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The Art of Change: The role of vertical and horizontal

communication within organizational change

A.H. (Alexandra) Nicolai | S2982919

a.h.nicolai@student.rug.nl

June 25, 2018

Supervisor: Dr. H. Bruns

Co-assessor: Prof. Dr. J. Surroca

University of Groningen

Faculty of Economics and Business

MSc. Business Administration - Change Management

Abstract. This thesis describes a qualitative research aiming to contribute to existing change literature by investigating the interplay of communication factors within organizational change. It compares three change projects with a focus on its main change project. In this thesis the main change project is the shift towards working flexibly at a public services organization. Results show that vertical and horizontal communication are seen to reciprocally influence each other. Horizontal communication can be monitored and managers can adjust their vertical communication accordingly, thus giving managers the ability to interfere with and directly influence horizontal communication. When this monitoring is possible, a stronger sense of urgency can be created; using hard facts instead of employing strategic ambiguity. When panic results from this change message, change managers are able to prevent further unintended and unforeseen change outcomes through this monitoring.

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Table of contents

List of tables and figures 4

1. Introduction

5

2. Literature review

7

2.1 Reason for change 7

2.2 Vertical communication 7

2.3 Horizontal communication 8

2.4 Resistance and power relations 9

3. Methodology

12

3.1 Research approach 12 3.2 Data collection 12 3.4 Data analysis 14 3.5 Quality criteria 15

4. Results

17

4.1 Reason for change 17

4.2 Vertical communication 18

4.3 Horizontal communication 19

4.4 Resistance and power relations 19

4.5 Change outcomes 20

4.6 Comparative analysis 21

4.7 Summary 24

5. Discussion and conclusion

25

5.1 Literature confrontation 25

5.2 Theoretical implications 27

5.3 Managerial implications 27

5.4 Research limitations and further research 27

5.5 Conclusion 28

References

29

Appendices

32

Appendix I: Interview protocol 32

Appendix II: List of codes 34

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List of tables and figures

Tables

1. Definitions of used terms 10

2. Overview of primary and secondary data 13

3. Overlapping and comparative deductive codes 14 4. Inductive codes from comparing organizations 15

5. Differences in perceived reason for change 17

6. Description of used codes 34

7. Codebook 35

Figures

1. Process of vertical communication 8

2. Process of horizontal communication 9

3. Overview of results 11

4. Card to sustain a clean desk 40

5. Brochure on working flexibly 40

6. Brochure on working flexibly 41

7. A poster ‘silence’ 41

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1. Introduction

Change is a firmly priority for organizations (Thomas & Hardy, 2011). Nowadays, companies face multiple shifts in society, the growing importance of IT and web-privacy, the importance of work-life balance for millennials, and the high speed of digitalisation. Following Brown and Eisenhardt (1997), change is no longer an option but a necessity. Change management deals with interventions that focus on people, organizational structures, and human resource management policies (Markus, 2004). Within organizational change, communication is the key to gaining people’s involvement, as well as the essential element of all change activities (Burnes, 2014).

The purpose of communication is to involve employees in discussions and debates about the form and necessity of the change, allowing freedom to discuss the issues openly, and to persuade them to convince themselves of the need for the change (Lewin, 1999). However, this strong involvement takes time and inherently money, which can be scarce in times when change needs to be implemented quickly. Therefore, in order to speak to both those that welcome change, and those that are cautious, a communication strategy can be employed, called ‘strategic ambiguity’ (Eisenberg, 2009). With this strategy, a manager is able to prevent panic and consequently lower resistance. Others contradict this statement and claim that too much strategic ambiguity in a change message can lead to confusion (Sonenshein, 2010). Heuvel, Schalk, and van Assen (2015) found that a well-informed employee is more likely to behave positively towards the change.

On the other side, even though the manager has an important role in managing vertical communication, emergent and counteracting change outcomes can still arise through the course of inter-recipient sensemaking and the horizontal processes of interaction. This horizontal communication between employees is researched by Balogun and Johnson (2005). They argued that a manager is unable to give a direction to the lateral communication processes that happen in their absence. On this matter they call for future research, such as how interventions in horizontal social processes can occur, and if possible, which are most effective? (Balogun & Johnson, 2005).

In the vertical communication it is the trade-off between the time investment of informing and involving, and a well-informed, possibly resisting employee that is of interest. In horizontal communication it is the social process which is found to be difficult to manage, but leads to unintended change outcomes. These contradicting views and gaps within literature is what caught my attention.

In order to research the interplay of communication factors, exploratory studies help in gaining and creating understanding. Therefore, this research makes a first attempt at looking for a certain combination of factors and patterns. These factors and patterns are limited to communication and look for relations and influences on this part, within organizational change. This research aims to characterise organizational change practices while focusing on certain combinations of decisions and activities for the goal of the change. The question that guides this research is:

‘What is the role of vertical and horizontal communication within organizational change?’

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projects, resulting in an overview of similarities, contradictions, and striking differences. Consequently, it follows three different change practices from start to finish to increase generalisability of results.

This study is of significance because recent articles note the fact that the change failure rate of 70% is still not decreasing (i.e. Jacobs, van Witteloostuijn, & Christe-Zeyse, 2013; Jansson, 2013; Michel, By, & Burnes, 2013). Despite this soaring failure rate, the number of change implementations keeps rising to keep up with the new demands of the 21st century (Burnes, 2014). An extensive amount of research on

organizational change has already been done, but additional research is still needed that looks at influencing factors within change, and possibly decrease this rate.

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2. Literature review

To get a good overview of change projects and factors that influence them, a literature review is set out to go in-depth and develop a theoretical background. Let me start by admitting that change is a very broad topic, and every change project is different in many ways. Therefore, it is important for me to set a framework and a focus for the study. The scope of this research is communication within organizational change. This resulted in a pre-selection on the literature on change. Hereby, I looked at prominent subjects within organizational change and the role of communication, such as the reason for change, vertical and horizontal communication, sensegiving and sensemaking, and resistance. A definition of used terms within the literature review is provided at the end of this chapter (table 1, definitions of terms).

