CHAPTER 1
Changes have been view as an important factor for both social and organizational life. In reality life nowadays, changes are necessary for the improvement and survival in the competitive environment. Organizational change is an empirical observation in an organizational entity of variations in shape, quality or state over time (Van de Ven and Poole, 1995), after the deliberate introduction of new ways of thinking, acting and operating (Schalk et all, 1998). The general aim of organizational change is an adaptation to the environment (Barr et all, 1992) or an improvement in performance (Boeker, 1997).Tolerances level being on of aspect that may be consider in measure the employee acceptance towards the change. The origins of the term "tolerance" are rooted in the Latin word tolle˘re, which means carrying or lifting an object. Both tolerance and tolle˘re linguistically imply the existence of a burden, originally a physical one and later on a mental one (Nehushtan, 2007). According to Furnham & Ribchester (1995), the person with low tolerance of ambiguity experiences stress, reacts prematurely, and avoids ambiguous stimuli. At the other extreme of the scale, however, a person with high tolerance for ambiguity perceives ambiguous situations or stimuli as desirable, challenging, and interesting and neither denies nor distorts their complexity of incongruity. Thus, the essence of this research is basically to study on the tolerance to change among employees which will be view in term of demographic, job difficulty, stress level and organization culture.
Problem Statement
Tolerance is an important element in change as it will be the measurement to the success or failure for the organization. Different people have a different level of tolerance in responding or react to changes. People perceiving the changes benefiting them and suiting their interest and goals, will be accepting and supporting those changes. But if those changes are perceived by people uncomfortable and controversy to their interest and goal, will be rejected by them. World are rapidly growing and the need to change is vital to keep the organization grow and survive but most organization more focus on the quantitative which focus on technical problem and what they had rather than focus on sustaining the success. Thus the main issue is to study on employee in Pos Malaysia Sabah tolerance to change toward MS ISO, in what extent the employees' tolerance to change toward MS ISO when there is a changes in their system and what is their level of tolerance? Why employee respond differently in responding to change? What is the factor influence them? Here, the challenges by the management are the need to manage the change and to understand how to cope with the situation also to devise strategies to make change more acceptable in the workforce.
Research Objectives
To study level of tolerance of Pos Malaysia Sabah's employees in faces the changes: MS ISO.
To determine the factor influence the employee tolerance to change toward changes.
Scope of the study
The study will cover the employees at Sabah Electricity Sdn.Bhd, Kota Kinabalu branch. The subject matter is focusing on the employee tolerance to change in relation to demographic, stress level, job difficulty also organization culture.
1.5 Significant of the study
Changes can be threatening to both individuals and organizations. It challenges the usually comfortable status quo and often raises the possibility of job loss or at least change in job quality and status. To overcome the nature inertia this reality produces, significant organizational change often require an obvious crisis before the work force can be mobilize to embrace change. Thus, by knowing the level of tolerance among employee in reacts to the changes than the organization can benefit in implementing the changes process.
Definition of terms/ concepts
The terms used in this study are defined for ease understanding.
Tolerance
Generally tolerance refers to the conditional acceptance of or non-interference with beliefs, actions or practices that one considers being wrong but still "tolerable," such that they should not be prohibited or constrained (S, Mendus, 1988). Tolerant behaviour can be the result of different motives. Different people can be tolerant in the same way for example, they may apply the same degree and mode of tolerant behaviour, but the reasons for their behaviour may vary.
Demographic factor
It is the characteristics of the population which including age, ethnicity, income, education, gender, and race. Other characteristics include occupation, family size, religion, and social class.
Job difficulty
Job difficulty is when the job is hard to accomplish, or solved. Here, it require a special skill and knowledge in doing the task or in term or the job responsibility like higher level position or low level position.
Stress level
According to Buttler, stress is a dynamic process reflecting both internal and external factors: characteristics of a person and his or her circumstances, as well as the interactions between them. These newer views of stress come from greater understanding of the part played by cognitive factors (thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, images) in psychological well-being. The amount of stress experienced by individuals is determined by the perceived demands upon them as well as by their perceived resources. Cognitive factors thus influence both the stimulus and the response sides of the equation.
