The Role of Communication Strategies in Change Management ...

Somboon Kulvisaechana
working here for 17 years. In my perspective, I think the majority of the Consignia
employees understand that we cannot sit back and relax any more because we cannot
afford to lose our business to the competitors.”
- Service Assistant A
The issue of the terminology, ‘resistance,’ which seems to intrinsically convey an undesirable
connotation to the message receivers, is raised during the course of interviews. Though a
terminological generality of “resistance” is denoted and widely used, some employees, who
may or may not be mentally resistant to change, feel fairly defensive against it. A certain
number of interviewees suggest to choose a more appropriate word, which at least carries
literally less defensive connotation, when used to communicate with staff. It could be the
word ‘response’ or ‘reaction.’ In fact, changing the word itself may not provide a striking
solution to the resistance to change problem, rather than alleviating the potential
psychological effect.
“We need to take a close look at what it means by “resistance” and find the way to
cope with it. Actually, the real problem of change resistance is insufficient effort,
time and imagination given to getting employees to change. Understanding the
change can bring down a negative response to change, eventually.”
- Board Executive A
Another interesting view toward the terminology of ‘resistance to change’ is shown below.
“The word ‘resistance’ may make people feel defensive. However, I don’t think we
should change the word, but we need to change the way we give the message. The
message should be about creating the need for people to move forward and
influencing them to acknowledge the significance of change.”
- Senior Manager B
4.2.5 Communication Strategies
A communication strategy is the key fundamental part of the change management strategy.
It facilitates the change process by allowing change messages to cascade down from the top
of organization to the operational level. Also, a series of effective channel communications is
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