Nurses' experiences and sense making of COVID-19 redeployment and the impact on well-being, performance, and turnover intentions: A longitudinal multimethod study

Background

During Covid-19 nurses were redeployed to new teams and specialties at a level never previously experienced. Little is known about how nurses made sense of and coped with this situation and what we can learn from this for future redeployment approaches.

Objectives

We sought to understand how nurses made sense of ongoing redeployment during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this related to their psychological distress, burnout, turnover intentions, and perceived performance.

Design

A longitudinal multi-method design. (ISRCTN: 18,172,749).

Settings

Three acute National Health Service (NHS) Trusts in England, selected for diversity in geographical location and ethnicity, with different COVID-19 contexts.

Participants

Sixty-two nurses (90 % female; 83 % white) who experienced different types of redeployment during the pandemic, with an average of 17 year's post-registration experience (mean age 41 years).

Methods

We gathered both interview and survey data from 62 nurses across two or three time points in 2020-2021 and sought to find commonalities and differences in patterns of experience using Pen Portrait analysis.

Results

The pandemic redeployment process was life-changing for all nurses, personally and professionally. The research uncovered an intertwined pattern of identity and sensemaking as nurses coped with COVID-19 redeployment. Three sensemaking 'journeys' were evident, involving professional identity as a nurse and identification with one's organisation. Nurses in journey one: 'Organisational Identification and Professional Identity Maintained' (n = 28) had the best outcomes for wellbeing, burnout, performance, and retention. Those experiencing the 'Devaluation of Organisational Identification But Maintenance of Professional Identity' journey (n = 24) maintained their professional identity, but their organisational identification deteriorated. Journey three nurses: 'Devaluation of both Organisational Identification and Professional Identity' (n = 10) had the worst outcomes for wellbeing, burnout, performance, and retention. A salient nurse identity triggered stoicism and resilient behaviours while external cues of control, support and contextual awareness affected organisational identification.

Conclusions

Nurses made sense of their experiences of redeployment during Covid-19 differently which, in turn affected their outcomes. Given the stark differences in how nurses perceived their psychological distress, burnout, turnover intentions and performance across the journeys, the importance of understanding the cues (e.g. having autonomy) associated with each journey is apparent. Thus, our research provides clear guidance for managers to help them support nurses during redeployment.

Fostering voice behavior in correctional institutions: Investigating the role of organizational support and proactive personality

This research delves into the intricate interplay between perceived organizational support, proactive personality, and voice behavior. Furthermore, it establishes the pivotal role of work engagement as a mediating factor within the articulated research model. The study engaged 287 healthcare professionals within correctional institutions and detention centers in Indonesia, employing a dual-phase questionnaire distribution to capture the dynamic aspects of the participants' experiences. Utilizing the statistical technique of Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling with the SmartPLS 4 program as an analysis tool, the collected data underwent comprehensive analysis. The outcomes reveal that proactive personality significantly influences voice behavior both directly and indirectly through its impact on work engagement. Conversely, perceived organizational support directly influences work engagement but does not exhibit a direct impact on voice behavior. These findings underscore the significance of proactive personality in fostering a conducive environment for constructive organizational change from a grassroots perspective. The study suggests that organizations prioritize the cultivation of proactive personality traits to stimulate voice behavior, thereby facilitating ongoing improvements and sustainable organizational progress.

Change competence: An integrative literature review

BACKGROUND

Organizations are in a state of continual evolution, driven by the relentless shifts in their external environments. Numerous theories have been proposed to understand the essential skills and capabilities for successful organizational change. Yet, there remains a gap in capturing a holistic view necessary to fully comprehend the dynamics of competence in today's rapidly changing landscape.

OBJECTIVE

This research aims to explore and consolidate the concept of 'competence' in the context of organizational change processes.

METHODS

Employing an integrative literature review approach, a total of 3,230 studies were screened. Out of these, 32 studies were selected based on strict relevance and quality criteria, providing a robust foundation for the analysis.

RESULTS

The findings reveal a multi-layered nature of organizational change, highlighting that the nature and prerequisites of change vary significantly across different organizational levels. By applying a competence lens, we discern how required competence during change are not uniform but rather vary depending on whether they are applied in an operational or strategic context. This demonstrates a nuanced, level-dependent variability in change competence across the organizational hierarchy.

CONCLUSION

We conceptualize 'change competence' as a dual-faceted construct. It encompasses both the capacity to leverage existing organizational competence and the adeptness to develop new competence, thereby meeting the evolving demands imposed by both internal and external drivers of change. This comprehensive understanding paves the way for more effective strategies in managing organizational change.

From strangers to social collectives? Sensemaking and organizing in response to a pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily exposed the inadequacy of established institutions and markets to handle a multidimensional crisis, but it also revealed the spontaneous emergence of social collectives to mitigate some of its consequences. Building upon more than 600 responses from an open-ended survey and follow-up qualitative interviews, we seek to understand the spontaneous formation of social collectives in neighborhoods during the initial global lockdown. Applying the sensemaking lens, we theorize the process that prevented the collapse of sensemaking; motivated neighbors to comply with the pandemic-related restrictions; and inspired the development of collective initiatives and the sharing of resources, experiences, and a feeling of belonging. In doing so, we identify mechanisms that allow distributed sensemaking and organizing for resilience: widely shared and accepted cues and frames, simultaneous enactment of practices, embeddedness, visibility of actions, and sense of community. Contrary to the literature on local community organizing and entrepreneurship, which emphasizes the importance of shared values and beliefs, we reveal how the abovementioned mechanisms enable social collectives to emerge and build resilience in times of crisis, even in the absence of pre-existing ties and physical and social isolation. Implications for sensemaking, resilience, organization studies, and community psychology are discussed.

Nurses' and Physicians' Responses to a New Active Antimicrobial Stewardship Program: A Two-Phase Study of Responses and Their Underlying Perceptions and Values

BACKGROUND

Successful implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) depends on staff members' response to it. We introduced at the Hadassah Medical Center in Israel a significant change to our long-standing handshake ASP. As before, the new ASP involved a dialogue between the treating physician and the infectious disease physician over the appropriate antibiotic therapy. The main change was that the infectious disease physician's decision was now integrated into the patient's electronic medical record (EMR). Our purpose in this study was to uncover the concerns and expectations of physicians and nurses towards the new ASP, before and after its implementation, and link these with their basic perceptions of the ASP and their personal values.