2.1 Reason for change

When making a selection of the researched factors, I looked at the overlapping factors that are key in change practices. Logically, a change project sets out in different steps following a certain order. Reasons for change can vary over time and industries. Nowadays, the speed of digitalisation is a common reason to implement change in order to keep with competitors. Though, the reason for change that is promoted is not always the real reason for change (Soneshein, 2010).

In corporate strategy SWOT and PESTEL analyses can be used to evaluate an organization its internal and external constraints and identify factors that are successful or need improving (Johnson, Whittington, & Scholes, 2011; Lynch, 2006). Here, a SWOT analysis looks at an organization its internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats. A PESTEL analysis focuses on identifying the main external factors that influence an organization, e.g. political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental, and legal. Public organizations differ from private organization in this matter. Within public organizations a reason for change is often resulting from budget cuts and consequently, a needed increase in efficiency.

Famous author on the topic of change management John Kotter (1995) proposes in his ‘Eight Steps to Transforming Your Organization’ that the first step in any change project is to create and establish a sense

of urgency by identifying critical crises or major opportunities. It is found that over 50% of organizations

which attempt a change project fail in this first phase (Kotter, 1995). The essential to create a sense of urgency is said to be highly underestimated by many managers. This is also pointed out by Rafferty and Simons (2006), who argue that when employees do not see the necessity of the change, it is likely the change initiative will fail. Therefore, the reason for change and the consequences when it does not happen, are to be told within the change message. Communication, and especially the communication from the agent towards the recipients (vertical communication), is the first factor to be looked at because of its high impact on the outcome of the change. The following paragraph elaborates on the topic of vertical communication.

2.2 Vertical communication

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of this process is given in figure 1. Instructions on organizational change move down, information moves up (Simpson, 1959). This communication is said to link a managers’ narratives and an employees’ sensemaking (Barry & Elmes, 1997; Balogun & Johnson, 2005). A manager, or management is able to construct meanings and influence others to adopt the new strategic direction (Sonenshein, 2010, p. 478). When a manager is looking to implement change, the first communication entails sensegiving towards the employees, which is a process of influencing and constructing meanings (Maitlis & Lawrence, 2007). Arguably one of the most important aspects of implementing change is this communication between the manager and the recipient of the change (Gioia & Chittipedi, 1991).

Figure 1: Process of vertical communication

As Sonenshein (2010) proposes in his model, there are different ways of giving sense of a change and to communicate the change from the agent towards the recipient. Sonenshein (2010) found that an agent can either choose between the usage of progressive and stability narratives, or use a mixture of both. The latter, the fuse between these narratives, is labelled ‘strategic ambiguity’. The main advantage of using the progressive and stability narrative in an interwoven manner is that both the employees that fear the change and those that embrace the change can relate to a corresponding narrative. Even though this strategic ambiguity might discourage clarity, it is said to be effective in three ways: (1) it promotes unified diversity, (2) facilitates organizational change, and (3) amplifies existing source attributions and preserves privileged positions (Eisenberg, 2009). This second reason is of particular interest. Claiming that strategic ambiguity truly facilitates organizational change is partly contradicted by Heuvel, Schalk, and van Assen (2015). Heuvel et al. (2015) have conducted a quantitative research on whether a well-informed employee behaves more positively towards organizational change. What they found is that change information is positively related to trust, the psychological contract fulfilment, and the perceived need for change (Heuvel et al., 2015). This was also found by Rousseau and Tijorwala (1999) who argued through social accounts theory that nurses perceived the reason for change differently. Their alternative interpretations of the change were seen to be affected by trust in management, the psychological contract, and the beliefs of their coworkers. This last reason, the beliefs of their coworkers, is influenced by social interactions on a horizontal level of communication. The following paragraph goes in-depth on horizontal communication within organizations.

2.3 Horizontal communication

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interpretation of reality (Weick, 1995). Once the change is communicated, stories start to emerge. Recipients use their sensemaking in order to create their view on the new situation.

What Balogun and Johnson (2005) found is that change can lead to intended and unintended outcomes, the latter highly influenced by the process of horizontal sensemaking. When sensemaking triggers arise, recipients tend to combine this with their old schemata (what we know). To achieve change, a shift needs to occur in an individuals’ schemata (i.e. Balogun & Johnson, 2005; Balogun & Johnson, 2004; Labianca, Gray & Brass, 2000). A schemata is a mental model, which guides and gives meaning to the daily activities and influences phenomena individuals respond to (Balogun & Johnson, 2005; Labianca et al., 2000). What follows then is a social process of interaction within horizontal layers of the organization. What happens within this process is partly unknown (Balogun & Johnson, 2005). What is known is that this process of intersubjective sensemaking contains a sharing of experiences by recipients. It is characterised by stories and rumours, sharing of experiences, sharing of interpretations, discussions, negotiations, and non-verbal signs and signals (Balogun & Johnson, 2005, p. 1586). This process involves both sensemaking and sensegiving and it is said that it can hardly be influenced by the change agent (Sonenshein, 2010; Balogun & Johnson, 2005). The combination of aforementioned factors lead to developing schemata, which are “the

interpretations that change recipients arrive at” (Balogun & Johnson, 2005, p. 1587). After this process, the

results can either be emergent or counteracting change outcomes. The latter, counteracting, unintended change outcomes, are strongly influenced by this process of horizontal communication. In the following figure, a graphical interpretations is presented of the aforementioned process of horizontal communication.

Figure 2: Process of horizontal communication (adapted version of Balogun and Johnson, 2005, p. 1586)

The findings of Balogun and Johnson (2005) also raised the issue whether it is possible to manage evolving recipient interpretations during organizational change, and if so, to what extent. Within organizational change it is important to look at vertical and horizontal communication in combination to each other. The influences of peers within the horizontal process can result in concerns, resistance, and eventually unintended change outcomes.

