Tahereh Ebadi; Seyed Hosein Kazemi; Hassan Danaeefard
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTIONAlthough family organizations are usually on the sidelines of management research, they play a significant role in local and international economies. Therefore, in the last few decades, studies have focused on the differences between these organizations and conventional ones. One ...
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1- INTRODUCTIONAlthough family organizations are usually on the sidelines of management research, they play a significant role in local and international economies. Therefore, in the last few decades, studies have focused on the differences between these organizations and conventional ones. One of these areas of attention is researching survival and organizational changes in these organizations. Due to their dual identity (family on the one hand and business on the other), family organizations face different change issues and have distinct characteristics that can prevent or promote changes. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKPrevious research has addressed many issues and research questions about the different aspects of experiencing organizational change in family organizations. Specifically, the main research topics include the person-centered behaviors of the founders (such as their leadership style and entrepreneurial behaviors) alongside the specific features of these organizations (such as cultural differences). Another main focus of the literature has been explaining the distinct nature of family organizations, resulting in a middle-range theory about the dualistic nature of their identity, namely, the socioemotional wealth theory. Socioemotional wealth refers to financial aspects of the firm that meet the family's affective needs, such as identity, the ability to exercise family influence, and the perpetuation of the family dynasty. However, what is lacking in the literature is a more comprehensive look at how family organizations experience organizational changes. To answer this question, secondary data analysis, i.e., how previous studies have conceptualized organizational changes and its promoting and preventing factors in family organizations, would be a suitable path. 3- METHODOLOGYThe current study tried to answer the research question by systematically reviewing the literature from 2000 to 2020. Unlike traditional narrative review, systematic review is repeatable and transparent. It provides a structured and documented approach to the literature selection and review process to reduce review bias. We followed the procedures and recommendations of some authoritative articles to conduct this review. Accordingly, the first step was determining clear and specific questions at the beginning of the study: “What approaches and theories are used in the conceptualization of change in family organizations?” and “What are the factors that promote or prevent change in family organizations?” The next step was doing an initial search and identifying related articles in 5 online databases (Google Scholar, Sage Publications, Science Direct, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley). We used two categories of keywords and logical operators (AND, OR) to perform the search. The search was conducted in September 2020 and only among sources published in English between 2000 and 2020. For the selection of articles, we set some inclusion and exclusion criteria, such as “the study should be empirical and being published in a peer-reviewed journal,” which were applied through software-aided control, referring to related sites, and reviewing the abstracts of the articles. By the end, 81 final articles were selected for this review. To extract data, we created an Excel file with columns related to the general characteristics of the articles and our research questions. During a back-and-forth process between the researchers, we negotiated and finally agreed upon the extracted information. Since the data and methods of the reviewed articles were heterogeneous, we combined the findings in this study qualitatively. To do so, the final articles were entered into ATLAS.ti (version 8) software for content analyzing and coding and their information was combined into three main themes: the approach or theory used for conceptualizing the change and its promoting and preventing factors. 4- RESULTS & DISCUSSIONThis study was to summarize the findings of past studies and provide a more general picture of change and transformation in family organizations. Specifically, this research aimed to answer two main questions: “What approaches and theories are used in the conceptualization of change in family organizations?” and “What are the factors promoting and preventing change in family organizations?” Regarding the first question, the finding of this study is that change in family organizations is mainly conceptualized around five main perspectives: succession, entrepreneurship, sustainable business development, socio-emotional wealth, and organizational culture. As for the second question, reviewing articles shows that factors preventing and promoting change in family organizations are not far from these topics. For example, one factor that drives change in family organizations is the existence of an entrepreneurial culture and the existence of an entrepreneurial leader and founder. Also, the existence of a suitable substitute and non-family expert staff are factors that lead to change. This means that change in family organizations mainly happens either through an internal factor (i.e., entrepreneurial culture) or an external factor (i.e., the presence of non-family experts). These two observations show two main strategies to facilitate change in family organizations that can be used by managers or change consultants. The same pattern is observed among preventing factors. The existence of non-professional managers, traditional attitudes towards organization management, and nepotism have been among the preventing factors. This means that if the organizational culture of a family organization is institutionalized in the form of anti-change norms such as nepotism or authoritarian leadership, it would be one of the biggest obstacles to change. In such a case, managers or change consultants can facilitate changes in these organizations by making cultural interventions such as organizational confrontation meetings. 5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONSBy categorizing and combining theories/approaches to the conceptualization of change and its preventing and promoting factors in family organizations, this study paves the way for developing a change management model in family organizations. For this purpose, this study has categorized all the obtained preventing and promoting factors into five capabilities: adaptability, human capital, generational transition, manager/s, and change management. This means that those factors that help to create these five capabilities are the promoting factors, and those that weaken these capabilities are the factors that prevent change in these organizations. Based on this classification, future studies can conduct research on how to measure and mature these capabilities in family organizations and provide a model for promoting and successfully managing changes in family organizations.
