Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2001

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Candace White

Committee Members

John Haas, Lisa Fall

Abstract

In this case study, interviews and participant observation explored the role of internal communication in an organizational change process. The case for study was the ChurchResources Division of LifeWay Christian Resources, a religious publishing company based in Nashville, Tennessee. LifeWay's use of communication in the change process was compared to five themes for transitional organization communication found in academic business and communication books and journals. The five themes are the top executive as lead communicator, two-way communication, using middle managers,interpersonal communication, and a shared vision. Two major discoveries emerged that were outside the five themes. The first was that the top leaders in the LifeWay ChurchResources Division were genuinely concerned about communicating to their employees with truth and accuracy. With this idea established at the beginning of the change process, the communication throughout the change effort was consistent from all division leaders. The second discovery was the use of a communication team to maintain communication throughout the change process. The communication team had both a proactive and reactive relationship to the division leadership and also implemented four of the five themes found in the literature.

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