Responding to the cuts:
A longitudinal study of the psychological contract in change and its impact on employee wellbeing, performance and innovation in the UK public and voluntary sector

How will the organizational changes that will follow the spending review affect the human and social capital in the public sector?

It is anticipated that the impending Comprehensive Spending Review, to be announced by the Coalition Government, will have wide-spread consequences for the public sector across the UK and will no doubt have major implications for the way in which the public sector and all its partners can and will operate in the future. As a consequence, it is likely to affect the work and well-being of most public and voluntary sector employees and managers across all fields, which in turn may impact on organizational performance and innovation.

At this time of vital change, it is important to understand how these changes affect individuals’ performance, motivation and well-being at work as well as organizational performance such as innovation. There is very little high quality research exploring workplace change – and this study is ground-breaking in using a longitudinal design sandwiched around a large-scale change intervention.

This study will contribute significantly to academic research and it will at the same time provide valuable information to public sector policy-makers and managers (in aggregated form, no-one will see individual results). We aim to capture responses to the series of major changes following the spending review (to be announced on 20th October 2010) and its impact on public and voluntary sector employees across the country and across organizations over time.

The overarching question this study aims to address is what effect the budget cuts and other organizational changes may ultimately have on employee well-being and behaviour and, in turn, innovation, organizational functioning and service delivery.

Who is this study for?

We invite employees of all levels working in the public and third sector to praticipate.

How confidential is this survey?

The answers that participants give will only be seen by researchers working directly on this project. All data collected will be held on a password protected server, compliant with UK data protection law, and will be used strictly confidentially. No names of individuals will be held in the dataset; your responses will be anonymized. They will not be passed on under any circumstances. The results of this research will only be reported in aggregate form (that is, information will be pooled together and summarized, grouped by area or sector).

How to participate

The survey consists of three waves to capture changes and its effects over time: wave 1 in the week of the 15^thOctober 2010, wave 2 in March 2011 and wave 3 in October 2011. It is vital for the quality of the data to capture as many people’s responses over time as possible.

This is how you can participate:

• By personal invitation: If you are on IGPM’s contacts list, you will have received an email with a unique link that will help us to track your responses over time and keep your data confidential. It is important that you only use the link that has been sent to you personally.
• By registering: We aim to collect as many responses as possible, so please help us by asking your team members and colleagues to participate. They can register their email address and take part on the following website: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22DPWM2ZZZ2/
• Organization wide participation: If you want your organization to participate as a whole (or a representative sample of it), then please email Tina directly (tina.kiefer@wbs.ac.uk). This way, we will be able to provide you with feedback tailored towards your organization.

How can I learn about the results?

If we have registered your email address, we will be sending you a summary of the results after the third data collection in November 2011. We will also post the results on this website.

The research team

This is a research collaboration between Institute of Governance and Public Management at Warwick Business School and Birkbeck College. Each member of the team has extensive expertise in organizational change and has published internationally in areas related to this research:

Dr Tina Kiefer is Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour at IGPM (Warwick Business School). Tina has researched the role of positive and negative emotional processes in ongoing and radical organizational change in a variety of contexts, including the private and public sectors. See her website for a full list of her research interests and publications in the area http://www.wbs.ac.uk/faculty/members/Tina/Kiefer

Prof Jean Hartley is Professor of Organizational Analysis at IGPM (Warwick Business School). Jean’s main research focus is on leadership and public management, including organizational and cultural change in the public sector. See Jean’s website for a full list of his research interests and publications in the area http://www.wbs.ac.uk/faculty/members/jean/hartley

Dr Neil Conway is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck College (University of London). Neil has researched the dynamics of the psychological contract and the implications of psychological contract breach on individuals and organizations. He is also interested in work motivation and performance. See Neil’s website for a full list of his research interests and publications in the area http://www.bbk.ac.uk/orgpsych/staff/academics/conway

Prof Rob Briner is Professor of Organizational Psychology at the Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck College (University of London). Rob has studied emotions, stress and well-being at work in different contexts. See Rob’s website for a full list of his research interests and publications in the area http://www.bbk.ac.uk/orgpsych/staff/academics/briner