Change Management and Employee Commitment of Tourism Industry in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

In a dynamic business environment, organizations that must remain relevant and viable are constrained with the challenge of championing and implementing change according to the environmental realities. This development presents a decision-making dilemma which managers must necessarily cope with because organizations and its members are averse to change. This study examined change management and employee commitment in the tourism industry in the Abuja FCT. Its specific objectives were: to ascertain the extent of relationship between communication of change and employee commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja FCT; and, to determine the extent of relationship between organizational training and employee normative commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja FCT. After taking reference from numerous related works, this study has been formulated on the basis of the model given by Kurt Lewin. With Taro Yamani’s and Bowley’s Proportionate sampling techniques, this study has selected a total of 196 samples. After collecting the primary data, Content Validity and Cronbach Coefficient alpha, Kaiser Meyer Olikin Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Bartlet’s Test of Sphericity has been tested to ensure validity and reliability of the data collection tool. Various statistical techniques like Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, have been employed to test the hypothesis. Result indicates significant association between change and employee commitment. Also, there is a significant relationship between organizational training and employee normative commitment toward change in the tourism industry in Abuja FCT. This study concluded that employees who have previous knowledge, information and skill will be committed to both the change when implemented and to the organization in the long run. The study recommended that management of tourism industry should create a conducive work environment where there will be free flow of information to employees before and after change has been implemented to ensure employee continuous acceptance of change.

survival (Parish, Cadwallader&Busch, 2008). Change in the organization can take any of the two facets, incremental change and transformative change.\Incremental change is continuous change that is initiated to fix problems or improve processes while transformative change is radical, discontinuous or multidimensional and affects all level of the organization (Bourda, 2013).In this study emphasis will focus on affective and normative commitment in relation to organizational training to influence change management effectiveness.

Statement of the Problem
Organizations change and adapt continuously to stay spirited and effective. For organizational leaders, change is one of the most essential and exigent responsibilities. Recent studies showed that only one-third of organizational change efforts were considered successful by their leaders (Meaney and Pung, 2008;Beer and Nohria, 2000). This study identified the problems of poor communication and lack of training of key staff on the part of organization's Management as the major reason for resistance to change in organizations. Again, poor communication channels and motivation of employees in all ramifications were equally major problems addressed by this study. Hence, this research is justified.

Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study is to ascertain the relationship between change management and employee commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja FCT. The Specific Objectives include:  To ascertain the extent of relationship between Communication of change and employee affective commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja FCT.  To examine the extent of relationship between Organizational Training and employee normative commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja FCT.

Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to address the objectives of the study.  What is the extent of relationship between communication of change and employee affective commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja FCT?  To what extent does organizational training relate to employee normative commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja FCT?

Research Hypotheses
Based on the research questions, the following postulations were formulated to guide this study.  Ho1: There is no significant relationship between organizational communication and Employee affective commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja, FCT.
 Ho2: There is no significant relationship between organizational training and employee normative commitment in the tourism industry of Abuja, FCT.

Significance of the Study
This study will be of immense benefit to the management or managers of organizations in understanding and appreciating the essence of change management in the sector. This will help them to evaluate employee's level of commitment to ensure the effectiveness of change through organizational communication and training. Government at all levels will equally benefit as this study would help policy makers in making decisions that would influence employee commitment to change in order to help the tourism industry of Abuja FCT compete globally. Students of management will also benefit from the study as they will understand and find appropriate means to influence their commitment to change effectiveness in their future endeavours.

Scope of the Study
The study focused on two selected firms in the tourism industry located in Abuja FCT that are undergoing total overhaul both in culture and structure. The selected tourism industries are Maitama Hotels Limited and Crystal Palace Hotels Limited both in Abuja FCT. These hotels were selected for the study because of their years in service and their acceptance of global best practices in tourism sector.

Limitation of the Study
This study suffered from reluctance of the respondents (employees) to give the necessary information to the researcher which delayed the early completion of the study. A letter addressed to the managers of the selected hotels helped to ensure relatively free flow of information to the researcher.

