AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF AFFECTIVE RESPONSE IN THE MEASUREMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE*

The purpose of this study was to determine whether an affective response affects the dimensionality of perceptual measures of organizational climate. To accomplish this 8,938 nonsupervisory employees of a large utility completed both an organizational climate questionnaire and a measure of job satisfaction. The raw scores on the climate instrument were factor analyzed. Then the job satisfaction scores were partialed out of the intercorrelations of the items making up the climate instrument and the residual scores were submitted to a factor analysis. The results suggest that partialing job satisfaction out of responses to an organizational climate questionnaire served to improve the dimensionality of the climate instrument.     

COPING WITH AN ORGANIZATIONAL MERGER OVER FOUR STAGES

This longitudinal study examined how individuals cope over 4 stages of a merger. The study replicated and extended past coping research by examining changes in coping variables over time. Employee appraisals, coping resources, negative emotions, and emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies were measured. Negative appraisal, social support, perceived control, and emotion-focused coping significantly changed across stages. Coping variables exhibited linear, quadratic, and cubic trends over time, highlighting the complex and dynamic nature of the coping process. The findings provide important insight into how company management may influence employee coping during a merger. Implications for future research also are discussed.     

EMPLOYEE COPING WITH ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: AN EXAMINATION OF ALTERNATIVE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES AND MODELS

This longitudinal study seeks to determine the appropriate theoretical structure for how employees cope with organizational change. A model based on the appraisal theory of emotion is compared to competing theoretical structures of coping found in the literature: stimulus–response, partial mediation, and moderated. Structural equation model results showed that coping with organizational change is a completely mediated process best represented by the stimulus–response theoretical structure, whereby negative appraisal is associated with reduced control and increased escape coping, which are positively related to positive and negative emotions, respectively. Negative emotions predicted sick time used and intentions to quit, which then predicted voluntary turnover. Implications for coping theory and organizational change management are discussed.