2.4 Resistance and power relations

The horizontal process of information sharing is said to lead to counteracting, unintended change outcomes, resistance can be one of them. It might also be claimed that change and resistance are only showing up in co-existence. Often, resistance appears to be the first response to change (Smith & Graetz, 2011). Smith and Graetz (2011, p. 37) view resistance as any ‘structural, cultural, systemic, or strategic barrier that impedes

either introduced or externally pressured change’, ranging from apathy and passive resistance to avoidance

and active resistance (Beaudry & Pinsonneault, 2005). Another author describes resistance as ‘any active or

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to handle it correctly and in a constructive manner. It is found that successful change requires the cooperation of employees, since any resistance can impede the change (Piderit, 2000). Therefore, the involvement of employees is found to be of great value within organizational change (Beckhard & Harris, 1987).

Going back to the part of resistance, a manager can choose to handle this in different ways; he can choose to either demonise it or to celebrate it (Thomas & Hardy, 2011). The most common response to resistance is to demonise it and thereby assuming that it constitutes to some kind of problem or leading to inertia (Thomas & Hardy, 2011).

Ford, Ford, and D’Amelio (2008) nonetheless, put an emphasis the positive side of resistance: celebrating it. Although, resistance might seem a negative aspect of implementing change, it can actually be of great value (Ford et al., 2008). They find that resistance can, in fact, represent novel ideas for change and therefore have value. This can be of value in three ways. First, it has an existence value, resistance keeps the talk, and thereby the change alive; it entails introducing new conversations. Second, it has an engagement value, since people that resist, reflect a higher level of commitment and therefore the change is important to them. When the resistance is overcome effectively through the right approach, it will result in highly motivated employees that are engaged with the change. Thirdly, there is the strengthening value of resistance which argues that counteroffers of employees improve the decision making and thereby the change content.

However, these values are only useful, when handled in a constructive matter. When handled poorly, change agents can also enlarge existing resistance through so-called communication breakdowns, referring to the first part of this literature review (Ford et al., 2008). When a change agent is not capable of legitimising the change, and creating a sense of urgency, adoption and adaptation can suffer. Another example for a communication breakdown is an intentional misrepresentation of the facts, for instance when the agent is afraid of losing face or looking bad. This is lightly related to the strategic ambiguity of Sonenshein (2010) where a manager can choose to slightly adjust its speech in order to achieve approval of both the recipient that embrace the change and those that still feel insecure about it. A last communication breakdown is the ‘no call for action’. Change is fundamentally about mobilising action, and not all conversations and communication practices inevitably lead to this.

A sub-part of resistance is the role of power of the agent. Unfortunately, one of the negative sides on resistance lies in unbalanced power relations (Thomas & Hardy, 2011). Thomas and Hardy highlighted the role of power and resistance (2011). The agent is deciding how he labels resistance, even when it can just be seen as valuable feedback. This ‘negative’ side of resistance can take active forms, like disobedience and counteroffers, or passive forms, like motivation drop and disengagement.

Definitions of terms

Reason for change The initial vision for change, often entailing a sense of urgency (Kotter, 1995)

Vertical

communication Communication going up and down the hierarchy. Instructions on organizational change move down, information moves up (Simpson, 1959)

Horizontal

communication Communication between colleagues and peers at the same level, it is often characterised by stories and rumours, sharing of experiences, sharing of

interpretations, discussions, negotiations, and non-verbal signs and signals (Balogun & Johnson, 2005, p. 1586)

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Table 1: Definitions of used terms

Resistance Active or passive responses on the part of a person or group that militate against

a particular change, a program of changes, or change in general’ (Peiperi, 2005, p. 348)

Power relations The possibility for a manager to label resistance differently, either by celebrating it or

demonising it (Thomas & Hardy, 2011)

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3. Methodology

In this chapter, the research method and data collection of the study is set out. First, the research approach is elaborated on, which entails the choice for theory development. Second, the case site where the study is conducted is described, together with the data collection methods. This is followed by descriptions of the organizations that are compared with this study. Third, the data analysis is given which focuses on the qualitative data analysis, through coding. Fourth, a description is given on measures that are taken to secure the quality of this research.

3.1 Research approach

The study is exploratory in its nature, which helps in becoming acquainted with a certain phenomenon. The goal of the study is to develop theory. Eisenhardt (1989) states that theory development is appropriate when little is known about the phenomenon. This is of particular interest in this situation due to limited knowledge and the often pre-made assumptions. It is a search for patterns that is a crucial part of theory development. Therefore, critical components are identified such as the reason for change, vertical communication, horizontal communication, and resistance.

Exploratory studies rely on qualitative techniques to be able to gain the required information for the study. By using qualitative techniques, insights on the change project can be derived, underlying variables can become clear, and conclusions on the change can be established (Blumberg, Cooper, & Schindler, 2014). The aim of this research is to explore the multiple concepts as stated in the literature review in combination and to contribute to the topic of change management. The purpose of this study is to use empirical evidence from an organization to make a contribution to knowledge (Myers, 2013). It is a qualitative, exploratory research with an inductive approach (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007), meaning that it starts with observations, and theories are proposed at the end of the observational period. It involves a search for patterns and a development of explanations.

3.2 Data collection

This study takes place and the interviews are held at the ‘Gemeente Leeuwarden’ (Municipality of

Leeuwarden), which is situated in the Northern part of the Netherlands. It is a public services organization

that serves over 108,000 inhabitants of the municipality of Leeuwarden. The organization employs over 1,200 employees, it structures the board, the policies, and development of the city. In 2013 the city of Leeuwarden was awarded ‘Capital of Culture 2018’, along with Valetta, Malta.

In five years a lot of changes within the city came along with this to prepare for the year 2018. Therefore, the municipality is a growing and dynamic organization. Very recent, the organization also decided to drastically change their way of working, going from fixed hours, offices, and departments to working flexible hours, having flexible work spaces, and inherently flexible departments. The vision for this change, as stated within their original project plan, is as follows: “With this project we want to achieve that in

2020 our employees are in a friendly environment to collaborate as good as possible. This way the organization is able to keep up with the demands of the changing society.” For this, the entire office building

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of working and working environment. This change project, the switch to flexible working, is therefore particularly interesting to study because it happened very recently and involved and affected a lot of employees. From here on, the organization described above is referred to as ‘Organization A’.

