Abstract
As highlighted by the work of several authors such as Jalajas & Bommer (1999) or Stumpf & Hartman (1984), motivation has become considered as one of the main elements influencing different work-related factors. As summarized in the work of Vithessonthi & Schwaniger (2008), motivation has been shown to be "positively related to organizational commitment (Deery et al., 1995; Morrow, 1983), work performance (Jalajas & Bommer, 1999), commitment (Jalajas & Bommer, 1999; Morrow, 1983)" and negatively correlated with job absenteeism (Blau, 1986; Deery et al., 1995).
All of these benefits pushed researchers to get interested in how employees could be motivated (Herzberg, 1968; Kanfer, 1990; Vroom, 1964) and lead to the general assumption that highly motivated employees should present better responses to change (Vithessonthi & Schwaniger, 2008). In this paper, we will shortly introduce the concept of change and discuss the link between motivation and change management, illustrating the role that motivation plays in change processes.
The same way that motivation has been recognized to be one of the most important things to care about in firms, the capacity to manage change is now considered as crucial for enterprises. In our fast moving environment all enterprises are affected by change, whatever their size or functions (By, 2005) and according to many authors (Roberts, 2005; Christian & Stadtlander, 2006), firms that are not able to properly manage timely change processes jeopardize their competitive advantages (Wickham, 2004) and their chances of long-term survival.
