Schools, teachers, and their work : essays on attitudes and responses to organizational change / Marlene Walk.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Walk, Marlene, author.

Contributor:

Handy, Femida, 1949- degree supervisor, degree committee member.

Iversen, Roberta Rehner, degree committee member.

Steinberg, Matthew, degree committee member.

Wrzesniewski, Amy, degree committee member.

University of Pennsylvania. Department of Social Welfare, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Social welfare.

Social welfare--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Social welfare.

Social welfare--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

xii, 186 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2015.

Summary:

Organizational change has become an integral part of work organizations, given the complex, uncertain, unpredictable, and at times contradictory environment in which they operate. Whereas most of the research on organizational change has focused on how organizations prepare for, implement and react to organizational change, systematic research on employees' reactions to organizational change has only recently started to emerge. Individuals, however, play a key role in implementing change, making this stream of research an important endeavor. Looking a large-scale policy change in the education sector, this mixed-methods dissertation seeks to better understand 1) employees' meaning of work under conditions of radical organizational change, 2) employees' reactions to this externally imposed change, and 3) the multilevel dynamics between employees and their leaders. 1) Drawing on qualitative data, my findings indicate that individuals' meaning of work is threatened by organizational change, especially if the occurring changes are in conflict with one's professional identity. 2) Based on quantitative data from 71 organizations and their employees, I find that employees react to change in proactive ways through job crafting. Two aspects of job crafting--internal and structural job crafting--however are differently related to work-related and individual-level change consequences. Whereas structural job crafting is negatively related to burnout and positively related to job satisfaction, the opposite is the case for internal job crafting. 3) Looking at leader-follower relationships in the same organizations, I find that leader resistance to change is positively related to their followers' resistance intentions. However, contrary to my hypothesis, followers are more likely to display resistance intentions in cases when their leaders display positive attitudes toward the change content. Taken together the three stand-alone essays provide insights into employees' reactions following a large-scale policy implementation in the education sector and the findings contribute to the theory, policy, and practice of employee behavior during organizational change.

Notes:

Ph. D. University of Pennsylvania 2015.

Department: Social Welfare.

Supervisor: Femida Handy.

Includes bibliographical references.

OCLC:

947137629