Data collection. The data is collected with the use of interviews. Interviews are better suited for any

kind of qualitative research, especially for exploratory studies in which a researcher does not have expectations regarding the explanation of phenomena, but rather searches for yet unknown explanations (Blumberg et al., 2014). The interviews were semi-structured, thus leaving room to use probing questions; going in-depth on topics that are not covered in the interview protocol but can be interesting for the research. To secure accuracy, interpreting-questions are asked in order to confirm whether the information provided is interpreted correctly. Because of the comparative nature of this research, interview protocols had to be designed with overlapping subjects. Close collaboration was crucial in order to create an interview protocol which overlapped and contained multiple topics to sustain the quality of our comparative analysis. This interview protocol, which is the basis of our primary data collection, can be found in appendix I.

Interviews. Participants have been randomly selected within all levels of the organization. To all

participants anonymity is guaranteed and I have used codes for the interviewees. After permission was granted to record the interviews, the audio-recorder was put on. After three interviews, I have transcribed them in order to see whether the quality was sufficient. Also, it gave me the possibility to already get an understanding of the process and adjust my protocol when and where needed. All audio-recordings have later been transcribed word by word. Data collection was found to be theoretically saturated after ten interviews (see table 2), eight with recipients and two with change managers.

Table 2: Overview of primary and secondary data

Secondary data. Within my research site, I was granted the possibility to access both primary data

and secondary data. These latter, secondary data consists of the following: a digital employee survey (N = 538, May 2017), and a summary of two group interviews (N = 15, June 2017). Above, in table 2, an

Primary data Function Tenure

1 Interview Employee > 20 years

2 Interview Employee > 10 years

3 Interview Employee > 15 years

4 Interview Manager > 10 years

5 Interview Employee > 10 years

6 Interview Manager > 5 years

7 Interview Employee < 1 year

8 Interview Employee < 5 years

9 Interview Employee > 10 years

10 Interview Employee > 5 years

Secondary data Sample size Date

11 Survey N = 538 May, 2017

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overview is given of the primary and secondary data that is collected. The secondary data did not show any contradictions from the primary. Furthermore, communication documents have been provided (appendix IV): two brochures on ‘Working flexibly’, a poster ‘silence’, and a card to sustain a clean desk.

Comparative data. Due to the comparative character of this study, two organizations are used to

compare the findings with. The first is a financial service organization, called ‘TKP Investment’. This organization, referred to as ‘Organization B’, is a fiduciary manager, which offers modular services to pension funds and charity organizations. The organization employs approximately 200 people, including all assets, such as HR, Finance & Control and Operations. It has been going through multiple, large-scale organizational changes since its establishment as a separate entity in 2011. A few months ago, a large-scale organizational change was announced which was supposed to integrate it again with its parent-company, along with all other daughter-companies. This announcement happened when there were already multiple large change projects running – some of which had contradicting goals with the overarching change project.

The second comparative research site is the ‘Werkman Stadslyceum'. This organization is referred to as ‘Organization C’. This research site is a Dutch High school located in the city of Groningen. The school has approximately 1,500 students and 140 employees. The school is run by a principal and several section representatives who are each responsible for a different department of the school. The organization has undergone several changes with the purpose of improving education quality. Some of the changes were enforced by the external Education Inspection and were mainly focused on improving results.

3.4 Data analysis

The method of data analysis used is coding. Coding is described as: “fracturing data and rearranging them

into categories that facilitate comparison between things in the same category and that aid in the development of theoretical concepts” (Maxwell, 2013, p. 96). The main reason I use coding as a method is to

be able to find any consistencies, inconsistencies and patterns of actions (Saldana, 2008).

I made use of the program Atlas.ti to structure the different codes, and to help me get a clear overview. With open coding, I attached codes to the written data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The coding process consisted of a combination of inductive and deductive thinking. Here, the inductive codes emerged from the data and the deductive codes follow from the earlier conducted literature study. Table 3 provides an overview: the first column shows the overlapping deductive codes from the three research sites. These codes are topics that are all visible within our literature study and interview protocols; they form the foundation of the comparative analysis. The second to fourth column show the deductive codes from our own literature study that did not overlap. For example, in organization B there was a strong focus on job security because of the organization its private character. In organization C, the leadership style was of particular interest. Within this change project I wanted to put a stronger focus on vertical communication (strategic ambiguity) and horizontal communication.

Table 3: Overlapping and comparative deductive codes

Overlapping factors Organization A Organization B Organization C

Communication Horizontal communication Job security Leadership

Change readiness Power relations Participation Timing

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The coding process required close collaboration and communication. This was especially necessary in the process of inductive coding, where patterns started to emerge from the interview data. We all found different patterns in our transcripts. After two coded transcripts, we added the inductive codes to our shared file, for everyone to access and edit. To advance our comparative character we asked each other to, when possible, also code for each other’s inductive codes. For example, in organization B there was a pattern visible within the preparation for change. In organization C, a pattern of perceived autonomy emerged.

The following table of inductive codes from the compared organizations are codes used interchangeably by all researchers (table 4). Here, the organization is stated where the pattern first started to emerge, and is most visible. The codes have been used throughout the coding process by all researchers. After two coded transcripts, we went back to code for each other its inductive codes as well, this iterative process is very characteristic for qualitative studies (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). In appendix II, the codebook can be found, including a full list of used codes, their description, groundedness, and sort of code.

Table 4: Inductive codes from comparing organizations

Finally, the selective coding helps in choosing which categories are core categories and in structuring a strong, single storyline. These final codes are used to create patterns and draw conclusions. Within the main text the conclusions are presented with the help of powerful quotes within the body text. In appendix III, the codebook is provided.

3.5 Quality criteria

In this section quality criteria are described and applied to this research. This is necessary to secure the quality of the research and to let other researchers know how this is done. According to Swanborn (1996) and Yin (2013) the most important research-oriented quality criteria are controllability, reliability, and validity; therefore, these are discussed in-depth.

