CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter contains the review of some existing literature on organizational change,
and organizational commitment. This will not only help in the current study but will
also help to identify the gaps between the existing studies and the studies required in
the context of the present research. This will also provide a direction for further
research. For understanding, the section has been divided into the following parts
namely organizational change, organizational commitment and relationship between
the organizational change & commitment.

Review of literature has been classified under the following headings:

2.1Studies on Organizational Change

2.1.1 Studies on process of Change
Prosci (1998) The ADKAR model for an individual change management was
developed by Prosci(1998). The input for the model was from more than 1000
organizations situated in 59 countries. The model describes five main required
building blocks for change. These should be realized successfully on individual level.
The building blocks of the ADKAR Model are:
i. Awareness – why the change is needed
ii. Desire – support and participate in the change
iii. Knowledge – how to change
iv. Ability – implement new skills and behaviors
v. Reinforcement – sustain the change
Some change theories are based on the derivatives of the Kübler-Ross model (1969).
The stages of model describe :- the personal and emotional states. According to him a
person typically encounters personal state when dealing with the loss of a loved one.
Derivatives of the ADKAR model are applied in other settings like the workplace. It
shows that similar emotional state is encountered as the individuals are confronted
with change.

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An early/premature model of change developed by Lewin (1947) described change as
a three-stage the existing "mindset". The defense mechanisms have to be avoided. The
second stage of the model discuss about the change and when change in actual it
occurs. This is typically referred/stated to as a period of confusion and transition. The
old/previous ways are being challenged. But there is no clear picture to replace them
with yet. The final and third stage is referred to him as "freezing" (often called
"refreezing"). The new mindset is crystallizing and here one's comfort level returns to
previous levels. Rosch (2002) claims that this is often quoted referred to as three-stage
version of Lewin’s (1947) approach. This approach is an oversimplification. The
actual theory was more complex, difficult and owed more to physics than behavioral
science. Later theorists on change have however remained resolute in their
interpretation and clarification of the force field model. This three-stage approach to
change was later adopted by Hughes. Hughes (1991) referenced this to: (i) exit i.e.
departing from an existing state, (ii) transit state - crossing unknown territory and (iii)
entry state - attaining a new equilibrium.

Chapman (2002) examined a framework for planning change processes that are
transformational in nature. The framework is structured around three core issues in
the file of organizational change management
• the nature of organizations and what constitutes an improvement

• appropriate strategies for levering change and

• Last the role of change agent.

The emphasis in the study was placed on beliefs, attitudes, and values. The 3 were
referred as the crucial change levers in an organizational transformation. The
usefulness, worth and power of the framework was illustrated by a case analysis. It is
included as the successful intervention involving over 50 large consultants’
organizations. The article also accomplishes a debate on methods, processes
supportive of successful transformational change.

Hanna (2009) suggests on a change process. According to her the movement or

association is from "homeostasis and holding on", second through "dying and letting
go" and third to "rebirth and moving on". Further, elaborating the same process to five
stages. Judson (1991) suggested a linear and staged model of implementing a change.
In the first stage the change should be analysed and planned, in the second stage the

26
change should be communicated, third stage involves gaining the acceptance of new
behaviours; the fourth stage the desired state is achieved form the status quo and
finally the consolidation and institution of the new states. A Formula for Change was
also developed by Beckhard (1969) and is sometimes referred to as Gleicher's
Formula. The Formula explains the combination of vision for the future,
organizational dissatisfaction, possibility of taking immediate and tactical action that
must be tougher than the resistance. This will help to make the change meaningful in
the organization. This formula also helps to provide a model to measure or assess the
relative strengths, distressing the likely success of the organizational change
programs.

Mikaelsson (2002) of Volvo Car Corporation and THE FENIX Program describes as
to how do people develop new products and hence change organization. It aims at
increasing the knowledge about management of change. This is characterized by
enormous portion of non- routine work. The study by author documents the change
process and the product development in the organization before and after the change
effort. The discussion of study highlights some of the challenges in facilitating the
change that occurs in a complex product development environment. The rate and
amount or magnitude of change are rapidly outperforming and outpacing the complex
theories like social, economic and philosophical. This comprises the basis on which
public and private decisions are usually based. Ven and Plloe (1995) explained the
basic theory on processes of organizational change i.e. lifecycle, teleology, dialectics
and evolution. The above four theories explain different sequence of change events.
These are driven by different conceptual motives and they operate at different
organizational levels.

Benchmarking is the tool for change management which helps all organizations to be
more operative and effective in managing the change process. Benchmarking is used
at a number of levels within an organization than the tools, useful at either a strategic
level or operational level. Furthermore, it provides experienced-based and practical
framework extracted from the actual methods, practice and actions within an
organizations to successfully managed change (Manton, 1997). The keys for
successful change management include the following:- (i) think holistically to
understand all the change implications,(ii) focus on the critical success factors that

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facilitate implementations and (iii) strive to be equal partners with business
implementing change (Squires, 2001).

Whipp (1991) emphasized the continuous interplay between the three strategic change
dimensions, i.e., Content/ What - (objectives, purpose and goals), process/how -
(implementation), and context/where - (internal or external environment). The
implementation of change according to them is an cumulative, iterative and
reformulation in use process. The success of change is due to interaction between the
three dimensions.

According to Beabout (2001) change agentry, in order to aid change agents and
scholars always play an important and significant role in effecting substantive
organizational or educational change. He defined change agentry as the activities and
actions of education and facilitation with help of which organizational stakeholders
inhabit/occupy a new state of design. His work is mainly into educational
communications and technology field that seeks to result in significant change
through collaborative efforts. The work takes into consideration theoretical constructs
and turns to an examination of the empirical findings. The research studies is
associated with government organizations, K–12 school contexts, different
corporations and the health care industry. They also indicate that change agents are
not always supported, welcomed or human resources or given sufficient time and
most change agents struggle mightily to effect and sustain substantive systemic
organizational change. The foremost finding of the study is that there are three core
ideas central to change agentry: (i) connecting an organization to environment is
significant and important, (ii) flexibly adaptive change may be anticipated/ desired
goal (iii) local leaders and external support is needed so as to support any successful
change effort. The overall experience of change comprises of two dynamic change
patterns, i.e., extrinsically introduced organizational development, facilitated by the
conceptual factors and extrinsically developed transformational change i.e. blocked
by the same conceptual factors. These patterns basically comprise participants’ act of
answering to the basic question used in the research i.e. “To have or to be?” and hence
crystallize the main importance of choosing change strategies suitable for the intended
change (Clarke & Manton, 1997).

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Rogers (2003) has given framework to think about change. The study starts from the
diffusion of hybrid corn among United States farmers. According to him there are five
perceived attributes of an innovation that are important to influence the rate of
adoption: First is Relative advantage that is how well the innovation outperforms the
current methods? Second is Compatibility: how well the innovation canpeacefully
coexist with the work environment in which it is to be adopted. Third is Complexity
that is adopters are more likely to utilize innovation, they understand and does not
take excessive effort to learn. Fourth is Trial ability that is the extent to which an
innovation can be test driven, before any wholesale adoption takes place. And the last
is observability that is an innovation more likelyto diffuse rapidly if the benefits to
earlyadopters can be seen by those still hesitantabout the innovation.

Kendra and Taplin (2004) worked on change agents competencies for information
technology project managers. The external change agents are valued for their capacity
to affect the organization’s power structure since they are less subjective than the
employees to implicit and explicit organizational rewards and punishment. And these
external consultants possess an ability to openly criticize people and the practices
without sacrificing their careers. It as a result potentially provide a less biased view of
change efforts. Whereas, the internal change agents possess better knowledge of the
change context. The key stakeholders are also influenced by the vested interests they
have in the organization. This as a result leads to a corruption of complete change
process. And they concluded that this is a trade-off that must be used by organizations
when selecting people to make them act as change agents. Prochaska and Norcross
(2001) in their study, surveyed smokers and weight loss candidates and found out that
individuals went through 6 different phases during the behavioural change process. In
the trans theoretical model there are 6 defined Stages of Change that is involved in the
clients making changes in lives that is:- Pre-contemplation, Contemplation,
Preparation, Action, Maintenance and Termination.

Malhotra (2004) studied a few selected electronic companies and articulated that if
any organization wants to become change responsive, it has to design flexible
systems. This helps in minimum destruction in change adaption. According to her it is
the responsibility of the management for the transition to change responsiveness, i.e.,
they must do proper diagnosis of the needs of each situation and take appropriate

29
measures to deal with specific imbalances between people’s characteristics on one
hand and the organizational forces on the other.

