An Integrative Framework of Change Management Factors, Commitment to Change and Change Related Behaviour

Background - Implementing change in organisations is a daunting task. One of the challenges in achieving success in organisational change is obtaining commitment to change from the employees. Commitment to change has been associated to the success of change implementation. Due to the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015-2025, higher learning institutions in Malaysia have been going through all kinds of changes. It is imperative for the Malaysian HLIs to not only keep up with changes taking place around them, but to also strive to be at par with other global institutions to remain relevant. Purpose - The purpose of this research is to firstly determine the specific change management factors on commitment to change among academics of Malaysian public HLIs. It also aims to determine the possible mediating role of commitment to change and change management factors and change-related behavior. In doing so, it explores the basis of reciprocity through the application of the Social Exchange Theory (SET). Design/methodology/approach - Online questionnaires were distributed online to academics from 20 Malaysian public HLIs. A total of 366 responses were received. Data obtained were analysed using PLSSEM. Findings/Expected Contributions - Based on the study, Perceived Outcome (PO) has been discovered to have an influence on Affective Commitment to Change (AC2C) and Normative Commitment to Change (NC2C). Contradictory to previous research, the findings of this research indicate that Communication (COMM) does not have an influence on all three dimensions of Commitment to Change. Similar results were also obtained for Participation (PART) on all three dimensions of Commitment to Change. Change Leadership (CL) was discovered to have an influence on Affective Commitment to Change (AC2C) and Normative Commitment to Change (CC2C) but not on Continuance Commitment to Change (CC2C). Based on the initial results obtained from the data, this study will analyse the mediating role of Commitment to Change (C2C) using the second order analysis in PLS-SEM. Research limitations - This research only studied the influence of change management factors, commitment to change on change related behaviour among academics of Malaysian public HLIs. In its true essence, both academics and administrative staff are affected by change that takes place in HLIs. Future research should consider studying both academics and non-academics as both groups are affected by the changes implemented. Originality/value - Previous research on commitment to change are rather fragmented. Most studies in commitment to change carried out on Malaysian public HLIs look at the antecedents of commitment to change and ignore the outcome of commitment to change itself – in this case, change-related behaviour. This research provides a holistic landscape of change management by not only looking at the antecedents of commitment to change but also determining the influence of commitment to change on change-related behaviour. Findings of this research would be able to allow practitioners to determine the factors that not only influence commitment to change among employees but to also determine the strategies to be applied in organisations in order to achieve the desired change output