Psychologists have found that people can face adverse life events better when they can create and find meaning in those events. People can appreciate the situation better via an explanation for the development, by acknowledging its occurrence, or by just understanding why it happened. By recognizing more benefits than adverse effects of the event, the individual can also benefit from problems with change. No matter how severe the situation, an individual can create meaning and explanation in order to overcome a change. Psychologists call this meaning-making, and this concept can be utilized in order to create a strategic change in corporations (Sonenshein & Dholakia).

A study conducted by Sonenshein and Dholakia indicates that how the employee thinks about the strategic corporate change is essentially important in the implementation of the change. Some research into strategic change shows that employees can be obstacles that prevent change, but the Meaning-Making Change Adaptation Model proves differently. The challenge that people can be can be overcome by helping them to create a meaning of the change that needs to occur for the best of the corporation. By shifting the opinions and thought processes of the employees, they can actually be the ones who are fully facilitating the strategic change (Sonenshein & Dholakia). By changing the way that the employees think about the change that is going to take place allows the individual to feel like part of the change and much more liable to embrace the change. Sometimes a change is necessary, and fully explaining the change and rationalizing with the individual well help to ease the transition.

Many people resist change, and researchers are often focused on this employee subgroup regarding organic and strategic change in organizations. One theory suggests that more emphasis should be placed on those who are ambivalent regarding the planned changes. Particularly for those who are ambivalent, it is paramount to take into consideration all employee inputs and opinions regarding change. Dismissing the responses of everyone undergoing change is going to lead to failure. This is true for planned, top-down change as well as egalitarian, bottom-up change. Ambivalence does not need to cause any unnecessary stress to the individual or the organization as a whole. In fact, using ambivalence can help the team to successfully traverse the change process (Piderit, 2000).

In order to produce useful feedback and guide organizational policy, the employee must actually have opinions. If an individual is truly ambivalent, they don’t have strong opinions either way. If an employee is torn between their feelings, then there is a great opportunity for discourse and therefore planning of the best methods to pursue. An employee who is not listened to or consulted will tend to be disgruntled, in times or change, or status quo.

Benchmarks and goals are always an important part of any organizational project, especially so in times of change. Without them, change will go unfettered and unforced. One of the strongest reasons that change within an organization fails is that these changes go unchecked. Before any change begins, organizers should determine the timeline for their changes to take place and the benchmarks that should be verified along the way. How many employees should have been integrated into the changes by what point in time? Evaluating these benchmarks and deciding to utilize other change theories, or further discuss employee’s opinions regarding the change may be necessary in order to meet more goals down the road.

Organic and strategic change within an organization is never an easy process. Psychological study had shown that people react to adverse events better when they can understand why they occurred and how their own interaction with the development affects the outcome. The Meaning-Making Change Adaptation Model utilizes this concept. By utilizing the opinions of those who are ambivalent to the change, will also help guide change. Understanding how the change is matching up to predetermined benchmarks will assists in the change process.