Michalak (2010) emphasized in a multicultural context how to manage organizational

change. It states that the companies operating or effective on internationalized
markets in different or unlike cultural settings, should know or distinguish how to
manage organizational changes effectively. The internationalization and globalization
are the main reasons that have accelerated technological change in the organizations.
This further leads to consequences like shaping the business environment in growing
competition, scarcity of resources and rivalry among companies acting as the main
desire to trigger change further. The organizations in the process of managing change
face main issues like multi-context culture. Hence, the author further argued on the
importance of facilitating strategies and a methodology to manage change in order to
resolve the different cultural issues when adopting approaches to organizational
change management (Chittoor, Ray, Aulakh, & Sarkar, 2008; Nag, Ganesh & Pathak,
2008).This will, as a result lead to positive performance of the change process. The
author further suggested that to resolve problems with culture and managing culture,
the organizations should apply sound methodologies and customized approach
towards change that comprise facilitating OD interventions congruent with the nation
culture. The main reasons for institutional change in the companies arise due to
economic liberalization of markets & market economies (Chittoor, Ray, Aulakh, &
Sarkar, 2008; Chittoor R. , 2009).

Sekaran (2004) highlighted that in-order to make the change process successful: (i)
Managers should create a climate for the organization to become a learning system.
The employees as a result are ready for organizational changes and adaptation on a
continuing basis. (ii) Managers should also focus on facilitating knowledge sharing,
this can be done by flattening the structure wherever possible and lastly by using cross
functional teams. (iii) Managers should encourage sharing of ideas and openness and
reward risk taking behaviour. (iv) Managers could bring transformation in individual
behaviour by:- changing attitudes, perceptions, motivations etc. (v) Managers can
bring about institutional changes through structural changes such as job redesign,
breaking down boundaries. (vi) Managers should enable employee to participate and
involve in change process.

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Fernando & Patricio (2012) in the study on organization change in 70 firms on the top
managers analysed the distance of analogies used. This was measured during the
strategy formulation process. This acts as a critical driver that can be used to explain
different/various scopes of change implementation. He emphasized that the changes
implemented in the organization are defined during the design stage of the firm’s
strategy. The magnitude of the change can be understood and determined by analogy
distance which is used during the complete process. The main finding of the study
was that whenever the top managers used long or short distance analogies within the
strategic formulation process, incremental change was implemented in the
organization. And whenever the top managers applied medium-distance analogies the
radical changes were implemented. Hence, the study focuses that organizations
implement incremental changes whenever short-distance analogies (which are highly
similar external business model) and the long-distance analogies (which are very
different external business models) are encountered. The radical changes later can be
implemented whenever medium-distance analogies are used in the organization.

Molineux (2012) in the study on longitudinal assessment of organization change in

Australian public sector agency, found out that for successful cultural change in the
organization the focus should be on systemic application of strategic human resource
management (SHRM) in order to facilitate the change. He highlighted major HR
changes for easy implementation of cultural change like focus on a partnership
approach to industrial relation, the differentiation of employment into work type so as
to target HR strategies, open communication process to engage the leaders and
mangers in the organization, to measure the performance management process, the
introduction of regular informal feedback and formal appraisal processes, and the
enhancement of reward and recognition programs. Hence, it can be concluded that
cultural change can be sustained only with the help of systematically designed SHRM
interventions which have a positive impact on an organization’s culture (Mukherjee,
2014).

The authors Karen, Whelan, & Karen A. (2010) argued in the research on
organizational change that it is an iterative and complex process, with unintended as
well as intended outcomes. The first step towards organizational change process is
establishing the change vision which acts as a change driver facilitating the on-going
change process. Another primary change driver is Leadership. The leaders’ change

31
related actions in the organization varied from celebrating or recognizing positive
outcomes from change to recognizing on-going performance. Further in the research it
was argued that effect of drivers varies according to the characteristics of the change
initiatives like:- the first order versus second order change or else the nature and
setting of change initiatives. Another type of change driver discussed was changes in
leadership (Trice& Beyer, 1991; Sliwka, 2007; Bennis, 2000; Sahni & Vayunandan,
2009) and employees (Harrison & Carroll, 1991; Alvesson, 2002; Connor, 1992)in
order to make organizational change initiatives successful. Finally, it was stated that
in instances of large scale change the efficient and effective use of resources should
be done (Chen, Wood, & Singh, 2013).

Schneider, Gunnarson, & Niles-Jolly (1994) highlighted the importance of training to

understand the change initiatives in the organization. It further helps to move the
change vision to group and individual level and employee adoption of change
initiatives (Bramley, 1989; Goldstein, 1993; Carnevale, Grainer, & Villet, 1990). The
training is important because it helps to provide the employees and groups with
knowledge necessary to learn new processes or technology, routines or work
processes and the behaviour which is important for organizational change vision at
group level(Alvesson, 2002; Belwal, S., & Al-Jabri, 2014).It also helps to develop,
understand necessary values, skills or frameworks related to the change initiatives in
the organization. It is a one- time event or experience (Whelan-Berry & Alexander,
2005; Whelan-Berry, Gordon, & Hinings, 2003) .

The authors Bovey & Hede (2001) focused on the 9 organizations in Brisbane,
Australia, which were implementing change. The change process involved
reorganization of systems, restructure and realignment of departments/divisions and
procedures/or introduction of new process technologies. The employees believed that
change in their organizations was affecting them (moderately). The employees were
also surveyed and analysed during the resistance phase. The main findings were: (i)
the employees possessing higher levels of irrational ideas resist organizational change
than those who exhibit low levels and (ii) emotions increase association between
irrational ideas and resistance to change. The authors also emphasized that the
irrational ideas that are strongly correlated with resistance intentions are: being inert
& passive , blaming, not controlling one’s destiny and hence avoiding life’s
difficulties. The human elements important for management are: cognitive and

32
affective processes. To minimize irrational ideas towards change, the individuals
should take responsibility for their actions and a balanced approach should be used to
manage change (Khan, Salim & Bloch, 2015).

Erstad (1997) focused on the importance and impact of empowerment as a change

management strategy. The main objective is to improve the individual and
organizations ability to act. The conclusion was drawn that empowerment is a
complex process and learning environment for managers & employees, clear vision,
participation & implementation tools/techniques are necessary to make the change
successful (Nykodym, Simonetti, Nielsen, & Welling, 1994; Lloyd, 1996; Kappelman
& Richards, 1996; Rodrigues, 1994). Empowerment & change taken together has its
impact on various performance measures in a company when turning it around like in
case of:- decrease employee turnover, higher profit margin, increase in sales per
employee, lower labour cost and higher net profit (Dickmeyer & Williams, 1995).

The authors Beugelsdijk, Slangen, & Herpen (2002) focused on the punctuated
equilibrium model of organizational change. The study was conducted by means of
case study at the Dutch Beer Brewing company. The change in the organization is
determined by number of factors. The change in the organization is initiated by the
top management and the role of middle management is to whereas carries out and fine
tunes the radical change initiated by the top management (Tushman & Romanelli,
1985; Hambrick, Geletkanycz, & Frederikson, 1993). The middle management also
play an important role i.e. to shape the success of the organizational change process.
The internal executives are less likely to initiate radical change but play an important
role to successfully implement change. The research further highlights that
organizational change( radical or incremental) depends on its initial type and its
transition from one type to the other. The research further concludes that
organizational change is the result of desired change in strategy of individuals which
is response to environmental change, threats & opportunities (Hannan & Freeman,
1984). The change in the organization also leads to dissatisfaction or resistance
among managers resulting in the employees leaving their job (Lorsch & Khurana,
1999).

Wallace (2006) focused that the causes for change in an organization is often driven
by variables that can’t be controlled, such as global competition, investor

33
expectations, the wants and needs of customers, the economy etc. (Chittoor, Ray,
Aulakh, & Sarkar, 2008). The employees in organizations also have become the key
differentiator and the driving force behind the success and ability to accept change.
For long-term success there is a need and requirement to successfully train and
develop employees for results. He on the basis of research done on the senior
executives in various organizations further concluded that the changed employee
attitude, combined with knowledge and skills directed by goals, will result in positive
behaviour changes. These changes will deliver improved results professionally and
personally. And the key to organizational success is helping employees to develop
goal-focused behaviours that are focused around producing improved results.

Hultman (2007) in the extensive research over the past 20 years in various
organizations differentiated between values-driven change and change-driven values.
He in his study proposes some ways for OD practitioners that will help organizations
to avoid taking short-term actions. This could further jeopardize their longer term
vision and values. According to him values-driven organizations outperform other
organizations that focus on change driven values by a wide margin. The change-
driven values inevitably taken in the organizations lead to short-sighted decisions that
could jeopardize long-term success whereas value driven lay emphasis on forward
movement, growth and long-term perspective.

2.1.2 Studies on Process of Organizational Change within different Change Levers

Olson (1992) studied structure as an important organizational change lever. His study
focused on successful, small, rapidly growing firms and also on people who manage
or help to manage these small firms. They found out that the reasons for structural
change were the rapid growth that often extends organizing existing structure and
hence threaten their very existence. The firms which are in their growth stage will
most of the time exhibit greater complexity, greater formulation and less
centralization than in their start-up phase.

