Organizational Change Engineering: A Field Study of Executives’ Attitudes toward Change Options and Pathways at Sonatrach’s Skikda Natural Gas Liquefaction Complex

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate an important organizational variable, namely organizational change, by examining executives’ attitudes toward organizational change through the following central question: What are executives’ attitudes toward organizational change? The study also addressed two sub-questions: What are executives’ attitudes toward organizational change as content? and What are executives’ attitudes toward organizational change as a process? To answer these questions, a field study was conducted in accordance with the methodological procedures and tools adopted in field research. The Natural Gas Liquefaction Complex was selected as the field of study. The descriptive method was used, and the sample consisted of a stratified random sample representing 20% of the study population, with a total of 70 respondents. The questionnaire was used as the main data-collection instrument and was designed as a three-point Likert scale to measure attitudes. The data were processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).
The study reached the following conclusions: executives’ attitudes toward organizational change as content were positive, except with regard to the indicator concerning management’s changing of employees’ workplaces. Their attitudes were neutral toward the statement that the institution appreciates the efforts made by executives to ensure the success of change. Executives’ attitudes toward organizational change as a process were also positive, except in relation to the coercive strategy dimension, most of whose indicators received neutral or negative responses.