The impact of organisational change on employee commitment

One of the outcomes of the global economic crisis is the ever increasing amount and speed of change which has resulted in organisations downsizing and reducing staffing levels in order to remain competitive. The student housing market is certainly not immune to recession and collapse of large parts of Opal group, a major player in the student accommodation sector in 2013 highlighted a new concern in what had previously been a sector that had been largely impervious to economic pressures. Recent studies into the effect of organisational change have focused on ‘survivor syndrome’; that is to say on those employees surviving organisational downsizing and the resultant affect that that organisational restructuring has on employee commitment levels.

There are numerous studies on the effects of organisational change on employee commitment but to date the majority of studies have taken a quantitative approach without exploring the qualitative aspects that would enable us to understand the true feelings and effects that organisational change has on the individual. The aim of this research project was to explore the extent to which organisational change impacts upon employee commitment to an organisation to specifically address two research questions:

1. How and to what extent does organisational change impact upon employee commitment?
2. What has been the effect of significant organisational change on employee commitment in survivors at Student Accommodation PLC?