RSM Seminar Series – Dr Alannah Rafferty

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Presenter: Dr Alannah Rafferty, Associate Professor, the Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources

Institution: Griffith University

Abstract

Researchers have considered a narrow range of aspects of organizational change events as antecedents of employees’ stress and coping. Most attention has focused on change processes. However, Armenakis and Bedeian (1999) identified three issues that are common to all organizational change efforts including the processes used to implement change and the content and context of change. Drawing on this framework, all three aspects of change are identified as antecedents of employees’ stress appraisals (challenge, threat, and harm) and coping behaviors. In a three-wave study, with surveys administered six weeks apart, 397 employees from a wide range of Australian organizations and industries reported on an organizational change event that they were experiencing. Results revealed that two aspects of the internal change context (employees’ perception that they had a poor change history in an organization and their perception that change occurred very frequently) and the content of change (the extent to which change was perceived to be transformational), were directly associated with employee coping behaviors. In addition, a poor change history was indirectly negatively associated with all five coping behaviors through reducing employees’ appraisal that change provided opportunities to grow and develop. In contrast, the frequency of change was positively associated with denial due to increasing perceptions that change had resulted in harm. Overall, findings emphasize the importance of considering a broader range of aspects of change events as antecedents of employees’ stress appraisals and coping behaviors.

Presenter Bio

Alannah Rafferty is an Associate Professor in the Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources at Griffith University. Alannah’s research interests include stress and coping during organizational change, change attitudes (change readiness, resistance to change), and leadership (transformational leadership, abusive supervision). Alannah has extensive experience in leadership development and strategic change and within a range of private and public sector organisations.

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