Navigating Organizational Change and Employee Attitudes

Posted on Jan 9, 2025 in Psychology and Sociology

Planned vs. Unplanned Change

  • Planned Change: Occurs when a change in an organization is anticipated, allowing for advance preparation.
  • Unplanned Change: The impact on the organization cannot be anticipated, and specific preparations cannot be made.

Causes for Change

  • Relationships with customers
  • Relationships with suppliers
  • Relationships with employees
  • Changes in technology
  • Changes in market forces
  • Changes in politics and laws
  • Internal Forces:
    • Top-down direction
    • Bottom-up direction

Resistance to Change

  1. Self-Interest: Employees resist change when they fear losing something they value, such as economic benefits, status, or influence in the organization.
  2. Lack of Trust and Understanding: Employees may not trust the intentions behind a proposed change.
  3. Uncertainty: Results from fear of the unknown and lack of information about the future.
  4. Different Perspectives and Goals: A proposed change may be viewed through different lenses by employees with different goals and perspectives.
  5. Cultures that Value Traditions: Some organizational cultures are not supportive of change, valuing traditions and customary ways of doing things instead.

Attitudes

Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events.

3 Main Components of Attitudes

  • Cognitive: The opinion or belief segment of an attitude.
  • Affective: The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.
  • Behavioral: An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.

Major Job Attitudes

  1. Job Satisfaction: A positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
  2. Job Involvement: The degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth.
  3. Organizational Commitment: The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.
  4. Perceived Organizational Support: The degree to which employees believe an organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
  5. Employee Engagement: An individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he or she does.

Impact of Dissatisfied Employees

  • Exit: Directing behavior toward leaving the organization.
  • Voice: Suggesting improvements or improving conditions.
  • Loyalty: Involves passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve.
  • Neglect: Passively allowing conditions to worsen.

Impact of Satisfied Employees

  • Job Performance: Happy workers are more likely to be productive workers.
  • Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB): Satisfied employees would seem more likely to talk positively about the organization, help others, and go beyond the normal expectations.
  • Customer Satisfaction: Satisfied employees are more likely to be friendly, upbeat, and responsive, which customers appreciate.
  • Absenteeism and Turnover: Reduction in the volume of absence per employee and their decision to leave work.