| Pub. Date | : Jan, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJOB10120 |
| Author Name | : Sukhi Aujla, Carolan Mclarney |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Management |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 16 |
The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of organizational change on employee commitment in large multinational companies. The aim is to understand the most common effects experienced by employees as well as look at some of the rarer effects caused by organizational change. Additional explanation is given as to the impact these effects have on employees' commitment to the organization and the change itself. A discussion on some of the most common best business practices followed by organizations to increase employee commitment during times of change in organizations is given. Lastly, the paper reviews the importance of building employee commitment at an early stage to prepare the employees for organizational changes.
Organizational change is a common occurrence in most organizations in this ever-changing world of restructuring, mergers and innovations. Organizational change has been explained by Daft (2005) as a new idea or process being introduced in an organization which can be internal or external. Moran and Brightman (2001) described organizational change as an organization changing direction to keep up with the changing demands of customers. It is important to understand that the success as well as employees' acceptance of the change can depend on how well managers of organizations manage the change process. If employees are not involved early on in the change and lines of communication are not kept open throughout the change, it could result in unsuccessful implementation of the change. With this in mind, it is important for managers to recognize how important employee commitment is to change for organizations. Employee commitment has been described as an employee's positive relationship with the organization, department or manager (Fedor et al., 2006). Meyer and Allen (1990) broke down employee commitment into three types: affective, continuance and normative. Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) point out that employees can also be committed to other factors such as change itself and leadership in the organization. Employee commitment can be considered an ongoing relationship for employees with their employer and can go through phases as organizations go through departmental or leadership changes. In this study an attempt has been made to understand how organizational changes can be challenging for employees and can have an impact on their mental and physical well-being. The latter half of the study focuses on how employees' commitment is affected by these organizational changes. It is crucial for managers to note how the change management process can be improved to increase employee commitment. This led the study to review some best business practices. This process of increasing employee commitment can be key for organizations to be successful in implementing change and retaining employees. Finally, attention is drawn to building employee commitment early on in the relationship of the employee with the organization to prepare them for the inevitable changes the organization may go through. A limitation of this study is the lack of extant literature available to assess if employee commitment actually increases or decreases after an organization implements a change.