Affective commitment to change and work-life balance: mediating factors

Abstract

Organizational changes are carried-out to increase organizational performance. Nevertheless, and most importantly, they entail changes to an employee’s work experience. Organizational changes have consequences at an individual and organizational level, due to their common increase in work demands, concerns and feelings of uncertainty about one’s work life. Due to the increased permeability of the frontier between work and personal life, these consequences of organizational changes in turn have a strong relationship with employees’ work-life balance. Furthermore, given that the latter in turn has consequences on employees’ job satisfaction, commitment and performance, it is important that managers take into consideration how employees react to change, in order to more effectively manage it and obtain the desired results. In this study, we looked at the relationship between employees’ affective commitment to change and work-life balance, and the mediating role of job security, psychological contract fulfilment, emotional exhaustion and disengagement on this relationship. We asked a sample of 111 employees from different organizations, to complete a questionnaire. We found that affective commitment to change has a positive relationship with employees’ emotional exhaustion, which in turn is positively associated with work-life balance. Building on the uncertainty reduction theory, Job-Demands-Resources model and social exchange theory, our findings contribute to this body of literature by showing the importance of examining what factors are related to employees’ commitment to change and its relationship with work-life balance. For managers it serves as a light into the topic of organizational change management and its consequences.