What's in there for me? Individual readiness to change and the perceived impact of organizational change

Abstract

Purpose

The readiness level may vary on the basis of what employees perceive as the balance between costs and benefits of maintaining a behavior and the costs and benefits of change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of individual readiness to change and the impact of perceived impact of organizational change on its relationship with personality and context characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

In all, 183 employees of a technological company based in Greece completed a questionnaire. This company was implementing a large scale restructuring change project.

Findings

The results show that perceived impact of change mediates the relationship between the pre-change conditions and work attitudes and individual readiness to change.

Practical implications

Employees who are confident about their abilities they experience high levels of readiness to change and therefore managers may want to examine this variable when selecting people for jobs entailing change. Creating a climate of trust and enhance positive communication also have an influence on individual readiness to change. Satisfied employees are more ready to change because they weigh the positive consequences of changing as significant and therefore decide to embrace change.

Originality/value

This research addressed the need for a more person-oriented approach in the study of change, exploring the concept of individual readiness to change and the perceived benefit of this change.

Citation

Vakola, M. (2014), "What's in there for me? Individual readiness to change and the perceived impact of organizational change", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 195-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-05-2012-0064