Employee perceptions of organizational change: impact of hierarchical level

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of organizational level on employees' perceptions and reactions to a complex organizational change involving proposed work force redesign, downsizing and a physical move to a new hospital.Design/methodology/approach – Participants included executives, supervisory and non‐supervisory staff in a major tertiary hospital. Recorded in‐depth interviews were conducted with 61 employees about the positive and negative aspects of the change.Findings – A total of 12 themes were identified from content coding, including emotional responses and attitudes toward the change, issues about the management of the change process and about change outcomes. Supervisory and non‐supervisory staff referred more to conflict and divisions, and expressed more negative attitudes toward the change, than did executives. Executives and supervisory staff focused more on planning challenges and potential outcomes of the change than did non‐supervisory staff. Finally, compare...

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