How Change Agents' Motivation Facilitates Organizational Change: Pathways Through Meaning and Organizational Identification

This longitudinal field study adds to research on organizational change implementation by examining two facets of change agents' motivation as predictors of organizational change. To explain effects, this article examines change agents' experience of meaningful project work and their organizational identification as underlying mechanisms. Change agents were 51 university teachers who implemented change initiatives in teaching climate. They completed questionnaires before and after project implementation, with a time lag of one year. As predicted, results from hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses showed an indirect effect of intrinsic motivation on change agents' project-related perceived task performance through the experience of meaning. Moreover, there was an indirect effect of motivation to benefit others on change in teaching climate through organizational identification. Results highlight the role of different facets of change agents' motivation in successfully implementing change and provide insights for the design of change programmes in organizations.