Controllability. This is the first requirement within quality criteria. It can be seen as the prerequisite

for the evaluation of validity and reliability (Yin, 1994). Within this research a high controllability is created through explicitly describing how the data is collected, coded, and analysed, this detailed description enables a later researcher to replicate the research (van Aken, Berends, & van der Bij, 2012). The interviews are conducted and audio recorded. All data is then transcribed word by word and coded in Atlas.ti. The audio files are granted upon request to researchers. To guarantee anonymity all participants are referred to through a letter/number combination, where the first letter refers to the organization, followed by the participant and the code-number. The code number is added to create a higher controllability and links to the Atlas.ti quotation manager. All references to existing literature are reported in APA-style and can be found in the reference list.

Reliability. In order to secure reliability and diminish errors and biases (Yin, 2013) within this

research it is important to make sure that there is no conflict of interest. In this research, I find it important to state that a family member is active within the organization (organization A), which made it easier to access

Organization A Organization B Organization C

Facilitation Preparation for change Perceived autonomy

Perceived need for change Implementation characteristics Organizational restructuring

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the organization. This did not result in a conflict of interest, but for external researchers this link may be important to be aware of. I like to point out that this did not result in biases; the family member was not interviewed.

Four other measures have been taken to overcome biases and strengthen reliability. First, through the use of the shared interview protocol, internal consistency is guaranteed (Myers, 2013). Second, a fellow student has reviewed the given codes in Atlas.ti to secure that the research results are independent of the researcher (Turner, 2010). Third, to secure independence of respondents, I asked my contact person to randomly select participants within all levels of the organization. Hereby, different perspectives are taken into account. Fourth, the results are independent of the circumstances, this is created by telling the interviewees that all interviews are anonymously and information is kept confidential. In addition, the interviews took place within the working environment of the interviewees, making them more comfortable to speak freely about the change project. The interview began with the relatively easy question to introduce themselves, this was done in order to make the respondents feel at ease (van Aken et al., 2012).

Validity. Validity concerns both internal and external validity. Internal validity reflects to the extent

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4. Results

Within this section the results of the transcribed and coded interview data are structured. The results set out in four-fold, being the reason for change, vertical communication, horizontal communication, and resistance and power relations. Through the inductive data analysis, the topic of change outcomes is added. Powerful quotes are used in-text to support findings. Additional codes can be found in the codebook, which is displayed in appendix III.

4.1 Reason for change

The first finding is focused on the reason for change. Within this part there is a possible relation visible between the sense of urgency and the communicated vision. As described in the original project plan, the reason for change is the need to have employees collaborate more in order to keep up with changing society.

Within the researched change project, this reason for change has shown interesting findings. It is said that this reason was not completely clear; there were multiple reasons. The following quotation highlights this multiplicity: “It was necessary to generate more collaboration between the different sectors. Above that,

the entire building needed to be renovated as well. We are working in this building for 25 years now, at some point you just have to renew. The toilets were deteriorating, the building could really use a good remodelling.” [A, 1:26]. A manager highlights this versatility and claims: “Well, I believe that when you would ask ten people why this [change] was actually done, chances are that you will receive ten different answers.” [A, 4:11].

As found from the interviews, there are three reasons for change intertwining, the first is due to the reorganization of municipalities where more employees (about 60 to 70) were needed to be placed within the same building. The second heard reason is that the building needed an update, the toilets were deteriorating, the windows needed replacement, and the overall look could use renewal. The third reason, and this reason is most strongly communicated, was that there was a need to have employees interact and collaborate more with each other. To summarise; the following reasons have been found (presented in table 5), followed by supporting quotation references, which can be found in the codebook (appendix III, reason for change).

Table 5: Differences in perceived reason for change

Because three reasons intertwined within this change, it was hard to put a strong vision on paper, entailing all three. The vision stated within their original project plan is as follows: “With this project we want to achieve

that in 2020 our employees are in a friendly environment to collaborate as good as possible. This way the organization is able to keep up with the demands of the changing society.” [A, project plan]. This vision both

touches upon the building and the collaboration, leaving out the need to fit all employees. These hard facts were deliberately left out by managers, which is presented in the paragraph on vertical communication.

Perceived reason for change Supporting quotations

1 Our office no longer fits the amount of employees [A, 2:3] [A, 9:2] [A, 10:8] [A, 3:1]

2 There is a need to collaborate more and work in project groups [A, 1:4] [A, 6:5] [A, 7:1] [A, 8:18]

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Due to the mixture of reasons, the sense of urgency was said to be missing [A6, A7]. Employee [A5] argued that no sense of urgency was communicated towards him at all: “Whether they gave a sense of

urgency towards this? I have no idea, no idea why this [change] is done, it is completely unknown to me.” [A,

7:5]. A manager [A4] agrees and admits that there was no strong message in the communication of the urgency: “Too little. We had too little of a clear message in this matter [of urgency], I truly believe so. The

sense of urgency was communicated too little.” [A, 4:9a]. On the question, ‘why the sense of urgency was

not communicated more strongly’, the manager explains: “Because we have put in a lot of effort to simply

put the vision on paper in three sentences, again and again we struggled, it simply did not work.” [A, 4:9b].

The need to collaborate more is found to be the overarching and primarily communicated reason for change. However, it was only when the hard facts were shared, that the sense of urgency grew. One interviewee gives a very striking example of this: “In the beginning there was some resistance showing: ‘why

do we have to start flexible working?’ Then we got a better explanation, but this was more explained from the housing perspective. They basically said that we just have too many employees in an office structure that does not fit the amount. So, they claimed we have to work flexibly and start to work on modernising.” [A,

9:23]. It is seen that the positive, stability narrative in the first place, did not create the right sense of urgency and even led to some form of resistance. Yet, when the narratives changed to a more negative construct with the use of facts, people became more aware of the urgency and their sensemaking process was influenced differently.

