Implicit change leadership, change management, and affective commitment to change

Does change agent selection procedure matter? A strategic decision-making toward a more objective selection approach

Purpose

While studies have established the important role of change agents throughout organizational change programs and emphasized the change agents’ impact on outcomes of change efforts, it could be argued that the decision-making procedure for the selection of change agents may also influence the success of organizational change programs in several ways. This research aims to explore and compare the potential influence of a traditional change agent selection procedure with a more systematic and objective approach.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative case study has been conducted, before and after testing a group decision support system for the selection of change agents in an organization that was on the verge of a major rebranding.

Findings

The main findings suggest the importance of objectivity, transparency and attention to competency in the selection procedure for the role, while providing evidence for using a systematic participative decision-support process for the selection of change agents, leading to several desirable organizational outcomes, including improvements in perception of objectivity, trust, transparency, fairness and competency related to the selection process.

Originality/value

Drawing from the previous studies and the presented findings, this study offers evidence on the importance of paying attention to the selection procedure for the change agent role as it could potentially have an influence on the employees across organizations and, consequently, the success of change programs.

Organizational culture perceptions and change frequency: the moderating effect of members' hierarchical level in the organization

Purpose

Despite considerable conceptual interest in the relationship between organizational culture and various types of organizational change, empirical evidence regarding this relationship at different levels and types of change is surprisingly absent. This study examines whether organizational culture perceptions differ in frequently versus infrequently changing organizations, and whether this relationship is moderated by members' hierarchical level in the organization (i.e. staff, manager, executive).

Design/methodology/approach

Study includes culture survey data for 904 staff, managers and executives from one frequently changing and two infrequently changing organizations in the education sector.

Findings

Results show multiple non-monotonic organization-by-organizational level interaction effects on cultural style scores. In the frequently changing organization, executives report lower constructive cultural style scores and higher defensive cultural style scores than do managers and staff. In the infrequently changing organizations, executives, managers and staff report similar constructive and defensive style scores.

Practical implications

In frequently changing organizations, leaders are more likely to be discontent with the status quo and continuously encourage change efforts, while lower level members' have considerable experience with change and are empowered to continuously create change. The result is systematic differences in culture perceptions across levels, but also an agile organization capable of pursuing opportunities to improve organizational performance.

Originality/value

The authors’ findings show that systematic differences in perceptions of cultural styles across organizational levels relate to organizational change frequency. This contrasts with existing literature emphasizing the importance of culture perceptions being pervasive throughout the organization.

Crisis leadership from the perspective of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to identify traits and behaviors of organization leaders that were deemed helpful by employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an exploratory qualitative study that utilized online surveys. Data from 155 participants were subjected to content analysis.

Findings

Several interrelated traits and behaviors of effective crisis leadership were identified. These were clustered into three superordinate themes – attending to the person, taking charge and showing the way forward and sustaining the spirit.

Research limitations/implications

Findings from this paper can be furthered by conducting quantitative studies to validate themes and/or test a conceptual model of effective crisis leadership. Gathering data from other populations at different points in time during the COVID-19 pandemic may also be useful.

Practical implications

A review of leadership development programs and organization norms and values is recommended in order to ensure that they are consistent with crisis leadership competencies.

Originality/value

This paper helps address the gap on follower-centered perspectives about organizational leadership responses to crises and highlights the importance of care and compassion in leading employees during difficult times.