Readiness for change:

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Readiness for change:

The story of culture and communication

Master thesis, Msc Business Administration Specialization: Change Management

June, 2012

Linda Doorenspleet Student number: 1683845

University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business

Andalusiëstraat 60 1827 CW Alkmaar Tel: +31 (0) 610473252 E-‐mail: lindadoorenspleet@hotmail.com Supervisor/university J. Rupert/ C. Reezigt

Supervisor/ field

of study

L. Rood

Acknowledgment:

I would like to give a special thanks to Joyce Rupert for her help, her feedback, and her enthusiasm during this research project. During the periods when I made the thesis too difficult than necessary, she gave the right feedback and a positive boost so I could continue. I want to thank the organization for the opportunity to conduct this research and all respondents who filled in the questionnaire. And lastly, thanks to Lisette Rood, my supervisor at the organization. She gave her point of view, ideas and critical feedback, but above all, she supported me when needed.

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Readiness for change:

The story of culture and communication?

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the extent to which organizational culture is related to change readiness, and whether communication strategy has a mediating role in this relationship. Data was gathered through distributing surveys and correlation and regression analyses were performed on a dataset of 87 respondents working for a multinational in the Netherlands. The added value of this research lies in the used models. The model for communication strategies has not been used in combination with change readiness before.

As proposed, the flexible-‐oriented cultures are positive related to change readiness, and control-‐ oriented cultures are negatively related to change readiness, although flexible-‐oriented culture is the strongest predictor. Surprisingly, the mediation hypothesis for flexible-‐oriented culture and

communication is supported in this research. Meaning that when flexible-‐oriented communication is controlled, the flexible-‐oriented cultures do not have any influence on change readiness anymore.

Keywords: change readiness, organizational culture, communication

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1. INTRODUCTION

John F. Kennedy said once “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. ” (Frankfurt, 25-‐6-‐1963). In the last thirty years, the complexity,

turbulence and instability of organizational environments increased, due to the rapid changes and growth in knowledge and technology (Conrad and Poole, 2005). Organizations which operate in dynamic, unpredictable environments have to adapt constantly to the rapid changes in these environments (Armenakis et al., 1993, Conrad and Poole, 2005). That is why Elving (2005) mentions that the only thing that is constant within organizations are the continuous changes. However, research estimated that approximately 70% of the change initiatives fail (Allen et al., 2007; Cameron & Quinn, 2011, Todnem, 2007). Jones (2005) even states that the employees’ attitudes towards change are critical whether a change will succeed or not. Because the often inability of organizations to create readiness for change, many change efforts result in resistance. Also Armenakis et al. (1993) mention that one of the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of implemented changes, is the readiness for change.

As a retail organization, the multinational has a dynamic environment with a lot of competitors. They need to adapt quickly to responses from their competitors and innovations in the Market. In 2009 (appendix A), the organization announced, in order to build a strong platform for future growth, that they were planning to standardize processes.

To maintain the growth and the high Market share, the organization follows an aggressive growth strategy. To drive this strategy they set a few clear goals which include the creation of transferable capabilities, standardization of IT, the facilitation of expansion and continuity.

To realize the growth strategy, a concept ‘ Retailbox’ has been created. The Retailbox comprises all commercial concepts, the organization model, the business model, and all systems and processes of the organization. To improve all systems and processes, a change project is initiated.

1.1 Objective of the study

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In the first weeks of working at the organization, people mentioned that meetings and the

communication were not effective enough. There were too many meetings, people communicated a lot. However, the purpose and outcome of those meetings and communication was often unclear. People related that to the organizational culture. Within the multinational, cooperation and working in teams is very important. A lot of discussions take place within, sometimes, several teams, before a decision is made. And because of the number of teams, each with different purposes, the

communication is occasionally unclear.

The Competing Values Framework of Cameron and Quinn (2011) also link communication to organizational culture. As a consequence, the objective of this research is to get insight in how the culture affects the readiness for change of employees, who are involved in the first implementation phase of the change project. And what the role of communication is on this relationship. The ultimate goal is to give recommendations towards the project team how they must proceed or should change the way the project team approach employees, in the way the preferred culture of employees describes during the rest of the change project.