The Concept of Change Management
Change has continued to take a front-of-stage role in both academic research and industrial practice. Change basically means series of events aims the development in organizations (Kassim, Tahajuddin, Shazzad, Isa, & Mat, 2010).Organizational change generally means rightsizing, new development and change in technologies, rescheduling operations and major partnerships (Mc Namara, 2011).Armstrong (2009) noted that Change Management requires overall

Organizational Training
Organizational training is a process of acquiring skills and knowledge that will help the employee to perform effectively and efficiently on the job to ensure change success (Cushway & Lodge, 2011). In the same vein, a study by Elias (2017) found that employee training has a positive impact on the level of change acceptance among employees in the organization.
Flippo (2017) defined organizational training as an art of increasing the knowledge and skills of an employee so that he can perform a job better. Organizational training is a key determinant for change effectiveness in the organization. Before change is introduced, it is necessary for employees to be trained skilfully and technically in order for them to adapt to change. This will help employees to accept change as a key responsibility they owe the organization. Organizational training has a positive relationship with employee normative commitment due to the fact that employees feel an obligation to continue in employment to justify what the organization spends to upgrade them skilfully. Organizational training helps employees to be conversant and adapt to any change and its demands from the employees (Dwyer, Richard & Chadwick, 2013). Organizational training has been found to be a key indicator of change acceptance as employees may not feel role inefficiency due to lack of training and the resulting job stress. Meyer, Hecht, Gill and Taplonysky (2015) found in their study that employees have a culture of resisting change that are not in consonance with their skills and knowledge as they feel accepting such will affect their security in the organization (Ahmad, Ahmad and Syah, 2010).

Concept of Employee Commitment
Employee commitment or employee loyalty is the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wants to continue actively participating in it. It is a measure of the employee willingness to remain with a firm in the future. It reflects the employee's belief in the mission and goals of the firm, willingness to expend effort in their accomplishment and intentions to continue working there. Commitment is usually stronger among longer-term employees. Employee commitment is a psychological state or way of thinking that influences employees to retain or remain attached to the organization. Commitment to change is described as the glue that provides the vital acquaintance between people and change goals. Adeloka (2012) asserts that employee commitment is an emotional bond or attachment that promotes the attachment of the individual to the organization. Meyer and Allen (2010) distinguished between three types of employee commitment. They made a distinction between continuance, affective and normative commitment. According to them, these three components are theoretically and empirically distinct.

Affective Commitment
Affective commitment is defined as the strength of an individual's identification and involvement with the organization.
It is characterized by a strong belief in and acceptance of the goals and values of the organization, a willingness to put in extra effort on behalf of the organization and a desire to remain a member of the organization (Maxwell & Steele, 2013;Falkenburg & Schyns, 2017). Work experiences that are consistent with an employee's expectations and basic needs will facilitate the development of affective commitment towards the organization (Stallworth, 2013), and employees displaying high levels of affective commitment will act in the interests of the organization even in the face of uncertainty. Continuance commitment also deserves a mention in this study. It can be defined as the commitment an employee has towards the organization because of the investments they have made in the organization and the costs associated with leaving the organization (Falkenburg & Schyns, 2017). These investments could include close working relationships with co-workers, retirement and career investments. Continuance commitment is also strengthened by a perceived lack of employment alternatives, which increases the cost associated with leaving the organization (Stallworth, 2014). Employees who possess a high degree of affective commitment will remain with the organization because they want to, while employees with a high degree of continuance commitment may also exert considerable effort on the organization if they believe that continued employment requires such performance.

Normative Commitment
Normative commitment is a form of commitment that is based on an individual's feeling of obligation to remain with the organization because it is seen as the moral and right things to do (Meyer and Allen, 2010). These feelings of obligation can occur in instances where, for example, the organization has supported the employees' educational efforts (Williams 2014). Normative commitment on the part of the employee is critical when an organization engages in change initiatives, as committed employees will provide many benefits to the organization undergoing change. These benefits include putting in extra effort to ensure that the change succeeds, serving as public relations representatives during the change and going above and beyond the norm to assist the organization to function effectively. It is therefore of the utmost importance to maintain levels of organizational commitment during times of change.

