CHANGE IN SMEs:
A BILATERAL APPROACH TOWARDS ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE
A study on the effect of the change agents’ change strategies on the change
recipients’ coping strategies and the effectiveness of change.
by
Daniël Rogulic
Student number: 1776436 University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business Master BA, Small Business and Entrepreneurship
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ABSTRACT
Change literature often focuses on two main actors, the change agent and recipient, and in what way they influence change initiatives. A bilateral approach aimed at combining the perspectives of both actors is rarely used. The purpose of this paper is to get a better understanding of change in SMEs by combining these perspectives and researching the mediating role of the change recipients’ coping strategies on the relationship between the change agents’ change strategies and the effectiveness of the change initiative. A new scale for coping with organizational change is developed and used to test the hypotheses. The anaphoric coping strategy negatively influenced the change effectiveness. Since this is the first step towards both empirically researching change from a bilateral perspective, as well as using coping in an organizational change context, recommendations for future research are given to further develop this research field.
Keywords: SMEs, Coping strategies, Change strategies, Change effectiveness, Change
agent, Change recipient.
Acknowledgements. I would like to thank Dr. J.F.J. Vos for her time, effort and
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ... 3
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 6
2.1 Defining the concepts ... 6
2.2 SME change strategies ... 7
2.3 Coping with change ... 9
2.3.1 Attitudes towards change... 9
2.3.2 Setting boundaries in various coping strategies ... 10
2.3.3 Defining coping with change strategies... 101
2.4 The influence of change strategies on coping strategies ... 13
2.4.1 Notes of caution ... 14
2.4.2 Empirical-rational change strategy ... 14
2.4.3 Normative-re-educative change strategy ... 15
2.4.3 Power-coercive change strategy ... 16
2.4.4 Emergent change strategy ... 18
2.5 The influence of coping strategies on the effectiveness of change ... 19
3 METHOD ... 21
3.1 Data gathering procedure ... 21
3.2 Participants ... 22
3.3 Measurement of the variables ... 23
3.4 Data analysis ... 25
4 RESULTS ... 28
4.1 Descriptive statistics ... 28
4.2 Correlations ... 29
4.3 Testing the hypotheses ... 30
5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ... 33
5.1 Discussion of the findings ... 33
5.2 Theoretical contributions ... 34
5.3 Practical Implications ... 35
5.4 Limitations and recommendations for future research ... 35
REFERENCES ... 37
APPENDICES ... 42
Appendix A – Development of the coping with change scale ... 42
Appendix B – Change strategies, coping strategies and change effectiveness items ... 49
Appendix C – Factor analyses and Cronbach’s Alpha ... 49
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1
INTRODUCTION
Whereas the business environment was formerly characterized as being stable in which change was seen as an event, this view changed dramatically. Over the past decades the business environment became more volatile and change became an ongoing process instead of a random event. This shift forced businesses to adapt continuously to keep up with their competitors (Bechtold, 1997).
Due to this importance of change for businesses, organizational change gained wider academic attention as well. The work on change management by Kurt Lewin has had an important influence on the change research field over the past decades (Burnes, 2004a; Lewin, 1942). Lewin developed several, interrelated theories, of which the 3-step model of change management is the most famous and influential element. Lewin (1942) states in this approach to change management that a change initiative should start with unfreezing, which is focused at breaking patterns and preparing people for the change. After that, the transition takes place. Finally, the step of refreezing has to be made to assure that the change will become embedded in the personality and routines of the people involved.
Two things become clear out of this. First, the focus of Lewin’s work, and a lot of academic work later on, is on the change agent’s ability to influence the change process and all parties involved. Second, the first and the last step in Lewin’s model show the importance of the change recipients, and their acceptance to change, to successfully complete a change initiative (Burnes, 2009).
In line with Lewin’s work, academics often take the same approach, and thereby focus on the change agent and its capabilities (Higgs & Rowland, 2011; Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008; Maurer, 2011; Ottaway, 1983). While some of these researchers aim at explaining the change agent’s specific characteristics (Higgs & Rowland, 2011) or methods that lead to successful change (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008), others take a different approach. Vos and Brand (2012; see also Broekhof, 2012) investigated the relationship between the different change strategies deployed by the change agent and the effectiveness of the change initiative. Even though these studies that focus on the agents’ perspective led to valuable insights, they neglect the change recipients’ role in the change process.
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Bouckenooghe, 2010; Cunningham, 2006; Oreg, Vakola & Armenakis, 2011). Therefore, instead of expecting change agents to directly influence the effectiveness of a change initiative by adopting a specific change strategy, it is more likely that the decisions of the change agents lead to change recipients responding in specific ways. These responses will most likely have different influences on the effectiveness of the change initiative. This paper will focus on this role of the change recipients’ responses by researching the different change strategies that change agents can use to guide a change (Chin & Benne, 1985) and their effect on the coping strategies of the change recipients (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis & Gruen, 1986). Next, the influence of the different coping strategies on the change effectiveness is dealt with, to be able to determine the role of the coping strategies in the relationship between the change strategies and the effectiveness of the change initiative (see Figure 1).
To my knowledge, this is the first attempt made in the organizational change literature to take a bilateral approach towards organizational change by combining the change agents’ and recipients’ perspectives and empirically researching this. Next to this, since the coping strategies have not yet been applied in an organizational change setting, the existing concepts have to be adapted to suit this context. Since these two points show the explorative nature of this research, additional attention will be paid to the research procedure and the development of the coping with change concept.
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the change. Therefore the role division is clearer in this context. Due to this clearer division of roles, less role ambiguity is prevalent. Because of this, researching change initiatives in SMEs will be more accurate, since conflicting interests and dealing with one’s own resistance will be less prevalent.
