Is Communication Always Helpful? – The Influence of Organizational Communication on Feelings of Uncertainty and Commitment of Employees during Change Management Processes

Abstract

The study examines the influence of merger communication on the subjective experience of employees and management involved in the merger process, which is a crucial factor of success for mergers in general. In comparison with employees without any managerial responsibility leaders consider a timely integration, the involvement of the management and the level of information throughout the merger process as more important. The evaluation of communication predicts uncertainty as a part of the subjective experience of the employees. The findings overall emphasize the important role of the middle management to honestly and target-oriented communicate all important information that affect their employees, to enable feedback and to represent their interests when acting. They have a clear subjective information lead over their employees and are rather directly and timely involved by the top management For practice, this overall means that all described aspects of communication should be considered during the merger process and that it should be thought of the key role of the middle management.