Yes, We Can! A Job Embeddedness Perspective on Employee Change Acceptance

Although change is necessary for organizations to survive and thrive, research suggests many organizational change initiatives fail in their implementation. Fostering individual acceptance of change initiatives is thus vital to successful change implementation. This paper tests a model of individual change acceptance that posits the role of individual perceptions of their history with past organizational change as its primary antecedent. The results suggest that positive history with organizational change is associated with change acceptance via the mediating mechanism of job embeddedness. Study findings broadly suggest that individual attachment is vital to the acceptance of change. These findings contribute to job embeddedness theory and organizational change theorizing by bringing a sociological attachment perspective to the study of change recipient reactions. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.MAD statementThis paper makes a difference by highlighting the ways in which history with change influences employee acceptance of change initiatives. Practitioners can foster positive employee responses by considering the histories of their personnel. A positive history with change embeds people in their organizations and cultivates receptivity toward change initiatives.