Key results

Managing a strategic change situation requires specific considerations and is challenging at times.

The example with the case company supports the findings in previous research that change causes often both identity work and change resistance among professionals. These findings further support the idea that organizational change situations affect individuals’ feelings about their workplace.

The current thesis tests the framework of Schilling et. Al (2013) and shows that there are different kind of resistance reactions and negation in one’s professional identity. This thesis contributes in testing the framework and by providing a complimentary study to understand employee's reactions in a strategic change in a customer service job setting.

The current thesis contributes to the understanding of professionals’ reactions to a strategic change in relation to the identity threat that is experienced. Professionals can leave the company if the change is not believed in, they might use their voice to oppose the changes or renegotiate the experienced changes with the managerial level of the company. The employees can become more loyal and committed to the company or passively accept the change, often with the price of commitment.

The thesis supports Kuusela & Kuittinen’s (2008, 109) argumentation on how individuals wish to belong to a group that they appreciate and think highly of. The results revealed that the participants found value in the support of the team they work in, the fact that they had been elected as the department of the year within the organization and the aim to be the best customer service unit in Finland. Sung et al. (2017) had discovered that after organizational change, professionals identify themselves more easily to the new organization, if it represents an enhancement to their own self-concept. The present findings seem to be consistent with other research, which found that people aim to belong to a group that is performing well in relation to others.

Beddoe’s view (2011) that there is an interaction between individual’s professional identity and the identity that the organization offers in a strategic change situation is found in accordance with

the current thesis. Respondents in this study had had an identity offer and encouragement to develop professionally, and the employees were reflecting with the identity offer.

These results agree with the findings of Sung et al’s (2017) study, in which they discuss the concept of personal valence. Personal valence is the individual concerns that employee has if the organizational change will benefit or harm them. (Sung et al. 2017.) The current thesis revealed feelings of uncertainty and loss of influence. Personnel had pondered the fairness of changes and how will they perform in the changed work. The loss of influence presented itself as some of the participants questioned their professionalism as the customer service unit cannot solve as much customer contacts as the team members would like to. This led them to experience a lessened image of themselves as professionals.

The findings support the previous research, which has discovered that individuals are prone to resist change initiatives, especially when they are not part of the planning phase and have power to shape the change’s content. (Schilling et al. 2013.) In the thesis, a manager described how personnel was involved to the planning phase of the change, but all of the five recipients had experienced that the changes were given from the top-down. The respondents solely felt that they did not have a voice in planning of the change. This caused negative emotional responses among the change recipients.

Another interesting finding was that the managers experienced that the employees were supported in many ways during the organizational change, such as one-to-one conversations, training, meetings and more, whereas the employees described that there was little support offered to them during in the organizational change.

Hodges (2016, 25.) claims that if the employees lack commitment to the change, change is unlikely to remain or at least does not gain the benefits that were pursued. Kuusela & Kuittinen (2008, 107) add that personnel’s commitment to the company is at stake as individuals might receive mixed messages of being part and in the other hand outsiders of the change simultaneously. On the contrary, this study showed that many recipients had committed to the company since the new organizational practices had caused their work to be more diverse and meaningful.

This study has shown that a change triggers many emotional responses when new organizational practices and roles occur. Hodges (2016, 49) has argued that there is comparatively little discussion

about the emotional side of change in the academic research. In some organizations, there might be unwritten rules that emotions do not belong to the workplace. Emotions effect the employee's behavior and performance. Leading people in change situations is demanding and requires special considerations from the managerial level. (Hodges 2016, 51.) This research supports Hodge’s (2016, 49) argumentation that organizations should consider the emotional responses in the workplace and understand the importance of emotions at work. There were many emotional responses in the case organization during the change process, and hence, they need to be considered and dealt with.

These findings observed in this study mirror those of the previous studies that have examined the definition of change resistance. Moreover, the thesis supports the definition of Blanca & Ramona (2016) of change resistance. They present that change resistance means negative attitudes and lack of motivation towards change. The employees may not understand the motives and reasons for change and question the change initiatives the managers present. (Blanca & Ramona 2016) Similar reactions were found in the empirical study.

According to Schilling et al. (2013) identity offer is more likely to be accepted, if the new roles and structures are compatible with the employees’ sense of who they are in the workplace. In the case company, when the new structures and roles were presented, the professionals had many reactions to the change. There was positive feedback from the employees, as their work role had become more diverse and they had to grow as professionals and expand their knowledge. Hence, the identity offers from telephone switchboard employee to a customer service specialist was found acceptable and more meaningful.

A manager described how the team has succeeded in the change process and received recognition from the other departments in the organization. The narrative describes the leader’s sense of success, even as there were difficulties as well. Sung et al. (2017) suggests that if the organizations’

status enhances, the personnel might become more positively socially identified to the new organization.

A manager’s view agrees with academic debate concerning professional identity being a personal decision, which influenced by social interaction, such as feedback an individual receives. (Ibarra 1999, 764-765.) Identity can be offered to an individual, and the employee might adapt to that.

Hence, there is interaction between professional identity and offered identity. (Beddoe 2011.)

Professional identity can be offered, and the employee can be supported in the development process, but the individual is the one making the decision by themselves.

Research suggests that people tend to identify themselves more easily to groups and companies with great reputation. (Kuusela & Kuittinen 2008, 110.) When a company has respected reputation, personnel may have more positive idea of themselves as professionals. (Humpreys & Brown, 2002.) A manager described how the other team, who had previously been working less over the phone and nowadays answers to customer calls directly, resisted the change. They even described a job that includes taking in customer calls to be less valuable. This supports the findings of Kuusela & Kuittinen, that people identify themselves more easily to groups with great reputation.

Since some of the employees experienced that taking the customer calls directly is less valuable, they resisted the change.

The research results also support the description by Slay (2011) that professional identities are developed by the experiences in one’s career, including previous job experience. Professional identity results from the socialization process where an individual receives information in their social context regarding on how other people associate the profession. (Slay (2011.)

In service providing companies, how personnel adapt to change is also dependent on how the professional’s relationship is mirrored with their clients. If the strategic change promotes the customer relationship between the clients, it is argued that it helps reshaping professional’s identity. (Schilling et al. 2013.) The study showed that the organization has started to collect feedback from clients and the managers voiced being able to transparently give the employees direct feedback from customers to be a useful factor in justifying the change and to motivate the team members.