The effect of change leadership on employee attitudinal support for planned organizational change

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how change leadership activities help bring about employee support for planned organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a non-experimental quantitative research design, and a self-administered Likert-type questionnaire survey, the study sourced data from employees in an organization undergoing significant change. Data analysis was by structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings

Change leadership behaviors bearing on; visioning, communication, participation, support and concern for change participants' interests were found to be of significant importance in ensuring employee buy-in and support for planned change efforts. Although change leadership had no direct effect on employees' behavioral intentions to support change, it was strongly related to employee cognitive appraisal of change. The relationship between change leadership and employee behavioral intentions to support planned change was serially mediated by employee cognitive appraisal and emotional response toward the planned change event.

Practical implications

In appraising planned organizational change efforts, managers tend to focus on employee behaviors toward the change instead of conditions that drive such behaviors. This study underscores the need to focus on employee attitudes as precursors to desired behavior toward change.

Originality/value

Prior research suggests that change leadership behaviors affect employee attitudinal reactions to change but yet lacked empirical validation. By applying a multidimensional approach to attitude and investigating its hierarchy of effects, this study enhanced our accuracy in explaining the influence change leadership has on employee attitudinal support for change.

Citation

Onyeneke, G.B. and Abe, T. (2021), "The effect of change leadership on employee attitudinal support for planned organizational change", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 403-415. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-08-2020-0244