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Supervisors play an important role in the implementation of organizational policies and practices. This study aims to examine the role of supervisors as both recipients and main implementers of organizational change by investigating how supervisors’ relationship with organization would affect their attitude toward change (ATC) and how employees–supervisor relationship, as perceived by employees, would influence their reaction to change.

The influence of participation, perceived organizational support (POS) and mutual expectation clarity (MEC) on supervisors’ ATC was examined, along with the influence of leader–member exchange, perception of supervisor’s expressed ATC and also supervisors’ organizational status on employees’ ATC. Two studies were conducted in a chain hospital in India.

The findings suggest that supervisors’ ATC improved by higher participation, POS and MEC. Also, while employees’ change attitude was predicted by how they perceived their supervisors’ status, expressed reaction toward change and perception of employee–supervisor relationship, for employees who either perceived highly negative change attitude of their supervisors or believed that their supervisors had low organizational status, the employee–supervisor relationship had almost no effect on improving employees’ attitude.

Considering that supervisors often tend to engage in professional relationships with their subordinate employees, little is investigated on how, through the lens of relationships, supervisors may affect employees’ ATC. This paper attempts to make a difference by conducting two connected studies in a chain hospital to examine how supervisors – as recipients and implementers of organizational policies and practices – could influence employees’ ATC. The findings suggest managerial implications that could inform practitioners toward improvement of employee buy-ins for change programs.

The current study focuses the impact of leadership and teams on employees’ psychological climate for change. Integrating streams of research from the change, organizational climate, leader‐member exchange (LMX), and group dynamics literature, the paper proposes that supervisors and teams will shape employees’ climate perceptions as a function of the relationship quality employees experience with these two social units. The impact of the supervisor’s and team’s personal view of the climate, as well as the dyadic quality‐supervisor climate view interaction, and team relations quality‐team climate view interaction were also examined. Results support a main effect for LMX, team relation quality, and team climate view on employee psychological climate for change. In addition, results revealed a multiplicative effect for LMX and supervisor climate view. Overall, the findings suggest that both types of work relationships employees share may serve as potential mechanisms for transforming employees toward change.

During the lengthy process of PhD studies, supervisory changes commonly occur for several different reasons, but their most frequent trigger is a poor supervisory relationship. Even though a change in supervisors is a formal bureaucratic process and not least the students’ rights, in practice it can be experienced as challenging. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how doctoral students experience a change in supervisory arrangements.

This study highlights the voices of 19 doctoral students who experienced at least one supervisory change during their doctoral studies.

The findings were structured chronologically, revealing the students’ experiences prior, during and after the changes. In total, 12 main themes were identified. Most of the interviewed students experienced the long decision-making processes as stressful, difficult and exhausting, sometimes causing a lack of mental well-being. However, once the change was complete, they felt renewed, energized and capable of continuing with their studies. It was common to go through more than one change in supervisory arrangements. Further, the students described both the advantages of making a change yet also the long-lasting consequences of this change that could affect them long after they had completed their PhD programs.

The study fulfills an identified need to investigate the understudied perspective of doctoral students in the context of change in supervisory arrangements. A change in the academic culture is needed to make any changes in supervisory arrangements more acceptable thus making PhD studies more sustainable.

This chapter examines the changing nature of frontline supervision in light of the supervisory training and development programme which was provided to shift-bosses in order to complement the workplace change processes that AfricaGold embarked on to improve operational efficiency, productivity and safety of its mining operations. Although the training course was an important workplace change initiative taken by top management to improve organisational, individual and team performance at the rock-face where it mattered most, lack of organisational and managerial support prevented frontline supervisors from effectively implementing what they learned on the training course. The chapter highlights the importance of not only providing organisational change-focused training, but also systematically and strategically involving frontline supervisors in the conceptualisation, design, execution and evaluation of workplace change initiatives. It is only when frontline supervisors are supported, managerially and organisationally, that they can be deal-makers rather than deal-breakers for a successful introduction and execution of change initiatives on the shop-floor.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of organizational level on employees' perceptions and reactions to a complex organizational change involving proposed work force redesign, downsizing and a physical move to a new hospital.

Participants included executives, supervisory and non‐supervisory staff in a major tertiary hospital. Recorded in‐depth interviews were conducted with 61 employees about the positive and negative aspects of the change.

A total of 12 themes were identified from content coding, including emotional responses and attitudes toward the change, issues about the management of the change process and about change outcomes. Supervisory and non‐supervisory staff referred more to conflict and divisions, and expressed more negative attitudes toward the change, than did executives. Executives and supervisory staff focused more on planning challenges and potential outcomes of the change than did non‐supervisory staff. Finally, compared to other staff, executives focused more on participation in the change process and communication about the change process.

This study examines the organizational change at only one time point in one organization. Perceptions of the change may change over time, and other identities like professional identity may influence perceptions.

These findings suggest that change agents should consider the needs of different organizational groups in order to achieve effective and successful organizational change.

