A Grounded Model of Organizational Schema Change During Empowerment

TLDR

The study develops a grounded model of schema change for organizational decision‑making during empowerment initiatives. The authors analyzed employee resistance in an empowerment‑driven organizational change project where staff helped design a new structure. The study found that resistance is driven primarily by cognitive barriers and entrenched schemas, amplified by employee skepticism of management’s commitment, and offers theoretical implications and improvement suggestions.

Abstract

We analyzed employee resistance to an organizational change project in which employees were empowered to participate in the design of a new organizational structure. What emerged from our analysis was the importance of cognitive barriers to empowerment. Employees' resistance appeared to be motivated less by intentional self-interest than by the constraints of well-established, ingrained schemas. Resistance was also fueled by skepticism among the employees about management's commitment to the new decision-making schema, especially because employees judged managerial actions to be inconsistent with their new espoused framework. A grounded model of schema change is developed for changes in organizational decision-making schemas during empowerment efforts. Theoretical implications and suggestions for improving organizational change efforts are proposed.