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Change fatigue: Development and initial validation of a new measure
Work & Stress
Abstract
Although organizational change often places strain on employees, few studies have explored the impact of multiple organizational changes on their well-being and withdrawal, including organizational commitment and turnover intentions. To provide a means of directly investigating such issues, we developed a measure of change fatigue, and then empirically examined its implications for employees. Using data from change consultants and a manufacturing organization in the United States that had undertaken a number of organizational changes over the last three years, the authors developed a six-item measurement scale, obtained initial evidence of construct validity, and then investigated the relationship between change fatigue and harmful outcomes, including exhaustion, organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Results indicated that change fatigue was positively associated with exhaustion, and exhaustion was in turn negatively related to organizational commitment and positively related to turnover intentions. Implications for organizations and employees facing multiple changes are discussed.
... In addition to the individual and organizational effects of burnout, another challenge that teachers face while trying to adapt to constantly changing educational reforms is change fatigue. Change fatigue is defined as a state of mental and emotional exhaustion caused by the effort to adapt to constant reform demands (Bernerth et al., 2011). Change fatigue in educational organizations not only has negative effect on individual health, but also weakens teachers' emotional commitment to their jobs, leading to loss of morale and alienation from work (Limon, 2019). ...
... Change fatigue, defined as mental and emotional fatigue due to constant organizational changes (Bernerth et al., 2011;Ekingen & Yıldız, 2021). is reflected in research findings that it causes demoralization in employees, reduces the performance of employees, and makes them prone to disengage from their duties (Limon, 2019). Change fatigue weakens the emotional commitment of employees while also leading to decreased motivation (Balyer & Ö zcan, 2024) and job satisfaction (Limon et al., 2021). ...
... Quiet quitting emerges as a coping strategy under the pressure of demands when employees do not find the support or resources necessary to adapt to change sufficient (Anand et al., 2024;Galanis et al., 2023;Serenko, 2024). Change fatigue can impair employees' emotional resilience in the long term (Bernerth et al., 2011). In this situation, employees may turn to undesirable behaviours in individual and organizational contexts, such as quite quitting, due to the lack of resources, which reduce their ability to cope with change (Liu-Lastres et al., 2024). ...
This study investigated the effects of occupational stress, burnout, and change fatigue on quiet quitting among teachers. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and hierarchical regression analysis. The sample was reached through convenience sampling method and included 366 teachers (185 male [50.5 %] and 181 female) aged between 21 and 59 years (M = 36.25, SD = 6.13). Data were collected using the Quiet Quitting Scale (QQS), Perceived Occupational Stress Scale (POSS), Job-Related Emotional Exhaustion Scale (J-REES), Change Fatigue Scale (CFS), and a demographics information form. The analysis was conducted on the SPSS 25. The findings suggested positive and significant relationships among occupational stress, burnout, change fatigue, and quiet quitting. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that occupational stress, burnout, and change fatigue explained 35 % of the variance in quiet quitting. The findings also suggested that higher levels of occupational stress, burnout, and change fatigue significantly and positively influenced quiet quitting, identifying them as its predictors. These findings highlight the significance of implementing programs and interventions to reduce occupational stress, burnout, and change fatigue among teachers and mitigate quiet quitting.
... Research on employees' emotional responses to change is crucial. Bernerth's research highlights that sustained change can lead to emotional exhaustion, also known as change fatigue [7], a concept initially identifed in the management discipline [8] and recognized as a signifcant factor infuencing organizational change [9]. ...
... Occupational fatigue is caused by excessive demands and pressures related to work tasks, environment, and scheduling [25]. Change fatigue refers to the fatigue and resistance experienced by individuals or groups due to continuous changes [7,9]. Change fatigue and other types of fatigue constitute the fatigue phenomena individuals may experience in healthcare settings. ...
... Tere are diferent defnitions of change fatigue. Kapping [19], citing Bernerth et al. [7], defnes change fatigue as "a feeling of apathy toward the organization, passive acceptance of initiatives, powerlessness, and emotional exhaustion with limited resources such as energy, personal control, or time due to excessive organizational change." Tis defnition underscores the psychological impact of organizational change, with these psychological shifts often evolving gradually throughout the change process [28]. ...
Background: Change is prevalent in nursing environments and often leads to change fatigue among nurses while aiming to improve service quality and efficiency. Change fatigue is a significant stressor affecting nurses’ work and psychology, and it is a crucial factor influencing organizational change. However, the concept of change fatigue among nurses has not yet been clearly defined or analyzed.
Aim: This analysis aims to differentiate, clarify, and clearly identify the specific concept of change fatigue among nurses, which will provide nursing administrators and researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the concept of change fatigue among nurses, ultimately facilitating relevant measurements and interventions.
Methods: This study employed Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method.
Results: A total of 29 papers were included in the study. The four defining attributes of change fatigue among nurses were identified as nurses’ exposure to constant change, exhaustion, decreased agency, and passive acceptance of change. Antecedents were categorized into nurses’ personal factors and those related to the organizational environment. The consequences of change fatigue were distinguished between individual-level and organizational-level impacts.
Conclusions: This study provides a clearer understanding of the concept of change fatigue among nurses by outlining its antecedents, attributes, and consequences. An operational definition and conceptual understanding of change fatigue will aid future research in developing effective prevention strategies.
... Research has shown job dissatisfaction may be a result of frequent changes in the primary care organization, necessitating changes in work roles [33]. Rapid and continuous changes can also cause change fatigue, defined as an overwhelming feeling of stress and exhaustion associated with workplace changes [34]. An instrument developed by Bernerth et al. [34] to measure change fatigue includes six items to investigate employees' perceived change fatigue. ...
... Rapid and continuous changes can also cause change fatigue, defined as an overwhelming feeling of stress and exhaustion associated with workplace changes [34]. An instrument developed by Bernerth et al. [34] to measure change fatigue includes six items to investigate employees' perceived change fatigue. Earlier research using this measure showed that change fatigue among hospital nurses had a negative influence on their job satisfaction but a positive influence on resilience, i.e., the ability to thrive in the face of adversity [26]. ...
... Change fatigue was measured using the change fatigue measurement scale, which is a validated instrument containing six items with a Likert scale [34]. The scale has shown good reliability and internal consistency in larger sample populations, including recent use in a nursing population [26,51]. ...
Background
Primary healthcare, the first line of care in many countries, treats patients with diverse health problems. High workload, time pressure, poor job control and negative interpersonal experiences with supervisors have been documented in primary healthcare. The work environment in primary healthcare is also affected by several types of changes.
Aim
We aimed to explore the levels of job satisfaction, turnover intention, social support, leadership climate and change fatigue according to physicians in Swedish primary healthcare. We also aimed to identify and characterize physicians exhibiting both high turnover intention and low job satisfaction, i.e., “discontent with current job”.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey based on a random sample of physicians working in Swedish primary healthcare.
Results
Approximately one-quarter of the respondents were discontented with their current job. Discontent was negatively associated with poor general health and change fatigue among the respondents; social support from colleagues and a favorable leadership climate showed positive associations in terms of reducing the levels of discontent with current job.
Conclusions
The findings of this study highlight the association between low levels of job satisfaction and high levels of turnover intention (i.e., discontent with current job) among physicians in primary healthcare. Moreover, these variables exhibited a strong association with physicians’ general health; poor health significantly increased the likelihood of discontent with current job. Our findings also show that experiencing change fatigue is associated with discontent with current job among physicians in primary healthcare. This knowledge can help identify and improve shortcomings within the psychosocial work environment in Swedish primary healthcare.
... Nurses' turnover and job satisfaction may also be adversely afected by many organizational changes that primary care has undergone in recent decades that have made nursing an increasingly complex profession [9]. Aging populations, changing disease patterns, new treatments for diseases, technological advancements (including telemedicine), an increased emphasis on patient/provider relationships based on partnership and mutual empowerment, political reforms, and policy initiatives all place strong demands on primary care organizations and health professionals' capacity to implement change [22][23][24][25][26]. Research has shown that organizational changes are often associated with employees' psychological uncertainty about how the changes will afect them [27][28][29]. Studies on nurses [30,31] have shown that workplace changes can lead to change fatigue, which is the overwhelming feeling of stress, exhaustion, and burnout associated with rapid and continuous change in the workplace [30]. ...
... Change fatigue is the perception that there are too many organizational changes taking place simultaneously, which may lead to exhaustion and the incapacity to support and adapt to further changes, regardless of whether they may be favorable [30]. Te change fatigue scale by Bernerth et al. [27] is a validated measure originally developed to explore the impact of multiple organizational changes on employee's well-being, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions [27]. Te scale contains items such as "the number of changes that are carried out in my workplace is overwhelming," "I am sick of all the changes at work," and "I would prefer a period of stability before another change is carried out in the organization." ...
... Change fatigue is the perception that there are too many organizational changes taking place simultaneously, which may lead to exhaustion and the incapacity to support and adapt to further changes, regardless of whether they may be favorable [30]. Te change fatigue scale by Bernerth et al. [27] is a validated measure originally developed to explore the impact of multiple organizational changes on employee's well-being, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions [27]. Te scale contains items such as "the number of changes that are carried out in my workplace is overwhelming," "I am sick of all the changes at work," and "I would prefer a period of stability before another change is carried out in the organization." ...
Nursing staff turnover is an increasing problem for healthcare globally. In Sweden, the shortage of nurses in primary healthcare has increased significantly in recent years. This development is alarming because primary healthcare, both in Sweden and internationally, is responsible for a large part of healthcare. The aim of this study was to explore working conditions (change fatigue, leadership climate, and social support from colleagues) and characteristics of primary care nurses who are discontent with their current job, i.e., those with high turnover intentions and poor job satisfaction in Sweden. This was a cross-sectional survey of 466 registered nurses working in Swedish primary healthcare. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The results demonstrate that 21.1% of the responding nurses are discontent with their current job and have considered quitting. Being discontent had significant associations with poor leadership climate (p<0.001), lack of social support from colleagues (p<0.001), change fatigue (p<0.001), poor health (p<0.001), and working more than 40 h per week (p=0.02). The results have implications for how healthcare organizations structure the work of nurses in primary healthcare and how they can attract and retain future staff to these workplaces.
... In the literature, change fatigue is defined and used as a syndrome of repeating change (Abrahamson, 2004), reform fatigue (Fan & Smith, 2018;Lingard et al., 2000), initiative fatigue (Freedman, 1992;Kuh & Hutchings, 2015), innovation fatigue (Lindsay et al., 2009), fed up with change, continuing failure, future shock (Lyle, 2013;Lyle et al., 2014). In general, change fatigue is a perception of having too much change (Bernerth et al., 2011). Even though it comes up with different definitions and forms, these all indicate organizational illness. ...
... It is also the perception of having too many and unnecessary change initiations (Bernerth et al., 2011;Falkenberg et al., 2005). It may also mean a complicated and a negative situation which is affected by many stimulants and ways of people's work negatively (Stansaker et al., 2002). ...
... In fact, studies reveal that change fatigue affects organizational commitment (Cole & Bruch, 2006;Hobfoll, 2001). According to Bernerth et al., (2011) change fatigue also leads to some behavioral intentions such as less-commitment, turnover, exhaustion and withdrawal. apuntesuniversitarios.upeu.edu.pe ...
The main purpose of this study was to determine school administrators and teachers’ views on change fatique in education. The research was conducted with a qualitative research method. The study employed a phenomenological research design. The participants of the research were 10 school administrators and 15 teachers determined with purposive sampling technique. The data were collected with semi-structured interview technique and analyzed with content analysis technique. In this process, main themes, sub-themes and codes were developed. The research results revealed that both school administrators and teachers have experienced too many changes without getting informed, prepared, trained and motivated accordingly. These frequent changes create change fatigue, pressure and stress on both school administrators and teachers. In addition, as they do not participate in decision-making process of these changes, they are not implementing these decisions willingly. It is recommended that school administrators and teachers should participate in decisions, be supported, informed and trained about the change process.
... It is noteworthy that organizational changes can yield unintended effects such as emotive fatigue, stress caused by absenteeism (Wynen et al., 2019) uncertainty, and amplified turnover rates (De Vries, 2013;Bernerth et al., 2011). This consequence of reorganizations is commonly referred to as "reorganization fatigue," "reform fatigue," or simply "change fatigue," with the latter term being more neutral according to Dilkes et al. ...
... It is noteworthy that organizational changes can yield unintended effects such as emotive fatigue, stress caused by absenteeism (Wynen et al., 2019) uncertainty, and amplified turnover rates (De Vries, 2013;Bernerth et al., 2011). This consequence of reorganizations is commonly referred to as "reorganization fatigue," "reform fatigue," or simply "change fatigue," with the latter term being more neutral according to Dilkes et al. Bernerth et al. (2011). Bernerth et al. (2011) elaborate that change exhaustion involves a sense of excessive change. ...
... Bernerth et al. (2011). Bernerth et al. (2011) elaborate that change exhaustion involves a sense of excessive change. ...
