Content area
Full Text
Keywords
Organizational change, Change management, Communications, Employees involvement, Organizational culture
Abstract
This paper builds upon work already completed by the authors on the nature of the link between internal communication and the successful implementation of change management programmes in Northern Ireland companies. During 1999 and 2000 the theoretical foundation in the requisite areas of this study was completed. Then in the latter half of 2000 and the early months of 2001 the pilot phase of the research was undertaken. The purpose of this paper is therefore to contextualise and relay the findings of the study thus far.
Introduction
Living and coping with change is a fact of life for organisations and the individuals within them. This paper aims to explore how internal communication facilitates the change process within companies in a Northern Ireland context. It builds upon work already undertaken in the area using the results of a pilot study, which was completed in the early half of 2001.
The structure of the paper is as follows, the next section will review why the area of internal communication and its link to change management warrants investigation along with the factors that impinge on the efficacy of both. The methodological approach adopted and how it was operationalised will then be reviewed before the results are detailed. Finally the concluding part of the paper will demonstrate how the results of the pilot study will help to facilitate the design and implementation of the main part of this research project.
Understanding the importance of internal communication in change management
Many factors such as globalisation, technological advances, deregulation, privatisation, mergers or acquisitions coupled with a movement of labour-intensive projects to less expensive locations and changing customer demands are forcing organisations to constantly review their purpose and raison d'etre. This evaluative process will help them to decide which changes: strategic or operational, will have to be made in order to survive and grow. According to Micklethwait (1999) in this new dynamic environment the "only constant is change". Yet research indicates that up to 70 per cent of change programmes fail (Senge et al., 1999; Patterson, 2000; Beer and Nohria, 2000; Bulletpoint, 1998) and poor internal communication is seen as the principle reason for such failure by...