Impact of Organizational Commitment on Readiness for Change: A Case of Higher Learning Institutions of Karachi

Abstract

The objective of this study was to find out the impact of employees organizational commitment on readiness for change during the change process. The study was carried out among the teaching and non-teaching staff of Higher Education Institutions, (HEIs) of Karachi. The sample comprised of 168 respondents from various HEIs of Karachi including Private and public sector organizations. To assess the employees readiness for change the scale of (Kwahk and Lee, 2008) and for organizational commitment “Three component model” of Meyer and Allen (1997) and scales of (Hersovitch and Meyer, 2002) were used. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was used to find out the results of the analysis which suggested Affective (AC) and Continuance commitment (CC) have a significant influence on the readiness for change whereas, normative commitment (NC) do not significantly influence the employees readiness for change in institutions of higher education. This study is one of the first to empirically establish a relationship between change readiness behaviors among the employees of the HEIs of Karachi, Pakistan. One of the important theoretical contributions of the study is that the three-component model which has been empirically tested in various socio-economic settings in the Western context and in a Pakistani public sector organization may also be employed in the Higher education sector of Pakistan, which helps in understanding the change related behavior of the employees with respect to policy making and adaptability to the new and updated requirements of the academia including curriculum, assessment methodology and others.