METHODS

We used open-ended questions and Likert-type scales to study staff members' personal values, basic perceptions of the new system, and attitudes towards it, both before (N = 143), and one year after (N = 103) the system's implementation. Relationships of the system's perceptions and personal values with attitudes toward the system were tested using correlations and multiple regression analyses.

RESULTS

Prior to its implementation, physicians and nurses had multiple concerns about the new ASP's demandingness and inefficiency and its threat to physicians' autonomy and expertise. They also had positive expectations for benefits to the hospital, the patients and society. A year later, following the system's implementation, concerns dissipated, whereas the perceived benefits remained. Moreover, staff members' attitudes tended to be more positive among those who value conformity.

CONCLUSION

Introducing new ASPs is a challenging process. Our findings suggest that hospital staff's initial concerns about the new ASP were primarily about its ease of use and demandingness. These concerns, which diminished over time, were linked with perceived satisfaction with the system. Conformity values had an indirect effect in predicting satisfaction with the system, mediated by perceptions of the system as straightforward.

Story-making to nurture change: creating a journey to make transformation happen

Purpose

To overcome change management challenges, organizations often rely on stories as means of communication. Storytelling has emerged as a leading change management tool to influence and bring people on sharing knowledge. Nevertheless, this study aims to suggest stories of change as a more effective tool that helps people in taking action toward transformation processes.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors apply design science research to develop and evaluate how writing a prospective story engages organizational actors in the transformation process. The authors test the story-making artifact in a field study with five companies and 115 employees who participated in 75 workshops.

Findings

Using the findings to discuss the role of story-making in facilitating the emergence of new behaviors in transformation processes, the authors link story-making with the opportunity to make change happen through knowledge dissemination rather than merely understanding it.

Research limitations/implications

The authors illustrate the role of iterations, peers and self-criticism that help story-makers embrace sensemaking, developing a shared knowledge based that influence individual actions.

Practical implications

The authors propose the story-making approach that organizations can follow to nurture change to make transformation happen through knowledge cocreation.

Originality/value

The research explores story-making as an individual act of writing prospective stories to facilitate the emergence of new behaviors through shared knowledge.

Astronauts’ Sensemaking of Dangerous Beauty: An Account of the Overview Effect for Organizational Theory

In this article, I explore sensemaking processes associated with the overview effect—a cognitive shift experienced by astronauts who see Earth from space. Analysis of publicly available interviews ( n  = 51) with astronauts revealed a common sequence of sensemaking: First, astronauts reported experiencing speechlessness triggered by beauty and awe (a phenomenon I label, awe-mute). Second, during and after missions, most reported attempting to make sense of the experience with others, often resulting in a deepening of their previously-existing worldviews, a process I term sensedeepening. Third, sensedeepening often resulted in astronauts’ (a) admissions of inadequacy to give sense to their experience for others, and despite this, (b) development of messages to communicate their experiences, and (c) engagement in social activism. These patterns were corroborated by additional interviews with astronauts ( n  = 5) and an interview with a prolific interviewer of astronauts. Implications for sensemaking theory and organizational change conclude the article.

Taking open answers seriously: gaining insights into the perilous undercurrent of organizational change

Purpose

This study aims to discuss the usefulness of free-text comments to gain insights into participants' opinions about an organizational change project.

Design/methodology/approach

A secondary analysis of 152 free-text answers to an open question in a questionnaire evaluating the implementation of lean facility design was conducted.

Findings

The authors identified three categories of responses to change: (1) dismissive – lean unrelated, (2) dismissive – lean related and (3) supporting – lean related. Notably, the large majority of the comments were dismissive by nature and unrelated to lean. Furthermore, critical responses also emanate from the most supportive group (critical friends).

Practical implications

Quintessential to change management is understanding how those involved perceive the changes. Free-text comments offer an opportunity to gain a view on these perceptions, particularly perceptions that often stay covert whilst having the potential to undermine change initiatives. At the same time, the comments may also be used to capitalize on constructive criticisms.

Originality/value

This study delivers a unique view on how free comments allow developing a broader understanding of hospital staff's responses to an organizational change initiative and particularly its “undercurrent” that may potentially have significant implications to change processes.

Achieving change readiness for health service innovations

Continual innovation to address emerging population needs necessitates health service ongoing redesign and transformation worldwide. Recent examples include service transformations in response to Covid-19, many of which were led and managed by nurses. Ensuring change readiness is central to delivering these transformative changes yet has been identified as a central challenge impacting nurse leaders and managers. Recent evidence indicates that affective commitment to change among healthcare staff may be an important contributor to gaining support for change implementation but understudied in healthcare. A cross-sectional survey study was used to examine the association between affective commitment to change and change readiness among 30 healthcare staff across four projects in one state-wide health system in Australia. Our findings indicate that affective commitment to change; healthcare worker's emotional and personal perception of the value of the proposed change is independently associated with individual and collective change readiness. Given that achieving change readiness is a central goal of change management strategies, this pilot work provides valuable insight to inform the change management practices of nurse leaders and managers.

The Influence of Change-Related Organizational and Job Resources on Employee Change Engagement

Employee attitudes to change are key predictors of organizational change success. In this article, change engagement is defined as the extent to which employees are enthusiastic about change, and willing to actively involve themselves in ongoing organizational change. A model is tested showing how change-related organizational resources (e.g., senior leader support for change and organizational change climate) influence change engagement, in part through their influence on change-related job resources. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) results yielded good fit to the data in two independent samples: 225 Australian working professionals, and 201 employees from a Prolific sample. As proposed, change-related organizational resources (modeled as a higher order construct) were positively associated with higher order change-related job resources. Change-related job resources were positively associated with change engagement. In contrast to expectations, organizational resources were not directly associated with change engagement. Instead, change-related job resources fully mediated the relationship. Overall, the study provides empirical support for new measures of organizational change resources and employee change engagement. By drawing from well-established models in the change and engagement literatures, the study provides a promising research direction for those interested in further understanding positive employee attitudes to organizational change. Practical implications and future research opportunities are discussed.

