Nr Titlu Autori Universitate Tara1 Nurdan Özaralli Turkey

2 ISCTE Portugal

3 Tina Kiefer UK

4 Romania

5 UK

Communication, Attitude Toward Change, and Perceived Organizational Change Climate

Marmara University

Organizational Change: Do I Trust When We Change?

Pedro NevesAntónio Caetano

The Everyday Emotional Experience of Ongoing Organizational Change

University of London

Bridging the Road to Efficient Change in Organization

Zoltan Bogathy

Ildiko Erdei

Corina Ilin

Florin Sava

Catalina Zaborila

West University Timisoara

The Limited Power of Organizational Change Agents

Frank Heller

Claire Sandamas

The Tavistock Institute, London

6 Holland

7 UK

8

9 Paula Benevene Italy

10 Elze C. Siegerist Holland

Outsourcing and Organizational Change

Robert A. Roe

M. Smeelen

C. Hoefeldt

Maastricht University

The Shifting Employment Relationship in a Climate of Imposed Organizational Change

Vincent Cassar

Jerome Spiteri

Human Factors International

Organizational Change Process and The VORT- X Model

Organizational Change Process in the Social and Health Services in Italy

LUMSA University of Rome

Seven Years of Organizational Development in the Dutch Labour Inspectorate

Dutch Labour Inspectorate

11 Italy

12 Sweden

13 Virga Delia Romania

14 UK

15 Jari Ylitalo Finland

In a Context of Change: Neo-Management between Innovation and Creativity

Girolamo D'Alleo

Jessica Doria

Fabiola Maggio

Università di Palermo

Health Care Professionals' Work Climate during a Decade of Change in an Acute Care Hospital

Helena Falkenberg

Katharina Naswall

Magnus Sverke

Stockholm University

Predicting Individual - Organization Fit: Personality Traits and Cognitive Complexity

West University Timisoara

Managing Mergers: The Effects of Pre-Merger Expectations

Gary Pheiffer

Karin Marson

London Metropolitian University

Transformation through Dialogue: A Case Study

Helsinki University of Technology

16 Zofia Ratajczak Poland

17

18 Portugal

The Role of Psychological Contract in Understanding the Employee Reactions to Organizational Change in the Context of Basic Economic Reforms in Poland

University of Silesia

Impact of Flexibility Practices and Changes in Work Environments on Worker Well-Being

Isabelle Hansez

V. De Keyser

V. W. D'hoore

Christian Vandenberghe

Peter Vlerick

University of Liège

University of Liège

Catholic University of Louvain

HEC Montréal

Ghent University

Belgium

Canada

Holland

Adaptation to Shiftwork: an Exploratory Case Study in the Textile Industry

Isabel Silva

Jose Keating

Universidade do Minho

19 ItalyThe Professional Competencies for the On Line Counseling in the Telephone Helplines for Children

Vincenzo Russo

Christian Colautti

M. Bellotto

Massimo Bustreo

IULM

IULM

University of Verona

IULM

DescriereIn today's economy, change has become an everyday part of organizational dynamics. On the other hand, organizations are confronted with the widespread notion that people do not want to change and "resist change". Unless management makes an effort to work with resistance, employees who resist change can actually cripple an organization. Using a sample of 166 employees of an international insurance company which has gone through change, the present study has aimed to investigate the validity of the assumption that: (1) the better the communication during change, the more positively change will be perceived by the employees, (2) the more positive the employees' general attitude toward change, the more positively change will be perceived by the employees, (3) the employees' attitude toward change in general will moderate the relationship between communication and perceived change climate. The present study typically relied on self-report and subjective perceptions of the employees. Respondents provided information in terms of how their organization communicated with them about the change, their attitude toward change in general, and how they perceived the organizational change implemented in their company. A significant positive correlation (r=.41) between organizational communication and perceived change climate indicated that employees would be much more positive towards an organizational change if they were informed about Organizational efforts to survive in the actual competition conditions made imperative the implementation of different types of change with the purpose of improving organizational outcomes. Several authors (eg. Wanberg & Banas, 2000) point out the importance of a more person-focused approach to the study of organizational change. The risk inherent to the change process makes trust a central variable to the way workers perceive the change process and to their feelings towards the organization (Eby, Adams, Russell & Gaby, 2000). Based on a social exchange perspective (Blau, 1964), according to which we should analyze the relationship between trust and other relevant relational variables inside the organization we conducted two studies, one performed at the beginning of a culture and organizational change and the other after the successful implementation of a quality management system. In study 1 (N=501) trust in management, as well as relational justice, perceived efficacy of the work team and information about the organization related positively to satisfaction with work environment. Attitudes and perceptions towards change were related to trust, although not related to satisfaction. In study 2 (N=120) trust in the supervisor mediated the relationship Scholars have traditionally viewed change as an entity with a clear beginning and end. As a consequence, researchers focused on reactions to a specific change project and not on daily experiences in the context of change. An emerging literature, however, argues that in today's rapidly changing environments change endeavours should more accurately be viewed as continuous and ongoing rather than as a one-off event. Thus, change is no longer the exception, but rather the normal background against which employees work on a daily basis. The aim of this paper is to address new and different alleys that open up when viewing change as ongoing, with a special focus on daily experiences. This paper first suggests shifting focus from specific reactions to change to everyday emotional experiences in the context of ongoing change and to understand how these experiences relate to change. As a consequence of viewing change as an entity, studies have so far only researched specific reactions to more or less discrete change events, such as a particular merger or restructuring. Secondly, this paper suggests developing an understanding for the overall everyday negative and positive emotional experiences. Thus far, previous research focussed mainly on one specific issue (e.g. The abilities and competencies of its members influence an organization's existence. In the last decades organizational psychology aknowledged and integrated the fundamental role of the abilities to manage relationships in organizational teams, and the impact of the emotional competencies of both leaders and employees on the strategic activities oriented towards the facilitation of the organizational change process. The change is by no means the organizational life itself. Both the quality and the direction of such a change are affected by the peoples' capacities of continuous adaptation to diverse stages of the groups or organizations where they belong. The change process can unite the organizational members' energies when their adaptive reactions to the effects of the transformations are captured, analyzed, and valued as resources, not as obstacles. This interactive session resumes ten years of experience as organizational consultants in diverse organizations from Romania. The proposed analysis highlights the results obtained by using the structured experience named "The Bridge" for the facilitation of the organizational change process. The role of this structured experience will be presented from both the consultant's perspective, and from the client groups/organizations' perspective. Starting from this experience, we will analyze together the impact of diverse communication and adaptation styles of different groups on the change process, and the effect of the leadership style on the competition vs. cooperation behavioral decisions. This application is a very good mirror where organization can see themselves as they are in the ongoing change process, and reflects peoples' needs for acceptance and their capacities of convivence in those organizations. Three keywords identifying the major subject of the session: This theoretical paper will argue, based on theory and literature, that the current emphasis on change and continuous improvement in organizational psychology and social science is fraught with difficulties. In the first place the evidence that the tactics, strategy and skills of psychological change agents are causally responsible for organizational change is weak (Thierry, Koopman & Gilder 1998) and theoretically inappropriate. the empirical problems (Fay & Luermann 2004) stem from lack of theoretical underpinning and recognition of the basic requirements of organizational conviviance. At the micro-level, theory fails to recognize that there is a natural human need for constancy, security and continuity which has been well described by SchÖen (1971) as the stable state' based on a theory of homeostasis. At the meso level there is a lack of recognition of the dynamic interaction of a variety of organizational �features like structure and the uneven distribution of power. At the macro level the absence of an open system perspective is particularly limiting since it avoids recognition that the real levers of change are not change agents but technology, legal and other formal structures, economic crises and competition (Heller 1998). We will suggest that a realistic approach requires

