Strategies Leaders Should Use to Respond to Hostile Questions Regarding Organizational Changes

<p>The purpose of this research was to develop a tool using Speech Act Theory which will help leaders better handle hostile questions they face during organizational change. Specifically speech act theory which outlines five question-response strategies was used to test the effectiveness of question responses to hostile questions encountered during organizational change. The first step in this research was to identify the types of hostile questions that are asked during organizational change. Next these questions were reviewed and like questions were grouped into one of five preexisting categories. Responses based on the five response strategies were then developed for a representative sample of the questions (two from each category). The final step in this research involved pairing each of the responses against one another for a given question which enabled the selection of the most favorable response strategy. This research tells the leader what type of hostile questions to expect. The research also provides general rules or guidance about the content of the responses that can be used to respond to these hostile questions. The research effort determined change targets' (i.e. membership of an organization) preferences in reference to desired responses to hostile questions. This information can be used by leaders as a guide as they initiate and implement change.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>