Coaching as a Buffer for Organisational Change

When introducing changes to an organisation, it is crucial to know how a given change will affect the company’s success. It is easy to forget or, more frequently, fail to appreciate the importance of the feelings and thoughts of the people who experience such changes. The distinction between objective change and subjective change is helpful in understanding the psychological consequences of changes and how they may affect the effectiveness of introducing changes in organisations. Results of studies on the psychological costs of changes for an individual indicate that there are differences in the way people experience objective and subjective changes, and that the way a change is perceived by an individual (i.e., subjective change) is crucial for the consequences of change. Studies have also identified factors which can buffer the negative consequences that changes may have on an individual. For changes in an organisation, coaching is one method to nurture these buffering factors in affected individuals, and, most of all, in those who are responsible for planning and introducing the changes, so that the employees of a company can experience the change in the most constructive way possible.

Effective communication during organizational change: a cross-cultural perspective

Purpose

There is a growing consensus about the role of communication in facilitating employees' acceptance of and support for organizational change initiatives. However, little is known about why communication breakdowns occur during change or how change recipients' cultural values can influence the effectiveness of communication in this context. The study addresses this gap.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a theoretical framework that links four purposes of communication during change—disrupting, envisioning, legitimizing, and co-creating—to change recipients' cultural orientations. The authors also develop propositions that highlight how change agents' cultural sensitivity influences the relationship between communication purpose and the change readiness of change recipients.

Findings

The study implies that greater awareness and consideration of cultural values can reduce the likelihood of communication breakdowns and promote greater acceptance of and support for change initiatives. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of their theoretical framework for micro-level perspectives on change.

Practical implications

Although failures to change have in the past been linked to poor communication efforts by change agents, less is known about how or why communication breakdowns occur from the perspective of change recipients. The framework teases out issues related to the “what”, ‘how”, and “why” aspects of communication and offers prescriptions on the best approaches to communicate change.

Social implications

Despite the rise of multicultural workforces and a recognition of the role played by cultural values in influencing leadership practices across cultures, theories of change have neglected these elements. Effective change efforts not only help enable economic and social renewal, they also enable the well-being of employees. Additionally, many change initiatives in the modern era have social implications (e.g. enhancing sustainability, inclusion and diversity).

Originality/value

A key contribution is a synthesis of different bodies of literature that have developed separately from each other. The authors offer some nuanced and counter-intuitive insights into what makes communication effective during change and identify culturally sensitive communication as an antecedent of change readiness.

Memory-based change management: Using the past to guide the future

Scholars have suggested that individual change recipients affectively respond to change events but have yet to examine how change recipients’ memories influence those affective responses. Drawing from prior scholarship on memory, we propose that two theoretically distinct forms of memory – explicit and schematic – produce different forms of affective and behavioral responses when recipients process change events consciously or non-consciously. Given this proposed importance of memory to affective and behavioral responses, we then develop a stage model of memory-based change management, which we define as the managing of change recipients’ responses to change events through memory work. We theorize four discrete strategies – guided consolidating, schematic re-framing, contextual delimiting, and selective re-instating – that, based on recipients’ memory-based actions during particular stages of a change, would be likely to enhance positive affective responses and support for change. Plain Language Summary This paper explains how memories of organizational change influence affective and behavioral responses to ongoing change initiatives. We identify two types of memories related to change contexts: 1) abstracted, comprehensive schematic memory (i.e., “change is chaotic”) and 2) anecdotal, specific explicit memory (i.e., “I was demoted in a restructuring process last year”). We suggest that, when change events are highly ambiguous, schematic memories non-consciously influence employees’ general moods and a broad range of work behaviors which may or may not relate to the change (i.e., feeling unpleasant for an unknown reason and becoming less cooperative with coworkers than usual). When change events are less ambiguous, explicit memories play a larger role by eliciting discrete emotions triggering change-targeted behaviors (i.e., feeling angry at a change agent and confronting them about it). Since these responses are rooted in memory, we further suggest how change agents can manage affective and behavioral responses through four types of memory-based change management. We explain how during four stages of change – gestation, preparation, implementation, and aftermath – change agents can engage in guided consolidating (i.e., having recipients behaviorally engage in sharing positive experiences of change), schematic re-framing (i.e., framing a change as a continuation of past precedent), contextual delimiting (i.e., generalizing positive memories of change while isolating negative ones) and selective reinstating (i.e., having recipients selectively recall positive experiences in the recent change initiative), respectively. Our model complements existing studies focusing on the conscious, future-oriented processing of change events to provide an alternative view of change management.

Reactions towards organizational change: a systematic literature review

Regardless of the prevalence and value of change initiatives in contemporary organizations, these often face resistance by employees. This resistance is the outcome of change recipients' cognitive and behavioral reactions towards change. To better understand the causes and effects of reactions to change, a holistic view of prior research is needed. Accordingly, we provide a systematic literature review on this topic. We categorize extant research into four major and several subcategories: micro and macro reactions. We analyze the essential characteristics of the emerging field of change reactions along research issues and challenges, benefits of (even negative) reactions, managerial implications, and propose future research opportunities.

Skills mismatch and change confidence: the impact of training on change recipients’ self-efficacy

Purpose

Drawing on Bandura’s social learning theory (SLT), the purpose of this paper is to investigate, analytically, the impact that after-training skills level (i.e. perceived skill match) has on change self-efficacy. Moreover, this research also aims to identify which specific skills sets (if any) act as a protective factor during organizational change, supporting the change confidence (CC) level of the people involved.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantitative research was carried out on a sample of 200 workers in the bank sector.

Findings

Findings of this study suggest that skill match has a significant impact on the CC level. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that, even in front-office jobs, a perceived skill match of soft skills does not have a significant impact on staff CC, unlike that suggested by common sense and by literature.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should investigate if and how a training process enables change self-efficacy over time or instead shows its utility only when it is relating to a specific and limited period.