Theoretical Framework
The study uses the Lewin's Three-Step Model. There are three steps in the model. The three steps are i) Unfreezing: This stage involves the recognition of the need to change. Action is taken to unfreeze the existing attitudes and behaviour, which is essential for supporting employees and minimizing change resistance (Linstead et al., 2009).
 Changing: As Schein (1992) notes, ''unfreezing is not an end to itself; it creates a motivation to learn but does necessarily control or predict the direction.'' This echoes Lewin (1958) that any attempt to predict or identify a specific outcome from planned change is very difficult because of the complexity of the forces concerned (Burnes, 2014).Proper proportions of experimentation, modification of systems or patterns of behaviour are useful for the change (Linstead, Fulop & Lilley, 2009).iii) Refreezing: This stage involves the positive reinforcement of desired outcomes to promote the internalization of new attitudes and behaviours. A consideration of the change programme becomes necessary at this stage to ensure that the new way of operating becomes a matter of habit, not a regulation. This model also explores how employee work performance depends on communication and training. As communication and training are directly related with change management.

Empirical Review
The effect of changing management on the government institutions in Rwanda is studied by Ndahiro, Shukla and Oduor (2015). Result indicates that most of the employees have welcomed the change procedure, which has successfully affected their performance also. Ju Chun (2015) conducted a research on the employees of Pakistan, China from manufacturing companies to diagnose the impact of change management. Employees' attitudes toward the new performance appraisal had been tested through this study. Relationship between performance appraisal and satisfaction has also been studied. Sample size of 1474 participated in this study. Result revealed that new performance appraisal was highly rated by the employees. This also stated a clear indication that attitude of employees was positive. Change management in the Canadian public sector has been highlighted by Selvadurai (2013). Perceptions of public sector employees had been highlighted by the Kotter's eight step model. Mashihuru (2011) conducted a study on the impact of change on employee motivation in Nicaragua. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of organizational communication on employee motivation to change effectiveness. The study employed mainly survey research design. Data generated from 450 respondents through structured questionnaires administered were selected and analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings reveal that organizational communication has a positive impact on employee acceptance to change effectiveness. The study concluded that effective communication is a major apparatus to ensure employee positive response to change. Employees will show readiness to accept change once they are communicated and convinced about the impact of change on organizational sustainability. The study recommended that organizations should create a conducive work environment where there will be free flow of information to employees before and after change has been implemented to ensure employee continuous acceptance of change.
Olawale (2015) conducted a study on organizational change and its effects on employee performance in service firms in Oshogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. The objective of the study was to establish the effect of organizational communication on employee effectiveness to change to enhance work performance. The study employed descriptive survey research design. 325 respondents were randomly selected from 20 selected oriented firms. Data collected through structured questionnaire were analysed using chi-square techniques. The result showed that organizational communication has a significant impact on employee effective change and enhance work performance. The study concluded that communication is the life blood of a business and that it is the only indicator to measure the degree of employee acceptance or rejection of change. The study recommended that management should increase the level of commitment of employee to change acceptance through effective communication to ensure its success.
Abdullahi (2014) conducted a study on the relationship between organizational communication and employee commitment toward readiness to change in Kampala. The study focused on investigating the extent to which organizational communication relate to employee commitment toward effective change in organization. The study adopted survey research design method. Structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. A total of 500 copies of the questionnaires were distributed to selected respondents from 5 selected private manufacturing companies. The data collected were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The result indicated that there is a positive significant correlation between organizational communication and employee commitment to change. The study asserts that commitment to change in organizations can only be positive when employees are communicated on the need for change. Change can never be positive when there is low commitment by key employees due to poor channel of communication in the organization. The study recommended that the organizations should upgrade/improve their communication channel to influence employee commitment to change and enhance competitive edge.
Ada (2012) conducted a study on managing organizational change in Nigeria manufacturing companies in Calabar, Cross River State. The objective of the study was to measure the effect of organizational training on employee commitment to change in organizations. The study employed descriptive survey research design. Structured questionnaire was used to generate data from 55 respondents selected from two flour mills manufacturing companies in Calabar. The data thus collected were analysed using simple regression analysis to determine the degree of association between the variables under investigation. The results showed that there is a positive association between organizational training and employee normative commitment to change in the organization. The study concluded that organizational training impacts positively on employee normative commitment to change as employees feel it is their sole obligation to be committed toward change success since the organization has helped or spent to upgrade or improve their knowledge and skills to enable them fit in the organization. The study recommended that organizations should train to upgrade its key employees in the face of change to influence total commitment to change success.
Adeyeye (2009) conducted a study on managing organizational change in Nigeria manufacturing enterprises in Lagos State. The study focused on ascertaining the effect of organizational change in terms of organizational training and employee commitment toward high performance. The study employed survey research design. Data were generated from 200 respondents selected from 10 manufacturing companies through structured questionnaire. Thus, data gathered were analysed using T-statistics. The results showed that organizational training impacts positively on employee commitment toward higher performance in change situations. The study concluded that employees' attitude to commitment toward change is higher in organization where there is constant employee training to suit the change context. Organizational change is a function of organizational communication and training which can influence the level of employee commitment to change effectiveness. The study recommended that managers should constantly engage employees on intensive training to influence their commitment toward change acceptance. Nafei (2014) examined employee attitude towards organizational commitment and change using King Faisal Hospital in Al-Taif Government, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as case study. The objective of the study was to ascertain the impact of the three models of commitment in terms of effectiveness in King Faisal Hospital. The study employed survey research design. Data were collected from responses through structured questionnaire and were analysed using Chi-square statistic.
Findings showed that employee commitment has a positive impact on organizational change. The study concluded that a greater degree on organizational commitment leads to successful organizational readiness for a change process as employees' acceptance of organizational change increases with organizational commitment.

