What aspects of the workplace might motivate people's acceptance of change

There are a lot of factors involved in motivating acceptance of change. Effective communication is key. The team needs to understand what is changing, why it is changing, and how it will impact them and the things they are doing. If there are unanswered questions or vague answers are given, it can cause unneeded stress/panic/confusion/frustration/anger/etc. Things such as office politics, as previously discussed, can play a huge part as well. By this I mean that people need to understand that this is a policy for the greater good, not to benefit one person or one group, and if it is - why.

I think most people don't want to work harder than they need to, so it's safe to say that implementing changes that will make people's jobs easier or more efficient are likely to be safe. The problems that I have witnessed have generally been due to changes that make people's jobs harder and less efficient with no real benefits other than to the person making the changes.