The research question applied to this research is:

How does organizational culture affect the readiness for change and what is the role of communication in this relationship?

The following conceptual model will explain the research question which is stated above:

FIGURE 1 Conceptual model

In order to explain the variables as stated in the conceptual model, the following chapter will describe and discuss readiness for change, organizational culture and communication.

Organizational

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2. THEORY

Organizations operate in dynamic environments (Neves, 2009; Walinga, 2008). In these

environments there is a continuous need for adoption and implementation of changes within all fields of the organization. Whether these changes are little adjustments in processes of a department or affect the structure of an organization, there are a lot of factors within an organization involved. One of these factors are the employees of the organization. They need to accept and be ready for the change before changes can be successfully implemented.

2.1 Change Readiness

Change involves moving from knowing to unknowing (Cummings & Worley, 2008; Bovey & Hede, 2001). People are used to the status quo, the daily processes and procedures and ways of behaving, when that changes, the future, the new status quo, is often uncertain. This will not only have impact on the organization, it may also affect employee’s work, competencies, job descriptions, norms and values. Because of the uncertain future, the essential stakeholder of a change, the employee, can be the biggest obstacle to realize the change (Cummings & Worley, 2008). They generally do not support change unless there are compelling reasons which convince them to change. They need to be ready for change (Cummings & Worley, 2008, Neves, 2009). Change agents, who have the responsibility for directing, organizing and implementation of the change are able to motivate members of the organizations (Burnes, 2005; Ford et. al., 2008). When change agents resist the change or break agreements towards the organization, violate trust or fail to communicate the change in such a way that people will support the change. As a consequence, due to their actions or inactions, change agents can contribute to the resistance to change of employees (Ford et al., 2008).

‘Change readiness is reflected in organizational members ’beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding the extent to which changes are needed and the organization’s capacity to successfully make those changes. It is the cognitive precursor to the behaviors of either resistance to, or support for, a change effort’ (Armenakis, Harris & Mossholder, 1993:681). Change readiness is linked to positive views about the need for changes and to what extent those changes have positive implications for the employees and the organization (Jones, 2005). Also Berneth (2004) mentions in his definition that readiness is more than believing in change. It is a collection of intentions and thoughts towards the change effort.

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Besides these views on change readiness, Lewin believes that in the first phase of his Three-‐Step model of change (unfreezing-‐moving-‐refreezing), employees become prepared for the change and will, ideally, support the change. In the unfreezing phase the equilibrium, the status quo of an organization will be destabilized (unfrozen), and a rational will be developed why the change is necessary, as a result readiness for change should be formed in this phase. (Lewin, in: Burnes, 2009; Armenakis et.al ,1993).

Holt (2007) states that readiness reflects the extent to which individuals are emotionally, cognitively and intentionally motivated to accept and embrace the intended change. This three-‐dimensional view on change readiness is also supported by Piderit (2000), who proposes that the responses of employees to organizational changes are captured along three dimensions: emotional responses, which refers to the feelings of an individual towards change, cognitive responses, which refers to the beliefs and thoughts of an individual about the intended change, and behavioral responses refers to which extend an individual is willing to take actions to support the change. These responses will lead to the decision whether an employee either resist to, or support the change (Piderit, 2000).

Readiness for change is often linked to resistance to change. It can be placed on a continuum with both resistance to change and readiness for change as extremes. When people do not accept and embrace the change, the readiness for change is low and they are more likely neglect the change. When an employee does accept and embrace the change, the readiness for change will be high and the employee will probably support the change (Elving, 2005).