Waldersee (2005) worked on the “managing People” as an organizational change

lever. He concluded that implementation of change has always been problematic and
long process. According to them there are two approaches to implement change, i.e.,
first Participative approach (employee support is a pre-requisite to change) and
second unilateral approach (behaviour of people must be changed first and attitude

34
follow it). The unilateral approach is more effective than the participative approach as
employee support resulted in change to be a success.

The authors Frei, Hunter, & Hunter (1998) in the research on “Innovation in Retail
Banking” focused on the importance of innovation and efficiency. The top executives,
line managers, HR managers, executives involved in IT implementation were
interviewed from 13 U.S. retail banks. The study was also done to understand the
impact of changes in technology, work practices, HRM, organizational strategy &
performance. The main reasons for triggering change in the organizations were
discussed as domestic regulations, increased competition, market place, rapid
innovation, mergers & acquisitions, change & growth of IT. The following reasons
for changes in the industry resulted in fast pace growth, innovation of new products
&services and focus on better delivery channels in order to survive. The introduction
of change in the organizations also resulted in the increase of pressures faced by the
managers & workers in order to improve the productivity & financial performance.
The changes in technology, consumer taste, HRM & strategy also resulted in a
complex dynamic system where strategy should be developed by the management to
realign all the areas with the organization to derive innovation for the firms (Kansal&
Joshi, 2015).

Taylor-Bianco & Schermerhorn Jr (2006) emphasized on the dispositional model. The

authors emphasized on the use of self-regulation as the foundation for strategic
leadership of organizational change. The main finding of the study was that during
organizational change, the strategic leadership style change should allow for co-
existent states of together continuity and change. The leadership teams should also
include a mix of :- (i) individuals with promotion and (ii) prevention foci of self-
regulation. The authors further emphasized that the executives should accept the full
responsibilities of strategic leadership as: “a person’s ability/capacity to anticipate,
envision/visualize, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and last work with others
to initiate changes. The change will as a result will help to create a viable future for
the organization”(Hitt & Ireland, 1999). The strategic leadership involves creating the
agendas that will infuse organizations with the change visions & with capacity to
sustain the change implementation. Therefore, the leadership style needs to accept the
stability paradox. This will help to understand the complexity of change (Pettigrew,

35
Woodman, & Cameron, 2001; Denis, Lamothe, & Langley, 2001; Lo, Mohamad,
Ramayah, & Wang, 2015).

The authors Nelson, Buche, & Nelson (2001) in the longitudinal study examined 500
persons in IS organizations. The focus of the study was on the importance of culture
and structural change to achieve goals. The data was collected through interview and
was assessed to analyse the structural change occurrence and its impact on the
organization & internal customers. The results of ANOVA analysis indicate that
structural and cultural change had relationship with IS (information systems)
organizational performance. The combination of change advocacy and structural
change is important for the operation of IS organizations, for the improvement IS cost
and for the quality performance. The authors also focused on the importance of
documentation of structural change. Also in order to move the organizations towards
a detailed documentation and process management, the focus should be on cultural
change. The organizations should also lay emphasis on people first rather than
technology as focus of change (Suri, 2005).

In a study undertaken on managers in 80 business units in financial institutions in

north eastern United States by Goodman & Ramanujum (2012) focused on structure
and technological change. The change was measured for each unit. The data was
collected with the help of interviews with business managers and audit team leaders.
The change was noted in domain: organizational structure and technology. The
authors found that changes in any kind of multiple organizational domains were
positively related to frequency of latent errors. And these errors were consequence
deviations of rules and procedures. The main results of the study were that the number
and different types of organizational change is directly linked to frequency of errors.
The following type of change is important factor in the organizations than the
existence of change. Another main finding is that the effect of organizational change
on the job of the managers has a greater impact on the errors. The change in
personnel, organizational structure or technology has no difference in errors. The
authors also suggested that as a result need to recognize the type of change. The
change is perceived by employees as negative or destructive that can result in
unintended and unacknowledged risk which is a build-up of latent errors. The
managers should also enhance organizational attention during and after the change

36
implementation. They should also consider using the measurement of latent errors as
a method to assess the effectiveness of change.

The authors Bhatnagar, Budhwar, Srivastava, & Saini (2010) examined the
developments in the field of organizational change. The following study was
conducted with reference to the context of India. The study focused on the growing
strategic role of HR. According to authors during the time of transformational change,
HR plays an important role in devising innovation practices. The emphasis during the
time of change should be on HR architecture so as to establish a climate of trust, to
remove fear among employees regarding the impact of change. The focus of the HR
department should also be on training and development activities and to make them
engage in internal marketing of organizational change related strategy (Rao &
Vijayalakshmi, 2000; Das & Rao, 1999). The authors also emphasised that HR
should also pay importance on the organizational change interventions to help the
Indian firms to attain quality improvement, employee development, cost efficiency,
motivation and for successful change program (Rao & Vijayalakshmi, 2000;
Sripirabaa & Krishnaveni, 2008). Another main finding of the study is that there
should be development of action strategies that should help to manage resistance to
change as part of change management process (Bezboruah, 2008). The study also
highlighted on the creation of well-organized top management team, second on
identification of core problems, third on formulating clear targets for change, fourth
on establishing clear benchmarks and last on designing organizational change
interventions for successful change (Bandyopadhyay, 1998; Singh, 1990; Singh &
Bhandarker, 2002). The research also demonstrated that in Indian context for
successful change interventions management should take hoilstic performance driven
and excellence oriented approach (Amba-Rao, Petrick, Gupta, & Von der Embse,
2000).

Galpin (1996) discussed various change drivers like structure and organizational
change processes like planning, operations, budgeting & reporting and customer
&technology systems important for the success of organization change
initiatives(Nadler& Tushman, 1990; Worley & Lawler, 2006) . Depending upon the
nature of change initiatives, changes in drivers are supported so as to make the
initiative a success. The organizational structure acts as a change vision itself and
modifications are required to the structure so as to make it successful (Vollman,

37
1996); (Henessey, 1998); (Cameron & Green, 2004).Various systems and processes
that amount for and assess change initiatives are critical actions necessary for
signalling the employees towards the change initiatives and hence be monitored,
measured and managed carefully (Hall, Roaenthal, & Wade, 1993; Kim, Pindur, &
Reynolds, 1995; Porras & Hoffer, 1996; Caldwell, Herold, & Fedor, 2004).

Doorewaard & Benschop (2003) emphasized on the contribution of HRM towards the
success and failure of organizational change. The HRM in the organization should be
such that it is more familiar, uncertainties and ambiguities should be found in
organizational change processes. The HRM in the organization should be well aware
of the continuously changing intrinsic value of the employees involved in
organization change process. Hence it is necessary to sensitize HRM towards the
emotional sub-routines entwined in organization change by developing respectful
empathic approach towards people’s authenticity. As a result process relational HRM
should be encouraged which is sensitive to the emotional sub routines and the power
processes which is entwined in organizational change.

Wishart (1996) concluded that the path to become a learning organization is

experimental, intensely focused around team processes, structured into non-hierarchal
clusters and operating in virtual time or space through electronic networks. Craig and
Yetton (1994) opined that organizational learning, individual mastery and
management of risk. These are critical components of strategic change. IT has
becomes an integral and important part of firms’ core business processes. A firm has
to first develop a business strategy, choose the structure and management processes to
align IT and make sure that the employees’ are trained.

Kakabadse (2003) in the case study involving a dozen U.K. civil servants working
together over 15 months observed that cultural change was more important than
structural change when institutionalization is the goal. The intensive work on Civil
servants was through the process of collaborative inquiry (CI). It was initiated with
the development of shared values and these served as springboards for a critique of
current practice and described CI as a challenging experience and as the process of
inquiry that confronts the underlying values, assumptions and power base. It establish
ways of working within any situation. It requires resources, social skills, time and the
ability to share personal experiential knowledge within the group. They also discussed

38
the importance of perseverance in the difficult task of uncovering unexamined values
and critiquing deeply held personal assumptions.

According to Vadi (2006) there is a need to understand influence of organizational

culture on attitude towards change. Culture is an important factor in organizations to
stimulate change. Four proposition supported by author: (i) both the task and
orientation and relationship orientation of organization culture stimulate learning.
There are good agents for predicting organization learning during organization
change, (ii) the 3 types of orientation of organizational culture that is Task orientation,
relationship orientation and relationship orientation helps to predict attitude towards
change, (iii) Organizational culture predicts attitude towards change and individual
learning in groups faced with different work experience, (iv) People with work
experience are more influenced by relationship orientation of organizational culture in
forming attitude towards organizational learning and change. Hence all these have
different types of impact on the formation of attitude towards change. Brown(2005)
expressed that change in any organization is, in part, constituted by alterations in the
people’s understanding, encoded in natives and shared in their conversations.

