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This field study of a merger examines the antecedent factors and processes that explain two different forms of employee support for change-compliance and championing. Our overarching goal is to understand why some employees comply and others champion change efforts. We examine the combined effects of context and person factors on both positive and negative employee reactions to change, and then investigate the differential effects of these reactions on employee support for change. Results support our hypotheses and show that change management support (context factor) negatively predicts threat appraisals and positively predicts challenge appraisals. Both compliance and championing are positively predicted by challenge appraisals, and threat appraisals are negatively related to championing. Analyses also reveal that the positive relationship between change management support and challenge appraisal is stronger when dispositional resistance to change (person factor) is high. Moderated-mediation analyses suggest employees' compliance and championing for change are differentially affected by management actions, their own dispositional resistance, and that these effects are mediated through positive and negative appraisals.

Building on fairness heuristic theory and dual-process theories of cognition, we examine individuals' perceptions of phase shifting. We define phase shifting as an individual perception that triggers a shift from type 1 to type 2 cognitive processes resulting in the reevaluation of justice judgments. In a longitudinal study of a merger, we empirically test the influence of phase-shifting perceptions on justice judgments, and we identify antecedents of phase-shifting perceptions. We find employees' perceptions of the change as a phase-shifting event moderates the relationship between overall justice judgments prior to change (time 1), and subsequent assessments of justice six months later (time 2). We study three situational antecedents (i.e., magnitude of change, managerial exemplarity, and coworker support for change) and one individual antecedent (i.e., dispositional resistance to change) of phase-shifting perceptions. The four hypothesized antecedents together predict 74% of employees' perceptions of the merger as a phase-shifting event. Implications for research and practice regarding organizational justice and organizational change are discussed.We are thankful to the APICIL Company and the Gordon J. Barnett Foundation for their support of this research.

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This is the accepted version of a paper published in Small Business Economics. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.