INTERPRETING THE MEASUREMENT OF CHANGE IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH¹

Abstract

Numerous advances have been made in the last two decades in the measurement as well as in the conceptualization of change. Golembiewski, Billingsley, and Yeager (1976) conceptualized change as: (1) gamma change—subjects change their understanding of the variable being measured; (2) beta change—subjects recalibrate the measurement scale; and, (3) alpha change—change detected with a consistent measurement scale (i.e., no beta change) and for which gamma change has been ruled out. The present research examined these types of change by administering the Survey of Organizations questionnaire to a sample of military trainers at Time 1 ( N 1 , = 222) and Time 2 ( N 2 = 242) with no intervention. This design may be referred to as two premeasures of an abbreviated time series design. The results are discussed within the context of the alpha, beta, gamma change typology. After ruling out gamma change, the results revealed that alpha and beta change could be distinguished from each other and that beta change had been measured. The potential causes of the detected beta change (i.e., the rival hypotheses affecting internal validity) are analyzed. The implications of these results are discussed for the present research as well as for other empirical investigations of organizational change.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Auburn University US
• Georgia State University US

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