The dialogue between change agents and targets after solutions have been offered

Abstract

Organizational change is prevalent in businesses today. At it simplest level, this situation involves a change agent who is directing change and a change target who is directly impacted by the proposed modifications. Often these two groups differ with regard to authority such that the change agent has greater authority and the proposed change reflects a ¿top-down¿ process. However, change targets can sometimes express their views of proposals and even propose alternatives. We are interested in such dialogues. We predict that change agents will construct messages to targets that are primarily focused on the economic outcomes of proposals, whereas change targets will construct messages that focus on generating new ideas. We conducted a roleplay in which individuals played the role of university administrators cutting back the size of student groups or the presidents of the affected groups. These roles constructed messages about the proposed changes. Results supported our predictions.