Uncertainty during organizational change: Is it all about control?

By P. Bordia, E. Hunt, Neil Paulsen, D. Tourish, Nicholas DiFonzo. 2004

482 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Uncertainty is a major source of psychological strain during organizational change. This study tested a model of change-related communication, uncertainty, and control and their relationship with psychological strain, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Self-report data were obtained from staff at a psychiatric hospital undergoing restructuring. Results indicated that uncertainty had a direct and an indirect (via feelings of lack of control) relationship with psychological strain. Partialling out common method variance led to a complete mediation of this relationship by control. Other predictions about the relationship of these variables with psychological strain, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions were supported. Implications for future research and practice of change communication are discussed.

Subfields: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3a96b1ebbfbd6e14269f76ba9cca15d368454ea8

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Considering planned change anew:stretching large group interventions strategically, emotionally and meaningfully (2011, background): “Uncertainty is generally experienced as aversive, and elicits negative emotions such as anxiety, threat, and fear (Bordia et al., 2004; Schuler, 1980) because it makes people feel vulnerable and insecure about the situation (DiFonzo & Bordia, 2007).”
Job insecurity and employee health: The buffering potential of job control and job self-efficacy (2010, background): “Uncertainty elicits feelings of powerlessness and lack of control, and such perceptions of uncontrollability, in turn, have been shown to be important antecedents of impaired health (Bordia et al., 2004).”
Do Perceptions of Ethical Conduct Matter During Organizational Change? Ethical Leadership and Employee Involvement (2014, background): “1994; Piderit 2000) and is linked with negative outcomes such as decreased satisfaction, productivity, and psychological well-being, increased theft, absenteeism, and turnover (Bordia et al. 2004; Miller et al. 1994).”
Frontline Employee Customer-Oriented Attitude in the Presence of Job Demands and Resources (2016, background): “Uncertainty elicits feelings of powerlessness and lack of control, and these perceptions of uncontrollability, in turn, have been shown as important antecedents of impaired health (Bordia et al. 2004).”
Developing criteria for healthy organizational change (2007, background): “In contrast, if change communication is handled in a destructive manner, it may lead to widespread rumours in the workplace which will intensify the negative aspects of the change and build resistance (Bordia, Hunt, Paulsen, Tourish, & DiFonzo, 2004 ).”
The Impact of Change Process and Context on Change Reactions and Turnover During a Merger (2010, methodology): “Information quality was assessed using five items that measured whether employees reported that they had been provided with timely information, whether information was appropriate, and whether information has been accurate (Bordia et al., 2004).”
Change Recipients’ Reactions to Organizational Change (2011, background): “…Kirkman (1999); Spreitzer and Mishra (2002); Steel and Lloyd (1988) Identification Amiot et al. (2006) Intentions to quit Begley and Czajka (1993); Bordia et al. (2004); Coch and French (1948); G. B. Cunningham (2006); Fried et al. (1996); Gardner et al. (continued) 498 The Journal of Applied…”
Job uncertainty and personal control during downsizing: A comparison of survivors and victims (2005, methodology): “However, there are other sources of uncertainty that may also affect an individual’s adjustment to organizational change, such as organizational and group uncertainty (Jackson et al., 1987) or strategic and structural uncertainty (Bordia et al., 2004a).”
Moderating effects of job insecurity in the relationships between procedural justice and employee well-being: Gender differences (2005, background): “We were looking at the last-mentioned level, in terms of an individual psychological experience rather than an objective feature of the environment (e.g., Bordia et al., 2004).”
Haunted by the Past: Effects of Poor Change Management History on Employee Attitudes and Turnover (2007, background): “…(Wanberg & Banas, 2000), affective commitment to change (ACC, Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002), participative decision making regarding change (PDM, Wanberg & Banas, 2000), quality of change communication (QCC, Bordia et al., 2004b) and positively associated with change anxiety (Axtell et al., 2002).”
The impact of feedback from job and task autonomy in the relationship between dispositional resistance to change and innovative work behaviour (2013, background): “…restructurings, occur, firms must not only be able to find out valuable ways to overcome attitude or behavioural forms of resistance to change (Bordia et al., 2004; Wanberg & Banas, 2000), but also to better understand how some traitlike components of resistance could be redirected towards…”