Effective communication during organizational change: a cross-cultural perspective
Cross Cultural & Strategic Management
ISSN: 2059-5794
Article publication date: 27 April 2022
Issue publication date: 18 July 2022
Abstract
Purpose
There is a growing consensus about the role of communication in facilitating employees' acceptance of and support for organizational change initiatives. However, little is known about why communication breakdowns occur during change or how change recipients' cultural values can influence the effectiveness of communication in this context. The study addresses this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a theoretical framework that links four purposes of communication during change—disrupting, envisioning, legitimizing, and co-creating—to change recipients' cultural orientations. The authors also develop propositions that highlight how change agents' cultural sensitivity influences the relationship between communication purpose and the change readiness of change recipients.
Findings
The study implies that greater awareness and consideration of cultural values can reduce the likelihood of communication breakdowns and promote greater acceptance of and support for change initiatives. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of their theoretical framework for micro-level perspectives on change.
Practical implications
Although failures to change have in the past been linked to poor communication efforts by change agents, less is known about how or why communication breakdowns occur from the perspective of change recipients. The framework teases out issues related to the “what”, ‘how”, and “why” aspects of communication and offers prescriptions on the best approaches to communicate change.
Social implications
Despite the rise of multicultural workforces and a recognition of the role played by cultural values in influencing leadership practices across cultures, theories of change have neglected these elements. Effective change efforts not only help enable economic and social renewal, they also enable the well-being of employees. Additionally, many change initiatives in the modern era have social implications (e.g. enhancing sustainability, inclusion and diversity).
Originality/value
A key contribution is a synthesis of different bodies of literature that have developed separately from each other. The authors offer some nuanced and counter-intuitive insights into what makes communication effective during change and identify culturally sensitive communication as an antecedent of change readiness.
Keywords
Citation
Shrivastava, S., Pazzaglia, F., Sonpar, K. and McLoughlin, D. (2022), "Effective communication during organizational change: a cross-cultural perspective", Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 675-697. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCSM-08-2021-0144
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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