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... The basis of this situation is the fact that the employees of the organization have to carry out numerous practices to realize the change and transformation and then unconsciously want to avoid everything related to the work due to the depletion of emotional and cognitive resources (Taris, 2006). In the literature, there are studies suggesting that the concept of change fatigue, which occurs mostly at the individual level and negatively affects the performance of the organization in the long run, affects burnout (Johnson, 2016;Leuschke, 2017;Magano, 2021;McMillan & Perron, 2020;McMillan, 2018;Perel, 2015), organizational commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011;Kapping, 2021;Magano, 2021;Nunnelly, 2016;Perel, 2015), and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011;Dool, 2006;Ead, 2015;Leuschke, 2017;Magano, 2021;McMillan, 2018;Perel, 2015;Rafferty & Griffin, 2006). It is also pointed out that burnout has a mediating effect on the relationship between change fatigue, organizational commitment, and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011;Magano, 2021;Perel, 2015). ...
... The basis of this situation is the fact that the employees of the organization have to carry out numerous practices to realize the change and transformation and then unconsciously want to avoid everything related to the work due to the depletion of emotional and cognitive resources (Taris, 2006). In the literature, there are studies suggesting that the concept of change fatigue, which occurs mostly at the individual level and negatively affects the performance of the organization in the long run, affects burnout (Johnson, 2016;Leuschke, 2017;Magano, 2021;McMillan & Perron, 2020;McMillan, 2018;Perel, 2015), organizational commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011;Kapping, 2021;Magano, 2021;Nunnelly, 2016;Perel, 2015), and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011;Dool, 2006;Ead, 2015;Leuschke, 2017;Magano, 2021;McMillan, 2018;Perel, 2015;Rafferty & Griffin, 2006). It is also pointed out that burnout has a mediating effect on the relationship between change fatigue, organizational commitment, and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011;Magano, 2021;Perel, 2015). ...
... In the literature, there are studies suggesting that the concept of change fatigue, which occurs mostly at the individual level and negatively affects the performance of the organization in the long run, affects burnout (Johnson, 2016;Leuschke, 2017;Magano, 2021;McMillan & Perron, 2020;McMillan, 2018;Perel, 2015), organizational commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011;Kapping, 2021;Magano, 2021;Nunnelly, 2016;Perel, 2015), and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011;Dool, 2006;Ead, 2015;Leuschke, 2017;Magano, 2021;McMillan, 2018;Perel, 2015;Rafferty & Griffin, 2006). It is also pointed out that burnout has a mediating effect on the relationship between change fatigue, organizational commitment, and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011;Magano, 2021;Perel, 2015). Within the scope of perceived organizational culture, there are studies suggesting that clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy cultures are related to change fatigue. ...
Background and Purpose: This study aims to reveal the relationships between change fatigue and perceived organizational culture, burnout, organizational commitment, and turnover intention; to examine the effects of change fatigue on burnout, turnover intention, and organizational commitment; to determine whether there is any mediator effect of burnout on the relation between change fatigue, organizational commitment, and turnover intention or not; and finally, to determine the effects of organization culture on change fatigue. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 403 nurses working in a university hospital in Erzincan, Türkiye. Multiple and hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the relationships between change fatigue, organizational culture, burnout, turnover intention, and organizational commitment. Results: As a result of the analysis, it was determined that change fatigue has a significantly positive effect on burnout and turnover intention and a negative effect on organizational commitment. In addition, it was revealed that burnout has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between change fatigue, turnover intention, and organizational commitment. Moreover, it was found that clan and adhocracy cultures, which are perceived organizational culture types, have a negative effect on change fatigue, and a hierarchical culture has a significantly positive effect. Implications for Practice: To prevent change fatigue, managers of health institutions can be advised to inform nurses about the process before each change initiative. In addition, creating a culture in the organization that adopts respect and understanding as a philosophy, is based on employee participation, and exhibits modern leadership behaviors.
... Employees' perception of too much change effort in the organizational environment can increase their job stress, decrease job performance and morale, increase their absenteeism, and result in turnover and job dissatisfaction (Dool, 2009). Employees' feelings that a lot of organizational changes have occurred can also lead to a decrease in organizational burnout and commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011). ...
... In the relevant studies examined in the literature, it is seen that change fatigue increases personnel circulation (Ead, 2015;Stensaker et al., 2002) and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011) while it decreases organizational commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011;Ead, 2015) and organizational effectiveness. (Stensaker et al., 2002). ...
... In the relevant studies examined in the literature, it is seen that change fatigue increases personnel circulation (Ead, 2015;Stensaker et al., 2002) and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011) while it decreases organizational commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011;Ead, 2015) and organizational effectiveness. (Stensaker et al., 2002). ...
... Employees' perception of too much change effort in the organizational environment can increase their job stress, decrease job performance and morale, increase their absenteeism, and result in turnover and job dissatisfaction (Dool, 2009). Employees' feelings that a lot of organizational changes have occurred can also lead to a decrease in organizational burnout and commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011). ...
... In the relevant studies examined in the literature, it is seen that change fatigue increases personnel circulation (Ead, 2015;Stensaker et al., 2002) and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011) while it decreases organizational commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011;Ead, 2015) and organizational effectiveness. (Stensaker et al., 2002). ...
... In the relevant studies examined in the literature, it is seen that change fatigue increases personnel circulation (Ead, 2015;Stensaker et al., 2002) and turnover intention (Bernerth et al., 2011) while it decreases organizational commitment (Bernerth et al., 2011;Ead, 2015) and organizational effectiveness. (Stensaker et al., 2002). ...
Purpose: The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between organizational change fatigue levels of teachers working in secondary education institutions and organizational resilience levels of these institutions. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research was organized in relational screening model. The population of the research consisted of teachers working in high schools located within the borders of Kastamonu province. Proportional stratified sampling method was used in the study. The sampling included 313 teachers. In the study, the "Organizational Change Fatigue Scale”, which was developed by Bernerth et. al. 2011 and adapted to Turkish in 2020 and whose validity and reliability study was conducted by Limon, was used to measure the organizational change fatigue level of teachers. In order to measure the organizational resilience level of secondary education institutions, the “Organizational Resilience Scale” developed by Kantur and Say in 2015 was used. Pearson Product Moments Correlation Coefficient, Independent Sample t-test, One-Way Anova and Regression Analysis techniques were used in the analysis of the data. Findings: In the analyzes made, it was concluded that teachers working in high schools experienced change fatigue at the level of "agree", that high schools were resilient at the level of "agree", that there was no significant relationship between teachers' organizational change fatigue levels and organizational resilience, and that the level of change fatigue was not a significant predictor of organizational resilience.
... Amidst competing priorities, healthcare organizations face challenges implementing and sustaining multiple changes to facilitate best practices and ensure healthcare providers deliver safe, competent care (MacPhee, 2007). Numerous co-occurring changes often create an overwhelming volume of initiatives and expectations in practice (Bernerth et al., 2011;MacPhee, 2007;Torppa & Smith, 2011). When changes are implemented, healthcare providers are expected to adjust their practice and balance numerous competing priorities. ...
... When changes are implemented, healthcare providers are expected to adjust their practice and balance numerous competing priorities. The continued pressure for change contributes to a phenomenon experienced by many healthcare providers, termed change fatigue (Bernerth et al., 2011;McMillan & Perron, 2020a). ...
... Organizational change research has primarily focused on change resistance, and historically, change failure has thought to be due to change resistance; behaviours that threaten the success of change initiatives (Bernerth et al., 2011;de Vries & de Vries, 2021;Orlando, 2014;Ouedraogo & Ouakouak, 2021;Torppa & Smith, 2011). However, in recent years, authors have identified another phenomenon, change fatigue, which threatens the success of change implementation and has detrimental effects on individuals (Bernerth et al., 2011;de Vries & de Vries, 2021;MacPhee, 2007;Orlando, 2014;Ouedraogo & Ouakouak, 2021;Torppa & Smith, 2011;Wynen et al., 2019). ...
Aims
To synthesize the empirical and theoretical literature on change fatigue in nursing, including how change fatigue affects nurses, the nursing profession and strategies to prevent and overcome it.
Background
Change fatigue refers to the overwhelming feelings of stress, exhaustion and burnout associated with rapid and continuous change across healthcare organizations. Change fatigue can affect nurses' wellbeing, yet there is a distinct lack of literature which synthesizes the relationship between cumulative organizational change and nurses' wellbeing.
Design
Integrative review following Toronto and Remington and Whittemore and Knafl methodology.
Data Sources
Searches were conducted in CINAHL, Embase, Medline, APA PsycInfo, Scopus, Business Source Complete and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global in January 2022.
Review Methods
A comprehensive search was conducted to identify literature on change fatigue in nursing. Included literature were critically appraised for methodological quality. Data from each article were abstracted and thematically analysed.
Results
Twenty‐six articles were included in this review, including 14 empirical studies, 10 theoretical papers and two literature reviews. Five main themes described in the literature included: definitions, preceding factors, associated behaviours, consequences and mitigation strategies for change fatigue.
Conclusion
This review highlights the impact of rapid and continuous change on nurses and nursing practice. Further research is needed to explore the relationship between change fatigue and burnout, understand how and why nurses withdraw or avoid change, and to develop a metric to measure change fatigue when considering new change initiatives.
Impact
Findings from this review generated an improved understanding of how change fatigue affects nurses, the nursing profession and strategies to prevent and overcome it. This paper provides practical recommendations for future research, direction for nursing educators and leaders, and encourages nurses to practice political agency with change management.
Patient or Public Contribution
This project was an integrative review of the literature therefore no patient or public contribution was necessary.
... Healthcare is well-known for being in a state of constant change, but the pandemic has led to additional organizational changes, which has led to acute stress (Shahrout & Dardas, 2020). In addition, excessive organizational change can cause change fatigue, decrease in job satisfaction, increase in turnover rates (Bernerth et al., 2011;Brown et al., 2018;Camilleri et al., 2018), and affect the overall relations with the organization (Li et al., 2021). Lack of adequate time and preparation with organizational changes may form barriers to change and pose threats to the organization (Li et al., 2021). ...
... The scale is a 7-item Likert scale and has shown good reliability and internal consistency. Cronbach alpha with non-nurses is 0.85 (Bernerth et al., 2011) and with nurses 0.94 (Brown et al., 2018). In our study, the Cronbach alpha for the study population (n = 198) was 0.94. ...
... Third, emotional distress was measured using a self-reported questionnaire and not an objective assessment of a health professional. However, the scales used in this study demonstrated good reliability and have been successfully used in several other studies (Bernerth et al., 2011;Brown et al., 2018;Henry & Crawford, 2005). An additional follow-up survey of this study would allow us to assess whether the levels of emotional distress differ over time and investigate whether the associated factors remained the same. ...
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was twofold: to assess if nurses experienced changes in emotional distress (stress, depression, and anxiety) as the number of patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increased and if there were any sociodemographic, psychosocial, and work environmental influence on the change.
Methods:
Using a repeated cross-sectional study design, we collected survey data among 198 South Dakota (SD) nurses. Data were collected in two waves, during the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States (July and December 2020). Participants completed two online surveys: (a) The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21); and (b) Change Fatigue Scale. Predictive factors were divided into three groups: sociodemographic, psychosocial, and work environment variables. Multiple linear regression models were run to estimate the factors associated with the change in DASS-21 subscale score.
Results:
Total DASS-21 score and scores for all subscales significantly increased from Survey 1 to Survey 2. Significant positive associations were found between change fatigue and workplace barriers with change in depression, anxiety, and stress scores. A linear relationship was identified between self-worry about COVID-19 risk and depression and stress and being male and young were associated with changes in depression.
Conclusions:
Increase in emotional distress of nurses as the pandemic progresses is consistent with other studies. It is vital for healthcare organizations to recognize the factors associated with the changes in emotional distress and their role in decreasing the stress levels of nurses.
... 135). Cette définition est largement utilisée dans les études en contexte organisationnel (Allen et al., 2007;Bernerth et al., 2011). L'incertitude face au changement est donc un état psychologique qui peut générer du stress chez les employés, après la disparition de certains points de repère, d'une routine ou encore en l'absence d'information permettant de faire le point sur une situation (Cherkaoui et al., 2017). ...
... Ce déplacement du centre d'attention aide les employés à préserver leurs ressources (Hobfoll, 1989;Hobfoll et al., 2018). L'aspect temporel de l'incertitude associée au changement vécu peut aussi influencer le stress perçu par un employé (Bernerth et al., 2011). L'incertitude est généralement ressentie tôt dans le processus d'implantation d'un changement, et est précédée souvent par des éléments de rumeurs ou des spéculations à l'endroit du changement (Allen et al., 2007). ...
En contexte de changement, la préoccupation principale devrait être de réduire l’incertitude. Considérant le contexte inusité occasionné par la pandémie de COVID-19 sur les organisations, et la nouveauté certaine du télétravail pour bon nombre d’entre elles, il importe de mieux saisir les effets que peut entraîner ce mode d’organisation du travail – en tant que changement – sur le bien-être, voire la satisfaction des employés. S’appuyant sur la Théorie de la conservation des ressources et la Théorie du soutien organisationnel perçu, cette étude explore le lien entre l’incertitude face au changement et la satisfaction au travail. Au total, 376 personnes ont participé à l’étude en remplissant un questionnaire électronique administré au moment de la deuxième vague de la COVID-19 (c.-à-d. au début de l’hiver 2021). Trois principaux résultats se dégagent de cette étude. Premièrement, l’incertitude à l’égard du télétravail semble négativement liée au niveau de satisfaction déclaré par les télétravailleurs. Deuxièmement, le niveau de fatigue à l’égard du changement déclaré par les télétravailleurs constitue un mécanisme médiateur entre l’incertitude et la satisfaction. Enfin, ces résultats montrent aussi le rôle modérateur du soutien organisationnel perçu sur la relation unissant la fatigue liée au changement à la satisfaction au travail. Globalement, l’effet de la fatigue combiné à l’absence de soutien engendre un plus faible niveau de satisfaction chez les télétravailleurs.
