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Web End = J Bus Psychol (2016) 31:249264 DOI 10.1007/s10869-015-9411-z
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Web End = When Change Causes Stress: Effects of Self-construal and Change Consequences
Barbara Wisse1 Ed Sleebos2
Published online: 5 July 2015 The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
AbstractPurpose Organizational change can be a major stress factor for employees. We investigate if stress responses can be explained by the extent to which there is a match between employee self-construal (in personal or collective terms) and change consequences (i.e., does the change particularly have consequences for the individual or for the group). We further investigate if the interactive effect of self-construal and change consequences on stress will be mediated by feelings of uncertainty.Design/Methodology/Approach Data were obtained in three studies. Study 1, a laboratory study, focused on physiological stress. Study 2, a business scenario, focused on anticipated stress. Study 3, a cross-sectional survey, focused on perceived stress. Studies 2 and 3 also included measures of uncertainty in order to test its mediating qualities.
Findings Change is more likely to lead to stress when the change has consequences for matters that are central to employees sense of self, and particularly so when the personal self is salient. This effect is mediated by feelings of uncertainty.
Implications Understanding why some people experience stress during change, while others do so to a lesser extent, may be essential for improving change management practices. It may help to prevent change processes being unnecessarily stressful for employees. Originality/Value This is one of the rst studies to show that different kinds of change may be leading to uncertainty or stress, depending on employees level of self-construal. The multi-method approach boosts the condence in our ndings.
Keywords Organizational change Self-construal
Personal identity Collective identity Uncertainty Stress
It has been suggested that the low success rate of organizational change may partly be explained by the fact that organizational change can take a huge toll on the employees (Fugate et al. 2012). Indeed, although (especially self-initiated) change can be a source of employee engagement (Bakker...