Impact of Employee Commitment to Change on Success of the Change: A Study of Staff and above Level Employees in ABC Company

Abstract

The global business environment is changing rapidly, and companies must change their strategies, structures, plans in line with the change. Otherwise, organizations cannot survive in the rapidly changing commercial environment. As a result, organizations are attempting to make changes to the organization. However, the success of implementing change continues to be challenging. The extant literature shows that most change implementations were unsuccessful while the small number of change implementations was successful. Employee commitment to change is one of the leading factors that lead to successful change. Even though there has been considerable research to examine the impact of employee engagement with change on the success of change in the Western context, there is a limited understanding of research on this issue in the Sri Lankan context. Thus, this study aims to identify the impact of employee commitment to change on the success of change in one of the leading manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka. In this study, the researcher conducted quantitative research, and a cross-sectional survey comprises 113 staff and above level employees in ABC Company using a convenience sampling technique. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression statistics with the aid of SPSS. It was noted that employee commitment to change is significantly related to successful change and that there is an impact on employee commitment to change on successful change. It was concluded that in determining the success of an implemented change, commitment to change plays an important role. The study provides a significant theoretical contribution in addressing the Herscovitch and Meyer three-component theory of commitment to change. It is suggested that when implementing a change, managers and practitioners should be concerned with employee perspectives as well. However, cross-validation of this study is recommended in different industries and cultures compared with a larger sample in subsequent studies.