The Role of Communication Strategies in Change Management ...

Somboon Kulvisaechana
undertaken. Fundamentally, there are diverse ways to formulate change strategies, depending
upon the extent of potential change, the time and the information available and the power
distribution in the organization (Heracleous and Langham, 1996). According to the literature,
a change management team with high credibility and intellectual ability should be identified
in the first place (Heracleous and Langham, 1996). Such a team normally comprises change
agents, or top managers, and other key persons to trigger and mobilize the change engines
throughout the organization. Not only do the top managers play this critical role, but middlelevel
managers can also bring about profound change since they are the ones who directly
involve in day-to-day business operations (Harari, 1999b).
Although a debate between general managers and change specialists in taking charge of the
change drives is substantial, there is usually one individual, regardless of those titles, who
takes charge of ensuring the change effort takes place and is well carried out (Burnes, 2000).
With this respect, Hartley et al. (1997) and Beer (1994) argue that there has been relatively
little empirical research on the clear-cut roles played by change agents. However, Buchanan
and Boddy (1992), cited by Burnes (2000: p. 298), analyze the skills and competency
essential to be a successful change agent by depicting that “a picture of the change agent is a
highly skilled and well-trained political operator who has not only an in-depth knowledge of
change processes and tools, but also the personal qualities and experiences to use them both
in the open, and especially, behind the scenes.”
In order to formulate change strategies, a series of change stages needs to be closely
scrutinized. Traditionally, Lewin (1947), cited by Burnes (2000), provides a classic
framework of change levels: unfreezing, moving and refreezing. Each phase is consistent
with certain social behaviors and a particular cognitive state (Brown, 1995). A better
understanding of change has been supported by empirical evidence from various authors,
namely Weiss (2001), Bloodgood and Morrow (2000), Bolman and Deal (1999), and Day
(1999). In the recent work of Armenakis and Bedeian (1999), employee behaviors in the
change process have been extensively studied. Furthermore, Isabella (1990) and Jaffe et al.
(1994) propose a relatively similar model of change stages as to the employee’s reaction as
shown in Figure 3.
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