Practical implications

This study suggests that in designing training, top and middle management should pay specific attention to change recipients’ needs by adopting a bottom-up approach. Moreover, to improve training effectiveness, it would be advisable to also train change recipients’ supervisors.

Social implications

This study has social implications in suggesting how to foster the adaptive capabilities of change recipients in current turbulent times. In doing so, it suggests how to prevent some undesirable change consequences such as anxiety, intention to quit, work-related stress and change cynicism.

Originality/value

This paper shows that, from a methodological point of view, it is necessary to evaluate training effectiveness at the level of a specific skill area and not simply by comparing the trained/not trained people, as typically practiced until now.

COVID-19 Anxiety as a Moderator of the Relationship between Organizational Change and Perception of Organizational Politics in Forestry Public Sector

In addition to an outstanding commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG) agenda to good governance (goal no. 16), there is an argument that the SDGs can only be achieved through good governance with strong political institutions and processes. In Indonesia, a new era in politics has been marked with the new leadership of Joko Widodo (the current Indonesian President) who has a vision to reform the Indonesian bureaucracy. One of the bureaucratic reform implementations is the merging of the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Environment into the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoE). In this kind of organizational change, employees may have increased perceptions of organizational politics and feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. This effect is suspected to be exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article, therefore, aims to investigate the effects of organizational change in the public sector. Based on a survey of 112 state civil apparatuses in the forestry sector in Indonesia, we found that organizational change is positively related to employees’ perception of organizational politics. Nevertheless, our most intriguing finding is that the COVID pandemic situation has decreased employees’ perception of organizational politics. This is because political behaviors are difficult to perform in virtual working settings due to reduced face-to-face interaction and limited non-verbal cues.

140 What Effect Does Systems Integration Simulation Have on the Sense of Preparedness of Teams Moving to a New Unit?

Testing new healthcare systems, environments and processes using simulation-based methods is a rapidly growing topic in the literature. By testing systems in a safe and controlled environment, simulation for system integration allows operational and safety issues to be flagged up without risking patient care

This study aims to explore the lived experience of change in nurses moving to a new hospital, and the impact of a simulation programme on their sense of preparedness.

The Patient Environment Simulation for Systems Integration (PESSI) programme was developed to test new processes and environments to identify latent safety threats and systems issues prior to staff, patient and community use. A major PESSI project was commissioned to aid the transition of paediatric care in Edinburgh to a new hospital site. Simulation scenarios were developed to mimic an average working morning for each department using staff feedback on processes or factors that might be affected by the change in environment. Staff were invited to participate in departmental simulation days which included orientation in the new environment, a simulation scenario, and a professional debriefing. Following each session, a report was produced detailing key findings.

The research team selected a constructivist phenomenological approach to the enquiry and using Bartunek’s et al.’s conceptual framework designed pre- and post-simulation semi-structured interviews (SSIs), and mid-intervention ‘headline reflections’

Results are currently being analysed following the hospital move in March this year. Early findings suggest ‘quality of communication’ and ‘opportunity for familiarization with the environment’ were key themes influencing participant’s feelings of preparedness prior to the move. While ‘recognition of voice’, ‘personal impact’ and ‘good leadership’ appear to be factors impacting participants’ feelings towards the change in working environment after the move. Early indications suggest that the inclusion of local staff groups as part of this simulation had a positive impact on the perception and preparedness of large-scale change.

As simulation for system integration becomes more common, it is important that we tailor simulation programmes to best prepare not only the new systems but also the people working there. This can only be done through listening and learning from staff experiences. The research team will seek to publish these findings to help inform future simulation for systems integration programmes.

The myth of a direct relationship between organizational culture and TQM: propositions and challenges for research

Purpose

This paper aims to report the results of a comprehensive literature review concerned with exploring the distinctive roles of the underlying multidimensional psychological mechanisms through which organizational culture (OC) affects TQM.

Design/methodology/approach

A thorough review of the relevant existing studies focusing on the direct and indirect links between OC, employee readiness for change (ERFC), employee commitment to change (ECC) and TQM implementation was conducted. To identify studies to include in the review, electronic searches of prominent databases and journals were carried out for the period 1980 to 2020.

Findings

The thorough analysis of relevant studies indicates that various types of OC influence TQM through certain psychological mechanisms namely ERFC dimensions and employee affective commitment to change. As a consequence, the paper develops a set of propositions and a novel integrative conceptual framework to explain the mediating roles of ERFCs and EACC in the OC–TQM relationship and then concludes by suggesting future lines of research and highlighting practical managerial implications.

Originality/value

Drawing on academic perspectives from multiple literature streams, this study offers a more advanced understanding of the relationship between OC and TQM implementation via exploring multiple mediating paths.

Entwicklung und Validierung einer Kurzskala zur Einschätzung der Akzeptanz von Schulentwicklungsprojekten (A-SEW)

Zusammenfassung. Schulentwicklungsarbeit und Reformprojekte sind im Alltag von Lehrpersonen sehr präsent, obgleich nicht immer hohe Akzeptanz und Teilnahmemotivation für die Projekte berichtet werden. Aus der Schulentwicklungsforschung ist bekannt, dass der Implementationserfolg von Innovationen maßgeblich von den Charakteristika des Projektes und der Akzeptanz der beteiligten Personen abhängt. In diesem Beitrag wird auf Basis eines kognitiven Motivationsmodells eine dreidimensionale Akzeptanzskala für Schulentwicklungsprojekte präsentiert, die für eine Stichprobe von N = 1 453 Lehrpersonen validiert wurde. Der Modellvergleich bestätigt eine Drei-Faktoren-Lösung mit den Dimensionen Sinnhaftigkeit, Zweckmäßigkeit und Praktikabilität, ebenso wie eine Messinvarianz für die Variablen Geschlecht, Schulform und Berufserfahrung. Die hier präsentierte Kurzskala kann für formative und summative Evaluationsvorhaben sowie für die empirische Schul‍(entwicklungs)‌forschung eingesetzt werden.