Second, another reason to research organizational change in SMEs instead of in large firms is the fact that SMEs typically have shorter and more personal communication lines and fewer and simpler procedures (Nooteboom, 1994). Also, SMEs typically have more flexible cultures than large firms (Tichy, 1983), allowing them for more flexibility in general. When we take these characteristics together we can conclude that large firms are more bureaucratic, which causes larger firms to be more rigid than their smaller counterparts (Haveman, 1993). As a result of this, large firms are more prone to inertia (Geneen, 1985), and therefore organizational change is less desired in these organizations because of the higher costs (Fligstein, 1985). On the other hand, SMEs are less prone to inertia and because of this more accepting towards organizational change. Therefore, SMEs will most likely perform more changes than large firms, and consequently researching organizational change at SMEs is more accessible. This makes the fact that SME change literature is lacking behind even more striking (By & Dale, 2008). For these reasons this research will specifically focus on change initiatives in SMEs.
Concluding, this research will combine both the change agents’ and recipients’ perspective in the empirical setting of SMEs, and aims to answer the following question:
How do the change recipients’ coping strategies influence the relationship between the change agents’ change strategies and the effectiveness of the change initiative?
FIGURE 1 Research model Coping strategies Change recipient Change strategies Change agent Change effectiveness Change agent and
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2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This section elaborates on the literature that relates to the main concepts. First, an introduction of the relevant concepts and their definitions are given. Second, the different change strategies are discussed. Third, the coping strategies are dealt with. This section specifies why coping is chosen over other similar concepts, how several coping researches differ and overlap, and how these researches contribute to the development of new coping with change strategies. Fourth, hypotheses are developed for the influence of the change strategies on the coping strategies. Finally, the hypotheses regarding the influence of the coping strategies on the effectiveness of the change initiative are developed.
2.1 Defining the concepts
The focus of this paper will be on the influence of the ‘change agent’ on the ‘change recipient’. In literature the term ‘change agent’ is used so frequently that a clear definition is often forgotten. Two researchers who did pay attention to this issue are Ford and Ford (1995: 543), who defined a change agent as someone who ‘deliberately and consciously
sets out to establish conditions and circumstances that are different from what they are now and then accomplishes that through some set or series of actions and interventions either singularly or in collaboration with other people’. Although this definition is clear,
the deliberate and conscious nature shows that this definition only focuses on a planned approach towards change. Previous academic work has shown that an emergent approach to change is just as possible (Burnes, 2004b; Weick & Quinn, 1999). Therefore, to specify the definition to a context in which both planned and emerging change are possible, the definition for a change agent that will be used in this paper includes deliberate and conscious, as well as unintended and unconscious actions.
In the change literature the ‘set or series of actions and interventions’ as mentioned in the above definition is known as a change strategy. Change strategies can be described as ‘standardized and unstandardized procedures for purposefully altering the structure,
behavior, technology, and climate of the organization’ (Dunn & Swierczek, 1977: 136).
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addition to these strategies is the emergent change strategy, which is an approach to change that is characterized by ‘ongoing accommodations, adaptations, and alterations that
produce fundamental change without a priori intentions to do so’ (Weick, 2000: 237).
The other party that is actively involved in organizational change is the ‘change recipient’. This is the largest group of people involved in a change and they are the people that have to adapt to the change (Mento, Jones & Dirndorfer, 2002). However, ‘general’ change recipients can be involved in any type of change. Therefore, for the purpose of this paper, it is important to specify the definition towards organizational change. We define a change recipient as ‘someone within the organization in which the change takes place that has to adapt to this change’ (Mento et al., 2002: 50).
The change recipient is the party that, sometimes unwillingly, has to change. This is a switch from a certain, current state, towards a more uncertain future state, which could yield stress. As Folkman and Lazarus (1985) have shown, people tend to use different mechanics to deal with this stress, also known as coping strategies. Besides Folkman and Lazarus (1985) there are several other authors who take their own approach towards these coping strategies and because of this a dozen of different coping strategies that apply in a variety of scenarios are developed over the years (Latack & Havlovic, 1992)
Judge, Thoresen, Pucik and Welbourne (1999) already researched several antecedents of different coping strategies and the influence of these different coping strategies on general work-related outcomes. In this paper we adjust the coping strategies towards organizational change and we focus on the influence of the change agents’ change strategies on the change recipients’ coping strategies. Finally, the link between the coping strategies and the effectiveness of the change initiatives is researched to determine the mediating role of the coping strategies in the relationship between change strategies and the effectiveness of the change initiative.
2.2 SME change strategies
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different underlying assumptions and therefore the different ways of implementing the change, namely the empirical-rational, normative-reeducative and power-coercive change strategies (Chin and Benne, 1985).
Before elaborating on the different change strategies, it is important to note that these change strategies are ‘general’ strategies to effect change in all different kinds of human systems. Since this paper focuses on researching organizational change initiatives in SMEs, we refer to SME change strategies when we talk about change strategies.
The empirical-rational change strategy is based on two important assumptions. The first one is that humans are rational and the second one is that once a person perceives its rational self-interest it will be guided by it (Rutherford, 1982). Due to these two assumptions, change recipients will only adopt the change if there is something for them to gain, and if this can be rationally justified. Knowledge is seen as the major source of power in this approach. There are several tools to successfully implement and complete a change using this type of strategy. Examples are education to spread knowledge, hiring system analysts to increase efficiency, and idealistic thinking to create a future direction (Chin & Benne, 1985). The empirical-rational change strategy will be defined as an approach towards change that is based on the rationality of men and their drive by self-interest, and therefore uses knowledge as the main tool to change the people involved (Chin & Benne, 1985; Rutherford, 1982).
