Kommunikationens implikationer under organisatoriska förändringsfaser. En fallstudie om hur kommunikation påverkar medarbetarnas motivation och förändringsvilja

Abstract

Consumers' needs and behaviors are constantly changing, which places increased demands onorganizations' adaptability and flexibility. Organizations' prerequisites for conductingsuccessful change are therefore crucial for their long-term survival. The motivation ofemployees to carry out the change is therefore of great importance for the implementation. With that background, it is relevant to investigate how the communication of a changeaffected the employees' motivation to carry out the process and identify critical parts of it. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with supervisors and employees to identify gaps between the leaders' communication and motivational strategies and how these have been experienced by the employees and further affected their willingness to change. The study is structured according to Lewin's (1951) three phases of change to distinguish critical moments of communication before, during and after implementation. The result showed a high degree of support for the theoretical framework, but what stood out was the importance of communication during the very first introduction to the change process and the strong connection this had to the employees' motivation. Also noteworthy regarding motivation was the employees' trust and perception of loyalty from the organization and its implications on the type of motivational strategies the employees were receptive to.