The Impact of Negative Informal Information Before a Change on Performance: A Within-Person Approach

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Business Management
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Organizational change is constant for competitiveness.
• Effective communication aids employee adjustment to change.
• The impact of negative informal information on change resistance is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how negative informal information influences employee resistance intention over time.
• To explore the relationship between negative informal information, resistance intention, and individual performance.
• To examine within-person dynamics of resistance intention during organizational change.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Construal-Level Theory.
• Employed a multilevel approach to analyze within-person processes.
• Data collected from 215 MBA students in China using SPSS 22, AMOS 20, and HLM 6.0.

Main Results:

• Negative informal information before change positively correlates with resistance intention.
• Resistance intention significantly decreases over time.
• Negative informal information negatively impacts individual performance during organizational change.

Conclusions:

• Negative informal communication prior to change can foster resistance.
• Resistance intention is a dynamic process that diminishes over time.
• Understanding informal communication is crucial for managing organizational change and performance.