The normative-reeducative change strategy also acknowledges the rationality of human beings. However, the difference is that this approach makes different assumptions about peoples’ motivation. Where the empirical-rational change strategy assumes that change recipients are motivated by their self-interest, the normative-reeducative change strategy assumes that people are part of a social environment and are primarily driven by involvement in the change process. Mechanisms that are used to achieve this are mainly focused at improving the flow of feedback, training and consultation, in both an individual and group setting (Chin & Benne, 1985). The normative-reeducative change strategy will be defined as an approach towards change that is based on involvement of the change recipients and uses feedback, training and consultation to achieve this (Chin & Benne, 1985; Rutherford, 1982).
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be used are creating and manipulating power elites, using political institutions and using economical, non-violence strategies (Chin & Benne, 1985). The power-coercive change strategy will be defined as an approach towards change that is based on the use of power to force recipients to comply with the change (Chin & Benne, 1985; Rutherford, 1982).
The emergent change strategy is based on ‘the realization of new patterns of
organizing in the absence of a priori intentions’ (Weick, 2000: 226). Because of the
complexity of this type of change a top-down implementation approach is unsuitable (Higgs & Rowland, 2005) and a more collaborative and bottom-up approach is often used. Hayes (2002) even argues that this is the main idea behind emergent change, as organizations evolve over time, due to cultural and political forces that are inside the organization. Due to the unplanned nature of this type of strategy, it seems odd to call it a strategy at all (Burnes, 2004b). However, other authors show that there are specific actions change agents can take to shape an environment in which emergent change is encouraged. Rather than controlling their environment, change agents that adopt an emergent change strategy focus on enabling others, by disrupting their existing patterns of behavior, encouraging novelty, and making sense of emerging events for them (Plowman, Solansky, Beck, Baker, Kulkarni & Travis, 2007).
2.3 Coping with change
2.3.1 Attitudes towards change
In a change process, the people involved are moving from a current state towards a(n) (intended) future state. This process can be demanding for the change recipients and can therefore lead to stress and other personal reactions (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999). Stress is characterized by a situation in which there is a misfit between the demands on a person and the person’s resources to comply with this demand (Robbins & Judge, 2010). This can lead to several attitudes towards the change initiative. Besides attitudes towards change, other terms like coping with change, readiness to change and resistance to change are often used interchangeably (Bouckenooghe, 2010). Bouckenooghe (2010) emphasizes that, although these terms do show some important overlap, using these terms as substitutes is inaccurate because of their differences.
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change. Based on Lazarus and Folkman (1984), coping is defined as ‘the process of
managing demands that are appraised at taxing or exceeding the resources of the person’. There are two reasons to choose for coping with change over the other attitudinal concepts. First, just as readiness to change and resistance to change, coping with change clearly acknowledges that change is a stressful situation for the recipients. However, the main difference is that while readiness and resistance to change are often approached as a state that can either occur or not (in both high- and low-levels), coping explains the specific behaviors to deal with a change in more detail. Moreover, the specific coping strategies allow giving detailed insight in the different ways of dealing with stressful situations, instead of the overarching attitude towards the change. Second, although coping has gained wide academic attention, even in the organizational literature (Judge et al., 1999), coping in an organizational change context is neglected. Readiness and resistance to change both gained attention in this academic field already and are therefore less innovative and interesting. Bouckenooghe (2010) suggests that future researchers should focus on less-dominant paradigms, since this will create new knowledge on attitudes towards change. Therefore, this paper will focus on the different coping strategies that change recipient use to deal with change in SMEs.
2.3.2 Setting boundaries in various coping strategies
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An important basis on which these taxonomies differ, is the focus of the research object. Where the study of Carver et al. (1989) treats coping as a stable preference, the studies of Amirkhan (1990) and Folkman and Lazarus (1985) treat coping as a situational adaption to stressful situations. The way Carver et al. (1989) approach coping makes it appear similar to personality traits. Since this research is focused on change, which is a situational event, the researches of Amirkhan (1990) and Folkman and Lazarus (1985) are more appropriate. Furthermore, since the change recipients’ coping strategies are expected to be dependent on the strategic approach of the change agent, treating coping as a trait-like concept as Carver et al. (1989) do, leads to less valuable insights.
To gain a better overview of the coping literature, as well as a fundamental understanding of this literature, Latack and Havlovic (1992) attempted to structure it. They divided coping strategies on two dimensions, namely the ‘focus of coping’ and the ‘method of coping’. The ‘focus of coping’ refers to the aim of the coping behavior and can be divided in problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Since this paper researches the effect of change strategies on coping strategies, it is important to focus on the ability of the change agent to influence the change recipient’s perception of the change initiative. Therefore, instead of focusing on all coping strategies, we will only focus on the problem-focused coping strategies, in which ‘the problem’ can be defined as the specific change initiative. This is in line with other researchers who used coping in a business related context, and thereby only aimed at problem-focused coping (Cunningham, 2006; Judge, et al. 1999). Emotion-focused coping is not expected to be less valuable for dealing with any form of stress; however, the ability of change agents to influence this type of coping seems less apparent. This is due to the fact that emotions and personality are closely linked together, and both stable over time, and therefore less interesting for the purpose of this research (Egges, Kshirsagar & Magnenat-Thalmann, 2004).
To summarize, based on the above argumentation, we approach coping as a situational adaptation to stressful events, just like Amirkhan (1990) and Folkman and Lazarus (1985) do. In this paper, a problem-focus approach towards coping is chosen, in which the stressful event is defined as the organizational change initiative.
2.3.3 Defining coping with change strategies
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not all items mentioned in the WOC-R and CSI are relevant for the purpose of this research, since some coping strategies cover both the problem-focused and the emotional-focused dimension. Next to this, the aforementioned coping strategies are coping strategies in general, while this paper focuses on coping in an organizational change context. In this context, some coping strategies are most-likely expressed in the same sense and lead to the same general effect, and are therefore bundled as one coping strategy. Moreover, the items in the CSI do cover the problem-focused coping strategies, however are less complete than the WOC-R. The coping strategies that are used in this paper, aimed at explaining coping in an SME change context, are described below. More attention on how these coping strategies are derived can be found in the method section and in Appendix A.
