Grief and Organizational Change

In a qualitative research study, the emotions of individuals during organizational change were explored through drawings and interviews. Grief reactions were clearly found, however, emotions and patterns of emotions differed according to real versus anticipatory change. Relief occurred at the beginning of grieving and appeared to be preceded by distress about the unknowns of the change. Discomfort with the negative emotions resulting from change and a sense of being torn between the logical and emotional were found. Questions were raised about the use of the common, linear grief model. This study used drawings to access emotional responses to change. Drawings were found to: 1) create a path to emotions, 2) lead to a more succinct representation of experiences, 3) require additional verbal interpretation by the participant, 4) be unpredictable as a tool for encouraging participation in research, 5) combat researcher biases when left unstructured, 6) be affected by the amount of researcher-imposed structure in terms of how they could be interpreted, and 7) help to create triangulation (confirmability) of study data.