Creating Readiness for Organizational Change
1993/06/01 by Achilles A. Armenakis, Stanley G. Harris, Kevin W. Mossholder · 2,019 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · #Business #Change management (ITSM) #Computer science #Credibility #Interpersonal communication #Knowledge management #Management Theory and Practice #Marketing #Multinational corporation #Organizational Learning and Leadership #Organizational change #Political science #Process (computing) #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Public relations #Quality and Supply Management #Resistance (ecology) #Social psychology #Sociology #Typology
paper · doi:10.1177/001872679304600601
published in Human Relations 46(6), 681-703 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1993/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to clarify the readiness for change concept and examine how change agents can influence employee readiness for organizational change. The article contributes to an improved understanding of change dynamics in four important ways. First, readiness for change is distinguished from resistance to change. Readiness is described in terms of the organizational members' beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. Second, a model is offered that describes the influence strategies as well as the importance of change agent credibility and interpersonal and social dynamics in the readiness creation process. Third, by combining urgency of, and employee readiness for, needed changes, a typology of readiness programs is offered. Fourth, a large multinational corporation's efforts to create readiness for large-scale change are described to provide a cogent illustration of the various readiness interventions described in the model.
Citations
Cited by
- Revisiting resistance to change and how to manage it: What has been learned and what organizations need to do
- Commitment to organizational change: Extension of a three-component model.
- Organizational Change Questionnaire–Climate of Change, Processes, and Readiness: Development of a New Instrument
- Change Recipients’ Reactions to Organizational Change
- Crafting the Change: The Role of Employee Job Crafting Behaviors for Successful Organizational Change
- An Organizational Stakeholder Model of Change Implementation Communication
- A review of the effectiveness of empowering leadership
- Not Too Much, Not Too Little: Centralization, Decentralization, and Organizational Change
- Understanding the Factors Affecting the Organizational Adoption of Big Data
- Transformational Leadership and Employees’ Reactions to Organizational Change: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis
- Organizational Change in Schools
- Dynamic Capabilities and Related Paradigms
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- Toward a Theory of Change Readiness
- The Critical Roles of Task Conflict and Job Autonomy in the Relationship Between Proactive Personalities and Innovative Employee Behavior
- A mediation model of change communication and collective readiness for change
- A theory of organizational readiness for change. [europepmc]
- Are you ready? How health professionals can comprehensively conceptualize readiness for change. [europepmc]
- The relationship between baseline Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment subscale scores and implementation of hepatitis prevention services in substance use disorders treatment clinics: a case study. [europepmc]
- Clinicians' perceptions of organizational readiness for change in the context of clinical information system projects: insights from two cross-sectional surveys. [europepmc]
- Predicting implementation from organizational readiness for change: a study protocol. [europepmc]
- Managing change in healthcare. [europepmc]
- An organisational analysis of the implementation of telecare and telehealth: the whole systems demonstrator. [europepmc]
- Organizational readiness for knowledge translation in chronic care: a review of theoretical components. [europepmc]
- Ready, Set, Change! Development and usability testing of an online readiness for change decision support tool for healthcare organizations. [europepmc]
- Developing a New Instrument for Assessing Acceptance of Change. [europepmc]
- Readiness of healthcare providers for eHealth: the case from primary healthcare centers in Lebanon. [europepmc]
- Readiness to Change Over Time: Change Commitment and Change Efficacy in a Workplace Health-Promotion Trial. [europepmc]
- Development and Content Validation of a Transcultural Instrument to Assess Organizational Readiness for Knowledge Translation in Healthcare Organizations: The OR4KT. [europepmc]
- French cross-cultural adaptation of the Organizational Readiness for Implementing Change (ORIC). [europepmc]
- Re-energising the way we manage change in healthcare: the case for soft systems methodology and its application to evidence-based practice. [europepmc]
- How Ethical Leadership Shapes Employees' Readiness to Change: The Mediating Role of an Organizational Culture of Effectiveness. [europepmc]
- Implementation of a billable transitional care model for stroke patients: the COMPASS study. [europepmc]
- Translation and psychometric evaluation of the German version of the Organisational Readiness for Implementing Change measure (ORIC): a cross-sectional study. [europepmc]
- Managing Complex Healthcare Change: A Qualitative Exploration of Current Practice in New South Wales, Australia. [europepmc]
- Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Implementation in Family Planning Services Across the Southern United States: Findings from a Survey Among Staff, Providers and Administrators Working in Title X-Funded Clinics. [europepmc]
- Change and Innovation in Healthcare: Findings from Literature. [europepmc]
- The Psychology of Resistance to Change: The Antidotal Effect of Organizational Justice, Support and Leader-Member Exchange. [europepmc]
- Readiness for advance care planning and its relationship to coping style in patients with chronic diseases in communities: A cross-sectional study. [europepmc]
- The mechanics of implementation strategies and measures: advancing the study of implementation mechanisms. [europepmc]
- Hospital organizational change: The importance of teamwork culture, communication, and change readiness. [europepmc]
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