Outsourcing seems to have become the new trend in organizational strategy. In outsourcing, part of the organization's production or service process is discontinued and transferred to another party, along with personnel and other resources. Although the potential economic benefits of outsourcing are thought to be considerable, there are a growing number of evaluation studies showing disappointing outcomes. Costs savings tend to be less than expected and quality sometimes declines. A reason for these outcomes may be that - just like with downsizing and mergers-acquisitions in earlier days - managers tend to focus almost exclusively on economic aspects, ignoring the human and social impacts. More specifically, one might explain unsatisfactory economic results from a failure to consider the change implications of outsourcing. This paper analyzes the nature of the organizational change implied in outsourcing, comparing it to mergers-acquisitions and downsizing. Next, it identifies some critical aspects of the transition management process which, when dealt with effectively, may enhance the success of outsourcing. The theoretical analysis is contrasted with findings from an empirical study on outsourcing in the Netherlands . In interviews with 11 experts and 10 workers in the One of the approaches adopted by many organizations in the last 20 years or so has been rapid restructuring to maintain competitiveness and to be sustainable in a globalized economy. Very often these changes have impinged negatively on the employment relations in the organization especially when these changes adopted an autocratic top-down approach and where change has been left to the eleventh hour. This study was conducted in such settings, more specifically in an airline company, which due to world and domestic events has seen a turnover decrease of nearly 65 million Euros in one year. This has forced the organization to take quick and very drastic measures to ensure survival. The aim of the study was to evaluate the changes in the perceived employment relationship dimensions (using McLean Parks, Kidder & Gallagher's 1998 model) since the time of the inception of the change and three months later in the change process. Salient variables like trust and commitment were also evaluated to validate the change in dimensions. The study adopted a longitudinal approach using questionnaires, in-depth interviews with the incumbents and the analysis of archival data during the transition. The results showed that the employment relationship became more This presentation examines a specific case study of Change management for a leading international pharmaceutical company conducted by DBE in Turkey andwhat the implications are of this for the cross-cultural application of the VORT-X model of employee engagement, originally developed in the UK by OPP Ltd.The case study DBE conducted consisted of a three-phase implementation. The first phase examined how DBE consultants worked with the company's staff todesign and administer an employee satisfaction survey. The second phase consisted of focus group research and in the final phase the major issues for the companywere extrapolated from the two sources of data. DBE then aided the company in formulating a roadmap to initiate change.

The second part of the presentation will be an introduction to the VORT-X model, its underlying theoretical background and confirmatory qualitative and quantitativeresearch. The VORT-X model is based upon research and practice in the areas of the psychological contract, organisational commitment and culture. It specificallyexamines the following four areas: • Vocational – A connection to the nature of the work itself • Operational – A connection to the way the organisation works andThe research aims to highlight how the organization and management of the Italian medical-health structures are changing in order to respond to the needs of immigrants in Italy. The research is of the qualitative type and was carried out by means of the administration of semi-structured interviews to 30 privileged witnesses (representatives of private and public bodies that work in the sector, academics and experts in the problems of immigration, public health, organization and evaluation of the social services). In the interviews information was gathered regarding the critical points and the strong points of the organization and management of the social and health structures in responding to the needs of immigrants, with particular attention to such variables as language, modes of communicating, and the organization of the services. The expectations and the representation of the other both by the foreign users and the medical and paramedical staff emerged as particularly important elements. In particular, the foreigners who had only recently arrived in Italy, as distinct from the foreigners who grew up in the country, showed that they had excessively high expectations with respect to the services offered , and consequently tended to interpret the dysfunctions as manifestations of racist The paper illustrates the process of organizational change in the Dutch Labour Inspectorate. By the consequent use of the same model and the including questionnaires we could monitor the improvement in the organization on relevant issues over a period of seven years. A diagnosis was made in 1997 and repeated in 2004. Key element in the change process was a reorganisation in 2002 of structure and working method: from a regional structure to industrial sectors and from lonely hunters to work teams with a limited autonomy. Style and � �structure of leadership were changed accordingly. Prior to the reorganisation we did an extensive survey on employee satisfaction, that was repeated in 2004. The results of the two organizational diagnosis were compared in a qualitative approach (interviews, questionnaires), and the effects of the original improvement strategies were investigated. To measure employee satisfaction a multivariate quantitative analysis was used (N=450 and 300). For the organization as a whole the efforts towards improving process-management seem to have been successful. Results on employee satisfaction showed that career opportunities and relations with the boss could be better, and that there was a desire for better communication. The

In a context of change and transformation, creative enterprise management and orientation towards innovation are crucial factors of neo-management (Passerini, Dell'Orto, 2004) � �which influence the psychological contract between an individual and an organization and the quality of the relationships. The positive experiences of well known companies suggest a link not only with the use of analytical-rational managerial techniques, but also with creativity factors and non-rational elements (emotional, ritual) (Peters, Waterman, 1993) which are � �among the competencies of the neo-manager . This type of management is capable of redesigning and effectively developing the creative organization in generating and applying � � � �new ideas in the management of innovation (Erlicher, 2003). From this viewpoint, the present survey aims to examine the relationship between managerial creativity, traits of Adapter/Innovator and disposition to change. A group of managers were therefore given the Torrence Test of Creativity Thinking (Torrence, 1989), the Kirton Adaptors Innovators (Kirton, 1976) revised by Sprini, Ceresia (1997), and a questionnaire, designed to explore attitudes towards organizational change. There was a correlation between the factors of creative thinking The health care sector has in many countries been subject to extensive budget cuts resulting in major organizational changes to reduce costs and increase efficiency. These changes, which include downsizing and an increasing influence of market forces, may affect employees' perceptions of the work climate. It is likely that different kinds of change could affect employees' work climate in divergent ways and that different health care professions could be affected differently. The aim of this study is to investigate how the work climate changed for different occupational groups (physicians, registered nurses, and assistant nurses) in a Swedish acute care hospital going trough numerous changes. These changes include transformation from a public administration unit into a non-profit public stock company in 1994 and into a private for-profit stock company in 1999, as well as downsizing during the period 1996-1998. Questionnaire data, collected 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2002, indicate that the variations in work climate between different kinds of change were quite small, but that different health care professions to some extent were affected differently by the various changes. The results contribute to an increased understanding of how structural change may affect work climate, which in turn, may have important implications for organizational effectiveness and service quality.Due to highly dynamic worldwide environment of IT&C industry, especially in the telecom operations, organizational change in this kind of companies is permanent and spectacular. This research was carried out within a very dynamic company in the western side of Romania, which had constant growth in the last several years, and is part of a worldwide telecom group. Organizational development had different tracks in different divisions, and organizational divisions are today in different development stages and use different development strategies. The aim of the study is to discover specific modal personality profiles at the level of major organizational divisions and to link them to recruitment and selection criteria, in order to get best people on the company doors. Consequently, an organizational study was designed, at the divisional level. The instruments used were California Personality Inventory (CPI 260 items form), a multi-factorial Cognitive Complexity Questionnaire and a Decision Making Questionnaire, applied on 180 subjects selected from 4 software development divisions. The subjects were selected using company performance criteria, and best performers (both executive and professional) from all the divisions were included in the study. Several analyses were carried A longitudinal study was conducted with 486 Higher Education employees of two Universities that merged to form a new institution. Connectivity between individual and organization, in terms of organizational identification, connectedness amongst organizational members, in terms of perceived possibilities for belonging, and perceived threat to that part of the self-concept that is derived from organizational membership, are highlighted as crucial variables in the context of such organizational change. Comparisons between pre-merger and post-merger data indicate that the organizational change and the resulting reduction in connectivity have had demonstrable effects on employee mental health, work-related attitudes and the perception of identity-related threat. The results show that any undesirable psychological effects of merger were significantly more marked for those who were negatively surprised by their post-merger experiences as compared to their pre-merger expectations. Furthermore, it was found that a match between expectations and experience can be equally as beneficial as positively exceeded expectations. The findings are interpreted in light of social psychological theories of identity, and implications for pre-merger communication and post-merger interventions to New kind of communication is needed in transformation. People construct new reality through mutual speech and dialogue. Dialogue can be self-generated or facilitated by outsiders. An outsider can establish a neutral forum thus ensuring mental safety for participants to deal with unspoken issues. The aim of this case study was to explore how process consultation can strengthen organizational transformation by generating dialogue. The case was a transformation of an established service organization. The organization faced a strong external change pressure. The structure of the organization was renewed. Also new managers were recruited. The head of the organization felt that outside help would be needed to support new organizational practices and communication to evolve. The dialogue process was set up by two facilitators. There were fifteen participants representing mainly the management. The process consisted of eight mutual and ten small-group sessions during a nine-month period. Sessions were documented. A questionnaire was filled at the start and in the end. All participants were interviewed. Major changes happened during the process. Biggest changes concerned the overall atmosphere, clarity of roles, communication, acceptance of dissimilarity, and effectiveness. Many felt more accepted at work as they were. This has added their motivation. People also felt that they have more tolerance to listen to the others. The intervention