Gaining and Training a Digital Colleague: Employee Responses to Robotization

This study shows how introducing new technology can be like welcoming a digital colleague. Designed to mimic the actions of employees, robotic process automation is a technology that involves developing software robots to perform standardized tasks. Although beneficial for the firm, robotization may come at a cost for the employees, since the technology puts positions at risk by automating manual procedures. In this study, I used a case study approach to examine how employees responded to robotization in three organizations. The findings revealed that the employee responses were overwhelmingly constructive and positive. In addition to responding with a big-picture perspective and finding opportunities, the employees humanized software robots as new digital colleagues, with whom they developed relationships. The results discussed in this study contribute to understanding technology-driven change by empirically illustrating employees’ multidimensional—affective, behavioral, and cognitive—responses to robotization, and the supportive context securing implementation.

The Role of Emotions in Middle Managers’ Sensemaking and Sensegiving Practices During Post-merger Integration

In this in-depth, qualitative case study, we elucidate how the emotions of middle managers impact their sensemaking and sensegiving practices during post-merger integration (PMI). The recursive and reciprocal interactions between emotions, sensemaking, and sensegiving we observed led to the development of a process model illustrating how middle managers make sense of the PMI phase through the processes of “senseseeking” and “rationalizing.” The model further demonstrates two important sensegiving practices, “emotional reversal” and “emotional hiding,” which turned out to be essential drivers for enacting (positive) emotions among organization members. Our findings have important implications for research on sensemaking and sensegiving, the crucial role of middle managers in organizations, and studies on PMI.

Symbolic Convergence or Divergence? Making Sense of (the Rhetorical) Senses of a University-Wide Organizational Change

This research investigates the extent to which organizational change initiatives may lead to divergent patterns of sensemaking among organizational members. Drawing on the symbolic convergence theory, we performed an in-depth fantasy theme analysis of organization members’ rhetoric around an organizational change at a private university. Our analysis uncovers six fantasy themes and two corresponding fantasy types, which lead to no rhetorical vision. The lack of cognitive convergence between change initiators and change recipients suggests the inherent incompatibility between managerial and employee fantasies around organizational change, barring the exceptions of dual-responsibility change recipients (e.g., faculty members who also assume administrative responsibilities), who tend to adopt the change initiator rhetoric. Overall, this study informs our extant knowledge of change sensemaking with novel theoretical and methodological insights and bears implications for organizational change researchers and practitioners alike.

COVID-19 as a nonprofit workplace crisis: Seeking insights from the nonprofit workers' perspective

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofit organizations face increased demands for services alongside decreased revenues and must make tough choices on how to weather these stressors. Alongside these organizational changes, COVID-19 impacts nonprofit workers and could be a career shock for these individuals, potentially altering how they think of their work and career intentions, even jeopardizing their commitment to the sector. Therefore, this paper outlines a research agenda to understand how the pandemic impacts nonprofit workers and their commitment to working in the sector. Several areas for future research are identified including human resource policy, leadership development, generational differences, gender effects, nonprofit graduate education, and mission-specific work effects.

The effect of change leadership on employee attitudinal support for planned organizational change

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how change leadership activities help bring about employee support for planned organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a non-experimental quantitative research design, and a self-administered Likert-type questionnaire survey, the study sourced data from employees in an organization undergoing significant change. Data analysis was by structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings

Change leadership behaviors bearing on; visioning, communication, participation, support and concern for change participants' interests were found to be of significant importance in ensuring employee buy-in and support for planned change efforts. Although change leadership had no direct effect on employees' behavioral intentions to support change, it was strongly related to employee cognitive appraisal of change. The relationship between change leadership and employee behavioral intentions to support planned change was serially mediated by employee cognitive appraisal and emotional response toward the planned change event.

Practical implications

In appraising planned organizational change efforts, managers tend to focus on employee behaviors toward the change instead of conditions that drive such behaviors. This study underscores the need to focus on employee attitudes as precursors to desired behavior toward change.

Originality/value

Prior research suggests that change leadership behaviors affect employee attitudinal reactions to change but yet lacked empirical validation. By applying a multidimensional approach to attitude and investigating its hierarchy of effects, this study enhanced our accuracy in explaining the influence change leadership has on employee attitudinal support for change.

Assessment of employees’ attitudes toward ongoing organizational transformations

Purpose

Global companies in the digital service industry are experiencing a pressing urgency for ongoing transformations caused by external factors driven by the need to change business models. This study aims to evaluate the willingness and ability to change as constructs of employee attitude toward change, assess their predictors and develop an approach to analyzing willingness and ability to change.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses an abductive approach, building on the refinement of existing theories. The authors conducted 306 employees' surveys and nine interviews to collect primary data.

Findings

The result of this study suggests that the employees are willing to change when they have a sense of perceived control based on collaboration with management. Factors that have an impact on the willingness and ability to change include job function, age, years of job experience, knowledge of values, company background, understanding the current challenges, understating the urgency for change, positive attitude toward past changes and trust in leadership.

Research limitations/implications

This is research is focused on one organization, and research in other industries or firms in the digital service industry would be beneficial.

Practical implications

This research contributes to the practice on the conduct of diagnostic investigation in an organization's readiness and risk for a planned change. The authors add to the existing literature the new dimensions related to the prior experience with change and understanding the need and urgency for change -specific factors that are relevant to individual ability to change. Managers can use findings in this study to learn how to plan and manage organizational change in the fast-paced business environment of digital service industries.

Social implications

This research will help to understand work attitudes, emotions and behaviors and therefore will improve the well-being in the organizations experiencing transformation.

Originality/value

Individual readiness as a stand-alone concept was not enough explored in the literature, thus creating an opportunity for this study to fill the research gap. The lessons learned from this study are the following: ongoing change initiatives require longer time with a need to extend the organizational restructuring to behavioral and mindset change. This research suggests a practical approach to the assessment of change readiness in organizations. A simple model explaining factors affecting employees' willingness and ability to change has been suggested.

Antecedents and outcome of employee change fatigue and change cynicism

Purpose

Organisations implement changes either to address real business imperatives or to follow trends in their industries. But frequent changes in an organisation often lead to employee change fatigue and change cynicism. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the change logic of appropriateness and the logic of consequences on change fatigue and change cynicism and the impact of change fatigue and change cynicism on change success.

