Modern enterprises are constantly under change in the effort to enhance their internal operations and become more competitive in the market. A change process is always a challenge, and its success needs to consider multi-angled approaches, as it affects all involved stakeholders. The way changes are tack- led is fundamental to the success and survivability of an enterprise. Change is interwoven with risks, and therefore it has to be effectively managed in order to be successful. This work presents an effort to identify the key factors that should be con- sidered in order to lead to effective change management in modern enter- prises, and quantify their relationship to it. The theoretical investigation re- veals that key factors often considered, both in theory and in practical change management strategies, include Employee, Leadership, Training & Develop- ment, Reward & Recognition, Culture, Politics, Information Systems. Driven by these findings, a model is proposed that depicts their correlation towards effective change management. Subsequently, a survey is conducted, and sta- tistical analysis is performed to the empirical data collected, in order to eval- uate the proposed model and its hypotheses. The empirical results indicate that all selected key factors, contribute towards achieving effective change management as hypothesized. The results of this work, may benefit enterprise managers planning, exe- cuting and assessing change processes, as proper considerations of the factors discussed throughout this work may increase the chances of the change pro- cess success, resulting in a better performing and competitive enterprise.

abstract: This study aims to deepen the understanding of how Third Culture Kids (TCKs) receive and maintain long-term perceptions of positive identity. The literature review surveys bodies of research related to Third Culture Kids, intercultural communication conceptions of identity, and communication strategies of identity management. The research framework is a response to Martin and Nakayama’s (2010) call for a dialectical approach to the study of intercultural communication, and reflects an interpretive/critical/activist dialectic paradigm. This qualitative multi-method research project gathered survey, interview, and visual data through online platforms. Participants were TCKs over age 40 who self-selected as having a positive identity. A modified grounded analysis revealed several key findings connected to agency development, choice making, communication filters, and framing of positivity. Factors contributing to characteristics of a positive identity included sending organization, total number and frequency of moves, and degrees of difference among their cultural contexts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2016