From resistance to readiness: the role of mediating variables

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of trust, perceived organizational support, and emotional attachment in bridging the gap between resistance and readiness to change. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model including five constructs is developed. The questionnaire survey using the study variables readiness to change, trust, perceived organizational support, emotional attachment, and resistance to change was used in this study. Descriptive statistics and mediation regression analysis are used to test all hypotheses using the survey data of 276 middle-level managers. Findings The findings reflect how readiness to change reduces the impact of resistance to change during organizational change. Furthermore it also finds that how trust, perceived organizational support, and emotional attachment mediates the relationship between resistance and readiness and reduces the gap between the two. Research limitations/implications The findings in the study have made significant contribution to the literature especially on middle-level managers in the Indian context. There was a paucity of research done on the study variables. The mediating effects of the study variable have never been explored earlier and therefore make an immense contribution to the field of knowledge for practitioners and academicians. Practical implications The research results have many practical implications. It could be established that trust, perceived organizational support, and emotional attachment have a strong and positive association with the management of change. Linking of study variables during change is helpful for the top managers for better understanding during a major organizational change. Supporting the employees through human touch during change will lead to easier transition. Understanding of various dimensions that influence employee to readiness for organizational change is an important endeavor for organizational change. Social implications The research is of utmost significance for the top management as it can provide a better insight to understand and keep in mind the key aspects during organizational change in such a way that chances of resistance reduces to minimal. If the employees are contented by receiving support from their bosses, if there exists a mutual trust which increases emotional attachment, introducing change in the organization will be much easier for the management. Originality/value This research attempts to investigate how during times of turbulent change in an organization trust between the employees and their supervisor, perceived social support, and emotional attachment with the organization positively impact the change management process. The findings provide valuable insights for the top management to understand the psyche of its employees and provide them a human touch during the time of organizational change.

You can’t always get what you want: mechanisms and consequences of intra-organizational job change among middle managers in Sweden

“…For example, employees who perceive low procedural justice during the organizational change are less likely to identify with the organization (Michel et al, 2010), less likely to accept, support, and commit to the change (Korsgaard et al, 2002), and report lower well-being (de Jong et al, 2016) than those who perceive high procedural justice. Similarly, not perceiving the organization as supportive was found to relate to less favorable employee reactions in change contexts (Chen & Wang, 2014;Cullen et al, 2014;Lawrence & Callan, 2011;Thakur & Srivastava, 2018). Based on the above, we hypothesize:…”

“…Organizational change processes are believed to result in individual change reactions via psychological mechanisms (Datta et al, 2010), such as employees' perceptions of the organizational change process (Chen & Wang, 2014;Cullen et al, 2014;Marzucco et al, 2014;Thakur & Srivastava, 2018). In the organizational change literature, such process factors pertaining to employees' perceptions of different aspects of the organizational change process (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999;Bouckenooghe et al, 2009) refer to individual's perceptions of actions undertaken during the implementation of the organizational change process.…”

Effect of Perceived Organizational Support and Self-Efficacy to Change Readiness for Change in Hospital of Muhammadiyah Malang University, Indonesia

“…Organizational success creates awareness and willingness of employees (change readiness) to accept and support change is the key to an organization's success in making organizational changes successfully (Rochmi & Hidayat, 2019). Conversely, an organization's failure to create change readiness or failure to unfreeze is a sign of organizational failure in making organizational changes (Thakur & Srivastava, 2018).…”

“…Change employee readiness is defined as the beliefs, attitudes, and exceptions of employees towards organizational change, where it is all needed to support the success and success of organizational change (Kurtessis et al, 2017). In this context, organizations need to make active efforts to provide understanding and confidence of employees that the organization needs to make changes (Smollan, 2017), where the change to be made an effort to present a healthy organization, that is, an organization that is effectively realizing its goals and targets as well as a professional and fair organization in placing employees as the capital of the organization ( Some other researchers say that change readiness does not necessarily describe employee acceptance of the organizational change (Thakur & Srivastava, 2018). In this case, change readiness, in addition to describing the behavior and attitude of employee acceptance of change, also describes the behavior and attitude of employee rejection of organizational change (Al-Hussami et al, 2017).…”

“…Change readiness depends on employee acceptance of changes. Meanwhile, employee acceptance of change depends on organizational support that can convince employees that changes need to be made (Thakur & Srivastava, 2018).…”