... Literatürde değişim yorgunluğu hem organizasyon hem de birey için farklı etkileri olan sonuçlarla ilişkilendirilmiştir. Kuruluşlarla ilgili; örgütsel bağlılığı ve etkinliği azaltırken, işten ayrılma niyetindeki artışlarla ilişkili olduğu görülmektedir (16). Bireysel olarak yorgunluk, hastalık süresinin artmasına, iş göremezliğe, üretkenlik kaybına, bitkinliğe neden olmaktadır (17). Görüldüğü üzere teknolojik dönüşüm iyi yönetilemediği taktirde teknostres kavramının oluşumuna yol açmaktadır. ...
... Cronbach Alpha katsayısı teknoaşırı yükleme boyutu için 0,70, tekno-istila ve teknogüvensizlik boyutu için 0,81 tekno-karmaşa ve teknobelirsizlik boyutu için 0,90'dır. Değişim Yorgunluğu Ölçeği; Bernerth ve diğerleri (2011) tarafından geliştirilen ölçeğin Türkçe geçerlilik ve güvenirlik çalışması Ekingen ve Yıldız (2021) tarafından yapılmıştır (17,19). Bu ölçek 6 maddeden oluşmakta ve 7'li Likert tipi (1 kesinlikle katılmıyorum -7 kesinlikle katılıyorum)'ne sahip bir ölçektir. ...
Amaç: Bu araştırmada sağlık çalışanlarında değişim yorgunluğu, teknostres ve örgütsel bağlılık ilişkisinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Araştırmada nicel araştırma yöntemi kullanılmış, veriler anket tekniğiyle elde edilmiştir. Çalışmada kolayda örneklem yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın örneklemini Erzurum’da faaliyet gösteren bir kamu hastanesindeki 400 sağlık çalışanları oluşturmaktadır. Bulgular: Araştırma elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda sağlık çalışanlarının hastanedeki pozisyonuna göre teknostres ölçek puanında anlamlı bir fark bulunmuştur (p=0,002). Bu sonuca göre hemşire ve ebelerin teknostres düzeyi idari personel ve diğer sağlık çalışanlarına göre daha yüksek bulunmuştur. Kurumda çalışma yılı ile değişim yorgunluğu ölçek puanında anlamlı bir fark bulunmuştur (p=0,006). Bu bulguya göre 1-5 yıl arasında çalışanların 11 yıl ve üzeri çalışanlara göre değişim yorgunluğu daha yüksek tespit edilmiştir. Değişim yorgunluğu ölçeği ile teknostres ölçeği arasında pozitif yönlü zayıf bir ilişki bulunmuştur (r=0,257, p
... Change fatigue is a mindset in which frequent and ongoing changes are perceived as tiresome and frustrating. Instead of discrete events, changes that cause fatigue refer mostly to a continuous flux of initiations and rearrangements (Bernerth et al. 2011). While continuous learning can have this dimension of continuous demands, more typically, continuous learning is valued as an opportunity for positive lifelong workplace learning. ...
... This may portray Digi-downshifters as enthusiastic about delegating their work to new and improving technologies. The finding is in line with prior studies of the benefits in continuous learning (Rassameethes et al. 2021;Watson et al. 2018), and the implication is that repeated technological changes at work are more about the joy of learning about new things and working methods than frustration about constant changes (Bernerth et al. 2011). Reflecting this in the high presentation of Digi-downshifters in the arts and entertainment industry, this conclusion is further supported on the grounds that creativity is profoundly associated with the motivation of continuous learning (Venckutė et al. 2020). ...
Digitalization adds demands to contend with technological developments for both employees and organizations. At the same time, technological changes transform work to become more intensive and hectic. This study examined determinants of technological well-being after digitized work. Technological well-being was operationalized as Digi-downshifting where decreased workload associates with job satisfaction and as Digi-uplifting where increased workload associates with job satisfaction. A subsample (N = 3321) of workers at digitalized workplaces from the Finnish Quality of Work Life Survey was used in mean comparisons and binary logistic regression analysis. Digi-uplifters emerged as the most predominant profile among categories of technological well-being and ill-being. Extensive working time with technologies and employees’ influencing opportunities at the workplace stood out as the most consistent determinants of technological well-being. Thus, Nordic countries with skilled, technologically oriented workforce and democratic working cultures have particular promise in fostering Digi-uplifting and Digidownshifting at work.
... They have had to resort to trial-and-error strategies while seeking optimal solutions. Given that a primary aspect of human nature is an inherent need for predictability and order (Bernerth et al., 2011); it might be claimed that such a great amount of change occurred in too little time (Leuschke, 2017) might have caused negative psychological outcomes. In organizational management theory; the effects of such rapid changes within an institution have been theorized to cause a detrimental phenomenon called change fatigue in members of an organization (Bernerth et al., 2011). ...
... Given that a primary aspect of human nature is an inherent need for predictability and order (Bernerth et al., 2011); it might be claimed that such a great amount of change occurred in too little time (Leuschke, 2017) might have caused negative psychological outcomes. In organizational management theory; the effects of such rapid changes within an institution have been theorized to cause a detrimental phenomenon called change fatigue in members of an organization (Bernerth et al., 2011). Change fatigue has been extensively studied in many areas of work-life; but several studies have also studied the way it occurs in educational staff, i.e. teachers and faculty; either due to overall changes in an education system (Leuschke, 2017;Lı̇mon & Nartgün, 2020) or changes in the curriculum (Dilkes et al., 2014). ...
Education has gone through rapid changes during the emergency remote teaching period resulting by the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes, in part, have been associated with educational institutions attempting to implement a viable solution to the problem of distance education. Although organizational management theory literature suggests that great change in very little time results in a detrimental psychological phenomenon called change fatigue in employees and that this phenomenon has even been investigated in the context of teaching staff in the past; there have been no attempt at understanding change fatigue from a student perspective. This quantitative study attempts at proposing a structural equation model towards the understanding of how change fatigue and other variables, namely, digital literacy, online learning attitude and school alienation that might have been influenced by it have affected teacher candidates after resuming face-to-face education followed by a 1.5 year of emergency remote teaching period. Results indicated that change fatigue predicts school alienation and yet; does not predict online learning attitude; hinting that there might be another category of alienating organizational change that universities have gone through that does not solely involve online education. Nevertheless, digital literacy is a beneficial skill for all students that helps bolster online learning attitude and reduce overall school alienation.
... For example, in a department experiencing pressure from their college to increase research productivity, the head and faculty may feel that they are already overburdened with carrying out other changes and cannot also pursue teaching evaluation reform. Indeed, experiencing too many changes in a short amount of time can create stress for employees, and may negatively impact the outcome of those changes (Bernerth et al., 2011). In contrast, a department experiencing pressure from the college to reduce DFW rates in introductory courses may see researchbased peer evaluation practices as a way to provide constructive feedback to faculty, spark more conversations across sections of a course, and demonstrate to upper administration that they are taking action. ...
We relied on change theory to design a 3-year intervention with STEM department heads to provide space for busy heads to focus on research-based change in teaching evaluation practices. The impact on departmental practices was variable and department head readiness for change mattered.
... As a result, nurses' high level of change fatigue negatively affect their occupational identification when taken together with their job stress. When the related literature is examined, it is found that the high change fatigue observed in employees causes increased tension, burnout, job stress, turnover intention, decreased commitment, low job satisfaction, and decreased performance and productivity (Cox et al., 2022;Bernerth et al., 2011;Brown et al., 2018). Further, Van Knippenberg et al. (2006 found that change fatigue negatively affects occupational identification in cases where organizational commitment decreases. ...
This study was conducted to determine the mediating role of job stress and the moderating role of colleague support in the effect of change fatigue levels of nurses on professional identification. The study was designed in descriptive-cross-sectional type. The population of the study consists of 389 people selected by the simple random sampling method among 2,482 employees working in a training and research hospital in Erzincan province. The data were collected from nurses and nurse assistants working in a university education and research hospital through a questionnaire. According to the results of the study, there were negative relationships between change fatigue levels and professional identification, positive relationships between change fatigue and job stress, negative relationships between change fatigue and collegial support, negative relationships between job stress and collegial support, negative relationships between job stress and professional identification and positive relationships between collegial support and professional identification. In addition, it was found that job stress has a mediating role in the effect of change fatigue on professional identification. Finally, it was also found that colleague support has a moderating role in the indirect effect of change fatigue on professional identification (through job stress).
... Organizational change is capable to produce unplanned consequences. It has been pointed out by the researchers that perceived stress, emotional exhaustion and psychological uncertainty produce lower job satisfaction, increase turnover rates (Bernerth et al., 2011;De Vries, 2013), decrease job performance, and increase absenteeism (Wynen, Verhoest, & Kleizen, 2019). The ability of enterprises to be open to change has become vital in the modern changing era. ...
Organizational change is considered ideal to produce unexpected events. Hence, the purpose of this study is to find out the influence of organizational change on employees’ job satisfaction. It also aims to examine the mediating role of perceived stress and psychological uncertainty within the relationship between organizational change towards job satisfaction. The data were collected from 342 police officials of district Rawalpindi working in twenty-nine police stations of eleven circles. Demographics, Validity and Correlation analysis were performed. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for hypothesis testing in the present study. Organizational change was observed to be positively related to the job satisfaction of employees. Moreover, perceived stress and psychological uncertainty were witnessed to be playing a mediating role between organizational change and job satisfaction. This particular research work is considered as one of the first efforts towards examination of organizational change and job satisfaction of police officials along with mediations i.e., perceived stress and psychological uncertainty.
... In the individual dimension, fatigue resulting from change is among the negative consequences mentioned. Changeinduced fatigue is characterized by severe stress and job burnout [3,4]. Organizational commitment encompasses positive and effective response of employees to all dimensions and aspects of the organization [5]. ...
Background and Objective: By making new changes in organizations, organizations are looking for various innovations to maintain their level of performance in the existing competitive environment. However, these frequent changes can lead to change fatigue and its negative consequences for employees. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate change fatigue and its related consequences in healthcare providers.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in health centers in western Iran. In this study, 803 people were selected using the available method. The change fatigue scale, Parker and Decotis’ Job Stress Questionnaire, Ruth and Field’s Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, Maslash and Jackson’s Burnout Questionnaire, Turnover Intention Questionnaire, and Standard Questionnaire of Organizational Commitment of Mowday et al. were used. All analyses were performed using SPSS (version 23) and AMOS (version 18) softwares.
Results: The results of the present study showed that with the increase of change fatigue, the intention to leave, stress, and burnout increased significantly, and job satisfaction decreased significantly; however, no significant relationship was observed between change fatigue and organizational commitment. In addition, a significant relationship was observed between marital status, age, work experience, type of employment, type of job, and education with change fatigue.
Conclusion: In environments associated with rapid and continuous changes, it is important to consider change fatigue and its consequences because it can increase job stress and burnout, reduce job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and provide a reason for leaving the job.
... This ongoing engagement should help sustain their interest throughout their tenure. However, this persistent pace of change carries the risk of inducing change fatigue (Bernerth et al., 2011), potentially draining CIOs' energy and motivation. Also, like their counterparts in academia, corporate CIOs are not immune to the routine aspects of their roles, which can lead to a gradual loss of interest in certain tasks. ...
Current waves of digital innovations are continuously accelerating the pace and the scope of change that chief information officers (CIOs) must manage. To remain relevant and effective in their leadership roles, CIOs must be effective change agents. They enjoy longer tenure, enabling them to complete their transformational journeys more effectively. However, the question of whether these change agents can be equally effective in the beginning and at the end of their mandate has largely been ignored in the IS literature. To fill this gap, this paper examines how and why the role of change agent evolves as CIOs progress in their tenure in office. Drawing from the management and the IS literature and the results of a revelatory case study of the CIOs of a large university system in the U.S., this paper proposes a three-phase model describing what combination of change agentry models is followed by CIOs as they progress in their tenure and why. The combination of change agentry models that CIOs tend to follow during their time in office is explained by the patterns of evolution of five key characteristics: commitment to a paradigm, task knowledge, information diversity, task interest, and power and influence.
... En effet, ces derniers peuvent générer de l'incertitude, de la peur de l'inconnu, du stress, de la lassitude chez certains destinataires, les empêchant de faire face aux nouveaux changements (Camilleri et al., 2019;Furxhi et al., 2016). Ces destinataires peuvent devenir cyniques par rapport à ceux-ci (Bernerth et al., 2011;Bordia et al., 2006) et peu enclins à les accepter (Bordia et al., 2011). ...