Design/methodology/approach

To carry out this study, the authors collected data on a sample of 320 participants from diverse organisations, and they used structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques to test our hypotheses depicted in the research model.

Findings

The authors found that the change logic of consequences reduces both change fatigue and change cynicism, whereas the change logic of appropriateness increases change fatigue. The authors also found that change fatigue does not have any direct effect on change success, although it maintains an indirect negative effect on change success through change cynicism.

Practical implications

Along with other practical implications, the authors recommend that change managers help employees understand any logic of consequences that sustain their change initiatives. Additionally, change managers should work to prevent change fatigue from turning into change cynicism, which is the real precursor of reduced change success.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to show that employees experience change fatigue and change cynicism differently, depending on the reason underlying the change. It is also among the first to show that change fatigue does not affect change success directly but does so through the interplay of change cynicism.

Nurses' Perceptions of Their Practice Following a Redesign Initiative

A significant number of quantitative studies have associated a positive or healthy work environment with job satisfaction. Nurses, patients, and organizational characteristics have been studied as contributing factors. Other studies have focused on structural or physical environmental factors such as noise, space, or lighting as influencing to satisfaction. Little research has focused on how a changed work environment initiated by an organization for improved patient care affected the nurses' perceptions of how their practice had changed. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine nurses' perceptions of a changed work environment on their practice, specifically patient care. Twelve nurses participated in the semistructured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and content analysis was used to identify categories of phrases and the resulting major themes. Most importantly, and the significant overall theme of patient- and family-centered improved care described their perceptions of this change. Other themes included camaraderie, nurse-patient relationships, being valued by the organization, and efficiency for decreasing stress. The results illuminate and extend some of the findings from prior quantitative studies on professional practice environments. A major contribution of this research is the perception of the nurses, often overlooked in quantitative studies. Significant was the nurses' view that the changed environment improved patient- and family-centered care although, as in other study findings, there was a view that peer camaraderie decreased.

The culmination stage of leadership succession

Purpose

This study aims to shed light on employees' emotional status during the culmination stage of leadership succession.

Design/methodology/approach

An inductive research design is adopted, relying on the qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with participants.

Findings

The qualitative data analysis revealed that subordinates are shocked anytime new leadership practices, contradicting the previous ones that they were used to, are initiated by the successor. Moreover, anger is found to be the dominant negative emotion exhibited by the subordinates during the culmination stage, given that they are nostalgic to the practices of their old transformational leader.

Originality/value

The value of this study lies in its longitudinal qualitative nature, assessing affective response during an organizational change, where subordinates are attempting to digest the change. It adds to the existing literature on emotions during leadership succession, thus assisting people in key managerial positions to better assess the situation and channel their subordinates' negative emotions into a more positive affect while supporting them all the way through.

Crafting a Change Message and Delivering It With Success: An Experimental Study

One primary mechanism through which leaders influence others in the context of organizational change is their rhetoric. While planning change communication, it is important for a change agent to craft the appropriate message content to foster employees’ commitment to change. Furthermore, the literal meaning of a message can be strengthened by the way it is delivered. This study investigates the content of a change message and how it is articulated by the leader using a vignette-based experimental study. Based on a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, 200 participants are assigned to one of the eight hypothetical change scenarios that vary by change message content, message delivery, and change context. The results show the impact of rational versus emotional content and message content versus delivery on commitment differ based on secure or insecure contexts. This study provides cues for practitioners to design change messages to obtain commitment to change.

Partner opportunism and willingness to engage in project relationships

Purpose

The paper seeks to understand the implications of partner opportunism for project relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the theoretical literature, the paper presents a conceptual model considering the perspective of the organization impacted by partner opportunism.

Findings

The model proposes that partner opportunism lowers willingness to engage by creating perception of loss. The undesirable impact of opportunism on perceived loss is less if the partner has made high relation-specific investments. Also, the negative impact of perceived loss on willingness to engage is less if the partner is difficult to substitute.

Research limitations/implications

The model can be tested in the context of information technology (IT) relationships because of scope for opportunism in IT project relationships. Data can be collected through experimental vignettes.

Originality/value

The model contributes by investigating novel aspects of governance, behavioral consequences of opportunism and relation-specific investments in project relationships. The paper suggests that organizations can protect themselves against the ill effects of partner opportunism by enabling their stakeholders to invest substantial time and effort in the relationship and fortify relational quality and bonding.

Strategic change and sensemaking practice: enabling the role of the middle manager

Purpose

The critical input of middle managers as they make sense of the organisation's plans is paramount during the process of strategic change. Through the lens of middle manager sensemaking literature, this explorative research identifies key organisational practices that underpin sensemaking. An understanding of these practices will allow organisations better develop and support them, thereby enabling middle managers' contribution to strategic change.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employed an innovative diary methodology. 42 middle managers, across three organisations, completed a weekly, online diary for 12 weeks. A qualitative analysis of the final 355 diaries isolated and explained the sensemaking practices in which middle managers engaged as they sought to achieve the shared understanding required to progress strategic change.

Findings

This study identifies the key practice underpinning middle manager sensemaking as formal and frequent discourse opportunities between leaders and middle managers. Through leader participation beyond the initiation stages of strategic change, and the organisation's positive positioning of time and metrics, these discourse opportunities enable a form of sensemaking associated with a number of positive organisational outcomes. These include middle manager sensegiving across the organisation, the successful enactment of strategic change, positive perceptions of change outcomes and organisational climate among middle managers and middle manager well-being.

Research limitations/implications

This study advances our theoretical understanding of the practice of sensemaking in organisations through the isolation and identification of its key practices. However, given the difficulty in obtaining access for such a lengthy and intrusive methodology, the study is confined to three organisations. Additionally, the focus on the practice of sensemaking did not fully explore any contextual factors within these organisations. Also, middle manager perceptions of successful organisational outcomes are not very reliable performance indicators. While the self-reporting of perceptions is a worthwhile means of gathering data, a measure and comparison of actual business performance indicators would significantly strengthen the findings.

