The Impact of Organisational Restructuring on Organisational Behaviour

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Effective Change Management

The Development of Change Management

Effective change management, in the context of this study, is operationally defined to include components of change management, leadership and organisational support. For the purposes of this study, effective change management comprises three factors: firstly, change management processes, secondly, leader-member exchange and lastly, perceived organisational support. Effective change management is a product that has been derived from multiple disciplines and practices as a result of responses to the changing needs of organisations (Jones & Recardo, 2013).
The majority of change management textbooks do not provide clear and accurate definitions of change management, with most textbook authors merely referring to it as an activity designed to support a change initiative aimed at positive results and improved operational processes. In contrast to theaforementioned, several researchers and change management practitioners provide such elaborate definitions of the concept and its many and varied interpretations that this tends to create confusion among readers (Kang, 2015). However, change management has been adequately defined as “the utilisation of the basic structures and tools to control any organisational change effort” (Jones & Recardo, 2013: 2). Other definitions for change management have also been formulated by a variety of researchers, some of which are presented below.
Change management is often understood in terms of transformative change and is defined by Kang (2015: 27) as “the process of continually renewing an organisation’s direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers” or as “a process whereby organisations and individuals proactively plan for and adapt to change” (Kang, 2015: 28). Change management is also defined as “a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams and organisations from a current state to a future desired state” (East, 2011: 3). During a PROSCI survey, it was found that “more than 80 percent of respondents experienced at least some confusion with the concepts of change and change management” with the lack of “common and sufficient understanding of change management” being ascribed to the fact that the concept is not universally defined (Jones & Recardo, 2013: 1) Organisational change, delineated to include organisational restructuring, has long been recognised as an important factor in the success and survival of organisations and this has given rise to the development of a variety of methodologies with which to manage organisational change (Mills, Dye & Mills, 2009). The earliest attempts at developing planned and systematic approaches to managing change were evident in the work of Kurt Lewin with many researchers using Lewin’s work as a foundation in which to expand the discipline (Mills, Dye & Mills, 2009). Lewin is considered and has been described by many as an important figure in the creation and development of organisational change as a discipline and has often been referred to as the “creator of the planned approach to organisational change” (Mills, Dye & Mills, 2009: 42).
Organisational change comes in many forms and may be categorised as planned change, unplanned change, emergent change, incremental change or quantum change (Mills et al., 2009). Organisational change may be effected at various levels within the organisation and, as such, organisational change may take place at the organisational level (usually aimed at restructuring or reorganising), at the group level, and at the individual level (change attempts to alter behaviour, attitudes and perceptions) (Mills et al., 2009). Incremental change is aimed at restructuring divisions or departments or even problems which have been within the organisation while quantum change affects the entire organisation and is aimed at renewing the organisation in terms of structure, policy and even leadership (Mills et al., 2009). For most organisations, although change is not part of their strategic plan, many suddenly find themselves in the midst of change processes, primarily as a result of external factors threatening the survival of the organisation (Mills et al., 2009).

Planned and Unplanned Change

Planned change is contemplated change, is consciously undertaken by the organisation but has its limits in that the change is predictable. In addition, no single model fits another situation (Holbeche, 2006; East, 2011). Aslam, Ilyas, Kashif and Rahman (2016) claim that up to 70% of planned change initiatives prove to be unsuccessful. Planned organisational change should be an intentional, goal-oriented activity which seeks to improve the organisation’s ability to adapt to changes stemming from its environment. Unplanned or unintended change usually occurs as a reaction to an external force on the organisation while, unlike in the planned approach where the manager must impose order, in emergent change approaches the manager must create conducive situations for change to occur (Holbeche, 2006 Since the 1980s, there has been much criticism levelled at the existing models of planned change, including that of Kurt Lewin (Burnes, 2009). Despite the vast array of new approaches to change, it may be accepted that emergent change has overtaken planned change as the dominant approach (Burnes, 2009). The first principle of the emergent approach is that change is not linear and, instead, it is a continuous and open-ended process that aims to align the organisation with the ever-changing environment (Burnes, 2009).
Researchers also did not spare John Kotter and his Eight Stage process designed to manage organisational change. A review of the research literature by Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo and Shafiq (2012) revealed that most of Kotter’s data had been compiled by Kotter himself, following his career as a consultant to numerous organisations; and that, in essence, “Kotter validated Kotter” (Appelbaum, et al., 2012: 776). It would appear that his change management model gained popularity because of its useable format rather than scientific consensus on the results (Appelbaum et al., 2012). Challenges with Kotter’s Eight Steps include the fact all steps must be followed as it is a linear, sequential process; and that omitting a single step may create problems for the change process – this was acknowledged by Kotter himself (Pollack & Pollack, 2015).
Despite the plethora of change processes available, in a survey conducted in 2008 with over 3000 executives, two-thirds of them revealed that their organisations had not been able to successfully implement and sustain the intended change programmes (Rafferty, Jimmieson & Armenakis, 2013). Barriers to the successful implementation of planned change have been identified as including employee attitude to change and change readiness (a positive attitude towards change) (Rafferty et al., 2013: 111).

