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Transformational Changes and Sustainability: From the Perspective of Identity, Trust, Commitment, and Withdrawal

Author

Listed:
  • Ambreen Malik

    (NUST Business School, National University of Sciences & Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan)

  • Muhammad Naseer Akhtar

    (NUST Business School, National University of Sciences & Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan)

  • Usman Talat

    (Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK)

  • Kirk Chang

    (Salford Business School, University of Salford, Manchester M5 4WT, UK
    Fudan Development Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai 200086, China)

Abstract

Drawing upon the psychology of sustainability, effective organizations can create a sense of belongingness for people, and successfully facilitate growth and development activities for both individuals as well as the organization itself. Extending the recommendations of Zappala, Toscano, and Licciardello, the current study considers a range of variables. The role of overall justice judgements and change favorableness are taken as predictors of affective commitment to change and exit-based withdrawal. The relationship is mediated by organizational identification and moderated by trust in organization. Overall, the results support the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, findings showed that both change favorableness and overall justice judgements are positively related to affective commitment to change and negatively related to exit-based withdrawal. Organizational identification mediates the relationships between overall justice judgements–affective commitment to change, change favorableness–affective commitment to change, and change favorableness–exit-based withdrawal, whilst trust in organizations moderated the direct relationship between overall justice judgements–affective commitment to change, and change favorableness–exit-based withdrawal. Furthermore, the indirect effect of trust in organizations positively moderated the relationship of overall justice judgements and change favorableness with affective commitment to change, and at the same time, it negatively moderated the relationship between change favorableness and exit-based withdrawal via organizational identification. Crucially, for practitioners, this brings trust of employees as a key factor that should be managed to ensure sustainable change. Both trust and identity appear important in improving commitment and lowering the exit-based withdrawal behavior of employees. Future recommendations, implications, and limitations are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ambreen Malik & Muhammad Naseer Akhtar & Usman Talat & Kirk Chang, 2019. "Transformational Changes and Sustainability: From the Perspective of Identity, Trust, Commitment, and Withdrawal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3159-:d:237339
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Tai-Wei Chang & Yu-Shan Chen & Chun-Yu Lin, 2022. "The Myth of Organizational Change Process: A Study of Uniting Organizational Identity, Promoting Organizational Performance, and Member Behavior," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    2. Helena Bulińska-Stangrecka & Anna Bagieńska, 2019. "HR Practices for Supporting Interpersonal Trust and Its Consequences for Team Collaboration and Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Ángel Gutiérrez-Iñiguez & Jesús Collado-Agudo & Josep Rialp-Criado, 2023. "The Role of Managers in Corporate Change Management: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Abay Kidane & Zhao Xuefeng, 2022. "Exploring the drivers towards behavioral support for organizational change: a qualitative investigation," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(9), pages 118-130, December.

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