Culture-specific objectives of change communication: An intercultural perspective

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Change communication has been identified as a crucial aspect of change management activi-ties in international organizations. While previous research has made great progress in understanding the role, outcome and barriers to communication in organizational change, we have not fully appreciated the effect of intercultural influences on change commu-nication objectives. At the same time, other research emphasizes that values, perceptions and attitudes, which are important factors in communication, are influenced by culture and affect the success of change processes. Still, there is a paucity of change communication approaches that consider specific interna-tional differences. This paper will therefore focus on developing a theoretical model of specific change communication objectives with respect to the cultural dimensions of individualism-collectivism (IC), power dis-tance (PD) and uncertainty avoidance (UA). It gives a first insight into cultural influence on change communication and introduces spe-cific factors that need to be considered when planning change communication strategies in transnational settings.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Management and Change
Volume1/2
Issue number30/31
Pages (from-to)180-193
Number of pages14
ISSN2228-2181
Publication statusPublished - 2013