Practical implications

From a practitioner perspective, this study not only underlines the importance for organisations of developing critical sensemaking practices for middle managers but also provides a clear pathway to achieving this. In approaching the intangible process of sensemaking from a practice perspective, it provides key stakeholders such as leaders, change agents and the HR department with a guide as to the types and forms of discourse practices which can be enabled. Maybe more importantly, it also highlights the practices which disable middle manager sensemaking. The study also provides organisations with insights into the positive outcomes stemming from middle manager sensemaking that should strengthen their case towards the development of sensemaking practices.

Originality/value

This paper responds to the call for new approaches to the study of sensemaking as an ongoing practice within organisations. The qualitative diary analysis provides rich insights into the specific organisational practices that can enable middle manager sensemaking, while also highlighting those practices that can disable their role during strategic change. These findings provide organisations with clear approaches for developing sensemaking as a practice, thereby engaging and supporting the multiple actors and levels required to deliver successful strategic change.

Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: an interview study with physicians, registered nurses and assistant nurses

BACKGROUND

Health care organizations are constantly changing as a result of technological advancements, ageing populations, changing disease patterns, new discoveries for the treatment of diseases and political reforms and policy initiatives. Changes can be challenging because they contradict humans' basic need for a stable environment. The present study poses the question: what characterizes successful organizational changes in health care? The aim was to investigate the characteristics of changes of relevance for the work of health care professionals that they deemed successful.

METHODS

The study was based on semi-structured interviews with 30 health care professionals: 11 physicians, 12 registered nurses and seven assistant nurses employed in the Swedish health care system. An inductive approach was applied using questions based on the existing literature on organizational change and change responses. The questions concerned the interviewees' experiences and perceptions of any changes that they considered to have affected their work, regardless of whether these changes were "objectively" large or small changes. The interviewees' responses were analysed using directed content analysis.

RESULTS

The analysis yielded three categories concerning characteristics of successful changes: having the opportunity to influence the change; being prepared for the change; valuing the change. The interviewees emphasized the importance of having the opportunity to influence the organizational changes that are implemented. Changes that were initiated by the professionals themselves were considered the easiest and were rarely resisted. Changes that were clearly communicated to allow for preparation increased the chances for success. The interviewees did not support organizational changes that were perceived to be implemented unexpectedly and/or without prior communication. They conveyed that it was important for them to understand the need for and benefits of organizational changes. They particularly valued and perceived as successful organizational changes with a patient focus, with clear benefits to patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Organizational changes in health care are more likely to succeed when health care professionals have the opportunity to influence the change, feel prepared for the change and recognize the value of the change, including perceiving the benefit of the change for patients.

Reframing organizational change from a processual perspective

Purpose

This article aims at reframing organizational change from a processual perspective to transcend the polarized tensions between planned and emergent approaches to change and to better align with the lived reality of practitioners. It informs the field of learning and development with fresh insights on how to broaden sensemaking repertoires of managers and employees in realizing organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

To understand how change agents conceptualize organizational change at a conceptual level, this article relies on Heidegger’s three modes of being-in-the-world to identify three dominant conceptualizations of organizational change and subsequently theorizes on corresponding phenomenological qualities of sensemaking.

Findings

This article develops a theoretical scaffolding that posits the emergence of organizational change as dialectic process of three different conceptualizations of change, i.e. wayfinding logic, managerialistic logic and reflexive logic, that translate into three different phenomenological qualities of sensemaking, i.e. absorbed sensemaking, detached sensemaking and mindful sensemaking, respectively.

Practical implications

A processual reframing of organizational change informs learning and development scholars and practitioners in at least three ways: raising awareness of and probing underlying managerial assumptions of what change is and how change should be managed, training managers and employees to deal with sensemaking processes to effectively realize organizational change, and actively assist in developing a broader sensemaking repertoire to deal with the equivocality associated organizational change.

Originality/value

This processual reframing contributes to the sensemaking literature on organizational change by reframing change as a dialectic process of different underlying assumptions of change agents, and different qualities of sensemaking of change. It pinpoints to concrete actions that learning and development professionals can initiate to contribute to more effective change management practices.

Contextual Conditions and Performance Improvement in Primary Care

BACKGROUND

Although organizational context can affect the implementation of quality initiatives, we know less about the influence of contextual conditions on quality outcomes. We examined organizational features of primary care clinics that achieved greatest performance improvements after implementing Lean redesigns.

METHODS

We used operational data and baseline (ie, pre-Lean implementation) surveys of 1333 physicians and staff in 43 primary care clinics located across a large ambulatory care system. Segmented regression with interrupted time series analysis was used to identify clinics with highest improvements in workflow efficiency, physician productivity, and patient satisfaction following Lean redesign. We conducted independent-samples t tests to identify contextual features of clinics that showed greatest improvements in performance outcomes.

RESULTS

Clinics with highest increases in efficiency had most prior experience with quality improvement, compared with all other clinics. Efficiency gains were also found in clinics reporting highest levels of burnout and work stress prior to redesign. Highest improvements in physician productivity were associated with a history of change, staff participation, and leadership support for redesigns. Greatest improvements in patient satisfaction occurred in least stressful environments with highest levels of teamwork, staff engagement/efficacy, and leadership support.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings encourage careful evaluation of clinic characteristics and capacity to effectively implement redesigns. Such evaluations may help leaders select interventions most appropriate for certain clinics, while identifying others that may need extra support with implementing change.

Our transformational leader might be replaced, we are extremely stressed out!

Purpose

This study aims to tackle employees’ stress and emotions in periods of changes in leadership positions, especially if the leader to be replaced is previously found to be transformational.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data are collected from WhatsApp conversations between different subordinates, hours around the declaration of the appointment decision. Data presentation includes messages exchanged, as well as photos, emojis and voice notes.

Findings

The participants’ messages reflected their stress. They are drained, desperate and praying God so their transformational leader is reappointed. Fear and sadness are the two types of emotion experienced by employees during the anticipation and confirmation stages of the change process, respectively. The emotional contagion among subordinates is revealed in the way the messages and the replies are very close in content.

Research limitations/implications

The low number of participants makes the results obtained specific to the case itself. However, this study triggers future research addressing same research propositions under different leadership styles and in different cultures.