This study clearly shows the impact of organizational level, identifying similarities and differences in perceptions of change across level.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak thrust a spotlight on organizational leaders and the challenges that employees face during periods of organizational change. The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of empathetic supervisor communication on employee turnover intention and the mediating role of affective trust toward supervisors and employee–organization relationship (EOR) quality. Informed by the social exchange theory and EOR literature, the authors develop a model in which affective trust toward supervisors and EOR quality mediates the relationship between empathetic supervisor communication and employee turnover intention.

This study recruited 417 employees based in the USA through an online panel operated by a professional survey company. Data collection that followed a quota sampling procedure lasted for about three weeks in October 2020. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the study hypotheses.

The findings of this study indicated that the extent to which supervisors adopted empathetic communication during organizational change had considerable repercussions on their supervisees' affective trust toward supervisors, relationship perception toward their organizations, and ultimately, their turnover intention.

This study is among the first that identifies empathetic communication as a pivotal force in driving employees' positive relational and behavioral reactions, reinforcing the growing expectation of supervisors in fulfilling communication functions during organizational change. Moreover, the authors contribute to understanding change management as an activity rooted in and enacted through communication between supervisors and subordinates. In addition, this study contributes to the organizational research of empathy during change.

Little consideration has been given to the role supervisors play in managing the introduction of new technology. Ignoring their role is shortsighted since supervisors can have a significant effect on the success of new systems. Drawing on research conducted in nine engineering companies, little awareness of forward planning in relation to the human dimensions of technical change is found. There is a crucial need for proper training of supervisors, although the exact approach will depend on the position occupied by them.

This paper aims to explore the relationships and predictive power of supervisor and peer relations along with demographic factors towards employee readiness for organisational change in a developing country.

Adopting a quantitative approach, this cross sectional study applies a self‐administered survey questionnaire for data collection. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlations are obtained using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 15.0 for Windows. Multiple regression analysis (MRA) is used to test a number of hypotheses. Finally, multianalysis of variances (MANOVA) is applied to find the relationships between change readiness and demographic characteristics.

The results show that supervisor and peer relations (independent variable) and the number of dependents and younger employees (independent variables) have positive and significant relationships to readiness for change. In addition, these predictors are the key determinants of employee readiness for organisational change in a developing country.

This study has methodological limitations as it employed a “one point in time” measurement; however, it involved several subsidiary organisations of a large public‐sector organisation.

This study contributes to the literature on change management, particularly from a developing country perspective, and assists management and practitioners of human resources management, organisational behaviour and change agents in assessing, designing and evaluating new or existing programs for organisational change.

This study provides empirical evidence of employee readiness predictor variables for organisational change.

Idiosyncratic deals are personalized employment conditions individual workers have negotiated. This study aims to investigate influences on supervisors' authorization of i‐deals and their evaluation of these arrangements.

Structural modeling was used to analyze survey data from n=263 supervisors managing telecommuting employees in the German public administration.

Supervisors differentiated among i‐deals regarding development, flexibility, and workload reduction. Their authorization of developmental i‐deals was influenced by employee initiative. Supervisors viewed these i‐deals to have positive implications for employee motivation and performance. Flexibility i‐deals were influenced by structural conditions such as the type of work the employee performed. Supervisors viewed these i‐deals to enhance work‐life benefits. Supervisors tended to grant workload reduction i‐deals in the context of unfulfilled organizational obligations towards employees.

Relying on single‐source cross‐sectional data, our results provide a managerial perspective on i‐deals. Conclusions regarding implications for employees are tentative. Recommendations for future study designs are discussed.

Managers need to better recognize that i‐deals take different forms, and these forms are associated with different outcomes. I‐deals provide a way to experiment with innovative human resource practices.

This is the first study to examine i‐deals from a supervisor perspective. It is the first to identify differential circumstances and consequences managers associate with authorizing three distinct forms of i‐deals.

The purpose of this article is to present findings from the authors' research into how supervisors of doctoral students cope with change in supervisory relationships where a supervisor takes on a student previously supervised by another, or has to hand over a student to another supervisor's care, and to identify recommendations for applying these findings to supervisory practice.

The research used interviews to gather and analyse perceptions and practices from experienced supervisors, and aimed to identify good practice to support supervisors in enabling transitions to enhance student success. This work is underpinned by work on conceptual threshold‐crossing, students working at sufficiently critical, creative and conceptual levels to achieve doctorates; well‐being and emotional resilience, particularly in doctoral studies. It makes links between knowledge construction, resilience and well‐being, from the perspective of the supervisors, since it focuses on the experience of supervisors engaging with and supporting students.

The research identifies supervisors' anxiety at, and ways of managing the difficulties of, either losing or acquiring students. It highlights effective strategies for taking on students midway into their research to enable successful supervision.

This research offers new knowledge about supervisor perceptions of, experiences with and good practice suggestions for, supporting transitions for doctoral students who change supervisor.