Receptiveness to change is a key issue in organisations. A lot of time, money and effort is used trying to predict and develop receptiveness to change as this is a primary indicator of organisational readiness for change. A new study looking at the relationships between job satisfaction, organisational commitment and people’s attitudes toward organisational change has just been published – This research briefing was sent to members in May 2017.
The intention of the study was to find out how job satisfaction, organisational commitment and people’s attitudes toward organisational change are connected.
- Job satisfaction
- Organisational commitment
- The researchers identified three types of organisational commitment
- Receptiveness to change
- The study
- Findings
- Reference
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Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction refers to the level of fulfilment or contentment a person feels about doing their job. Usually higher levels of job satisfaction tend to result in greater productivity and greater commitment to the organisation.
Organisational commitment
Organisational commitment is the individual’s psychological attachment to an organisation.
Usually organisational commitment and job satisfaction are closely correlated together with lower levels of intention to leave the organisation.
The researchers identified three types of organisational commitment:
1. Affective commitment: This is where the employee has an emotional bond with the organisation. They ‘want’ to be there.
2. Continuance commitment: This refers to the situation where an individual feels that they will lose more by leaving than they will gain. In effect continuance commitment is a fear of loss if they left. The loss can be in any domain such as prestige, income, friendships or social loss.
3. Normative commitment: This is where an individual feels they should stay for some reason. Usually this is because of a sense of obligation to the organisation. This sense of obligation can stem from the moral (working for a charity that is doing important work) or theethical(because the organisation spent time and money training you or paying college fees etc.).
Receptiveness to change
The interesting part of this study is that the research hoped to find a connection between job satisfaction, commitment to organisation and readiness for change.
The study
Using a series of standard instruments the research looked at a sample 352 employees in a large multinational organisation based in the Middle East.
Findings
The study found that there was a correlation between job satisfaction (pay, promotion and co-worker connection) and those who were more committed to the organisation, mainly in a form of continuance commitment.
They also found that higher levels of job satisfaction also correlated with higher levels of readiness for change, but only when there was also job security. Removal of job security significantly reduced their level of readiness for change.
This means that context is very important for readiness for change. Internal or intrinsic psychological factors are not enough to produce readiness for change on their own in situations where there are already high levels of job satisfaction and commitment to organisation.
Reference – available to members
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