Taking apart structural change

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss the role of communication in relieving tensions that can arise from organizational practices enacted during structural change. Practices, according to Whittington (2006, p. 619), constitute shared routines of behaviour, including traditions, norms and procedures for thinking and acting.Design/methodology/approachEmployees’ reflections regarding what, how and why certain circumstances occurred during the structural reform of an Estonian State Institution with approximately 300 employees, comprised the study data. Reflections were collected during 27 interviews conducted after recent change to the structure of this organization. After aggregating different actions, associations and emotions into practices, these practices were assigned to elements offered by Schatzki (2005), and tensions between the elements sought and analysed.FindingsAnalysis of the three practices extracted as forming part of the structural reform – management decision-making, recruitment and physical relocation – showed that in organizational settings, the constitutional role of communication within practices needs conscious attention at different levels of the practice. Tensions that arose between practice elements, e.g. rules or reasons for doing something not complying with ways of doing it, revealed the need for metacommunication regarding those elements.Practical implicationsCommunication during organizational changes needs to be more than crafted messages via well-organized channels from the communications department; it needs to penetrate to all different levels before, during and after a change. All that to create as many opportunities for employees at all levels to collectively make sense of what is happening and for the management to make necessary changes based on that. It should be created consciously by for example inviting employees together in discussion circles during the planning phase of the change and outlining the key processes of the change in question with them involved.Originality/valueThe value of this study is in investigating what goes on in an organization by distancing oneself from the immediate behaviour of an individual to focus on patterns of action, which gives another understanding as to why even when people wish for the best, things often still do not turn out as hoped. This approach refers to the theory that there are tensions or mistakes coded into practices, thus allowing one to look at inter-personal communication as part of other actions, not as a separate line of actions.