Managers’ experiences as recipients: impact on organizational change

Purpose: Drawing on insights from change experience research, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of managers’ experiences, as change recipients, on organizational change implemented by the managers. Design/methodology/approach: Since the Japanese sports context fits well with the aims of this research, longitudinal data of Japanese baseball are used to test the hypotheses. The data set was created using resources such as books published by Japanese baseball institutions. Following previous research, teams are regarded as organizations, and the number of changed players in teams per year is considered. The hypotheses have been tested using regression analysis on a yearly basis. Findings: Managers’ experiences as change recipients are an essential determinant of organizational change. The findings show that the amount of change these managers experience is associated with the magnitude of organizational change they implement. Past change experiences in each organization positively moderates this relationship. Originality/value: Previous studies examined managers’ experience after their appointment, and showed its influence on organizational change. However, scarce research examines the effect of managers’ experiences as change recipients on the organizational change they implement. Thus, this is the first study to analyze and test the effects of such experiences on organizational change.