Personal values and conflicting motivational forces in the context of imposed change

Internal motivational conflicts that arise in the context of imposed change were investigated through a personal values perspective. It is suggested that in the context of imposed change different aspects of the same value dimension will tend to come in conflict. As demonstrated in two studies, this conflict is manifested in what at a surface level appears as a weak relationship between values and reaction to the change. In Study 1, a field study of 107 employees, individuals' dispositional resistance to change was controlled to disentangle the conflicting forces that employees experienced in response to a campus relocation. In Study 2, a laboratory study of 128 undergraduates, in addition to replicating the results of Study 1, the different motivational dynamics that exist in voluntary versus imposed change situations were demonstrated.