4.2 Vertical communication

In the beginning the vision was strongly communicated towards recipients on the basis of flexible working. This way a manager is able to create a positive narrative, leading towards a strategically ambiguous, interwoven narrative about the change (Sonenshein, 2010). What showed was that the managers tried to positively state their vision, intentionally leaving out the hard facts [A11]. When asked about the facts, it was stated that there was a flex factor of 0,7 meaning that there are 70 workplaces available to 100 employees [A, 6:12a]. This was not communicated, because, as one manager argues, this information did not matter. He explains: “We should not focus on numbers, I do not believe in numbers. I believe in behaviour and the

conversation. So, you should not focus on the percentage, everyone will think there is not enough space, even though there is plenty of space for everyone to work, the building is big enough.” [A, 6:12b]. By not

communicating the facts, the manager tried to prevent panic. He was afraid employees would feel like they had to ‘fight for a spot’.

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4.3 Horizontal communication

With this study I wanted to focus on both vertical and horizontal communication within organizational change. Unfortunately, when I asked interviewees what was being said within informal settings, not much resulted from this. I kept asking what people were saying at the ‘water-cooler’ and the ‘coffee-machine’, until someone pointed out the comments on Intranet; their restricted digital communication network. As it turned out, there was a possibility to react to every message about the change anonymously, creating a social process online. The following quotation shows the perceived shift of the horizontal communication: “I think

it is very useful for people to express their feelings in that way, this should be possible within a process [as

such], if people are unsatisfied but afraid to express this, this gives them the possibility to share it

anonymously.” [A, 9:41].

Moving the horizontal communication from the work floor to the online platform, has been said to have – at least – two strong advantages. First, managers were able to monitor the comment section and take all feedback and concerns into consideration. They used this to adjust their communication accordingly, as one employee argues: “I think this has been really good for the process, you just got to let it happen. You do

not want to have to enclose everything, but make it public. It is great that managers know what is going on, that they can read along.” [A, 8:51b]. Second, from the user’s point of view, one interviewee argued that

when looking through these comments, it gives the possibility to put things into perspective. This interviewee claimed: “What you see is that people that do have some resistance on the work floor, read the

other comments, and think to themselves: what are we actually talking about, this is absolutely about nothing.” [A, 8:51a].

At this point a possible link emerged between creating an online process of horizontal communication and a decrease in unintended outcomes. When asked about the communication, everyone was very positive, they labeled frequency, speed, thoroughness, and clarity as important factors contributing to its success. One interviewee claimed that when their department first heard about the upcoming change, they were afraid it would look like a call centre. The most significant effect of monitoring the horizontal communication online on unintended change outcomes is described as follows: “Because they provide extra

and more information right away, you barely get the chance have negative feelings strengthened, in my opinion they did a really good job at this.” [A, 2:13]. It is worth noting that this employee used the Intranet

to anonymously state concerns, resulting in an adjusted vertical communication from managers to employees.

4.4 Resistance and power relations

Managers were seen to have a very open mind towards feedback. The atmosphere was described as open and transparent. When an employee was asked to describe the change approach, she answered the following:

“With us, also in meetings, you were able to ask questions and go into discussion […] They really listened to us and did something with our input.” [A, 2:19]. This quotation is a very good resemblance of the overall

climate; people felt involved, people were able to state concerns, and above all, they felt like they were listened to.

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This purported celebrating or demonising of resistance can be found in the following sentence, where a manager very convincingly shows a celebration of resistance, on the question: ‘when people comment on sounds or noise, how do you perceive this?’ “As feedback! If people have a hard time working here, that is

possible because it is a more dynamic area, but we created silent areas as well, people are allowed to sit there, that is absolutely no problem. The one just needs more silence than the other, people are different.” [A,

6:21]. To assess whether employees actually feel like their input is being valued, I asked what the managers did with their opinion, one employee claims: “They definitely act upon it, and not just within the beginning

of the process, but also throughout and they are still working on this [handling feedback].” [A, 8:9]. Another

goes in depth on why he feels free to state concerns: “This organization is definitely open and transparent.

You are allowed to say what you want to say, at least in all decency, but I am in a position that I can give unsolicited advice and opinions. And this is appreciated as well.” [A, 9:65].

During the change process the overall resistance was remarkably low. Multiple interviewees claim this is related to the high involvement: “I believe I was a sort of a promotor. The communication lines

became shorter, people felt more involved and informed.” [A, 8:28]. Another interview agrees on the limited

resistance and higher readiness and states: “Yes, absolutely. This was not only the communication but also

due to the fact that we were given every possibility to participate, become involved, and discuss about the change.” [A, 9:6]. What became apparent is that a lot has been done to involve people and take them along in

the change [A11], such as tours through the building when the remodelling took place, tours to other governmental organizations where flexible working already took place, brainstorm-sessions on the completion of the change, use of ambassadors, and vision-days.

Another interviewee gives examples and states that it was even possible to share suggestions on coat racks and office chairs [A, 7:14].

What is seen from above is the possible link between user involvement and resistance; with the involvement and celebration of resistance, employees showed a more positive attitude towards the change. However, getting everyone involved takes a lot of time as well, management had a clear vision on this trade-off. When asked for the reason to involve employees this strongly, one manager expands: “Because we

believe that it is a must for creating commitment, we asked managers [from all departments] to make sure that there was someone from every team attending our meetings or actively participating within this change project.” [A, 4:4]. The outcome of this driven commitment is shown in the following quotation: “I believe managers play a huge role in promoting change, luckily we also had a lot of colleagues that were completely into it and really looking forward.” [A, 6:17].

Through user involvement, the organization was able to expand their number of promotors of change. Consequently, all users felt involved in the change or had the feeling that it was possible to get more involved [A6, A8, A10]. Through inductive coding, a possible relationship emerged between user involvement and resistance. Due to a high involvement, users were less likely to show resistance.

4.5 Change outcomes

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has happened within time and budget and employees felt well-informed. Third, people are asked to work flexibly, collaborate more, and work more project-oriented, this part of the change shows the least success.