The subject of the presentation will be the theoretical model of human behavior in organizational settings (especially small and medium size companies) in the context of Economic system transformation from centrally planned to free market economy in Poland.The basic factors and their consequences in the sphere of the relation between employer-employee relationship will be discussed. The most important factor of human reactions to changes at the level of organizations is the privatization of almost all big industrial enterprises and diminishing power of unions.The change of ownership is the most important factor of decomposition both the written and unwritten contracts. The second factor of modification of employment relationship is the dramatic increase of unemployment.The basic psychological consequences of the economic transformation (context) at organizational level are:a) Growing uncertainty, b) Lack of consistency between employee expectations and their obligations c)Sense of instability in the working environment as well as outside world (decomposition of labour market) These phenomena, in turn, affect the content of the psychological contracts, which means the following consequences: a) Growing resistance to any change (lack of trust among peers and to managerial staff) b)Growing psychological costs of adaptation to change c) readiness to take radical strategies (struggle) against top managers and state authorities (politization of union The Flexihealth research project has been developed to identify the effects of flexibility practices and changes in work environments on well-being indicators. A major starting point of the project was the attempt to isolate the practical changes that accompany large-scale organizational changes. We thought employees are much more sensitive to transformations of their work environment than to more distal changes that may be difficult to understand. Thus, after a pilot study, we were interested to identify most frequent changes (change of supervisor, tasks, etc.) and flexibility practices (in terms of labor contract, work time, etc.) encountered by employees and then to assess how they affected well-being outcomes. The sample includes 4961 Belgian workers. Flexibility practices appear to have few negative effects on worker health since workers exposed to flexibility report more positive stress and less job insecurity. Nevertheless, these positive effects are accompanied by more work intensification and less control over scheduling which represent two main aspects of stress processes in organizations. If one examines each flexibility practice in particular, the effects differ. Flexibility practices related to work schedules and work time are associated with less control at work while flexibility practices related to task assignments are related to more control but have detrimental effects on stress, medical complaints, and quality of life. Regarding the effects of changes, these are negative for well-being. Perceived support and job satisfaction were lower, negative stress was higher, positive stress lower, and mental quality of life poorer, and medical complaints more frequent among workers exposed to changes. If one examines each change in particular, the effects differ. Change of supervisor is most detrimental to workers in terms of support, control, job insecurity, and well-being. Change among tasks and in job location has a negative effect on well-being mainly, while change in work schedules and among colleagues has milder negative effects on well-being.

Shiftwork, especially the one performed during the night, has been associated with health problems, social and family problems, performance and work accidents. The poster presents the results of an exploratory case study carried out in the weaving department of a large textile company in the North of Portugal. In the previous year, the shift schedule was changed: the semi-continuous system (work is interrupted only at the weekend) changed to a continuous system (work is done seven days a week). This study aim was to understand how the organization managed the changing process and how the employees reacted to and assessed the change. The data were collected from interviews with 35 employees involved in the change, their supervisors, and the managers of the human resources and the weaving departments. The importance of factors external to the organization in the adaptation to the change became apparent. Examples of these factors were: familiar and cultural dimensions, in particular the professional situation of husband/wife (e.g., about half of them are also shift workers); the weight of religious traditions, like Sunday mass; the community facilities available (e.g., transportation available at the weekend); and the sex-based differentiation of household responsibilities (more penalizing for women). The global strategy of the company in this change process consisted in trying to allocate employees, whenever possible, to their "preferred"

The introduction of on-line counsenling for children and adolescents needs a careful consideration and examination on communication process, especially on distance-helping relationship process, as well as a reflection on the competence of counsellors who are used to give help personally or by the phone (Galimberti e Riva, 1997; Wallace 1999). This research is about organizational changes as regards the introduction of a distance counselling (on line) given by psychologists of one of the most well-known italian telephonic helplines for children and adolescents in uneasy or emergency situations (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse or run away from home). This research wants to verify the hypothesis that the change caused by the introduction of on-line counselling and the lack of a specific training are at the basis of strong resistance from telephonic operators owing to the difficulty they find with the "caller" identity. The data have been gathered with the involvement of 87 phone operators of a helpline for children. The results analysis focuses the individualisation of those areas felt as problematic by several operator groups with various experience in telephone counselling.Results show that consideration of the group fo senior operators about the on line counseling are different from the juinor operators. Data seem to confirm the influence of the telephone experience on the perception of the seniors about the on line counseling. This group of operators believes that the difficulty to identify the caller identity is the main problem of the on line counseling- These results give useful indications in order to plan training courses for each typology of operator group and also state the need to give specific communicative and counselling competences to develop a helping relationship any time it is impossible to identify the caller

În economia de astăzi, schimbarea a devenit o parte de zi cu zi a dinamicii organizaţionale. Pe de altă parte, organizaţiile se confruntă cu noţiunea larg răspândită că oamenii nu doresc să se schimbe şi "rezista la schimbare". Excepţia cazului în care conducerea face un efort de a lucra cu rezistenta, angajaţii care rezista schimbarii poate paraliza de fapt, o organizaţie. Folosind un eşantion de 166 de angajaţi de o societate de asigurare internaţionale care a trecut prin schimbări, studiul de faţă a urmărit să investigheze valabilitate a ipoteza că: (1) o mai bună comunicare în timpul schimbare, schimbare mai pozitiv va fi percepută de de angajaţi, (2) mai pozitiv de angajaţi "atitudinea generală faţă de schimbare, schimbare mai pozitiv va fi perceput de către angajaţi, (3) atitudinea angajatilor fata de schimbare, în general, va modera relaţia dintre comunicare şi schimbările climatice percepute. Prezentul studiu de obicei bazat pe auto-raport şi perceptiile subiective ale angajaţilor. Respondenţii au furnizat informaţii în ceea ce priveşte modul în care organizaţia lor a comunicat cu ei despre schimbare, atitudinea lor faţă de schimbare, în general, şi modul în care au perceput schimbarea organizationala puse în aplicare în compania lor. O corelaţie semnificativă pozitivă (r =. 41) între comunicare organizaţională şi schimbările climatice, perceput a indicat faptul că angajaţii ar fi mult mai pozitivă faţă de o schimbare organizaţională, dacă acestea au fost informate despre schimbarea în sine, precum şi misiunea, viziunea, obiectivele şi valorile organizaţie. Presupunând că schimbare implică psihicul unei persoane - lui / ei cognitive, reacţii emoţionale şi comportamentale pentru a schimba, am aflat ca eforturile organizationale, necesare pentru a supravieţui în condiţii de concurenţă efectivă imperativ punerea în aplicare a diferite tipuri de schimbare, cu scopul de a îmbunătăţi rezultatele organizaţionale. Mai mulţi autori (de exemplu, Wanberg & Banas, 2000) subliniază importanţa unei abordări mai multe persoane concentrat pe studiul de schimbare organizaţională. Riscul inerent procesului de schimbare face încredere într-o variabilă centrală a lucrătorilor modul percepe procesul de schimbare si sentimentele lor faţă de organizaţie (Eby, Adams, Russell & Gaby, 2000). Bazat pe o perspectivă de schimb social (Blau, 1964), în conformitate cu care noi ar trebui să analizeze relaţia dintre încredere şi alte variabile relevante relaţional din interiorul organizatiei am efectuat două studii, unul efectuat la începutul unei culturi şi a schimbărilor organizaţionale şi celelalte după implementarea cu succes a unui sistem de management al calităţii. În studiul 1 (N = 501) încredere în management, precum şi justiţie relationale, percepută eficacitatea echipei de lucru şi informaţii despre organizarea legate în mod pozitiv la satisfacţia cu mediul de lucru. Atitudini si perceptii fata de schimbare au fost legate de încredere, deşi nu sunt legate de satisfacţie. În studiul 2 (N = 120) încredere în supraveghetorul mediat relaţia dintre justiţie interpersonale şi sprijin organizatoric şi satisfacţia cu privire la mediul de lucru. Efectele schimbărilor percepute asupra calităţii produsului, cât şi climatul de muncă legate

