Citation
(2014), "2013 Awards for Excellence", Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management, Vol. 5 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHRM-05-2014-036
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2013 Awards for Excellence
Article Type: 2013 Awards for Excellence From: Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management, Volume 5, Issue 1
The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award
“Intra-departmental communication and employees' reaction to organizational change: the moderating effect of emotional intelligence”
Chaoying Tang and Yunxia Gao
Management School of Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of employees' emotional intelligence on the relationship between intra-departmental communications and employees' reaction to organizational changes in China.
Design/methodology/approach Based on the literature in organizational change, organizational communications and emotional intelligence, the authors derived three hypotheses which were tested with data collected in a large state-owned enterprise in the telecommunication industry. Factor analysis and regression analysis were combined for the hypothesis tests.
Findings It was found that intra-departmental communications positively influenced employees' reaction to organizational change with employees' emotional intelligence moderating the relationship. When an employee's emotional intelligence is higher, intra-departmental communication has a greater positive effect on the employee's reaction to change.
Research limitations/implications With the adopted Western measurement scales, this study was unable to reveal the Chinese contextual aspect of organizational communications. Because the data were self-reported, they may have a common source deviation.
Practical implications To foster and maintain employees' positive reactions to change, managers and organizations may consider developing strategies to improve employees' emotional intelligence, so as to embrace future changes.
Originality/value This is an initial effort in examining the joint effect of intra-departmental communications and employees' emotional intelligence on employees' reaction to organizational change. It may lead to additional research on organizational change management.
Keywords Change management; China; Emotional intelligence; Employees behavior; Human resource management; Intra-department communication; Organizational change
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/20408001211279210
This article originally appeared in JCHRM, Volume 3 Number 2, 2012, Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management