Gap in Knowledge
General studies already carried out did not cover the specific areas (variables) of this research. This has created the gaps (reasons) for this present study. The tourism industry is faced with an increasingly dynamic and complex environment whose evolution and shift have a major influence and ability on the SMEs to compete. In this context, they must initiate and implement changes as key element of their survival or prosperity. However, there is little contributions to the study of organizational change and employee commitment within tourism SMEs in literature, especially as per empirical evidence to support organizational change theories and approaches in this domain. (By and Dale, 2008). Hence, the present study seeks to fill this gap.

Research Design`
This study adopted descriptive survey research design. The study was carried out in the Abuja FCT. Descriptive survey research design entails the description of the phenomenon and characteristics associated with the subject population in the study which focused on management of change and employee commitment in tourism industry in Abuja FCT. Primary data were employed in the study. These were sourced through the use of structured questionnaires administered to the respondents selected for the study.

Area of Study
The study concentrated on two selected tourism organizations (Hotels) in Abuja which are Maitama Hotels Limited and Crystal Palace Hotels Limited, both in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Abuja is the seat of both administrative and political power of the country. Hence, it offers an interesting study for change management processes in tourism industry.

Population of the Study
The total population of staff of the two selected hotels is three hundred and eighty-six (386) comprising of the heads of units, middle level managers and supervisors/low level managers as extracted from each of the personnel unit of the selected hotels as at January 2016.  (2016)

Sampling and Sample Size Determination
In order to ensure fairness in the sampling of data required for investigation, the study randomized the entire population of 386. This is to enable sample score in the population of interest the chances of being included in the sample selection. In order to determine the sample size (n) from the population of the study, Taro Yamani's formula was used as follows: n = N 1 + N(e) 2 Where: N = Total population of the study (386); n = sample size (?); e = Tolerance error at 5% n = 386 1 + 386(0.0025) n = 386 1 + 0.965 n = 386 1.965 n = 196.4 = 196 respondents Therefore, 196 respondents were selected from the two hotels as research respondents.
In order to determine the sample of each category of staff from each hotel, Bowley's Proportionate Sampling Technique was employed. TheBowley's Proportionate sampling technique formula is given as follows: n i = n x x k n Where n i = Proportionate sample size for the ith (1 = 1,2) hotels n x = Sample size derived using equation (1)  Heads of Units (Higher Level Managers) n i = 196x12 = 6.0 = 6 respondents 386 Therefore, 6 higher level managers were selected from Crystal Palace Hotels, Ltd. as research respondents. Middle Level Managers n i = 196x 20 = 3920 = 10.1 = 10 respondents 386 386 Therefore, 10 middle managers were selected from Crystal Palace Hotels Ltd. as respondents. Supervisors/Low level Managers n i = 96x153 = 29988 = 77.6 = 78 respondents 386 386 Therefore, 78 supervisors/low level managers were selected from Crystal Hotels Ltd. Abuja as research respondents.

Methods of Data Collection and Administration of Instruments
Basically, primary data formed the major source of data used in the study. In an effort to collect relevant and dependable data for the study, structured questionnaire was used. The structured questionnaire contained sixteen (16) structured questions (see Appendix I). The researcher made use of the General Managers as a research assistant in the Administration of the questionnaire to the selected respondents. The questionnaire was structured in the Likert five-point scale from Strongly Agree = 5, Agree = 4. Disagree = 3, strongly Disagree = 2 to Undecided = 1 was adopted.

