Date of Award

3-1-2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering Management

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Dean C. Vitale, PhD

Abstract

By investigating organizational change as a change to the status quo as opposed to an explicit change program, this study explored antecedents of a perceived need for change, defined as an individual attitude to actively support a general change to the status quo within the context of a specific process. This cross-sectional study investigated the individual attitudes of construction service providers (n = 193) as their headquarters announced that a change to an existing process would soon be developed. Utilizing hierarchical regression, employees were found to recognize a perceived need for change when they experienced low levels of perceived organizational support, felt positive emotions towards the change to the status quo, and believed that customers had a poor view of the organization’s service quality. Among the managerial implications, first, it supports previous research regarding the importance of emotion in the internalization of change programs. Second, the negative relationship between perceived organizational support and perceived need for change suggests that employees respond to the organization as a system, not necessarily to the stated desires of management. Lastly, it suggests that employees may be ready to act on feedback from customers if they were given an opportunity to do so.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GEM-ENV-09-M06

DTIC Accession Number

ADA501270

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