The moderating role of change efficacy on the relationship between change readiness and employee engagement for Arab employees in SMEs

The ongoing crisis of COVID-19 is considered as a rehearsal for the future of work. Indeed, working from home has become the new normal for many Arab employees across the Middle East for the first time. This study is attempting to investigate the moderating effect of change efficacy on the relationship between change readiness and employee engagement in an unplanned shift of work settings to working from home. Change readiness is a critical facilitator element for conducting any organizational change. Whereas, employee engagement, is a predictor of a variety of positive work outcomes such as performance thus it is key for organizations to maintain employee engagement during times of change. Change readiness and employee engagement are both essential aspects of managing a crisis. Moreover, change efficacy is the capacity of employees to enact changes, is a pragmatic variable for predicting behavioral change and performance, and it affects all types of change readiness. Consequently, these three factors are paramount to traversing such a sudden adjustment in work settings. Hence, studying them will provide valuable insights to bridge the existing research gap on the matter. A questionnaire of three measuring instruments was used to collect data for this study and was sent electronically to 425 Arab, white-collar, full-time, private-sector employees of SMEs for Arab employees. The findings of this study suggested the existence of a moderate relationship between change readiness and employee engagement and that change efficacy moderates the relationship in the context of unplanned change in SMEs for Arab employees.