According to Zenk and Stadtfeld (2010) organizations are dynamic systems and they
change over time. The communication within organizations also represents
technological changes. The use of media like social network analysis is an established
approach to better understanding organizational structures. Demonstrated analyses
and visualizations can be used in a business setting. In situations like M&A when it
comes to change processes, it should be ascertain to the extent to which the formal
change will impact/influence informal interactions? Hence the analyses of dynamic
transformation processes are done to compare the change in different phases. The
evolution is investigated, allowing appropriate action to be taken. The increase use of
computer mediated communication technologies, like email, that provides particularly
relevant data to study organizations. Focus of the study was exclusively done on the
changes email communication usage over time and two different methodological
approaches used to analyse the email data stream. In the simulation with total number
of 97 students.

Bushey (1999) submitted an applied research project acquiesced to the National Fire
Academy which was part of the Executive Fire Officer Program. The purpose of the

39
project was to develop and devise a model that could be utilized by Fire Chief and for
the help of his staff to facilitate future change efforts. The main focus of this model
for change was Organizational culture. According to him culture is the key element to
successful and positive organizational change effort. Organization culture should be
understood to help cope with the unpleasant repercussions of unpleasant changes.
Also focus of the organization should be on a particular problem rather than only
focusing on an effort to synthesize something meaningful out of tremendous and large
amount of information available when implementing change. All the service leaders
in the organizations need to devote resources and time toward the study of
organization culture and towards the planned change and answer the questions:

i. What is the role of culture in an organizational change strategy?

ii. What factors, else than culture might be impediments to organizational change
efforts?
iii. What factors will enhance or support a successful change strategy external of
the cultural considerations?
iv. How did other organizations initiate change in a positive & effective manner?

Hence, the service leaders should focus effort and time towards understanding the
importance and incredible impact that organizational culture could have on a change
agenda.

Rastogi and Rastogi (2011) emphasized on the role of HR in change management

through the case study of SBI. Initially SBI had to face dramatic cultural change
because of the challenges thrown by private sector banks. These private sector banks
focus more on customer orientated service unlike SBI and as a result bank was lost its
hold among the higher end market. The HR played a very important role to bring
change in SBI by helping the organization to introduce change i.e. the initial program
of bank ‘Parivartan’ where the main aim was to make the staff aware of the problems
on behavioural front and it provided a platform to look into change in the attitude of
the employees. Another important initiative taken by the HR was in the planning of
citizen SBI motivating the employees to fulfil customer needs and inspiring
employees to raise standards for future growth. And this helped the bank to beat
competition and revolutionizing the individuals working in the organization where
change was introduced at three levels: heat, heart and behaviour from present state to

40
ideal state making change program a success. The study by Wan (2005) highlight the
importance of technology-change lever as the most significant, crucial and frequently
adopted channel of the banks. They further stated that out of adoption of four major
banking channels, i.e., Telephone banking, branch banking, ATM and Internet
banking. ATM was the most frequently adopted channel.

2.1.3 Studies on resistance to change

According to O’Conoor (1993) managers should recognize the type and cause of
resistance to change and accordingly act towards it. The resistance to change can be
intentional or unintentional, covert or overt. The change in organizations is due to
lack of conviction of seriousness for the need of change, lack of confidence of the
attainability of objectives and non-conformance to the goals of change. In his study he
also focused on types of resistance and the personality of the resistor. The result of the
study revealed that managers with high self-awareness and sense of humour are
successful in overcoming resistance to change.

Kotter (1979) suggested a model which helped to prevent or minimize employee

resistance to change as a cover many issues that organization of any size may face.
The four main resistance factors among employees were misunderstanding, self-
interest, low tolerance for change and employees disagreement with reasoning. To
reduce resistance to change he gave six suggestions .i. educate and communicate the
employees, participate and involve the employees, facilitation and support the
employees, negotiate and agree with them, manipulation and co-option and explicit-
implicit force on employees.

Qureshi and Davis (2007) investigated a social issue that for many years that have
affected the success of information systems implementation. The paper studies
resistance to change as the most important social issue that has affected the success of
the project. The job was based on a real organizational transformation and on the
participants present in the organization that were going through the same experiences.
A Change Challenge Game was to investigate the types of resistance on multiple
stakeholders. The game was created to enable the senior, to middle management level
employees to carry out roles that were assigned. The game was conducted through
role playing of decision makers. The results suggested that resistance to change is
dependent upon the outcomes generated by the roles which were played by multiple

41
stakeholders. The analysis also revealed specific types of resistance to change
behaviours encountered per role. The different types of roles result in generation of
resistance to change behaviours. The information system implementation is a political
process and strategies for mitigating and managing resistance to change should
consider issues like how organizational processes change with IT implementation.

Salem and Philip (2008) described a common communication pattern that attempts to
direct transformational change. When transformational change occurs in
organizations, it results in change in cultural frames and communication practices.
And a bifurcation point is a state of turbulence wherever second order change may be
possible. According to the authors, there are Seven communication reasons
organizations do not change are: Global distrust, Inadequate communication, Lack of
productive humour, Local identification, Conflict avoidance and Poor interpersonal
communication skills. Also by changing the communication practices that the
organizational members have it further involves a give-and-take in which the change
agents might change. The change is a messy and difficult business. The
transformational change occurs only when the management is willing to endure the
ambiguity and the sense that arises in communication. Having the right
communication skills is very important while hiring practices. Therefore people
should be hired with basic communication skills and train people in these skills in
order to improve the chances for sustaining a vibrant organization.

2.1.4 Studies on Organizational Change Failure

According to Weich and Quinn(1998) change always starts with failures to adapt. The
author stated that the change never starts because it never stops. The organizational
change starts with the tempo of change that is to understand the characteristic rate,
rhythm, or pattern of work or activity. They also explain the difference between
episodic change and continuous change. Episodic change is distinguished from
continuous change on the foundation of implied metaphors of organizing, analytic
frameworks and ideal organizations interventional theories and roles played by the
change agents. The episodic change follows/monitors the sequence unfreeze-
transition-refreeze, whereas the continuous change on other hand follows the
sequence of freeze-rebalance-unfreeze. Conceptualization of inertia is important to
underlie and understand the choice to view change as episodic or continuous.

42
According to Smith (2002) the rate of failure of change varies by the type or nature of
change. This stays relatively high especially with large scale change. As a result 50-
80% of mergers and acquisitions among different organizations never produce
anticipated outcomes. Almost, 70% of reengineering projects are unsuccessful and
83% of all mergers and acquisitions fail due to produce shareholders value and around
50% failure rate is due to business expansion, downsizing or restructuring and TQM
driven change. As a result of this, change is a failure and has negative consequences
for both the individuals involved and the organization.

2.2 Studies on Organizational Commitment

Tilaye (2005) opined that there is a significant difference among Indian employees
towards organization commitment varying from high, moderate to low level of
commitment which is due to personal characteristics and organizational practices.
Hence mangers and personnel officers have a clue that organization commitment can
be engendered through pro-employee management practices by providing the
employees great deal of liberty to decide their work and by providing them
managerial support and helping them in their personal problems etc.

Sungmin, Henkin, and Robert (2005) found that teamwork was an important predictor
of commitment. Those having high level of teamwork perceived high level of
commitment. They also suggested that organization commitment also had effects on
job performance, organization effectiveness and employee retention (Agarwala,
2003).

Sharma and Sharma (2003) suggested that motivation is an important driving force
towards goal and organization commitment. It also influences various aspects of work
performance and withdrawal behavior. The study reveals that job content and scope
for advancement are also important determinants of organization commitment and
motivation. To have organization commitment among staff, organization should
create more opportunities for vertical movement and for their professional
development and career enhancement.

43
Mowday (1996) advocated that employees should be permitted and allowed to
contribute initial in the change program towards organization commitment. The study
undertaken by him was in the bank branches during implementation of a data system.
Two groups of employees were noticed. First those who were able to decide the
training dates and data from second group of employees who were not able to decide
the same. The result of the study suggested that the employees who were empowered
from the first group were 88% more motivated, 46% more satisfied with the training
given to them and 99% more satisfied with the change process. Hence, it was
concluded that empowerment is a way by which individuals can exert control in the
change situation.

The study by Tasky and Cohen (2001) highlighted that organization commitment and
perceived organizational support are correlated with satisfaction and career
development. He advocated that whenever the organizations make efforts to develop
their current managers they become more committed towards organization.

In his study Shirbagi (2007) in his study on commitment established that there is a
significant and positive relationship that exists between three components of
organization commitment (AC, NC & CC) and among the three out of four frames of
leadership (that is structural, political & symbolic). He suggested that in an
organization in order to increase organization commitment of employees, the higher
authorities should focus more on factors having positive relationship with like
enhancing leadership abilities. Another main result was that the Panjab university
faculty members were committed towards their organization that Tabriz University
because of good leadership and administrative policies for the welfare of the faculty.

