"Change for the better: The impact of Team Wise Proactive Change Management on burnout and team outcomes"

Abstract

Past research on proactivity has focused on the frequency of proactive behaviours of individuals rather than the content of such behaviours and its operationalisation within teams. It is no longer sufficient to be merely proactive when dealing with ongoing changes within organisations or working when working in teams. My thesis introduces team wise proactive change management (TWPCM), where teams proactively manage change in ways that consider the situational, relational, and their own resources in addressing future challenges and reaching their goals. This paper examines the impact of TWPCM on burnout and the flow-on effects to team withdrawal and performance outcomes within the healthcare sector. To examine this, I propose three research questions: Does TWPCM alleviate burnout within healthcare teams?, Does the effect of TWPCM on burnout flow onto withdrawal and performance outcomes within the teams?, and Do work demands inhibit the positive benefits of TWPCM and its effects on burnout, withdrawal and performance outcomes within healthcare teams?. I employed a quantitative research design and drew on team aggregated survey data from a local health district in NSW, comprising 2324 nurses and midwives across 196 teams,. I also linked this survey data in terms of participants’ perception work to objective archival data across 12 months post survey completion, including patient safety data – specifically the number of medication and IV-related errors, as well as human resources data on leave and turnover. Findings show that TWPCM was indirectly negatively associated with undesirable team outcomes (team turnover, absenteeism and medication and IV errors) via burnout. Further, work demands moderated these indirect effects, whereby the relationship was weaker (creating barriers to alleviating undesirable consequences) when work demands are high. Importantly, the results indicate that wise proactive behaviours have theoretical and practical implications on healthcare workers and hospitals, and future researchers. My findings shed light on to the important role of wise proactive change management for teams and advances the empirical evidence and knowledge on how to effectively manage change to benefit not just organisations but also employees and the society.