It is within this part of the change project where it became very visible that the underexposed sense of urgency in the vertical communication is possibly related to mobilising employees, and having them act upon the change. Within the change project, it can be said that the process is still in this phase. However, the actions that need to be taken at this point are behind schedule or might not occur at all [A4]. When I asked managers and recipients what is done to keep moving, the answer shows the link with the sense of urgency. When asked: ‘what is done to consolidate this?’, one claims: “Well, every time they say it [work more flexibly], the desks are left empty, but to consolidate it you have to oblige people to sit at a different desk

every day and collaborate more, but you can not ask that. If the desk is empty, why can’t you sit there? There is simply no need to sit somewhere else, with other people.” [A, 8:25]. This quote give a strong example of

the relationship between the perceived need and urgency for change and the outcome of the change.

Here, once again it shows that different reasons for change lead to different outcomes. An urgency for flexible working is said to not match everyones function or job characteristics. One employee answered the question ‘what is the urgency to work flexibly for your department?’ as follows: “Well, a lot less […]

well, actually no there is none. If you are working full-time, you can easily sit on the same spot everyday. However, we do have a lot of part-timers, in that case it is convenient when someone else can use your spot if you are not there, it increases the efficiency of your capacity, we did come back with a lot more employees.” [A, 10:2]. This quotation shows the outcome of the change in two different ways. First, there is

no need and thus is does not happen. Second, there is an urgency in the increased efficiency of the capacity. Everyone is willing to give up their desk at times when they are not there, because they are aware of the importance. However, almost no one sees a need in sitting somewhere else, with different people, every day in order to increase collaboration. This is also supported by the following quotation: “The question is now;

what were our goals, and actually I am not sure what the goals are. So, when that is unclear, the urgency is missing.” [A, 7:27]. The secondary data shows a quantitative measure of success. Through a survey, people

were asked whether they label their way of working as ‘working flexibly’. Results showed that 60.3% of respondents (N = 538) claimed to (almost) never change seats, thereby answering negatively [A, 11:4].

4.6 Comparative analysis

Within this section the main findings above are compared to the compared research sites. Both similarities and striking differences are touched upon. It starts with a comparison of organization B, where a new program is implemented, and ends with the comparison of organization C, where the education needed improvement. It follows the same structure of the findings from organization A.

Organization B. Here, a new program ‘Vermilion ’ is implemented in order to standardise work and 1 increase efficiency. This program is part of the innovation project in order to facilitate growth.

Reason for change. Within this organization the reason for change was said to be necessary, but the

urgency was not pointed out thoroughly. Employees were aware of the fact that automatisation and standardisation are needed in order to keep up with high digitalisation of work. When asked for the need for change, one employee answered: “It is definitely necessary. The way we work now, no longer fits this time.

Vermilion Reporting is an enterprise solution that delivers a transparent and proven method of streamlining the entire client reporting

1

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So the sense of urgency is coming, we just know we have to.” [B, 2]. It was found that the reason for change

was broadly understood, but the vision was seen to be missing. This is shown in the following quotation: “In

order to communicate a vision, there has to be a vision, that is of high importance. It was no lack of communication channels, it was the fact that there simply was no vision.” [B, 5]. This quotation also shows

that communication was not the issue, at least, there have been numerous channels.

Vertical communication. In order to spread the message of change, vertical communication was

needed. However, employees argued that they did not feel informed, nor involved. As one employee argues: “The project mostly took place in project rooms, the results was that the rest of the organization was barely

involved. The software developer knew what he wanted, but for a lot of people this felt too abstract. Therefore, people found it hard to grasp what was going on.” [B, 4]. Another employee highlights further:

“At first there barely was any [communication], now and then an e-mail, especially pointing out the delays.

No attention through other channels.” [B, 7]. It also seemed to employees that the vision from management

was unclear: “It is management its task to take the lead in the change, telling us which direction we want to

go. The direction is standardisation and automatisation. But communicating the vision, that did not happen at all.” [B, 3]. This last quotation shows a strong need from an employee to be informed and instructed to act

upon the change, a distinct characteristic of vertical communication.

Horizontal communication. There are no strong quotations on the social processes within horizontal

layers of the organization, it is actually said that the talk was barely alive: “There is not much contact. There

have not really been any attempts either. Also, there is barely any dialogue between the different departments, that is why they do not really see the use of Vermilion.” [B, 1]. What can be found is that, in

order to create a social process in horizontal layers, some resistance is needed to keep the talk and the change alive. However, this change project was characterised by little involvement, partly due to multiple delays, as one argues: “The project was delayed a lot and what was noticed was that there was barely any involvement

of employees, that is what you get when there is no progress.” [B, 5]. Employees would have liked to be

more involved, which possibly could have led to some resistance or feedback, but at least the talk would be alive. The following quotation shows this longing for involvement through vertical communication: “For me

it would have been nice to have communication through town halls , so people could ask questions.” [B, 7]. 2

Resistance. Active resistance was not visible, not because there was no, but because it was shown

passively. People did not feel involved, and due to the multiple announcement of delays and the abstractness of it, the change project became less of a priority. One employee highlights the downside of the delays: “The

project is often on hold for 5 to 6 weeks, this also leads to a loss of knowledge and skills, which is less efficient.” [B, 9]. The vision is said to have a possible relation with the support: “There was a lack of support because the vision was not communicated well.” [B, 2].

Organization C. Within this change project, the way of working at a high school changed drastically

as a result of a very bad assessment from the Education Inspection.

Reason for change. Within organization C, the sense of urgency was perceived as very high. There

was a strong need for change, coming from external pressures. One employee elaborates on this and stated: “At some point a lady from O2G2 [Public Education Group Groningen] came. She told us that we were on

the verge of disaster […] There were a lot who thought: ‘who is that lady who is tutoring us?’ I thought it A Town Hall Business Meeting is an organization-wide business meeting in which an executive report is made and then employees or

2

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was quite a hysteric woman who told us that we were doomed if we didn’t do anything quickly. But, in the end we all came to action.” [C, 8]. The employee argues that the need for change was very high in the

moment, which in the end led to action. Another employee highlights this necessity to change and claimed: “Everyone saw the need for change. Because it really was a drama. If we did not change quickly we would

have lost our license to examine […] And then you really have a problem. For the employment opportunities as well.” [C, 1]. This last sentence is striking, it highlights the awareness of the consequences of the change,

if they did not change quickly, people might lose their job. Compared to organization A, the reason for change was perceived more urgent. Eventually this led to mobilisation and action of all employees, resulting in strong change outcomes.

