In an organization, several narratives will always exist, explanations and interpretations
to what has happened and what is going on (Humphreys and Brown, 2002). For example,
Bean and Hamilton (2006) found multiple and contradictory interpretations to a firm’s
downsizing. When downsizing or any other planned organizational change occur,
employees search for discourses that offer them material to understand and make sense of
what is happening. With the insight of the occurrence of multiple narratives, it is from an
organization perspective in times of change, management’s task to construct a discourse of
coherence (Araujo and Easton, 1996). Sensegiving provided by managers through
storytelling is a key input in the member’s sensemaking processes (Maitlis and Lawrence,
2007; Gioia and Chittipeddi, 1991; Dunford and Jones, 2000). Dominant narratives are
authored and transmitted by managers, and these narratives constitute an important
interpretation frame for organizational members. Managers have “declarative powers”
(Taylor and van Every, 2000, p. 143) to set a planned change going.
A critique of texts on change communication within this approach is the absence of
concrete methods and advice on how practitioners could use and take advantage of
communication during change. One exception is the article “Building trust in times
of crisis” (Langer and Thorup, 2006). Change communication based on a storytelling
approach will result in further frustration, claim the authors. They apprehend
storytelling as a management tool to discipline the corporate body with monophonic
communication (Boje, 2001). Langer and Thorup believe that organizational
change processes must comprise dialogue with employees to succeed. They stress
the importance of conducting a polyphonic approach to story-telling in change
communication based on co-productive methods. The main conclusion of Langer and
Thorup is that change communication is not followed by rapid results. Change
processes and change communication take time – there is no such thing as a quick fix