Learn Italian: Ci sono volute due ore per leggere il comunicato ufficiale ai lavoratori. - It took two hours to read the official press release to the workers.

The expression volerci (to take time or effort) uses the thing that is needed as its grammatical subject. Since due ore (two hours) is feminine plural, the auxiliary verb must be the plural sono, and the past participle must agree in gender and number, making it volute.

How could we change this sentence to the passive voice to say the release was read "by the management," applying this lesson's focus?

You could say Il comunicato ufficiale è stato letto ai lavoratori da parte della direzione. Using da parte di instead of just da is perfect here because the management is an institution or collective entity performing an official action.

Is comunicato acting as a verb in this sentence?

No, while it originates as the past participle of comunicare (to communicate), here it functions entirely as a noun meaning "press release" or "official statement." Italian frequently turns past participles into nouns to describe the result of an action.

If I wanted to say that I specifically took two hours to read it, how would the beginning of the sentence change?