Activation and valence in responses to organizational change: Development and validation of the change response circumplex scale.

Organizational members' responses to organizational change have a key role in determining the success of the change. The predominant conceptualization of responses to change has focused on the valence of responses-the degree to which they are positive (e.g., openness to change) versus negative (e.g., resistance to change). Yet, recent theory suggests that rather than a single continuum, ranging from negative to positive, responses to change are better represented with a bidimensional framework including both a valence-based continuum and an activation-based continuum (active vs. passive; Oreg et al., 2018), comprising a change response circumplex. Based on this theoretical framework, we develop and validate a scale for measuring the four dimensions of the change response circumplex (i.e., change acceptance, change proactivity, change disengagement, change resistance). We conducted five studies in which we develop the scale and demonstrate its content validity (Study 1, N = 208), circumplex structure and construct validity (Study 2, N = 221; Study 3, N = 315), concurrent validity (Study 4, N = 588), and predictive validity (Study 5, N = 146). We also demonstrate the usefulness of distinguishing among the four responses for predicting the amount and types of feedback that change recipients provide, and show the particular value of active responses, above and beyond valence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Nurses' and Physicians' Responses to a New Active Antimicrobial Stewardship Program: A Two-Phase Study of Responses and Their Underlying Perceptions and Values.

BACKGROUND: Successful implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) depends on staff members' response to it. We introduced at the Hadassah Medical Center in Israel a significant change to our long-standing handshake ASP. As before, the new ASP involved a dialogue between the treating physician and the infectious disease physician over the appropriate antibiotic therapy. The main change was that the infectious disease physician's decision was now integrated into the patient's electronic medical record (EMR). Our purpose in this study was to uncover the concerns and expectations of physicians and nurses towards the new ASP, before and after its implementation, and link these with their basic perceptions of the ASP and their personal values. METHODS: We used open-ended questions and Likert-type scales to study staff members' personal values, basic perceptions of the new system, and attitudes towards it, both before (N = 143), and one year after (N = 103) the system's implementation. Relationships of the system's perceptions and personal values with attitudes toward the system were tested using correlations and multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: Prior to its implementation, physicians and nurses had multiple concerns about the new ASP's demandingness and inefficiency and its threat to physicians' autonomy and expertise. They also had positive expectations for benefits to the hospital, the patients and society. A year later, following the system's implementation, concerns dissipated, whereas the perceived benefits remained. Moreover, staff members' attitudes tended to be more positive among those who value conformity. CONCLUSION: Introducing new ASPs is a challenging process. Our findings suggest that hospital staff's initial concerns about the new ASP were primarily about its ease of use and demandingness. These concerns, which diminished over time, were linked with perceived satisfaction with the system. Conformity values had an indirect effect in predicting satisfaction with the system, mediated by perceptions of the system as straightforward.

The Contribution of Peer Values to Children's Values and Behavior.

Personal values have a key role in determining people's perceptions, judgments, and behaviors. Only a handful of studies examined determinants of children's values outside the family. We used longitudinal data on children's values from 15,008 children in Grades 3 to 9, and homeroom teachers' reports about the behaviors of 3,476 of these children. As predicted, peers' values were positively correlated with the strengthening of children's corresponding values. Moreover, with the exception of self-transcendence values, peer values had an indirect effect on corresponding child behavior, through children's self-endorsed values. Girl peers had stronger effects on both girls' and boys' values. In addition, we found some evidence for stronger relationships between peer and children's values among the older children, in particular among boys. These latter effects were even more prominent in an extended sample that included data from first and second graders. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

The situation six: Uncovering six basic dimensions of psychological situations from the Hebrew language.

Personality psychology has enjoyed success with widely accepted and established taxonomies. This cannot be said for a psychology of situations, which has yet to establish a robust taxonomy of major dimensions of psychological situation characteristics across cultures and languages. We present 4 studies to uncover the dimensionality in the covariation patterns among characteristics with which participants describe situations. In Study 1, we conducted an emic lexical study in Hebrew, combined with an experience-sampling procedure using a closely representative sample of Hebrew-speaking Israelis. The procedure yielded six dimensions of situation characteristics that we call the Situational Six: Negativity, Positivity, Familiarity, Demandingness, Oddness, and Straightforwardness. We then confirmed in imposed-etic Studies 2 to 4 this 6-dimensional structure with adjectives in English among English-speaking U.S. participants. Relationships between the Situation Six and Big Five traits, emotions experienced in situ, the CAPTION model, and the DIAMONDS framework were analyzed to further interpret the meaning of the Situation Six dimensions. We discuss how this new taxonomy fits into and expands existing taxonomic models of situation characteristic dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of School Principals in Shaping Children's Values.

Instilling values in children is among the cornerstones of every society. There is wide agreement that beyond academic teaching, schools play an important role in shaping schoolchildren's character, imparting in them values such as curiosity, achievement, benevolence, and citizenship. Despite the importance of this topic, we know very little about whether and how schools affect children's values. In this large-scale longitudinal study, we examined school principals' roles in the development of children's values. We hypothesized that relationships exist between principals' values and changes in children's values through the mediating effect of the school climate. To test our predictions, we collected data from 252 school principals, 3,658 teachers, and 49,401 schoolchildren. A multilevel structural-equation-modeling analysis yielded overall support for our hypotheses. These findings contribute to understanding the development of children's values and the far-reaching impact of leaders' values. They also demonstrate effects of schools on children beyond those on academic achievement.

