Powerlessness and Helplessness

In addition to change fatigue, participants disclosed that they experience other emotions when the change does not happen the way that they anticipated. The change becomes painful for them to live every day. Some of them feel that they can no longer work in that continuously changing environment. Thus, at all hierarchical levels, participants informed that they are frustrated with organisational changes because they cannot control their work environment due to lack of information, ambiguity and uncertainty of the change outcome.

118 Despite that the organisational change is painful with negative impacts to change recipients, some participants disclosed that they need to provide input for the organisational change to work effectively and for them to stay engaged in the changing environment that they perceive as a mess. Thus, public servants believe that they need to provide feedback to correct the situation for the organisational change to be successful. However, the feeling of frustration eventually leads to disillusionment as the situation persists, making some public servants hate their jobs and disengage from the organisation. Hence, a few participants, at managerial and non-managerial employee levels, revealed that, when the change drags on, they become cynical and disengaged as a mechanism of self-defence and preservation against helplessness.

Moreover, participants who were initially excited and hopeful of the change, lose interest in the change because of the lack of information about the change and because they cannot provide feedback about it. Thus, they also become disengaged due to lack of information, direction and clarity about the organisational change. Similarly, some participants, at all levels including the director level, further commented that they felt left out of the change as if they were orphans of the organisation. According to the participants, they, then paradoxically, further alienate themselves from the rest of the organisation and from other public servants. The reasons given were for protection and for perception of contribution because they did not want to feel impacted by whatever is happening around them and because they want to feel that they are still contributing to the organisation in their bubbles.

Hating the job

“It’s brutal. I hate my job. I feel like going elsewhere just to, to be where () I, I, I am being, doing what I like. I am trying to find the positive things but personally, like, it’s been two years! I am wondering. What is this? I mean, it’s not fun!”

119 Disillusioned and Cynical

“I think that when I hear change, I think it is going to be bad. And I’m not a person who is against change … I am for changes but I think I’ve been disillusioned just one too many times because I used to think that this is going to be great and we will do that. And even, this last one I thought that this is going to be great and now I am just like, oh, yeah, you know, like I’ll believe it when I see it.”

MGR8: Female, > 20 years as a public servant

Frustration and Demotivation

“What frustrates me the most is the fact that… When you are trying to do something, you can’t get the assistance that you need to be able to move it forward. And, you spin your wheels and you waste an awful lot of taxpayers’ money trying to do what it is you’ve been mandated to do.”

MGR9: Female, >20 years as a public servant

Lack of Engagement

“I will not be running my shop this way if, if I didn’t think it was temporary and now it’s been a year and, and, but they keep saying that is going to change real soon. So, I think, well, what kind of changes can I make? I don’t know what’s good going to happen. I’m, I’m frustrated! I’m really frustrated. I may be a little angry … I am also used to being at least contributing. I have good ideas… somebody else up higher up can, can decide whether they would use them or not... Hum, but I don’t feel that anyone is listening and that is frustrating too!”

120 Lost and Confused

“Inside, I feel like I don’t know where I am going. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing, right. It’s like, where do you want to go…? Well, what am I going to do in each role, you know? If you can’t tell me, how do you want me to make a decision? Oh, well, we will make it for you. Okay, fine. Just don’t treat me like a number… I don’t have anything to tell my staff. Hum, my boss does not know… Continuous frustration… it is frustrating. If I were angry, it would mean that I cannot do my job. Like, I, I am still doing it. I’ll just wait when it happens because at this point I cannot contribute, contribute more than I am.”

MGR7: Male, 16-20 years as a public servant

Lost Orphan

“I always make an effort to know what is going on but I really don’t know what is going on… at a minimal level there’s, there’s not enough engagement… I would take anything at this point in time… I feel pretty lost. I have even stopped asking questions. I put a little bubble around me in terms of okay, here is where I get to operate. Just leave me alone… It’s about job satisfaction. I mean you can be an orphan… it’s not a thing that you would think about. Let alone tell somebody to remember that you kind of exist, you know. And it’s, it’s not a good feeling at all... People have literally asked 'where is my job? Where is my job?' And they do not get any response.”

EMP3: Male, 11-15 years as a public servant

These findings are consistent with Ashforth (1989) who argues that powerlessness, which she defines as a lack of autonomy and participation, consists of three stages. In the first stage, termed as reactance, the individual experiences frustration and tries to regain the desired or expected control over the work environment. Then, in the second stage, termed as helplessness, the individual experiences helplessness as the individual perceives that anything that there is nothing that he can do to change the situation. Finally, in the third stage termed as work alienation, the individual alienates himself from the workplace by dissociating himself from the organisation and by being less involved on the job.

121 While the reviewed literature indicates that these stages are either sequential or alternate, the study findings, however, highlight that public servants want to move from helplessness to regain control of their work environment by wanting to participate and by providing information/feedback about the change process even though they were not allowed to do so. Participants believed that they could influence the change, redress the mess and stay engaged if they were able to provide feedback and if they were involved in the change. Surprisingly, this happens even when these public servants went from reactance to helplessness before. In addition, some wanted to participate even after they alienated themselves from the workplace previously. Thus, the study findings suggest that the powerlessness stages are not linear and sequential (i.e. reactance -> helplessness -> work alienation) and that employees can move from one stage to another out of sequence and then back again in an iterative way.