Six emotional stages of organisational change: Conceptualisation and scale development

Abstract

This research designs, implements and validates a five-point Likert-type scale to measure the six emotional stages of organisational change. The results propose a scale with only 31 items after analysing the responses of a total of 1,220 employees and submitting the developed scale to the validity recommended in the literature in five phases and four studies: item generation, scale purification, scale dimensionality, scale validation and nomological validity. Thus, our research extends the literature and provides the first tool to measure the six emotional stages of change. Through the understanding and use of our scale, future research will be able to identify potential counterproductive and conflicting behaviours generated in organisations when implementing change and associate them with each of the six emotional stages described in the literature. Organisational changes, when perceived as unfavourable, provoke emotional changes in most employees, giving rise to behaviours that can become barriers that are difficult to overcome. Our scale will allow us to continue to expand the literature in this field.