As measured in the WOC-R, confrontive coping is characterized by acting aggressive and thereby trying to alter the situation. Distancing is about trying to disconnect oneself from the situation. Escape-avoidance is focused on efforts to get away from the situation (Folkman et al., 1986). These three coping strategies show partial overlap with the construct of avoidance out of the CSI, however they cover a broader perspective (Amirkhan, 1990; Latack & Havlovic, 1992). Furthermore, what these four coping strategies have in common is the fact that the person adopting them is not content with the situation and tries to escape or alter it. Therefore, these four coping strategies will be combined in this research and specified toward change as anaphoric coping. We will define
anaphoric coping as behavior aimed at expressing rejections towards the change, by
distancing oneself from, or altering the change initiative.
Next, seeking social support is characterized by seeking support in the form of information, tangible- and emotional help and is measured in both the WOC-R and the CSI (Amirkhan, 1990; Folkman et al., 1986). Although this definition expresses the main idea behind this coping strategy fairly well, for the purpose of this research the change context is missing. Furthermore, this definition aims towards the emotional-focused nature of coping. Therefore, we specify this and define seeking social support as seeking support in the form of information and tangible help to speak about ideas and problems that are related to the change initiative.
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measured in the CSI shows great overlap with these constructs (Amirkhan, 1990; Latack & Havlovic, 1992). These four coping strategies can be bundled as well, due to the fact that they focus at an individual’s contribution towards the success of a change initiative. In this research we will refer to this as contributive coping, which we will define as behavior aimed at acknowledging and either passively or actively fulfilling ones owns role in the change initiative, and thereby contributing to the success of it. An overview of the definitions of the coping with change strategies can be found in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1
Coping with change strategies Coping with change strategy Definition
Anaphoric coping Behavior aimed at expressing rejections towards the change, by distancing oneself from, or altering the change initiative.
Seeking social support Seeking support in the form of information and tangible help to speak about ideas and problems that are related to the change initiative.
Contributive coping Behavior aimed at acknowledging and either passively or actively fulfilling ones owns role in the change initiative and thereby contributing to the success of it.
2.4 The influence of change strategies on coping strategies
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change context. This section will take an in-depth look at these expected relationships, as well as their underlying argumentation.
2.4.1 Notes of caution
Before continuing with developing the hypotheses it is important to note that researching this topic can be problematic, and acknowledging these issues is worthwhile to overcome the illusion that this is a simplistic subject. First of all, this research deals with human behavior as a reaction to the behavior of another human. Predicting this behavior is far from simple, because personal factors come into play and not all people react in the same way to an identical situation. Judge et al. (1999) showed that positive self-concept and risk tolerance are important predictors of managerial coping. Next to this, a change recipient might perceive a change initiative to influence their life to a bigger or smaller extent than that of their colleagues. This is mainly because peoples’ cognitive appraisal differs in different situations. Folkman et al. (1986) have shown that this concept is closely related to coping as well. Another important factor is the context in which the change initiative takes place. Therefore it is important to keep the demographic factor of the companies in which the change initiatives take place in mind as well. Although these concepts are not the focus of this research, acknowledging their impact on the results of this research is important. Below, the influence of the different change strategies on the coping strategies will be dealt with.
2.4.2 The influence of the empirical-rational change strategy
The empirical-rational change strategy uses education about the benefits of the change initiative, to overcome the resistance that arises during the change. Consultants are often used in this respect (Chin & Benne, 1985). A better availability of social support leads to the fact that individuals are more likely to seek this support (Barrera, 1986). Therefore, since the empirical-rational change strategy makes use of internal and/or external consultants, change recipients are most likely more prone to use a seeking social support coping strategy.
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making is still top-down (Markee, 1997). Because of this lack of participation in decision making, change recipients are not likely to contribute to the change initiative. Therefore, no significant relation is expected between this type of strategy and contributive coping.
The underlying assumption of this strategy is that change recipients act rational. If change is being introduced as an improvement from the current situation, altering this change or distancing oneself from it would yield no benefit for the change recipients. VanderVoort (1992) reinforces this argument by claiming that irrational individuals are more likely to act in a hostile way. Because of this a negative relation is expected between this change strategy and anaphoric coping. An overview of these hypotheses can be found in Figure 2 and Table 2.
H1a: The more the change agent employs an empirical-rational change strategy,
the more change recipients tend to use a seeking social support strategy (a).
H1b: The more the change agent employs an empirical-rational change strategy,
the less change recipients tend to use an anaphoric coping strategy (b).
FIGURE 2
Conceptual model of the effect of the EmRa change strategy on the coping strategies
2.4.3 The influence of the normative-reeducative change strategy
This approach is most likely linked to the coping strategy seeking social support, since close ties with peers and other co-workers enhances the amount of opportunities to seek social support (Barrera, 1986). Furthermore, since the normative-reeducative strategy is focused at improving feedback, training and consulting, especially in group sessions (Benne & Chin, 1985), seeking social support is a logical consequence of this strategy.
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Next, the normative-reeducative change strategy is the other change strategy that is also referred to as a ‘persuasion’ strategy (Vos & Brand, 2012), trying to achieve this persuasion by the involvement of the change recipients. By allowing recipients to participate in feedback, consultation and training sessions, a more active involvement can be achieved (Louis, Posner & Powell, 1973). Because of this, contributive coping, in which the change recipients actively contribute towards the change initiative, is more likely to occur when this change strategy is used.
Finally, the normative-re-educative change strategy is based on the involvement of the change recipients. The inputs of the change recipients are taken into account and collective problem-solving is used to come to an end on which everybody could partially agree (Lozano, 2006). Because of this, change recipients are less likely to show anaphoric coping. An overview of these hypotheses can be found in Figure 3 and Table 2.
