Date of Award

5-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Reader/Committee Chair

Kottke, Janet

Abstract

Understanding organizational change and the factors associated with it has become paramount as organizations face an increased need to adapt to stay competitive. Because of this necessity of organizational change, employee acceptance of this change is even more important to garner than ever before. The negative effects of organizational change, however, make this task difficult to accomplish. Although the literature points to scope of change, pace of change, and organizational practices as factors that can affect acceptance of organizational change, until this study, it was unknown which of these variables held the most weight in affecting attitudes towards change. In this study, I utilized a policy capturing design and multiple regression analysis to uncover what workers are attending to when evaluating their acceptance of an organizational change. A total of 150 participants were administered organizational change vignettes that systematically varied in scope, pace, and organizational policies. Results indicate that practices during an organizational change held the most weight in determining employee acceptance of organizational change, followed by pace of organizational change. The findings from this study will help organizations prioritize change variables so leaders can plan an organizational change accordingly, minimizing the potential negative effects of organizational change. Data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic during November 2020, which could be considered a limitation in this study.

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