Date of Award
Spring 2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication
First Advisor
D'Urso, Scott
Second Advisor
Waters, Eric
Third Advisor
Feldner, Sarah
Abstract
This paper presents a quantitative study on organizational change and how culture, leadership, and communication styles are related to different types of change. The objective was to understand these relationships and to provide insight for future applications centered on enabling organizational change. Respondents (N=411) from multiple organizations participated in evaluating preferences for culture, leadership and communication styles in response to different change scenarios. The study features four control groups, each representing various types of organizational change. Responses were evaluated using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to identify individual cultural preferences and seven-point Likert-type questionnaires for leadership and communication style preferences. The results of the study were unexpected by showing a lack of statistically significant relationships between each of the variables. However, the research did show a correlation between the preference of “open” communication styles with all four culture types. Several reasons for this lack of significance are discussed under future research, which may provide further insight as to how attitudes toward change might affect a respondent’s view of culture, leadership, and communication.