"Type change" : the perceived structure of organizational change events

Abstract

Sustainable development and global prosperity hinge substantially on healthy, progressive organizations. The liability of change, which manifests in the dismal success rates of large scale organizational change initiatives, however threatens the advancement of this agenda. While the reasons for this are complex, a starting point for reversing this trend is a greater understanding of the phenomenon of organizational change, which is reified and enacted at the level of the individual employee. The current study empirically explored the under researched area of 'types of change', which influences employee perceptions and responses and which ultimately holds the key to organizational adaptation. Several structural dimensions were extracted from the 663 respondents' perceptions of change events, which suggest a more considered but also a potentially more effective approach to dealing with organizational change