EMPLOYEE ADJUSTMENT TO LARGE-SCALE ORGANIZATIONAL-CHANGE

The present study was designed to test the utility of a stress-coping model of employee adjustment to organisational change. Specifically, i t was proposed that employee adjustment to this type of work stress wo uld be influenced by the characteristics of the change situation, empl oyees' appraisals of the situation, their coping strategies, and the e xtent of their personal resources. Data were collected from 140 middle managers and supervisors involved in a large-scale public sector inte gration. The results of the research provided some support for the pro posed model: high levels of psychological distress were related to a r eliance on informal sources of information, high appraised stress, low appraised certainty, and the use of avoidant rather than problem-focu sed strategies, whereas poor social functioning was associated with lo w self-esteem, high levels or disruption across the period of change, a reliance on informal sources of information, and the use of avoidant coping strategies. There was no evidence that coping strategies media ted the effects of the event characteristics, situational appraisals, and personal resources on adjustment; however, there was some evidence linking these variables to coping strategies, in particular, problem- focused coping. There was also some evidence to indicate that the expe rience of organisational change was different for managers and supervi sors: levels of threat were higher for the managers than the superviso rs, but there was no difference between the groups of employees in ter ms of adjustment.