Les changements constituent le modus operandi des organisations contemporaines. Dans plusieurs organisations, ils sont constants, rapides et se chevauchent créant ainsi une saturation du changement. Dans un tel contexte, la conduite du changement devient particulièrement complexe. L’une des principales difficultés est reliée aux destinataires, qui pourraient avoir de la difficulté à faire face aux changements. Il devient essentiel pour les gestionnaires de comprendre comment les destinataires s’adaptent au changement pour mieux le réussir. L’amélioration de la capacité à changer des destinataires (CCD) pourrait constituer une clé lors de la conduite du changement. Cela dit, la CCD peut référer à différentes réalités, si bien que ses dimensions et les leviers pouvant la promouvoir restent confus. Cette étude a pour objectif de clarifier la CCD et d’identifier les leviers utilisés pour la promouvoir. Ainsi, une recension systématique de la littérature sur la CCD a été réalisée dans les bases de données suivantes : ABI/INFORM, APA PsycInfo et Business Source Complete. Les 69 articles retenus ont permis de générer une carte conceptuelle clarifiant trois dimensions de la capacité à changer : l’ouverture au changement (OC), l’engagement envers le changement (EC) et le soutien comportemental au changement (SCC). Ces dernières représenteraient un continuum de l’évolution de réactions positives du destinataire au changement. Trois leviers utilisés pour les promouvoir (informations et communication, soutien et participation) ont aussi été aussi identifiés. Les leviers à privilégier évolueraient tout au long du continuum de la CCD.
... Change fatigue often evolves slowly as teams are worn down by process changes, new learning curves, and workflow disruptions. In practice, visible symptoms of change fatigue include employee apathy, confusion, frustration, and stress (Bernerth et al., 2011). Rejection and fear of change: Change is an emotional and diffuse issue. ...
Companies that embrace human-centered digital innovation approaches like Design Thinking are better equipped to master the challenges of digital transformation. Still, the number of failed digital transformation activities is rising, and companies struggle more than ever to turn their transformation initiatives into a success to remain competitive in the digital age. One promising avenue toward detangling this phenomenon is to identify the “traps” that, if not identified or addressed, can cause an organizational digital transformation to run into distress and potentially fail. In this chapter, we discuss the potential traps organizations can fall into during their digital transformation activities. We then synthesize them based on their difficulty to identify in a three-layered framework. The framework consists of execution traps, reaction traps, assessment traps, and recognition traps. Based on an in-depth case study with a large incumbent firm in the banking sector, we validate the trap categories and provide guidelines on how to use the framework in practice. This not only adds to the “demystification” of failing digital transformation endeavors but also serves as a foundation for understanding how adopting human-centered digital innovation approaches or other mitigation strategies can help to maneuver around the traps of transformation.
... The transition to completing aggregate food and food-related waste audits may be easier in facilities that have completed segmented audits previously, as stakeholders can recognize the similarities in practice, but on a larger scale. If altering practice to complete aggregate food and food-related waste audits rather than sectioned audits, it should be a permanent change in practice (i.e., once altered, foodservices should not revert back to previous practice), this would minimize any possible change fatigue in staff behaviors (51). Gathering information on the planning, execution, and data analysis phases from those involved post aggregate audit completion such as method feasibility, personal experiences, and staff fidelity to audit procedures can then provide insight to limitations and areas for improvement in future iterations. ...
Background
Completing aggregate food and food-related waste audits in hospital foodservices is an intense practice, however they can demonstrate problem areas that require attention to reduce waste. Identifying interventions to facilitate and improve the implementation of these audits can be guided by behavior change science. The aims of this study were to use behavior change theories and frameworks to (1) describe the drivers of behavior to complete food and food-related waste audits and (2) identify possible interventions that support the implementation and uptake of these audits.
Methods
Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants from hospitals in Victoria, Australia who worked in their foodservice system. Semi-structured interviews sought knowledge of participant’s perceived barriers and enablers to completing food and food-related waste audits. Deductive analysis using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and Capability Opportunity Motivation Behavior theory (COM-B) identified dominant drivers of behavior. TDF domains were then matched to their corresponding intervention functions according to the Behavior Change Wheel framework (BCW) to identify relevant strategies that may support audit implementation.
Results
Data from 20 interviews found the dominant COM-B constructs (TDF domains) were psychological capability (knowledge, skills), physical opportunity (environmental context and resources), and reflective motivation (social/professional role and identity, beliefs about capabilities). These dominant domains come from narratives that participants shared about foodservice staffs’ lack of knowledge, labor, time, and the hospital avoiding responsibility for audit completion. Corresponding intervention functions that could have the most potential for implementing waste audits were education, training, environmental restructuring, modeling, and enablement. Participants’ shared perspectives of audit enablers resembled these: for example, obtaining staff buy-in, reinforcing behavior through incentives and installing an audit champion.
Conclusion
To transition toward regular food and food-related waste auditing practices in hospital foodservices these findings may help identify practice and policy change that delivers standardized auditing activities to encourage long term behavior change. Interventions to support audit completion should address each behavioral construct and relevant domain, as individual hospital sites will experience unique contextual factors and expectations influencing audit outcomes. A co-design process that includes staff and stakeholders of hospital foodservices is recommended to enable engagement and practical solutions to audit implementation.
... Another reason for paying more attention to change psychology is that many initiatives for change fail today, and staff often experience "project tiredness" [52] as they do not experience any concrete results of a change project or simply are not informed about it [43]. Perhaps QI initiatives favor methods at the expense of paying attention to the psychology of change. ...
Background
Persons in need of services from different care providers in the health and welfare system often struggle when navigating between them. Connecting and coordinating different health and welfare providers is a common challenge for all involved. This study presents a long-term regional empirical example from Sweden—ESTHER, which has lasted for more than two decades—to show how some of those challenges could be met. The purpose of the study was to increase the understanding of how several care providers together could succeed in improving care by transforming a concept into daily practice, thus contributing with practical implications for other health and welfare contexts.
Methods
The study is a retrospective longitudinal case study with a qualitative mixed-methods approach. Individual interviews and focus groups were performed with staff members and persons in need of care, and document analyses were conducted. The data covers experiences from 1995 to 2020, analyzed using an open inductive thematic analysis.
Results
This study shows how co-production and person-centeredness could improve care for persons with multiple care needs involving more than one care provider through a well-established Quality Improvement strategy. Perseverance from a project to a mindset was shaped by promoting systems thinking in daily work and embracing the psychology of change during multidisciplinary, boundary-spanning improvement dialogues. Important areas were Incentives, Work in practice, and Integration, expressed through trust in frontline staff, simple rules, and continuous support from senior managers. A continuous learning approach including the development of local improvement coaches and co-production of care consolidated the integration in daily work.
Conclusions
The development was facilitated by a simple question: “What is best for Esther?” This question unified people, flattened the hierarchy, and reminded all care providers why they needed to improve together. Continuously focusing on and co-producing with the person in need of care strengthened the concept. Important was engaging the people who know the most—frontline staff and persons in need of care—in combination with permissive leadership and embracing quality improvement dimensions. Those insights can be useful in other health and welfare settings wanting to improve care involving several care providers.
... Planned change could also be continuous when one change initiative is immediately followed by another change project or when the timelines for multiple change initiatives begin to overlap. The danger with continuous planned change, however, is initiative fatigue (Bernerth, Walker, & Harris, 2011). Organizational members may begin to feel as if they are pulled in multiple directions, resulting in a situation where people feel that they cannot do their best work in any of the initiatives in which they are involved. ...
... While many have the potential to positively impact teaching and learning, it is difficult to keep up with the flood of new ideas, labels, and acronyms. This is particularly problematic for K-12 teachers who often experience "change fatigue" (Bernerth et al., 2011, Limon et al., 2021. Education researchers experience a similar overwhelm when seeking patterns in research in which a wide variety of labels, keywords, and acronyms describe interventions that may or may not be similar enough to synthesize. ...
Science education regularly sees new innovations that are resisted due to "change fatigue." Couching new ideas as variations of known concepts may decrease resistance and ease teacher learning of new approaches. Contextualization, connecting science content to authentic contexts, is one theme many recent innovations are founded on. This bibliometric network analysis of 935 academic papers describes the landscape of contextualized science education research. Bibliometrics uses citation patterns in a field to identify social network structures that generate and evolve groups of ideas. 13 clusters of ideas that have evolved within the landscape of contextualized science learning were identified and described as part of a larger study. The focus of this paper is on individual documents that play an outsized role in representing the network parts or bridging clusters of ideas, as identified through metrics of network centrality. We found that the clusters of ideas vary in their internal cohesiveness as measured by network metrics and that this correlates with the conceptual cohesiveness of the clusters. Some papers were identified as playing an outsized role as conceptual bridges between clusters and these were often papers that did not consistently fall into one cluster or another. Findings can be used to identify intellectual pathways between clusters and to magnify similar research across clusters. The methods can be used to describe other intellectual landscapes in science education.
... This is crucial as coping with change cannot begin until an employee appraises it (e.g. Bernerth et al., 2011;Fugate et al., 2008;Lazarus, 1999). Drawing on the TMSC (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and on the COR theory (Hobfoll et al., 2018), when organizational change is positively appraised as challenging but manageable, employees' expectations for personal gain (i.e. ...
This mixed-method study aims to analyze how and when employees’ perceptions of positive organizational change may be related to role clarity and resilience and conditional on supervisor support levels. A total of 40 employees participated in focus groups. Thematic analysis revealed that participants perceived differently organizational change, role, supervisor support, and resilience. A total of 178 employees completed questionnaires analyzing perceptions of organizational change, role clarity, resilience, and supervisor support. Quantitative analyses revealed that role clarity mediated the association between employees’ perceptions of positive organizational change and resilience. This relationship was enhanced by supervisor support. Overall, the results suggest that employees who positively perceive organizational change may more easily understand their new role and demands, which is positively related to their resilience. When employees perceive being supported by their supervisors, they are more likely to perceive themselves as resilient, even in the face of organizational change. Our results suggest that organizations should adopt a transparent change management communication plan based on employee involvement.
MAD statement
This study moves an important step forward in both the change management and resilience literature, as it is the first to examine the mechanisms and boundary conditions explaining how and when employees’ perceptions of positive organizational change may facilitate resilience. By adopting a positive psychology perspective and a mixed-method design, this study identifies role clarity and supervisor support as two important resources that allow employees to benefit from organizational change. As such, it would contribute to providing new insights on how employee resilience can be enabled during organizational change.
... Planned change could also be continuous when one change initiative is immediately followed by another change project or when the timelines for multiple change initiatives begin to overlap. The danger with continuous planned change, however, is initiative fatigue (Bernerth, Walker, & Harris, 2011). Organizational members may begin to feel as if they are pulled in multiple directions, resulting in a situation where people feel that they cannot do their best work in any of the initiatives in which they are involved. ...
This introductory chapter to the Handbook provides an integrative conceptualization of higher education transformation at three levels of analysis: the global field of higher education, higher education systems within specific geopolitical boundaries, and colleges and universities as organizations. We also note that higher education transformation is often precipitated by developments in three macro-level contexts, characterized by socio-political, technological, and market forces. The chapter then identifies the groups of actors who are involved in higher education transformation. Finally, the chapter discusses several challenges and tensions associated with higher education transformation. Some challenges are linked to the transformation process, while other tensions are associated with the outcomes of transformation.
Değişim yorgunluğu ve değişime direnç, sağlık kuruluşlarında başlatılan değişim çabalarını engelleyebilir. Bu nedenle, önemle ele alınmaları gerekmektedir. Bu çerçevede, bu araştırmanın amacı değişim yorgunluğu ve değişime direnç ilişkisinin incelenmesidir. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak genel bilgiler, değişim yorgunluğu ölçeği ve değişime direnç ölçeklerini içeren bir anket kullanılmıştır. Çalışmada amaçlı ve kolayda örnekleme yöntemleri kullanılmıştır. Anket, araştırmacının ağında bulunan ve Tarsus ilçesinde çalıştığı bilinen sağlık çalışanlarına gönderilmiş ve onlardan anketleri meslektaşlarına iletmeleri istenmiştir. Sonuç olarak, toplam 178 sağlık çalışanı çalışmaya dahil edilmiştir. Veriler tanımlayıcı istatistikler ile özetlenmiş, ardından hipotez testleri yapılmıştır. Veri analizi neticesinde değişim yorgunluğu ile değişime direnç arasında pozitif ve orta düzeyde bir ilişki olduğu, değişime direnç varyansındaki değişimin %22,5'inin değişim yorgunluğu tarafından açıklandığı tespit edilmiştir. Değişim yorgunluğu ve değişime direnç katılımcıların genel özelliklerine göre farklılık göstermemiştir. Sağlık yöneticilerinin değişime direncin önüne geçebilmek için çalışanların değişim yorgunluğu durumlarını tespit etmeleri ve buna yönelik önlemler almaları önerilir.
Objectives
To investigate the levels of change fatigue among clinical nurses in public hospitals and identify the potential contributing factors.
Design
A cross-sectional, multi-stage sampling study was conducted in accordance with the STROBE guideline.
Methods
This study surveyed 2,228 nurses in China from October to December 2023 using Wen Juan Xing (www.wjx.cn) and employed stepwise multiple linear regression analysis to assess factors associated with change fatigue.
Results
The average change fatigue score of nurses was found to be at a medium to high level. Factors such as female, professional title, average overtime hours, workflow changes, workload increase, work-content changes, work pressure increases, new technology implementation and the change frequency were all identified as exacerbating nurses’ experience of fatigue related to change. Contrary to this, the support of change resources, communication and transmission of change information, distributed leadership, inclusive climate, readiness for change, change efficacy and workforce agility were found to alleviate the change fatigue to some extent.
