Hudson, Jackie

Rumbles, Sally Diana

English

Name not available

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The Impact of Organisational change on Employee Commitment 
 
Jackie Hudson and Sally Rumbles 
 
Introduction 
One of the outcomes of the global economic crisis is the ever increasing amount and speed of 
change which has resulted in organisations downsizing and reducing staffing levels in order to 
remain competitive. The student housing market is certainly not immune to recession and collapse 
of large parts of Opal group, a major player in the student accommodation sector in 2013 
highlighted a new concern in what had previously been a sector that had been largely impervious 
to economic pressures. Recent studies into the effect of organisational change have focused on 
‘survivor syndrome’; that is to say on those employees surviving organisational downsizing and the 
resultant affect that that organisational restructuring has on employee commitment levels.   
 
There are numerous studies on the effects of organisational change on employee commitment but 
to date the majority of studies have taken a quantitative approach without exploring the qualitative 
aspects that would enable us to understand the true feelings and effects that organisational 
change has on the individual. The aim of this research project was to explore the extent to which 
organisational change impacts upon employee commitment to an organisation to specifically 
address two research questions: 
 
1. How and to what extent does organisational change impact upon employee commitment? 
2. What has been the effect of significant organisational change on employee commitment in 
survivors at Student Accommodation PLC? 
 
Change Management 
Much has been written on the subject of organisational change and there are multitude of 
change themes to consider, for example, what constitutes major change, how to lead 
change, how to make sense of change and how to survive change. With varying opinions on 
definitions and its impact it is hardly surprising that there is no agreement on what 
constitutes organisational change. However, it is widely agreed that change is constant, in 
fact, Hughes (2010) comments that with the amount of change occurring, perhaps 
organisational change itself is the “only constant”. Whatever the reasons for change, it is the 
effect and actions of staff that will ultimately influence the result, whether they are the 
leaders and instigators of change, or the recipients, the human factor in the change process 
is critical to its success. One clear aspect of this is the effective communication of change 
and poor communication can impinge significantly on an organisation’s ability to undergo a 
successful change programme. Kotter (2012), for example identifies the importance of 
“communicating the vision” as one of eight key steps in successful change management and 
poor or “under” communication as “one of the major reasons” for the failure of change 
initiatives. More recently studies have sought to research the impact of change on 
organisational commitment. 
 
Employee Commitment 
Organisational commitment, according to Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian (1974), has 
three components: Belief and acceptance in the organisation’s goals; a willingness to exert 
considerable effort on behalf of the organisation and a desire to remain within the 
organisation. Research indicates that the behaviours and actions of committed employees 
are generally more positive than those who are not and as a result levels of commitment can 
be a reliable indication of behaviour such as turnover intention. Employee commitment can 
thus be an important factor during change. Jaros (2010) has concentrated on the theme of 
commitment to change itself or ‘C2C’, and found that there has been little qualitative 
research to advance our understanding of how the process of commitment to change is 
developed and its subsequent effects on organisational change outcomes. 
 
Meyer and Allen (1997) developed a three component model that considers the types of 
commitment typically displayed by employees during a change process and categorise these 
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elements as ‘Affective’, ‘Normative’ and ‘Continuance commitment’ as explained in Figure 1 
below. Using Meyers and Allen’s model, this research considers how levels of commitment 
might alter in the survivors of organisational restructure, with negative behaviours often 
being referred to as “survivor syndrome”. 
 
Figure 1 Meyer and Allen’s employee commitment model 
 
 
 
Research Methods 
Student Accommodation PLC is a leading player in the student accommodation market and 
employ 270 staff across the UK working in roles ranging from senior management to ‘blue 
collar’ positions. Twenty-six out of a total of 33 student accommodation residences 
underwent significant organisational change (i.e. redundancies had taken place; reduction in 
working hours, change of core hours resulting in early starts or late finishes, or place of work 
had been changed). In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a 
representative cross section of staff across the organisation, who had directly experienced 
the change. A cross section of 14 staff were interviewed using open ended questions to 
encourage the participants to speak freely about their experiences of and feelings following 
change around four key categories that were identified from the literature: 
 
 Reactions to the change 
 Views on communication and consultation 
 Views on job security 
 Levels of commitment post re-structure, particularly focussing on any elements of survivor 
syndrome and where overall commitment levels lay, i.e. were the survivors broadly 
displaying affective, normative or continuance commitment? 
 
The qualitative data was analysed using a thematic analysis technique that allowed for key 
themes to be identified from the study. 
 
Analysis of Findings and Conclusions 
 
Four key themes have been identified from the research: Commitment, Trust, Information & 
Communication and Job Security and these themes concur with previous studies. 
 
Commitment 
Evidence from the research concurs with the literature that commitment levels are congruent 
with the amount of change undergone; Brockner, Grover and Blonder (1988). Levels of 
commitment in survivors at Student Accommodation remain lower than the company would 
wish 12 months post-change. However, in general, good levels of normative commitment 
were apparent. There was little evidence of affective commitment, and only in managerial 
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staff. Lack of significant AC can lead to turnover and absenteeism and since this research 
was undertaken, turnover at manager level has increased at Student Accommodation for the 
first time in over 3 years. Turning to the research question, the research finds that significant 
organisational change impacts more on blue collar staff than managerial staff, and feeling 
overworked, in particular, lead to resentment and a fall in service levels to the customer. 
 
