Individual Behavior Change in the Context of Organization Change: Towards Validation of the Transtheoretical Model of Change in an Organizational Environment

A review of literature indicates limited effort to understand and explain employees' acclimation to, and adoption of, new behaviors required by organization change initiatives. Psychological theories of individual behavior change have, in restricted instances, been applied into organizational environments. The transtheoretical model of change (TTM) offers a comprehensive explanation of behavior change uniting multiple theories of individual change. TTM describes change as a series of stages that individual progress through before arriving at the decision to implement a change in behavior. Movement through the stages is facilitated by processes which increase the probability of a behavior change effort's success. The present research investigated the potential applicability of TTM for explaining individual level change within a new context, specifically, an organizational environment. To examine if individual change in the context of an organization occurs in the fashion described by TTM, measures of core TTM constructs were delivered to employees in a water department of a city in the American southwest. The water department was immersed in an organization change initiative necessitating individual behavior change by its employees. Results of TTM core construct measures and their relationships with each other and the stages of change were examined. Initial findings are indicative of TTM's potential applicability as a description of behavior change within an organizational context. Implications of these findings, potential applications, imitations of the current research, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2004

Author dc:creator

• Phillips, Tobe M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Johnson, Douglas A.
• Beyerlein, Michael
• Huff, Joseph W.
• McKelvain, Robert

• Organizational behavior.
• Organizational change.
• individual change
• employees
• behavior changes
• transtheoretical model of change
• water department

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Phillips, Tobe M.
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 58594316
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4686/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc4686

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc4686