Effect of Demographics on Change Readiness of Executives Working in Indian Mobile Service Sector

Abstract

The Indian Telecom Sector has undergone a sea change, especially after the liberalization process. Entry of foreign players, acquisitions, shift from fixed landline to mobile usage, huge surge in the number of subscribers, policy changes introduced by Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and TRAI, privatization, technological changes like introduction of 3G and then 4G, cut-throat competition between operators, collaborations between operators, mobile number portability, falling average revenue per user, etc., are few changes that can be named. Whenever an organizational change occurs, employees are the first to feel the impact. The role of human resources in change implementation and the consequences of the employee behaviour and attitude towards organizational change are important topics of research. Organizational change readiness of the employees is the precursor for the successful implementation of change programmes. It is essential to determine the levels of employees’ change readiness which is an analysis of attitudes of employees towards various change events that occur in organizations. Measuring the change readiness of the employees can help the HR practitioners to find the extent to which employees are cognitively inclined to accept, embrace, adopt, and support organizational change plans to purposefully alter the status quo. This study tries to gauge the change readiness of the executives working in the telecom sector for the various changes which have taken place or the changes which will occur in the near future in the telecom industry. The HR implication of this can be used to develop programmes to improve their change readiness as the Indian Telecom Sector is still in the transforming stage.

Keywords: Mobile Number Portability, Organizational Change Readiness, Privatization

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