Date of Award

Spring 5-25-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Marita Apter-Desselles

Abstract

Organizational change is an inevitable and key feature of an organization’s lifecycle, especially in today’s constantly shifting technological, cultural, and corporate landscapes. However, organizations often struggle to adapt, and change initiatives rarely succeed. Because of this, organizational change readiness has become a popular area of study in the field of industrial-organization psychology. Change readiness in the organizational context has been redefined several times over the past four decades, with recent efforts focused on developing a comprehensive definition and corresponding instrument of measurement for the concept. Change readiness at the individual level is intended to evaluate the psychological state in which someone is inclined to accept or support a change that alters the current condition of their organization. An employee’s level of change readiness has implications for the organization as a whole and is predictive of whether a change initiative will succeed or fail. Understanding the unique personal, social, and contextual elements that precede individual change readiness and how to measure them accurately is critical to the organizational change model. Without this information, it is difficult to accurately predict when, how, or why one may engage in change-supportive behaviors. This study builds on an existing change-readiness model by incorporating motivation as a key component of the individual attributes that influence one’s level of readiness for change. Motivation is assessed through the lens of reversal theory, as this theory offers a unique view of capturing individual variability in response to change. Prior work has focused mainly on the cognition (belief) and affect (emotion) components of change readiness. This study examines the ever-changing relationship between motivations, beliefs, and emotions in the context of organizational change readiness. This is done through developing a theory-based instrument, utilizing novel research methods of congruency, and assessing positive organizational outcomes. The goal of the study was to contribute to both the theoretical and practical domains of organizational change by offering a deeper understanding of the human element and providing a valuable tool for practitioners in industrial-organizational psychology and human resource management. A linear model with an interaction term was utilized to assess the relationship between motivations and behaviors in regard to change-supportive behaviors. The results of this study reveal instances of support for a congruence effect between beliefs and motivation, particularly when individuals are motivated by goal achievement and organizational cohesion. Affect was shown to have a significant relationship with change-supportive behaviors, and further analyses revealed a nuanced relationship between affect and the congruency effect of beliefs and motivations. Overall, the results and limitations of this study provide contributions to the current literature, as well as potential avenues for future research.

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