Staying ahead of the digital tsunami: strategy, innovation and change in public media organizations

2014-08-08Changes in digital media products and services have impacted how people consume news and information. Subsequently, the business models of many types of media institutions have been disrupted. This dissertation examines digital transformations taking place in U.S. public media organizations. Although public media institutions are not commercial entities, the repercussions of digital media disruption threaten their economic viability. At the same time, digital technologies provide tremendous opportunity for reaching audiences in new ways. ❧ Using interview data with 75 public media professionals and survey data from employees at three public radio stations, I examine how people make sense of, and influence, strategic change within their organizations. Across five interconnected studies, I apply the theoretical perspectives of sensemaking, organizational identity, strategic management and innovation, social networks, and foresight capacity. In the first and second study, I demonstrate that the way individuals perceive competitors encapsulates the connection between organizational identity and strategy. I also show how identity frameworks are used to make sense of strategic organizational change, and how the language of identity fosters sensegiving as form of internal strategic communication to further organizational change goals. In the third and fourth study, I examine how individuals make sense of process versus product innovation and how social networks inform project performance and communication structures in organizations undergoing change. In the fifth study, I address how managers view the temporal side of strategy through the analysis of views about the near‐ and long‐term trajectories of their stations. Together, these studies address how organizations can build a stronger capacity for managing change. ❧ This dissertation provides insight into how a critical segment of the U.S. media industry is facing challenges and opportunities stemming from digital media disruption. Results from this project show that capacity is more than just financial and human resources; it also encompasses communication competencies, sensemaking, and foresight. I argue that building capacity for change means making diverse discoursive and cognitive frames more visible. This can aid in organizational change efforts and in developing new frames for building future‐oriented sensemaking and foresight. This project has implications for the public broadcasting industry as well as other industries including commercial radio and television, higher education, publishing, and retail