Change Communication

Organizational change concerns altered or disrupted states in organizations. Scholars have suggested various change models and documented how communicative relationships and actions play an important role in change. Research has primarily sought to understand managers' needs in change processes that are often focused on dissemination of information and framing of change in order to reduce uncertainty and resistance. Communication research has focused on a variety of stakeholders' communicative interactions surrounding change and noted that change and change processes are socially constructed. Key communicative processes of sensemaking, conflict, persuasion, dissent expression, and upward influence combine to shape the course of change in organizations.