The implementation of the change means that the system changes and processes will be different. The impact analysis shows that employees need to change their way of working, some of them even have to change their role. The change of the system and processes is the technical side of the change. This includes that when the change is implemented the old systems and process will not be used anymore and people will work with the new system and processes. The human aspect of this change is that people change from a reactive way of working i.e. waiting for the information, to a proactive way of working i.e. searching for information. People are not used to this way of working, and need to change their own behavior. A possible consequence is, that people will not change their behavior, and thus will resist the change. This research focuses on the whether the employees are ready for the change and how the organizational culture and communication influences the change readiness.

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8 2.2 Organizational culture

Although organizational culture had no serious attention of researchers until the beginning of the 1980s, many authors researched, discussed and described culture (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). There is an estimation that hundreds of definitions of culture exist. Not only culture is defined, it is also described in various ways like organizational climate or management style (Schein, 1986).

Largely, a lot of analysts agree on that organizational culture is a socially constructed attribute that serves as a social glue to bind organizations (Cameron & Quinn, 2011).

One of the definitions of culture is described by Schein (1986: 30). He defines it as ‘the pattern of basic assumptions that the group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration.’ In addition to the definition of Schein, Cameron and Quinn (2006: 19) defined organizational culture as ‘what is valued, the dominant leadership styles, the language and symbols, the procedures and routines, and the definitions of success that make an organization unique.’ The definition of Schein focuses more on the deeper values and feelings. Cameron and Quinn also focus on the understanding of the depth of culture, but more on the practices that are embedded in the organization. Although there is a difference in both definitions, both mention the importance of values, and habits that are embedded in an

organization.

Since a lot of descriptions of organizational culture have overlap between each other, Burnes (2009) made a list of common characteristics, which describe culture. It comprises, at first, how

organizations behave in certain circumstances, secondly, that everyone in an organization is affected through it, thirdly, that actions of an employee will be judged by themselves and others in the organization in relation to the norms and behaviors and lastly, that culture legitimizes certain forms of action. Schein (1992) defined three levels of culture:

1. The basic underlying assumptions, which exist at an unconscious level and are taken-‐for-‐ granted. However, these assumptions provide an understanding of why things happen, how people feel and think in an organization.

2. The espoused values, which are the conscious strategies, goals and philosophies. 3. The artifacts, which are the visible elements of an organization, for example the

organizational structures, processes, rules and procedures.

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Deal and Kennedy (1982) mention in their research that organizational culture is the prime mover in organizations, it is even more influential than structure, politics and strategy. This has as

consequence that when an organization wants to change, culture can be very influential on the readiness among people. Also Schein (1986) mentions that in order to learn what changes and what does not change in an organization, the understanding of the depth of the organizational culture is necessary.

Besides the understanding of the culture as a prime mover in an organization, culture is a predictor of organizational performance. Several studies reported that the most frequently cited reason given for change failure was a neglect of organization’s culture (Caldwell (1994) and Gross, Pascale & Athos (1993), In: Cameron & Quinn, 2011). So a distinction between organizational cultures has been made because of the differences between organizations regarding values, preferences, norms, and

inclinations of individuals. The kind of culture an organization has can affect the individual and organizational behavior, and thus can have an influence on readiness for change (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). In addition, Jones (2005) mentions that behavior is the most observable element of

organizational culture. The deeper layers of culture embrace the values, beliefs, norms and intentions of employees. Change readiness is reflected in these characteristics.

The above-‐described description of organizational culture shows the complexity of culture. It represents how people act, behave, think and work. Because of the invisible elements of organizational culture, it is hard to measure. To investigate the culture of the multinational, the competing values framework of Cameron and Quinn (2011) will be used. Besides the theory about organizational culture, compared to the other authors, Cameron and Quinn (2011) developed an instrument to make the concept measurable: the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI).

The OCAI is the most frequently used instrument for measuring culture in organizations. It has been used extensively in academic research and in thousands of organizations culture has been assessed using the OCAI. It has been found that the OCAI is an accurate instrument to assess organizational culture. Additionally, significant relationships between organizational culture and indicators of organizational effectiveness have been found. Furthermore, the OCAI does not only measure the current culture of an organization, it also identifies what the organization’s preferred culture should look like (Cameron & Quinn, 2011).