H2a,b: The more the change agent employs a normative-re-educative change
strategy, the more change recipients tend to use a seeking social support (a)/ contributive coping strategy (b).
H2c: The more the change agent employs a normative-re-educative change, the
less change recipients tend to use an anaphoric coping strategy (c).
FIGURE 3
Conceptual model of the effect of the NoRe change strategy on the coping strategies
2.4.3 The influence of the power-coercive change strategy
The power-coercive change strategy is primarily about using power to force people to change, and thereby overcoming any type of resistance during the change. Although this might be a quick solution to the issues that rise during a change, this type of strategy hardly
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allows for any participation by the recipients and neglects learning opportunities (Boonstra & Bennebroek Gravenhorst, 1998). Because the change agents often neglect issues that the change recipients have, this type of strategy will most likely result in anaphoric coping behavior. By acting aggressively, or distancing oneself from the change, the change recipient can try to alter the situation, and force a different change strategy in which more attention is paid to the feelings of the recipients (Boonstra & Bennebroek Gravenhorst, 1998; Folkman & Lazarus, 1985).
Next, in a situation in which the change agent forces the change recipients to change, seeking social support is unlikely. It is important to remind that in this research seeking social support is specifically aimed at informational and tangible help and that we neglect emotional help. It is unlikely that forcing people to change influences whether or not people search for informational or tangible forms of support.
Finally, when change agents use this change strategy it will most likely result in change recipients using less contributive coping. The main reason for this is that in situations in which change agents do not gain credits by informing, or at least dealing with feelings and issues of, the change recipients, these recipients will not likely take a positive attitude towards the change and make their own contribution to it. An overview of these hypotheses can be found in Figure 4 and Table 2.
H3a: The more the change agent employs a power-coercive change strategy, the
more change recipients tend to use an anaphoric coping strategy (a).
H3b: The more the change agent employs a power-coercive change, the less
change recipients tend to use a contributive coping strategy (b).
FIGURE 4
Conceptual model of the effect of the PoCo change strategy on the coping strategies
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2.4.4 The influence of the emergent change strategy
The emergent change strategy is based on changing by small and unintended adaptions that lead to a significant change (Weick, 2000). The initiative of the recipient is critical in this change strategy. Due to this participation in decision-making (Bordia, Hobman, Jones, Gallois & Callan, 2004), and therefore a change initiative that is partially formed by the recipients, anaphoric coping is less likely used when an emergent change strategy is used.
On the other hand, contributive coping will more likely be used by the change recipients, since one’s own input is critical, and individuality and autonomy are therefore promoted when using this change strategy. Moreover, because the changes come primarily from the recipients’ own initiative, they are expected to actively contribute to the success of their own initiatives as well.
Finally, when change agents use the emergent change strategy, change recipients are more likely to use seeking social support as a coping strategy. The main reason for this is that emergent change counts on bottom-up, as well as collaborative forces, to lead to change. These collaborative forces most likely contribute to the fact that change recipients feel the need to seek social support when such a change strategy is used. An overview of these hypotheses can be found in Figure 5 and Table 2.
H4a,b: The more the change agent employs an emergent change strategy, the more
change recipients tend to use a contributive (a)/ seeking social support coping strategy (b).
H4c: The more the change agent employs an emergent change strategy, the less
change recipients tend to use an anaphoric coping strategy (c).
FIGURE 5
Conceptual model of the effect of the Emer change strategy on the coping strategies
19 TABLE 2 Hypotheses Anaphoric coping Seeking social support Contributive coping Empirical-rational - + n.s.* Normative-re-educative - + + Power-coercive + n.s.* - Emergent - + + * n.s. = non-significant
2.5 The influence of coping strategies on the effectiveness of change
Organizational change is aimed at moving towards a future state, deliberately or not. The success of a change initiative depends on how, and to what extent this state is achieved. This section will focus on the influence of the coping strategies on the effectiveness of the change initiative.
However, talking about the effectiveness of a change initiative is problematic, because a clear definition is missing in the literature (Elving, 2005). The reason for this is that there are no clear criteria to measure whether or not change was completed successfully. As a result, the effectiveness of a change initiative is often measured by looking at the perception of the change agent. Since this paper takes the perspectives of both the change agent and the change recipient into account it is important to include both their perceptions in the definition. Furthermore, since this paper focuses on the influence of the decisions of the change agent on the ways of dealing with the change by the change recipient, only including the outcome of the change initiative will not be sufficient. Therefore, the change process has to be included in the definition as well. The definition used in this paper for the effectiveness of change initiative is: The degree to which the
change agents and recipients that were involved in the change perceive the change initiative as successful, based on the extent to which they are satisfied with the results of, and the resources and time spend during, the change initiative.
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influence of the different coping strategies on the effectiveness of change will be discussed below.
Contributive coping is characterized by actively participating in the change
initiative. This will presumably enhance both the results of the change initiative, as well as to the process of getting there. If contributive coping is used, this will most likely lead to a higher effectiveness of the change initiative.
Next, seeking social support is characterized by seeking support to overcome problems related to the change initiative. This might seem like behavior that results in a better change process for the change recipients, however there is a downside to this as well. When change recipients use a seeking social support coping strategy, this will lead to behavior that is not specifically aimed at completing the change, but more precisely at solving change related problems. This will result in a change process that would take more time and resources than when people would primarily focus at finishing the change initiative. Therefore, no influence is expected from seeking social support on the effectiveness of the change initiative.
Finally, anaphoric coping is characterized by rejecting the change. Instead of contributing, change recipients who use anaphoric coping are likely to express behavior to either alter the change or distance oneself from it. This will most likely influence the effectiveness of a change initiative in a negative way.