Saeid Sehat; Mahdi Yazdanshenas; Hamed Dehghanan; Amir Safari Moghadam
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTIONImplementing the strategy is one of the most significant and challenging topics for organizations and leaders. Successful organizational change can transform the organization's business, and interest in studying in this field, especially taking care of the meaning model, is increasing. ...
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1- INTRODUCTIONImplementing the strategy is one of the most significant and challenging topics for organizations and leaders. Successful organizational change can transform the organization's business, and interest in studying in this field, especially taking care of the meaning model, is increasing. Many failures are caused by paying attention to secondary results and not paying enough attention to the main cause. Employees are one of the most important factors to be considered in the strategy implementation process. The construction of meaning plays a critical role in employees' response (resistance, acceptance, or cooperation) to the new strategy. This reaction is of behavioral and cognitive type and is rooted in the employees' understanding. Lewin's 3-stage approach is accepted by Many organizational change experts. Many models of changing the meaning construction suggest that the process of changing the meaning in the minds of employees may also consist of these three stages of Lewin; First, managers destroy the old meaning construction of the organizational reality in the minds of employees, then they create a new meaning construction, and finally, they consolidate the new meaning construction (refreezzing). This article takes a look at the process of changing the meaning-making in the minds of employees by comparing it with Levin's model. The major difference between this article and some others in this field is its focus on two points. First, in this article, only certain types of specific meanings of discoursive activity are emphasized, and at the same time, it refers more to how the manager influences the meaning change process. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKIn the past, articles have mostly looked at the meaning-making of employees by managers with a negative approach. Therefore, in this view, any sense-making of employees, such as the meaning they give to change, was considered a resistant force. Leaders were only seeking to break down the previous meaning structure of the employees. More recent studies have shown that the perception of employees, which is rooted in the past and the meaning construction of employees, is not only an obstacle to change but can also act as an effecting factor in implementing a new strategy. The change in the meaning structure of employees can be a factor in the success of the change. 3- METHODOLOGYNarrative and thematic analysis methods were used to analyze data to investigate the change in the meaning construction. Thematic analysis was nested in the narrative analysis method as a tool for better data analysis. The narrative analysis makes it possible to investigate the meanings of the manager in their discursive activities, and the thematic analysis identifies the themes of the narrations. The main focus in this case was on changing the meaning construction, and the impact of discoursive activities on this issue was considered more. Narrative analysis takes a deeper look at how the content of discourse activity is used and refers specifically to how experiences and issues are interpreted. Thematic analysis is a method for data analysis to understand the factors affecting the identification of criteria for understanding interpretations of employees. 4- RESULTS & DISCUSSIONIn the narrative analysis, the narrations that contained many different meaning units were identified. The leader tries to change the employees' meaning construction using these narratives. These narrations are usually mentioned in several meetings and periods. In the following, all narrations were analyzed by thematic analysis. To categorize themes and better understand the relationship between discursive activity and meaning construction, pay more attention to more resonant themes. This process was stopped when extracting new themes was no longer possible. In the end, with a theory-oriented point of view, coding was done based on specific theories and hypotheses. There are three main axes explicit from Lewin's change model. The themes of identification are placed around these axes. In the first step, discursive activities seemed to be focused most on expressing the defects in the existing situation. This concept is repeated in different ways, even in disappeared businesses. Finally, the focus was on the desired goal and refreezing new conditions. 