Women have been shown to express more emotion. They display sadness more than men, but do not express anger more than men (Nadler & Lowery, 2009).
2. Personality traits
Individual personality differences have been shown to have an effect on certain patterns of behaviour, the ability to regulate one’s own emotions, and the ability to cope with stress (Lee-Baggley, Preece & DeLongis, 2005; Makin, Cooper & Cox, 1996; Nadler & Lowery, 2009).
The ‘Big Five’ personality traits include:
a) Neuroticism
These individuals are prone to negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and anger. They use more passive or emotion-focused strategies such as avoidance, self-blame, wishful thinking, and their coping strategies tend to involve hostile response, venting and confrontation (Lee-Baggley et al., 2005).
b) Extroversion
Extroverts tend to experience positive emotions and are often cheerful, warm, energetic and sociable. They engage in higher levels of problem solving and use emotion laden coping strategies such as, support seeking and positive thinking (Lee-Baggley et al., 2005).
c) Openness
These individuals are often creative, imaginative, curious and adaptable in their thinking. They are likely to experience a variety of emotions and tend to use humour as a coping strategy. They are empathetic, as they open to both their own feelings and to those around them (Lee-Baggley et al., 2005).
d) Agreeableness
They are selfless, trusting and helpful. Their method of coping involves protecting social relationships such as, seeking support and avoiding confrontation. They are less likely to use emotion laden coping strategies such as, self-blame, wishful thinking or disengagement (Lee-Baggley et al., 2005).
e) Conscientiousness
These individuals are organized, reliable, assiduous, and self-disciplined. They tend to focus on planning and problem solving, and are less likely to engage in emotion-focused coping strategies such as self-blame, distraction or disengagement (Lee-Baggley et al., 2005).
3. Individual differences
Intelligence
- An individual’s ability to process information. Knowing another’s style enables us to predict what they will, or will not, like, and how they will respond to change (Makin et al., 1996).
- The adaptor is comfortable with and can easily adapt to change that occurs slowly. They are seen as safe, dependable and conforming (Makin et al., 1996).
- The innovator seeks out problems, generates solutions and thrives on change. To the others they appear undisciplined and incapable of maintaining a status quo for very long (Makin et al., 1996).
4. Attitudes and Adaptability
Organizational Commitment
- Involves an individual’s level of commitment to the organization and is reflected in the following three areas: (a) acceptance of the organization’s goals, (b) a willingness to work hard for the organization, and (c) a desire to remain an employee of the organization (Makin et al., 1996).
- This level of commitment directly impacts the individual’s level of job satisfaction, their desire to stay with the organization and their ability to sustain transition (Makin et al., 1996).
Job Satisfaction
- Job Satisfaction is directly related to the experiences that people have at work, and the best predictor of current job satisfaction is not with their current pay or job status, but with previous levels of job satisfaction (Makin et al., 1996).
- Job changes directly impact our level of job satisfaction however previous levels of job satisfaction will impact our ability to adapt to that change (Makin et al., 1996).
Previous Experience with Change
- An employee who has previously experienced a positive change or who had a positive experience during a negative change will be more open and receptive to a new change. However, an employee with a previous negative experience of change will view this new change with cynicism and unrest (Smollan, 2006).
Change and Stress Producing Events Outside of the Workplace
- An organizational change affects only one aspect of an employee’s life. How this individual responds to the change depends on the larger picture. If they are experiencing a major change (or many small changes) outside of the work environment they are more likely to react negatively and have difficulty coping with any workplace change (Smollan, 2006).
5. Emotional Intelligence
- Mayer and Salovey define emotional intelligence as the “ability to monitor one’s own and other’s emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (as cited in Nadler & Lowery, 2009, p. 28).
- With regards to organizational change, employees who are high in emotional intelligence have been found to have the ability to discern and control their own feelings, have a more positive mood, are more optimistic, have higher self-esteem, are less pessimistic and are less impulsive. They are also aware of the potential impact that their behaviour can have on their peers and manager, and will therefore regulate and manage their own emotions in response to the negative experience (Kirk, Schutte & Hine, 2009; Smollan, 2006).
Personal characteristics and previous experiences with change have been shown to affect how we, as individuals, respond and react to change. When an individual experiences positive emotions, they will more often exhibit helpful and cooperative behaviours, and be more accepting of others and of the change around them (Rhee, 2007). While negative emotions have been associated with an individual’s narrowed scope of attention, cognition and action (Rhee, 2007).
These individual emotional responses not only impact their own behaviours, they also may trigger another co-worker’s emotions and reactions (Rhee, 2007). In turn, the reaction of a fellow colleague can either solidify or change the original emotional response of the individual who initiated the interaction (Rhee, 2007). In other words, change can have a ripple effect as one’s individual emotional response can directly impact the emotions and behaviours of another.