Change Communication from an Intercultural Perspective - Culture Specific Objectives of Change Communication

This paper reviews cultural influences on change communication objectives. Change communication has been identified as a crucial aspect in change management activities in international organizations. While previous research has made great progress in understanding the role, outcome and barriers of change communication, we have not fully appreciated the effect of intercultural influences on communication objectives. At the same time, other lines of research highlight the fact that values, perception and attitude are highly culture bound and have an effect on the success of a change process. There still is a lack of change communication approaches that consider specific international differences. The research objective of this paper will therefore focus on developing a theoretical model of specific change communication objectives according to the cultural dimensions of individualism-collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. It gives a first insight into cultural influence on change communication and introduces specific factors, which need to be considered when planning a change communication strategy in transnational change processes. This paper gives a theoretical view on the topic. The design model will be tested in a cross-cultural study in the near future.