Nr Titlu Autori Universitate Tara1

2 University of Heidelberg

3 Neves, Pedro University of Delaware US

4 University of Brasilia Brazil

Organizational change, health and sick leave among health care employees: A longitudinal study measuring stress markers, individual and work site factors

Hansson, Ann-SophieVingård, EvaArnetz, Bengt B

Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala university

Sweden

The mediating role of interpersonal justice in the context of organizational change in higher education

Michel, AlexandraStegmaier, RalfSonntag, Karlheinz

Germany

Leadership during organizational change: what promotes employee’s commitment to change?

Organizational change perception: the role of individuals’ attitudes and organizational characteristics

Neiva, ElaineTorres da Paz, Maria das Graças

5 IULM University Milan Italy

6 Utrecht University Holland

7 Estonian Business School Estonia

8 Drabble, Sarah UK

Dental service in Italy: an organizational change action of the public health service

Russo, VicenzoPasetto, SaraCrescentini, AlbertoMele, Giovanna

The Impact of Leaders´ Personal Resources on Follower Behavior during Organizational Change

van den Heuvel, MaggieDemerouti, EvangeliaBakker, Arnold BSchaufeli, Wilmar B

Planned change or changed plan? Applicability of Western organizational change programs in transition countries

Alas, RuthAndreeva, Tatiana EVanhala, SinikkaSun, Wei

How people justify emotions in organizational change narratives: a discursive psychological approach

Institute of Work Psychology

9 Stockholm University

10 Giaver, Fay Norway

11 IULM University of Milan Italy

12 University of Brasilia Brazil

Perceptions of organizational change and consequences for work attitudes and well-being: Comparing employees at different hierarchic levels

Sverke, MagnusFalkenberg, HelenaHellgren, JohnnyNäswall, Katharina

Sweden

Looking forwards and back: The evolving emotional experience of organizational change

NTNU/Trondheim Business School

Customer satisfaction and organizational change in public health

Bustreo, MassimoRusso, VincenzoJabes, DavideCastelli, Luciana

Greenwood and Hinnings’ Organizational Change Framework: Testing its relationship through SEM (structural equation modeling)

Neiva, ElaineMauro, Túlio Gomes da Silva

13 UK

14 Tilburg University Holland

15 Stockholm University

Towards an understanding how leaders deal with negative emotions in ongoing change

Kiefer, TinaBarclay, Laurie J

Birkbeck College, University of London

The influence of the psychological contract and trust on employee attitudes towards organizational changes

van den Heuvel, SjoerdSchalk, René

Organizational ownership and change perceptions: What factors are important for the employee’s experience of organizational changes?

Hellgren, JohnnySverke, MagnusFalkenberg, Helena

Sweden

16

17

18 Niessen, Cornelia University of Konstanz

A qualitative study of organisational change and health among women in the public sector in Sweden

Westerlund, HugoBaltzer, MariaBackhans, Mona

Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University

Sweden

Employability as a moderator of the relationship between job insecurity and commitment to change

Berntson, Erik.Kalyal, Hina Jawaid. Baraldi, Stephan.Näswall, Katharina. Sverke, Magnus.

Department of Psychology, Stockholm university

Sweden

Unlearning obsolete work behaviors in a changing task context

Germany

19 UK

20 Stasila-Sieradzka, Marta Poland

21

It takes two: Exploring the relationship between adaptivity and proactivity in organizations

Strauss, Karoline.Griffin, Mark A.Mason, Claire

Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield

Organizational and social resistance to changes in an organization

Silesian Univesity Katowice

"Top down" triggered "bottom up"- participation: energized reform and cognitive control within an Air Force Fighter Wing

Kluge, Annette.Labonde, Maurice

University of Duisburg-Essen

Germany

22 Institute of Psychology

23

24 Karamushka, Luydmila.

Educational organisation employees’ assessment of the necessity of entrepreneurship behavior in change making

Karamushka, Luydmila. Kredentser, Oksana.

The perceived uncertainty in work among civils servant following belgian public service reforms

Hellemans, Catherine. Lapthorn, Barbara

Université Libre de Bruxelles

Belgium

Evaluation of change making motives by edcucational organization employees

Institute of Psychology

25 University of Surrey UK

26 Univerity of Brasilia Brazil

27 Managing change Finland

Using participatory change to reduce lost time injury and illness

Devereux, Jason.Manson, Rob

The Impacts of Organizational Changes in the Social Networks of a Public Agency

Neiva, Elaine.Vieira, Sérgio Ricardo Franco

Pahkin, Krista.Tynkkynen, Katri. Leppänen, Anneli.Ala-Laurinaho, Arja

Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

28

29 Austria

30 Utrecht University Holland

Changing pay systems - factors influencing the successful implementation of pay for performance. A qualitative case study approach

Berger, Ansgar.Antoni, Conny

University of Trier Germany

Acceleration of change: The development of a working model and a questionnaire

Korunka, Christian.Ulferts, Heike. Kubicek, Bettina

Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria

Recent changes in the European world of work and their impact on organizations and employees

Schaufeli, Wilmar.Salanova, Marisa

31 Austria

32

33 University of Stockholm

Is there an intensification and acceleration of change processes observable? Theoretical considerations

Ulferts, Heike.Korunka, Christian. Kubicek, Bettina

University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology

Occupational health professionals, managers and superiors in a new position - studying together the change processes in the work with shared theory-driven tools

Kerkelä, Airi.Rokkanen, Tanja

Validation of the herscovitch-meyer three-component model of commitment to change among public sector managers in pakistan

Sverke, Magnus.Kalyal, Hina. Saha, Sudhir

Sweden

34 Italy

35 Russo, Vincenzo. IULM University Italy

The power of professionally situated practice analysis in redesigning organizations

Galuppo, Laura.Ripamonti, Silvio.Scaratti, Giuseppe. Gori, Mara

Catholic University of Milan

An Italian case history of a community for risked young people a process of change in the non profit organization

DescriereIntroduction: 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. Method: 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 analyzed using a two-factor ANOVA design for repeated measurements. Results: 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. Conclusion: 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.

Aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of interpersonal justice within the context of organizational change in higher education. Based on social exchange theory (Blau, 1964; Gouldner, 1960) a theoretical model was developed in which relationships between perceived organizational support and attitudes of academic staff towards the ongoing change process (commitment to change, values-congruence fit) were specified. The following assumptions were tested: firstly, it was supposed that perceived organizational support is positively related to interpersonal justice. Secondly, it was postulated that interpersonal justice in turn correlates positively with commitment to change and values-congruence fit. Thirdly, it was hypothesized that interpersonal justice mediates the positive relationships between perceived organizational support and both commitment to change and values-congruence fit. Structural equation modelling results, using self-reported questionnaire data from 315 members of academic staff at a German university, indicated adequate data fit to our proposed model. Results revealed that perceived organizational support was significantly positively related to interpersonal justice. Results also demonstrated significant positive relationships between interpersonal justice and Organizational change has become one of the most important topics for managers and researchers, particularly because external events and crises precipitate changes far more than planned events (Beer & Walton, 1987). More recently however, several authors have focused on a micro, people-oriented perspective of change (e.g. Cunningham, 2006; Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002; Judge, Thoresen, Pucik & Welbourne, 1999; Neves & Caetano, in press; Wanberg & Banas, 2000). Within this perspective, commitment to change (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002) is considered the glue that binds people and change goals, and as such rose as a key variable for both researchers and managers. Still, only very few studies examined how leadership influences employees’ commitment to an organizational change. The present study analyzes the relationship between supervisor competence and support and employee’s commitment to change. Participants were 210 full-time employees from two public organizations (university and city hall) that had recently faced major change interventions deriving from governmental directives. All scales presented good reliability values. We used a pooled within covariance matrix, in order to control for the impact of organizational membership. The theorized five-Studies that deal with organizational change evaluation are extremely important because of their practical applications and their contributions to the theoretical formulations of the field. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the individuals and organizational changes perceived by the members of an organization of the public sector also ascertaining which factors characterized this process. The study was developed in three stages during the four years of research: a) the measurement of organizational characteristics prior to the interventions obtained by interviews and questionnaires; b) investigation of the objectives of an specific intervention and the demands for change brought up by workers of the organizations in order to construct an instrument to evaluate the perceived change; c) the investigation of the perceived changes, the organizational characteristics and those of their individual members after the interventions were made. The organizational characteristics, evaluated in two different moments, were organizational values and the configurations of power, both of which are components of the organizational culture. Along with these characteristics, the study also evaluated the organizational characteristics that facilitate the process of change in organizations (organizational capability to change)

This study aims to identify strategies to enhance the public dental service in Italy.Strategies of change demand an analysis of the current national dental service, comparing clients’ expectations with the quality of the actual service offered.This analysis develops from the urgency of comparing private dental surgery service and the public one, in order to identify areas of organizational change in the scope of public service.The purpose of the research is to promote a radical organizational change in the public health service in order to increase the quality and the image responding to the consumer’s needs.In this particular moment of economic crisis for the national health service, the public dental service is affected by a higher stereotyped and prejudiced perception in comparison to other medical specialities, and in particular compared to the private dental service.It becomes essential for the public service to perform an effective change to adapt its level to the characteristics of the private service, not only by using a formative approach but also through a marketing action aimed to promote the public structure image.This study reports the professional quality perception of the service offered by private offices and public healthcare that emerged in three focus Introduction. This study examines the impact of supervisors’ personal resources on employee performance in an organizational change context. According to theories of personal resources in a work context, personal resources influence openness to change and adaptive performance among employees. However, as of yet, these models haven’t included dyadic relations between personal and job resources as reported at different levels, i.e. supervisors and their followers. Even though some researchers have included both dyadic relations and personal resources in a change context, in those studies, personal resources were not studied as predictors of adaptive performance, but rather as predictors of attitudes to change. In order to give a more detailed description of the interactions and processes that influence adaptive performance, we include one of the most influential job resources, namely, social support. We include this variable at the level of the supervisor (support offered) and at the employee level (perceived supervisory support). This study tests whether self-efficacious supervisors have a positive impact on the adaptive performance of their employees, and, if so, whether this is due to supervisor’s greater offering and employees’ more favorable perception of social support which in turn may boost In the global business environment flexibility, agility and continuous change are key properties for companies to survive and boom. In the transition countries the cultural and societal changes have been especially strong, which make them an interesting target to study the adoption and applicability of Western organizational change programs. Following the principles of the institutional theory, the managerial fads and practices tend to diffuse by mimetic and imitating processes, and institutional routes. On the one hand, the transition to market economy urged the majority of organizations in these three countries to adapt to new environmental challenges. On the other hand, most of the literature on change management to help managers to cope with this complex challenge is based on approaches developed by Western scholars with a bias towards Western companies. Moreover, the scope of their applicability in the transition economies has been discussed but not clearly determined. This is especially true for the planned change model; it is widely cited in contemporary management literature in all three countries, and used for the development of recommendations for managers without any reference to the limits of its applicability in the local context.Introduction: This paper describes the first phase of a longitudinal study of organizational change within a UK hospital. Organizational change is often a time of intense and conflicting emotions for employees. However research often portrays individuals as passive recipients of organizational change initiatives with any negative emotions attributed to overt or covert forms of resistance (Fineman, 2003).Discursive psychology is an approach that can inform our understanding of how individuals perceive organizational change by exploring how individuals utilise emotion language to construct a particular position or identity in relation to organizational norms and roles (Coupland et al., 2008). It is based on the argument that a person’s account of an event may alter depending on whom they are talking to or even sometimes within the same text, according to what they are trying to achieve with their talk (Potter & Wetherell, 1987). The aim of this paper is to explore how individuals actively justify the expression of emotions in talk about organizational change.Method: This paper is part of a larger research study investigating the care that older people receive in acute hospital settings in the National Health

Any organizational change has the potential to bring about both negative and positive reactions among the workforce. A long tradition of stress research has highlighted that organizational change typically evokes uncertainty as to the future of jobs, ambiguity regarding tasks, and an intensified workload, especially when the restructuring involves layoffs. On the other hand, the literature also emphasizes that the way change is implemented may make employees more positively inclined to understanding and accepting the need for change, which could result in more beneficial consequences for the organization. Factors such as opportunities for participation, experiences of fair treatment and commitment to organizational change appear to be critical factors for successful implementation of change. An interesting issue in this respect concerns whether employees at different hierarchic levels are equally affected by organizational change. It has been proposed, for instance, that uncertainty about the future may be more pronounced in lower levels of the organization, whereas employees at higher levels have greater opportunities for participative decision-making.As employees increasingly find themselves in work environments of ongoing organizational change (e.g. Albert et al., 2000) they are not only responding emotionally to changes that are perceived to be critical and substantial (Cox, 1997) in the present, but also find themselves in a situation of simultaneously anticipating future as well looking back on past change events.Despite this insight, there is not an extensive literature that has specifically and directly explored the emotional experience of anticipating change and/or the evolving character of emotional experiences from anticipation to retrospectively looking back on organizational change. Furthermore, the existing literature adopts a limited perspective where it is assumed that employees generally resist organizational change (e.g. Kotter & Schlesinger, 1992), that resistance is a biological disposition or a personality dimension (Dent & Goldberg, 1999); and/or that employees go through a set of predictable and distinct emotion stages where negative experiences will first escalate, but then gradually diminish as change proceeds (Bridges, 2003).Customer satisfaction is an important issue for organizations, because it allows to better understand perceptions and expectations of customers, check the gap between expectations and perceptions and evaluate whether or not the performances reach an acceptable level of satisfaction.According to previous literature, the satisfaction of customers is affected by different factors, that are perceived service quality, price, situational factors and personal factors (Zeithaml V.A., Parasuraman A., Berry L.L., 1990). Profit organizations are the pioneers of customer satisfaction surveys; nowadays, customer satisfaction surveys have reached a good position in strategic planning of public companies (Ortigosa, 2000).A quantitative survey on about 22.000 patients from four public hospitals in Milan and a quali-quantitative research on people working for the hospital have been conducted. For the quantitative survey, according to recent regional legislation , a multiple choice questionnaire has been used.Results show different level of satisfaction for different areas of activity, and indicate future goals. The area of relationship between patients and physicians and nurses is indicated as a strategic activity that needs an investment in communication and specific training.Starting from this, a process of organizational change took place: results from the explorative research show that there has been a change also in the professional role of the Public Relation Office, that have been increasingly involved by the top management in actions of strategic planning and organizational communication. This can be described as a process of institutionalization of public relations, and demonstrate how the customer satisfaction survey becomes strategic for organizational change, from a normative instrument to instrument of legitimacy and empowerment.The crossed effects of a three branched revolution (technologic, economic and socio-culture wide) confronting most companies has made organizational change a central theme due to their need to adapt to unstable environments and survive under uncertain conditions. However, there has been a broad consensus that organizational change is often a risky, unplanned and improvised process which reaches unsatisfactory results, overspends resources, misses deadlines and exposes employees to an extremely stressful work condition. Scholars and professionals struggle to solve the issue of how organization can change successfully. Some authors point out the reconceptualization of organizational change as institutional change as one likely solution for the problems of the field. Institutionalism recognizes the importance of interpretative schemes, symbolic elements, beliefs and values to explain macro level behavior. Congruent with recent developments of organizational theory, Greenwood and Hinings theoretical framework seeks to enlighten the incidence of radical change, bringing together assumptions of the old and new institutionalism. The framework suggests that radical change results from the influence of market and institutional environments on the organization