Kumar and Bakshi (2010) in their study examined the relationship between
personality and organization commitment. The main result generated was that the 5
factor model serves as an important framework for investigating the dispositional
source of organization commitment. The 3 component model proposed by Myer and
Allen was examined. On the basis of their research the results generated were:
i. Openness to experience negatively predicted continuance and normative
commitment
ii. Conscientiousness positively predicted affective and continuous commitment

44
iii. Normative commitment is positively predicted by agreeableness
iv. Neuroticism has negative relationship with affective commitment
v. Neuroticism has positive relationship with normative commitment and continuance
commitment

Finally it was concluded that personality acts an important factor in the development
of Organizational commitment and it should be added in the list of work variables
having dispositional predictors because it will help to understand the individual
differences in the development of organization commitment and how to manage
employees. This was done using dispositional approach to draw positive and
attitudinal and behavioural reaction for them. The research also helps to understand
the ways to retain valuable employees, increase employee commitment and work
satisfaction, employee turnover and hence improve performance of employees.

In a research on the Morrow’s model known as the famous Five Universal forms of
work commitment (AC, CC & career organization commitment), job involvement and
work ethic endorsement in two hospitals in Canada. On the basis of empirical study
conducted on 238 nursing state, Aaron (1999) accomplished that job involvement is
the key mediating variable in establishing relationship among work commitment
constructs. He also said that job involvement is related to organization commitment
and the relationship between the two is affected by the kind and type of work. The
employees more involved in the job have more positive work experience and as a
result high organization commitment. According to him organization commitment is
an important endogenous variable in the work commitment model and job
involvement is an exogenous variable. It will effect organization commitment
positively. It was suggested by him that effective management strategies are important
to produce high motivation level and organization commitment among employees.

Altindis (2011) investigated organization commitment level and motivation and the
relationship between the four state hospitals in Turkey. He examined three dimensions
of commitment i.e. emotional, continuance & normative and two dimensions of
motivation(intrinsic and extrinsic). He found out that organization commitment is an
important variable to determine the outcome of motivation at work. According to him
the intrinsic motivation was impacted by affective and normative commitment and

45
extrinsic motivation was affected by normative commitment. Hence he suggested that
effective management strategies are essential to produce higher motivation levels and
organization commitment of health employees.

Pettit, Donohue, and CieriDe (2007) examined the impact of age and tenure upon
organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour. The main
finding of the research was that the older the employees, the higher the commitment
level as compared to younger colleagues i.e. age is a contributing factor towards
organizational citizenship behaviour but it does not significantly affect organization
commitment. He also concluded that tenure in an organization had no influence on the
level of organizational behaviours among employees. Moreover, when the employees
move between organizations it takes time for them to develop sense of commitment
towards the new employer. He also said that attitude and rewards associated with
organizational citizenship behaviour that develops with the majority or age may be
strong enough to influence the employee regarding of tenure.

According to the study by Wright and Kehoe (2007), HR practices in an organization

impacts the organizational commitment of employees. HR practices in an
organization impact performance i.e. the commitment to achieve goals, jobs and the
supervision of work group. The HR practices, experiences and sense making
influence the response of employees towards commitment. The highly paid
employees attribute their desires towards the organizations as he is obligated to stay
because they are paid well and hence result in high continuance and low motivation.
He also said that multiple commitments imply HR practices elicit organizational
commitment among employees. The HR practices also help to provide opportunities
which are required to participate in decision making regarding work and organization
outcome. The practices like motivation also help to positively influence organization
commitment, incentives and rewards for performance practices. According to him
empowerment also plays an important role to impact organization commitment
positively.

Cohen (1993) examined the impact of time elapsed between measurement of the
variables that can moderate the organizational commitment and the turnover
relationship. The study focused on predicting as to how time span have a differing or

46
an opposing effect across career stages. In the case age served as the career stage
indicator but not when tenure did. The results of the regression analysis supported the
meta-analytic findings however clarifying considerable variance in the commitment-
turnover correlations. The study supported the finding that age is the career indicator
and for the younger employees. It was also a calculated problem that arises mainly
due to the reason that employees who report high levels of commitment. This
commitment has a sharp decline after a period of time. This leads to turnover and
prediction error, causing low organizational commitment-turnover relationship. For
the older employees the errors in prediction occur as these employees report low
levels of organizational commitment. The main reason is that these employees do not
want to leave their organization, the main reason was that of the structural bonds with
organization, a few employment alternatives and desire for stability.

Bashir & Ismail Ramay (2008) examined the relationship among work life policies,
career opportunities, job characteristics and organizational commitment of IT
(information technology) professionals in Pakistan. The results showed that work life
and career opportunities policies in IT professionals. Both the variables are
significantly correlated with organizational commitment whereas job characteristics
were found not to be the determinant of organizational commitment. The career
opportunities emerged as the most important determinant of organizational
commitment because the employees wanted to grow professionally and in the
organizational hierarchy both, and were more concerned about it. Another main
finding of the study is that work life policies help to induce organizational
commitment in the IT professionals. The organizations can use different time based
strategies for example strategies like flex time to reduce the work life conflicts among
the employees.

The authors Nguyen, Mai, & Nguyen (2014) explored the factors affecting
employees’ organizational commitment in Vietnam. The study was undertaken on 201
banking staff in 11 different banks in Vietnam. The main result of the study is that
employee engagement towards their organization is vital to organizational
commitment. Other important factors like teamwork spirit and supervisor-staff
communication play important and influential role in predicting organizational
commitment. The more satisfied the staff is with their workplace, the higher will be

47
their organizational commitment i.e. higher affective commitment than the normative
commitment (income orientataion) or the continuance commitment(benefit).

Bakan, Buyukbese, & Ersahan (2011) focused on the empirical study on employees in
a Textile company and concluded that it is important to understand the undercurrents
of relationships between the employees’ demographic characteristics and
organizational commitment. The association & relationship between employees’
educational level and organizational commitment was investigated and it was found
that significant relationship exists between the two variables. The employees with
higher education are more committed towards organization. Whereas, the employees
with lower education are not. The authors also suggested that to make the
organization commitment among the employees strong the education levels should be
increased.

Angle & Perry (1981) related the organizational commitment of lower-level

employees to organizational effectiveness in the organizations. The main results of the
study are that organizational commitment is associated with turnover and tardiness
rate, organizational adaptability but not with operating costs & absenteeism. The
employees perceived organizational adaptability is associated with commitment
whereas adaptability is not.

Recep, Mahmut, & Murat (2010) measured the levels of AC, NC and CC of the
workers working in Union Municipalities of Marmara. The study concluded that
implementation of HR practices is necessary to increase the organizational
commitment. The results of current study state that the “affective and continuance
commitment” is higher among male workers whereas “normative commitment” is
higher in case of female workers. The workers working for a longer time also display
more “continuance commitment” ; whereas others display more “normative
commitment”. The authors suggested that organizations should focus on activities
aiming to increase friendship, cooperation and solidarity among male workers. The
female workers should be given more importance, clarification of job definitions
should be there and they should be involved in management so as to increase their
commitment. The management should also revise and focus on career system, in-

48
service training, organizational justice perception and planned introduction of quality
management system to bring out significant benefits.

Iqbal (2010) investigated the relationship between various demographic factors and
organizational commitment (Abdulla & Shaw, 1999; Chughtai & Zafar, 2006; Dodd-
McCue & Wright, 1996; Luthans, McCaul, & Dodd, 1985; Morrow, 1993; Salami,
2008). The demographic factors like age, tenure and level of education were
considered in the study .The study indicated that a demographic variable like length of
service is significantly and positively associated with organizational commitment
(Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1997; Newstrom, 2007; Steers, 1977). The
study also showed that there exis a significant negative relationship between the
educational level and organizational commitment (Mowday, Porter, & Steers,1982;
Glisson & Durick, 1988). The reason stated was that highly educated people have
developed higher expectations from their serving organization which may not be
adequately met (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982).The author finally stated that no
significant correlation was found between the organizational commitment and
employees demographic factor (age). It was also concluded that HR practices, lack of
training, inadequate equipment and adverse working conditions also affect employee
commitment and their intention to stay with the organization (McGuire & McLaren,
2009 ; Kang & Narang, 2011).

The authors Freund & Drach-Zahavy (2007) examined teamwork in community

clinics to propose and test model that viewed different kinds of commitment (like the
job involvement and the organizational commitment) and the potential conflict
between them. It was noted that as a mediators between personal and organizational
factors (like: mechanistic structuring and organic structuring) and the effectiveness of
inter professional teamwork. The main finding of the study is that organizational
commitment is significantly greater to job in the professional groups. The author
argues that dissimilar professional groups are motivated by different commitment and
this confronts the policy makers with the challenge of unifying different groups into a
team.