Validity of the Instrument
Validity of the instrument in this study was carried out using content validity to guarantee that the instrument structured for the investigation actually measured what it was intended to measure, the research instrument (questionnaire) was assessed and confirmed by a panel of observations, views, suggestions and recommendations were reflected in the tourism modifications made to the instrument. Also, the validity of the instrument was confirmed using factor analysis (see appendix).

Reliability of the Instrument
The instrument was subjected to test-retest method and was also confirmed using Cronbach Coefficient Alpha to adjudge its good fit for the study. The result is 0.79 as shown below. Reliability Analysis: The reliability of the research instrument was ascertained using the Cronbach alpha coefficient and factor analysis.

: Reliability Statistics
A Cronbach's alpha coefficients was obtained which showed that the instrument is reliable The p-value of 0.000 from the KMO and Bartlett's Test also showed that the individual variables in the research instrument were sufficiently correlated.

Method of Data Analysis
The data gathered from the structured questionnaire were presented using descriptive statistics analysed with the use of tables and graphs, A test of significance was conducted to determine the acceptance or rejection of the stated Kaiser Meyer Olikin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square Df Sig.
.720 1.503E3 .150 . 000 hypotheses first using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) to determine the strength of relationship between the dependent variable Y (organizational commitment) and independent variable X (change management). Its value is between -1 < r > + 1 Hence: Where: r = Correlation Coefficient x = Dependent variables y = Independent variables n = Number of scores To establish the significance of the result of the correlation analysis, the student statistics was used and is expressed thus: Decision Rule: Reject Ho if the computed value of Z is greater than the critical value of Z (Zo >Zi). Do not reject Ho if otherwise.  Table 5 above shows that one hundred and ninety-six (196) copies of questionnaire were distributed to the respondents out of which one hundred and eighty (180) were completely filled and returned. This shows that the response rate for the survey is 91.84% while the non-response rate is 8.16%. Hence, 180 (91.84%) of the respondents was used for the analysis.

Analysis of Data
Data was gathered for the two hypotheses as follows:

Generation of Data for first Hypotheses
 Ho: There is no significant relationship between Communication of Change and Employee Affective Commitment in the tourism industry in Abuja.  H1: There is a significant relationship between Communication of Change and Employee Affective Commitment in the tourism industry in Abuja.  Table 6 shows the responses to questionnaire items to hypothesis one, which will be used to test hypothesis one. Details of the responses to these questionnaire items are presented in appendix I.   Table 7 shows the summary of independent variable (x) and the dependent variable (y). Computations needed to test Hypotheses 1: Details of the data used in this computation are shown in Table 4. Numbers of respondents = 180; x = 1914; y = 2603; xy = 28144; x2 = 20820; y2 = 38389 Coefficient of Determination:

Sum of Responses
Step 1: Decision Rule At 0.05 level of significance, reject Ho if the computed value exceeded the critical value or is less than the negative critical t-value. Vol 8 Issue 6 DOI No.: 10.24940/theijbm/2020/v8/i6/BM2005-054 June, 2020 Step 1: Decision At 0.05 level of significance, the calculated t-value of 10.88 is greater than the critical t-value of1.96, so the study rejects the null hypothesis (Hoi) that there is no significant relationship between Communication of Change and Employee Affective Commitment in the tourism industry in Abuja FCT and therefore accepts the alternate hypothesis.
Step 1: Interpretation: There is a significant relationship between communication of change (COC) and Employee Affective Commitment (EAC). Step 2 Assumption: The test of this hypothesis is based on the assumption that:  The sampling distribution of the scores of the respondents is normal,  Sampling distribution of the sum of the scores are independent Step 2: Statement of the Hypothesis  HO.1: There is no significant relationship between Organizational Training and Employee Normative Commitment in the tourism industry in Abuja FCT.  HI02. There is a significant relationship between Organizational Training and Employee Normative Commitment in the tourism industry in Abuja FCT. Data and Computation ofr, r 2 , tc: Test of Hypothesis 2: Summary of Data derived from Appendix II.  Table 9 Source: Field Survey, 2016 Table 5 shows the summary of independent variable (x) and dependent variable (y) computation needed to test hypothesis two. Details of the data used in this computation are presented in appendix 2