Topic: Readiness to Organizational Change: The Impact of Employees Commitment to the Organization and Career

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1 Name: Naimatullah Shah Student ID: Topic: Readiness to Organizational Change: The Impact of Employees Commitment to the Organization and Career

2 Readiness to Organization Change: The Impact of Employees Commitment to the Organization and Career Abstract This study focuses on employees commitment with the organization and career predictors to know the employees attitudes and behaviors regarding changes in the organization. Large amount of literature has been revealed and conceptual framework developed. First time career commitment including situational and individuals factors would be examined for readiness to change. However, employees commitment with the organization have already been examined and found positive impact on readiness to change. This study may contribute in the literature on change management particularly for developing countries and may assist the management and practitioners of Human Resources Management (HRM), Human Resources Development (HRD), and Organizational Behaviour (OB) in assessing, designing and evaluating new or existing programs for organisational change. Keyword: organizational change, organization commitment, career commitment, employee readiness Introduction In the history of organizational development, change has been thought of as an important and dominant factor in the development of organization. The pace of change has primarily been increased with the increasing challenges such as competition, development, general instability, mergers and reengineering of work process. Such challenges emerged rapidly during the emergence of global economy in the late 1980 s and 1990 s, and advancement of technology and communication networking system (Bernerth, 2004).

3 The past few decades have been seen increasingly rapid advance in the field of change management and mainly focused on the issues of effective and successful implementation of changes (Madsen et al., 2005). Indeed, change requires proper handling the situation because of human involvement that can develop uncertainties and ambiguities due to diverting situation from known to unknown and individual differences in their life. Thus, getting positive consequences, management must know employee s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors towards change programs. According to Smith (2005) organizational change programs can t be assumed or become automatic but requires proper attention. In this regard, number of researchers like Bernerth (2004); Bareil et al. (2007) emphasized on employees readiness predictors as an important and dominant factor. However, most research work has been done in developed or western cultural work setting. Less research work has been found so for in developing countries which require more attention of researchers and practitioners to find employee readiness predictors in different work setting environment and culture. In developing countries employees can be motivated or developed positive attitudes on the basis of satisfying basic (financial) and psychological needs (Alvi and Ahmed, 1987). In organizational behavior literature, financial and psychological factors have been found in employees career and organizational commitment (Goulet and Singh, 2002; Penley and Gould, 1988). Although Madsen et al. (2005) examined organizational commitment and social relationships in the workplace factors as employee s readiness predictors and found positive relationships. This research study also examines employees career commitment along with organizational commitment and social relationships at workplace and demographic variables for employee s readiness to organizational change programs.

4 Aims and Objectives The aim of this research study is to examine the employees readiness predictors which may support to develop employees attitudes and behaviors for organization changes. It is observed that employees can develop attitudes and behaviors on the basis of psychological and financial needs. Thus, this research focuses on employee s commitment with the organization and career factors. Conceptual Framework and Literature Review Change is quite inevitable due to tremendous foreseen internal and external environmental pressures. It compares the organization before and after the situation in order to stop one thing and starts new thing. It is, in fact, an adaptation to the environment of new ideas or behaviors that can be defined by many ways like transformation of an organization between two points in time (Barnett and Carroll, 1995) or planned or unplanned transformation in the structure, technology and/or people of an organization (Greenberg and Baron, 2002). Thus, organization needs to understand the situation creating by change in which employees may have positive or negative attitudes and behaviors. In change situation, employees can develop different attitudes and behaviors because of different individual s life experiences, socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge and skills, attitudes, values, and behavioral pattern. Change management agents and academic researchers are solely concerned with the issues how to deal with employees so that they can actively accept and involve in the change programs. Researchers emphasized on employee readiness predictors that organization must

5 consider before developing policies and/or strategies to cope with the foreseen situation (Cunningham et al., 2002). In literature, many predictors like change agent role, proper process, need for change, capability of organization, participation, culture, belief, environment, and commitment have positively been examined (Cunningham et al., 2002; Eby et al., 2000; Madsen et al., 2005; Armenakis et al., 1999). However, this research study focuses on commitment factors (see figure 3.1) to examine the employees attitudes and behaviors. Employee s commitment has been treated as active and positive behaviors and attitudes towards his or her organization. Mowday et al. (1979) define the term as an individual identification, involvement which is characterized by beliefs, willingness, and membership in the organization. In literature it has been used as a predictor of behaviors like absenteeism, turnover, and organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment concept develops relationship with organizational support, job satisfaction, job involvement, loyalty, turnover and anxiety (Sagie, 1997; and Yoon and Thye, 2002). All these factors are related to understanding the employee s feelings and thoughts regarding the organization. In commitment domain affective commitment is one of the important factors to show the individual s behavior by his or her attachment and relations with the organization. Many predictors including participation in decision making (Kim and Mauborgne, 1993), autonomy, task significance, task identity, skill variety, and supervisory feedback, organizational dependability, perceived participatory management (Mottaz,

