The Role of Communication Strategies in Change Management ...

Somboon Kulvisaechana
Nonetheless, in the article, Managing Rapid Change: From Theory to Practice, written by
McDonald (2000), theoretical and practical perspectives on organizational change are
distinguished. He notes that some academics have applied Darwin’s “survival of the fittest”
theory to the organizational change theory (Vaill, 1989). Meaning that any organizations,
which fail to make changes, are likely to be eliminated from the competition. In practice,
several organizations have put an emphasis on measurable ‘results driven change’ because it
serves as one of the most powerful approaches to change management. Such evaluation
results primarily purports to spell out the level of corporate performance improvement.
Scrutinized from those perspectives, both academics and practitioners have contributed to the
notion of changes that aims to help the firm outperform competitors.
Burke and Litwin (1992) argue that, despite the complexity of change issues, the notion of
transformational and transactional dynamics inherent in successful change efforts can be
identified (see Appendix 1). Transformational factors deal with areas that require new
employee behaviors as a consequence of external and internal environmental pressures, such
as leadership, culture, and mission. On the contrary, transactional factors deal with
psychological and organizational variables that predict and control the motivational and
performance consequences of a work group’s climate. These variables include management
practices, structure, systems (policies and procedures), and task requirements.
2.1.2 The Significance of Change Management
The concept of change in organizations has captured both academics’ and practitioners’
attention for decades. Kennerfalk and Klefsjo (1995) suggest that the fundamental changes in
organizations can be categorized into two main dimensions: changes in culture (Silvester et
al., 1999; Brown, 1998) and changes in structure (Daft, 2001; Bloodgood and Morrow,
2000). As for the structural change in organization, Fenton and Pettigrew (2000) study about
the evolution of the theoretical perspectives of organization design, ranging from bureaucratic
organization (Weber, 1947) to network organization (Uzzi, 1997) during the past 50 years. In
their work, empirical evidence on change management constructs is emphasized. On the
other hand, Chandler (1994) comments that the importance of change management in 1990s
can be better comprehended if it is viewed in the context of corporate expansion, contraction,
and restructuring.
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