H5a: The more the change recipient employs a contributive coping strategy, the
higher the effectiveness of the change initiative will be.
H5b: The more the change recipient employs an anaphoric coping strategy, the
lower the effectiveness of the change initiative will be.
FIGURE 6
Conceptual model of the effect of the coping strategies on the ChaEff
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3
METHOD
This section focuses on the research methods used to gather the data to come to the final results. First, the procedure that is used to gather the data is described. After that, we will elaborate on the criteria that were used to select the participating companies and individuals. Next, the measures that were used to measure the relevant constructs will be discussed. Finally, the methods used to analyze the data will be described.
3.1 Data gathering procedure
This section will elaborate on the procedure that is used to gather data. As mentioned in the introduction, empirically researching change initiatives and including both the change agent’s and recipient’s perspective is novel and therefore additional attention to the way to achieve this will be paid below. To find respondents, a list of acquaintances was consulted to contact change agents within SMEs by phone. Next to this, change agents out of a database of the University of Groningen, which indicated that they were willing to participate in a follow-up study, were contacted. Because the change agents out of that database participated in a similar study, which partially examined the same constructs as this paper, different questionnaires had to be developed for the ‘follow-up’ change agents, and the newly acquired change agents. Therefore, three questionnaires were developed; one for the follow-up change agents, one for the newly acquired change agents and one for the change recipients. After the development of the questionnaires, two rounds of pilots were conducted with five students of the University of Groningen, to assure that the questionnaires were as comprehensible and flawless as possible. To allow for less time-consuming communication, digital versions of the questionnaires were developed and used to acquire the data.
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and to provide e-mail addresses of change recipients that were involved in the chosen change initiative. This was the critical step which enabled the possibility to link the results of the change agents to the results of the change recipients later on, while still being assured that the questionnaires were both answered in light of the same change initiative. Furthermore, this questionnaire was used to measure the change strategies adopted during the chosen change initiative, as well as the change agent’s perception of the effectiveness of the change initiative.
Next, an e-mail was send to the provided change recipients with the necessary explanation and the link to the questionnaire. Furthermore, the description of the change initiative that the change agent had specified was provided, to assure both questionnaires were answered in light of the same change initiative. This questionnaire was used to measure the coping strategies adopted during the change initiative, as well as the change recipient’s perception of the effectiveness of the change initiative.
For both the change agents and recipients a one week period was given to fill in the questionnaire. If they did not respond at the end of this period, a reminder was send by e-mail to increase the response rate of this research. This process was repeated three times for all participants. This led to a total of 35 change agent responses, out of the 53 change agents that agreed to participate during the initial phone calls (66% response rate for the change agents). Together they provided 45 recipients, of which 31 responded (69% response rate for the change recipients). This leads to a total number of 31 dyads (change agent-change recipient combinations), in 27 different SMEs.
3.2 Participants
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focused on the maximum amount of employees only. Even so, it is important to specify which employees to count for more precisely to avoid a blurred area, which could cause problems later on. For the purpose of this research, it was important to focus on whether or not an employee was affected by a change initiative. Since this can apply to both full-time and part-time personnel, the maximum of 250 employees is the sum of both these groups.
The next participation criterion was that the person had to be part of change initiative, either as a change agent or a change recipient. For the change agent a criterion was that they had fulfilled a change initiative that took place up to a maximum of three years ago. This criterion concerning the timeframe was established to assure that the change initiative was still fresh in the minds of both the change agents and the recipients. Another criterion to the change initiative was that it should be a change from which there are still change recipients working in the company, to enable the possibility to conduct surveys on them as well. The criterion the change recipients had to comply with, to participate in this study, was that they had been affected by the change project as chosen and described by the change agent.
3.3 Measurement of the variables
As described above, three questionnaires were developed and conducted at ‘follow-up’ and ‘new’ change agents, and change recipients to measure the relevant constructs. An overview of the items used to measure the three main constructs is given in Appendix B. The scales and items that are used to measure the relevant concepts are described below.
SME change strategies were measured using the items as developed by Vos and Brand (2012), which were based on the items as developed and validated by Szabla (2007), and complemented with the emergent change strategy items (Vos & Brand, 2012). A total of 21 items were used to measure the use of the four different SME change strategies according to the change agents. The change agents had to rate their answer on a 7-point likert scale, which ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). The empirical-rational change strategy was measured by using five items. An example of one of these items is: “As the person leading the change I focused on facts and promoted the
advantages of the change”. The normative-reeducative change strategy was also measured
by using five items. An example of one of these items is: “There was a lot of cooperation
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change”. The power-coercive change strategy was again measured with five items. An
example of one of these items is: “As the person leading the change I was not focusing on
the acceptance of the change by the employees”. Finally, the emergent change strategy was
measured by using six items. An example of one of these items is: “To change employees,
the only thing I had to do was stimulating them and giving them enough space to improve the company”.
Coping strategies were measured with a scale that was developed based on the Ways of Coping Revised of Folkman et al. (1986) and the Coping Strategy Indicator of Amirkhan (1990). As discussed in the theory section, this paper focuses on the overlap between these two studies and specifically the problem-focused coping strategies. Therefore, a total of 17 items were developed and used to measure three different coping strategies. A total overview of these items, as well as the items of the WOC-R and the CSI scale from which they are derived, can be found in Appendix A. Under each coping strategy matching numbers show from which items of the WOC-R and CSI the newly developed items are derived. The problem-focused coping strategies were the focus of the newly developed scale, and because of this several of the items out of the WOC-R and the CSI scales that were emotion-focused were excluded. Next to this, most items were adjusted to suite the organizational change context. Finally, two items were added to the seeking social support scale, to better match the definition in the literature (SeSoSu4 and SeSoSu5). The change recipients had to rate the degree to which they displayed this behavior during the change on a 7-point likert scale, which ranged from Never happened
(1) to Happened very often (7). The contributive coping strategy was measured by using
six items. An example of one of these items is: “During the change initiative I tried my
best to make the change a success”. The seeking social support coping strategy was
measured by using five items. An example of one of these items is: “During the change
initiative I talked to someone who could influence the change”. The anaphoric coping
strategy was measured by using six items. An example of one of these items is: “During
the change initiative I did not contribute to the change”.
