Organizational change and employee functioning

This chapter aims to understand under which specific conditions organizational changes are particularly detrimental for employee functioning. It utilizes the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory as theoretical frameworks. The chapter considers resources at the organizational, the team and the individual level of analysis that are argued to buffer the effect of demanding and stressful environmental conditions. It highlights specific resources from different levels of analysis that have been linked to successful adaptation in changing organizations and whose role as buffers can be theoretically justified. The main assumptions of the JD-R theory in combination with the central tenets of COR theory allow explaining how and why resources at the organizational, the team and the individual level of analysis may function as boundary conditions that buffer the impact of organizational changes on employee functioning. According to the JD-R theory, the characteristics of each work environment can be distinguished in two categories: job demands and job resources.