Radical organizational change can have profound effects on individuals and organizations. Research has focused on how employees feel about and react to radical change as well as steps supervisors can take to help ease the change process (e.g., communication, managing expectations). Interestingly, although employees can experience intense negative emotions during change, little attention has been directed toward understanding how supervisors deal with employees emotions during the change process and how these attempts to manage employees’ emotional reactions can impact individual and organizational outcomes.In this paper, we shift the focus from individual experiences of negative emotions to how leaders react to and deal with employees’ emotions during organizational change. Our study was guided by three main research questions: (1) In general, what types of reactions do supervisors have to employees’ emotions? (2) Are the strategies used by supervisors different during ongoing organizational change? and (3) How do supervisors’ reactions to employees’ emotions impact employees’ attitudes, behaviours and well-being?We conducted an exploratory qualitative study (N=21) and a quantitative survey (N=857). Results of the qualitative study indicated that supervisor reactions to employees’ negative emotions fall into four categories: 1) trying to solve the underlying problem and being empathic to the emotions The need to adapt to changing environments has always been a challenge for organizations. During organizational changes, organizations need to adjust the employment relationship to changing circumstances. The employee’s psychological contract and trust in the employer is then put to a test and employees will re-evaluate the psychological contract. Social capital, as the value that individuals access via social networks, can play an important role in this re-evaluation of the psychological contract. The entire process of re-evaluation, influences the attitudes of employees towards the organizational changes.

This presentation examines the relationships between the psychological contract, trust, and attitudes towards organizational changes. A conceptual model is presented that depicts the role of trust and social capital in the influence of characteristics of the psychological contract on positive and negative employee attitudes towards organizational changes. Attitudes towards change comprise affective, cognitive and behavioural attitudes.

During the last decades, reorganizations in terms of corporatization and privatization of public organizations have been frequent. This trend has also affected the health care sector and we now have emergency hospitals with different types of ownership. The question is how these organizational changes affect the individual, that is, what impact may different types of ownership have on the employees. This study focuses on change perceptions (e.g., job insecurity, powerlessness, justice and centralization) and their impact on employee attitudes and well-being. In addition, this study also tests for the relative importance of demographics, occupation (status) and personality (affectivity) for the attitudinal and health related outcomes. The study is a comparison study using questionnaire data from three different emergency hospitals operating in the same area, one that has become a for-profit private stock company, one that has become a non-profit public stock company, and one that has remained a public administration unit. The results reveal that there are differences between hospitals with different types of ownership regarding the impact of change variables on outcomes as well as differences attributed to demographic and personal characteristics of the employees. Practical implications for

An earlier epidemiological study showed repeated exposure to large increases in staffing to be prospectively associated with excess risk of long-term sickness absence and hospital admission. The strongest results were for sickness absence among female public sector employees. Repeated medium sized expansions, however, were associated with lower risk.

A qualitative study was conducted in order to describe and understand underlying causes of these results. We used a close study of additional interviews with female public sector employees from 4 groups: Group 1, those who contributed the most to the results that large expansions ware associated with an excess risk of sickness absence. Group 2, those who contributed the most to the association between moderate expansions and lower risk. Group 3, those who despite large expansions did not get sick-listed. Group 4, those who despite moderate expansions got sick-listed.

In all, 21 women were interviewed using open-ended questions about organisational changes and work environment. The informants described more complex changes than just personnel expansion, why more general processes during restructuring could be elucidated.

The transcribed interviews were coded sentence by sentence, thereafter in interpretative codes forming 22 themes. We used Qualitative Introduction: For many years there has been a global trend of restructuring and optimizing organizations, in the private sector as well as in the public. It has been argued that the extent to which employees commit to such changes is vital for organisational as well as for individual outcomes. In the present study we propose that job insecurity is negatively associated to affective and normative commitment while positively related to continuance commitment to change. Furthermore, we also hypothesize that employability moderates this association so that, in comparison to less employable persons, employable individuals are more affectively and normatively committed to change during situations which give rise to perceptions of job insecurity, which is common during organisational change processes. In addition, we hypothesise that employable individuals report less continuance commitment than less employable individuals, when job insecurity is high.Method: In the present study questionnaire data comprising 149 employees of a public sector organisation in Pakistan was used to test these hypotheses. Data were analyzed by means of hierarchical regression analyses.Results: Preliminary results indicate that job insecurity had a main effect on commitment to change. Individuals that experienced job insecurity also reported lower levels of affective and normative commitment, but higher levels of continuance commitment as compared to those individuals that did Research has increasingly recognized that adaptation to a changing task context is an important component of performance. Studies identified a variety of behaviors which help to deal with new task demands after changes in the workplace (e.g., learning). In contrast, how persons disengage from previous tasks by unlearning well-established work behaviors have been largely ignored. The primary objective of the present study was to assess whether to disengage from previous work behaviors helps to adapt to a changing task context. More specifically, the present study concentrates on unlearning of work behaviors that are out of date and a possible source of errors and interference. By unlearning of these behaviors cognitive resources should be devoted more fully to learning of new behaviours. Thus, unlearning should help to adapt to a changing task context.In an experiment, 73 individuals from the work force (age range 20 – 65 years) performed an air traffic controller task (adapted from Kanfer & Ackerman, 1989). During 20 trials of the computerized simulation participants had to land 240 aircrafts according four rules. After the first phase (trial 10), the rules used to land aircrafts changed. Similar to the paradigm of intentional forgetting, unlearning was manipulated by instructing participants to forget the previous rules before they started the second phase of the experiment (trial 11 – 20). Participants in the control group were

Today´s organizations are characterized by uncertain, changing environments in which organizational success depends on a workforce that is both adaptive and proactive. Adaptivity refers to the degree to which individuals adjust well to changes in the organization, such as mergers and restructuring. Proactivity on the other hand reflects the extent to which employees attempt to bring about change in the organization, and is a crucial component of the innovation process.

