TY - JOUR
T1 - Identification During Imposed Change
T2 - The Roles of Personal Values, Type of Change, and Anxiety
AU - Sverdlik, Noga
AU - Oreg, Shaul
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2015/6/1
Y1 - 2015/6/1
N2 - Using a person-situation perspective, we explain what happens to individuals' identification with a collective in the context of a change. We propose that given the anxiety that often emerges during change, individuals' personal values (conservation and openness to change) interact with type of change (imposed vs. voluntary) in predicting identification following change. In a pilot, longitudinal field study (N=61, 67% female) of an imposed university campus relocation, we measured employees' values and identification with the university before and several months after the relocation. In two lab experiments (Study 1: N=104, 91.3% female; Study 2: N=113, 75.2% female), we manipulated a change to be either imposed or voluntary and compared the relationships between values and identification across types of change. In Study 2, we also measured anxiety from the change. When change was imposed (all three studies), but not when voluntary (Studies 1 and 2), individuals' conservation was positively, and openness negatively, related to individuals' post-change identification. The effects emerged only for individuals who experienced change-related anxiety (Study 2). Our findings demonstrate that individuals' identification with a changing collective depends on the amount of anxiety change elicits and on the particular combination of their values and type of change.
AB - Using a person-situation perspective, we explain what happens to individuals' identification with a collective in the context of a change. We propose that given the anxiety that often emerges during change, individuals' personal values (conservation and openness to change) interact with type of change (imposed vs. voluntary) in predicting identification following change. In a pilot, longitudinal field study (N=61, 67% female) of an imposed university campus relocation, we measured employees' values and identification with the university before and several months after the relocation. In two lab experiments (Study 1: N=104, 91.3% female; Study 2: N=113, 75.2% female), we manipulated a change to be either imposed or voluntary and compared the relationships between values and identification across types of change. In Study 2, we also measured anxiety from the change. When change was imposed (all three studies), but not when voluntary (Studies 1 and 2), individuals' conservation was positively, and openness negatively, related to individuals' post-change identification. The effects emerged only for individuals who experienced change-related anxiety (Study 2). Our findings demonstrate that individuals' identification with a changing collective depends on the amount of anxiety change elicits and on the particular combination of their values and type of change.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84929030459&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jopy.12105
DO - 10.1111/jopy.12105
M3 - Article
C2 - 24863035
AN - SCOPUS:84929030459
SN - 0022-3506
VL - 83
SP - 307
EP - 319
JO - Journal of Personality
JF - Journal of Personality
IS - 3
ER -