CLIMATE FOR CHANGE: VARIABLES ASSOCIATED WITH AUTOMATION OF BANK TELLER FUNCTIONS

The purpose of this research study was to identify work conditions which associated with early and sustained success with a technological change (automation of bank teller functions).;Results of this study illustrate the important of manager satisfaction with peer group, supervision and the process of change as well as the importance of manager and teller seniority in achieving success with technological change. Results also underscore the importance of conditions associated with prechange productivity in achieving change success. Teller and manager satisfaction with peer group and organizational climate should also be addressed in a technological change effort as well as perceptions of openness to change and organizational ability to change.;Findings suggest organizations interested in facilitating technological change should assess how employees perceive their peer group and supervisors with regard to communications, performance standards, team goals and satisfaction as well as how they perceive the organizational climate including bottom-up and interdepartmental communications, as well as the organization's technological readiness and concern for its employees. Anticipating the introduction of a workplace change,they should also attempt to stabilize management personnel prior to such change.;This research was exploratory in nature. Future research will benefit by reducing redundancy of predictor variables and exploring potentially meaningful variables not measured here. Of particular interest is what workplace behaviors associate with employee satisfaction with peer group, supervision, and climate since such satisfaction is associated with success in implementing technological change. Also, it is hoped that future research might go beyond a correlational design in order to deal with issues of causality.;A written survey measuring thirteen work conditions was administered to 147 tellers and 59 managers within thirty branch offices of a large Eastern United States bank which had recently converted to an automated teller terminal system. Results of the survey were correlated with settlement time and error rate to determine which work conditions associated with change success.