Conclusions
It is urgent and challenging for nursing managers to manage change fatigue. All of these identified predictors in study significantly contribute to the understanding of change fatigue among nurses and can provide valuable insights for health policies aimed at improving the effectiveness of nursing changes. Furthermore, they also offer a theoretical foundation for managers to develop targeted intervention programs for preventing and mitigating the negative impact of change fatigue on nurses and organizational outcomes.
In this study, we shed light on the underlying psychological mechanism of the negative impact of change fatigue on employees’ extra-role performance, which represents a positive change outcome. Drawing from self-determination theory in combination with job demands–resources theory, we assume that the negative impact of change fatigue on extra-role performance is mediated by psychological need satisfaction. Furthermore, by considering the buffer hypothesis in job demands–resources theory, we hypothesize that self-leadership represents a sufficient personal resource to compensate for the negative effects of change fatigue. To test our hypotheses, we investigated a two-wave sample from a German insurance company. The results partially confirm our theoretical predictions. For organizational practitioners, the results imply that self-leadership represents a valuable personal resource for employees to mitigate the psychological consequences of fatigue caused by organizational change. Thus, especially organizations that are undergoing change may provide training for employees to learn to apply self-leadership strategies.
Sağlık kurumları hem emek hem de teknolojinin yoğun olarak kullanıldığı, bilimsel gelişmeler ve diğer çevresel faktörlerden yüksek derecede etkilenen özel bir hizmet alanıdır. Bu durum, sağlık kurumlarının sürekli olarak çeşitli alanlarda değişimler yaşamasını gerekli kılmaktadır. Yaşanan değişimler, değişimi yaşayan sektörde ya da ilgili kurumda çalışanlar üzerinde olumsuz bir takım duygulara sebep olabilmektedir. Bu duyguların başında da değişim yorgunluğu gelmektedir. Bu çerçevede, bu çalışmanın amacı, değişim yorgunluğunun sağlık sektörü özelinde incelenmesi ve özelliklerinin ortaya konularak çeşitli önerilerin sunulabilmesi için, literatürde yer alan araştırmaların sistematik bir şekilde incelenmesidir. Bu amaçla, “change fatigue” ya da “değişim yorgunluğu” anahtar kelimeleri ile web of science, scopus, pubmed, dergipark ve ulusal tez merkezi veri tabanlarında arama yapılmış, süreç akışı sonunda ise toplamda yedi adet araştırma dahil edilmiştir. Dahil edilen araştırmaların hem yurt içi hem de yurt dışı örneklemlerde gerçekleştirildiği ve araştırmaların son dönemlerde yoğunlaştığı tespit edilmiştir. Öte yandan sağlık çalışanlarında değişim yorgunluğunun birçok olumsuz örgütsel sonuçla ilişkili olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Çalışmanın bulguları çerçevesinde değişim yorgunluğu probleminin çözümüne yönelik bir takım öneriler sunulmuştur.
Bu araştırmada öğretmenlerin denetime yönelik tutumları ile mesleki gelişimleri arasında ilişkinin incelenmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Araştırmanın örneklemini Eğe Bölgesi’nde ilkokul, ortaokul ve liselerde görev yapmakta olan 289 öğretmen oluşturmaktadır. Veri toplama aracı olarak Gümüş ve diğerleri (2018) tarafından geliştirilen “Öğretmen Mesleki Öğrenme Ölçeği” ve Uğurlu ve Usta (2016) tarafından geliştirilen “Eğitimde Denetim Tutum Ölçeği” kullanılmıştır. Verilerin analizinde betimsel istatistikler ve kanonik korelasyon analizi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda öğretmenlerin denetime yönelik tutumlarının genel (toplamda) olarak ve alt boyutlarda orta düzeyde olduğu görülmektedir. Öğretmenlerin mesleki gelişimlerine yönelik algıları genel olarak (toplamda) yüksek, alt boyutlarda ise işbirliği, yansıtma ve bilgi tabanına ulaşma alt boyutlarında yüksek, uygulama alt boyutunda ise çok yüksek düzeyde bulunmuştur. Öğretmenlerin denetime yönelik tutumları ile mesleki gelişim algıları arasında düşük düzeyde anlamlı bir ilişki (.22) bulunmuştur. İki veri setinin yaklaşık %5’lik bir varyansı paylaştıkları belirlenmiştir. Öğretmenlerin denetime yönelik tutumları ile mesleki gelişimleri arasındaki ilişkinin düşük çıkmasından hareketle, bu ilişkide başka aracı değişkenlerin rol oynadığı söylenebilir.
Bu araştırmada, eğitim örgütlerinde değişim yorgunluğuna ilişkin öğretmen görüşlerinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden fenomenoloji deseni ile yürütülen bu araştırmanın çalışma grubunu resmi ortaokullarda çalışan öğretmenler oluşturmuştur. Veriler yüz yüze görüşme yoluyla yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formları ile toplanmıştır. Elde edilen verilerin analizinde içerik analizi yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın bulgularına göre katılımcı öğretmenler, değişim yorgunluğunu eğitim sisteminde çok fazla değişiklik yapılmasına bağlı bir etki olarak tanımlamıştır. Katılımcılara göre değişim yorgunluğu öğretmenler üzerinde motivasyonda azalmaya, performansta düşmeye ve stres düzeyinde artışa neden olmaktadır. Bununla birlikte katılımcı öğretmenler, değişim yorgunluğunun öğrenciler üzerinde akademik başarının düşmesine, veliler üzerinde uyum sağlamakta güven kaybına ve öğretme-öğrenme sürecinde verimin azalması gibi olumsuz etkilere yol açtığını belirtmiştir. Katılımcılar; değişim yorgunluğu ile başa çıkmada öğretmenlerin geleceğe yönelik iyimser düşünmelerini, okul yöneticilerinin bilgilendirici açıklamalar yaparak öğretmenlere rehberlik etmelerini, politika yapıcıların karar vermeden önce paydaşların fikirlerini almalarını ve değişimi zamana yaymalarını önermiştir.
Working in social care is fraught with challenges fueled by changing policies, funding structures, societal expectations, and high relational demands, leaving employees in this sector particularly vulnerable to poor well‐being. In this study, we focus on the importance of a supportive work context—specifically coworker instrumental support and leaders' role clarity—in enabling employee role clarity, and how this can foster better mental health and reduce fatigue from ongoing changes in the sector. We ran a multilevel moderated mediation model on a sample of 270 social care employees matched with 47 leaders across two disability care organizations in Australia. Results showed that coworker instrumental support promotes role clarity, which in turn is associated with lower psychological distress and change fatigue, and higher job satisfaction. The positive relationship between coworker instrumental support and role clarity, and the subsequent relationships with well‐being, were stronger when employees had leaders who themselves had role clarity. Our findings highlight the importance of a supportive work context and role clarity as malleable levers in enabling a sustainable social care workforce and provide new theoretical and practical insights for human resource management in the social care sector.
Değişim hızlı ve sürekli gelişen bir olgu olup bireyleri, örgütleri ve toplumları önemli düzeyde etkileyen bir süreç olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Değişim süreci sonucunda bazı zamanlarda istenmeyen durumların meydana gelmesi mümkündür. Bu araştırmanın amacı değişim yorgunluğunun işten ayrılma niyetine etkisinde tükenmişliğin aracılık rolünün belirlenmesidir. Nicel araştırma deseninin benimsendiği çalışmada örneklemi Yozgat’ta faaliyet gösteren küçük, orta ve büyük ölçekteki işletmelerde çalışanlar oluşturmaktadır. Kolayda örnekleme yöntemiyle ulaşılan 421 kişiden çevrimiçi anket yoluyla veriler toplanmıştır. Toplanan verilerin analiz edilmesinde kısmi en küçük kareler yol analizi (PLS-SEM) tercih edilmiş olup Smart-PLS istatistik programı kullanılarak analiz gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma verilerinden elde edilen bulgulara göre değişim yorgunluğunun işten ayrılma niyetine etkisinde tükenmişliğin kısmi aracılık rolü olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Ayrıca değişim yorgunluğunun tükenmişlik üzerinde pozitif yönlü ve anlamlı etkisi ile tükenmişliğin işten ayrılma niyeti üzerinde pozitif yönlü ve anlamlı etkisinin olduğu görülmüştür. Oluşturulan modelin R2 değerleri incelendiğinde değişim yorgunluğunun işten ayrılma niyetini %30 ve tükenmişliği %13 oranında açıkladığı belirlenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlar aşırı değişim sürecinin çalışanları psikolojik açıdan yorduğu ve çalışanların örgütlerine karşı negatif duygular hissedebileceğini ortaya koymuştur.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9479-4571 ÖZET Bu araştırma sağlık çalışanlarının değişim yorgunluğu düzeylerinin işten ayrılma niyetleri üzerindeki etkisinde örgütsel güvenin aracı rolünü tespit etmek amacıyla tasarlandı. Bu amaçla çalışmada değişim yorgunluğu (bağımsız değişken), işten ayrılma niyeti (bağımlı değişken) ve örgütsel güven (aracı değişken) ölçekleri kullanıldı. Tanımlayıcı-ilişki arayıcı türde olan bu çalışma kesitsel olarak tasarlandı ve anket yöntemiyle veriler toplandı. Araştırma verileri toplanmadan önce Erzincan Binali Yıldırım Üniversitesi İnsan Araştırmaları etik kurulundan çalışmanın etik yönden uygun olduğuna dair etik onam alındı. Araştırma evrenini doktor, hemşire, diğer sağlık çalışanları, idari personel ve yardımcı personelden oluşan 587 sağlık çalışanı oluşturmaktadır. Basit rastgele örnekleme yöntemi kullanılarak %95 güven aralığında ve %5 hata oranı göz önüne alındığında en az 233 çalışana ulaşılmasının yeterli olduğu tespit edildi. Araştırma verileri Ocak-Şubat 2024 tarihleri arasında hastanede görevli çalışanlara yüz yüze ulaşılarak toplandı. Araştırma örneklemi doğrultusunda dağıtılan anket formlarının 403 adedinden eksiksiz ve hatasız olarak geri dönüş sağlanarak araştırma verileri elde edildi. Araştırma analizinde ölçek faktörlerinin doğrulanabilmesi için AMOS 23 uygulaması ve değişkenlerin analizinde ise SPSS PROCESS MACRO model 4 kullanılarak araştırmanın aracılık rolünün değerlendirilmesi yapıldı. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre sağlık çalışanlarının değişim yorgunluğu düzeyleri ile işten ayrılma niyetleri arasında anlamlı ve pozitif, değişim yorgunluğu düzeyleri ile örgütsel güvenleri ve örgütsel güvenleri ile işten ayrılma niyetleri arasında ise anlamlı ve negatif yönlü ilişkiler tespit edildi. Ayrıca sağlık çalışanlarının değişim yorgunluğu düzeyleri ile işten ayrılma niyetleri arasındaki ilişkide örgütsel güvenin aracı rolünün olduğu bulgulandı. Sonuç olarak bu araştırmada sağlık çalışanlarının değişime uyum sağlamalarını ve işten ayrılma niyetlerini azaltmalarını desteklemek için örgütsel güvenin geliştirilmesine yönelik stratejiler önerilmektedir. Bu stratejiler, açık ve şeffaf iletişimi teşvik etmek, çalışanları değişime dahil etmek ve adil ve tutarlı bir yönetim tarzı benimsemek gibi unsurları içermektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Değişim yorgunluğu, işten ayrılma niyeti, örgütsel güven, sağlık çalışanları ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of organisational trust in the impact of change fatigue among healthcare workers on their turnover intentions. To this end, the study used scales on change fatigue (independent variable), turnover intention (dependent variable) and organisational trust (mediating variable). This descriptive-relational study was cross-sectional and the data was
Değişim hızlı ve sürekli gelişen bir olgu olup bireyleri, örgütleri ve toplumları önemli düzeyde etkileyen bir süreç olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Değişimin sonucunda bazı zamanlarda istenmeyen durumların meydana gelmesi mümkündür. Bu araştırmanın amacı değişim yorgunluğunun işten ayrılma niyetine etkisinde tükenmişliğin aracılık rolünün belirlenmesidir. Nicel araştırma deseninin benimsendiği çalışmada örneklemi Yozgat’ta faaliyet gösteren küçük, orta ve büyük ölçekteki işletmelerde çalışanlar oluşturmaktadır. Kolayda örnekleme yöntemiyle ulaşılan 421 kişiyle çevrimiçi anket yoluyla veriler toplanmıştır. Toplanan verilerin analiz edilmesinde kısmi en küçük kareler yol analizi (PLS-SEM) tercih edilmiş olup Smart-PLS istatistik programı kullanılarak analiz gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma verilerinden elde edilen bulgulara göre değişim yorgunluğunun işten ayrılma niyetine etkisinde tükenmişliğin kısmi aracılık rolü olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Ayrıca değişim yorgunluğunun tükenmişlik üzerinde pozitif yönlü ve anlamlı etkisi ile tükenmişliğin işten ayrılma niyeti üzerinde pozitif yönlü ve anlamlı etkisinin olduğu görülmüştür. Oluşturulan modelin R2 değerleri incelendiğinde değişim yorgunluğu işten ayrılma niyetini %30 ve tükenmişliği %13 oranında açıkladığı belirlenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlar aşırı değişimin çalışanları yorduğu ve örgütlerine karşı negatif duygular hissedebileceğini ortaya koymuştur.
