MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF THE ATTITUDES THAT PROMOTE AND HINDER THE OPENNESS TO CHANGE IN BUSINESS PARTICIPATING IN THE BUEN FIN

Abstract

The Buen Fin (the Mexican version of Black Friday) is an organizational challenge to which the participating businesses ought to adjust in order to obtain the best possible benefits. Openness to change is a key factor for successful changing and challenge coping that is a function of promotion and resistance forces. Among the former: a favorable attitude to change. Among the latter: the attitudes of cynicism and fear. The purpose of the correlational and exploratory study was to examine the relationship between the openness to change that the Buen Fin represents and the favorable, cynicism and fear attitudes toward it. It was also investigated whether such attitudes have group effects that could influence openness to change. The research design was cross-sectional and non-experimental. A self-administered survey was applied in 36 businesses that participate in the Buen Fin in the City of Toluca, México (n = 108). Multiple regression and multi-level modeling techniques were employed to analyze the data. It was found that favorable and cynicism attitudes relate positively and negatively, respectively, with openness to change. These same attitudes show group effects that could be even more relevant than their individual counterparts. Openness to change is important to take advantage of the benefits brought about by the Buen Fin, although fomenting it depends on effective management of the promotion (favorable attitude) and resistance (cynicism and fear attitudes) forces toward change.