International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 21 [Special Issue – November 2011] 182 CHANGE IN HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTIONS: Lecturers’ Commitment to Organizational Change (C2C) KHALID DAIF Communication Department School of Multimedia Technology and Communication College of Arts and Sciences Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) 06100, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia. NORHAFEZAH YUSOF Communication Department School of Multimedia Technology and Communication College of Arts and Sciences Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) 06100, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia. Abstract Organizational commitment has been identified as one of the factors determining the success or failure of any organization. However, empirical research has been lacking in scope when looking at the commitment to organizational change parameters and variables. This study specifically focuses on the world of academia in Malaysian context in order to contemplate the relationship between strategy importance (S.I), Fit of the change with strategic vision (F.V) and Job motivation (J.M) as independent variables, and commitment to change (C2C) as dependent variable. Survey was employed. The number of respondent who participated was 175. Multiple regression was conducted to examine the relationships between the variables. The results of the study showed that strategy importance (S.I), Fit of the change with strategy vision (F.V), and job motivation (J.M) were important in obtaining lecturers commitment to change with a difference of importance for each of C2C’s dimensions from one to another. The results offer insights for managers and identify opportunities for future empirical research on change initiatives in organizations, especially in academic context. Keywords: organizational commitment, change, academia. 1. INTRODUCTION Change is an integral part of any organisation and management of change is an essential tool in maintaining the organisational integrity and promoting development and growth. In order for change to work, both the management and the employees have to understand, accept, embrace and commit to the proposed change. Change management is thus one of the more important issues which today’s workplace needs to focus its attention on in order to be successful. The management teams in various companies have the task of introducing, implementing and managing change within their organisations. The managers’ task is to carefully consider what direct impact the intended change might have on the company’s performance and how this will affect the employees. The managers must have an increased awareness of how the change will affect the employees because it is the employees’ reaction to change and its acceptance or rejection that will shape the company’s future success or failure. The constant technological and sociological development of the workplace mechanics combined with the ever increasing expansion of the processes of globalization contribute to growing frequency and complexity of workplace change; such rapid transformation process requires company employees to adapt to change without disruption, as such disruption would be costly and dangerous to the company’s survival on the market. However, due to the fact that any initiated change introduces the element of the unknown to the working lives of employees, and the element of the unknown is always perceived as uncomfortable, unnecessary and unwanted, resistance to change is one of the most common types of reaction amongst the modern workforce (Caldwell et al., 2004). When the employees understand change and are not afraid of it, they embrace it and become committed to it – this is the ideal situation for a company and its management, as the managers’ task is to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of the employees’ commitment to change.