Leadership communication during organizational transformation

The article studies the role of institutional leadership communication in six cases of comprehensive organizational transformation in higher education institutions. Through the concepts of sense-making and seizing, the article investigates how academic leaders at the institutional level deal with the need to balance continuity and change in their intra-organizational communication. Key findings suggest that digital platforms change not just the outreach of academic leadership communication but also the types of staff interaction and involvement during organizational transformation. Furthermore, findings also suggest that leadership communication is more focused on processes than outcomes and is more oriented towards learning to live with unresolved situations than providing swift solutions. The findings are discussed in relation to the literature, and some implications are suggested as to how communication processes can be exploited by institutional leaders in organizational transformation processes.