<![CDATA[Digital transformation in higher education is frequently treated as a technical agenda, although its implementation depends on how leaders communicate change, negotiate meaning, and sustain stakeholder commitment. This study examines how communicative leadership supports digital transformation at an Indonesian private university by fostering trust, enabling dialogic engagement, and managing resistance. An exploratory qualitative design was used, drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 participants consisting of top-level academic leaders, middle-level academic leaders, and senior lecturers, supported by 8 selected institutional documents and 4 non-participant observation events totalling approximately 12 hours. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis with hybrid coding. The analysis shows that communicative leadership operates as a sense-making infrastructure: leaders build institutional and interpersonal trust through transparent and consistent messaging; transform dialogue into stakeholder participation through participatory forums, psychological safety, and feedback loops; and manage resistance by linking structural, workload-related, competence-based, and technological concerns with tailored communication strategies. The study contributes to leadership communication scholarship by showing that digital transformation is sustained not only by technological readiness but also by relational communication practices that convert policy mandates into shared institutional commitment.]]>
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