Identification during imposed change: the roles of personal values, type of change, and anxiety.

Using a person-situation perspective, we explain what happens to individuals' identification with a collective in the context of a change. We propose that given the anxiety that often emerges during change, individuals' personal values (conservation and openness to change) interact with type of change (imposed vs. voluntary) in predicting identification following change. In a pilot, longitudinal field study (N = 61, 67% female) of an imposed university campus relocation, we measured employees' values and identification with the university before and several months after the relocation. In two lab experiments (Study 1: N = 104, 91.3% female; Study 2: N = 113, 75.2% female), we manipulated a change to be either imposed or voluntary and compared the relationships between values and identification across types of change. In Study 2, we also measured anxiety from the change. When change was imposed (all three studies), but not when voluntary (Studies 1 and 2), individuals' conservation was positively, and openness negatively, related to individuals' post-change identification. The effects emerged only for individuals who experienced change-related anxiety (Study 2). Our findings demonstrate that individuals' identification with a changing collective depends on the amount of anxiety change elicits and on the particular combination of their values and type of change.

Source personality and persuasiveness: big five predispositions to being persuasive and the role of message involvement.

In the present studies we incorporate a Person × Situation perspective into the study of the persuasion source. Specifically, we aimed to identify the personality characteristics of the persuasive individual and test the moderating role of target and source involvement. In three studies we found support for hypothesized relationships between source persuasiveness and Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience, and evidence for a moderating effect of involvement. In a preliminary study (N = 66, M(age) = 22.7, 64% female), we demonstrated expected differences in the personality ratings assigned to a hypothetical persuasive versus nonpersuasive individual. In Study 1 (N = 95, M(age) = 24.1, 62% female), through sets of two-person debates, we showed that source Extraversion and Openness to Experience were positively, and Neuroticism negatively, associated with source persuasiveness. In Study 2 (N = 148, M(age) = 24.3, 61% female), we manipulated the level of involvement and mostly replicated the results from Study 1, but, corresponding with our predictions, only when involvement was low. Our findings demonstrate the relevance of an interactionist approach to the study of persuasion, highlighting the role of personality in the study of the persuasion source.

Ambivalence toward imposed change: the conflict between dispositional resistance to change and the orientation toward the change agent.

Following an analysis of the concept of "imposed change," we propose 2 factors that jointly contribute to an individual's experience of ambivalence to imposed change. In a secondary analysis of data (N = 172) and 2 field studies (N = 104, N = 89), we showed that individuals' personal orientation toward change interacts with their orientation toward the change agent and yields ambivalence. Specifically, among employees with a positive orientation toward the change agent (i.e., high trust in management, identification with the organization), the relationship between employees' dispositional resistance to change and ambivalence was positive. The opposite pattern emerged among employees with a negative orientation toward the change agent (Studies 2 and 3). Our findings suggest that researchers may have been misinterpreting employees' reactions to change, neglecting the possibility that some may simultaneously hold strong, yet conflicting, views about the change. By accounting for, and predicting, ambivalence, these studies provide a more accurate explanation of employees' responses to change.

Personal values and conflicting motivational forces in the context of imposed change.

Internal motivational conflicts that arise in the context of imposed change were investigated through a personal values perspective. It is suggested that in the context of imposed change different aspects of the same value dimension will tend to come in conflict. As demonstrated in two studies, this conflict is manifested in what at a surface level appears as a weak relationship between values and reaction to the change. In Study 1, a field study of 107 employees, individuals' dispositional resistance to change was controlled to disentangle the conflicting forces that employees experienced in response to a campus relocation. In Study 2, a laboratory study of 128 undergraduates, in addition to replicating the results of Study 1, the different motivational dynamics that exist in voluntary versus imposed change situations were demonstrated.

Dispositional resistance to change: measurement equivalence and the link to personal values across 17 nations.

The concept of dispositional resistance to change has been introduced in a series of exploratory and confirmatory analyses through which the validity of the Resistance to Change (RTC) Scale has been established (S. Oreg, 2003). However, the vast majority of participants with whom the scale was validated were from the United States. The purpose of the present work was to examine the meaningfulness of the construct and the validity of the scale across nations. Measurement equivalence analyses of data from 17 countries, representing 13 languages and 4 continents, confirmed the cross-national validity of the scale. Equivalent patterns of relationships between personal values and RTC across samples extend the nomological net of the construct and provide further evidence that dispositional resistance to change holds equivalent meanings across nations.

Resistance to change: developing an individual differences measure.

The Resistance to Change Scale was designed to measure an individual's dispositional inclination to resist changes. In Study 1, exploratory analyses indicated 4 reliable factors: Routine Seeking, Emotional Reaction to Imposed Change, Cognitive Rigidity, and Short-Term Focus. Studies 2, 3, and 4 confirmed this structure and demonstrated the scale's convergent and discriminant validities. Studies 5, 6, and 7 demonstrated the concurrent and predictive validities of the scale in 3 distinct contexts. The scale can be used to account for the individual-difference component of resistance to change and to predict reactions to specific change.