While both dimensions of behaviour are critical for organizational success in dynamic environments, there has been little empirical research on their relationship. We explore the dynamic relationship between employee adaptivity and proactivity in a longitudinal study. We argue that employees who adjust well to ongoing change in the organization are also more likely to contribute to future organizational change through activities such as making suggestions to increase the efficiency of the organization. In addition, we expect that employees who adapted well to past change will be more confident to initiate change themselves in the future. Having successfully coped with past change in the organizations, employees might build confidence that they and their colleagues will successfully cope with change in the future, and might experience change as positive rather than threatening.Economical and political transformation in Poland, as well as the evolution of social attitudes towards these changes arouse interest. These changes are so sudden and unexpected that adjusting to the new conditions is very difficult and sometimes even impossible. The workers of restructured firms are not sure about their future. This presentation focuses on psychological costs of employees involved in deep restructuring changes in Polish enterprises in metallurgic sectors. The estimation of this situation as a difficult one is based on the estimation of prospects satisfying one’s own needs in the future by further participation in the changing organization. The target of research was the perception of bearing psychological costs. These costs are treated as an outcome of the change and seen as challenge or threat (danger).The aim of my work is to answer the following questions:· What factors in an organization influence the perception of changes as chance, challenge or threat?· Is treating the situation of change as chance or threat connected with age, experience in work or occupied position (manager/expert)?The research was conducted in 2001. It was performed on a group of 100 employees, specialists, and management staff from one of the largest restructured enterprises located in the south of Poland. Questionnaire and interview methods were used.The results allow to state that the restructuring process in progress gives to the group under examination a hope for future opportunity to satisfy Context: The terms "armed forces" and "bottom up participation" seem to be a contradiction in it self. Hierarchical structures, strong leadership, and "command and control" are the means by which decisions are reached and top-down communicated to guarantee successful missions and operations in military mission. In this primary contexts, the room for participation is very limited.Diagnosis: But how about internal organizational change processes within the air force in which behavioral change cannot be commanded or top down implemented, but requires the deliberately mindful and assertive application of standardized procedures? Based on the Theory of "cognitive control" by Frey and Jonas (2002) it is assumed, that to avoid resistance towards these behavioral changes, members in organization expect to be invited for participation concerning issues for which they assume participation is possible and usefull.Solution: Based on Huy & Mintzberg´s (2003) classification of dramatic, systematic and organic change, we developed a "energized reform". In energized reforms, the emphasis is to drive organic change directly. We used "prestructured participation" for designing a communication strategy

Introduction. One of the preconditions of effective work of educational organizations under socio-economic change is organizations’ employees’ entrepreneurship behavior.Objective. Analysis of educational organization employees’ assessment of entrepreneurship behavior during change implementation.Method. The investigation was done on a sample of 344 employees from secondary and higher educational institutions using structured and unstructured interviews.Results:1. Cluster analysis identified four types of educational organization employees according to their perceived necessity of entrepreneurship behavior during change implementation.• Type 1 were the respondents who believed it necessary to manifest entrepreneurship behavior in creating new products and services.• Type 2 were the respondents who believed it necessary to manifest entrepreneurship behavior in changing work routins.• Тype 3 were the respondnets who didn’t think it necessary to manifest any entrepreneurship behavior in change implementing.• Type 4 were those who thought it necessary to manifest entrepreneurship behavior in changing organizational structure and administration.2. Type 3 employees (those who thought it unnecessary to manifest any entrepreneurship behavior in change implementing) were found to be the IntroductionUncertainty is often studied as a personality feature or style: Freeston, Rhéaume, Letarte, Dugas & Ladouceur (1994) developed the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale; Sorrentino & Roney (2000) talk about « uncertainty-oriented person » VS « certainty-oriented person », etc. So, uncertainty is considered in experimental plans as an independent variable. Some authors are also interested in uncertainty as a dependent variable; in this case, they analyse the sources of uncertainty (Cousin, 2004 ; Sennett, 1998 ; Ladrière, 1990 ; Marescaux, 2007 ; etc.).Any reform, any change can involve certain resistances and a lot of uncertainty among the workers; the benefit of this contribution is to distinguish general and attitudinal aspects, from the concrete aspects (concerning tasks achievement) of the change consequences among the workers. This approach of the impact of the changes allows to consider dimensions which play a negative part or, on the contrary, a positive part in the maintenance of a bearable level of uncertainty in civils servant’s daily work.MethodThe data were collected by self-report questionnaires among civils servant (n = 112) of two Directions of the same belgian public service being characterized by different kind of changes (institutional reforms). The questionnaire is made up of two parts: the first evaluates perceptions following Introduction:Ukrainian educational organizations have been undergoing considerable changes. Effective change management requires knowledge of change making motives.Objectives: 1) to analyze main motives of organizational change in educational organizations; 2) to identify differences between the systems of secondary and higher education regarding change making motives.Methods:The investigation was done on a sample of 528 employees and managers from secondary and higher educational organizations from different parts of Ukraine using L.Karamushka Change Making Motives questionnaire, expert assessments and statistics (correlation, factor and cluster analyses).Results:1. Factor analysis found out three factors reflecting change motives in educational organizations: factor 1– ‘Change motives related to increasing profits and enhancing organizational competitiveness’; factor 2 – ‘Change motives related to orientation toward employees’; factor 3 ‘Change motives related to organizational adaptation to societal processes’.2. Quantitative analysis of change making motives found a certain disproportion in the development of changes motives: a) external motives prevailed over the internal ones (motives of increasing the organization’s competitiveness and improving its image and adaptability, etc. were stronger than, for example, motives of increasing productivity); b) change motives of improving organizational efficiency prevailed over the motives

A follow-up of the outcomes from a participatory change strategy within a pharmaceutical organisation is described.In 2001, managers at a large pharmaceutical manufacturing site implemented its participative employee change programme to investigate the increasing numbers of lost time illnesses and injuries related to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), identify and assess associated risk factors and achieve operational excellence. The site employed approximately 1400 staff working in product laboratories and offices, site maintenance, warehousing and plant rooms.To address the problems, a participatory improvement team, comprising 12 experienced manual handling assessors, was set up to enable employees to participate in the improvement process by identifying ergonomic hazards and seeking solutions to reduce the risk of WMSDs.Responsibilities of the team included:• learning about work systems in the organisation;• evaluation of workstations and tasks for risk factors;• ranking and selection of risk factors to control;• implementation of improvements to reduce risk factors;• conducting a risk reduction evaluation;• providing information and assistance to employees and managers to address risk factors;Organizational change is a multifaceted phenomenon and it occupies a place of prominence in the studies carried through in the area of organizational behavior. Many studies search to better understand its causes and its impacts in the diverse aspects of the organization. This study focuses the aspect of the intra-organizational social networks. The intra-organizational networks are resultant structures of the interactions between employees and they interfere with the capacity of the organization to deal with its daily matters as well as with unexpected problems. Social networks also constitute a tool for analysis of organizational processes, in which other methods have shown to be inefficient. The present study´s objective is to verify the impacts of organizational changes in the intra-organizational social networks of a public agency. In order to attain this objective, a mapping of the friendship and communication networks of the agency was conducted, through the application of a questionnaire to the employees at two distinct moments: during the implementation of the change, and 11 months after the first application, when the change was already settled. The instrument was composed of four parts with some information about the research and open questions that asked the subject IntroductionThe Finnish Forest Industries and the Finnish Paper Workers’ Union were concerned with the high number of sickness absences and workplace accidents among the Finnish paper industry employees. In 2008 the Unions together with Finnish Institute of Occupational Health started a two-year joint project to study the different factors of workplace well-being for paper industry employees. The aim of the occupational health study is to examine the current state of occupational well-being among paper industry workers as well as to identify its different constituent factors and the causes behind absences. Eight units from four main forest companies in Finland took part in to the project. However, at the same time with the project, major reorganization has been going on in Finnish forest industry. In one unit participating in the study the downsizing was already going on before the start-up of the project, two units got the information of downsizing at their site during the project, and one unit got the information that it will be sold to a foreign owner.

