Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2008
Abstract
Affective commitment of individuals is critical for the success of an organizational change initiative. In order to secure this desired form of commitment, managers spend a great deal of time and money implementing elaborate change management and communication strategies, often with little success. Three important types of change messages that are expected to drive commitment to change are:: (1) the organizational need for change (discrepancy), (2) the support of organizational leaders (principal support), and (3) the benefit of the change to the individual (personal valence). In this quantitative survey-based study conducted at a large global bank, we analyzed the perceptions of 575 information technology (IT) software professionals in India and Malaysia regarding an enterprise-wide change. The goal of this research is to understand the impact of these change messages on the affective commitments to change. Further, we also look to understand the impact on continuance commitment to change, which is a less internalized, obligatory commitment. Findings are organied through a push-pull framework for change communication that categorizes change messages as either "pull" or "push", depending on the nature of their impact on the affective commitment (want to change) and the continuance commitment (have to change). Through structural equation modeling analysis, we show that change messages of discrepancy and support are "push" messages (since they either increase the negative desire for change or decrease the positive desire for change, which are unintended consequences). Only valence messages demonstrate a "pull" effect (increases the positive desire for change and, at the same time, lowers the negative desire for change). These findings clearly indicate that to create a positive desire for change (affective commitment) among individuals, managers should focus more on the personal valence as a central change-communication strategy. Our findings also test the robustness of seminal change-message and commitment-to-change scales in a multicultural setting, and highlight specific areas where these scales may need to be adjusted through future studies.
Keywords
corporate culture, organizational change, change, communication, message, commitment.
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Rashid, Humayun, "The Impact of Change Messages on the Commitment to a Change: An Analysis of IT Professionals in India and Malaysia" (2008). Student Scholarship. 451.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/451