5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONSIn this study, by reviewing and summarizing the findings, we came across several fundamental approaches: the first and most important approach, which was the main research question, referred to the analysis of the change process in the employees' meaning construction and its compliance with Levine's model. In Levin's model, first, the defrosting process occurs by attacking the existing conditions, then the change phase, and finally, stabilization and refreezing occur. In the defrosting stage, measures like identifying the need for change, specifying what needs to be changed, encouraging the employees to change old behaviors, ensuring the full support of senior managers for the change, and paying attention to understanding concerns and doubts. Narratives that refer to the current situation's lack of appropriate response to new environmental changes and consider the existing jobs as inferior or the existing structure as inefficient are included in this section. It seems that after studying the time course of narrations and the number of their repetitions in these intervals, it is possible to present such a picture of it. In other words, narratives and themes that try to attack the existing meanings and systems of employees are placed in this stage. The second approach is that the discursive activities happening in the direction of change in the meaning construction are not separate phases and sometimes act together. Maybe this is due to the difference in the capacity of people to change. For example, a group needs more repetition and meditation to change its meaning construction.
Hoda Jannesar ahmadi; Ali Shirazi; Fariborz Rahimnia; Alireza Khorakian
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The need for change in today's organizations in the one hand and 70% rate of failure in implementing the organizational change programs on the other caused many scholars to search on reasons for success and failure of organizational change. Although it is generally stated that effective ...
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INTRODUCTION
The need for change in today's organizations in the one hand and 70% rate of failure in implementing the organizational change programs on the other caused many scholars to search on reasons for success and failure of organizational change. Although it is generally stated that effective leadership is the key to successful change, many scholars have pointed out the lack of empirical research in this regard. Burke (2008) suggests that the impact of leadership on organizational change is not refined in the literature and there exists little scientific evidence on leadership influence. Similarly, Higgs and Rowland (2005) stated that only a few studies generally described the leader's initiatives in the process of change, and the literature in this field suffers from the lack of empirical research. Ford and Ford (2012) also pointed out the lack of definitive research on the association of leaders’ initiatives with change success. Since many studies have emphasized the role of leadership in organizational change success, the present research is accordingly to identify the leaders’ initiatives in successfully implementing the change programs.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Today's organizations are constantly changing. Although both practitioners and scholars are concerned about the change in organizations (Blackman & Kennedy, 2011), managing the organizational change is not a simple process and few organizations are successful in implementing it. Aarons et al. (2015) suggest that leadership plays an important role in effectively implementing innovation and change. In addition, precise evidence on the role of leaders in the change success is now increasing (Higgs, 2003). In Yukl's (2010) opinion, the most important task of leaders is to achieve organizational success. Hence, the ability to effectively leading the organizational change is considered as one of the desirable skills for managers of current organizations (Szabla et al., 2014). Leaders and managers of organizations should be aware of the environmental trends, crises, and developments in place of their work. They should be flexible and adaptable in creating, predicting, encouraging, and responding positively to change. Without leadership, planned organizational change will never be realized (Dumas and Beinecke, 2018).
ahmad esakhani; Mona Ghaffariajirabad
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTION
When it comes to organizational change, the concept of resistance toward it comes to managers’ mind subconsciously. Many researchers have concluded that people have a special position in front of Organizational Changes (Vakola, Oreg & Armenakis 2013; Oreg & Sverdlik, 2011). Some employees ...
