Summary of the research results

The narratives illustrate the interplay between the strategic change and the roles of a professional identity construction of the customer service units’ employees. The results show many different reactions to the change and how the employees have dealt with the changing work tasks. One could argue that the case company’s managers’ and employees’ have succeeded well in the organizational change, as so many important changes have been implemented and the professionals have both adapted to the new ways of working and learned new skillsets and therefore developed in their profession. Furthermore, implementing the necessary changes in companies is crucial, as the business environments change constantly and thus companies must be able to answer to the changing needs both the business environment and the customer demands.

People are the ones who cause the changes to succeed or fail and leadership is critical in these situations.

In the case organization, new changes are still ahead, as the company takes on important initiatives in digitalization projects in the near future. Many participants have worked for the organization for a long period and experienced several changes in during their work life. The company continues to have important developments ahead and the personnel will be expected to develop their skillset continuously.

Many narratives were partly dealing with similar experiences, emotions, and interpretations about the changed work. However, there were also differences and even opposing views in the narratives.

Hence, the participants have experienced the change in differing ways. All reactions are individual

and that should be considered when leading change. Some of the answers differed and varied significantly. Interestingly, some respondents experienced the changes to be easy to adapt to, where others described strong change resistance and emotional responses, such as hatred.

In the next table 2, a summary of the research results is presented. The table offers guidelines of the occurred change in the case company.

Table 2. Summary of the research results Summary of the research results Nature of strategic change

A new strategy was needed, as the company faced heavier competition in the market.

The strategy was made as a response against the new competition. It was increasingly important to differentiate from the competitors and this has been made by providing a better service for the customers.

Customer service unit had to develop to serve the customers better.

Ensuring better customer service and

therefore making the customer service to step up to a level that is more professional.

Changes in the organizational practices and roles

The organization structure was changed to enable the strategy better.

Customer calls and other contacts started to come directly to the case company.

One part of the change was standardizing the services that the customers experience.

New know-how was brought from outside of the organization and new personnel was hired.

The customer service unit consisted of eight employees, but as the property management was taken in-house, also the customer service unit grew and developed significantly.

New know-how and skills have been needed to serve the customers better.

There are multiple ways that the changes are experienced. Some employees have adapted the new practices while the others are still unsure if the changed work is for them.

Identity development cannot be forced from the outside but can be supported.

All respondents described how the work is now more diverse and meaningful.

Some recipients are delighted to have been able to support less experienced team members.

New titles have had different reactions among the team. Some have found the new title insignificant whereas others have found it to have positively influenced on their

professional identity

Self-distinctiveness

Several narratives emphasized the team’s support in the organizational change and how it has helped in the times, when the change has felt challenging. According to the results, the social environment helps with adapting to the change.

Team spirit is experienced to be more positive after the organizational change.

Many respondents experience that their team ought to have more authority to solve

customer contacts first-hand. The fact that many issues need to be conveyed to other departments, seemed to lessen the employee’s image of professionalism and cause loss of power. chosen as the team of the year within the organization. Hence, the other teams within the organization have acknowledged the customer service team.

The customer service unit aims to be the best customer service organization in Finland. One narrative described how an employee wants to be a part of that when it happens. Hence, the recipient expressed the urge to identify themselves to an organization that is valued.

Reactions Exit

There were a few people, who resigned, as they did not experience that the job was for them anymore. The managers also voiced that if the personnel’ would have not made the decisions themselves, the issue should have been solved in a way.

Interestingly, some of the respondents felt like they would not be working in the organization if their work would not have become more diverse. It was said that the changes are the reason why they stayed.

Voice

The respondents felt like they were able influence on the happened changes to a very little extent. All team members that were interviewed felt that the changes came from above. This caused negative emotional responses among respondents.

The employees have used their voice to both argument against the change and to give positive feedback.

Loyalty/ neglect

Some of the respondents described that the job is now more rewarding, and they are more committed to the company than before.

Furthermore some described how one becomes more committed to the company after the organizational change.

In general, therefore, it seems that the findings of this thesis support the framework from Shilling et al. (2013). The changes in organizational practices and roles affect an employee’s professional identity and understanding, which includes continuity, distinctiveness and self-enhancement. However, the findings demonstrate that self-enhancement (an identity offer is perceived more attractive if the company has desirable and positive image) was not as significant factor in the identity work as self-continuity and self-distinctiveness (an identity offer is perceived more attractive if the team an individual belongs to has desirable and positive image). (Shilling et al. 2013.) The participants did not discuss the company’s image during the semi-structured interviews. The findings show that belonging to a certain team is a stronger factor in professional identity construction.

Picture 10. Identity development process (Schilling et al. 2013)

Moreover, the findings support that professional identity work and self-understanding affect to the reactions from the employee in strategic change situations. The thesis shows that the participants experienced similar reactions than the Shilling et al. (2013) framework presents. Some employees resigned, some used their voice to negotiate the changes and some experienced increased loyalty to the company.

5 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

The final chapter summarizes the thesis results by going back to the research question and mirroring it with the empirical part of the study. In addition, the key research results are explained.

Finally, the evaluation of the study is provided with implications for future research and practice.