When are organizational reforms perceived positively? An examination of the role of employees’ hierarchical level

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to theorize and test the implicit assumption in the literature that reform perceptions vary according to employees’ position in the organizational hierarchy. Our theoretical argument centres on the expectation that employees appreciate reforms differently depending on their position in the organization. Our large-scale analyses confirm that employees from upper organizational levels are more appreciative of reforms in general, though follow-up analyses on distinct types of reforms demonstrate variations with theoretical and practical implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational reform
• reform perception
• organizational hierarchy
• Australian Public Service

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1856403.

Notes

1. Next to cognitive reactions to organizational changes, studies have also looked into affective and behavioural responses (Oreg, Vakola, and Armenakis 2011).

2. Recently the APS made more recent versions of the survey available. However due to privacy concerns, these datasets are less detailed making them less suited to examine the link between classification level and change perceptions.

3. Further information on the survey methodology is available at: http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications-and-media/current-publications/state-of-the-service/state-of-the-service-2013-14/appendices/survey-methodologies

4. The APS considers that Machinery of Government (MoG) change occurs when the Government decides to change the way Commonwealth responsibilities are managed. It can involve the movement of functions, resources and people from one agency to another.A MoG change can lead to: the creation of a new government agency; the creation of a new portfolio; the movement of agencies between portfolios; the closure of an existing government agency; and/or the movement of functions and responsibilities from an APS agency to another APS agency, an APS agency to a non- APS agency, a non- APS agency to an APS agency. (https://www.apsc.gov.au/machinery-government-mog-changes-what-mog-change)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [1244720N].

Notes on contributors

Jan Boon

Jan Boon is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Antwerp (Belgium).

Jan Wynen

Jan Wynen is a research professor at the Department of Management (Faculty of Business and Economics) at the University of Antwerp (Belgium).