The importance of internal communication in organizational change: Case study of the structural change in a Belgian government agency

Internal communication is an essential element to create willingness to change in organizations (Elving 2005a, 2005b; Clampitt et al. 2000; Armenakis et al. 2007). In this paper, we present the results of a mixed method research assessing change communication in a Belgian governmental institution which recently implemented a change in its organizational structure. Our approach to the data was twofold. The descriptive, quantitative first part of the research relies on a survey of 718 staff members involved in the change. The survey consists of 30 questions assessing the internal communication about the change, and the staff’s willingness to change. The questionnaire is based on existing instruments - such as the ICA audit, the scales of Armenakis et al (2007) and Wanous et al (2000). We addressed the following research questions: RQ1 - To what extent are staff members willing to go along with the change? RQ2 - To what extent are staff members satisfied with the internal communication regarding the change? Second, we conducted 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with staff members, in which we further explored notable findings of the survey. The interviews (each about 20 to 30 minutes) were conducted in the period from June 25, 2014 to July 9, 2014 and aimed at answering the following research question: RQ3 - To what extent has the internal communication had an impact on staff members’ willingness to change or change resistance ? Our findings confirm that a negative assessment of the internal communication correlates with a higher degree of change resistance, but also -if not more so- the results reveal the the extent to which individual self interest acts cause resistance to change. In conclusion, we open up the debate about the role of internal communication in signaling and preventing this from happening. __________ 50-word summary: This paper presents the results of a mixed method research assessing change communication in a Belgian governmental institution which recently implemented a change in its organizational structure. The main finding is that a crucial role is reserved for internal communication in preventing self-interest acts as a brake on change readiness

Strategy and ritual in institutional encounters: a linguistic ethnography of weekly meetings in the British Embassy in Brussels

This study enters the closed and secluded community of a British embassy. It enters a cultural milieu, a setting where a group of self-identifying people with certain shared beliefs engage in a set of distinctive and mutually intelligible practices and tries to gain a more complete understanding of its norms, values and expectations. In particular, it investigates the role of the weekly gathering of Heads of Section as organizational ritual and symbol of collective experience, conveying cultural norms, interpretations and expectations. The work is essentially anthropologically-informed and inspired, while at the same time guided by a profound interest in and concern for language and communication. Apart from linguistics and anthropology, the study relies on and expands upon existing methods and views in a variety of other independently established disciplines. It draws on the sociological writings of Goffman, the philosophical work of Durkheim and Turner, the political ideas of Marx and Weber and many others

Business meeting training on its head : inverted and embedded learning

This article explores the value of using embedding to extend the notion of first exposure learning in flipped classroom practices. It describes a preclass assignment for a meeting and negotiation skills course, in which students are instructed to observe an authentic business meeting, interview participants of the meeting, photograph the boardroom, draw a sketch of the seating arrangement, and write a reflective account. Its main argument is that immersion in corporate culture before class makes business communication training not only more authentic but also produces richer in-class discussions, ultimately leading to a level of metacognition associated with deep learning

Digital popular culture as a way to promote Chinese national identity in the Post-socialist Era : a case study of My People, My Country