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Figure 2 shows the competing values framework behind the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument. This framework correspondence with well-‐known and accepted categories that organizes how people think, what their values and assumptions are, and the ways they adapt and apply information (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). The framework is divided into four quadrants along two dimensions. One dimension focuses on internal focus and integration versus external focus and differentiation. The second dimension focuses on flexibility and discretion versus stability and control.

Originally this framework was developed based on indicators of organizational effectiveness. A list of thirty-‐nine indicators, which would be a comprehensive set of all likely measures for organizational effectiveness, was created through Campbell et al. in 1974 (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). In addition, Quinn & Rohrbaugh (1983) analyzed the indicators to determine whether patterns could be identified. As a result of the analysis, two dimensions emerged.

The first dimension refers to the structure of an organization. It distinguishes effectiveness criteria flexibility and dynamics from effectiveness criteria stability and control. Some organizations are effective when they are stable, predictable and mechanistic. Other organizations are effective when they change, adapt and when they have organic characteristics. Referring to individuals in the organizations, this dimension differentiates, on the one hand, people who are inductive learners, communicate with speculative ideas and process information by searching for innovations, on the other hand, people who are deductive learners, communicated with rational ideas and process information methodically (Cameron et al., 2006). The ends of this dimension ranges from

organizational discretion and flexibility to organizational stability and control (Cameron & Quinn, 2011).

The second dimension refers to the focus of the organization. It distinguishes effectiveness criteria internal focus, integration and unity, which is contrasted with the effectiveness criteria external focus, differentiation and competition. Some organizations are effective when they focus on internal characteristics of the organizations. Other organizations are effective when they are focused on the interaction and competition with other organizations. Referring to individuals in the organizations, this dimension differentiates, on the one hand, people who learn by examining existing, familiar information and processing information by analyzing congruencies, on the other hand, people who learn by searching for unknown, unfamiliar information and process information by analyzing unique opportunities (Cameron et.al., 2006). The ends of this dimension ranges from internal focus and integration to external focus and differentiation. (Cameron & Quinn, 2011).

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11 FIGURE 2

The competing values framework. Adapted from: Cameron & Quinn (2011)

As can be derived from figure 2, the two dimensions form four quadrants, each representing a collection of organizational effectiveness indicators. These four quadrants, namely the Clan culture, Adhocracy culture, Market culture and Hierarchy culture, define the core values on which judgments about the organizations. These four culture types will be elaborated below.

Clan Culture

The Clan culture, in which organizations focus on collaboration, emphasizes flexibility and internal focus. This type of culture is internally focused because the importance of individual development and the internal climate of the organization. Due to the absence of hierarchical rules and procedures, organizations with this type of culture are very flexible in dealing with changes and turbulent

environments. People in these types of organizations often share the same values and goals. Besides, high cohesion, morale, commitment and involvement of employees are very important. This can be achieved through training, development, teamwork and team-‐based rewards. Also open

communication and participation are characteristics in this type of culture (Cameron and Quinn, 2011, Jones et al., 2005).

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12 Adhocracy Culture

The second culture is the Adhocracy culture, where the orientation is on creativity. This type of culture emphasizes flexibility and external focus. The name of this type of culture emphasizes the flexible character. Adhocracy is derived from ad hoc, what implies something temporary, specialized, and dynamic. This type of organization often changes, because the major challenge is to produce innovative products and services and tries to adapt quickly to new opportunities, what emphasizes the external focus of this type of culture. Besides that organizations with this type of culture want to achieve high morale among employees, producing innovative products and services and quickly adapting to new opportunities accentuate the external character of the Adhocracy. Through

visionary communication and adaptability, flexibility, creativity and readiness, organizations with an Adhocracy culture try to reach these drivers. (Cameron and Quinn, 2011, Jones et al., 2005).