Organization culture
Gareth Morgan has described organizational culture as the set of the set of beliefs, values, and norms, together with symbols like dramatized events and personalities that represents the unique character of an organization, and provides the context for action in it and by it. Beliefs and values are words that will pop up frequently in other definitions, as well. Norms might be described as traditions, structure of authority, or routines.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Literature Review
Introduction
The relationship between employee tolerance to change and changes in organization are still narrow and exactly how changes affects tolerance level is still largely unexplained. But all individuals experience changes in same way. For some individuals, changes is loss and uncertainty and they feel helpless, hopeless, depressed, confused, anxious, angry or frustrated, while of others change is challenges and they feel excited, enthusiastic, active and have positive feelings. Empirical study and past research regarding on the issue show a different perspective and many results has gain with a several variable of interest.
Tolerance
Tolerance to change is a personal characteristic that show how the individuals handles the uncertainty and stressed involve in a change situation (Hardin, 1967).In general, person with a high level of tolerance to change level will experience less uncertainty with the changes and has a positive perception on the management trustworthiness. Tolerance is the ability to accept individuals for who they are, to appreciate and respect differences, and to empathize (Chickering and Reisser, 1993).
According to Raz 1986, "Typically a person is tolerant if and only if he suppresses a desire to cause to harm or hurt which he thinks the other deserve". Consistent with respect for human rights, the practice of tolerance does not mean toleration of social injustice or the abandonment or weakening of one's convictions. It means that one is free to adhere to one's own convictions and accepts that others adhere to theirs. It means accepting the fact that human beings, naturally diverse in their appearance, situation, speech, behaviour and values, have the right to live in peace and to be as they are. It also means that one's views are not to be imposed on others.
Organization change
Organizational change refers to the changes in organization-structural relationship, work or job responsibility, attitude and behaviour, values and norms, rules and regulation others. O. Jeff Harris viewed that change within an organization calls for a modification of the relationships, responsibilities or behaviour of individuals who are members of the organization. Thus, organizational change indicates adjustments, modifications and alterations needed to carry out in relation to attitude and outlooks of organizational members, work relationships and responsibility, structure and procedures and inter-personal dealings.
On the basis of nature of change, it can be classified into two internal change and external change. Internal change refers to the changes in management style, resource mobilization, tools equipments, machinery, methods, technology, techniques used, process and procedures and organizational structure. External change refers to the changes in economy, social structure, government policies, location, acts and regulations, science and technology, political changes and labour market. Modern organizations are open systems because both internal and external factors and forces are related to its workings. Higher performance, acceptance of new technologies, cooperation and support and decreased turnover and scrap are the common objectives of organizational change.
Organizational changes are expected to bring about changes in organizational structure and procedure to suit the prevailing environment, and in working behaviour patterns of human resources. Systemic changes are the most likely to bring about sustainable increases in tolerance (Chin 2005). The shared recognition of common values, the greater quality of life associated with a sense of community, and the enhancement of collective self-esteem are all likely to promote increases in tolerance and a sense of connection that generalizes throughout the areas of a person's life (Aboud and Levy 2000).
Demographic
Demographics, including gender, race, education, and marital status are all associated with significant differences in the individual tolerance level. Each of this may influence the level of tolerance; high or low in related to the changes in the organization. In this new era, past employment experiences encompassing continuity and predictability has changed. In exchange, organizations are moving aggressively towards more efficiency and competitive advantage.
In the early 1960s Wallach and Kogan (1961) began studying relationships between tolerance and age. They found that older individuals tended to be less tolerant than younger persons. It seem to be true as to other finding by Hadler (2007) that age has a negative effect on the tolerance, thus the older people are the less tolerant they become. Education is positively correlated with tolerance as higher educated individuals are more tolerant than those with a poorer education. Regarding the gender, it turns out that women are more tolerant than men. The occupational status and the income do not have a significant impact. The same is true for the hometown.
