The impact of trust in management and quality of change communication on readiness for change

Abstract

Organizational change is something that many organizations are facing and implementing change is an important skill for leaders to have. Despite this fact, the actual success rate for implementing organizational change is very low. An employee’s readiness for change is thought to be a critical precursor to successful change implementation, but there is sparse and conflicting research on how it can be facilitated. This thesis aims to narrow the gap in knowledge by investigating the roles of trust and communication on readiness for change. Additionally, the role of readiness for change on change commitment was investigated. A field study with conducted within two sites of an organization currently implementing a Microsoft SharePoint system. At one of the sites, where the implementation has been successful, a mixed methods approach was taken, primarily gathering quantitative data which was supplemented by qualitative data. At the other site, where the implementation was still in progress, a purely quantitative approach was taken with the collection of independent and dependent variables at different times. The results highlighted the importance of communication in creating readiness for change, especially in a high trust relationship. There is evidence to suggest that the relationship between trust and readiness for change is complicated and varies throughout the process, which may explain previously conflicting results. Future research directions, as well as implications for practitioners are presented.