Familiarity breeds content: The impact of exposure to change on employee openness and well‐being

Abstract

This article describes a longitudinal study of how openness to change, job satisfaction, anxiety and depression are affected by exposure to a change situation ‐ in this case, the implementation of new technology and work practices. Measures were taken before the change was fully implemented and again several months later. Employees fell into two groups: those with high exposure to the change and those with low exposure. Longitudinal analysis revealed that greater exposure was directly related to subsequent improvements in openness to change for operational employees, but not for managers and engineers. Exposure was associated with improvements in job satisfaction and depression, irrespective of job type. The effect on job satisfaction, however, could be accounted for by the increased job complexity experienced on the new technology rather than exposure to change per se . Although the impact of exposure on depression became non‐significant after controlling for job complexity, the result was marginal. Implications of the role of exposure in the management of change are discussed.