Background
The COVID‐19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges, particularly for healthcare workers (HCWs). The prolonged struggles exposed the HCWs to a variety of stressors, potentially leading to burnout. Emotional exhaustion is widely recognized as the core component of burnout. This research aims to conceptualize and develop an emotional exhaustion screening questionnaire through literature review, validation, and accuracy testing.
Method
A literature review of questionnaires and extraction of items on emotional exhaustion were performed in June 2022. We proceed with the face validity of the items by experts. The items with good content validity ratio and index were selected and reworded to suit the context of HCWs working during the COVID‐19 pandemic. A pilot test of the questionnaire was done in the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA) from October to December 2022 with a sample of 148 HCWs from the ORCHESTRA cohort to determine its reliability, convergent validity, and accuracy.
Results
Our literature review identified 15 validated questionnaires. After exclusion, 32 items were sent for content validation by experts, yielding five final items that proceeded with the pilot test. Resulting in a Cronbach's alpha‐coefficient of .83 for the scale and .78 for dichotomous responses, demonstrating good internal consistency and convergent validity. The result of our accuracy test yielded sensitivity (90.6%) and specificity (91.6%) for the OEEQ scale; and sensitivity (88.7%) and specificity (89.5%) for OEEQ dichotomous responses.
Conclusion
This study developed and validated the ORCHESTRA Emotional Exhaustion Questionnaire, demonstrating the questionnaire's clarity, relevance, and comprehensibility in screening emotional exhaustion among HCWs.
Stres, günümüz iş dünyasında yaygın bir sorundur ve çalışanlar üzerinde olumsuz etkilere yol açmaktadır. İş davranışlarının değişmesine ve rekabetin artmasına rağmen, örgütlerin etkili olabilmesi için çalışanların performanslarını artırmaları gerekmektedir. Ancak, bu performans artışı bazen çalışanlar üzerinde stres yaratmaktadır. Bu stres, hem bireysel hem de örgütsel düzeyde olumsuz sonuçlara neden olabilmektedir. Özellikle, çalışanların kurumsal bağlılığını ve performansını etkileyen sonuçlar ortaya çıkabilir. Bu bağlamda yapılan bu çalışmada, değişim yorgunluğunun çalışanların iş stresine etkisi incelenmiştir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, akademisyenlerin ve çalışanların karşılaştığı değişim yorgunluğunun iş streslerine etkisini tespit etmektir. Araştırma, akademisyenlerin ve çalışanların stres düzeylerini ve bu stresin çalışma performanslarına etkisini değerlendirmek amacıyla Iğdır Üniversitesi'nde görev yapan 288 katılımcı ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma kapsamında elde edilen veriler SPSS 26 ve AMOS 21 programı ile analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma sonuçları, değişim yorgunluğunun çalışanların iş stresini artırdığını göstermektedir. Özellikle, çalışanların değişim yorgunluğu yaşadıkları durumlarda iş stresi düzeylerinin arttığı ve buna bağlı olarak iş performanslarının azaldığı tespit edilmiştir. Sonuçlar, iş yerlerinde değişim yönetimi ve stres yönetimi politikalarının geliştirilmesi gerekliliğini vurgulamaktadır.
Healthcare settings today are complex environments with multiple demands and frequent competing priorities that often lead to change fatigue, stress, burnout, and attrition. Additionally, clinicians are exposed to complex patient situations, care needs, and psychosocial issues that at times involve trauma experiences. These patients’ experiences warrant trauma informed care, which has been growing as important training for all healthcare practitioners. At the same time, the clinician experience of hearing and seeing the suffering of others resulting from trauma can lead to secondary trauma for clinicians which further fuels stress and burnout. One resulting outcome of overwhelmed, stressed, and burned-out clinicians is a loss of empathy and compassion not only for patients but also for peers and healthcare staff. This, in turn, can create environments that are challenging for teamwork and employee satisfaction. Research has demonstrated that focusing on empathy, compassion, and nonviolent communication can support clinicians’ well-being, reduce stress, and improve overall retention, and teamwork. Patient outcomes have also improved. Empathy’s transformational powers can be seen in active and reflective listening to understand co-workers’ and clients’ desires and needs. When a clinician is empathetic, they recognize the emotion for what it is and are grateful for what it can teach them.KeywordsEmpathy in the workplaceEmpathy among cliniciansEmpathy and burnoutNonviolent communicationEmpathic communication in the workplaceCompassion in cliniciansTrauma-informed careWorkplace incivilityWorkplace violence
Purpose:
Following stroke, individuals who live in a low-income or are at risk of living in a low-income situation face challenges with timely access to social services and community resources. Understanding the usual care practices of stroke teams, specifically, how they support this access to services and resources, is an important first step in promoting the implementation of practice change.
Method:
A qualitative multiple-case study of acute care, inpatient, and outpatient rehabilitation stroke teams in an urban area of Canada. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires about the workplace context were conducted with 19 professionals (social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech-language pathologists) at four sites.
Results:
In their usual practice, stroke teams prioritized immediate care needs. The stroke team professionals did not address income or resources unless it directly affected discharge. Usual care was influenced by factors such as time constraints, lack of knowledge about services and resources, and social service system limitations.
Conclusion:
To better support post-stroke access to social services and resource for low-income individuals, a multidisciplinary approach, with actions beginning earlier on and extending throughout the continuum of care, is recommended, in addition to system-level advocacy.
We studied the impact of leaders’ political skill on employee support for organizational change and the effect of the latter on change fatigue and change outcomes. Drawing from the theoretical characterization of the political skill construct domain proposed by Ferris et al. (2007), we posited that leaders’ political skill during organizational change plays an important role in garnering employee support for change and, ultimately, in achieving positive change outcomes. To conduct the study, we used survey data collected through SurveyMonkey on 197 participants working in Canadian organizations and used structural equation modeling techniques to analyze the data. We found that two dimensions of leaders’ political skill—their networking ability and apparent sincerity—positively affected employee support for change, which, in turn, positively affected change outcomes. However, neither of the other two dimensions examined (interpersonal influence and social astuteness) had a significant relationship with employee support for change. We also found that employee support for change and change fatigue were not significantly related, although change fatigue itself negatively affected change outcomes. From a theoretical perspective, this study is among the first to empirically test and confirm the impact of different dimensions of leaders’ political skill on employees’ change support. We also contribute theoretical knowledge by showing the detrimental effect of change fatigue on change outcomes. From a practical perspective, our findings imply that change leadership roles should be assigned to people who exhibit networking skills and apparent sincerity. Moreover, change leaders should prioritize seeking and securing employees’ support for change.
Why do teams exhibit behavioral resistance to change? It depends on the behavior of team supervisors who are in charge of change implementation. Drawing on social exchange theory and the norm of negative reciprocity, we expect that teams reciprocate team abusive supervision through behavioral resistance to change and that this relationship is explained by team distrust in the supervisor and contingent upon team perceived frequency of change. To test these hypotheses, we collected three‐wave data from 124 teams in four Chinese organizations that were implementing a pay system based on team performance. The results showed that team abusive supervision was positively related to team behavioral resistance to change. Both team cognitive distrust and affective distrust mediated the relationship between team abusive supervision and team behavioral resistance to change. Moreover, perceived frequency of change strengthened the relationship between team abusive supervision and team affective distrust (rather than team cognitive distrust) in the supervisor and the indirect relationship between team abusive supervision and team behavioral resistance to change via team affective distrust. By employing a team abusive supervision perspective, this study expands our knowledge of the drivers of team behavioral resistance to change and provides insights regarding how supervisors should lead their teams during organizational change.
A new study commissioned and funded by the Louise Tebboth Foundation has revealed that UK doctors are at greater risk of work-related stress, burnout and depression and anxiety than the general population. The incidence of suicide, especially among women doctors and for GPs and trainees, is also comparatively high. The report, entitled ‘What could make a difference to the mental health of UK doctors?’ and published in conjunction with the Society for Occupational Medicine, finds that the incidence of mental health problems among doctors is increasing alongside the growing demands and diminishing resources experienced in the healthcare sector. GPs, trainee and junior doctors appear to be particularly vulnerable, experiencing distress and burnout early in their career. The stigma associated with disclosing mental health problems and ‘a failure to cope’ revealed in the report mean that many doctors are reluctant to seek help as they fear sanctions and even job loss. The report, carried out by Professor Gail Kinman of the University of Bedfordshire and Dr Kevin Teoh of Birkbeck University of London, reviewed research on the mental health of doctors, the factors that increased the risk of poor mental health, and the implications for their own wellbeing and that of their patients. Professor Kinman commented: “The findings of our report are alarming. The poor mental health evident among UK doctors and the implications for themselves and their patients should be of grave concern to all healthcare stakeholders. Action is urgently required to address a working environment that can be toxic to health.” Dr Teoh added: “It is crucial to provide doctors with more support from recruitment to retirement and develop a culture that challenges the mental health stigma and encourages help seeking.” Dr Alex Freeman, the LTF Chair, said: “This report should be of interest to policy makers, employers, and others who have a responsibility for doctors’ mental health. Whilst initiatives to treat and support doctors who are struggling are to be welcomed, what is needed is to develop a healthy working environment. Prevention should be taken seriously, at all stages of a doctor’s career. The level of suicide in the profession is of major concern, and support for the bereaved workplace affected by such suicides is lacking. The concerns identified in the report must be taken seriously. For this reason we welcome the announcement made yesterday by NHS chief Simon Stevens that there will be national funding for a new mental health support scheme which will cover all doctors working in the NHS. The scheme will cover approximately 110,000 more doctors in addition to those already supported.
This meta-analysis examined how demand and resource correlates and behavioral and attitudinal correlates were related to each of the 3 dimensions of job burnout. Both the demand and resource correlates were more strongly related to emotional exhaustion than to either depersonalization or personal accomplishment. Consistent with the conservation of resources theory of stress, emotional exhaustion was more strongly related to the demand correlates than to the resource correlates, suggesting that workers might have been sensitive to the possibility of resource loss. The 3 burnout dimensions were differentially related to turnover intentions, organizational commitment, and control coping. Implications for research and the amelioration of burnout are discussed.
I propose four ideal types of planned change processes, each with distinct temporal and nontemporal assumptions, and each associated with altering a distinct organizational element. These types are commanding, engineering, teaching, and socializing. I then argue that large-scale change involves an alteration of multiple organizational elements, thus requiring enactment of multiple intervention ideal types. This requires change agents to display temporal capability skills to effectively sequence, time, pace and combine various interventions.
I present a multilevel theory of emotion and change, which focuses on attributes of emotional intelligence at the individual level and emotional capability at the organizational level. Emotional intelligence facilitates individual adaptation and change, and emotional capability increases the likelihood for organizations to realize radical change. I also present a mesolevel framework relating emotion-attending behaviors to three dynamics of change: receptivity, mobilization, and learning. These behaviors, which I term emotional dynamics, constitute the organization's emotional capability.
This controlled longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the effects of organizational change on employees’ self-reported health, work satisfaction, work-related exhaustion, stress, and sick leave. The population consisted of 226 employees at T1 and 198 at T2, divided into a study group affected by organizational changes, and a reference group not affected by them. Group differences for the outcome measures self-rated health (SRH), work satisfaction, work-related exhaustion, and hormones associated with stress were analysed using a two-factor ANOVA design for repeated measurements. Our findings showed no significant differences, either across time or between groups for SRH, work satisfaction, and work-related exhaustion. However, we did find significant change across time and between groups for the recovery hormone DHEA-S. Days of sick leave increased by 7% for employees in the study group and by 2% in the reference group. Serum cortisol showed significantly decreased levels across time but not between groups. The decreased recovery potential in the study group might have long-term health implications. The study points to the importance of looking at the impact of organizational change on employee well-being from a number of perspectives, such as self-reported health parameters, registered sick-leave data, and biological stress markers.
Purpose
This paper seeks to present a dual‐level framework for developing change management theory, based on the concept of anxiety as an organizational phenomenon and its potential for prevention, recognition and treatment. When encountering crisis, confusion, and difficulties, both individuals and organizations can suffer from anxiety‐related problems. The paper aims to argue that organizational anxiety can be diagnosed and treated in a similar way to those of individuals.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper and examines how individual anxiety can inform analysis of organizational performance in times of change. A model of organizational anxiety is presented. Three case studies are used to examine the validity of the model. The potential for preventive and treatment strategies for organizational anxiety is examined.
Research limitations/implications
The concepts presented should be examined initially through single case study designs, but developed into the equivalent of a randomized controlled trial across a number of organizations.
Practical implications
Recognition of organizational anxiety is only advantageous if methods of prevention or treatment are possible and available. Preventive strategies include training in threat appraisal and response for senior management teams. Treatment strategies include short‐term consultancies for evaluation of threats and responses; organizational development for organizations where inappropriate responses to threats and opportunities can be recognized, and rethinking/reframing of organizations where an organizational history may be inhibiting progress or development.
