The purpose of this study was to develop a reasonably comprehensive scheme of
categories that describes what facilitated and hindered adaptation to corporate
restructuring. Interviews were conducted with individuals who worked in a company
during reorganization and adapted. The Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan, 1954) was
utilized to elicit 543 incidents from 28 participants. Thirty-four categories emerged from
the analysis of the reported events and were organized into five clusters. Several
procedures were employed to examine the soundness and trustworthiness of the
categories.
The results indicate that adaptation was hindered by: enduring a negative state,
receiving increased workload, experiencing negative attitudes of colleagues, termination
of colleagues, destabilizing moves, encountering a demoralizing situation, removed from
a position, experiencing devaluation of company, excluded from decision making,
blocked from accomplishing a task, not receiving support, receiving a threat about job,
experiencing estrangement, receiving disaffirmation for job competence, and vital
information withheld. However, individuals can take action in four ways to facilitate
adaptation. First, they can shape the work environment by: refusing exploitative requests,
making a decision concerning work, discovering and adhering to a firm guideline,
making a beneficial change in the work setting, accomplishing a task, experiencing a
challenging task, creating a work position, creating space to work, and dissociation from
a bad person. Second, they can gain support by: receiving advice, receiving personal
support, receiving assurance about job, experiencing camaraderie, receiving affirmation
for job competence, receiving vital information. Third, they can help others by: giving
empathy, using humor, forming a relationship, looking out for others, providing practical
help, securing work for others. Fourth, they can help themselves by: realization of a
positive perspective, preparing for change, initiating a change outside of work, and
engaging in an activity outside of work.
The category system attempts to provide a reasonably comprehensive description of
what helps and hinders adaptation to corporate restructuring. Such an organization of
factors may be valuable in planning counsellor training programs and useful for therapists
working with individuals adapting to corporate change.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11093 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Barbey, Dawn Henrichs |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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