Employee Reactions to Impactful and Frequent Major Organizational Changes: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Throughout recent years understanding an employee in the context of a workplace has become an important topic of study for academia and practitioners. Research shows that employees that work in the same work environment tend to develop similar psychological contracts however to understand how it differs in effecting an employee’s mental health and personal consequences when this contract is breached, I conducted this research. This research has examined this breach when employees are experiencing transformational organizational change which causes the shift in mindset. Impact of Change (IC) and Frequency of Change (FC) occurring in the organization plays a role in the outcome the employee chooses. Outcomes discussed in this thesis, Employee Exit Behavior, Employee Stress, and Employee Wellbeing. The data for this thesis was collected from the Oil and Gas industry within reach of Rawalpindi and Islamabad using a cross sectional research design method. Surveys were distributed in organizations undergoing transformational change out of which 400 questionnaires were useable for the purpose of this research. Literature shows there is an impact on variables; Employee Stress (ES), Employee Wellbeing (EWB), and their intention to exit the organization through Employee Exit Behavior (EEB) when their psychological contract is breached. It was noted that when impact and frequency of change are higher, employee stress and employee exit intention will also be high. When impact and frequency of change is high, employee’s wellbeing decreases. Within this writing, previously researched variable Successful Changes in the Past (SCP) was for the first time introduced as a moderator. Towards the end, theoretical and practical implications are discussed along with study limitations and future recommendations.