7-25
points likert scale, ranging from Very dissatisfied (1) to Very satisfied (7). An example of one of the process-questions items is: “I am … regarding the performance of the company,
after the change initiative”. An example of one of the outcome-questions items is: “Spending resources is necessary to change, but I am … regarding the amount of resources used during this change initiative”.
3.4 Data analysis
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TABLE 3
Factor and reliability analyses
Variable Cronbach’s Alpha
Factor Items Core characteristics of factor Cronbach’s Alpha/corr.# NoRe .780 1 1,2,3,4,5 .780 EmRa .529 1 2 3 3,5 1,4 2 Participation of experts Fact and solidarity Advantages based on facts
.594** .515** - PoCo .502/(.366) 1 2 3 2,4 (5) 3/(1) Enforcement Creating distance Top-down .541** - -/(.248) Emer .507/(.431) 1 2 3 2/(3,4) 5,6 1 Employees’ initiative Bottom-up No-planning involved -/(.562) .405* - AnaCop .761 1 2 1,2,3,4 5,6 Passive rejection Active rejection .763 .551** SeSoSu .704 1 2 1,2,3 4,5 Informational help Tangible help .682 .420* ConCop .809 1 1,2,3,4,5,6 .809 ChaEff .913 1 2 3 4 1,4,5,6,7,8 2,3,10,11,16 12,13,14,15 9 Recipient outcome Process Agent outcome Functioning agent .893 .867 .872 -
See Appendix B for a list of all items.
# 2-item construct: correlation instead of Cronbach’s Alpha. Values between brackets () are excluded from this research. Correlation significance: ** p < .01, * p < .05
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Next, before continuing with the regression analyses, the data was tested for normality by using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. For NoRe, PoCo, and AnaCop the significance is below the .05 threshold, indicating a deviation from the normal distribution. For these concepts additional analyses were done to determine the shape of the distribution (skewness and kurtosis). The results of these analyses can be found in Table 11 below. As can be seen, NoRe appears to be negatively skewed. This shows that we have to be cautious with the generalizability of the results of this research towards the wider population, since the sample is not normally distributed.
TABLE 11
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Skewness & Kurtosis tests
Variable Statistic Significance Skewness Kurtosis
EmRa .155 .055 - - NoRe .205 .002 -1.158 .949 PoCo .170 .022 .302 -.954 Emer .135 .159 - - AnaCop .177 .014 .715 -.093 SeSoSu .127 .200 - - ConCop .136 .150 - - ChaEff .134 .167 - -
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4
RESULTS
4.1 Descriptive statistics
Out of the change agents, 90,3% was male and 9,7% female. Their age ranged from 22 to 60 (M = 44,74; SD = 10,11). Concerning their function within their company, 83,9% of the change agents was CEO, while the other 16,1% fulfilled a middle-managers function. Out of the change recipients, 77,4% was male and 22,6% was female. Their age ranged from 18 to 56 (M = 37,00; SD = 12,13). In total, 74,2% of the change recipients were in permanent employment, while the other 25,8% were temporary employees. The ages of the companies in which these change agents and recipients work ranged from 1 to 125 years old (M = 25,55; SD = 28,10). A total of 35,5% of the companies operated in a service-oriented sector, while the other 64,5% operated in the agricultural, manufacturing, construction or trade sector.
Table 12 provides the descriptive statistics of the main constructs as discussed in the theory section. All four change strategies have near equal means, except for the EmRa strategy, which scored over half a point higher than the other three strategies. Furthermore, the coping strategy AnaCop has the lowest mean of 1,98 (SD = 0,81) and the ConCop the highest of 4,78 (SD = 1,51).
TABLE 12
Main descriptive statistics (all variables on 7-point likert scale)
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4.2 Correlations
Next to the descriptive statistics, correlations between the control, dependent and independent variables were measured as well. The results can be found in Table 13 in Appendix D.
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4.3 Testing the hypotheses
After entering the control variables that correlated significantly with the main constructs (AgeRecipient, FunctionRecipient, Sector/Branche, PositiveSelfconcept and CognitiveAppraisal), the relationships between the change strategies and the change effectiveness were estimated. An overview of the results is shown in Table 14 below. The results show that neither the complete model (F (4, 21) = 1.317, p > .05), nor any relationships specifically are significant.
TABLE 14
Regression analysis change strategies on change effectiveness
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Second, the relations between the change strategies and the coping strategies were measured. The results can be found in Table 15 below. As can be seen, the results show that the change strategies explain 40.5% of the variance in anaphoric coping (F (4, 21) = 3.271, p < .05). The models regarding the influence of the change strategies on seeking social support and contributive coping appear to be non-significant (F (4, 21) = .851, p > .05; F (4, 21) = .937, p > .05 respectively). No specific significant relations were measured.
TABLE 15
Regression analysis change strategies on coping strategies
Anaphoric coping Seeking Social Support Contributive coping Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Coefficients Coefficients Coefficients Coefficients Coefficients Coefficients
Independent variables
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Third, the relations between the coping strategies and the effectiveness of the change initiative were measure. The results can be found in Table 16 below. The results show that coping strategies explain 32,4% of the variance in change effectiveness (F (3, 22) = 2.793, p < .01). Next to this, the results show that model 2 explains significantly more variance than the first model (R² Change = .245, p < .05). A negative relationship between AnaCop and ChaEff was found (B = -.48, p < .05). No other significant relations were found.
