Comparing How Managers at Different Levels in a Higher Education Institute Communicate with Their Subordinates During an Externally Forced Digitalization.

Abstract: Communication is a key aspect of organizational success and along with technological improvements and increase in use of digital tools, it is becoming more important to understand how to undertake the change process known as digitalization. This paper researches the digitalization performed within a higher education institute in order to cope with Covid-19 and how communication was performed at different levels within the hierarchy. The aim is to identify how communication during change differs across the hierarchy and especially how this ties together with change management, role/position, and leadership. Furthermore, this will be compared against existing research and literature on communication to see whether there exist contradictions or contrasts which may be identifiable using i.e. position. The research question developed for this is: How do managers at different levels in the hierarchy of a higher education institute communicate with their staff during an externally forced digitalization? The findings show that, in practice, there are clear differences between the way managers at different levels in this institute communicate during the change process. This includes aspects such as the clearly reduced communication resulting from the more limited timeframe lower levels of management get prior to the implementation of change. It also includes certain speculative differences based on the information presented during interviews, although it is presented as speculative as the information may not present the full story. While these differences can be important to note in terms of their practical influence, it is also interesting from a theoretical perspective as new theories will need to be developed: It is also relevant for the societal aspect as e.g. differences between upper and lower managers, especially during challenging times such as digitalization, can lead to needless stress and friction if they are not understood.