Embracing the Tides of Organizational Change - Explorations of the fixed-flexible continuum in attitudes towards organizational change

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of our research is to explore how employees who claim to embrace change consider the impact of personality and other factors as a reason for this attitude. Research questions: (1) How do individual employees who claim to embrace change talk about the impact of personality on their attitude towards change? (2) How do individual employees who claim to embrace change talk about the impact of other factors on their attitude towards change? Theoretical perspective: We based our theoretical perspectives on the literature within organizational change, personality theory and identity construction. Methodology: We based our research on a qualitative research design and the interpretive paradigm. Empirical foundation: The empirical material for this thesis project was gathered from 10 semi-structured interviews with employees from a globally operating start-up venture headquartered in Finland. Main findings: We found that employees who claim to embrace change consider personality as a significant factor in affecting their attitudes towards change. The role of other factors such as experience was acknowledged as well in learning to like and adapt to change. However, we interpreted these employee narratives to be subject to organizational change discourse and thereby identity construction. Conclusion: We identified distinct factors that employees who claim to embrace change consider in their attitude towards change. We discovered a fixed-flexible continuum in these factors, pertaining to personality, experience and identity construction.