The Role of Conversations in Producing Intentional Change in Organizations

Most perspectives on change propose that communication occurs in the context of change. This article inverts that perspective by proposing both that communication is the context in which change occurs and that the change process unfolds in a dynamic of four distinct types of conversations. The fundamental nature of speech as performative suggests that change is linguistically based and driven and that producing intentional change is facilitated by intentional communication. The relationships among the conversations are discussed, and implications for theory, research, and practice are given.