Revisiting research on attitudes toward organizational change: Bibliometric analysis and content facet analysis

Abstract For several decades there has been surging interest in understanding the antecedents and consequences of attitudes towards organizational change. This attention has resulted in a body of research that has become largely fragmented. Relying on bibliometric analysis and content facet analysis we identify clusters, patterns, and trends in research on attitudes toward organizational change for research published between 2008 and 2018 (N = 163). The review details that the way we conceptualize attitudes toward organizational change is far more complex and nuanced than is currently portrayed, and shows that the current research lacks a consistent conceptualization of attitudes toward change, enabling an imprecise and often circular debate. As an important contribution, these systematic approaches to synthesizing earlier research enables us to identify important areas that the field has been struggling with, and propose a platform to launch the conversation on a more integrative future research strategy.