The Relationship Between Readiness for Organizational Change and General Job Stress: A Research on Nurses

Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the readiness for organizational change and general job stress of nurses working in a public hospital that will be incorporated into the newly operational Ankara Etlik City Hospital and is expected to operate in a new organizational, technological and physical environment. Design/methodology/approach – In order to measure their readiness for organizational change, the Organizational Change Readiness Scale created by Holt et al. (2007) and adapted into Turkish by Çalışkan (2019) was used in the study. In order to determine the general job stress levels of nurses, the General Job Stress Scale created by De Bruin (2006) and adapted into Turkish by Teleş (2020) was used. The population of the research consists of 1193 nurses working in a public hospital, which is likely to be transferred to the newly opened Ankara Etlik City Hospital. The sample of the study consists of 306 nurses who agreed to participate in the study with the simple random sampling method. In the study, the data were analyzed with the statistic program. Results – In the study, it was determined that there is a weak, negative relationship between organizational change readiness and general job stress. It has been concluded that being ready for organizational change reduces general job stress.Discussion – The environments where organizational change is experienced are places where uncertainty is dominant by nature. For this reason, especially considering that employees are a part of the organization, it is important to include them in the processes by transferring the necessary information about organizational change in order to reduce their general job stress. It is thought that this study, which was conducted to determine the relationship between employees' readiness for organizational change and their general job stress, will fill the literature since there is no study on these issues in the literature.