6 Figure 3.1 Conceptual Framework Organizational Commitment Affective Factors - Emotional Attachment - Feeling of Pride - Personal Sense of Obligation Instrumental Factors - Pay/Wages/Rewards - Fringe Benefits Psychological Organizational Change Employee Readiness Career Commitment Situational Factors - Tenure - Promotion Individual Factors - Job Satisfaction - Job Involvement - Peers & Supervisors Friendly - Training & Skills Development Financial

7 1988), identification, involvement, and loyalty (Allen and Meyer, 1990) have been examined to measure the employee s commitment with the organization. Apart of affective factors, employees can be induced by financial support of organization to exchange his or her ability, skills, and energies. Instrumental commitment concept has been widely known as continuance commitment which is forged on the basis of cost of organization. It can develop on any action or events that can increase the costs of leaving the organization (Penley and Gould, 1988). It is related with the extent to which employees feel committed to their organizations by virtue of the costs that they feel are associated leaving (Meyer and Allen, 1984, p-375). Domain researchers and practitioners have advocated for instrumental commitment factors as an essential for gauging the relationship between employee and organization (Allen and Meyer, 1990). This study has developed the following hypotheses to examine the employee attitudes and behaviors to organizational changes on the basis of employees commitment with the organization. H1: Employees commitment with the organization has positive impact on employee readiness in organizational change. H2: Employees affective commitment with the organization has positive impact on employee readiness in organizational changes. H3: Employees instrumental commitment with the organization has positive impact on employee readiness in organizational changes. The dimension of commitment provides the staying power to strengthen business and professional relationships. Career commitment is one of the important concepts of work commitment associated with employee s development and progression in the 7

8 field of career. According to Chang (1999) career commitment is an individual s attitudes towards his or her career. In conceptual definition it is referred as one s attitude towards one s vocation, including profession (Blau, 1985 p-278). Employees can develop attitudes and behaviors on the basis of commitment with career, where people make significant investment in careers (Poon, 2004). In organization, individual s develops relationships with the organization on the basis of career goals and future expectations. However, individual s relationships and motivation can be supported by extrinsic and intrinsic benefits provided by organization. In extrinsic benefits employees always looks to outcome of his career such as pay and promotion while intrinsic outcomes of career success depend upon a person s appraisal of his or her own success (Judge et al., 1995). Indeed, career involves trade-offs between security and risk and between individual success and family, and peoples career behavior interact with culture. Literature shows that employees attachment, identification and involvement depend upon the outcomes such as pay, promotion, appraisal, and satisfaction that can refers to one s motivation to work in a chosen vocation (Judge et al., 1995). Poon (2004) reveals that career commitment is predicted by objective and subjective career success. Objective career success is in the form of salary level and subjective career success is in the form of career satisfaction. This conception is related with employee s psychological and financial aspects that can relate with the individual s cognition. On the basis of this perception career commitment may support to develop positive attitudes and behaviors to employee towards change of organization. We can develop following hypotheses. 8

9 H4: Employees commitment with the career has positive impact on employee readiness in organizational changes. H5: Employee s individual commitment with the career has positive impact on employee readiness in organizational changes. H6: Employee s Situational commitment with the career has positive impact on employee readiness in organizational changes. Research Methodology This is a co-relational relation research study to examine the relationships of independent variables with dependent variable. It is observed that relationships of two variables can be measured through positivist approach. This study uses a self administered survey questionnaire for data collection. Many researchers like Hanpachern et al. (1998); Cunningham et al. (2002); Holt et al. (2007) applied survey questionnaire in the domain. Researchers found that through survey instrument, employees reaction can be obtained because of large variety of applying Likert Scales. Thus, this study attempts to examine the relationship of independent variables with dependent variable by applying survey questionnaire. A pilot study has been conducted in which Cronbach s alpha found.92. Setting This research would be conducted in public sector higher educational institutions of Pakistan where changes have been announced for faculty members in the recent past. 9

10 Sample size Total population of public sector higher education institution is about 7,000 in all sixty universities. For data collection, a random sampling would be done from full time faculty members of all categories i.e. professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and lecturers. Data Analysis A number of statistical tests including descriptive statistics and correlations tests would be used to analyze the results. A Multi Analysis Of Variance (MANOVA) would be used to determine the difference between the criterion variables and a combination of demographics. Some of the difference would be examined by using an Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) comparison. Ethical Approval Ethical approval for this study has been obtained from the research ethics committee of Business School at the authors university. All data would be recorded and stored anonymously and confidentially. Conclusions In conclusion, the research study demonstrates the impact of employees organizational and career commitment to readiness for the change. Review of literature reveals that employees attitudes and behaviors during change can be developed by psychological and financial support. In this regard a conceptual framework has been developed and few hypotheses have been related to examine the independent variables with dependent variable. Data for this study would be collected 10

