COMM 3170: Introduction to Organizational Communication

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COMM 3170Introduction toOrganizational
Communication

• Summer 2005
• Dan Lair
• d.lair_at_utah.edu

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The Changing Context of Organizational Change

• Global competition
• New technologies (eg, e-organizing)
• Marketization, privatization, managerialism
• Eg, Being customer driven
• Eg, Being lean and mean
• Sustainable development and social responsibility
• Diversity
• Change discourse/rhetoric
• Fashion appeal of change (generally) and
  particular change programs

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Understanding the Nature of Change

• Change v. Innovation
• Assumptions about Change
• Dimensions of Change
• Types of Change

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Visualizing Organizational Change Two Models

• Lewins Model
• Unfreezing
• Vision
• Moving
• Refreezing

• CCZGs Adaptation
• (see box 11.2)
• Social-historical context
• Stages of change
• Feedback
• Metamorphosis

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Key Criteria for Analyzing ChangeHow to
Evaluate Success

• Acceptance
• Fidelity
• Uniformity
• Unintended Consequences

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The Importance of Communication in the Process of
Change

• Identifies possibilities, creates plans (eg,
  brainstorming, environmental scanning)
• Gives direction (eg, vision)
• Reduces uncertainty
• Facilitates commitment
• Feedback enables monitoring, adaptation
• Enables unworkable changes to be resisted,
  detected
• Conversational rehearsal ? development/modificat
  ion of schemas