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1- INTRODUCTION
When it comes to organizational change, the concept of resistance toward it comes to managers’ mind subconsciously. Many researchers have concluded that people have a special position in front of Organizational Changes (Vakola, Oreg & Armenakis 2013; Oreg & Sverdlik, 2011). Some employees embrace changes and consider them as opportunities for making self-improvements. In contrast, others get upset and intend to keep their routines and consider changes as threats and take a negative attitude toward it (Judg, Pucik & Welbourne, 1999). Therefore, employees’ attitude plays a vital role in achieving the goals of organizational change. Many of recent studies done on organizational change (e.g., Alderfer, 1977; Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999; Faucheux, Amado & Laurent 1982; Friedlander & Brown, 1974; Pasmore & Fagans, 1992; Porras & Silvers, 1991; Sashkin & Burke, 1987; Weick & Quinn, 1999; Woodman, 1989) have only focused on change readiness, change implementation and reactions toward an organizational change. This is while the change recipients’ reaction lies at the heart of events and as a determinant of each organizational change success. Although there has been a quick review in many of organizational change studies, in most of the cases, the focus is on the organizational level and not the individual level. Therefore, there is a lack of research on change recipients (Judge et al., 1999).
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
There is a general consensus of opinion among researchers and practitioners who argue that change programs often fail (Beer & Nohria, 2000; Burnes, 2009; By, Diefenbach & Klarner, 2008; Diefenbach, 2007). On the other hand, commitment to chnage is considered as one of important factors affecting employees' support for change plans (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999; Coetsee, 1999; Conner, 1992; Conner & Patterson, 1982; Klein & Sorra, 1996). Many theoretical approaches have identified reasons as the underlying determinants of behavior. First, Reasoning Theory states that “reasons serve as important linkages between people’s beliefs, global motives (e.g., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control), intentions, and behavior and reasons motivate behavior, because they help people justify and defend their actions” (Westaby, 2002). When explaining the reason behind behavioral reactions, people should have good feelings (Pieters & Zeelenberg, 2005). Theory of reasoned action and planned behavior (Azjen & Fishben, 1980) remarks that people make decisions in a rational and systematic manner through their available information. Therefore employees’ evaluation of different aspects of change reflects their type of reaction. If employees’ do not have positive perception of change, then they will naturally take a position toward it which is more like resistance toward change. The more positive this evaluation is, the more consistency and acceptance will be shown by employees’, which automatically leads to more commitment to change. Staff’s participation in change leads to more information on different aspects of change and so the participation itself results in commitment to change. Employees’ cost-benefit analysis about a change and prevailing benefits of the change in the underlying costs can dispose the commitment to change. Change extends also in terms of scope and scale and challenges associated with it may also affect employees’ commitment to change.
3- METHODOLOGY
The sample of this research consisted of the managers and employees of Darmanyab Group (PJS). This group of companies included 156 staff. Cochran sampling formula was used to determine the sample size. Based on this formula, a minumum sample size of 111 people was required. In order to achieve the desired sample size, 130 questionnaires using simple random sampling were distributed among the staff. 111 out of 130 questionnaires were received which showed a response rate of 85%. Four Standard questionnaires were used in order to measure research variables; Five items obtained from change questionnaire (Caldwell et al., 2004), Five items change extent questionnaire (Caldwell et al., 2004), Six items affective commitment to change questionnaire (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2002), and Four items participation in change questionnaire (Wanberg & Banas, 2000).
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
This study aimed to assess the effects of the characteristics of organizational changes on employees’ affective commitment. The research hypothesis was tested through analyzing the collected data. The results showed that employees’ participation in changes has a significant positive effect on their affective commitment. This effect is greater in comparison with other characteristics of the organization change (0.38) which highlighted the importance of employees’ participation impact on their commitment. The results also showed that perceived benefits of change have positive effect on employees’ affective commitment to change; however, the impact is less in comparison to participation in change (0.11). One of the key factors in determining acceptance or rejection of change by the recipients is certainly the usefulness or harmfulness of a change. Predicted profit and loss are among the simple and rational reasons based on which employees decide whether to accept changes or refuse them (Dent & Goldberg, 1999; Nord & Jermier, 1994). Finally the results showed that the extent of change has no significant effect on employees' affective commitment to change.
