**1. Introduction**

Business organizations are experiencing numerous changes in their settings. Managers have an essential role in meeting the variations head-on to enhance conformity to the new environments. Organizational change is a constant process that significantly affects the efficiency of the organization (Cunha-Cruz et al. 2017). Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to different change alerts from within and outside the organization. The organization is required to make steady adjustments to change more efficiently and quickly. However, the execution of change implementation requires the development of a blueprint developed more efficiently to enhance the organization's success.

Typically, change includes a wide range of activities that exist in the company. The common changes in an organization include layoffs or downsizing, restructuring operations, and reorganizing teams. Some organizations engage in practices such as mergers, reengineering, and the development of new technology to ensure their readiness for organizational change (Weiner et al. 2008). Changes are meant to reorient and reorganize how the organization conducts its activities. The main goal of change is to identify new and improved methods to ensure optimized use of available resources and the general capabilities to ensure the organization's increased ability in value creation and provide enhanced returns to stakeholders.

The incorporation of new processes helps everyone in the organization conduct their jobs better and increase the positive contribution to the organization's current needs. An organization that fails to embrace change is likely to lose its competitive edge and fail to ensure conformity to the needs and demands of customers and stakeholders (Bank et al. 2017). Factors that determine the extent of change in an organization exist internally and externally. The economy is likely to pose a significant impact on the success of the organization (Vakola 2014). Sometimes change comes from adopting a new technology whose aim is to

**Citation:** Alolabi, Yousef Ahmad, Kartinah Ayupp, and Muneer Al Dwaikat. 2021. Issues and Implications of Readiness to Change. *Administrative Sciences* 11: 140. https://doi.org/10.3390/ admsci11040140

Received: 12 October 2021 Accepted: 15 November 2021 Published: 23 November 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

increase productivity and communication that form part of the organization's readiness to change.

The use of updated technology helps in the exploration of new markets to get better opportunities. They can enhance, modify, and create new products that will keep a loyal customer base. In some cases, it is understood that changes arise within the organization due to political pressures, identity pressures, and growth pressures (Billsten et al. 2018). For instance, some organizations adopt change programs due to a new vision from a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Therefore, the new concepts and ideas might be incorporated to suit the needs of the new leadership. This results in new and innovative concepts in the organization. Change is known to have emotional and physical effects on people; hence, it is essential to show how change is likely to improve the workforce environment.

However, resistance to change is a significant setback to an organization's readiness to implement new ideas. Change brings uncertainty, specific attachments, a perceived breach of the psychological contract, and negative perceptions. Sometimes past experiences with change also affect the willingness of organization members to accept change, especially if it went wrong. Therefore, managers are responsible for managing resistance situations by integrating various approaches such as education and communication, negotiation and agreement, participation and involvement, and explicit and implicit coercion (Weiner et al. 2009). At the organization level, readiness to change is affected by organizational culture, contextual factors, leadership behaviour, and technological impact.

The paper deals with Issues and Implications of Readiness to Change; therefore, to understand this, the literature review is organized with research on Organizational Readiness to Change, Need for Change, Expected Outcomes from Readiness to Change, Relationship between Determinants and Outcome of Organizational Readiness for Change, Different variables impact on the readiness of an organization, the framework model for the measurement of readiness to change, Contextual Factors, Organizational culture, leadership, and technology and their correlation with one another.

#### **2. Methodology on the Overview of the Literature Review**

The literature review deals with different concepts about organization readiness. It starts from the background concepts, then deals with the new concepts, and ends with the applied concepts. Organization readiness to change is crucial for the members to have a shared belief in the efficacy of change. The readiness of change in an organization depends on the preparedness of various players in the industry as well. The need for change is a new concept that deciphers the very concept behind organization readiness to change, and the applied concepts are related to the influence of organizational culture on organization readiness and the outcomes associated with it.

## **3. Organizational Readiness to Change**

Readiness to change in an organization is considered a multi-level and multi-faceted construct. It can be present at the individual, group, department, unit, or organizational level. At the organizational level, readiness for change is defined as the shared resolution by organizational members to implement change (Al-Maamari et al. 2018). It is also crucial for the members to have a shared belief in the efficacy of change. The readiness of change in an organization depends on the preparedness of various players in the industry. People are the most significant concern in assessing the issues for change readiness. Technology is another factor that determines whether the organization can effectively undertake innovative changes to keep up with the fast-changing organizational activities. Lewin (1947) states that theoretical formulation is needed to revive the social sciences. According to him, three goals are dominant, the integration of the social sciences, the transition to concern about "dynamic problems of group life changing from social bodies", and the development of "new tools and techniques for social research". None of the activities can be explained in their own terms, only as part of the operation of different processes that fluctuate as a function of fundamental forces and tensions. Cummings et al. (2016) explored how and why it came to be understood as the foundation of the new subfield of change management, how it has influenced change theory and practice to date, and how questioning this assumed foundation can foster innovation. For a change, it is necessary to create added value by using the existing ones.

Employees are responsible for the implementation of change. Therefore, it is critical to assess whether they are ready to implement effective organizational changes. The varying levels of readiness to change in different organizations depend on how the members of the organization value change and the likely implications it will have on their work environment (Von Treuer et al. 2018). They are expected to appraise the significant determinants of change implementation capability, such as resource availability, task demands, and situational factors. High organizational readiness is characterized by the willingness of organizational members to initiate the programs of change through greater efforts and cooperative behaviour.

#### **4. Need for Change**

The motivation theory explains why commitment to change is considered a function of change valence. Members of the organization play a vital role in the success of the organization's readiness for change. Several conditions determine their level of commitment towards embracing change. For instance, it is crucial to consider whether they understand the value of change and various benefits that are likely to be accrued from the entire process (Weiner 2009). Increased numbers of organizational members that value change will result in a willingness to participate in the implementation of change. The issues with changing readiness arise from the disparate drivers of change management.

In some cases, members of the organization value change because they understand the contribution and the urgency of change outcomes. They might display a high level of cooperation given the positive impact of the change process in sorting organizational issues. To some extent, the preparedness and readiness for change are boosted because members value the personal benefits likely to be derived from evolution (Weiner et al. 2009). Therefore, change valence that results from a different disparate reason is a potent determinant of the levels of commitment to change. For readiness to change, the critical concern is whether members of the organization value the whole idea of change implementation to express their devotion.

#### **5. Expected Outcomes from Readiness to Change**

The greater level of an organization's readiness to change implies that change implementation is likely to be successful. High levels of change readiness are an indication that an organization's stakeholders have the willingness to initiate change through instituting various procedures, policies, and practices (Weiner 2009). They tend to exert increased effort to support the change programs and portray significant levels of persistence to overcome multiple setbacks and obstacles in the implementation stage. The members are highly motivated, as evident from the prosocial and other behaviours with a close relationship with change implementation. Therefore, members are likely to come up with various measures that target exceeding the job requirements. Successful implementation of the change program is the proximal outcome of the organization's readiness for change. Effective implementation involves the quality and consistency of adopting and using the new idea, program, process, or technology at the easy stages. When the organization's readiness for change is low, its members may be reluctant and less perseverant in implementing the change programs (Desplaces 2005). However, it should be noted that readiness for change is not a guarantee for the success of a complex change program or process. Various factors that determine change success include safety, quality, efficiency levels, and anticipated outcomes Sometimes, organizational members can also offer wrong judgments regarding the level of the organization's readiness to change. Such mistakes arise from underestimating or overestimating the required collective capability for change implementation. Therefore, efficacy judgments should be based on direct experiences and

rich and accurate information to ensure that it is more predictive than judgments made based on erroneous and incomplete information.