Job difficulty
Kotter (2002) has pointed out that, while each is important, the core problems of organizational changes are never strategy, structure, culture, or system. For structural variables that in some way refer to the division of labour, Da-manpour examined the impact of specialization (or number of occupations), departmentalization or functional differentiation (or number of departments), professionalism (education and/or involvement in professional activities), and a new one, the technical knowledge resources involved in the job. Rather, the real problems arise when deciding how to help employees adapt to the change.
While some researchers have examined only attitudes of mid-level managers focused solely on non-managerial employees. However, Rousseau (1978) and Van Dam (2005) argued that survivor's reactions towards organizational changes are associated with their personal characteristics. Other researchers, on the other hand, examined the relationship between employees' job levels and their attitudes toward changes (Faunce, 1960 and Howard & Geist, 1995).
According to Faunce (1960), factors, such as level of organizational status, social class identification and social class background of employees have great influence in determining employee attitudes In other words, employees differ in their experiences and responses to job change due to their class and position in the organizational hierarchy. The higher position of the employee in the organization the more difficult the job is thus, the tolerance level is less compare with the low level management. Faunce (1960) further argues that position within the work organization may also affect reaction to change in work content.
Scholars argue that participation in the decision making process of change produces more favourable responses (Coch & French, 1948). Howard and Geist (1965) found that employee attitudes toward organizational change are associated with individual, departmental and positional characteristics. In their study, individual characteristics were the best predictor of survivors' attitudes toward organizational changes. More importantly, positional characteristics were found to be highly correlated with employee attitudes and behaviours.
Stress level
Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His
view in 1956 was that "stress is not necessarily something bad it all depends
on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is
beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental." Selye
believed that the biochemical effects of stress would be experienced irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative. Schweiger and DeNsi, (1991) and Hellriegel et all (2001) have pointed out that organizational changes can be viewed as the greatest source of stress on the job and, perhaps, in an employee's life.
Schabracq and Cooper (1998) believe that employees' stress rises because positions and technical skills may be changed or altered. When employees cannot make necessary technical adjustments, a sense of uncertainty arises about the future, which, in turn, creates stress. This uncertainty can affect employees' job commitment and job satisfaction. Growing research on the matter of reaction on organization change has been conducted for some decade. Kirton and Mulligan (1973) extensively focused on the manager's perception of organizational change while overlooking the views of subordinates (Klein et all, 1976).
Accordingly, Lawler and Worley (2006) suggest that those organizations tending to be sensitive to their environments and those that change frequently to adapt to their environment should exercise caution when hiring individuals who have had negative experiences in similar circumstances. Higgs and Rowland (2005) and Palmer & Akin (2007) view an organizational change as a messy process that includes much tension. Accordingly, managers should be aware of these tensions, confront them, and identify why they exist and how they can be handled. Importantly, at the individual level, organizational change as well as identity dynamics that serve as a barrier must be examined more thoroughly.
Organization culture
Cultural change is a fundamental form of organizational transformation, and the people, processes, systems, and structures are the key players. They involve changing basic values, norms, and beliefs among stakeholders in order to improve organizational performance. It was not until the beginning of the 1980s that organizational scholars began paying attention to the concept of culture.
This is one of the few areas, in fact, in which organizational scholars led practicing managers in identifying a crucial factor affecting organizational performance. In most instances, practice has led research, and scholars have focused mainly on documenting, explaining, and building models of organizational phenomena that were already being tried by management for example, Total Quality management (TQM), downsizing, reengineering, and information technology. Organizational culture, however, has been an area in which conceptual work and scholarship have provided guidance for managers as they have searched for ways to improve their organizations' effectiveness.
