The Roles of Sensegiving Language and Context in Change Announcement Acceptance

ABSTRACT

Do leaders use sensegiving language in organization-wide planned change announcements? Does sensegiving language prompt organizational support? What contextual factors influence the reception of change announcements? These questions were explored in an analysis of written reorganization announcements across three executive administrations within a university. We found that sensegiving language was used when the reorganization decision was discretionary and when it was inconsistent with the values of shared governance and campus autonomy. Sensegiving language was associated with acceptance of the announcements but only when it was appropriate for the organizational setting. Leadership style appeared to influence internal support independent of language. Our findings suggest that although discursive ability might allow leaders to craft persuasive statements, the delivery of a change message must be consonant with contextual elements that include culture, external environment, organizational atmosphere, and leadership style.

MAD statement

When leaders announce a major organizational change, they must build support for the decision by using language that convinces organizational members to commit to successful change implementation. Despite numerous models of change management, there is little research that identifies what language is most effective to do so. This study analysed three university reorganization announcements and found that executives received support for decisions when they used language that was congruent with organizational values and their leadership style. Ideal content by itself was not sufficient to inspire support, nor was it necessary when a planned change was in reaction to the environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Sensegiving language
• change announcement
• context
• university

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 It is not our intent to present any of the presidents’ leadership approaches as effective or ineffective, so all leaders’ surnames have been changed in this manuscript to preserve anonymity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph Peyrefitte

Joseph Peyrefitte is a Professor of Management at the University of Southern Mississippi. His current research is concerned with the language used by leaders and their organizations in change efforts and stakeholder communications. He teaches international management, leadership, management foundations, and strategic management.

Amy J. Sevier

Amy J. Sevier is an Instructor of Management at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her professional interests include career development of women in medicine, managerial training and job satisfaction of technically trained professionals, management education, and storytelling. She currently teaches both organization theory and principles of management.

Russell Willis

Russell Willis is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research focuses on human resources issues with a particular focus on employment law. He teaches human resources management, compensation administration, and principles of management.