Employee dissatisfaction with organizational change: An Empirical study of a technology services company

Abstract

Employee satisfaction is one of the key factors that influences an organization’s performance and is
thus critical to the organization’s success. In this paper, we report on an empirical study of employee
dissatisfaction with organizational change, which resulted in huge staff turnover and hostility towards
management. We examine in-depth how and why such a high level of dissatisfaction, which was well
beyond management expectations, developed. First, we explore the organizational context and
systematically extract the constructs that lead to employee dissatisfaction. Then, we integrate the
constructs into a model to explain the dissatisfaction and resistance to organizational change. In this
model, “benefits,” “workload,” and “promotion” lead directly to employee dissatisfaction, while “age”
and “expertise” function as moderating constructs. Our study contributes to the literature by using
qualitative research methods to explore employee dissatisfaction with organizational change. Top
managers are best served by learning more about employee dissatisfaction, and making transitions
during organizational change smoother and more effective