Nuts about change: Multiple perspectives on change-oriented communication in a public sector organization

Abstract or Summary

This article reports a case study of change-related communication in the business services department of a large local-government organization in New Zealand. The authors argue that popular contemporary management discourse celebrates change and creates assumptions that guide managerial practice and the interpretation of managerial actions. Thus, the work experience of most people is inundated with communication about and promoting change. The authors explore the change communication from the three perspectives suggested by Trujillo, what he terms the "functional," the "romantic," and the "critical". Each of these perspectives has a different logic, suggests different metaphors, and implicates different standards for evaluation. In terms of communication, each perspective highlights different change-related communication practices and/or alternative dimensions of the same practice.