Change Readiness

Change Readiness is defined as “an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding the extent to which changes are needed and the organisation’s capacity to successfully undertake those changes” (Rafferty, et al., 2013: 113). Change readiness comprises the individuals’ readiness for change, consisting of cognitive and affective components in relation to change readiness, individuals’ collective readiness for change, comprises workgroup change readiness, namely, cognitive beliefs and affective responses, and also organisational readiness for change which consists of cognitive beliefs and affective responses (Rafferty et al., 2013).
The antecedents of change readiness may be categorised into three broad categories, namely, external organisational pressures, including industry changes, internal context enablers, such as participation and communication processes, as well as personal characteristics at the individual level and group composition characteristics at the collective level (Rafferty et al., 2013).
Based on the research of Rafferty et al. (2013), it was found that positive change attitudes are usually associated with the effective implementation of change management processes with employee involvement contributing directly to the employees’ feelings of empowerment and effective communication during change programmes increasing both the acceptance of the change and the commitment to change. It was found that ineffective communication increased cynicism about the change as well as fostering rumours which often exaggerated the negative aspects and impact of the change (Rafferty et al., 2013). Research conducted by Adil (2016), conducted in the private and public commercial banks, found that employees’ readiness for change is significantly impacted by leadership (which affects commitment) and commitment.
The propensity to change includes the desire to change and is applicable to all individuals within the organisation as well as to the organisation itself. In order to ensure the propensity to change, an understanding of the organisation and its needs is essential. Understanding the reason why individuals have to prepare and be ready for change, and why change needs to happen (in the event that it does), will reduce the inclination to want to resist the change. This may be achieved by increasing employees’ commitment to the organisation through increased levels of trust in the organisation (Luthans, 2011). Trust in the organisation may be increased with increased employee engagement (through perceived organisational support) practices (Wiezer et al., 2011). An increase in employee engagement (through organisational citizenship behaviour) is usually a direct result of increased and high-quality organisational (change) communication (Chan & Lai, 2017).

Effective Change Management: Processes

A key implication of the emotional impact of organisational change through organisational restructuring on individuals is that it may have adverse effects on organisational performance in both the short and the long term. The negative effects of organisational change may be minimised with engagement, which refers to the involvement of engaged leaders and management, coupled with employee involvement, in decisions that will affect them (Marais & Hofmeyr, 2013) and communication, which must be conducted in a two-way manner and must be open, transparent and well-timed. The latter implies that engagement and communication must be conducted in a timely manner so as to eliminate the grapevine talk which exacerbates uncertainties and, ultimately, lead to anxiety and resistance to the change (Cawsey et al., 2016). In addition, organisational change is enhanced through participative leadership, (Yukl, 2013), as well as the participation and support of leadership during organisational restructuring.

Chapter 1 
1. Introduction
2. Background to the Research
3. Research Problem
4. Research Design and Research Model
5. Significance of the Study
6. Graphic representation of the delineation of the study
Chapter 2: Literature Review
1. Organisational Restructuring
2. The Impact of Organisational Restructuring on Organisational Behaviour
3. Effective Change Management
4. Organisational Behaviour
5. Psychological Capital and Personal Resources
6. Relationships between Constructs
Chapter 3: Methodology 
1. Introduction
1.1 Internal Validity of the Research Design
1.2 External Validity of the Research Design
1.3 Sample and Data Collection
1.4 Measurement Tools
1.5 The Independent Variables
1.6 The Dependent Variables
1.7 The Mediating Variables
1.8 The Moderating Variable
2. Testing for Mediation and Moderation
Chapter 4: Results and Analysis 
1. Measurement Model
1.1 Scale Construction
1.2 Data Screening
1.3 Variable screening
1.4 Sample Profile: Presentation of the Sample
2. Factor Analysis
2.1 Independent Variable
2.2 Categorical Variables and Frequencies
2.3 Assessing the Original Measure Model: Dependent Variable, Mediator and Moderator
2.4 Common Method Variance
2.5 Assessing Common Method Variance – Harman’s Single Factor Test
2.6 Final Measurement Models: Dependent Variable, Mediator and Moderator
2.7 Comparison of Mean Scores across Sectors – ANOVA
3. Correlation Analysis: Constructs
3.1 Relationship between Independent Variable and Mediator
3.2 Relationship between Mediator and the Dependent Variable
3.3 Relationship between the Moderator and the Mediator
3.4 Summary of Results of the Correlation Analysis
4. Multivariate Analysis
5. Mediation analysis
5.1 Summary of Results (Mediation Analysis)
6. Moderation Analysis
6.1 Summary of Results (Moderation Analysis)
Chapter 5: Discussion, Recommendations, Limitations and Conclusion 
1.1 Discussion
1.2 Limitations of the Research
1.3 Recommendations
1.4 Conclusion
Bibliography
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The role of effective change management and psychological capital on organisational behaviour during organisational restructuring: a cross-sectoral study