Market Culture

The third culture is the Market culture. Organizations are oriented on competition, emphasizes control and focus on the external environment. This culture characterizes itself by having clear goal setting, planning, centralized decision-‐making and instructional communication; which is

communication that is directed to a specific action or goal. To create competitive advantages, the focus is on transactions with mainly external parties, like suppliers, contractors and customers. Besides this goal, objectives of organizations with a Market culture are stretch targets, profitability and strength in Market niches, which emphasizes the control and external character of the Market culture. (Cameron and Quinn, 2011, Jones et al., 2005).

Hierarchy Culture

The last culture includes the Hierarchy culture, which can be characterized by control and internal focus. Besides control, these organizations emphasize stability, efficiency and predictability. Through formal and standardized procedures, policies and rules, there is a lot of formal information sharing, communication what is based on data and clear decision-‐making authority. These characteristics make an organization with this type of culture very formalized and standardized. A Hierarchy culture is internally focused because organizations with this type of culture value the keys to success to clear lines of decision-‐making, standardized rules and procedures, accountability and control. (Cameron and Quinn, 2011, Jones et al., 2005).

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Earlier in this section it has been mentioned that organizational culture can be very influential in change readiness among employees. Jones et al. (2005) stated in their research that readiness for change could be influenced through organizational culture because factors like open, visionary communication and employee involvement, both characteristics of the flexible-‐oriented culture, which include the Clan culture and Adhocracy culture, are empirically demonstrated as being positively related to readiness for change. The flexible-‐oriented cultures, the upper-‐side of the Competing Values Model, are more used to changes and adapting to situations than the control-‐ oriented cultures, which include the Market culture and the Hierarchy culture. This lower side of the framework are more used to stable and predictable situations and will be more likely to resist changes (Cameron & Quinn, 2011).

In addition Zammuto and Krakower (1991, in: Zammuto and O’Connor, 1992) found in their research that the Hierarchy and Market culture types, so the control-‐oriented cultures, were negatively correlated with readiness for change. They also found in their research that the Clan culture and the Adhocracy culture, so the flexible-‐oriented cultures are positively correlated with readiness for change. The reason for this is that control-‐oriented cultures have a poor organizational climate, which is characterized by high levels of conflict, low trust and poor morale. As a consequence that changes should be started with small initiatives and thus small successes in order to gain more support and readiness among employees. In more flexible-‐oriented cultures there is a high morale and trust among employees, consequently, more readiness will exist in these culture types.

The studies of Zammuto & Krakower and Jones et al. focus both on one axis of the Competing Values Framework to make a distinction between cultures and the effect on change readiness. Therefore this research will also focus on this dimension, which ranges between flexible-‐oriented cultures, the upper side of the framework, and the control-‐oriented cultures, the lower side of the framework. Based on the information above, the following hypotheses are designed.

Hypothesis 1a:

The more flexible-‐oriented culture in an organization, the higher the change readiness among employees will be.

Hypothesis 1b:

The more control-‐oriented culture in an organization, the lower the change readiness among employees will be.

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14 2.3 Communication

When describing the culture types in the previous section, the relevance of communication

strategies has been mentioned. In order to elaborate on the communication within different culture types, this section will describe several communication strategies, which are identified at each of the culture types as defined above.

Communication during a change process is an essential element in terms of getting people ready for a change. Regular and effective communication will reduce uncertainty among employees. As a result communication will remove one of the biggest obstacles in order to require change readiness (Mack et al., 1998).

Elving and Bennebroek-‐Gravenhorst (2005) argue that there are two important objectives of communication during a change. The first objective is sharing information, which can be seen as the primary goal of organizational communication. It includes the content, goal and planning of the change. What does change, how, when, and what are the consequences for the employees and organization. Also Kurt Lewin demonstrated that the most effective method to get employees ready for change is to provide them with information (Burnes, 2009). The second objective of

communication during a change process is the perspective creation during the interaction process between employees; this includes perspectives on the reality, the change process. If this perspective is negative, for instance, because the goal or direction of the change is not clear, there will be more uncertainty, as result there will be more resistance to change.

