An investigation of the effects of employee attitudes on change implementation in the banking industry in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of employee attitudes on change implementation. Organizations encounter many different forces of change; these forces come from external sources including the environment and Government legislation and policies as well as forces within the organization including employee attitudes. Awareness of these forces can help managers determine when they should consider implementing an organizational change. The implementation of any change will be affected by the employee attitude whether the attitude is positive or negative. The objectives of the study were to find out the effect that the employee attitude have on the speed of implementation, the success of change, the organizational commitment and overcoming change resistance. The study was guided by research questions which it seeks to answer. The study was conducted in the Kenyan banking industry especially in the banks that have implemented changes in the recent past. The findings of this study are significant in that they will be useful to managers in developing appropriate policies, capacity building and support programmes during the periods of change. The design to conduct the study was a descriptive survey which was relevant because the respondents were required to describe issues as they are and was suitable in determining the attitudes and change preparedness in employees. The target population was the middle and lower level managers in the banks. Primary data was collected using questionnaires while secondary data was collected from documentary analysis of available information from books, organizational reports and journals as well as the Worldwide Web (www). Purposive and stratified random sampling was employed with a target of 50% of the target population as the sample was used to analyze the data with the help of Scientific Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) as well as Microsoft Excel. Data presentation was done using pie charts, bar graphs as well as Frequency and percentage tables. The study established that the failure of change programs in many banks can be traced to Employee resistance. This can be attributed to fear of real or imagined consequences of change. Employees' attitudinal commitment to change implementation is influenced by the manner in which the change is conceived and implemented and the expected outcome and a lack of constant communication with employees leads to stress. For organizational change to succeed there is need for change leaders to be participative, constantly evaluate the effectiveness of the changes; to maintain a balance between the organizational change requirements and individual employees change expectations and for leadership to be more open to employees.