11 by a survey questionnaire which consists on five sections i.e. employees readiness for change, employee s commitment to the organization, employee s commitment to the career and social relationships in the workplace along demographic questions. A pilot study has been conducted which showed highly reliability of survey questionnaire. The justification for the proposed study is that recently changes have been introduced in academic organizations especially in public sector universities of Pakistan and there has been resistance from the employees. This study may contribute in the literature on change management particularly for developing countries and may assist the management and practitioners of (HRM), (HRD), and (OB) in assessing, designing and evaluating new or existing programs for organisational change. References Allen, N.J. & Meyer, J.P. 1990, "The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization", Journal of Occupational Psychology, vol. 63, no. 1, pp Alvi, S.A. & Ahmed, S.W. 1987, "Assessing Organizational Commitment in a Developing Country: Pakistan, A Case Study", Human Relations, vol. 40, no. 5, pp Armenakis, A.A. & Bedeian, A.G. 1999, "Organizational Change: A Review of Theory and Research in the 1990s", Journal of Management, vol. 25, no. 3, pp

12 Bareil, C., Savoie, A. & Meunier, S. 2007, "Patterns of Discomfort with Organizational Change", Journal of Change Management, vol. 7, no. 1, pp Barnett, W.P. & Carroll, G.R. 1995, "Modelling Internal Organizational Change", Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 21, no. 1, pp Bernerth, J. 2004, "Expanding Our Understanding of the Change Message", Human Resource Development Review, vol. 3, no. 1, pp Blau, G.J. 1985, "The measurement and prediction of career commitment", Journal of Occupational Psychology, vol. 58, no. 4, pp Chang, E. 1999, "Career Commitment as a Complex Moderator of Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention", Human Relations, vol. 52, no. 10, pp Cunningham, C.E., Woodward, C.A., Shannon, H.S. & MacIntosh, J. 2002, "Readiness for organizational change: A longitudinal study of workplace, psychological and behavioural correlates", Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, vol. 75, pp Eby, L.T., Adams, D.M., Russell, J.E.A. & Gaby, S.H. 2000, "Perceptions of organizational readiness for change: Factors related to employees' reactions to the implementation of team-based selling", Human Relations, vol. 53, no. 3, pp Goulet, L.R. & Singh, P. 2002, "Career Commitment: A Re-examination and an Extension", Journal of Vocational Behaviour, vol. 61, no. 1, pp

13 Hanpachern, C., Morgan, G.A. & Griego, O.V. 1998, "An extension of the theory of margin: A framework for assessing readiness for change", Human Resource Development Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 4, pp Holt, D.T., Armenakis, A.A., Feild, H.S. & Harris, S.G. 2007, "Readiness for Organizational Change: The Systematic Development of a Scale", Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, vol. 43, no. 2, pp Judge, T.A., Cable, D.M., Boudreau, J.W. & Bretz Jr., R.D. 1995, "An Empirical Investigation of the Predictors of Executive Career Success", Personnel Psychology, vol. 48, no. 3, pp Kim, W.C. & Mauborgne, R. 1998, "Procedural Justice, Strategic Decision Making, and the Knowledge Economy", Strategic Management Journal ( ), vol. 19, no. 4, pp Madsen, S.R., Miller, D. & John, C.R. 2005, "Readiness for organizational change: Do organizational commitment and social relationships in the workplace make a difference?", Human Resource Development Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 2, pp Meyer, J.P. & Allen, N.J. 1984, "Testing the 'side-bet theory' of organizational commitment: Some methodological considerations", Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 69, no. 3, pp Mottaz, C.J. 1988, "Determinants of Organizational Commitment", Human Relations, vol. 41, no. 6, pp

14 Mowday, R.T., Steers, R.M. & Porter, L.W. 1979, "The measurement of organizational commitment", Journal of Vocational Behaviour, vol. 14, no. 2, pp Penley, L.E. & Gould, S. 1988, "Etzioni's model of organizational involvement: A perspective for understanding commitment to organizations", Journal of Organizational Behaviour ( ), vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 43. Poon, J.M.L. 2004, "Career commitment and career success: moderating role of emotion perception", Career Development International, vol. 9, no. 4, pp Sagie, A. 1998, "Employee Absenteeism, Organizational Commitment, and Job Satisfaction: Another Look,", Journal of Vocational Behaviour, vol. 52, no. 2, pp Smith, I. 2005, "Achieving readiness for organisational change", Library Management, vol. 26, no. 6/7, pp Yoon, J. & Thye, S.R. 2002, "A Dual Process Model of Organizational Commitment: Job Satisfaction and Organizational Support", Work and Occupations, vol. 29, no. 1, pp

ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOURS OF EMPLOYEES TOWARDS ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

International Journal of Human Resource Management and Research Vol.1, Issue.1 (2011) 1-13 ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOURS OF EMPLOYEES TOWARDS ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE ABSTRACT Gurmeetsingh Sikh Nribm