5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
Based on the results achieved, it is recommended that organizations which work in dynamic environments and face with daily political, economical, and social changes use participation policy in their decision making and implementation processes of change plans. These kinds of organizations need lots of inner organizational changes and in order to benefit from employees’ accompany and support, it is suggested that they involve employees in change plans.
In addition, based on the benefits of change effect on employees’ commitment, it is recommended that organizations make transparent benefits associated with change plans for employees. This can be done through open communication and also providing information about aspects, consequences, and necessity of change.
Mostafa Hadavinejad; Hafez Ramazani
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTION
One of the main causes of organizational change failure is employees’ resistance to change (Padro de Val & Fuentes, 2003). Because of abstract and multidimensional nature of resistance to change, it has been paid attention to it from diverse aspects (Piderit, 2000). The orthodoxy, ...
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1- INTRODUCTION
One of the main causes of organizational change failure is employees’ resistance to change (Padro de Val & Fuentes, 2003). Because of abstract and multidimensional nature of resistance to change, it has been paid attention to it from diverse aspects (Piderit, 2000). The orthodoxy, however, is behavioral kind of attitudinal approach to resistance to change (Ashforth & Mael, 1998). Since, in its turn, behavioral resistance has different types (Yue, 2008), developing studies to explore the effective factors on them is necessary. In this regard, the purpose of this study is exploring the situational antecedents of behavioral types of resistance to change based on a phenomenology.
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
There are different approaches to studying the phenomenon of resistance to change: dispositional, political, deconstructive, and attitudinal (Hadavinejad & Tamaddon, 2014). Based on attitudinal approach, besides cognitive and affective aspects, resistance to change have behavioral aspect too. In its preliminary and simple form, the behavioral resistance is a kind of overt-conscious opposite reaction to change from protesters. However, it can be more complex based on overt-covert and conscious-unconscious dimensions. So, in addition to protesters, the other behavioral resistant employees are saboteurs, survivors, and zombies (O'Connor, 1993). Although, the dispositional antecedents of these kinds of behavioral resistance have been explored heretofore (Hadavinejad & Tamaddon, 2014), the presented study is devoted to exploring the situational ones.
3- METHODOLOGY
Delimited to attitudinal approach in resistance to change, data gathered through lived experiences of 18 top managers of administrative organizations in Rafsanjan, I.R. of Iran, in the framework of hermeneutic phenomenology, based on typical sampling up to theoretical saturation. Data analyzed based on Diekelmann et al. (1989) proposed process using Maxqda software. In order to gain confidence from data reliability, its credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability were checked.
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
Diverse themes were explored through preliminary data codifying and reduced to macro themes in an iterative process. Findings showed that the situational context facilitates sabotage are authoritarian leadership style, perceived organizational injustice, and weakness of appraisal assessment and reward systems. Weakness of appraisal assessment, staffing, and training systems, job ambiguity and role overload are situational factors affecting survivors, too. The protesters behave in a context included of democratic leadership style, perceived organizational injustice, perceived organizational nonsupport, and weakness of appraisal assessment, reward, and notification systems. Finally, the main situational antecedents of zombies’ behavioral resistanc to change are weakness of training, staffing, and notification systems.
5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
Based on findings, reinforcement of reward system beside effort to reduce injustice and improve organizational support can lead to decrease of employees’ conscious behavioral resistance to change in Rafsanjan administrative organizations. Moreover, changing the leadership style from authoritarian to democratic may reduce sabotage, as well as, improving notification system that can decrease protests toward change. Since, it is concluded that weakness of appraisal assessment system would effects all types of behavioral resistance to change, except zombie, improving mentioned system would cause protesters, saboteurs, and survivors be diminished in organization. In order to manage the unconscious resistance, it is necessary to improve the staffing and training systems. However, promoting the notification system beside two prior systems would lead to reduction in zombie behavioral resistance to change. Whereas, to decrease the survivors’ resistance, it is recommended the job ambiguity and role overload be disappeared.
ali najafi; hamid rahimian; akbar bashkouh
Abstract
1- Introduction
Among features and essential requirements of new organizations, their formation is based on learning on one hand and their facing with increasing changes on the other hand. The Interaction between learning culture and motivation for organizational change, persuades organizations to adapt ...
