The effects of attitudinal ambivalence on employees' participation in change: The moderating roles of motivation and perceived ability

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of attitudinal ambivalence on employees' participation in change. The secondary purpose of this study was to examine the conditions under which ambivalent attitude holders are more or less likely to participate in change. Thereby, the moderating roles of motivation and perceived ability were investigated. The subjects of this research consisted of 230 employees in private Korean companies. This study found that attitudinal ambivalence is associated with more avoidant reaction. This study also found that individuals experiencing ambivalence participate more in change when they have higher levels of intrinsic motivation and perceived ability. In particular, extrinsic motivator had negative effects on participation in change. Based on these results, it was concluded that improving their perception of ability, while simultaneously providing intrinsic motivation to participation in change, was shown to be an effective strategy to motivate them to participate in the change.