Trust 
Research by Meyer and Allen (1997) found that maintaining trust assists with the bonding of 
individuals to the organisation, and survivors of change need to trust the competency and 
honesty of top management; Robbins (1999). In Student Accommodation, the strongest area 
of trust was at a local level. Trust of the company diminished for those in blue collar 
positions, and the majority of managerial employees linked trust of the company to the 
presence of the incumbent Chief Operating Officer (COO). The research concludes that if 
the COO leaves the company within the next year, an exodus of senior managers may 
follow. 
 
Information & Communication 
Jaros (2010) noted little qualitative research undertaken to advance the understanding of 
how employees develop the process of C2C, and its effects on the outcomes of change. 
This research has highlighted that a lack of understanding for the reasons for change directly 
causes employees to feel negative to the change, and has a subsequent effect on their 
levels of commitment to the organisation. This research concurs with the literature and 
concludes that the importance of internal communication is key to aiding the process of 
understanding change, and improved and more timely internal communication by managers 
at Student Accommodation could substantially improve commitment levels at blue collar 
levels. 
 
Job Security 
The research concluded that at all levels, job security remained a concern. The model 
created by Brockner (1988), demonstrated the psychological state of job insecurity as being 
one of the elements that affects the behaviour and attitude of survivors. Opinions on job 
security at Student Accommodation were split into two camps: those (particularly blue collar) 
employees who felt that the company had “done it once and would do it again”, and the 
managers who were affected by the suspension of the student accommodation fund, the 
lack of growth and worries that the company would be sold or that the COO would leave in 
the near future. 
 
Limitations and conclusions 
Throughout the study, the researcher aimed to remain objective. However, due to the role of 
HR Manager, it can be argued that the research could not be totally objective. Qualitative 
research, by its nature uses small numbers of participants and between 7-8% of participants 
from each group took part in this qualitative research. However, secondary survey data 
gathered from the relevant sections of the 2013 employee opinion survey were analysed and 
appear to affirm the findings of this research, and therefore the researcher would conclude 
that the findings of the sample population appear to be representative. Organisational 
change can bring uncertainty; a lack of support; increased workload; job insecurity and 
reduce levels of commitment. 
 
Hayes (2010) noted that willingness on the part of employees to commit to future change 
can be reduced due to their experiences, and subsequently influence levels of overall 
commitment to the organisation. The research into significant organisational change in 
employees at Student Accommodation has shown that all these factors have come to the 
fore; in particular, more attention needs to be paid to internal communication to ensure that 
that employees are committed to the reasons for change, and attention needs to be given to 
how to manage future change to ensure a successful outcome as almost 70% of 
organisations undertake further reductions in the year following an initial downsizing, 
Applebaum and Donia (2001). For survivors of organisational change at Student 
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Accommodation, some themes, particularly feelings surrounding job security, are still very 
strong over a year later, and this should be a concern to which the senior leadership team 
must be aware, and seek to address. 
 
References: 
Applebaum, S. H., & Donia, M., (2001). The realistic downsizing preview. A management 
intervention in the prevention of survivor syndrome (part II). Career Development 
International, 6(1), 5-19 
 
Brockner, J. (1988). The effects of work layoffs on survivors: Research, theory, and practice. 
In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, 10, 213-255. 
Greenwich, CT: JAI. 
 
Brockner, J., Grover, S.L., Blonder, M.D. (1988), "Predictors of survivors' job involvement 
following layoffs: a field study", Journal of Applied Psychology, 73(3), 436-442. 
 
Hayes, J., (2010). The Theory and Practice of Change Management, (3rd ed) Basingstoke: 
Palgrave McMillan. 
 
Hughes, M., (2010). Managing Change: A critical perspective (2nd ed) London: CIPD. 
 
Kotter, John P., (2012). Leading Change, (2nd ed) Boston: Harvard Business Review Press. 
 
Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian, (1974), “Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, 
and Turnover among Psychiatric Technicians”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 59, 603-609. 
Robbins, S. P., (1999). Layoff-survivor sickness: A missing topic in organizational 
behaviour. Journal of Management Education, 23(1) 31-43. 
 
Jaros, S., (2010). Commitment to Organizational Change: A Critical Review, Journal of 
Change Management, 10(1), 79-108. 
 
Meyer, J. P., and Allen, N. J., (1997). Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research 
and Application, Sage Publications, London. 


The impact of organisational change on employee commitment

Portsmouth University Research Portal (Pure)

Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research and Application,

Commitment to Organizational Change: A Critical Review,

Layoff-survivor sickness: A missing topic in organizational behaviour.

Leading Change, (2nd ed) Boston:

Managing Change: A critical perspective (2nd ed)

Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover among Psychiatric Technicians”,

Predictors of survivors' job involvement following layoffs: a field study&quot;,

The realistic downsizing preview. A management intervention in the prevention of survivor syndrome (part II).

http://eprints.port.ac.uk/id/document/41827

The impact of organisational change on employee commitment

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