Determinants and a Moderator of Behavioral Support for Change

As technologies and other environmental factors are changing with the highest speed ever, organizations are also changing in accordance with, or in anticipation of external changes. As a result, considerable research has been devoted to understand the change itself, and also antecedents and results of it on the pursuit of successful changes. Neglected, however, is the possibility that successful implementation of a change lies within the behavioral reactions of individuals undergoing the change. Accordingly, the goal of this study is to examine psychological and behavioral reaction together by reference to a highly regarded theoretical framework – the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1988, 1991). This study posited that change favorableness, organizational support for change and change-related selfefficacy are related to change support behavior through commitment to change. Change support behavior was investigated as three dimensions; change compliance, change cooperation and change promotion. It was also postulated that the relationship that support for change and change-related self-efficacy have with change support behavior is moderated by perceived change magnitude. Study results suggest that change favorableness is significantly related only to change promotion, and change-related self-efficacy is related only to change compliance. Support for change was not significantly related to the change support behavior. Change magnitude moderated the relationship between change-related self-efficacy and change compliance in the opposite direction as expected. The implications of the result are discussed.