to note that various steps are taken in response by the management to solve these problems, which are still in progress so their results are yet to reveal in the upcoming years.