This paper is a master thesis in sociology, written by a student enrolled with Aalborg University’s Department of Sociology and Social Work. The title is “A Welcome Change? - A Sociological Case Study Concerning the Influence of Planned Organizational Change on Well-educated Employees Work Motivation”. The study takes the form of a case study in a specific department of a large public organization. The department is undergoing structural changes, which is engineered and planned by the management, and therefore includes activities which is design to implement the changes.
Prior to this study, the author has conducted a structured literary review, on the same subject (Waaben 2016). This prior study concluded, that the literature on the topic of how organizational changes affect the employees’ work motivation, is very scarce. Through thorough discussion, a model of the theoretically likely effects and links between relevant variables were presented, with an appeal test it empirically. The knowledge obtained in this former study, is the basis for the master thesis.
The main research question in the master thesis translates to How does the organizational changes in the case department affect the employees' work motivation and which factors has influence on this? In order to answer the research question, additionally four questions were raised, as with the intend to operationalize the main question. These four questions were 1. According to the employees them self, what motivates them in their everyday work life? 2. How does the employees experience the scope of the changes, and the changes influence on their everyday working life? 3. What characterizes the employees’ work motivation at the time of the interviews? And 4. What is the link between the employees’ work motivation and the organizational changes?
In order to answer these questions, twelve semi structured personal interviews were conducted with employees from the department. Of these twelve interviews, originally eight was conducted, all within the same sub department. Unfortunately, these interviews proved insufficient in answering the research question, and additionally four interviews were conducted, this time in a different sub department. The case department consists of a total of tree sub departments, but no interviews were conducted with employees from the last.
The analysis of the interviews is conducted using the concept of adaptive theory and orienting concepts, as Derek Layder them in his book from 1998. The consequence of this is, that the
empirical data and the established theories is part of an interchanging process, of influencing each other.
The study concludes, that the employees of the case departments work motivation, is affected less by the organizational changes, then what could be expected on the basis of prior studies. However, the employees do experience a decline in the inner energy they have available for their current work tasks. Some of the employees also experience a decline in the satisfaction connected to their work tasks, although they do not experience a declined wish to work in their field or with their current tasks. The study also shows, that the individual prior experience seems to affect how the employees understands the current changes, especially in regards to the scope of these. The employees who have not experienced large organizational changes before, seems to have a hard time to assess the scope of the changes, which leads to a decline in their work motivation. Other variables that seems to influence the relationship between organizational changes and the employees work motivation includes sense of job security, trust levels between employees and their leader, the changes influence on the employees’ autonomy and the experienced meaningfulness of the organizational change.