Managing Dualities in Planned Change Initiatives J. Kevin Barge, Michael Lee, Kristy Maddux, Richard Nabring & Bryan Townsend Dualities play an important role in creating the conditions for change and managing planned change initiatives. Building on Seo, Putnam, and Bartunek’s (2003) work, this study focuses on the dualities associated with managing change processes. A case study of a planned change process called the Circle of Prosperity Initiative, a multi-stakeholder dialogue designed to bring information technology to Indian country, was analyzed. Three dualities emerged regarding the structuring and management of the change initiative: (1) inclusionexclusion, (2) preservationchange, and (3) centralityparity. The findings suggested that these dualities were managed using Seo et al.’s (2003) strategy of connection. Notably, the strategy of connection relied heavily on the ability of change agents to set context within and between the different phases of the initiative and involved three specific practices for setting context setting: (1) commonplacing, (2) bounded mutuality, and (3) reflexive positioning. Keywords: Organizational Change; Organizational Development; Dualities; Connection; Context; Reflexivity; Identity; Simulation Games Organizational communication scholars have historically been intrigued by the connection between communication and change. The work done by communication scholars regarding issues of participation in decision making (Seibold & Shea, 2001), emotion (Zorn, 2002), identity (Chreim, 2002), and vision (Fairhurst, 1993, 2007) J. Kevin Barge (PhD, University of Kansas) is Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. Michael Lee (PhD, University of Minnesota) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the College of Charleston. Kristy Maddux (PhD, University of Georgia) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland. Richard Nabring (MA, University of Georgia) is an independent scholar. Bryan Townsend (PhD, University of Georgia) is an Assistant Professor of Speech at Louisiana Tech University. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL. The authors would like to thank Kathy Domenici, Debbie Dougherty, and Stephen Littlejohn for comments on earlier drafts of this essay. We would also like to thank the American Indian Higher Education Association and Carrie Billie for their sponsorship of this research. Correspondence to: J. Kevin Barge, Dept. of Communication, 209A Bolton Hall, 4234 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4234, USA. Email: kbarge@tamu.edu ISSN 0090-9882 (print)/ISSN 1479-5752 (online) # 2008 National Communication Association DOI: 10.1080/00909880802129996 Journal of Applied Communication Research Vol. 36, No. 4, November 2008, pp. 364390