Originality/value
This paper presents a new way for organizations to examine their performance in times of change, and adds significantly to the literature on organizational change management.
Observes that the published literature on resistance to organisational change has focused more on organisational issues rather than individual psychological factors. The present study investigated the role of both adaptive and maladaptive defence mechanisms in individual resistance. Surveys were conducted in nine organisations undergoing major change and responses were obtained from 615 employees. The results indicate that five maladaptive defence mechanisms are positively correlated with behavioural intention to resist change, namely, projection, acting out, isolation of affect, dissociation and denial. The adaptive defence mechanism of humour was found to be negatively correlated with resistance intention. Identifies two intervention strategies which can be used by management to address the effects of defence mechanisms on resistance during periods of change in organisations.
Employees develop exchange relationships both with organizations and immediate superiors, as evidenced by research on perceived organizational support (POS) and leader-member exchange (LMX), respectively. Despite conceptual similarities between these two constructs, theoretical development and research has proceeded independently. In an attempt to integrate these literatures, we developed and tested a model of the antecedents and consequences of POS and LMX, based on social exchange theory. Results indicated that POS and LMX have unique antecedents and are differentially related to outcome variables, providing support for the importance of both types of exchanges.
Composition models specify the functional relationships among phenomena or constructs at different levels of analysis (e.g., individual level, team level, organizational level) that reference essentially the same content but that are qualitatively different at different levels (M. T. Hannan, 1971; K. H. Roberts, C. L. Hulin, & D. M. Rousseau, 1978; D. M. Rousseau, 1985). Specifying adequate composition models is a critical component of good multilevel research. A typology of composition models is proposed to provide a framework for organizing, evaluating, and developing constructs and theories in multilevel research. Five basic forms of composition are described and illustrated. Implications of the typology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, and is defined by the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. The past 25 years of research has established the complexity of the construct, and places the individual stress experience within a larger organizational context of people's relation to their work. Recently, the work on burnout has expanded internationally and has led to new conceptual models. The focus on engagement, the positive antithesis of burnout, promises to yield new perspectives on interventions to alleviate burnout. The social focus of burnout, the solid research basis concerning the syndrome, and its specific ties to the work domain make a distinct and valuable contribution to people's health and well-being.
A scale designed to assess various aspects of the burnout syndrome was administered to a wide range of human services professionals. Three subscales emerged from the data analysis: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Various psychometric analyses showed that the scale has both high reliability and validity as a measure of burnout. Since the publication of this article in 1981, more extensive research was done on the MBI, which resulted in some modifications of the original measure. The present article has been re-edited to reflect those modifications. However, it does not include other new additions (which are contained in the MBI Manual distributed by the publisher, Mind Garden).
The research literature on environmental uncertainty is briefly reviewed to illustrate problems and inconsistencies in conceptualizing and measuring the construct. Three types of perceived uncertainty about the environment are described and their implications for the behavior of an organization's administrators are discussed. The failure to differentiate between these types may explain some of the confusion about environmental uncertainty.
The paper attempts to bring concepts developed in cognitive approaches to stress and coping to a model which predicts burnout as a function of organizational demands and resources. Workers in a mental hospital (N = 177) provided information regarding coping patterns, burnout, and organizational commitment as well as various demands and resources in the work environment. A LISREL analysis confirmed that burnout is best considered a function of coping patterns as well as a function of organizational demands and resources. Control coping cognitions and actions were associated with decreased burnout, while escapist coping strategies were associated with increased burnout. The analysis indicated relationships of coping patterns with organizational commitment could be operating indirectly through the relationships of both coping patterns and commitment with the burnout. The paper discusses implications of these findings for interventions designed to alleviate or prevent burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Organizational Behavior is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
It is crucial from an employee’s point of view to perceive some degree of stability even in times of major organizational change. This paper examines the role
of a sense of continuity for organizational identification after an organizational merger. We argue that mergers and acquisitions so often end in failures partly because the change is designed in discontinuous ways and employees do not feel they are doing the same job after the merger as before. Such discontinuous change engenders a critical tension between positive and negative effects of identification that has not yet been fully understood. To deepen the understanding of this tension, in-depth interviews were conducted in a recently merged German industrial company. Based on these qualitative data we demonstrate how features of the postmerger company structure and the way it was implemented may have eroded
organizational identification. Finally, we propose a parsimonious model to be tested by future research, in which the sense of continuity is consisting of both observable as well as projected continuity.
This study developed and tested a model of job uncertainty for survivors and victims of downsizing. Data were collected from three samples of employees in a public hospital, each representing three phases of the downsizing process: immediately before the announcement of the redeployment of staff, during the implementation of the downsizing, and towards the end of the official change programme. As predicted, levels of job uncertainty and personal control had a direct relationship with emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. In addition, there was evidence to suggest that personal control mediated the relationship between job uncertainty and employee adjustment, a pattern of results that varied across each of the three phases of the change event. From the perspective of the organization's overall climate, it was found that levels of job uncertainty, personal control and job satisfaction improved and/or stabilized over the downsizing process. During the implementation phase, survivors experienced higher levels of personal control than victims, but both groups of employees reported similar levels of job uncertainty. We discuss the implications of our results for strategically managing uncertainty during and after organizational change. Yes Yes
This study examined the relationships among personal coping resources, social support, external coping resources, job stressors and job strains in a sample of 110 American Telephone & Telegraph employees undergoing a major organizational restructuring. The study expanded on a model suggested by Ashford (1988) by defining another category of coping resources that employees may draw upon to deal with the stressors and strains which occur during major organizational changes.External coping resources were defined as those which provided employees with a sense of "vicarious control" in stressful situations. Results indicated that personal coping resources, social support, and external coping resources had a direct effect upon job stressor and strain levels. No "buffering" effect of these coping resources was found. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that external coping resources added to the prediction of job stressors and strains even when personal coping resources and social support were entered first into the prediction equations.
The present study examines the association between dysfunctional team behavior and team performance. Data included measures of teams' dysfunctional behavior and negative affective tone as well as supervisors' ratings of teams' (nonverbal) negative emotional expressivity and performance. Utilizing a field sample of 61 work teams, the authors tested the proposed relationships with robust data analytic techniques. Results were consistent with the hypothesized conceptual scheme, in that negative team affective tone mediated the relationship between dysfunctional team behavior and performance when teams' nonverbal negative expressivity was high but not when nonverbal expressivity was low. On the basis of the findings, the authors conclude that the connection between dysfunctional behavior and performance in team situations is more complex than was previously believed--thereby yielding a pattern of moderated mediation. In sum, the findings demonstrated that team members' collective emotions and emotional processing represent key mechanisms in determining how dysfunctional team behavior is associated with team performance.
Major perspectives concerning stress are presented with the goal of clarifying the nature of what has proved to be a heuristic but vague construct. Current conceptualizations of stress are challenged as being too phenomenological and ambiguous, and consequently, not given to direct empirical testing. Indeed, it is argued that researchers have tended to avoid the problem of defining stress, choosing to study stress without reference to a clear framework. A new stress model called the model of conservation of resources is presented as an alternative. This resource-oriented model is based on the supposition that people strive to retain, project, and build resources and that what is threatening to them is the potential or actual loss of these valued resources. Implications of the model of conservation of resources for new research directions are discussed.
In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators.
Recent research suggests that a better understanding of emotional exhaustion requires the development of new theoretical perspectives. To that end, with the conservation of resources model (COR) as the theoretical framework, the present 1-year longitudinal study was undertaken. Composed of 52 social welfare workers, this research examined the relationship of emotional exhaustion to job satisfaction, voluntary turnover, and job performance. Positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) were used as control variables. Whereas emotional exhaustion was unrelated to job satisfaction, it was associated with both performance and subsequent turnover. In addition, the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance and also between emotional exhaustion and turnover remained significant above and beyond the effects of PA and NA. Future research directions and implications of the findings are introduced.
The authors investigated the negative consequences of emotional exhaustion for individual employees and their employers. On the basis of social exchange theory, the authors proposed that emotional exhaustion would predict job performance, 2 classes of organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover intentions. In addition, the authors posited that the relationship between emotional exhaustion and effective work behaviors would be mediated by organizational commitment. With only a few exceptions, the results of 2 field studies supported the authors' expectations. In addition, emotional exhaustion exerted an independent effect on these criterion variables beyond the impact of age, gender, and ethnicity.
A new social desirability scale was constructed and correlated with MMPI scales. Comparison was made with correlations of the Edwards Social Desirability scale. The new scale correlated highly with MMPI scales and supported the definition of social desirability. Ss need to respond in "culturally sanctioned ways."
This field study examined the effect of supervisory regulation of display rules--the rules about what kind of emotion to express on the job (R. Ekman, 1992; A. Rafaeli & R. I. Sutton, 1987)--on the emotional exhaustion of subordinates. On the basis of a sample of 940 call center employees, the authors found that worker emotional exhaustion varied across supervisors within jobs, suggesting that emotion work is influenced at the supervisory, rather than job, level. Moreover, the authors found that the importance supervisors place on interpersonal job demands of their workers was positively related to worker emotional exhaustion. Worker career identity moderated the interpersonal-job-demands--emotional-exhaustion relationship, but self-efficacy did not. Study conclusions and suggestions for future research are provided.
Few organizational change studies identify the aspects of change that are salient to individuals and that influence well-being. The authors identified three distinct change characteristics: the frequency, impact and planning of change. R. S. Lazarus and S. Folkman's (1984) cognitive phenomenological model of stress and coping was used to propose ways that these change characteristics influence individuals' appraisal of the uncertainty associated with change, and, ultimately, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Results of a repeated cross-sectional study that collected individuals' perceptions of change one month prior to employee attitudes in consecutive years indicated that while the three change perceptions were moderately to strongly intercorrelated, the change perceptions displayed differential relationships with outcomes. Discussion focuses on the importance of systematically considering individuals' subjective experience of change.
This review selectively examines the theoretical and empirical organizational change literature over the past nine years (1990–early 1998). Four research themes or issues common to all change efforts are discussed: (a) content issues, which largely focus on the substance of contemporary organizational changes; (b) contextual issues, which principally focus on forces or conditions existing in an organization’s external and internal environments; (c) process issues, which address actions undertaken during the enactment of an intended change, and (d) criterion issues, which deal with outcomes commonly assessed in organizational change efforts. Research dealing with monitoring affective and behavioral reactions to change is also reviewed. In closing, general observations and suggestions for future research are offered and it is concluded that the organizational change literature continues to be responsive to the dynamics of contemporary workplace demands.
This article presents several studies that examine organizational change. The authors note that certain issues should be addressed when examining the studies including an examination of the multiple contexts and levels of analysis in studying organizational change, the inclusion of time, history, process and action, the link between change processes and organizational performance, the investigation of international and cross-cultural comparisons, the study of receptivity, customization, sequenicng, pace and episodic versus continusous change and the partnership between scholars and practicioners in studying change. The author discuss how these issues are related to the concepts in the studies and note they research has not addressed these issues at this point in time.
This study aimed to investigate whether the detrimental effects of organizational change on the psychosocial work environment are reduced by the “healthiness” of change processes. This includes the management's awareness that the change may be experienced differently by various individuals and groups (diversity); availability of the manager during the process; the degree to which conflicts are resolved constructively; and the degree to which the new roles to be taken on are clarified. Two studies are presented. Using a randomized sample of the Norwegian working population (N = 2389), the first study showed that there were both direct and indirect positive relationships between organizational change and stress, with job demands (but not control and support) as a mediator. In the second study a healthy change process index (HCPI) was developed from dimensions of healthy change that had emerged in an earlier qualitative study. Using data from seven Norwegian enterprises undergoing change (N = 561), this study showed that the healthiness of the change process was related negatively to stress and positively to Control and Support, but not to Demands. Overall, these findings support the idea that a healthy process may not reduce the additional demands produced by organizational change. However, a healthy process may still be able to reduce the experience of stress and facilitate coping with stress and associated increased demands through enhancing the psychosocial work environment.
To extend research on fundamental motivational orientations into a new domain, we explored the achievement (positive) and avoidance (negative) orientations of formal organization-based mentors and protégés as joint predictors of personal learning experienced by both parties. We also examined the extent of mentoring functions provided by mentors as a hypothesized partial mediator. Regression analyses of 8-month data from 61 dyads revealed that mentors’ personal learning was predicted by protégés’ achievement (positive) and avoidance (negative) orientations, whereas protégés’ personal learning was predicted by their own achievement orientation (positive). Although the extent of mentoring functions facilitated personal learning equally among mentors and protégés, it did not function as a mediator. Finally, mentor–protégé congruence on achievement orientation had implications for the personal learning of protégés.
This study identifies the environmental and personal characteristics that predict employee outcomes within an Australian public sector organization that had, under New Public Management (NPM), implemented a variety of practices traditionally found in the private sector. These are more results-oriented, and their adoption can be accompanied by increased strain for employees. The current investigation was guided by two complementary theories, the Demand Control Support (DCS) model and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, and sought to examine the benefits of building on the DCS to include both situation-specific stressors and internal coping resources. Survey responses from 1,155 employees were analysed. The hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both external and employee-centred variables made significant contributions to variations in psychological health, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The external resources, work based support and, to a lesser extent, job control, predicted relatively large proportions of the variance in the target variables. The situation-specific stressors, particularly those involving harmful management practices (e.g., insufficient time to do job as well as you would like, lack of recognition for good work), made significant contributions to the outcome measures and generally supported the process of augmenting the generic components of the DCS with more situation-specific variables. In terms of internal resources, problem and emotion-based coping improved the capacity of the model to predict psychological health. The results suggest that the impact of NPM can be ameliorated by incorporating the dimensions of the augmented DCS and coping resources into the change programme.
