Especially in the context of complex organizational changes, employees’ support is crucial for success because change-supportive behaviors of employees are required to compensate for higher uncertainties related to the implementation and the consequences of the changes. Yet, change support of employees is no automatic reaction. Seen from a psychological perspective change support represents a planned behavior of employees that is preceded by change-supportive intentions formed in reaction to the specific changes at hand. Hence, it is important to understand how employees react to organizational changes and how they form change-supportive intentions. However, research on employees’ change reactions is a rather fragmented field that poses great challenges for researchers and practitioners striving to establish evidence-based approaches of change management. Therefore, the present research answers the call for more theoretical integration and refinement in the field of organizational research. Specifically, the present research makes use of the theory of planned behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) which as is an established psychological theory for explaining human behaviors in social contexts. Based on this theoretical foundation, the present work systematically examines influences on the formation of change-supportive intentions from change-specific management factors (Study 1) and from personal factors (Study 2), as well as interrelational influences among the psychological determinants of change-supportive intentions (Study 3). Across all studies, the value of the TPB for understanding the formation of change-supportive intentions is supported. In addition, each study reveals unique insights. Revealing systematic linkages of change-specific management factors and psychological factors, Study 1 highlights the value of theoretical integration to promote evidence-based management. Study 2 finds affective organizational commitment to be an important predictor of change-supportive intentions with direct and indirect effects via the psychological determinants. Study 3 shows the relevance of a configurational perspective for more fully understanding the psychological processes involved in the formation of change-supportive intentions. Taken together, the appended studies contribute to the theoretical integration and refinement in change research and enable more systematic, well-founded diagnoses in change processes by providing scientific guidance for evidence-based change management.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uni-osnabrueck.de/oai:repositorium.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de:urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-2018053017227 |
| Date | 30 May 2018 |
| Creators | Straatmann, Tammo |
| Contributors | Prof. Dr. Karsten Müller, Prof. Dr. Julia Becker |
| Source Sets | Universität Osnabrück |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/zip |
| Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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