The author Ike- Elechi Ogba (2008) assessed the impact of variables age and income
on the employee commitment in Nigerian Bank. The main findings of the study

49
indicate that the employees with high income earning(i.e. within income band of 1.1
million or above) and age group 31-35 years are less committed towards their
organziation than their low income counterparts. The study further supports the
assumptions that in a non Western culture, the commitment measurement can only be
effective when culturally suitable intruments are employed in assessing employees’
expression of commitment to their organization. The result is also supported by
factors like fear associated with leaving organizatiacon because of few/limited job
opportunities or employee emotional attachment to their organization. Other culture
factors influencing organizational commitment are family, friends and manager’s
influence.

Kim & Rowley (2005) reviewed the research on employee commitment and its
perceived attendant benefits. The commitment in the study was analyzed in terms of
commitment to organization, trade unions and dual commitment. The organization
commitment is related to behavioral outcomes i.e. employee turnover and job
satisfaction (Mowdar, Porter, & Steers, 1982; Meyer & Allen, 1984; Koch & Steers,
1978). The study also emphasized that commitment is grouped into 4 broad categories
of characteristics i.e. Personal, Role related, work experience and structural. The main
findings of the study are that older employees with long organizational tenure are
more committed than other employees. The reason is that old employees get more
benefits like lay off protection, vacation and promotion, resulting in positive
commitment. another main finding is that the organization commitment is also
affected positively due to demogrophic variables like martial status, number of
children, income and educational level.

In a study on Asian socities the authors Hrebiniak & Alutto (1972) conclued that the
male employees are more committed than the female employees. The main reason
stated is that the male employees receive more monetary benefits than the female
employees. The authors further found that the employees with higher job satisfaction
are more committed towards their organizations than the employees with lower job
satisfaction (Schrieshein & Tsui, 1980; Shere & Marishima, 1989; Barling, Wade, &
Fullagar, 1990). The employees with high job income are positively related to the
commitment of their organizations. The reason is that the employees with high wages

50
have more to lose resulting in less likely to leave and be more committed (Angle &
Perry, 1983; Shere & Marishima, 1989 ; Becker H. , 1960).

The authors (Kirmizi & Deniz, 2009) explored the different aspects of organizational
commitment and its determinants among the IT Professionals in Private Banks. The
affective commitment of the IT professionals was found to be higher because they felt
they wanted to remain with the organizations. The normative commitment was lowest
among the three commitments. It was concluded that the IT professionals working in
private banks felt more affectively committed or emotionally attached to their
organization rather than normatively or continually attached. The employees felt that
they wanted to, rather than needed to or being compelled to remain with their current
organization. The other factors contributing to the affective commitment of
employees were stated as personal improvement, promotion, participation in decision
making, training, information sharing environment and supervisor & peer attitudes.
Rafiei, Amini, & Foroozandeh (2014) in the study on 244 employees of Cooperatives,
Labor and Social Welfare department of Markazi examined the impact of three
components of commitment that is Affective, Continuance and Normative
commitment on the performance of employees’.

Matin, Jandaghi, Karimi, & Hamidizadeh (2010) identified the interpersonal

communication skills that enhanced the organizational commitment. The author in the
descriptive study analyzed the Allen and Mayer model to study the organization
commitment of employees. The main findings of the research showed that among
existing skills in the model, the team building skill had a significant relation with
organizational commitment. The authors also suggested that to improve the
employees' organizational commitment the managers should improve the team
building skills.

Perryer & Jordan (2008) in the study on Australian public Sector employees analyzed
the influence of generation differences among employees in relation to Organization
Commitment. The main finding of the study is that the generation differences
influence the organization commitment above and beyond the influence of education
levels, length of service, gender and work pressure. The Gen X employees were found
to be significantly less committed than baby boomers colleagues. The main reason

51
stated was that the Gen X employees is more eager to update their skills through on
the job training and externally in order to keep themselves “employable” (Tulgan,
2000) in order to maintain their sense of marketability. The uncertainty among the
employees for their job and future also affects their commitment

Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky (2002) conducted a meta-analyses study

to assess the :(a) relations among affective, normative commitment and continuance
to the organization and (b) relations among the three forms of commitment and the
variables recognized as antecedents, correlates, and consequences in the Meyer and
Allen’s (1991) Three-Component Model. The authors found in the study that 3 forms
of commitment are related and yet distinguishable from one another. They are also
distinguishable from job involvement, job satisfaction and occupational commitment.
Another finding was that the Affective and continuance commitment correlated with
the hypothesized antecedent variables. It was found that no unique antecedents of
normative commitment were identified. And all the three forms of commitment were
found to be negatively related to the withdrawal cognition and turnover. The affective
commitment was found to have stronger and favorable correlations with employee-
relevant (stress and work–family conflict) and organization-relevant (i.e. attendance,
performance and organizational citizenship behavior) outcomes than the normative
commitment. The continuance commitment of employees was found to be negatively
correlated than the other outcomes.

2.3 Studies on impact of organizational change on organizational commitment

"Change is not always positive. Iit can be handled in ways that can strengthen rather
than diminish commitment people have to an organization." William A. Pasmo R

Lau and Woodman (1995) emphasized that the employees with higher level of
commitment are more readily identified with change. They further emphasized that
the more acceptance towards the organizational change, the more are the efforts
perceived beneficial to them. Whereas, the employees with strong commitment can
resist change only when they perceive that it is harmful to the organization. Another
finding was that the employees with strong continuous commitment might be less
willing to accept change as they fear that the changes can reduce the benefits they are
currently gaining in the organization.

52
Iverson (1996) examined relations between employees’ commitment (affective,
normative & continuance) and organizational change. The general findings of the
study are that affective and normative commitment to change initiatives relate
positively to discretionary (cooperation & championing) and non-discretionary
(compliance) support behavior. Continuance commitment relates positively with
variables like compliance and negatively with discretionary support. The results from
Indian study were that to implement change all the three forms of commitment should
relate positively with variable willingness to do what is minimally required by the
organizations. The affective commitment and normative commitment of employees
were found more among Indian employees than the Canadian employees. Another
main finding was that Indian managers are accepting more their obligation towards
organizations than the Canadian employees.

Kool & Dierendonek (2012) in the study on 135 employees of a reintegration

company emphasized the role of leadership towards the commitment to change. The
focus of the study was also on the leadership style especially servant as an essential
aspect for the employees undergoing organizational change process. The finding of
the study was that the servant style of leadership helps to enhance the confidence, self
-esteem and well-being of employees in the organizations. Another main finding was
that interactional justice within an organization is indirectly related to commitment.
The authors also emphasized that managerial communication and enacting procedures
are important factors for commitment and change process.

Lamsa & Savolainen (2000) explored the relationship between strategic change
(downsizing & quality improvement) and managerial commitment (Sofat & Kiran,
2014). The authors in their study classified commitment in two dimensions i.e. reward
based and trust based commitment. The main finding is that the commitment of
managerial employees is negatively affected in times of strategic change. Other
factors affecting the commitment of employees during change are family
responsibilities and financial conditions. The authors also argued on the importance of
trust based commitment to bind the individuals to the organizations resulting in
positive organizational performance.

53
Lau, Tse, & Zhou (2002) in a transitional economy like (China) identified three main
dimensions of a cognitive schema regarding the economic and organizational
changes. The 3 dimensions i.e. change salience, change valence, and change
inferences are in line with in organization change. The main results of the study are
that the positive change schema is found to have satisfactory or favorable influence on
variables job satisfaction and commitment. Another finding is that individuals having
higher change salience and valence show stronger job satisfaction and commitment. It
can be concluded that the employees’ perception (positive) regarding the
organizational results in higher commitment and satisfaction (Detert, Schroeder, &
Mauriel, 2000; Tripsas& Gavetti, 2000).

Beck & Wilson (2000) used cross-sequential design, to examine changes in

commitment with tenure. The main finding of the study was that there was persistent
decrease in commitment with increasing tenure (from 1 to 9 and 15 to 19 years) in a
sample size of 479 Australian police officers. The authors concluded in their study
that the internal changes in the organization also impacted the commitment of
employees. The commitment of employees reduced due to the introduction of change,
resulting from internal factors. The main reason was found less commitment of the
experienced employees towards the new change goals. Another main finding was that
affective commitment is linked to employee performance and other behaviors
impacting the organization’s effectiveness (e.g., tardiness and absenteeism). The
commitment levels of police officers were found to be negatively correlated with
tenure (Wilson & Beck, 1995). The relatively long serving police officers had
significantly lower or inferior levels of organizational commitment than the lower
ranking officers (Savery, Soutar, & Weaver, 1991; Wilson C. ,1991).