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1- Introduction
Among features and essential requirements of new organizations, their formation is based on learning on one hand and their facing with increasing changes on the other hand. The Interaction between learning culture and motivation for organizational change, persuades organizations to adapt to the accelerating changes of the world today. Specialists of change say that organizational readiness for change is an important prerequisite for its successful adoption and implementation.
If organizations want to stay in a competitive state, they have to be prepared for change. Therefore, this research is intended to identify the role of these factors in preparing organizational change at the National Iranian Petrochemical Company.
2- Theoretical Framework
Learning is one of the most important mechanisms for adapting to the changing world. Learning is a complex process which has the potential to change behavior. Studies show that organizational learning culture improves individual and group learning and thus improve organizational performance. In general, learning culture is an "equality culture" In order to facilitate continuous improvement and adaptation to environmental changes, specific norms are defined and employees feel valued.
According to Armenikia and Harris (2002), the process of change occurs in three stages: Preparation, compatibility and institutionalization. Readiness for change is the first step of the change process enabling the organization to quickly understand the need for change and respond appropriately to it.
Past research has linked the need for success and readiness for change. Other studies have linked individual flexibility with higher levels of acceptance of change. In addition, various studies have examined the role of organizational culture with elements such as social communication, trust and participation in the change process. Another intermediate variable in preparing for change in organizations is learning motivation and transfer motivation. According to Sladoljoio, Cornago and SpielJak (2005), learning motivation has impact on the need for the growth of individual autonomy.
3- Research Methodology
The research method of this study, in terms of its nature, is descriptive, and in term of survey, it is an analytical one. The statistical population of the research was the staff of Iran National Petrochemical Company, and according to Morgan's table, 250 people were selected by simple random sampling method. Data collection questionnaire are Watkins and Marsink Learning Cultivators (2003), Learning Engagement by Cheng et al. (2010), Holton Transfer Motivation (2005) and preparing for organizational change by Bo Kong and colleagues (2009).
For data analysis, structural equation modeling and Smart PIS number 2 Version Software were used. Data collection method is library-field type. First, descriptive analysis of data was performed using PSE 16 software then the model was investigated using structural equation modeling.
4- Research Findings
Research results show that the readiness to change is affected directly and through the motivation of the learning culture. Also, there is a meaningful relationship learning between learning culture with learning variable's intermediary and learning motivations.
On the other hand, there is no meaningful relationship between learning culture and readiness to change. With respect to the values of T, the path of learning culture to motivation and its motivation path to the readiness to change at a 99% confidence level was confirmed. Therefore, the motivation and readiness of employees to implement organizational changes is significant.
5- Discussion and Conclusion
According to the results obtained from the hypothesis test and considering the standard regression coefficient, it can be argued that the relationship between organizational learning and employees’ readiness to change in the National Iranian Petrochemical Company is not in a favorable situation. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to organizational learning in order to prepare for change. In this regard, it is recommended to make preparations for change in the first step, and evaluate the organizational culture of the company. The suggestion that Naimatullah. Sh, Irani. Z, & Sharif. M, (2016) and Johansson. C, Aström. S, Kauffeldta. A, Helldinc. L, & Carlströmd. E, (2013) have described as an important step in preparing for organizational change. In this context, it is better to use modern educational methods such as learning communities, learning tours, meetings of reflection, journal clubs, educational packages, and multimedia. In the field of team learning, it is better for the company to provide training for employees. Also, considering that the component of learning and transfer motivation in this study is considered as a mediator variable, it is necessary to pay special attention to the managers of the company. Researchers such as Navoquola and Nicolao (2005) and Nordin (2011) have identified this component as an important step for successful organizational change.