Ambivalence Toward Imposed Change: The Conflict Between Dispositional Resistance to Change and the Orientation Toward the Change Agent

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Oreg, Shaul; Sverdlik, Noga
• 署名单位: University of Haifa; Open University Israel; Reichman University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/a0021100
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 337-349
• 关键词: resistance to change; AMBIVALENCE; identification; trust

摘要

Following an analysis of the concept of imposed change, we propose 2 factors that jointly contribute to an individual's experience of ambivalence to imposed change. In a secondary analysis of data (N = 172) and 2 field studies (N = 104, N = 89), we showed that individuals' personal orientation toward change interacts with their orientation toward the change agent and yields ambivalence. Specifically, among employees with a positive orientation toward the change agent (i.e., high trust in management, identification with the organization), the relationship between employees' dispositional resistance to change and ambivalence was positive. The opposite pattern emerged among employees with a negative orientation toward the change agent (Studies 2 and 3). Our findings suggest that researchers may have been misinterpreting employees' reactions to change, neglecting the possibility that some may simultaneously hold strong, yet conflicting, views about the change. By accounting for, and predicting, ambivalence, these studies provide a more accurate explanation of employees' responses to change.