Looking Forwards and Back: Exploring Anticipative Versus Retrospective Emotional Change-Experiences

Abstract

This article aims to explore the emotional experience of anticipating versus retrospectively looking back on organizational change. This follows the insight that employees inevitably, and at any point in time, hold histories and anticipated futures. Hence it is argued that contrasting and exploring anticipative and retrospective emotional change-experiences indepth may provide insight into, and explain the ways in which these experiences potentially differ, as well as the ways in which they are tied to the wider organizational and societal context of change. It is argued that previous contributions to the managerial and change literature on employees' emotional change-experiences adopt a limited perspective through undermining the role played by context or person-situation interactions. A qualitative study from the Norwegian hospital environment is presented, where a selected group of nursing staff were interviewed regarding their emotional experiences of change at two points in time; one month prior to the anticipated implementation of a new electronic care planning system, and one year after. A wide range of different emotional experiences, both positive and negative, were reported at both points in time. These emotional experiences related to quite specific local situations and aspects of the changes and change process, as well as to the wider and societal context of change.