Communicating large scale change in a technology development unit: A case study of an automotive E/E architecture transition
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Adolfsson, Jesper
Sölveland, August
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
With the advent of new, sophisticated software technologies, many traditional in-
dustries are being disrupted. One such industry is the automotive industry, which
is accelerating into a future where customer value is increasingly created through
software services. For automotive incumbents, the shift towards software engineer-
ing is challenging as it requires a change of core capabilities and organizational
restructuring, among other things. This thesis is focusing on one key initiative which
will be instrumental in enabling a future software- and service-centric automotive
industry, namely the creation of a new E/E architecture. The aim of this research is
to investigate the role of communication when shifting E/E architectures, and more
specifically, to gain a better understanding for how automotive incumbents organize
their internal communication in an E/E architecture transition. In conducting this
research, 15 qualitative interviews were held with internal stakeholders to an ongoing
E/E architecture transition. The findings highlight difficulties differentiating between
communication and organizational change aspects as challenges and solutions related
to the former is of multidimensional character. One of the main barriers presented
in this case was related to a lack of management support, seemingly a consequence
of the change emerging from the bottom of the organization coupled with it having
high impact implications such as demands for major competence shifts. Solutions
proposed to overcome this challenge were partly related to improving the frequency
of communication with means such as a newsletter. Further, formalizing a communi-
cation plan can be a good opportunity for managers to reflect on communication and
contribute to ensuring consistency in terms of the what, how and when of commu-
nication. Additionally, it can help with reducing ambiguity and uncertainty within
the organization. However, it was also proposed that recruitment, replacement and
competency development of both managers and engineers was a necessity. This view
found support in certain cases as competency shifts were needed in order to gain
the necessary understanding and political behavior was prevalent due to the inherent
resistance associated with high impact change initiatives.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Organizational change , Communication , Change communication