Responses to Organizational Change: Evolution of the Concept, Established Findings, and Future Directions

In this review, we examine developments in how organization members’ responses to change have been conceptualized, measured, and predicted, and the outcomes they have been shown to produce. We focus on quantitative studies and use four conceptual lenses to analyze them: the tripartite approach, the change response circumplex model, change ambivalence, and levels of analysis. Drawing on established classifications of change response antecedents, we present current understandings of the factors and the mediating and moderating mechanisms that explain responses to change. Particular attention is given to the roles of national culture and time in shaping responses and our understanding of them. We end with directions for future research and practice, emphasizing the need to consider response activation, ambivalence, and timing in understanding and managing responses to organizational change.