A longitudinal and multilevel examination of organizational change

Abstract

This research examines how a hospital’s transformation to lean management produced change-supportive behaviours and attitudes. Comparisons to a wait-list control group showed improvements in leadership trust, communication, and engagement among employees who had bought into the change initiative, while affective commitment dropped in employees who had not bought into the vision. An exploration of the nature of these changes over time revealed a curvilinear pattern, suggesting that it may have taken six months before participants truly understood the implications of the change. Through longitudinal growth curve analysis, a follow-up study employing a within-subject, multilevel design found support for three predictive models of change readiness, as well as cross-level evidence suggesting that the processes that contribute to change readiness actually differ within individuals and within groups. Implications for predicting change in change-related attitudes, group-level influence on individuals, the timing of interventions during change, and the referent perspective of measurement are discussed, along with the limitations of this field study.