Open AccessDeterminants of Employees’ Openness to Change: Insights from Service and Manufacturing Sectors of Pakistan
Author(s) -
Umaima Mahmood Qamar Saddiqui,
Kanwal Shaheen,
Qamar Ali
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sustainable business and society in emerging economies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2708-2504
pISSN - 2708-2172
DOI - 10.26710/sbsee.v3i4.2023
Subject(s) - likert scale , openness to experience , originality , structural equation modeling , business , order (exchange) , value (mathematics) , change management (itsm) , knowledge management , psychology , marketing , public relations , social psychology , political science , computer science , lean manufacturing , developmental psychology , finance , machine learning , creativity
Purpose: The volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world environment has forced organizational leaders more than ever to adopt new leadership styles in order to bring sustainable changes. This study tends to examine the impact of authentic leadership and symmetrical communication on employees' openness to change. In doing so, the study also illustrates the mediating character of organizational trust.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A self-administrated questionnaire based on a Five-point Likert scale was used to record the perceptions of top-level and middle-level managers from the services and manufacturing sectors of Pakistan. Data were analyzed through Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique in SmartPLS version 3.2.9.
Findings: Results of this study reveal that authentic leadership promotes organizational trust among the individuals at the workplace, which further strengthens openness to change. Similarly, symmetrical communication also promotes corporate trust among workers. Interestingly organizational trust has been found a mediating phenomenon in this case.
Implications/Originality/Value: The study adds important insights into the literature and practically provides guidelines to tackle the change management process in organizations. The study implies that in order to perpetuate employees' susceptibility to change, an organization needs to promote authentic leadership.