Soumyaja, Kamalanabham, & Bhattacharyya (2011) investigated the three component

model of commitment to change that was developed by Herscovitch and Meyer in an
Indian Context. The data was collected from 305 employes who were part of
transformational change from 5 manufacturing and 5 IT/ITES organizations in India.
The three dimension’s of commitment i.e., normative, affective and continuance
commitment were studied. The results on the basis of factor loading were that: i).
Affective commitment is major construct than the normative & continuance
commitment. ii). Age & work experience of employees is positively related to

54
organziation commitment (Allen & Meyer, 1990). iii.) The low age & work
experience also affects the affective commitment of employees resulting in low
affective commitment than the other two. From the study, it can be concluded that
commitment is the most important factor when explaining support for change &
willingness to change (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002; Neubert & Cady, 2001; Meyer,
Srinivas, & Lal, 2007). The authors also concluded that the organizational
commitment is the most important key to the successful implementation of the
organizational change (Bennis, 2000; Connor, 1992).

The authors Parish, Wallender, & Bush (2008) in an empirical study on not for profit
organization in the United States of America has worked on the important role of
commitment towards the success of organizational change initiatives. The outcomes
from structural equation modeling state that the variables fit with job motivation,
employee manager relationship, and vision and role autonomy, influencing the
commitment among the employees. The study also showed that moderate level of
affective commitment is necessary to achieve desired results in the organizations. The
authors suggested that to improve change implementation efforts, the employees
should have a positive view of change to the customers. The leaders should strive to
demonstrate to the employees how the change implementation will fit with the
strategic picture of the organization. Also the mangers should give open and timely
communication to the employees regarding the reason for change initiatives as part of
implementation process (C & C., 2000). The focus of the mangers should also be on
people, technology, recruitment, training & compensation and motivating the
employees towards the organizational process or plan. The mangers should also create
relationship, trust, commitment and satisfaction among the employees to make the
change initiatives successful (Judge, Thoresen, Pucik, & Welbourne, 1999).

Meyer, Hecht b, Gill, & Toplonytsky (2010) inspected a longitudinal study during the
early stages of a strategic & structural planned organizational change. They authors
examined how the person–organization fit is operationalized as congruence between
the perceived and the preferred organizational culture, related to the employees’
intention to stay with an organization that is affective commitment. The study was
conducted on the employees before and after change to measure the perceptions and
preferences of employees. The perceptions and preferences were measured with

55
regard to the four components of organizational culture (i.e., the human relations,
internal process, open systems and rational goal) which are derived from the
Competing Values Model (Quinn, 1988) and the affective commitment of employees
and his intention to stay with the organization. The main finding of the study is that
the perception of the organization’s culture is more important than fit in shaping
commitment and intention to stay with the organization (Singh K., 2001; Singh K. ,
2007). The authors also found positive relationship between pre-change fit and
commitment that carry over to the post-change commitment and his intention to stay.
The commitment as a result was found to be positively related to organizational
change (e.g. (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002; Neubert & Cady, 2001)) and was stable
over time.

Dordevic (2004) in a research on employees’ organizational commitment during

radical change emphasized that commitment of employees is decreased due to the
change (radical). The reasons behind were stated as decreased morale, increased job
insecurity, & trust and increased stress. The author further said that organizational
commitment had a strong correlation with job performance, absenteeism, motivation
and creativeness. The study was based on three types of commitment i.e. emotional,
continuance and normative. The employees with high emotional attachment towards
the organization always had strong motivation, required to contribute to the
organizational goals. The employees having strong continuance commitment were the
employees who remain with the organization because ‘they ought to’ due to high cost
involved in leaving the organization. The normative commitment was stated as the
commitment among employees when they feel as an obligation to stay with the
organization. (Fedor, Caldwell, & Herold, 2006; Chen, Hou, & Fan, 2009).

Farndale, Ruiten, Kelliher, & Hope-Hailey (2011) studied the relationship between
organizational change and commitment. The main emphasis of the study was on the
difference between the perception of employees on the basis of managerial hierarchy.
According to the authors when bringing organizational change the employees voice &
perception have direct impact on the commitment. The higher the management-
employees ability to voice opinion regarding change proposal, the higher is their
commitment. Another important reason for high commitment is the strong employee-
line manager relationship in the organization. Trust was found to be the predictor of

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organizational commitment in times of change as it acts as an initiator of change. It is
also representative of the organization & willingness to adapt to new situations,
resulting in higher commitment and generation of positive feelings towards change.
Similar results were also given by (Vakola & Nikolaou, 2005; Durmaz, 2007;
Dopson & Neumann, 1998; Elias, 2009) exploring the linkage between employees
attitude towards organizational change and its two construct i.e. occupational stress &
commitment. The main results were that the employees with higher commitment are
more willing to accept change than the employees with low commitment.

Raukko (2009) in a longitudinal case study done among the European-Indian

acquisition within a high tech sector, focused on the role of organizational change on
the commitment of acquired employees. The employees perceived that frustation
related to organizational change increase over time. The results imply that the key
employees’ organizational commitment however is closely related to the prior role of
the employees in the acquired company. The main reasons for low organizational
commitment were stated as slow integration, role ambiguity and changes in
management. The study also implied that duality and the complexity of organizational
commitment are important factors during post acquisition integration. The authors
further emphaized that during knowledge intensive acquisition the organizations
should focus on retention of old employees and involving the employees, to increase
the commitment during the post acquisition integration phase so as to make the
organizational change successful (Bellou, 2007)

2.4 Hypotheses Development

Therefore the following hypotheses can be formulated:

H1: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

level employees’ regarding change is inevitable for the survival of the organization.

H1.1: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender regarding change is

inevitable for the survival of the organization.

H1.2: There is a significant difference in the perception of managerial level employees

regarding change is inevitable for the survival of the organization.

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H2: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial
level employees regarding whether organizations have witnessed some changes in
the last couple of years in the selected IT organizations.

H2.1: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender regarding whether

organizations have witnessed some changes in the last couple of years in the selected
IT organizations.

H2.2: There is a significant difference in the perception of managerial levels\

employees regarding whether organizations have witnessed some changes in the last
couple of years in the selected IT organizations.

Wallace (2006) in his study emphasized the main reasons for change in organizations
is customers’ expectations, the economy, global competition, ensure the survival of
your organization etc. The employees have become the key differentiator factor and
also the main driving force behind the success and ability to accept change. Chapman
(2002); Buchanan & Huczynski, (2004); Johnson, Scholes, & Whittington, (2005) in
their study highlighted the main reasons behind the introduction of change are: to
increase the effectiveness and change the image of the organization.

H3: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

level employees regarding the reasons for bringing the organization change in the
selected IT organizations.

The previous studies by the authors stated that the important methods used by the
management to effectively implement and manage change are leadership support
(Sagie & Koslowsky, 1994), employee involvement & involvement and motivation
for change(Meyer, Srinivas, & Lal, 2007). Providing motivation for change (Rao &
Vijayalakshmi, 2000; Sripirabaa & Krishnaveni, 2008), developing new competencies
and skills in people, providing education and training (Alvesson, 2002).and risk
taking abilities are also important factors to effectively manage change
(Bandyopadhyay, 1998; Singh, 1990; Singh & Bhandarker, 2002). The following
hypothesis was fromulated as a result of the studies:

58
H4: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial
level employees regarding the methods used by the management to implement and
manage these change initiatives in the selected IT organizations.

Previous studies by authors Kotter J. (1995) and Nilakant & Ramnarayan (2007)
suggested that to make the change program successful in large organizations the focus
should be on the seven steps to implement change. Manton (1997) also highlighted
the importance of experienced-based, practical framework extracted from the actual
methods, practice and actions of organizations to successfully bring & manage
change. Cameron & Quinn (2006) highlighted the six step process to address the
competing values framework within the organization as a systematic way to address
the organizational change process.

H5: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

level employees regarding the steps used by the management for bringing
organizational change in the selected IT organizations.

Olson (1992) studied “Structure” as an important organizational change lever. He

focused his main study on small rapidly growing successful firms and on the people
who manage or help these small successful firms. The main reasons for structural
change were the rapid growth. These growths often extend existing organizational
structure and hence threaten its very existence. An in-depth understanding of
organizational change levers - strategy, marketing, structure and managing people is
very important so as to encourage an effective change process (Burnes,1996) .The
study conducted by Wan (2005) highlighted technology-change lever as the most
frequently adopted and important channel in the industry (Nag, Ganesh & Pathak,
2008; Kansal & Joshi, 2015). Michalak (2010) in his theoretical study, comments that
globalization and internationalization result in accelerating/ fast-tracking
technological changes leading to scarcity of resources and also circumstances global
financial crisis. Waldersee & Eagelson(2002) in his study worked on “Managing
People” as an organizational change lever. He concluded that implementing the in
organizations change has always been problematic and a long process. Rastogi and
Rastogi (2011) in their study emphasized on the important role of Human Resource
in change management. “Leadership” is the important change lever as the top
leadership support is essential/crucial during the change process (Trice & Beyer,

59
1991; Taylor-Bianco & Schermerhorn, 2006). With the help of right and effective
leadership support (across teams, departments), the change initiatives can be
successfully implemented through out the organization (Kotter & Heskett, 1992).

