This study reviews quantitative empirical studies of change recipients' reactions to organizational change. The authors reviewed studies published between 1948 and 2007, out of which 79 met the criteria of being quantitative studies of change recipients' reactions to an organizational change. Through an inductive review, the authors unravel a model of (a) explicit reactions to change, in which these reactions are conceptualized as tridimensional attitudes; (b) reaction antecedents that comprise prechange antecedents (viz., change recipient characteristics and internal context) and change antecedents (viz., change process, perceived benefit/harm, and change content); and (c) change consequences, including work-related and personal consequences. On the basis of their review the authors conclude by proposing directions for future research and practical managerial implications. Keywords change research, change recipients, reactions to organizational change Since 1974 (Friedlander & Brown, 1974), literature reviews on the topic of organizational change and development have been published primarily in two journals (i.e., the Annual Review of Psychology and the Journal of Management). Some of these To identify studies for our review, we searched the literature using terminology typically associated with organizational change. Specifically, in the PsychInfo and Proquest databases, we conducted an electronic search of the abstracts for the terms reactions to change, resistance to change, openness to change, attitudes toward change, willingness to change, readiness to change and receptivity to change. This initial search yielded more than 600 articles published (a) as early as 1948 (Coch & French, 1948) and (b) in many diverse journals, which complemented those that typically publish organizational change research. Furthermore, we manually searched 10 journals known to have published empirical articles on organizational change, for the period 1980 through 2007, which resulted in an additional 78 articles that were not identified in the electronic search. Our selection of journals included the following:

PurposeAlthough the phenomenon of organisational silence is widely seen in organisations, there is little empirical evidence regarding its nature and main components. This paper aims at investigating the dimensions of silence climate as they are perceived by individuals and exploring the effects of these dimensions on job attitudes.Design/methodology/approachIn a sample of 677 employees, three dimensions of silence climate are constructed and measured in order to examine their effects on employee silence behaviour, organisational commitment and job satisfaction.FindingsResults indicate that supervisors’ attitudes to silence, top management attitudes to silence and communication opportunities are associated and predict employees’ silence behaviour. These three dimensions are also associated with organisational commitment and job satisfaction.Originality/valueAlthough the phenomenon of organisational silence is expected in organisations, there is little empirical evidence in the literature aimed at defining it, analysing it and coping with it. Silence climate has an impact on organizations’ ability to detect errors and learn and, therefore, organizational effectiveness is negatively affected. This exploratory study aims to measure organisational silence as a continuum between silence and voice explain silence behaviour through organisational climate dimensions. Based on the findings of this study, there are some important implications that are discussed.

Although the role of organisational characteristics in the change process has been extensively analysed and discussed in the literature, individual characteristics, which are equally crucial for the success of change, have been neglected. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to add a different way of looking and working with organisational change by focusing on individuals' emotions and personality traits. This paper explores how emotional intelligence and the "big five" dimensions of personality can facilitate organisational change at an individual level by exploring the relationship between these attributes and attitudes toward organisational change. The sample consisted of 137 professionals who completed self-report inventories assessing emotional intelligence, personality traits and attitudes towards organisational change. The results confirmed that there is a relationship between personality traits and employees' attitudes toward change. Similarly, the contribution of emotional intelligence to the attitudes to change was found to be significant, indicating the added value of using an emotional intelligence measure above and beyond the effect of personality. The practical implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the phases of a change project.As organisations try to survive and remain competitive, they are reorganising, re-engineering, downsizing and implementing new technology. In other words, they constantly try to change. These ongoing and seemingly endless efforts can put a lot of strain not only on organisations but also on individuals. Beer and Nohria (2000) argue that 70 per cent of change programs fail because of lack of strategy and vision, lack of communication and trust, lack of top management commitment, lack of resources, lack of change management skills, resistance to change etc. Research dealing with organisational change has mainly focused on organisational factors neglecting the person-oriented issues. Although some

The concept of dispositional resistance to change has been introduced in a series of exploratory and confirmatory analyses through which the validity of the Resistance to Change (RTC) Scale has been established (S. Oreg, 2003). However, the vast majority of participants with whom the scale was validated were from the United States. The purpose of the present work was to examine the meaningfulness of the construct and the validity of the scale across nations. Measurement equivalence analyses of data from 17 countries, representing 13 languages and 4 continents, confirmed the cross-national validity of the scale. Equivalent patterns of relationships between personal values and RTC across samples extend the nomological net of the construct and provide further evidence that dispositional resistance to change holds equivalent meanings across nations.

Purpose -The readiness level may vary on the basis of what employees perceive as the balance between costs and benefits of maintaining a behavior and the costs and benefits of change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of individual readiness to change and the impact of perceived impact of organizational change on its relationship with personality and context characteristics. Design/methodology/approach -In all, 183 employees of a technological company based in Greece completed a questionnaire. This company was implementing a large scale restructuring change project. Findings -The results show that perceived impact of change mediates the relationship between the pre-change conditions and work attitudes and individual readiness to change. Practical implications -Employees who are confident about their abilities they experience high levels of readiness to change and therefore managers may want to examine this variable when selecting people for jobs entailing change. Creating a climate of trust and enhance positive communication also have an influence on individual readiness to change. Satisfied employees are more ready to change because they weigh the positive consequences of changing as significant and therefore decide to embrace change. Originality/value -This research addressed the need for a more person-oriented approach in the study of change, exploring the concept of individual readiness to change and the perceived benefit of this change.