Soliciting and Using Input During Organizational Change Initiatives

Abstract

Scholars have documented many benefits of participatory processes during change including minimizing participants’ resistance, increasing their satisfaction, and strengthening their perceptions of control. Ironically, evidence also suggests that participative communication approaches are underused. This study explores implementers’ solicitation and use of stakeholder input during change processes. Twenty-six implementers from different organizations were interviewed and their responses were transcribed and thematically analyzed. Four general approaches to soliciting and using input were groundedly developed from these data. Findings suggest that the interviewees in this study tend to favor the “restricted” and “advisory” approaches to input solicitation and use. In the restricted model, implementers were highly selective about who was asked for input and aimed to disregard negative feedback. In the “advisory” approach, implementers solicited input more widely however were mixed in the degree to which negative feedback was used to make modest improvement in the change initiative.