TABLE 16
Regression analysis coping strategies on change effectiveness
Model 1 Model 2 Coefficients Coefficients Independent variables β Sig. β Sig. Constant 6.215 .001 6.376 .001 Age_R -.003 .867 .008 .610 Function_R .003 .986 -.100 .548 Sector/Branche .012 .800 -.007 .874 PosSel -.039 .869 -.180 .413 Co_App -.397 .029 -.270 .154 AnaCop -.475 .049 SeSoSu .220 .121 ConCop .135 .362 Adjusted R² 11.0% 32.4% R² Change .259 .245* F 1.745 2.793* N 31 31
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5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Discussion of the findings
When we reflect on the findings of this research, there are several interesting results. Cognitive appraisal showed to correlate negatively with the effectiveness of the change initiative. Furthermore, cognitive appraisal correlated positively with anaphoric coping. If we interpret this, this means that the higher the stakes are for people involved in a change initiative, the more likely they are to use anaphoric coping. Furthermore, the higher the stakes are for these people, the less successful the change initiative is perceived. An explanation for these two relationships can be found in the concept risk-aversion. Kachelmeier and Shehata (1992) found that the higher the stakes were the more risk-averse people became. In the organizational change context, this could mean that the higher a change recipient’s stake is in a change, the more likely this person is to use anaphoric coping, to avoid the risks of a change. The use of this coping strategy could then, indirectly, lead to a lower effectiveness of the change initiative.
Furthermore, positive self-concept showed to be negatively correlated to anaphoric coping. This can be explained by a person’s perceived self-efficacy. Krueger and Dickson (1994) researched this construct in relation with risk taking propensity, and found that people that perceive themselves as competent see less threats and are more likely to take risks. Since organizational change is a risky occurrence, a more positive self-concept would more likely lead to a person embracing the change initiative, and therefore to a lesser tendency to use anaphoric coping.
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to responds in a socially desirable fashion (Arnold & Feldman, 1981). We will elaborate further on this in the ‘limitations and recommendations for future research’ section.
The one hypothesis that was supported was the effect of anaphoric coping on the effectiveness of the change initiative. Anaphoric coping has shown to have a negative effect on the effectiveness of the change initiative, thus supporting hypothesis 5b. As discussed in the theory section, when change recipients decide to reject a change initiative, by distancing oneself from, or trying to alter the situation, no effort is put in accomplishing the change initiative and therefore a less effective change initiative is logical.
Although no further specific significant relationship were found, there were other interesting findings. The results show that the change strategies explain a significant percentage of the variance in anaphoric coping. This shows that, while there is no significant effect of a specific change strategy on the use of anaphoric coping, we can say that change strategies do influence this coping strategy. This supports the expectation that change recipients use anaphoric coping in a reaction to the change strategies applied by the change agents.
Finally, the coping strategies appear to explain a significant percentage of variance in the change effectiveness, on top of the explained percentage of variance by the control variables. This shows that, next to the effect of anaphoric coping on the change effectiveness, coping strategies in general also affect the effectiveness of a change initiative. We will elaborate further on this in the ‘practical implications’ section.
5.2 Theoretical contributions
As mentioned before, this paper is to my knowledge the first attempt to integrate the work on coping in an organizational change context. Judge et al. (1999) integrated coping in an organizational context, however not specifically related to change. By the development of the new scale to measure coping with organizational change we made a first step future researchers could build on.
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Finally, this paper focused on SMEs only and thereby made a contribution to existing SME literature, and more specifically the SME change literature. As Vos and Brand (2012; see also Broekhof, 2012) mentioned, the current SME change literature is close to non-existing. Consequently, any effort towards getting a better understanding of this field is a valuable contribution to the organizational change literature.
5.3 Practical implications
Practical value of this research can be found in the effect of the coping strategies on the effectiveness of the change initiative. As the regression analyses have shown, anaphoric coping can be harmful for the effectiveness of change initiatives. Next to this, coping strategies in general showed to explain a significant percentage of the variance of the change effectiveness. Since in an organizational change context coping did not get any attention it is hard to say how change agents should deal with this. However, Judge et al. (1999) researched several antecedents of managerial coping and found that important factors that influence coping, and that can be influenced by managers, are salary, job level and plateauing. Managers could focus on these factors to positively influence employees’ coping behavior. However, since these factors are found in a research on managerial coping, and therefore their effect on recipient’s coping is questionable, future research could explore this matter.
5.4 Limitations and recommendations for future research
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questions, they should then also rate the ‘coping strategy’ questions. Another way to overcome this bias is by using case studies in which objective researchers perform observations. Due to the exploratory nature of this paper, this was beyond the scope of this research.
Another limitation of this research is the fact that the generalizability is questionable. There are four reasons for this. First, this research was partially focused at exploring a new field of research. The development of a new coping scale was part of this and therefore there was less focus on the acquirement of a large database. Second, this research was conducted in the Netherlands, and therefore cultural differences like researched by for example Hofstede (1980) may influence the results. Third, the data analysis showed that the data for the normative-reeducative change strategy was negatively skewed. Due to this, we have to be careful with the generalizability of the results regarding this construct. Finally, this research deliberately focused on SMEs only. A shortcoming of this is that the results are not generalizable to larger firms. To overcome these four limitations regarding the generalizability of this research future research should aim at a larger database, other countries than the Netherlands and larger firms as well.
A third limitation is that for this research only linear regression analyses were performed. Because of this, no u- or inverted u-shaped relationships are taken into consideration. However, it is possible that a construct influences another construct positively (or negatively) up to a certain point. An example could be the effect of seeking social support on the change effectiveness. A certain amount of seeking social support could enhance the recipient’s problem-solving capacity and shows commitment to the change process. However, too much of it could lead to a waste of time and resources, and thus a less effective change initiative. Future research could focus on testing for such nonlinear relationships.
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