Communicating organizational change

Organizations are collaborations created by humans. People have an idea of what is possible, desirable, practicable and achievable and reflect these ideas towards the organization. An organization is therefore a human relational construct (Gerrichhauzen, Kampermann & Klytmans, 2001; Putnam & Nicotera, 2010). Organizations experience both internal and external pressure to change. Technological and production processes, laws and regulations initiated from the government, political and social events, globalization and the complexity of the current economy contribute to the pressure. An organizational change entails a series of attempts to change certain aspects within an organization concerning structure, technology, work related tasks, goals and strategies. Think of the flexibility of an organization, innovation, the development and implementation of new and/or existing ideas, processes, products and services (Iverson, 1996). An organizational change is seen as change management in relation to planning and thinking. Furthermore, organizational changes are happening systematic and aware by means of interventions to improve the organizational system (Cozijnsen & Vrakking, 2003).

An organizational change is mostly relevant to several departments within an organization. In many cases a change strategy is prepared. The organization needs to deal with various tasks during the process of change namely; to determine the new situation, to determine which changes are needed in relation to the functioning of the organization and planning, stimulating, coordinating, controlling and correcting the change process. By this approach organizational communication is used in order to decrease the amount of resistance by employees and to increase the willingness to change (Putnam, Grant, Michelson & Cutcher, 2005). Employees need to get conscious of the change and need to see the benefit and necessity of the change before even willing to change. Moreover, a proper basis needs to be created for the character and direction of the change. By using internal communication, thresholds such as (emotional) consequences and insecurity for employees can be reduced (Alblas & Wijsdam, 2005).

How to communicate?

The communication climate plays an important role in the process of sense making (Ford, 1999; Hofstede, 2005). Research has shown that sense making can be beneficial to both emotional and physical health and commitment to change (Frankl, 1963; Taylor, Kemeny, Reed, Bower & Gruenewald, 2000). The perceptions of the employees about the quality of the relations with the management, the quality of the communication within the organization and the amount of feedback, input and advice that employees are able to give is also known as the communication climate (Abbasi & Hollman, 1993; Wanberg & Banas, 2000; Smidts, Pruyn & Van Riel, 2001; Elving, 2005).
A good communication climate during organizational change consists of the opportunity for employees to communicate personally with the management, to have the opportunity to give feedback, input and advice related to the change. Sufficient space is needed to ask questions, to start a discussion and to criticize the change process. Subsequently, formal and informal communication, part of the communication climate, play an important role during the process of change (Hofstede, 2005; Elving 2005).

The information spread within the company about the organizational change is important for the employees. Important matters concerning employees are: What is actually changing within the organization, in which way, with what kind of consequences and what is the influence of the change on the individual? Sharing information with the employees about the goals, the planning and the content of the change are essential within the process (Elving & Bennebroek Gravenhorst, 2005).

Research showed that the most fruitful and effective way of communicating organizational change is to create a climate where employees have the opportunity to have a voice in the change process, where feedback can be given and where there can be negotiated and reflected on the change process. Furthermore, searching for dialogue is an important aspect of the communication process (Van Ruler, 1998; Clampitt, De Koch & Cashman, 2000; Elving, 2005). The choice for certain communication strategies is dependent on the character of the change process, which are frequently combinations of several strategies and forms of communication (Elving, 2006).