Publication Date

5-2015

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Ric Keaster (Director), Robert Reber, and Dana Cosby

Degree Program

Educational Leadership Doctoral Program

Degree Type

Doctor of Education

Abstract

Change is inevitable and can influence numerous events inside and outside an organization. The contrasting attitudes of acceptance and resistance to change are an increasingly interesting topic in today’s global, ever-changing, and competitive environment. Discovering the behavioral origins of employees’ reactions to change is an integral part of understanding the way in which individual mindset may play a role in coping with organizational change and resistance. This body of knowledge may give organizations insight for creating a competitive advantage over their counterparts. Conceivably, it can be argued that some researchers view change as a process of gradual adaptation that is largely influenced by people in organizations who react to internal and external pressures, while others view it as an emergent event due to environmental selections (Demers, 2007). Through both concepts, successful navigation through change events relies on the manner in which humans respond to these events. The current study employed a descriptive, non-experimental, correlational design to examine individuals’ self-rating of their level of mindfulness, tolerance of ambiguity, and resistance to change in four industries located in Kentucky. The quantitative study sought to identify the strengths of the relationship of the chosen variables using validated instruments – Langer’s (Pirson, Langer, Bodner, & Zilcha-Mano, 2012) Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS14), Budner’s (1962) Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (TOA), and Oreg’s (2003) Resistance to Change Scale (RTC). Regression models were utilized to evaluate multivariate relationships among the variables. Based on the findings in the current study, the results indicated that no differences lie between group comparisons of organizational or demographic factors when examining the relationship among the elements of mindfulness, tolerance of ambiguity, and resistance to change. Bivariate correlations yielded both strong positive and negative relationships among the three scales assessed by salary (exempt and non-exempt) employees located across different industries (p < .01).

Disciplines

Educational Leadership | Educational Psychology | Organizational Behavior and Theory

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