Changing pay systems - factors influencing the successful implementation of pay for performance. A qualitative case study approach

Ansgar Berger & Conny H. Antoni, University of Trier

This study aims to identify structural and contextual factors that influence successful changes in pay systems, particularly considering implications of pay systems changes on organizational values. It focuses on the implementation of pay for performance systems (pfp) in charity organizations, as the value system of charity organizations potentially conflict with the performance orientation of pfp systems. Although there exists a great body of research focusing on the outcomes of performance related pay schemes, the issue of implementation is less often studied or even underrated. This is surprising as literature reviews report that the majority of change projects fails due to inadequate implementation strategies. Using a qualitative case study approach, we compare the change process and its outcomes of three charity organizations implementing management by objectives based bonus schemes. In this longitudinal study 130 managers and employees were interviewed at three measurement points: at the start of the change project, one and two years after project start, using structured interviews, combining Likert scales and open questions. Contrasting the organizations reveals great differences in structural and administrative aspects of the mbo schemes and how the implementation process is framed. In many modern working places employees are not only confronted with numerous organizational changes, but also experience an intensification and acceleration of organizational change. Since any single change process may have a potential for negative and/or positive outcomes for the employees, this may also be true for perceptions of acceleration. Examples of such acceleration related changes are continuous increases in perceived working pressure, less and less time to get everything done, the increased need to work extra time, increased working speed and tight deadlines. So far, acceleration of change as an important ‘new’ demand of modern work is only scarcely investigated.Specific resources like time management and social support may help employees to cope with the new demands. Based on the psychological Job-Demands-Resources model (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004) and the sociological acceleration theory by Rosa (2007) we developed a working model focusing on the specific demands and resources related to perceived acceleration of change and its possible effects on quality of working life.A questionnaire was developed to measure perceptions of acceleration and specific job demands and job resources related to acceleration perceptions. An item pool was generated based on a comprehensive literature search, focusing on psychological and sociological research and European employee surveys, and on the content analysis of focus groups. In each of the focus groups, 6-8 employees working in different A systematic overview is presented of the most important changes that are currently taking place in the world of work, whereby three levels are distinguished. First, changes will be discussed in the economical, political, social and technological environments that influence the ways how organizations operate (external context). Second, in an attempt to adapt to these changes organizations respond not only with structural changes such as downsizing and introducing new management and production practices, but also with new work-time arrangements and new forms of work such as temporal work and flexible work (organizational context). Third, changes in the external and organizational environments trickle down to the level of the job; for instance, work becomes more complex and emotionally and cognitively demanding (job context). These changes are illustrated with recent (European) survey data.Rather than discussing the positive and negative consequences of these changes that are taking place at various levels, we will focus on the employee’s adaptation to these changes. The bottom line is that in today’s constantly changing world of work, the employee’s ability and willingness

Several changes such as increases of non-standard work arrangements, increases of the use of technology and the increase of global competition are affecting the world of work. Effects of all these changes on employees could either be positive or negative. The characteristics of changes like flexibility, new technologies and globalization are often presented in the public media and are also well investigated. Quite often employees reported also that they perceive an increase in speed of change, a fact which is also confirmed by current European survey data. Thus acceleration seems to be another, comparatively less investigated, part of changes in the world of work.Rosa (2005) presented a sociological view on the process of acceleration. From this perspective he describes changes in the structure of time, based on phenomena like information transfer and transportation of goods with increasing speed. He concludes that there is a general process of acceleration observable in western societies and defines acceleration as an increase of amount per time unit. Furthermore there is a correlation between growth (we produce, communicate and transport not only faster, but also more than before) and acceleration: if the growth rate is higher than the acceleration rate the outcome is time pressure. Transferring these considerations into the world of working life, acceleration can be found

Occupational health professionals, managers and superiors in a new position – studying together the change processes in the work with shared, theory-driven tools

IntroductionThe ongoing change processes in the workplaces create many well-being problems like burnout, the climate of guilty and numerous disturbances in the work flow. However, in the busy daily life it is not easy for managers, superiors, employees to have a good grip on change processes and their effects. It is not easy to occupational health (OH) professionals either. In addition, OH professionals have expressed that they don´t have suitable tools to support managers and organizations in the change processes.

MethodOur aim was to build up a special kind of learning partnership between representatives of the workplace and OH personnel to promote well-being and productivity in the changing work. In this joint information creating process OH professionals used tools which have been developed within the Cultural Historical Activity Theory tradition. The crucial point is Vygotsky´s idea of double stimulation. The first stimulus is the concrete observations of the changes and disturbances in their work. The second stimulus is the theory-driven tools such as models and theoretical concepts. The creation of new information was possible in a series of workshops. These stimuli helped all actors in the work unit to get a joint understanding of the There is a consensus among organizational development scholars on the importance of commitment in the successful implementation of change initiatives. Extant literature on organizational change especially points towards the difficulties in implementing change in public sector organizations. This study examined the construct validity of the Herscovitch-Meyer (2002) three-component model of commitment to change in a non-western setting, i.e., Pakistan. Two separate studies were conducted for collecting survey data from management level employees of two large public sector organizations undergoing restructuring. In the first study (N = 172) confirmatory factor analysis showed that commitment to organizational change could be represented by three dimensions of affective, continuance and normative commitment to change, even if some items were found to be problematic. The second study (N = 149) was conducted as a replication of the first study. The confirmatory factor analysis again revealed the commitment to change construct to be comprised of three dimensions. In study II, a significant and positive relationship was found between affective and normative commitment to change and the three behavioral outcomes of commitment to change; compliance, cooperation and

The paper seeks to provoke thoughts around the possibility of using the leverage of practices and situated knowledge to trigger organizational change and to redesign it with the involvement of the whole organization. Based on a case study - an organization that manages networks of services and centres for child education in nursery schools- the article adopts the psychosociological approach to work on a triple analysis level: individual, micro-social and macro-social (organizational and institutional level).Because of the recent impulse towards service reorganization (which began in 2001 in response to emergent issues, such as improvement in quality, professional requalification and the launch of a new confederation identity), an intervention was planned to sustain the transformation of the organization’s central core and to deal with the increasing inertia and loneliness that people experienced in opposition to the broad change required, that pushed them building implicit, isolated and ineffective knowledge.

This changes reflects the growing needs of people to take part in social activities. However, the motivation also causes managing non profit to be difficult. Specifically the difficulty comes the mission of NOP, and the scale of the organizations:1)The mission of non profit is public benefit, not profitability. Changing or correcting this mission is justified in profit-driven organizations if doing so would increase profits, but no in NPOs.2)The commitment of people to a NPO depends on their voluntarism, not for obligation. Therefore, leaders cannot force staff members to engage in tasks against their will.3)As the number of staff members increases, sharing mission becomes more challenging and weakens the voluntarism of staff members.Much research on NPOs has showed that reliable relationships among staff members are crucial properties to make the most of human and knowledge capital (Drucker,1993, Krackhardt and Hanson, 1993 Wenger, 1999) . Leadership behaviours also plays an important role in determining the atmosphere or culture of an organization (Perkins and D. Wilson 1999) and in order to implementing knowledge from the experiences of staff members. (Krogh,. Ichijo Nonaka, 2002). In an ongoing project about NPOs the aspects of capital, scale of operation, human resources, and partnerships with governments and organizations are being studied. However, the relationships among staff members are not being investigated,