PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Kenneth Rhinehart

Industrial/Organizational
May 1992
 

Organizational Locus of Control and Professional and Career Commitment as Predictors
of Resistance to Work-Related and Organizational Change

    Most research on resistance to change has focused on correlates to resistance to change, with little emphasis on building sound theoretical models.

This study tested revised hypotheses of Lutz and Arney’s theoretical model using managers as subjects.  It was hypothesized that organizational and career commitment would be significant in predicting a manager’s resistance to work-related and organizational change, and that organizational locus of control would be significant in predicting a manager’s resistance to work-related and organizational change.
    It was found that self-organizational locus of control had an inverse relationship with resistance to organizational changes, and that powerful others organizational locus of control had a direct relationship with resistance to work-related change.  Mangers most receptive to employee involvement were older, had been with their company longer and had been in their positions longer.  Managers who worked for the company with an employee involvement program were significantly more committed to their organization.

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