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From Blind Chickens to Lions: A process perspective on a planned change approach with a communication strategy focus

Gross, Hanna LU and Schnittger, Julia LU (2020) BUSN49 20201
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
Today’s era of digital transformation requires modern organizations to continuously invest in
new information technology (IT). Managing an organizational change process always implies
challenges and often this process fails to meet its objective. This thesis examines a planned
organizational change process of an IT-tool implementation by taking on a process perspective
to evaluate the employees’ awareness. In our approach, we particularly focus on how the
employees understand and interpret the change process’ communication measures and how this
influences the success of a change. The study is rooted in an interpretative research tradition
and follows the abductive research approach. A qualitative in-depth case study within a
... (More)
Today’s era of digital transformation requires modern organizations to continuously invest in
new information technology (IT). Managing an organizational change process always implies
challenges and often this process fails to meet its objective. This thesis examines a planned
organizational change process of an IT-tool implementation by taking on a process perspective
to evaluate the employees’ awareness. In our approach, we particularly focus on how the
employees understand and interpret the change process’ communication measures and how this
influences the success of a change. The study is rooted in an interpretative research tradition
and follows the abductive research approach. A qualitative in-depth case study within a
consultancy was used to identify the employees’ understanding and interpretation of the change
project. We contribute to the research fields of organizational change and the communication
of change at large by investigating the change project. In this study, we develop the
communication-value-matrix from our main findings and argue that the communication
strategy and the perceived value of the change are two interdependent dimensions. This
communication-value-matrix presents the awareness of employees as four ‘ideal types’ of
sensemaking: lions, donkeys, blind chickens, and foxes. Our findings and theoretical
contributions also intend to support practitioners in their change management. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Gross, Hanna LU and Schnittger, Julia LU
supervisor
organization
course
BUSN49 20201
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Change Management, Planned Organizational Change, Process Perspective, Employee Awareness, Communication, Perceived Value, Sensemaking, IT-tool Implementation, In-depth Case Study, Qualitative Research, Abductive Research Approach, Consultancy
language
English
id
9017325
date added to LUP
2020-06-25 11:30:02
date last changed
2020-06-25 11:30:02
@misc{9017325,
  abstract     = {{Today’s era of digital transformation requires modern organizations to continuously invest in
new information technology (IT). Managing an organizational change process always implies
challenges and often this process fails to meet its objective. This thesis examines a planned
organizational change process of an IT-tool implementation by taking on a process perspective
to evaluate the employees’ awareness. In our approach, we particularly focus on how the
employees understand and interpret the change process’ communication measures and how this
influences the success of a change. The study is rooted in an interpretative research tradition
and follows the abductive research approach. A qualitative in-depth case study within a
consultancy was used to identify the employees’ understanding and interpretation of the change
project. We contribute to the research fields of organizational change and the communication
of change at large by investigating the change project. In this study, we develop the
communication-value-matrix from our main findings and argue that the communication
strategy and the perceived value of the change are two interdependent dimensions. This
communication-value-matrix presents the awareness of employees as four ‘ideal types’ of
sensemaking: lions, donkeys, blind chickens, and foxes. Our findings and theoretical
contributions also intend to support practitioners in their change management.}},
  author       = {{Gross, Hanna and Schnittger, Julia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{From Blind Chickens to Lions: A process perspective on a planned change approach with a communication strategy focus}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}