TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand which change process the supplying organization should define for its customer-facing organization in order to successfully increase customer orientation and to be on the short list of their customers’ key suppliers.Design/methodology/approach Action research was used to carry out this research. Researchers were involved in the change management process of a medium-sized company that wanted to re-design their customer selection and interaction processes: one researcher was a top manager of the participating company, whereas the other researcher worked alongside the organization in a collaborative effort to introduce and roll out sales force training seminars.Findings Researchers’ main finding shows how the company’s top-management willingness to apply a “soft” approach to change leverages a concept called “emotional connectedness”.Originality/value The authors bridge a gap between the literature on change management and the “emotional connectedness” concept related to social psychology. The authors add to existing theories on change management a new perspective based on interpersonal relationships. VL - 23 IS - 5 SN - 0969-6474 DO - 10.1108/TLO-03-2016-0023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-03-2016-0023 AU - Lacoste Sylvie M. AU - Dekker Janet PY - 2016 Y1 - 2016/01/01 TI - Driving change: the role of “emotional connectedness” – a case study T2 - The Learning Organization PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 357 EP - 369 Y2 - 2024/03/29 ER -