Vertical communication. Within the vertical communication from management and the Inspection

the hard facts have been highlighted repeatedly. One employee shares his experience: “Within the time of the

Inspection, they came every 2 or 3 months, or someone from management came to tell us how urgent it is and that we are writing in red numbers. It felt like a constant confrontation of the facts.” [C, 5]. When asked how

he felt about this kind of communication, he elaborated: “I understand it, but some people found it quite

something that it [the numbers] was published like this. On the other hand, the numbers were already online, the only difference was that they shared it with us.” [C, 5]. This resembles a strong opposite from

organization A, where strategic ambiguity is employed to communicate the reason for change, leaving out numbers and hard facts. The effects of this are found in the perceived sense of urgency and consequently the change outcomes.

Horizontal communication. Another comparison can be made on the topic of horizontal

communication. Where in organization A a large part of the horizontal communication became visible for managers to monitor and act upon, in organization C, the horizontal communication was mostly taking place in corridors. One employee highlights the effect of this very clearly: “[…] Those kind of steps, that has

actually never been communicated, that is what I picked up upon. […] In the corridors or in the canteen, I talk to colleagues, and they talk to each other.” [C, 3]. He elaborates on this social process and the effects:

“Rumours and gossip started to emerge, people hear and say all sorts of things.” [C, 3]. Eventually this employee argues how he wishes that vertical communication would be adjusted to the horizontal social processes: “When I look at the change, I miss some kind of openness within the communication, what kind of

possibilities it gives us, and what direction we want to go, this sort of information is now behind on the rumour mill, let me state it that way.” [C, 3].

Resistance. On the part of resistance, the influence of vertical communication is stated, as one

elaborates: “A lot of people started to show resistance because they felt the changes were going too fast and

they missed being involved, I think the support is definitely needed, especially within educational organizations.” [C, 7]. What can be said is that the vertical communication fell behind, employees started to

feel left out, and lack of support became an unintended outcome. The power relations are seen to be similar, employees argue that they feel listened to and that there are a lot of possibilities for them. One argues: “If

you believe something is going wrong, you can see your direct manager. And a lot is possible, really. I mean, they really listen, that gives a good feeling.” [C, 4].

Change outcome. Due to the very strong sense of urgency in the beginning of the change, the school

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is an extreme run to sign up for this school, we are now the most popular school in town. We have been able to profile ourselves differently and now you can even take exams in Dance, we really became an art and culture school, which is unique.” [C, 2]. Whereas in organization A the sense of urgency was perceived as

low, in organization C it was perceived as very high. In these case site, it is seen to influence the change outcome, leading to a very successful change outcome in organization C, and a moderate to low change outcome in organization A.

4.7 Summary

In the main change project, the vertical communication is seen to leave out facts in order to prevent panic. This resulted in a lower sense of urgency by employees and later on, little mobilisation. In organization C, this was the opposite, where the sense of urgency was very clearly stated by using (negative) numbers. In the main research site, management was given the possibility to read along with the horizontal social process online. This gave management the opportunity to react to concerns, and to adjust their change messages. In organization C, the ‘rumour-mill’ went ahead of the formal, vertical communication, leading to influenced employees. Consequently, one employee admitted that the missed information from management. He wished they were more open about possibilities and the change direction. This resembles a strong difference in an open social process and a closed one.

However, in order to monitor the horizontal communication, an atmosphere is needed in which people feel safe to state their concerns. This was done in both organization A and C. In organization B, however, the talk of the change was not alive, and it became less of a priority. Therefore, resistance is seen to be needed in order to know what goes on, to keep the change alive, and to adjust practices. In both organization A and C, the power relations between the manager and employees were characterised by a celebration of resistance. Employees argued they felt free to give feedback, and they felt that it was handled in a constructive matter. An overview of the results is given in the form of a figure (see figure 3).

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5. Discussion and conclusion

This research has addressed the following research question: ‘What is the role of vertical and horizontal

communication within organizational change?’ In order to answer this question, a literature review is

conducted and qualitative data collection took place. A total of three change projects are compared on the basis of thirty-three interviews and additional, secondary data. In the remainder, the results of this research are discussed and compared with relevant literature. Then, theoretical and managerial implications are presented, followed by the limitations of this research and suggestions for further research. Finally, a conclusion is given.

5.1 Literature confrontation

In this section, the most interesting and striking findings from the results section are compared with existing literature, as being an essential feature of theory development (Eisenhardt, 1989).

Reason for change. The reason for change and the initial vision was unclear, different reasons

intertwined. The real reason for the change was said to be deliberately kept out. This way the employees argued that the sense of urgency missed. This confirms research of different scholars (Kotter, 1995; Rafferty & Simons, 2006; Van der Heuvel et al., 2015). Kotter (1995) argues that creating a sense of urgency is often underestimated by managers. My research complements this statement; a stronger sense of urgency in organization C was seen to lead to a higher mobilisation of employees. Rafferty and Simons (2006) found that when employees do not see the necessity of the change, it is likely the change initiative will fail. This is in line with what is found within the main research site, where one employee claims that he is still unaware of the goals, and when this is unclear, the urgency is missing. Above, this confirms the theory of Ford et al. (2008) who claim that when a manager fails to legitimise the change, employees are more likely to resist the change.

Vertical communication. Within the results the way strategic ambiguity is employed is stated. Even

though managers were unaware of using this communication strategy as such, the interpretations of employees showed different perceptions. Managers deliberately left out the facts in order to speak to those who welcome the change and those that are cautious. This is in line with the description of Sonenshein (2010). By doing so, the managers were unable to clearly write down the vision, possibly leading towards a lower state of awareness of employees. This confirms theory of several scholars, whereas one study suggested that “strategic ambiguity may have its dark side when it comes to considering the implications for

organizational level action or enacted strategy” (Abdallah & Langley, 2014, p. 240). In their research,

Abdallah and Langley (2014) focus on to which degree and how strategic ambiguity enables or inhibits collective strategic action.

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