A quantitative, cross-sectional, correlation, survey study: Assessing readiness to change in health and human services organizational memberships

Abstract Readiness to change may mediate the consequences of the changing demographics and the problems of the very high unsuccessful organizational change efforts. The first problem was how to provide public and private sector leaders of health and human services organizations with the ability to monitor and make adjustments to the change process to influence and affect positive change outcomes. The second problem was how to provide those leaders with an instrument to assess their organization's change readiness at any specific point in time, and at any stage of the change process. The purpose of this study was to determine, if there was a relationship and to what extent, organizational readiness was reflected in the organizational members' beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding needed changes and the organization's capacity to make those changes. The study measured and correlated independent variables discrepancy; appropriateness; change specific efficacy; and principal management support in the attempt to quantify the state of readiness, the dependent variable, which utilized a quantitative, correlation, cross-sectional, survey methodology to collect and analyze the numeric data. The results of the point biserial correlations indicated that each of the four beliefs and attitudes (i.e., discrepancy; appropriateness; change specific efficacy; and principle management support) were correlated with personal valence (readiness), the null hypothesis was rejected, and the state of readiness quantifiable. A significant conclusion of this research illuminated the possibility of creating a tool to measure the state of organizational readiness. Recommendations included continued research of the measuring instruments' use in the original study design.