The recent Chinese national blockbuster My People, My Country (MPMC hereafter), a movie consisting of 7 stories recounting 7 memorial moments and events since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, has awakened “the shared memories of Chinese people around the world” (China Focus, 2019). According to Maoyan’s website (2019), MPMC is ranked amongst the top ten highest-grossing films in mainland China. Intrigued by why MPMC as a propaganda film is so successful, I focus on addressing two specific questions: a) What strategies are used in promoting nationalism? and b) What are the effects of these discursive strategies? In answering the first question, I adopted a political discourse analysis approach to analyze the audio-visual strategies employed in the film and found that the recurring motives of national flags, household and emotional music and the variety of dialects are used to construct a unified Chinese national identity. It is by means of these strategies, which display shared cultural memories, that MPMC constructs an “imagined community” (Anderson, 1983; Cai, 2016; Wodak, et al., 2009) in PanChinese sphere and promotes nationalism in Chinese diasporas. While propagating political ideologies, MPMC makers also adopt a Hollywoodized movie style and hire celebrities with good reputations to cater to the audience’s taste and maintain an entertaining effect, both of which not only depoliticize the propagandist nature of the movie but also guarantee a profitable cultural product. With regards to the second question, I conducted a small-scale (25 samples) questionnaire survey with open questions among Chinese studying or living in Ghent (Belgium). Feedback suggests that the audience is particularly touched by cultural elements that they share affinity and familiarity with. The survey also revealed that the participants felt dissatisfied with some illogical plots as well as with the overromanticized theme of self-sacrifice. These research findings suggest that in the post-socialist era, Chinese government consciously and strategically draws on popular culture, such as films, to promote a strong national identity by situating itself within a spectrum of two poles—propaganda and entertainment (Wang, 2019). Despite minor dissatisfaction, the incorporation of entertaining elements proves effective in disseminating political ideologies, as evidenced by the laughter and tears among audience

The communication matrix: beating babel: coping with multilingual service encounters

Public service interpreting and translation (PSIT) provision can hardly catch up with demand. Simultaneously, the scarce availability of trained public service interpreters and translators is a fact. We need to conceive integrated solutions by coherently bringing together PSIT and other communication supporting ‘tools’. Then, clear usage of the national tongue, PSI, translation, pictograms, video images and language software would be part of one communication assistance concept. But merely ad hoc use of these tools creates more confusion than solutions for service providers and their clients. The Junction Migration-Integration and the University College of Ghent have analyzed over seventy real public service interactions. The objective was to build a methodology to develop a service access support tool: the Communication Matrix. Quantitative research was performed. And benchmarking sessions were organised with policy makers, service providers and language support professionals, as qualitative research. In the paper, we will discover through the research findings whether such a communication matrix -by means of which concrete service provision can be linked to adequate communication tools through a matrix - is attainable

Equal access to health information : evaluating the use of a multilingual website in face-to-face consultations = Igualdad de acceso a la información sanitaria : evaluación del uso de un sitio web multilingüe en las consultas presenciales

In a 21st century superdiverse world, public service providers increasingly resort to technologies facilitating face-to-face consultations. In this paper, we evaluate the use and efficiency of a multilingual website in 11 video-recorded consultations of HIV/STI counselling. We address three central research questions: (i) How is the multilingual website embedded (or not) in the consultations? (ii) For what particular communicative purposes? (iii) How are the interactional routines shaped by the use of the multilingual website? The results show that the website is most efficient in consultations characterized by high levels of institution-specific arrangements of talk enabling varying tasks, e.g. announcing the taking of a HIV test, asking the patient’s consent for taking a HIV test, exploring sexual risk behaviours and infections, empowering the patient in the search for reliable information on sexual health related topics.En un contexto de superdiversidad, los proveedores de servicios públicos recurren cada vez más a tecnologías para facilitar los encuentros multilingües. En este artículo evaluamos el uso y la eficiencia de un sitio web mediante el análisis de 11 consultas sobre VIH/ETS. Abordamos tres preguntas de investigación: (i) ¿Cómo se incluye (o no) el sitio web multilingüe en las consultas? (ii) ¿Con qué fines comunicativos? (iii) ¿Qué efectos tiene el sitio web en las rutinas de interacción? Los resultados muestran que el sitio web es más eficiente en consultas con organizaciones conversacionales específicas y propias de la institución. Así, el sitio facilita comunicar la realización de una prueba VIH, solicitar el consentimiento del paciente para realizarla, explorar conductas sexuales de riesgo, y capacitar al paciente en la búsqueda de información fiable sobre temas relacionados con la salud sexual

Linguistic ethnography and institutions

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