The adequate measurement of abstract constructs is perhaps the greatest challenge to understanding the behavior of people in organizations. Problems with the reliability and validity of measures used on survey questionnaires continue to lead to difficulties in interpreting the results of field research. Price and Mueller suggest that measurement problems may be due to the lack of a well-established framework to guide researchers through the various stages of scale development. This article provides a conceptual framework and a straightforward guide for the development of scales in accordance with established psychometric principles for use infield studies
Survey participants (N=175) were drawn from six branches of a major British supermarket chain. Employees from three branches, who had been selected for transfer to new stores, were surveyed before and after relocation to examine the impact of this transition on individual well-being. A comparison sample of employees, drawn from similar stores but not involved in relocation, was also surveyed. Cross-sectional multiple regression analyses found that psychological distress was related to both work demands and personal characteristics (gender, neuroticism, locus of control, and social desirability response). Furthermore, path analysis revealed that after controlling for prior symptom levels, distress during the relocation period was predicted independently by the relocation and by work demands. Although in the present study it was not possible to account for differences in outcomes between new and comparison store employees in terms of changes in measured work characteristics, the negative impact of relocation was found to be buffered by perceptions of control and social support. Additionally, the impact of high work demands was buffered by Type B personal characteristics. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Plongées dans un marché mondial, les organisations ne cessent de subir de profonds changements. Encore que la plupart de ces changements soient nécessaires et souvent retardés, ils présentent comme inconvénient le risque de coûts élevés en terme d'accroissement des dépenses de santé, de pertes de productivité, de baisse de la satisfaction professionnelle et de chute du moral. Ces coûts peuvent être directement imputés à la détresse qui frappe les salariés d'une organisation confrontée à des changement permanents. Cet article propose un modèle dynamique permettant d'aborder les articulations complexes entre le changement organisationnel et le stress subi par les individus. A partir de ce modèle, des interventions prenant en compte tous les aspects du problème pourront être conçues pour aider les salariés à gérer le stress provoqué par les mutations des organisations.
Organisations in the global marketplace continue to experience tremendous change. Although most of these changes are necessary and long overdue, the downside includes the risk of huge costs in terms of increased health care expenses, lost productivity, lower levels of job satisfaction, and low morale. These costs may be directly attributed to the distress that is created when an organisation's employees encounter constant changes. This paper establishes a dynamic framework from which we can begin to understand the complex interplay between change at the organisational level and stress at the individual level. Using this framework, comprehensive interventions can ultimately be developed to help employees manage the stress of organisational transitions.
CIVIL rights legislation, the attendant actions of compliance agencies, and a few landmark court cases have provided the impetus for the extension of the application of content validity from academic achieve- ment testing to personnel testing in business and industry. Pressed by the legal requirement to demonstrate validity, and constrained by the limited applicability of traditional criterion-related methodologies, practitioners are more and more turning to content validity in search of solutions. Over time, criterion-related validity principles and strate- gies have evolved so that the term, "commonly accepted professional practice" has meaning. Such is not the case with content validity. The relative newness of the field, the proprietary nature of work done by professionals practicing in industry, to say nothing of the ever present legal overtones, have predictably militated against publication in the journals and formal discussion at professional meetings. There is a paucity of literature on content validity in employment testing, and much of what exists has eminated from civil service commissions. The selectipn of civil servants, with its eligibility lists and "pass-fail" con- cepts, has always been something of a special case with limited trans- ferability to industry. Given the current lack of consensus in profes- sional practice, practitioners will more and more face each other in adversary roles as expert witnesses for plaintiff and defendant. Until professionals reach some degree of concurrence regarding what con- stitutes acceptable evidence of content validity, there is a serious risk that the courts and the enforcement agencies will play the major determining role. Hopefully, this paper will modestly contribute to the improvement of this state of affairs (1) by helping sharpen the content ' A paper presented at Content Validity (1, a conference held at Bowling Green
Burnout is a psychological response to work stress that is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced feelings of personal accomplishment. In this paper, we review the burnout literature from 1993 to present, identifying important trends that have characterized the literature. We focus our attention on theoretical models that explain the process of burnout, the measurement of burnout, means of reducing burnout, and directions for the future of burnout research.
Conservation of Resources (COR) theory predicts that resource loss is the principal ingredient in the stress process. Resource gain, in turn, is depicted as of increasing importance in the context of loss. Because resources are also used to prevent resource loss, at each stage of the stress process people are increasingly vulnerable to negative stress sequelae, that if ongoing result in rapid and impactful loss spirals. COR theory is seen as an alternative to appraisal-based stress theories because it relies more centrally on the objective and culturally construed nature of the environment in determining the stress process, rather than the individual’s personal construel. COR theory has been successfully employed in predicting a range of stress outcomes in organisational settings, health contexts, following traumatic stress, and in the face of everyday stressors. Recent advances in understanding the biological, cognitive, and social bases of stress responding are seen as consistent with the original formulation of COR theory, but call for envisioning of COR theory and the stress process within a more collectivist backdrop than was first posited. The role of both resource losses and gains in predicting positive stress outcomes is also considered. Finally, the limitations and applications of COR theory are discussed.
Organizations are concerned with the impact organizational change can have on both individuals' response to the change itself and their ongoing relationship with the organization. This study investigated how organizational changes in 32 different organizations (public and private) affected individuals' commitment to the specific change and their broader commitment to the organization. The results indicate that both types of commitment may be best understood in terms of a 3-way interaction between the overall favorableness (positive/negative) of the change for the work unit members, the extent of the change in the work unit, and the impact of the change on the individual's job. In addition, the fairness of the change process was found to interact with the effects of work unit change on organizational commitment. The implications of these results for future research and practice are discussed.
The authors conducted meta-analyses to assess (a) relations among affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization and (b) relations between the three forms of commitment and variables identified as their antecedents, correlates, and consequences in Meyer and Allen's (1991) Three-Component Model. They found that the three forms of commitment are related yet distinguishable from one another as well as from job satisfaction, job involvement, and occupational commitment. Affective and continuance commitment generally correlated as expected with their hypothesized antecedent variables; no unique antecedents of normative commitment were identified. Also, as expected, all three forms of commitment related negatively to withdrawal cognition and turnover, and affective commitment had the strongest and most favorable correlations with organization-relevant (attendance, performance, and organizational citizenship behavior) and employee-relevant (stress and work–family conflict) outcomes. Normative commitment was also associated with desirable outcomes, albeit not as strongly. Continuance commitment was unrelated, or related negatively, to these outcomes. Comparisons of studies conducted within and outside North America revealed considerable similarity yet suggested that more systematic primary research concerning cultural differences is warranted.
In this paper we argue that organizational identification is predictive of employee interests and concerns during periods of organizational change. More specifically, we assert that organizational identification may largely determine whether employees may be focused upon the change related outcomes (e.g., salary, expenses, etc.), or on the change processes (e.g., procedures, voice and participation options, etc.). Data of both a scenario experiment and a survey are presented indicating that high and low identifiers indeed are differentially interested in process and outcome information. The results suggest that people who identify less with the organization are more likely to be focused upon the change outcomes then on the change process, while people who identify highly (i.e., deep structure) with the organization are more likely to be focused upon the change processes then on the change outcomes. The benefits of awareness of organizational members' level of identification for organizational change management are discussed. Copyright copyright2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Organizational Behavior is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
This longitudinal study seeks to determine the appropriate theoretical structure for how employees cope with organizational change. A model based on the appraisal theory of emotion is compared to competing theoretical structures of coping found in the literature: stimulus–response, partial mediation, and moderated. Structural equation model results showed that coping with organizational change is a completely mediated process best represented by the stimulus–response theoretical structure, whereby negative appraisal is associated with reduced control and increased escape coping, which are positively related to positive and negative emotions, respectively. Negative emotions predicted sick time used and intentions to quit, which then predicted voluntary turnover. Implications for coping theory and organizational change management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Personnel Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
In the last 10 years, research devoted to the construct of leader–member exchange (LMX) has increasingly relied on the tenets of social exchange as a theoretical foundation to propose and test relationships between supervisor-subordinate dyads and variables of significant consequence. Despite the theory underpinning such relationships, researchers continue to measure LMX with scales developed to assess vertical dyad linkage (VDL), not social exchange. To address this concern, we investigated the content validity of LMX7 (the most widely cited measure of LMX) and LMX-MDM (a popular multidimensional measure of LMX). Findings from content validity assessments by 25 LMX experts revealed LMX7 and LMX-MDM items are not representative of the construct of social exchange. As such, we undertook a series of studies to develop a new scale we label, leader–member social exchange (LMSX). Results indicate LMSX is able to assess different, as well as the same, components of the supervisor–subordinate relationship as previous scales while being more theoretically consistent with the notion of social exchange. Copyright copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Organizational Behavior is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
This article examines the theoretical and empirical organizational change literature over the period of 1990-early 1998. Research dealing with monitoring affective and behavioral reactions to change is also reviewed. in closing, general observations and suggestions for future research are offered and it is concluded that the organizational change literature continues to be responsive to the dynamics of contemporary workplace demands. To make the present effort manageable, we made two decisions. The first dealt with the literature base to be surveyed. Given the breadth of the 1987 and 1989 yearly reviews as contrasted with the specialized focus of the 1992 review, we primarily consider theory and research on organizational change, in general, through early 1998, focusing on work since 1990. The first research theme, dealing with content issues, largely focuses on the substance of contemporary organizational changes. Research in this category has typically attempted to define factors that comprise the targets of both successful and unsuccessful change efforts and how these factors relate to organizational effectiveness. The second research theme to be discussed, dealing with contextual issues, principally focuses on forces or conditions existing in an organization's external and internal environments.
This paper summarizes a stream of research aimed at developing and validating a measure of employee commitment to work organizations. The instrument, developed by Porter and his colleagues, is called the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). Based on a series of studies among 2563 employees in nine divergent organizations, satisfactory test-retest reliabilities and internal consistency reliabilities were found. In addition, cross-validated evidence of acceptable levels of predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity emerged for the instrument. Norms for males and females are presented based on the available sample. Possible instrument limitations and future research needs on the measurement and study of organizational commitment are reviewed
Change is all about us, but many of its targets remain cynical about its impact and importance. Cynicism about organizational change often combines pessimism about the likelihood of successful change with blame of those responsible for change as incompetent, lazy, or both. Data from a new empirical study, and from previously published research, suggest numerous factors that contribute to the development of such cynicism. These include a history of change programs that are not consistently successful, a lack of adequate information about change, and a predisposition to cynicism. Results also suggest that cynicism about changes has negative consequences for the commitment, satisfaction and motivation of employees.
Interested in how rejuventaed firms may emerge to compete more effectively within its sector. The sector constitutes a set of objective conditions which can create pressure for transformation. It is also a cognitive arena and a network of potential allies and competitors. The theory of the sector life cycle assumes there is a natural selection process in operation. Both non-trivial environmental change and organic development process can create growing tension of pressure for transformation. The managements ability to recognize, interpret and implement the emergent requirements of the sector in products, processes and organizational modes is crucial to survival. The organic development analogy implies that organizations are stamped with the character of their inheritance in terms of founding
In the present study we sought to clarify the functional distinctions between organization identity strength, organizational identification, and organizational commitment. Data were obtained from 10948 employees of a large steel manufacturer. First, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the discriminant validity of the three focal constructs. Next, drawing on research that suggests hierarchical differentiation may influence individuals' conceptual frame of reference, we examined each focal construct's measurement equivalence across three hierarchical levels (officers, n= 1,056, middle-management, n = 1049, workers, n = 1050). Finally, multigroup structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously estimate the between-group correlations between turnover intention and organization identity strength, organizational identification, and organizational commitment. Results indicated that (a) the measures used to reflect the three focal constructs were empirically distinct, (b) the focal constructs were conceptually equivalent across hierarchical levels, and (c) the pattern of correlations with turnover intention was different for employees with management responsibilities versus workers with no management responsibility. The present findings suggest perceptions of a strong organizational identity, organizational identification, and organizational commitment may influence employees' turnover intention in unique ways, depending on their hierarchical level within the organization.
Researchers often conduct mediation analysis in order to indirectly assess the effect of a proposed cause on some outcome through a proposed mediator. The utility of mediation analysis stems from its ability to go beyond the merely descriptive to a more functional understanding of the relationships among variables. A necessary component of mediation is a statistically and practically significant indirect effect. Although mediation hypotheses are frequently explored in psychological research, formal significance tests of indirect effects are rarely conducted. After a brief overview of mediation, we argue the importance of directly testing the significance of indirect effects and provide SPSS and SAS macros that facilitate estimation of the indirect effect with a normal theory approach and a bootstrap approach to obtaining confidence intervals, as well as the traditional approach advocated by Baron and Kenny (1986). We hope that this discussion and the macros will enhance the frequency of formal mediation tests in the psychology literature. Electronic copies of these macros may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society's Web archive at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.