In addition to organization-level effects, the impact of organizational culture on individuals for example employee morale, commitment, productivity, physical health, and emotional well-being are also well-documented (Kozlowski et all, 1993). With health care costs still sky-rocketing, burn-out at an all-time high, erosion of employee loyalty to firms costing millions of dollars a year in replacement and retraining, lost organizational secrets due to sabotage and defections, and lawsuits and other forms of retribution by disaffected employees, the impact of an organization's underlying culture on individuals is also an important area of concern.
Conclusion
Tolerance to change among employees need to be examine so it much more easily for the organization to determine the best approach in changes process. By understanding the key variable that may related to the employee tolerance level toward the changes, the organization can cope with the problem that may arise along the way of the changes.
Conceptual Framework
Dependant variable
Tolerance level to change toward MS ISO
Independent Variable
Demographic
Job difficulty
Stress level
Organization culture
Independent variable
Demographic
Different in the employee characteristic; age, gender, education level, marital status and so on are the common aspect in determine the individual attitude and respond towards the changes. As for it, the demographic of the employee should be look as one of the variable that may affect the changes.
Job difficulty
Many people resist to accept the changes if it cause greater difficulty in performing the task. The feeling of being at the comfort zone and fear to take a risk has greater impact in determine the employee level of tolerance. Changes thus may produce various reactions by which greater difficulty cause less tolerance.
Stress level
Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that "demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." In short, it's what we feel when we think we've lost control of event
Stress affects all aspects of human functioning. Different people have different level of stress and there is no standard of acceptance measure of stress. Some may view stress as a good thing and otherwise it may be bad. Thus, this factor may contribute to the employee tolerance to change.
Organization culture
An organization culture includes the set of norm in which power is expressed, in which interaction and decision making take place and value develop, turn into habits and become part of the organization's core or way of being. The notion of organization culture encompasses patterns of interaction among individuals at both formal and informal levels which markedly influence the overall organization climate. The organization reflects the model under which a given organization operates. Thus, tolerance level among employee toward the changes is vital as it involve the personal and collective level also external aspect the individual and social behaviour.
Dependent variable: Tolerance
Tolerance level
Tolerance is the capacity of being tolerate towards the unfavourable environment situation which able to withstand on the uncertainty condition. Changes in the organization basically require the employee to tolerant in order to ensure the implementation process is successfully. Thus, it is essential to understanding on the level of tolerance for the changes to easily adapt.
Moderators
These are the variable that affects the strength of the relationship between two of more concepts.
Types of changes
Changes may somehow be positive and negative towards the organization. Different person also has a different perspective on the changes and their tolerance level might be differing with others. Thus, the tolerance level is based on the changes itself.
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHOD
Research Design
For the purpose of this study, the research design will be cross-sectional survey. The research demands for information from the various departments, divisions, section and target of focus group within the organization. Types of approaches are interviews of focus groups supplemented by a questionnaires survey.
Unit of Analysis
As the study is addressing on the employee tolerance level towards changes therefore the unit of analysis will be the any private or public agencies.
Sample Size
For the purpose of this study, the sample size is 100 which based on Roscoe (1975), 100 is at the range of 30-500 of most appropriate samples size for most research.
Sampling Technique
Five organizations will be selected for the closer analysis. The types of sampling are Quota sampling by which there is equal or proportionate of the subject is depending on the which trait is considered as basis of the quota. As for this study, the basis of the quota would be the gender and age.
Measurement/ Instrumentation
The variables and their measurement are outlined in the following section.
Organizational change
The measurement for this variable is interval scale which a set of statements for each changes categories; organization structure, organization system, procedure and process also organization culture can be developed to access the tolerance level among employee as the respondents can agreed or disagreed using five-point Likert scale: Strongly disagree=1, disagree=2, neutral=3, agree=4, strongly agree=5.
Data Collection
The data for this study will be collected through the personally administered questionnaires. This method was chosen because doubts can be clarified and almost 100% response rate ensure. Interview with a selected group will be conducted.
Data Analysis
The data will be analyzed using statistical software tool (SPSS 17.0). The test to analyze the data would be chi-square which the objective is to see correlation membership between tolerances to change towards changes.
