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For change initiatives to succeed, change managers are required to address recipients’ needs. Although strategies to deal with change recipients and their resistance are widely explored, there is a dearth of studies that consider the different salience of change recipients. This paper aims to propose a framework on the effects of participation and coercion as strategies to deal with change recipients and their impact on change derailment.

Conceptual based upon that change recipients are classified into three levels according to their salience in relation to change. Based upon the recipients’ power and legitimacy in relation to change, stakeholder salience theory constitutes a theoretical provision used in this research to categorize the salience of change recipients.

The framework integrates change recipients’ salience levels (i.e. definitive, expectant and latent) and the effects of participation and coercion strategies on change derailment in times of organizational re-creation. The paper develops six hypotheses, which yield insights that advance the understanding of dealing with change recipients in the context of organizational re-creation.

The paper is conceptual and not yet tested empirically. To empirically test the framework, research adopting survey methodology to gather data from organizations that experience a re-creation change as defined in this paper. The unit of analysis for future research is described in this paper and it is how organizational re-creation is defined in this paper.

Stakeholder salience theory is used to develop a framework that combines three classes of change recipients’ salience, as well as the effects of two strategies to deal with them and their resistance (i.e. lack of involvement and coercion) to examine their influence on change derailment. The potential contribution will expand the current literature discussed in this paper about dealing with change recipients’ resistance to change.

There is a growing consensus about the role of communication in facilitating employees' acceptance of and support for organizational change initiatives. However, little is known about why communication breakdowns occur during change or how change recipients' cultural values can influence the effectiveness of communication in this context. The study addresses this gap.

The authors develop a theoretical framework that links four purposes of communication during change—disrupting, envisioning, legitimizing, and co-creating—to change recipients' cultural orientations. The authors also develop propositions that highlight how change agents' cultural sensitivity influences the relationship between communication purpose and the change readiness of change recipients.

The study implies that greater awareness and consideration of cultural values can reduce the likelihood of communication breakdowns and promote greater acceptance of and support for change initiatives. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of their theoretical framework for micro-level perspectives on change.

Although failures to change have in the past been linked to poor communication efforts by change agents, less is known about how or why communication breakdowns occur from the perspective of change recipients. The framework teases out issues related to the “what”, ‘how”, and “why” aspects of communication and offers prescriptions on the best approaches to communicate change.

Despite the rise of multicultural workforces and a recognition of the role played by cultural values in influencing leadership practices across cultures, theories of change have neglected these elements. Effective change efforts not only help enable economic and social renewal, they also enable the well-being of employees. Additionally, many change initiatives in the modern era have social implications (e.g. enhancing sustainability, inclusion and diversity).

A key contribution is a synthesis of different bodies of literature that have developed separately from each other. The authors offer some nuanced and counter-intuitive insights into what makes communication effective during change and identify culturally sensitive communication as an antecedent of change readiness.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a standardized, psychometrically sound instrument for the emerging construct of change recipient proactivity (CRP), using a deductive approach.

Using a systematic item-development framework as a guide (i.e. item generation, questionnaire administration, item reduction and scale evaluation) and based on a sample of 414 white-collar employees, this paper discusses the development and validation of an instrument that can be used to measure change recipient’s proactive behavioral responses to planned change efforts.

Results suggest that our proposed CRP scale is internally consistent (reliable) and valid in that it is conceptually distinct from, yet empirically correlated with neighboring constructs such as affective commitment to change, readiness for change and proactive personality.

The findings illustrate that change recipients can demonstrate proactive behaviors in response to change efforts. However, this study’s contribution is only a first step, requiring further theoretical and methodological refinement of the scale in different contexts.

The deductive nature of our study resulted in a comprehensive and domain-specific scale assessing recipients’ proactive responses to organizational change efforts. This opens doors to empirical studies on examining the conditions under which change recipients “may” step outside the boundaries of passivity to respond positively and proactivity to organizational change efforts.

This paper seeks to develop a mid-range theory of how change recipient sensemaking processes affect the realization of strategic flexibility during simultaneous change in professional service firms.

The research presented is based on an exploratory embedded case study adopting a qualitative interpretive methodology, conducted at a professional service organization. A sensemaking lens was adopted in order to study organizational change processes. Data was collected through semi-structured open-ended in-depth interviews, and analyzed using first and second order analysis, inspired by the methodology used by Corley and Gioia (2004).

We identified four determinants of change recipient sensemaking: professional identification, dominant organizational discourse, equivocality of expectations, and cross-understanding between thought worlds. Case findings indicate that cognitive and affective dimensions of change recipient sensemaking are strongly interwoven in their effect on realizing strategic flexibility.

We contribute to the competence-based strategic management literature by introducing the concept of change recipient sensemaking in understanding the realization of strategic flexibility; by identifying four major determinants in a context of simultaneous change in a professional service organization; and by highlighting the interwoven and mutually reinforcing cognitive and affective dimensions of professional’s process of constructing meaning.

Drawing on insights from change experience research, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of managers’ experiences, as change recipients, on organizational change implemented by the managers.

Since the Japanese sports context fits well with the aims of this research, longitudinal data of Japanese baseball are used to test the hypotheses. The data set was created using resources such as books published by Japanese baseball institutions. Following previous research, teams are regarded as organizations, and the number of changed players in teams per year is considered. The hypotheses have been tested using regression analysis on a yearly basis.

Managers’ experiences as change recipients are an essential determinant of organizational change. The findings show that the amount of change these managers experience is associated with the magnitude of organizational change they implement. Past change experiences in each organization positively moderates this relationship.

