Background & Aims: The concept of readiness for change has been proposed in organizational studies. Due to its abstract nature, there is a willingness to change different definitions of this structure. Readiness for change is defined as individual beliefs, feelings, and intentions about the limits and capacity of the organization to successfully implement changes and that this amount of changes will be beneficial for themselves and their organization. Researchers emphasize that it is necessary to prepare for change before any planning, implementation, and change management. The first stage of Lewin's modification model shows unfreezing (opening) when the perspective of change is agreed upon. At this stage, people are involved and affected by possible changes in what is happening. Readiness for change is the basis of a person's willingness to progress in the "change process". Researchers in this field have always been asked the question of what factors affect readiness for change. Most researchers examine the factors related to readiness for change in two categories: individual and organizational factors. Individual factors for predicting individual readiness for change include self-management, personal capacity, values and beliefs, demographic characteristics, general attitudes, self-efficacy, individual resilience, variety of skills, emotional commitment, health, and Compatibility noted. The researchers in the studies conducted on the preparation for change are of the same opinion on the issue that the main and central cognitions and beliefs provide the preparations for the preparation for change. Beliefs, as relatively stable structures, are one of the most important individual characteristics that can explain a large part of a person's feelings and thoughts. It seems that an individual's readiness for change can be the result of a person's positive beliefs about himself and the world. On the other hand, social-cognitive theorists consider factors related to the individual (beliefs, motivation, and personality) as mediators between external stimuli and behavior. Therefore, it seems that examining the role of beliefs, motivation, and personality in readiness for change will help to fully and comprehensively understand this structure. Personality is one of the durable and unique characteristics that can change in response to different situations. Because among the personality traits identified by personality theorists and the five big factors of personality i.e. neuroticism, extroversion, openness, adaptability, and conscientiousness have been agreed upon by psychological experts. The theory of self-determination shows that the optimal functioning of Rome requires satisfaction and three psychological needs for autonomy (understanding the source of the internal cause), competence (feeling effective), and connection (feeling a meaningful connection with others). The researchers suggested that instead of making a list of independent variables that predict individual readiness for change, researchers should investigate the factors that mediate or moderate these relationships, in a detailed manner of the readiness profile. To clarify the change. In general, despite the existence of many theories and research in the field of readiness for change, it is necessary to explain the factors related to it. In this research, the role of self-determination as a mediating variable is investigated. It seems necessary to examine the effective factors in individual preparation for change in the student society, which can play an important role in the implementation of change programs. The researches that have been conducted so far on the structure of readiness for change are mostly in the field of organizational management and organizational change. According to the researcher's searches, no research was found that examined the relationship between readiness for change and basic beliefs and personality traits, and self-determination. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to fit the structural model, to predict readiness for change based on basic beliefs and personality traits with the mediation of self-determination in students.
Methods: Descriptive-correlation research method and structural equation modeling analysis method. The research population includes all undergraduate students in the faculties located at Azad Rodhen University, who were selected as a sample using the method suggested by Schumacher and Lomax (2004) and the multi-stage cluster sampling method, and they were asked to fill in the questionnaires. They answered and after removing the distorted questionnaires, finally, 375 questionnaires were examined. To collect data from the questionnaires of Neo McGarry and Costa (1985), basic beliefs of Kathleen Webstein (1992), readiness for change, Slow (2006), and self-determination with basic psychological needs. LaGuardia et al. (2000) were used.
Results: Structural equation modeling showed that all fit indices support the optimal processing of the structural model of the research with the collected data. Among the personality factors, openness and extroversion are positive, and neuroticism and conscientiousness factors negatively and significantly predict readiness for change.
Conclusion: In general, it can be concluded that cognitive-social factors and personal factors (beliefs, motivation, and personality) are considered mediators between external stimuli and behavior. The current research, like most research, has limitations that it seems logical to recognize in order to conduct future research and try to reduce or eliminate these limitations. The current research was conducted on undergraduate students of Islamic Azad University, Rodhan branch, so caution should be taken in generalizing its findings to other students. The lack of familiarity of many students with research and research affairs was managed with the briefing session. Only using self-report questionnaires, especially for evaluating thoughts was one of the limitations. Therefore, it is suggested to examine the research topic in other regions of the country due to the existence of different cultural and ethnic conditions in order to examine and compare the research results with each other.