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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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of core self-evaluations (CSE) and change uncertainty on job satisfaction and turnover intentions within the context of an organizational change. Because individuals high in CSE are expected to be able to cope better with uncertainty, the authors also tested the mitigating effect of CSE on the change uncertainty-attitude relationships.

Surveys were completed and returned by 398 employees in the midst of a merger containing measures of CSE, change uncertainty, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The survey was voluntary and administered cross-sectionally.

Change uncertainty was found to negatively influence job satisfaction and positively influence turnover intentions. Additionally, CSE positively impacted job satisfaction and negatively impacted turnover intentions. High CSE was also found to minimize the negative impact of examined change uncertainty-job attitude relationships.

The research has implications for the role of CSE in attitude formation within a change context and adds to existing literature supporting the detrimental effects of change uncertainty on job attitudes. Also, the study provided evidence of how CSE interacts with change uncertainty reducing the detrimental impact on job attitudes. Future research should continue to examine the role of CSE in the way employees react to other change-related stressors.

The relationships among change uncertainty, CSE, and job attitudes were explored through a theoretical lens and tested empirically using employees in the midst of an organizational change.

The purpose of this paper is to consider one inaccuracy in the written record of our discipline. That is, how the aphorism “There is nothing as practical as a good theory” came to be regarded as Kurt Lewin’s signature saying.

Primary and secondary sources were used in the research.

By tracing the history of the above-captioned aphorism back through its use by the General Electric Company in the 1920s to Friedrich W. Dörpfeld’s 1873 book Grundlinien einer Theorie des Lehrplans, zunächst der Volks- und Mittelschule, it can confidently be concluded that it did not originate with Lewin.

Those who study history soon become aware that inaccuracies in the written record are commonplace. Indeed, assuring historical accuracy has been a challenge confronted by historians for centuries.

The widespread acceptance of Lewin as the originator of the referenced aphorism underscores the observation that received knowledge is often wrong. It also provides one more illustration that, whatever their origin, once errors of attribution appear in print, they become diffused and amplified, taking on a life of their own as they are transmitted from generation to generation.

The paper aims to demonstrate the utilization of banks’ career website for publicizing the employer branding strategy to enable effective strategic talent relationship management through talent attraction, engagement and retention.

A qualitative approach using purposive sample comprising HR professionals involving HR directors, reward managers and talent relationship managers, participated in semi-structured interviews.

This paper provides empirical insights on the use of career websites to disseminate the employer brand. The findings reveal the presence of recruitment orientation career websites across the banking sector. It also conveys HR practitioners’ suggestions for revamping the banks’ career websites to a more screening orientation approach for greater interactivity by both the internal and external talent pools.

The paper depicts the importance attributed around the utilization of career websites in promoting the employer brand by the HR community across the banking sector. It provides clear insights about the specific contents of career websites to enable sustainable talent attraction, engagement and retention.

This paper provides a qualitative insight to the study of employer branding and career websites. Whereas most previous research on career websites have been of a quantitative nature relying predominantly on fictitious websites, having mostly undergraduate students as research participants. This study contributes enormously to the existing literature and practice by unveiling the perceptions of HR professionals on the dissemination of the employer brand through the career website.

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.

In the age of Industry 4.0, digital advancement is reshaping manufacturing models towards product–service systems (PSS). The drivers, readiness and challenges to move to a PSS model are not well understood, and the exploitation of the digital era presents the gap of this research.

The research was conducted using semi-structured interviews in six manufacturers. Two forum debates were also conducted to supplement and validate the findings.

Social and economic motivations rather than environmental considerations were driving the change to PSS. Digital technologies could be an important driver if manufacturers reached a certain PSS maturity level. A high level of technical readiness was offset by a low level of social investments and the strategic development of human resources. Value co-creation was a main challenge though manufacturers had the advantage of digital connectivity, which indicated new human requirements; the greater the enabling power of digital technologies, the greater the need for advanced human skills.

Human resource management has underpinned lean models; yet, the role of employees within PSS is underdeveloped despite the impact of staff in exploiting digitalisation and value co-creation. A “learning organisation” and socio-technical fit are required for the “diffusion of innovation” of PSS.

This research attempted to explore drivers, readiness and challenges for PSS from a socio-technical systems (STS) perspective. Three levels of PSS maturity with STS features were derived from the research, providing guidance for manufacturers.