Change initiatives, change-enhanced stressors and its consequences on senior managers job satisfaction: A social information processing and job stress model

The aim of this study is to seek answers to the question: what are the antecedents of job satisfaction of senior public sector managers in the context of organisational change?. Public sector senior managers have so far been... [ view full abstract ]

The aim of this study is to seek answers to the question: what are the antecedents of job satisfaction of senior public sector managers in the context of organisational change?. Public sector senior managers have so far been relatively under-researched and there is a lack of theoretical and practical understandings about their experiences and perceptions of change. We contribute to theory by integrating social information processing [SIP] theory with the job demands-resources [JDR] model to produce new insights about the extent to which organizational change in the public sector (such as delayering, establishing networks/alliances, empowerment and flexible work groups) influences the job satisfaction of senior managers. 
Data were collected from 266 senior managers (that is, those who are one to three levels from the agency's most senior executives) using a self complete survey that contained questions designed to elicit information about the types of change initiatives they experience, their level of participation in change decision making, and the characteristics of change information (both are constructs from the SIP theory). The survey also collected data about the impacts of these factors on the job demands and job resources of senior managers and the subsequent influences on perceptions of change-induced stressors, and ultimately the overall impact on job satisfaction. Data analysis was carried out using AMOS structural equations modelling. Procedural and statistical checks and remedies were implemented (such as Harman's one factor test, common method latent factor, and a method factor) to ensure common method variance did not impact on our analysis. 
The proposed model had a good fit to the data, as indicated by the goodness of fit indices (such as CMIN/df, CFI, TLI, RMSEA and SRMR).  These results provide important theoretical insight about job satisfaction and organizational change by integrating SIP theory and the JDR model.  In doing this it becomes possible to improve our understanding of how organizational change impacts on the job satisfaction of senior managers.  Firstly, our study suggests that participation in change has a positive impact on job demands while change information has a negative impact. Secondly, we found that organizational change implementation together with an increase in the level of change participation is associated with an increase in job resources.  This is connected to the way that senior managers experienced higher levels of job discretion and autonomy as a consequence of their involvement in decision-making about change.  Thirdly, increased job demands are related to an increase in change-induced stress.  While this might be expected, what was surprising was our discovery that participation in change did not lead to reduction in change-induced stressors.  However, we also found that the provision of change information and job resources were critical in providing senior managers with a sense of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction.  These findings suggest that the implementation of organizational change in the public sector requires more nuanced understanding about the interaction of participation, information about change, job resources and job demands and these in turn influence stress-levels and ultimately job satisfaction.