The information that is communicated helps people to understand the change, which is necessary for an organization to survive in a dynamic environment. However, when the change communication is poorly managed, when not all needed information is provided, it can result in more uncertainty and possible resistance to change (Elving, 2005).

To facilitate readiness for change among employees the information should be communicated in a constant and effective manner from the beginning of a change project. It should increase the understanding about the change, and reduce the confusions and resistance that may exist among employees (Mento, 2002). Armenakis, Harris and Morrison (1993) add to this that the change message should incorporate the need for change, this means that the discrepancy between the desired end-‐situation and the current situation, and how the efficacy of individuals and groups will be affected.

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On the other hand, informing about the change does not always have a positive impact on the change readiness. The information employees perceive could be interpreted in the way it was not intended, so it should be carefully designed and communicated towards employees. (Zhu, May and Rosenfeld, 2004).

Above, the relevance of communicating during a change process has been discussed. It is important to share information about the change, how often the information is communicated and what the content is of the information. However, the way the information is communicated can also be helpful in order to achieve readiness for change (Quinn et al. 1991; Allen et al. 2007).

Quinn et al (1991) developed a competing values model of managerial communication. It is based on the competing values framework to analyze organizational culture. Figure 3 shows what

communication strategies, for oral and written communication, are common at the four quadrants.

FIGURE 3

A competing values model of managerial communication. Adapted from Quinn et.al. (1991)

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The competing values framework of managerial communication is based on the Competing Values Framework, however the dimensions are labeled differently. The upper side of the framework has been labeled as relational awareness; this suggests the expression of feelings. The communication is people-‐oriented, focused on relationships among employees. The lower side of the framework has been labeled as instrumental logic; this suggests focus and logical organization. The communication is result-‐oriented, focused on achieving goals and control (Quinn et al., 1991). The two types of communication that can be distinguished within the two quadrants which focus on relational awareness, what includes relational and transformational communication, align with the flexible-‐ oriented cultures in the Competing Values Framework. The two types of communication that can be distinguished within the two quadrants which focus on instrumental logic, what includes

instructional, and information communication, align with the control-‐oriented cultures (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Quinn et al., 1991).

The second dimension is the equivalent of the vertical axis. The left side of the framework has been labeled as conventional structure; this suggests following traditional rules, what implies that it is internally focused. There is a usual, technically correct, way of communicating within an

organization. The two types of communication strategies that can be distinguished along this dimension are relational and informational communication. The right side of the framework has been labeled as dynamic content; this suggests innovative material, what implies that it is external focused. The communication is focused on stimulating creativity and innovation. The two types of communication that can be distinguished along this dimension are transformational and instructional communication. (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Quinn et al., 1991).

The first communication strategy is the relational communication strategy. This type of communication is based on building trust and establishing relationships between people. The communication is often open, credible, believable, expressive and honest.

The second communication strategy is transformational communication. The information that is communicated in this strategy is visionary, powerful, empathic, insightful, which stimulates ‘thinking out of the box’. People will get new insights; as a consequence, it will stimulate change.

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The last communication strategy is informational communication strategy; the information people receive is often based on facts. The descriptors of this kind of communication are precise, logical, focused, organized, controlled and powerful (Quinn et al., 1991).

Besides the research of Quinn et al. (1991), no other research has been done yet about whether the communication strategies are congruent to the culture types. However, based on the above-‐

described findings, I will investigate whether these communication strategies are related to the associated culture types. Besides, the approach of investigating the impact of culture on change readiness is focused on one dimension, because stronger correlations have been found on the vertical dimension. That results in the design of the following hypotheses, focused on the vertical axis.

Allen et al. (2007) and Ford & Ford (2005) state that organizations realize that communication during organizational change is important. However, the communication strategies that are implemented by the management often fail to accomplish the purpose to provide qualitative and adequate

information to employees (Allen et al., 2007). Consequently, people might search for information through other sources in order to reduce their uncertainty they experience during a change process. In the study of Allen et al. (2007) they show that employees felt less uncertain when the information that was communicated was timely, accurate and useful. With these characteristics, informational communication strategy should be the most effective way to reduce uncertainty and thus create higher change readiness.

