Factors influencing organizational change efforts : An integrative investigation of change content, context, process and individual differences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the integrative influence of content, context, process, and individual differences on organizational change efforts. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from employees involved in a recent de‐merger. Using structural equation modeling, a hypothesized model that integrated individual differences with change content, context, and process factors was tested. Findings – Results led to the acceptance of a model indicating that change context mediated the relationship between individual differences and change process and content. Similarly, change content and process mediated the relationship between change context and organizational change commitment. Research limitations/implications – Owing to the nature of the study, inferences of causality cannot be made. Additionally, common method bias may be a concern because criterion and response variables were collected at the same time. Practical implications – An organization's prior change history (i.e. context) has the potential to negatively influence change success. In order to counteract these effects, change agents should concentrate on clearly communicating the change details (i.e. process) to employees. Originality/value – This study is one of the first to integrate factors common to all change efforts, i.e. content, context, process and individual differences. Further, it elaborates on how these factors interact to influence change success.