Previous studies examined managers’ experience after their appointment, and showed its influence on organizational change. However, scarce research examines the effect of managers’ experiences as change recipients on the organizational change they implement. Thus, this is the first study to analyze and test the effects of such experiences on organizational change.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this study is to explore how change recipients emotionally resist information and communication technology (ICT)-induced organizational change in practice stage-by-stage.

Following a qualitative case study methodology, this paper integrates Kübler-Ross grief model into a hypothetical change initiative in a critically acclaimed feature film, Up in the Air. The unit of analysis is the main character, Ryan Bingham. As a change recipient, Bingham's emotional reactions are analyzed stage-by-stage.

The study concludes that emotional resistance to ICT-induced organizational change progresses through the five stages in line with Kübler-Ross model. Even though the focus in Kübler-Ross model is on death and dying, the stages in the model are remarkably similar to the reactions of a change recipient. It is also found that the film is an appropriate instrument to demonstrate the complicated reality and intricate details of resistance, providing abundant content for the analysis of psychological components of resistance.

The exploration of stages of emotional resistance may act as a guideline for leaders to follow throughout a change process. The study is expected to prepare the leaders for the reactions of change recipients so that they can deliver strong leadership throughout periods of change.

The originality of the study lies in the fact that it provides an opportunity to advance the understanding of the abstract concept of resistance, bridges the widely-discussed research-practice gap and analyze emotional resistance stage-by-stage by integrating Kübler-Ross model to a hypothetical change initiative.

Drawing on Bandura’s social learning theory (SLT), the purpose of this paper is to investigate, analytically, the impact that after-training skills level (i.e. perceived skill match) has on change self-efficacy. Moreover, this research also aims to identify which specific skills sets (if any) act as a protective factor during organizational change, supporting the change confidence (CC) level of the people involved.

Quantitative research was carried out on a sample of 200 workers in the bank sector.

Findings of this study suggest that skill match has a significant impact on the CC level. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that, even in front-office jobs, a perceived skill match of soft skills does not have a significant impact on staff CC, unlike that suggested by common sense and by literature.

Future research should investigate if and how a training process enables change self-efficacy over time or instead shows its utility only when it is relating to a specific and limited period.

This study suggests that in designing training, top and middle management should pay specific attention to change recipients’ needs by adopting a bottom-up approach. Moreover, to improve training effectiveness, it would be advisable to also train change recipients’ supervisors.

This study has social implications in suggesting how to foster the adaptive capabilities of change recipients in current turbulent times. In doing so, it suggests how to prevent some undesirable change consequences such as anxiety, intention to quit, work-related stress and change cynicism.

This paper shows that, from a methodological point of view, it is necessary to evaluate training effectiveness at the level of a specific skill area and not simply by comparing the trained/not trained people, as typically practiced until now.

The technical co‐operation styles of three aid donor agencies, namely Britain′s Overseas Development Administration, the Swedish International Development Authority and the Japan International Co‐operation Agency, are respectively described and analysed as “blueprint”, “hands‐off” and “collaborative”. They are compared in terms of their effectiveness in producing sustainable benefits and in fostering institutional development, which is critically important to management development efforts. It is posited that learning is, or must become, a central process in development intervention styles. The Kolb experiential learning cycle is used as the tool of analysis in comparing the delivery styles of the three agencies. It is concluded that it may be necessary to develop a consistent model which places the emphasis on learning at the centre of delivery strategies, reconciling and using different delivery styles to realise effective learning.

The failure rate of change is high amongst countries and cultures where collectivism, destructive politics and resistance are high. Therefore, change leaders are more focused on exploring how they can create networking and socialization amongst major organizational stakeholders that can minimize detrimental cynicism and lobbying during change implementation. This study is an attempt to shed light on how Social Networking Applications (henceforth SNAs) can facilitate change implementation processes in the insurance sector.

The individual reaction and interaction realities during the change process cannot be discovered once and for all as there are varied perspectives on the same subjects. Therefore, a social constructionist position was used to understand the different realties of change managers and change recipients using the context of insurance sector.

The study documented how SNAs can play an active role in addressing the concerns of employees as well as managing and protecting knowledge sharing to facilitate the change implementation process. The collaborative and interactive nature of SNAs can enhance richness in knowledge sharing and can facilitate the participation of employees. Therefore, management should monitor these platforms as a means to improve the change process and to address the concerns of employees. These networking channels which include WhatsApp and Facebook can enhance social interactions, support and acceptance at individual and organizational levels.

Social media has become a familiar tool for employees to use to discuss internal changes and policies within their organizations. Social media enhances the richness, reach, knowledge exchange and effective internal communication potential amongst organizational change stakeholders. Using social media, change recipients are now more empowered and connected with their leadership that ever before. It is now easier to facilitate decision making during the change formulation and implementation process.

Social media applications have become necessary to ensure incremental and radical changes to the survival of dynamic businesses. The findings of this study are beneficial for change leaders and recipients of change to implement successful organizational change using social media tools. The effective and efficient use of social media applications helps organizations to foster knowledge amongst employees and they can address various critical issues, that is resistance to change, lower levels of knowledge sharing and support for change acceptance and lack of employee participation in decision making.

There is an inadequate understanding regarding how SNAs play a role in facilitating the change process in both public and private sector organizations. This study offers a social mchange facilitation model with the help of social learning, social networking and social behaviourism theories.