Allen et al. (2007) also mention the importance of trust in the context of organizational change communication. Not only the information about the change plays a role in creating positive

perceptions towards a change, also trust, which is part of the relational communication strategy, has influence on reducing uncertainty, and thus creating higher change readiness.

The transformational communication strategy shows that it will stimulate change, according to the competing values framework; this quadrant fits within the Adhocracy culture what creates readiness according to the theory (Quinn et al., 1991). Ford & Ford (2005) mention four conversation profiles during a change process, in which conversation for understanding, the conversation profile in the second stage of a change process is vitally important in dealing with resistance to change.

Hypothesis 2a

The more flexible-‐oriented culture, the more relational and transformational communication strategies, so flexible-‐oriented communication strategies, will be used.

Hypothesis 2b

The more control-‐oriented culture, the more instructional and informational communication strategies, so control-‐oriented communication strategies, will be used.

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With this conversation profile, the organization tries to include employees to inform them of the need for change, to elicit support and participation. Besides, with this conversation profile, employees should understand what the change should produce, in what direction the organization will go and what the reasons are for the change. This profile is in accordance to the flexible-‐oriented communication strategies of Quinn et al. (1997). In these communication strategies, the organization tries to communicate a vision of the change, tries to build trust and support from employees.

Although informational communication can be very important in reducing uncertainty, other authors mention that support for a change will be achieved by giving insightful, visionary communication, and through building trust. Based on the information above, I propose that the flexible-‐oriented communication strategies will have a more positive influence on change readiness than the control-‐ oriented communication strategies. This results in the following hypotheses:

2.4 Mediation relation

In this theoretical section we discussed the three variables in the conceptual model (figure 1). It has been discussed how organizational culture will affect change readiness and how communication strategies will affect change readiness. In this research the focus has been on one dimension of the two frameworks, the flexible-‐oriented cultures and communication strategies and the control-‐ oriented communication strategies. The reason for the clustering of the quadrants was because of the fact that other studies showed that the strongest effect on change readiness was with the quadrants along this dimension. Also in investigating the mediation relation, as showed in the conceptual model (figure 1), the focus will be, in line with the rest of the hypotheses, on one dimension. In order to investigate whether communication strategy has a mediating effect between culture and change readiness, the following hypothesis is proposed:

3. RESEARCH METHOD

Hypothesis 4a:

The more flexible-‐oriented the organizational culture, the higher the change readiness, which is mediated by flexible-‐oriented, so to say, relational and transformational communication

strategies.

Hypothesis 4b:

The more control-‐oriented the organizational culture, the lower the change readiness, which is mediated by control-‐oriented, so to say, instructional and informational communication

strategies. Hypothesis 3a

The more flexible-‐oriented communication strategies, which include the relational and transformation communication, the higher the change readiness.

Hypothesis 3b

The more control-‐oriented communication strategies, which include the instructional and informational communication, the lower the change readiness.

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19 3.1 Data collection and procedure

In the previous sections it is assumed that the dependent variable change readiness will be

influenced through the organizational culture and the communication strategy used with a particular type of culture. In order to investigate these variables, surveys were distributed to collect data (see Appendix B).

About 120 employees at the Headquarter in Zaandam and at the Warehouse in Beverwijk, were approached for cooperation to fill in the survey. These employees will be the first working with the new systems and processes. The employees at the Headquarter and Warehouse work at several disciplines. In order to receive a higher response rate the survey was distributed in paper form. Within some teams the surveys were given to the team leads for distribution, also by visiting team meetings where the employees immediately filled in the questionnaire resulted in a high response.

