eThesis - Kauppakorkeakoulun sähköiset gradut

Purpose of the study

The main objective of this study was to investigate how employee commitment to change and the implementation quality of different change process phases affect achieving the goals and succeeding in an organizational change initiative. The secondary objective of the study was to identify factors hindering employee commitment to change.

Methods of the study

The study was conducted as a case study in two parts utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The first part of the study, the qualitative pilot study, concentrated on identifying factors hindering employee commitment to change. The pilot study was conducted by interviewing seven professionals in the case company twice, once at the beginning of the change initiative and once in the middle. The interviews were semi–structured and the data from the interviews was analyzed e.g. with thematic analysis. The results of the pilot study were also utilized in content validation for the main study.

The main study was conducted with an Internet–survey in a large company concentrating on information technology solutions and services in December 2009. The research instrument was based on multiple–choice questions and it measured employees’ level of commitment during each phase of the change process, change process quality in each of these phases, importance of the phases, realization level of the different goals set for the initiative and the final success measure of the change initiative.

An invitation to take part in the survey was sent to 88 employees in the case company and 62 (70%) employees responded to the survey. The results of the study and the relationships between the variables were analyzed e.g. with Pearson’s product–moment correlation coefficient and linear regression analyses.

Results

Employee commitment to change had a significant impact on the change process quality and consequently supported the findings of previous research. On the other hand, a direct causal relationship between employees’ level of commitment and the final success measure of the change initiative could not be verified. The first phase of the change process concentrating on establishing a solid base for change and preparing the employees for the change initiative e.g. by communicating the vision for the change was perceived very important among the employees, but in the regression analysis, this phase had a very little impact on the final success. The second phase concentrating on localizing the change and involving the employees in the change process had a significant impact on the realization level of different goals and on the final success of the change initiative.