CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The
growing globalization of business and increasing competition and technological
advancement has led to an increasing need to change organizational polices and
strategies (Hampel and Martinsons, 2009). The pace of challenges is increasing
and thus organizational change is considered unavoidable (Drucker, 1999).
Organizational
change is the continuous process of aligning an organization with its market
place and doing it more responsively and effectively than competitors. Thus,
organizational change management is a continuous process of experiment and
adaptation aimed at matching organizational capabilities to the needs and
dictates of a dynamic business environment Rogers (1995).
As
such, in a highly competitive environment, organizational change becomes
indispensable for greater success and excellence. This is due to the dynamism
of the internal and external business environment. But inspite of the
importance of change management to organization success, employees in most
organization resist change, sequel to wrong perception and their in ability to
adapt to new development and shifting from their current point. As such,
organizational scholars have long
acknowledge the importance of communication strategy in explanation of
organizational change in order to clearly communicate in advance, the short and
long term effect as well as the benefits and short comings of such change
management. This is in order to avoid potential loss that could arise from
cynicism in certain group of employees and consequently change resistance
Langham (1996).
In
organization, most problems and challenges are generated by competition,
advance technology, mergers, expansion, product quality maintenance, or
enhancing employee efficiency on the one hand and rapid growth, new business
venture, exciting opportunities, innovation, and new leadership and management
approaches on the other (Madsen et al, 2005). To overcome these challenges,
organizations are often under pressure for survival and stay competitive in
future. In such adverse environment, employee attitude and behavior to accept
organizational change is considered important for management and change agents
for successful organizational change. This is sequel to the way in which most
employee resist change from the onset,
Hence
the need to use communication to inform and educate employee on such organizational
change before it commences.
It
is against this background that the researcher sees the subject matter “The
effect of communication on employee’s perception to change in an organization”
worthy of being investigated through this survey.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Organizational
is basically confronted with issue of change resistance by employee. This has
been a big challenge as well as impediment to management of organization during
such period. This is attributed to constraints arising from the inability of
management to communicate such change in advance through effective
communication before implementation. Communication problems are common place
when change are not clearly identified Lewis (2007). Not only do they cause a
drain on profitability, but also the effectiveness of management declines. In
the work of Dawson (2006), he opined that there are many underlying reasons why
communication often falls short of the ideas, which are “accuracy, reliability,
validity, adequacy and effectives,” are addressed with some general issues
within the relationship between information and communication in organizations.
Lewis
(2007)’s research findings, the most frequently noted categories of problem
encountered by the company in transition are “communicating vision” and
negative attitudes”. If an organization’s management does not consider which
communication behaviours, it wishes to foster for its success, the signals it
sends to employees may be inconsistent or counterproductive. Thus managers
should consider conveying clear communication behavour expectations as a
fundamental element of strategy. In doing so, firms might pursue communication
audits which involve ethnographic analysis, including observational and
interviewing, to learn exactly what organizational policies are operating
Gilsdorf, (2008). Moreover, Gilsdorf moves on to argue that analysis of
organizational culture should be conducted in order to help determine
communication strategy used to solve the problem.
This
has cause organization to suffer loss arising from change resistance. Hence the
need to investigated the effect of communication on employee’s perception to
change in an organization becomes imperative. This is so sequel to gap created
by inadequate researches on the subject which has great importance to
organizational growth.
1.3 Research Questions
i. How
is communication use in managing organizational change?
ii. What
forms of communication is used in managing change in an organization?
iii. How is communication use in reducing
change resistance?
iv.
What is the effect of communication on
workers productivity during organizational change?
1.4 Objective of the study
The
central objective of the study is to examine the effect of communication on
employees perception to change in an organization. The specific objectives are:
i.
To identify how communication is use to
manage change in an organization.
ii.
To identify the various forms of
communication that can be used to manage change in an organization.
iii.
To find out how communication is used to
reduce change resistance.
iv.
To examine the effect of communication
on workers’ productivity during organizational change.
1.5 Statement of Hypothesis
H1: Communication has a significant effect on
organizational change.
H2: Communication
does not have a significant effect on organizational change.
1.6 Significance of the study
The
study would be important to corporate organizations, individual, scholars and
researchers.
To
corporate organization the study will be use as a basis for policy formulation
and decision making regarding organizational change.
The
study will benefit individual scholars and researchers who may wish to use this
project report as a basis for further studies.
The
study will also add to the existing knowledge in the role of communication in
organizational change.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The
covers an investigation of the effect of communication in organizational
change. The collection of primary data fall with the boundaries of Synergy
Limited Kaduna. The period under review is limited to the time from 2006 to
2011.
1.8 Definition of Term
·
Communication:
Medium
use to inform employees about organizational change.
·
Change
Management: This are strategies formulated minimize
change resistance and foster effective reengineering of workflow.
·
Organizational
Change: This are adjustment made in work process or
reengineering of an organizational change.