Long description

The model comprises three regions, depicted as horizontal layers. Comfort/security (shown in blue at the bottom of the figure), is the normal work environment. The middle layer is Worry/uncertainty (shown in yellow), which can include productivity loss, employee dissatisfaction and passive resistance. The top layer is Risk/flight (shown in orange), where turnover of valued employees and tangible customer impact are issues, and active resistance to change is apparent from some employees. Along the vertical axis, employee fear and resistance is increasing. Along the horizontal axis, time is moving forward. A dashed line, starting at the bottom left of the Comfort/security layer, moving straight up through Worry/uncertainty into Risk/flight and then crossing horizontally to the right-hand side of Risk/flight until it starts to tail off downwards, represents a potential track that a group of employees may follow when faced with change. This track begins with a management communication or a rumour that change is coming and is labelled as poor change management. A solid line starts from the same point but moves gradually out of Comfort/security into the lower levels of Worry/uncertainty, before returning to Comfort/security. This line depicts the employee experience under excellent change management.