Staff reallocations and employee attitudes towards organizational aims: Evidence using longitudinal data from the European Commission

Geys, Benny, Connolly, Sara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6714-3493, Kassim, Hussein ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7603-8377 and Murdoch, Zuzana (2023) Staff reallocations and employee attitudes towards organizational aims: Evidence using longitudinal data from the European Commission. Public Management Review, 25 (12). pp. 2323-2343. ISSN 1471-9037

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Abstract

Organizational reforms often involve substantial staff reallocations, creating both winners and losers within the same organization. We argue that allocating less (more) staff to a department signals a decrease (increase) in organizational support towards that department and its employees. We hypothesize that staff members respond to this signal by adjusting their support for key organizational aims and their plans to stay in the organization. We test these propositions using a two-wave survey conducted within the European Commission. Consistent with theoretical arguments, we find that staff (re)allocations trigger distinct reactions among winners and losers as well as across staff types.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article draws on data collected as part of the 2014 ‘European Commission: Facing the Future’ and 2018 ‘The European Commission: Where now? Where next?’ projects, conducted by Hussein Kassim (PI), Sara Connolly, Michael Bauer, Renaud Dehousse and Andrew Thompson. Pierre Bocquillon and Brigid Laffan participated in the 2018 project. The project received approval from the University of East Anglia’s General Research Ethics Committee (reference: GREC 17-855), and is in full compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as well as with APSA’s Principles and Guidance for Human Subjects Research in terms of consent, deception, confidentiality, harm and impact. Zuzana Murdoch is grateful to the Norwegian Research Council (project nr. 314333) and the European Commission (Horizon Europe ‘DemoTrans’ project nr. 101059288) for financial support. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union nor the Horizon Europe programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Policy & Politics Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Institute for Volunteering Research Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Employment Systems and Institutions Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Research on Children and Families
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	31 May 2023 15:30
Last Modified:	27 Jan 2024 03:12
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/92217
DOI:	10.1080/14719037.2023.2222139

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