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Employee Commitment in Times of Change: Management Journal

Decent Essays

Employee Commitment in Times of Change:
Assessing the Importance of Attitudes Toward
Organizational Change†
Steven M. Elias*
Department of Psychology, Auburn University Montgomery, Montgomery, AL
Organizations are dynamic and changing entities. Variables associated with organizational change have been shown to serve as mediators of several individual difference variable/workrelated outcome relationships. This study examines three potential antecedents of 258 police officers’ attitudes toward organizational change (ATOC), and whether ATOC mediates the relationships between these antecedents and affective organizational commitment (AOC). At the time of data collection, the officers’ police department was restructuring its …show more content…

A review of the psychological and organizational behavior literature points out that (a) intrinsic motivation can be thought of as internal work motivation, (b) the ability to see change as a learning opportunity can be thought of as growth need strength, and (c) having control over the change process can be thought of as an internal locus of control. With this in mind, these individual difference variables should be of importance to how employees cope with organizational change. In a related line of research,Wanberg and Banas (2000) obtained partial support for their conceptual model that individual difference variables (e.g., personal resilience) affect one’s openness toward organizational change, which in turn affects work-related outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction and intention to quit). The purpose of the current study is to extend the work of Wanberg and Banas by examining whether attitudes toward organizational change mediate the relationships that exist between the psychological variables mentioned above (i.e., growth need strength, locus of control, and internal work motivation) and affective organizational commitment. The focus of this study is the

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