Language of Change

Changing organizational culture is a challenging undertaking, especially when it is attempted through a global change in systems and processes, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementations. During these transformations, organizations desire alignment between people at different levels and across various parts of the organization; and communication is considered a critical factor to developed shared meaning leading towards alignment. This research redefines alignment as a dynamic push-pull communication model for change in which the traditional top-down “push” communication frames the overall purpose and objectives of a change while the deeper-level “pull” communication helps employees make sense of the change—what the change means to them and their departments. Research was conducted through semi-structured interviews of employees of a global entertainment and media company that is doing an ERP implementation to change the culture of their home-video division from creative high-margin mindset to process efficiency driven organization can reduce its costs to improve its eroding profit margins. Various aspects of communication, such as boundary objects and stories, are analyzed to understand how they lead to alignment and misalignment as the ERP-driven change unfolds.

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