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Achilles A. Armenakis is the James T. Pursell, Sr. Eminent Scholar in the Department of Management at Auburn University. Achilles has published research on diagnosis, implementation, and evaluation of organizational change. His current research efforts are focused on the readiness, adoption, and institutionalization processes. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Management and of the Southern Management Association.

Explains how we used the change message components of discrepancy, appropriateness, efficacy, principal support, and personal valence and the message conveying strategies of active participation, persuasive communication and management of information suggested by Armenakis and colleagues to help an organization create readiness for a major reorganization. We describe and evaluate our experiences from our initial coaching with the president, through initial management meetings to determine the new business unit’s strategy and structure, to the initial company‐wide announcement of the plans. We conclude with a set of observations and lessons and suggestions for future research on the use of the change message framework.

Symbols can effectively serve as triggers for cognitive and behavioral change. However, little is known about the use of symbolism in organizational change efforts. Therefore, this study, utilizing a national survey of turnaround change agents (TCAs), investigated their use of verbal, enacted, and material symbols during business turnarounds. Conclusions are drawn concerning the metaphors used to describe the context of the business turnaround and TCAs' usage and rated effectiveness of symbols. It is suggested that multiple symbolism practices should be included in organizational diagnoses.

Although the measurement of organizational readiness for change has been encouraged, measuring readiness for change poses a major empirical challenge. This is not because instruments designed to do this are not available. Researchers, consultants, and practitioners have published an array of instruments, suggesting that readiness can be measured from various perspectives and the concept of readiness has not been clearly defined. This paper reviews the history of the readiness concept, the perspectives used to assess readiness, and the psychometric properties of readiness instruments. Based on the review, an integrated definition of readiness is presented along with the implications of the definition for research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the integrative influence of content, context, process, and individual differences on organizational change efforts.

Data were collected from employees involved in a recent de‐merger. Using structural equation modeling, a hypothesized model that integrated individual differences with change content, context, and process factors was tested.

Results led to the acceptance of a model indicating that change context mediated the relationship between individual differences and change process and content. Similarly, change content and process mediated the relationship between change context and organizational change commitment.

Owing to the nature of the study, inferences of causality cannot be made. Additionally, common method bias may be a concern because criterion and response variables were collected at the same time.

An organization's prior change history (i.e. context) has the potential to negatively influence change success. In order to counteract these effects, change agents should concentrate on clearly communicating the change details (i.e. process) to employees.

This study is one of the first to integrate factors common to all change efforts, i.e. content, context, process and individual differences. Further, it elaborates on how these factors interact to influence change success.

A nation′s capacity to compete in international markets is influenced by a number of factors including R&D expenditures, radical innovation, productivity, machine tool production and patents. The United States′ declining capacity to dominate selected markets is related to reductions in these factors. Although one can argue that, in general, the managerial practices of business executives are responsible for that decline, a number of more specific causes are isolated. It is argued that the quickest solution to the competitiveness situation is through proactive business extension programmes.

Increasing global competition has accelerated the rate of organizational changes, such as reengineering, restructuring, and downsizing. As a result, organizational leaders find themselves faced with growing cynicism among employees that the current wave of changes is nothing more than the program of the month that will pass as those that preceded it. We address the issue of how to make changes permanent by providing a model developed from theory and research on organizational change and from successful practices implemented in numerous organizations worldwide. The model can serve at least three purposes. First, the model can assist change agents in planning for and assessing progress toward institutionalizing organizational change. Second, the model can help focus efforts of organizational scholars to study the change process. Third, the model offers the basis for hypothesis testing regarding the success or failure of change efforts.

Whatever else, Organization Development and Change (henceforth, ODC) is preeminently an integrative area of concentration. Thus, ODC encompasses a broad range of arts and sciences; it blends values, as well as empirical research and theory in applications; and those applications in diverse settings include the cross‐national and the cross‐cultural.

The paper seeks to investigate whether or not leader‐member exchange (LMX) is influenced by the personality of subordinates and/or supervisors.

Previous literature from the general leadership, personality, and LMX domains was used as a theoretical background for proposing certain types of relationships between the personality traits that make up the Big Five and employees’ perceptions of LMX. Personality data were collected from 195 matched pairs of employees and supervisors. LMX data were collected from 195 employees. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Employees' conscientiousness, extroversion, openness, and neuroticism were found to impact perceptions of LMX. Likewise, supervisors' conscientiousness and agreeableness also impacted employees' perceptions of LMX.

The present study included two potential research limitations. First, personality was measured using the short‐version of the NEO‐FFI; thus, we were unable to run analysis at the facet level. Second, although we did have two sources of data (i.e. the supervisor and subordinate), there is a possibility that common method variance may have influenced some of the hypothesized relationships.

Results indicate there may be a dispositional basis to perceptions of LMX. Thus, the relationship between LMX and outcome variables (i.e. performance, turnover, satisfaction, etc.) may be only part of the story. Practitioners that want to maximize the relationship between employees and their supervisors would be well served to actively consider personality issues. In particular, some employees and some supervisors appear to be more willing to engage in exchanges than others.

As far as we know, this is the first study to investigate the influence of personality from two sources (i.e. the supervisor and subordinate) on LMX. It moves beyond the traditional study of demographic similarity.

Introduction: Many organisations nowadays use artificial intelligence (AI) in human resource (HR) activities like talent acquisition, onboarding of new employees, learning and development, succession planning, retention of employees, and automation of administrative tasks. When AI is integrated with HR practices, it helps HR personnel to focus more on the strategic aspects of the HR function and relieve them from routine HR activities.

Purpose: The readiness of employees to accept any change depends on organisational facilitation to change, employee willingness to accept the change, the requirement for change, situational factors, etc. This research studies the factors influencing employees’ change readiness towards acceptance of AI in HR practices. The researchers also strive to develop a conceptual technology adoption model for AI in HR practices by studying the earlier models. Finally, the research explores the acceptance of AI by various service sector employees and identifies whether there is any difference in their acceptance of AI based on demographic variables.

Methodology: A conceptual framework was derived using a combination of previous models, including the Technology Readiness Index (TRI), Change Readiness Scale, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) model, and change readiness scale. A structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to 228 respondents from the service sector based on the conceptual framework. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to determine the elements that influence employees’ level of change readiness.

Findings: The exploratory results on data collected from 228 respondents show that the model can be used for further research if a confirmatory factor analysis and validity and reliability test are performed. Employees are aware of AI and how it is used in HR practices, based on the study results. Moreover, while most respondents favour using AI in their company’s HR practices, they are wary of some aspects of AI.