When the going gets tough: Employee reactions to large‐scale organizational change and the role of employee Machiavellianism

Frank D Belschak,P Saskia Bayerl,Steffen R Giessner,Gabriele Jacobs,Kate E Horton

doi:10.1002/job.2478

Abstract

SummaryLarge‐scale, long‐term change initiatives take time to unfold, which can be a source of uncertainty and strain. Investigating the initial 19 months of a large‐scale change, we argue that during these stages, employees' change‐related beliefs become more negative over time, which negatively affects their work engagement and, ultimately, increases their turnover intentions. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of a trait, Machiavellianism, on change reactions and propose that employees high in Machiavellianism react more negatively during change processes as they are especially susceptible to uncertainty and stress. We test our (cross‐level) moderated mediation model in a three‐wave longitudinal study among employees undergoing a large‐scale change (T1: n = 1,602; T2: n = 1,113; T3: n = 759). We find that employees' beliefs about the impact and value of the change are indeed negatively related to change duration and that decreases in these perceptions come with a decline in engagement and increases in turnover intentions. Moreover, employees high in Machiavellianism react more strongly to a deterioration in change‐related beliefs, showing stronger reductions in engagement and stronger increases in turnover intentions than employees low in Machiavellianism. Our study offers explanations for the negative effects of large‐scale changes including an explanatory factor for disparate employee reactions to change over time.

Highlights

Research shows that large-scale organizational changes are risky endeavors
Due to the inherently uncertain and stressful nature of large-scale organizational change, employees' beliefs about such a change will become more negative over time, resulting in a loss in change momentum (Jansen et al, 2016) and a broader decline in work outcomes as the change unfolds
We argue that employees are likely to assess their circumstances more negatively during large-scale, long-term organizational change processes as their beliefs about the change decline, and their work engagement suffers

Summary

Introduction

According to Lovallo and Kahneman (2003), about three quarters of all mergers and acquisitions never pay off This persistently high failure rate testifies to the demanding and challenging nature of these types of changes (Jacobs, van Witteloostuijn, & Christe-Zeyse, 2013). Large-scale organizational changes can be defined as those that dramatically alter the structure and/or culture of an organization (i.e., transformative changes; e.g., Bartunek & Moch, 1987; Nutt & Backoff, 1997). They imply significant shifts in basic aspects of an organization and can be seen as a “shock to the system” They imply significant shifts in basic aspects of an organization and can be seen as a “shock to the system” (Rafferty & Griffin, 2006, p. 1159).

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