| According to the organizational change literature, senior management commitment is critical to the success of organizational change efforts (e.g., Kotter, 1996; Nadler, 1998). Despite its accorded importance, few studies have examined factors involved in obtaining senior level commitment to change or how commitment from senior management affects behavioural support for change initiatives. The present research explored these issues within the context of a specific type of change initiative, namely diversity management. Drawing from the organizational influence literature (e.g., Farmer, Maslyn, Fedor, & Goodman, 1997; Kipnis, Schmidt, & Wikinson, 1980; Falbe & Yukl, 1992), the role of influence strategies in inducing senior management commitment and behavioural support for diversity management was examined in an experiment and a field study.; In the experimental study, that employed an adapted version of the organizational simulation method, experienced managers played the role of a senior management team member in a fictitious organization. Participants were exposed to one of three influence strategies (hard, soft, or rational) in the form of a presentation. The presentation, ostensibly from the diversity manager of the organization, was designed to garner senior management's support for a specific diversity management initiative. After reading the presentation, managers rated their commitment and level of behavioural support for the proposed initiative. In the field study, actual diversity managers reported the strategies they use to obtain senior management support for diversity management initiatives and their corresponding perceptions of how these strategies affect senior management's levels of commitment and behavioural support for diversity-related change efforts in their organizations.; Soft and rational strategies emerged as more effective than hard strategies for securing behavioural support for change initiatives in both studies. The results also showed that different influence strategies were associated with different patterns of commitment, with soft and rational strategies showing stronger relations with affective commitment than the use of a hard strategy. Most notably, the results from both the experimental and field studies provided convincing support for the prediction that affective commitment mediates the relation between influence strategies and behavioural support for change. The robust pattern of mediation that emerged suggests that influence strategies, working through the mechanism of affective commitment, play a key role in garnering behavioural support for change initiatives. Finally this research provided validation for some of the primary tenets of Meyer and Herscovitch's (2001; Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002) model of commitment to change. In both studies, commitment profiles defined by strong affective commitment were characterized by higher levels of both focal and discretionary support behaviours relative to profiles defined by weak affective commitment. The implications of these findings for the domains of organizational influence, organizational change, commitment to change, and diversity management were discussed. |