In table 1 you will find the distribution and response rate per discipline. In principle, the distribution of the questionnaire was amongst everyone in the discipline. However, because of the fixed time and operations schedule of the Warehouse it was not possible to distribute the survey among all

employees. Therefore, 30 Warehouse operations employees were asked to fill in the questionnaire. Additionally, the survey was distributed at the headquarters by visiting team meetings and

distribution via the team leads and their secretary. Two teams that were visited, finance and commerce-‐ Marketing and format, filled in the questionnaire immediately. That resulted in a

response rate of 100%. The team meeting of the department merchandising was visited. The surveys were given to the secretary, so people could fill in the questionnaire when they had time to complete the questionnaire. This resulted in a response rate of 80%. For commercial support, I visited the team lead, who distributed the questionnaire to his team members. This choice had been made because of the fact that there would be no team meeting in a few weeks due to the Christmas holidays. His effort in distributing the survey resulted in a response rate of 64%. The lowest response rate is 40%. This can be explained through the fact that the employees, mainly operational managers, work for 80% outside the headquarters. The secretary distributed the questionnaire, and the employees had to send the surveys back via the post. A possible consequence is that it was too much effort for the employees, what resulted in a low response rate. In total, 87 complete questionnaire were filled in, a response rate of 72,5%.

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20 Table 1

Response rate survey (N=87)

Department Distributed Response Response Rate

Warehouse Support/ Supply Chain 20 15 75%

Warehouse Operations 30 26 87%

Stores 20 8 40%

Commerce – Commercial support 25 16 64%

Finance 4 4 100%

Commerce – Merchandising 15 12 80%

Commerce-‐ Marketing and Format 6 6 100%

Total 120 87 72,5%

Table 2 shows the personal sample statistics of the 87 respondents. 60,9% is male and 39,1% is female. The ages ranges from 16 till 65 years old, as can be derived from the table, just 8,0% of the respondents is 24 years or younger, and 4,6% of the respondents is 55 years or older. By far, the most respondents (39,1%) are working for the commerce team; this can be explained because of the fact that commerce is the largest department within the Headquarters. Notable is that 11,5% of the respondents only finished their secondary school, and did not follow further education. The majority of these respondents work at the warehouse operations. In Appendix C all personal sample statistics are presented in graph form.

Table 2

Personal characteristics respondents (N=87)

Variable Percentage Respondents

Gender 60,9% Male 39,1% Female Age 8,0% 16 – 24 years 39,1% 25 – 34 years 32,2% 35 – 44 years 16,1% 45 – 54 years 4,6% 55 years or older Education 31,1% MBO 33,0% HBO 24,1% WO 11,5% Secondary school

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21 Department 39,1% Commerce 4,6% Finance 9,2% Stores 9,2% Supply Chain 6,9% Warehouse-‐ Support 31,0% Warehouse-‐ Operation Management function 27,6% Yes 72,4% No 3.2 Measures

This section will provide all necessary information to perform the measures. Besides the measure methods of the dependent, independent and mediation variables, the factor analysis and the reliability of the survey will be explained.

The survey consisted of 101 closed questions; these items concerned the perceived current situation and the preferred situation, regarding culture and communication, at the multinatioanl, and the level of change readiness among employees (See Appendix B for the items of the independent variable, mediator and dependent variable). Although the hypotheses are focused on the current state of an organization, the preferred state of an organization is also asked to the respondents in order to give a recommendation when the effect of the current state on change readiness is negative and the current and preferred state are considerably different.

Not all questions in the survey were derived from a fixed scale instrument, all questions in the survey are statements to which respondents were asked to indicate the degree to which they agreed with them on a 5 -‐ point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree; 5= strongly agree). Originally, the purpose of measuring organizational culture is to divide 100 points over 4 statements which representing the 4 different cultures. This way of assessing culture has been changed in a Likert format. Also,

communication strategies have been assessed using the Likert-‐scale. The different words,

representing a communication strategy, were rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Together with the change readiness statements, all questions represented the three variables of the conceptual model (figure 1). Although, no discrepancies will be measured within this research, all questions of the

Readiness for change:

Readiness for change:

The story of culture and communication

of study

L. Rood

Readiness for change:

The story of culture and communication?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

Organizational

2. THEORY

3. RESEARCH METHOD