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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1453836

A typology of Organizational Readiness for Change based on a Latent Profile Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Alina Köhler Alina Köhler *Marie Ritter Marie Ritter Simone Kauffeld Simone Kauffeld
  • Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Companies have to undergo many change processes to succeed in the transforming economy. However, many change processes fail because employees are insufficiently accompanied through the process in a targeted manner. This study of N = 427 employees from a steel industry company undergoing a transformation process examines whether the organizational readiness for change (ORC) of highly affected employees can be classified into profiles, how these profiles can be predicted by various antecedents, and whether outcome variables such as job satisfaction can be explained by profile membership. Based on five facets of ORC (i.e., individual valence and positive affect), a total of six ORC profiles were identified: Proactives, Acceptors, Opens, Neutrals, Reluctants and Deniers. Employees’ optimism and the degree of perceived interpersonal and informational fairness can predict profile membership. It was shown that profiles significantly differ in relevant outcome variables satisfaction and intention to leave. These results contribute to the basic understanding of ORC and provide an initial approach for improving ORC profiles which could increase the success rate of change processes in companies.

    Keywords: Organizational readiness for change, Change Management, typology, Antecedents, latent profile analysis

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Köhler, Ritter and Kauffeld. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alina Köhler, Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.