To support the idea, these researchers have empirically demonstrated that individuals
are not passive recipients of organizational change but actors who actively interpret
and respond to what is happening in their environments (Greenhalgh et al., 2004; Hall
& Hord, 1987; Isabella, 1990; Lowstedt, 1993). For example, based on in-depth interviews
within an organization going through a change, Isabella (1990) showed that
organizational members construe key events linked to the process of change as unfolding
in four distinctive stages: anticipation, confirmation, culmination, and aftermath.
Similarly, Hall and Hord (1987) and Rogers (1983, 2003) showed that, when faced
with a change, people develop concerns of varying intensity or make decisions concerning
its adoption across stages at different points in the change process. As this line
of research has shown, individuals make assumptions about change processes, evaluate
them, find meaning in them, and develop feelings about them.