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Abstract
Change scholars have largely studied readiness for change (RFC) as an individual’s property and examined its antecedents and outcomes. In this thesis, I identify three limitations of this line of research. First, studies that examine readiness across individuals and groups are limited even though change happens at multiple organizational levels. Second, while communication is critical to explain RFC and other change attitudes, the current conceptualization of communication, namely communication quality, is overly broad and encompasses multiple communication issues. Examining these issues simultaneously would improve our understanding of the influence of communication on change attitudes. Third, I argue that we lack insights into whether RFC varies over time and the factors that influence this temporal variation in the readiness.
In this thesis, I address these three limitations by examining a more nuanced conceptualization of communication in predicting RFC across individuals and groups (i.e., the field study) and over time (i.e., the experimental study). Particularly, I denote RFC at the individual level as individual perceptions of collective RFC and denote RFC at the group level as collective RFC. Regarding my conceptualization of communication, I consider managerial communication efforts and communication strength, instead of communication quality, as two novel and relevant concepts. In the field study, I test if communication that encompasses managerial (formal and informal) communication efforts and communication strength influence multilevel RFC (i.e., individual perceptions of collective RFC and collective RFC) using a field sample of 402 employees in 48 groups. In the experimental study, I examine the effects of these communication variables on individual perceptions of collective RFC over time using a longitudinal sample of 463 undergraduate students.
Results of the two studies indicate that formal and informal communication efforts explain individual perceptions of collective RFC and the change in the perceptions of collective RFC over time. Notably, communication strength is positively associated with multilevel RFC as well as the change in individual perceptions of collective RFC over time. In addition, I find that communication strength partly moderates the multilevel and temporal influence of managerial communication efforts. Overall, the thesis offers implications for theory and practice in organizational change and related literature.
