Managers’ experiences as recipients: impact on organizational change

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore how managers’ prior experiences as recipients of change influence the organizational changes they then go on to make in their management role.

Design/methodology/approach

The study looks at the frequency and total amount of changes using data from Japanese professional baseball teams over the period 1936-2003, using the replacement of core players from year to year in each team as a measure of change. It uses only data from the managers' first post in that role.

Findings

The results showed that organizational change is significantly and positively related to the amount of the change managers’ prior experiences as recipients of change but not to the frequency of change. Manager turnover, performance pressure and DH dummy were all significantly and positively related to organizational change, and managers’ tenure negatively related.

Research limitations/implications

The types of change processes experienced by managers may also be relevant, and it is likely to be important to investigate the timing of exposure to change as recipients, whether early after an individual joins an organization or some considerable time after they do so. Also, the particular power relationships between managers and employees may affect their capacity to promote change effectively. It would also be illuminating to replicate this kind of research in different, non-sporting contexts to explore whether or not these findings can be of general significance.

Practical implications

When organizations seek to appoint new managers, they should consider carefully their previous experience of change as recipients. These experiences may have an unconscious impact on change capacity. Because they may be unconscious the management candidates may not mention such experiences at interview, for example, unless specifically questioned about any such experiences. Similarly, they may not mention this in their CV or application unless specifically asked to do so. Considering the amount of change in their prior experience may be more important than the frequency of change which may or may not be important.

Originality/value

The study explores managers’ prior experiences as recipients of change. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the impact of experiences prior to taking up a management post on their subsequent implementation of organizational change as managers. Previous studies investigated managers’ experience after their appointment and its impact on their implementation of change. In contrast the present study focuses on their experiences as recipients of organizational change and how it impacts on their behaviour as managers.

Citation

(2021), "Managers’ experiences as recipients: impact on organizational change", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 22-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-09-2020-0192