# Sentiment analysis of write-in comments related to organisational change

Jūratė Čingienė, Dimitri Tcherniak, Benoît Sagot

► To cite this version:

Jūratė Čingienė, Dimitri Tcherniak, Benoît Sagot. Sentiment analysis of write-in comments related to organisational change. 17th Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology - EAWOP 2015, European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology, May 2015, Oslo, Norway. **hal-01285621**

HAL Id: hal-01285621

https://inria.hal.science/hal-01285621v1

Submitted on 11 Sep 2024

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Manager and Non-manager Reactions to Organisational Change: Write-in comment analysis

Jurate Cingiene, Towers Watson, London, UK Paris, France
Dimitri Tcherniak, Verbatim Analysis, Paris, France
Benoît Sagot, Verbatim Analysis & INRIA, Paris, France

TOWERS WATSON

VERBATIM ANALYSIS

opinion survey intelligence

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## Purpose

This paper aims to explore employee and manager comments related to recently announced organisational change involving significant redundancies

## Materials and methods

Employee opinion survey

Comments question- During the transformation what is the most important priority area that [company name] should focus on in your opinion?

5600

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Employees responded

40%

“Comments,”

Key themes coded using VERA comments processing solution specifically designed by Verbatim Analysis for employee research

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Using VERA's hybrid sentiment analysis module, a sentiment score was calculated for each comment which was then aggregated to manager and non-manager populations

## Literature

Borg, I. and Zuell, Z. (2012). Write-in comments in employee surveys, International Journal of Manpower, 33 (2), pp. 206 – 220

Kiefer, T. (2005). Feeling bad: antecedents and consequences of negative emotions in ongoing change. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 26, 875-897

## Results

During the transformation what is the most important priority area that [company name] should focus on in your opinion?

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Managers<br>(Employees)</th><th>Products and<br>Services</th><th>Employees<br>(Managers)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>Leadership</th><td>20% (16%)</td><td>19% (13%)</td><td></td></tr><tr><th>Strategy</th><td>18% (9%)</td><td>23% (17%)</td><td></td></tr><tr><th>Empowerment</th><td>15% (8%)</td><td>13% (11%)</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Sentiment analysis showed that manager AND employee comments have negative tone and the sentiment score is very similar ranging from -14 to -5

<table><caption>Topics with lowest sentiment scores</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2"></th><th colspan="2">% of Comments</th><th colspan="2">Sentiment Score</th></tr><tr><th>Manager</th><th>Employee</th><th>Manager</th><th>Employee</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th scope="row">Low costs</th><td>8%</td><td>11%</td><td>-11</td><td>-12</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">Atmosphere</th><td>6%</td><td>6%</td><td>-11</td><td>-11</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">Workload</th><td>6%</td><td>5%</td><td>-12</td><td>-10</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">Skills</th><td>17%</td><td>15%</td><td>-10</td><td>-11</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">Respect and ethics</th><td>12%</td><td>10%</td><td>-11</td><td>-10</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">Resources and means</th><td>9%</td><td>9%</td><td>-10</td><td>-10</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Implications for Practice

* **Key focus during change**

There are several key issues that are important to focus on during change and those issues are different for employee and manager populations. At times of change, management need to focus not just on strategy and leadership but also on supporting work processes such as providing quality products and services

* **Negative tone**

Management needs to pay attention to how employees feel treated by the organisation- high level of negative tone may indicate feelings of injustice, loss in trust and withdrawal

## Comment Illustration

### Managers

it is important that people are empowered and accountable, so the required changes can be implemented fast and with full commitment of the people involved

With the new strategy our priorities would be to strengthen our competitive edge towards our main competitors in order to be successful in a very competitive business

There seem to be big gap how senior management and working level are seeing the situation or understanding that are the right tools how get out of this situation.

## Employees

It is really essential that the reductions are done in the way that the workers who are allowed to stay in company will NOT have (huge) overload on their tasks. Otherwise the quality and innovation will cease to exist in our products

General atmosphere [company name] has been going downwards all the time. I feel people within my working environment frustrated and tired

[Company Name] would need to respect its employees and value their competences. We are more than just costs. Apart from being employees we are also human beings and should be treated as such

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Contact:
Jurate Cingiene
Towers Watson

Organizational Surveys and Insights

Phone:44 20 7170 3740

E-mail: jurate.cingiene@towerswatson.com