Leading organizational change; The role of top management and supervisors in communicating organizational change

In this paper two studies on the role of top management and direct supervisors on communicating organizational change are presented. The importance of leadership at all organizational levels is demonstrated and published in numerous studies, but empirically hardly tested. In this paper we will present two studies, in which we made a distinction between information and communication. Both concepts were measured, along with trust in top management, role of direct supervisors, support for change and contribution to change. Results showed that trust in top management significantly influenced employees' support for the change, and that the role of direct supervisors had a significant influence on the contribution to the change of the employees. From the first study we concluded that particularly interactions between management and employees during organizational change were troublesome in the participating organizations. To test these interactions more thoroughly we held a total of 37 interviews on line communication in two organizations. The overall conclusion is that the success of organizational change largely depends on the informative and communicative skills of managers at all levels.