How People Enter and Engage Zones of Acceptance in Emergency Management Contexts

At the crux of understanding organizational behavior, motivation theories have often played a central role in discussions about facilitating acceptance of change by employees. Nevertheless, reaching consensus on these questions has been inhibited by the complexity of human behavior. Regarding such behavioral changes in emergency management programs, employee acceptance is often critical to achieve better responses for actual emergencies. Attitudes toward change may also diverge, and even as employees enter some minimal level of acceptance, their willingness to change is motivated by differing processes of adoption. This research addresses the question of how people change their behavioral acceptance from negligence or even resistance to active support for emergency management programs. Our findings illuminate the underlying dynamics of motivation for behavioral change.