Originality/value

The value of this research lies in the topic addressed, as no literature is found discussing employees stress in periods of change in a transformational leadership position, specifically. Moreover, its originality lies in the method of data collection which depicts the participants’ live and real feelings and emotions on that moment.

“Everybody needs everyone”: a case study of workplace learning after a downsize

Purpose

This study aims to explore how employees’ emotions after downsizing impact their learning that they partook in after the downsizing event.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodological approach was a qualitative case study. Nine employees, considered layoff survivors in a downsized organization, participated in semi-structured interviews. For data analysis, authors performed an initial, focused and axial coding.

Findings

The findings highlight three themes: “resilience,” “loyalty” and “moral support.” These themes show the empathy that layoff survivors experienced and the impact the layoff had on their commitment to the organization, as well as the social learning that occurred after downsizing.

Practical implications

Downsized organizations need to consider the emotions of employees who survive layoffs and how layoffs impact their behavior at work, particularly their learning behavior. Organizations need to understand how to positively impact layoff survivors’ emotions to influence the survivors’ willingness to learn and implement the changes within the organization. Providing outlets for survivors to network within the company, as well as meaningful opportunities, is one of the few ways of addressing employees’ emotions and ensuring they will be encouraged to change with the organization.

Originality/value

Research that explores how emotions resulting from an organizational downsize impact employees’ learning is minimal. Although much of the downsizing research does explore layoff survivors’ experiences after a downsizing, it does not address the emotional factors or the learning experiences. This study seeks to fill this gap.

Feeling Weary? Feeling Insecure? Are All Workplace Changes Bad News?

Prior research indicates that workplace changes can have both positive and negative consequences for employees. To explore the mechanisms that trigger these different outcomes, we propose and test a mediation model, which builds on the premises of the challenge-hindrance model of work stress. Specifically, we suggest that whereas workplace changes can engender positive outcomes (e.g., learning outcomes) through an increase in learning demands, they can also enhance negative outcomes (e.g., emotional exhaustion) through increased perceptions of qualitative job insecurity. While we made these specific assumptions, we also analyzed the reversed causation relationships. Two-wave data obtained from 1366 Dutch employees were used to test the study hypotheses. The results showed that the reciprocal causation model had the best fit for the data. However, whereas emotional exhaustion was only mediated by qualitative job insecurity, no mediation was found by learning demands. In addition to the hypothesized effects, several reversed causation effects emerged from the analyses, indicating that the relationships between workplace changes and employee learning and strain are not unidirectional. This underscores the need for a broader view on the causes and effects of workplace changes, as the traditional causation relationships (i.e., perceptions of workplace changes impacting employee learning and strain experiences) are insufficient to explain the complex dynamics between the studied phenomena.

Beyond Power Struggles: A Multilevel Perspective on Incongruences at the Interface of Practice, Knowledge, and Identity in Radical Organizational Change

Previous approaches to describing challenges inherent in radical organizational change have mainly focused on power struggles. A complementary but less researched view proposes that many problems occur because radical change causes certain incongruences within an organization. In line with the latter perspective, this article suggests that radical change leads to incongruences between “what they do” (practice), “what they know” (knowledge), and “who they are” (identity) as an organization; to achieve the change, these incongruences need to be accommodated by the organization’s individual members. The article takes a multilevel perspective and describes how in radical change organizational goals may interfere with individual characteristics at the intersections of practice, knowledge, and identity. This enables a fine-grained analysis of reasons why radical change efforts may fail, beyond power struggles. The model is concrete enough to help change managers foresee many practical problems, such as member disidentification, routine breakdowns, or knowledge gaps.

Affective Information Processing in Self-Managing Teams: The Role of Emotional Intelligence

Based on a multilevel data set collected from 599 individuals working in 102 self-managing teams, we examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and team member performance, focusing on the dimensions of teamwork and leadership performance. Furthermore, we explored the moderating role of team-level characteristics, such as noninformational diversity, size, and collective EI on the EI–performance relationship. As predicted, team members with higher EI were better at facilitating teamwork and playing the role of an informal leader than those with lower EI. The positive contribution of EI on team member performance was stronger for teams with greater diversity, larger sizes, and with lower average levels of team member EI. The study suggests that managers of self-managing teams should emphasize EI in their selection, training, and evaluation systems.

The Influence of Transformational Leadership and Leader Attitudes on Subordinate Attitudes and Implementation Success

Recent literature has focused on identifying factors that facilitate or impede the implementation of innovation in organizations. Attitudes toward change and transformational leadership are regarded as important determinants of implementation success. This study tested a multilevel model of transformational leadership and leaders’ attitudes toward the innovation being implemented as predictors of staff attitudes and implementation success. Participants were 565 service providers ( n = 478) and their supervisors ( n = 87) working in mental health organizations currently implementing an evidence-based practice (EBP). Results provided support for positive relationships between transformational leadership and staff attitudes toward EBP, as well as staff attitudes toward EBP and implementation success. Moreover, results supported an indirect relationship between transformational leadership and implementation success through employees’ attitudes toward EBP. The results suggest that the leader’s behaviors are likely more critical to innovation implementation than the leader’s attitudes.

Employee engagement, positive organizational culture and individual adaptability

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between employee engagement, positive organizational psychology and an individual’s ability to adapt to ongoing organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

The literature on individual adaptability, positive organizational psychology and employee engagement is reviewed. A model that suggests that a positive work culture enhances employee engagement and in specific cases leads to increased adaptability is developed.

Findings

While organizational engagement will have a positive effect on the individual’s ability to adapt to changes, job engagement will have the opposite effect, uncovering potential obstacles to change management in organizations.

Research limitations/implications

Suggestions for future research are provided with the intent to further academic research in this area. This model can serve as a starting point for future research design and can be tested in organizations undergoing various changes.

Practical implications

A positive culture fosters both job and organizational engagement within an organization. Managers can understand how to cultivate a positive, engaged environment for employees while understanding how certain job changes might have both positive and negative effects on an individual’s ability to adapt.

Originality/value

A model for identifying relationships between positive organizational behaviors, two types of employee engagement (organizational engagement and job engagement) and an individual’s ability to adapt to change is helpful to researchers and practitioners alike.