The Influencing factors on organization readiness to change: The mediating role of trust in Education and breeding Organization

One of the major challenges for contemporary organizations is their presence in turbulent environments, the emergence of new technologies, and environmental uncertainties. Change often forces employees to move from a familiar state to an unfamiliar one, which is why employees tend to resist it when they sense change. In the present research, certain factors that play a significant role in this regard were examined, including trust, perceived organizational support, resistance to change, and organizational structure dimensions.

This research is considered an applied study in terms of its objective and a descriptive-survey study in terms of data collection methods. Data were collected through questionnaires from 112 employees and managers in the Education and Training Department of District One in Shiraz. After using the Cochran formula, a sample size of 87 was determined. Given the small sample size and the known population, simple random sampling was used, and for the validity of the structure, the AVE test, and for reliability, a composite reliability test were employed. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis and examining the relationships between research variables.

According to the findings of this research, the variables of employee trust and perceived organizational support had a significant positive relationship with the readiness for change variable, while the variables of resistance to change, formality, and centralization had a significant negative relationship with the readiness for change variable. Moreover, trust acts as a mediator in the relationship between resistance to change and readiness for change. In this research, there is no significant relationship between organizational complexity and readiness for change.

The research results included the testing of seven hypotheses, six of which were confirmed. These confirmations indicate a positive relationship between trust, organizational support, and readiness for change and a negative relationship between resistance, formality, and centralization with readiness for change.