Adaptation to organizational change

The dimensional structure of adaptation to organizational change was identified. The dimensions were related to personality, work attitude, and job stress variables. The research extends previous research on adaptation to change at work (e.g. Chan, 2000; Pulakos et al., 2000) by examining adaptat...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Farrell, Seonaid
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: 2009
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15930
id ndltd-UBC-oai-circle.library.ubc.ca-2429-15930
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-UBC-oai-circle.library.ubc.ca-2429-159302018-01-05T17:38:06Z Adaptation to organizational change Farrell, Seonaid The dimensional structure of adaptation to organizational change was identified. The dimensions were related to personality, work attitude, and job stress variables. The research extends previous research on adaptation to change at work (e.g. Chan, 2000; Pulakos et al., 2000) by examining adaptation in the context of large-scale organizational change and by empirically deriving its dimensional structure. Characteristics of adaptation to organizational change were identified by obtaining critical incidents of adaptation from 47 managers from four organizations following a merger and restructuring. A questionnaire was developed from these characteristics to measure adaptation to organizational change. Data on the questionnaire from 553 managers yielded five dimensions, which were interpreted and labelled: Supporting Change, Resisting Change, Career Development, Initiating Effort, and Building Social Capital. Openness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and positive self-concept were positively related to four of the five adaptation dimensions. Linear combinations of the personality traits predicted the adaptation dimensions moderately well (Rs ranged .29 to .42). Work attitude variables were associated with Resisting Change. Job stress was positively related to Resisting Change and Initiating Effort. Two second-order factors were obtained, distinguishing between problem-focused and emotion-focused adaptation dimensions. A taxonomy of adaptation strategies was identified to reveal how individuals differ in their relative use of the five adaptation dimensions. These strategies were interpreted and labelled: strategy 1, strategy 2, highly responsive, moderately responsive, and unresponsive. Adaptation to organizational change is a multidimensional construct representing meaningful differences in how employees adapt. The five dimensions appear to differ on the basis of whether they reflect problem-focused or emotion-focused efforts to adapt. The implications for management practice include both personnel selection and training. Personnel selection on the basis of personality traits would increase adaptability among employees. Measurement of adaptation to organizational change among employees would then identify developmental needs, and training could be designed to meet those needs. Arts, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Graduate 2009-11-27T23:44:30Z 2009-11-27T23:44:30Z 2004 2004-05 Text Thesis/Dissertation http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15930 eng For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. 15083885 bytes application/pdf
collection NDLTD
language English
format Others
sources NDLTD
description The dimensional structure of adaptation to organizational change was identified. The dimensions were related to personality, work attitude, and job stress variables. The research extends previous research on adaptation to change at work (e.g. Chan, 2000; Pulakos et al., 2000) by examining adaptation in the context of large-scale organizational change and by empirically deriving its dimensional structure. Characteristics of adaptation to organizational change were identified by obtaining critical incidents of adaptation from 47 managers from four organizations following a merger and restructuring. A questionnaire was developed from these characteristics to measure adaptation to organizational change. Data on the questionnaire from 553 managers yielded five dimensions, which were interpreted and labelled: Supporting Change, Resisting Change, Career Development, Initiating Effort, and Building Social Capital. Openness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and positive self-concept were positively related to four of the five adaptation dimensions. Linear combinations of the personality traits predicted the adaptation dimensions moderately well (Rs ranged .29 to .42). Work attitude variables were associated with Resisting Change. Job stress was positively related to Resisting Change and Initiating Effort. Two second-order factors were obtained, distinguishing between problem-focused and emotion-focused adaptation dimensions. A taxonomy of adaptation strategies was identified to reveal how individuals differ in their relative use of the five adaptation dimensions. These strategies were interpreted and labelled: strategy 1, strategy 2, highly responsive, moderately responsive, and unresponsive. Adaptation to organizational change is a multidimensional construct representing meaningful differences in how employees adapt. The five dimensions appear to differ on the basis of whether they reflect problem-focused or emotion-focused efforts to adapt. The implications for management practice include both personnel selection and training. Personnel selection on the basis of personality traits would increase adaptability among employees. Measurement of adaptation to organizational change among employees would then identify developmental needs, and training could be designed to meet those needs. === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate
author Farrell, Seonaid
spellingShingle Farrell, Seonaid
Adaptation to organizational change
author_facet Farrell, Seonaid
author_sort Farrell, Seonaid
title Adaptation to organizational change
title_short Adaptation to organizational change
title_full Adaptation to organizational change
title_fullStr Adaptation to organizational change
title_full_unstemmed Adaptation to organizational change
title_sort adaptation to organizational change
publishDate 2009
url http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15930
work_keys_str_mv AT farrellseonaid adaptationtoorganizationalchange
_version_ 1718590053946490880