H6: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

level employees regarding the areas in which changes have been brought about in
the selected IT organizations.

Burke (2002) in his study stated that “organizations of all kinds today have to deal
with environments and these are changing more rapidly than the organizations
themselves”. The change in organizations is triggered by various internal and external
factors of all forms, shapes and sizes (Balogun & Hope Hailey, 2004; Burnes, 1996;
Carnall C. , 2003). The external pressures triggering the change from outside the
organization includes market place, government laws and regulations, labour markets,
political & social events, new technology and emergence of new IT organizations etc.
(Pfeffer, 1994; Fullan, 2011; Hargreaves, 2011; D’Augustino, 2011; Brimley &
Garfield, 2009; Paula & Gupta, 2013; Lal, Sharma, & Ahmed, 2007). The internal
factors which generate and are present within the organization to initiate the change
include internal administrative processes, employment policies, internal business
policies, and people problems (Lunenburg, 2010; Alexander & Alexander, 2009).

H7: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

hierarchy regarding the pressures leading to change initiatives in the selected IT
organizations.

H7.1: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender regarding

the pressures leading to change initiatives in the selected IT organizations.

H7.2: There is a significant difference in the perception of managerial hierarchy

regarding the pressures leading to change initiatives in the selected IT organizations.

People generally resist change in an organization in situation when they feel perceived
or real loss of prestige, power, pay or company benefits. The resistances to change
whether illogical or logical in nature become the major obstacle to successful

60
organizational change (Schlesinger, 1979). The employees in the organizations resist
change when they do not understand:- how change will affect them in future and the
intended purpose of change. The previous negative relationship of employees with the
change agent or champion also enhances resistance to change. Another reason for
resistance to change is when people affected by innovation and they may assess the
situation differently from an idea of champion or new venture group. The resistance to
change initiatives is also faced when they(employees) feel they will not be able to
meet the demand of new technology or product due to lack of skills, lack of times &
resources, culture & strategy of company and the attitude of employee behind the
change initiatives in organizations (Apscar, 1985; Fullan, 2009; Spector, 2011).

H8: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

hierarchy regarding the reasons for resistance to change towards change initiatives
in the selected IT organizations.

H8.1: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender regarding

the reasons for resistance to change towards to change initiatives in the selected IT
organizations.

H8.2: There is a significant difference in the perception of managerial hierarchy

regarding the reasons for resistance to change towards to change initiatives in the
selected IT organizations.

The managers in the organizations should focus on the ways to effectively manage
and remove resistance to change. There are a number of specific ways to overcome
resistance. The six most frequently used ways to remove resistance to change are: first
education and communication, second participation and involvement, third facilitation
and support, fourth negotiation and agreement, fifth manipulation and co-optation,
and last explicit and implicit coercion (Anderson, 2011; Duke, 2011; Harvey, 2010;
Lunenburg, 2010; Kotter & Schlesinger, 1979; Martin, 1975). These change
initiatives should be managed & implemented effectively to make the change
successful (Stanleigh, 2008).

H9: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

hierarchy regarding the steps taken to remove resistance towards change initiatives
in the selected IT organizations.

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H9.1: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender regarding the steps
taken to remove resistance towards change initiatives in the selected IT organizations.

H9.2: There is a significant difference in the perception of managerial hierarchy

regarding the steps taken to remove resistance towards change initiatives in the
selected IT organizations.

The previous studies suggest that the way change initiatives are managed and
perceived during change impacts the commitment & job satisfaction of employees
involved in it (Caldwell, Herold, & Fedor, 2004; C & C.,2000; Judge, Thoresen,
Pucik, & Welbourne, 1999; Vakola & Nikalaou, 2005; Raukko, 2009; Porter L. ,
Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974). The change iniatitives in the organziations also
impact the overall performance of the organziations (Erez, Earley, & Hulin, 1985)].

H10: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender and managerial

hierarchy regarding the impact of change initiatives in the selected IT
organizations.

H10.1: There is a significant difference in the perception of gender regarding

the impact of change initiatives in the selected IT organizations.

H10.2: There is a significant difference in the perception of managerial hierarchy

regarding the impact of change initiatives in the selected IT organizations.

The focus of the managers within the organization to effective change management
should be on forces/pressures leading to change, overcoming resistance to change and
ways to manage resistance to change and on understanding human response to change
(organizational commitment), (Harigopal K. , 2008). The previous studies by various
authors suggest that the change initiatives undertaken during the change have an
association with organizational commitment of employees (Fedor, Caldwell, &
Herold, 2006; Vakola & Nikolaou, 2005; Iverson, 1996; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990;
Caldwell, Herold, & Fedor, 2004; C & C., 2000; Judge, Thoresen, Pucik, &
Welbourne, 1999; Chen, Hou, & Fan, 2009).

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H11- There is an association between the perception of the employees regarding the
change initiatives within the organizational change levers and organizational
commitment in selected IT organizations.

Stuart (1996) and Lamsa & Savolainem (2000) emphasized that organizational change
can also have negative consequences on the employees like increasing the stress, low
morale, anxiety, loss of direction, lack of loyalty and commitment. If the employees
lack commitment it will also lead to increase in absenteeism and the affected labour
turnover rate. The employees who exhibit higher commitment levels have positive
outcome like high motivation, increase in job satisfaction level and regularity in work
(Benette & Durkin, 2000). The committed employees as a result will ease stress
during organizational change process. They will understand and cope with the change
positively so as to make it successful (Robbin & Langton, 2001). The committed
employees also help in the improvement of organizational communication,
improvement of quality and client centeredness and larger willingness to accept
change (Wim J. & Gijs, 1998). The managers in the organizations should create
commitment, trust, positive relationship and satisfaction among employees. This will
help to make change initiatives successful(Parish, Wallander, & Bush, 2008). The
leadership behaviour present in an organization is also significantly associated with
the commitment of employees (Lee, 2005; Farndale, Ruiten, Kelliher, & Hope-
Hailey, 2011).

H12- There is an impact of the perception of the employees regarding the change
initiatives within the organizational change levers on organization commitment.

H12a: There is an impact of the perception of the employees regarding the change
initiatives within all the change levers on Affective Organizational commitment.

H12b: There is an impact of the perception of the employees regarding the change
initiatives within all the change levers on Normative Organizational commitment.

H12c: There is an impact of the perception of the employees regarding the change
initiatives within all the change levers on Continuance Organizational commitment
(sacrifice).

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H12d: There is an impact of the perception of the employees regarding the change
initiatives within all the change levers on Continuance Organizational commitment
(lack of alternatives).

2.4.1 Theoretical Framework

The following framework is formulated on the basis of review of literature.
* Pressures leading to change initiatives within all the change levers

**Reasons for resistance to change initiatives within all the change levers

*** Steps taken to remove resistance towards change initiatives within all the change
levers

**** Change levers= Marketing, Quality, Strategy, Cost, Managing people,

Technology, Structure, & Leadership

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Figure 2.1 Theoretical Framework

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2.5 Research Gaps
Organizations today face main issues like, what do people want? Why do change
interventions succeed or fail? There is sparse literature available on assessing the
outcome of change. For managers in the organizations, the major issue is to deal with
reasons as to why organizations change and the processes characterizing change
initiatives. Hence, an in depth study is required to understand organizational change,
its levers and its impact on the IT sector organizations. Not many studies are
undertaken to examine the impact of change levers in IT sector in India and the
commitment among employees towards their organizations before and after change
has been announced or introduced. The present research by taking an in-depth
analysis of organizational change and its impact on organizational commitment
among employees will help in understanding human behaviour in the organizational
context and will help to understand and gather knowledge on the ways to manage
change.

2.6 Summing up
The studies in this chapter have investigated the relationship of organizational change
with the organizational commitment. It was found that organizational commitment is
an important aspect while determining the outcome of organizational change. Over
the last two decades, tremendous changes have been noticed in the organizations and
with the advancement in technologies and competition. The researchers have focused
their research on the change initiatives taken in the organizations and its impact on the
employees. The successful change is the result of the right management of change in
the organizations and is crucial for the survival of organizations. The main reasons for
organizational change are the technological changes, humongous competition
emerging in the world, globalization, change in the market place and changing
customers’ expectations. After studying the previous studies it was found that the
emphasis was on the various change levers i.e. marketing, cost, strategy, quality,
structure, managing people, technology & leadership. The main reasons for resistance
to change and steps taken to manage the resistance to change were also studied. To
make the change program successful the managers need to understand the importance
of right management of change & employee participation for the same.

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The change in the organization has a deep and abiding effect on the commitment of
the employees. It is important to examine the relationship between the two. The
commitment is the employee’s emotional attachment towards the organization. So
whenever change initiatives are taken, it impacts the commitment of the employees
positively or negatively. The authors in their studies emphasized that the employees
voice & perception has direct impact on the commitment when bringing change. The
higher management-employees ability to voice opinion regarding change proposal,
higher is their commitment.

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