Australian journalists and commitment to organisational change: A longitudinal study

Abstract

This paper investigates the commitment of journalists to change programs, which is a previously unexplored aspect of organisational change. Studies of organisational change in newsrooms have until now focused on journalists' attitudes to change, rather than their commitment to change. This paper draws on the findings of a longitudinal survey of Australian journalists involved in an ongoing corporate change program in order to enrich the literature and theory-building around corporate change in media organisations. The organisational science literature is used to explore whether commitment to change operates among journalists in similar ways to other types of workers. The data are drawn from three annual surveys of journalists in 14 newsrooms operated by the Australian corporation APN News and Media. The paper explores the trajectory of the journalists' commitment to APN's corporate-change program across more than three years of change. Although the study is limited in that it examines only one media organisation's change program, it has implications for those researching in the field of organisational change in newsrooms - particularly at a theoretical level. It also has practical implications for those managing, planning and implementing change at the newsroom level.