Employees’ emotions in change: advancing the sensemaking approach

Abstract

Purpose Organizational changes are emotionally charged processes, and scholarly research has increasingly emphasized the impact of employee emotions on successful change management. This impact has rarely been considered in light of approaches focussing on employee sensemaking. To address this critical gap, the purpose of this paper is to combine the model of enacted sensemaking with insights from the Affect Infusion Model. Design/methodology/approach To test the model, the authors surveyed 261 employees with a vignette study and performed structural equation modeling on the results. Findings The findings reveal that emotions significantly affect employees’ level of psychological resources, particularly change commitment, efficacy, and expectations. Furthermore, change commitment and efficacy are significant predictors of resistance intention, which confirms (to an extent) the validity of enacted sensemaking, and these factors mediate the relationship between employees’ emotions and their resistance intentions. Research limitations/implications This study focussed on the early stages of a change initiative. Therefore, the authors only considered employee assessment at one point in time. Practical implications This model has managerial utility for explaining how employees’ resistance intention regarding change is influenced by employees’ emotions and their psychological resources. Originality/value The results broaden the horizons because they suggest a model of “emotionally primed” enacted sensemaking for employees during organizational change by offering a new theoretical framework (enacted sensemaking and substantive processing) and a new methodological approach (quantitative vignette study).

Enabling Middle Managers as Change Agents: Why Organisational Support Needs to Change

“…; Baraldi et al. ; Coram and Burnes ; McHugh and Brennan ) and employees feeling unprepared to address change initiatives, both of which are related to change resistance (Helpap and Bekmeier‐Feuerhahn ). These issues highlight how poor change management can actively elicit and enhance employee resistance to change.…”

“…This suggests that employees do not necessarily resist change per se, rather they resist the imposition of ideas they perceive to be unfeasible, illegitimate or unlikely to result in desired benefits (Dent and Goldberg 1999). Furthermore, communication failure can lead to high levels of uncertainty (Allen et al 2007;Baraldi et al 2010;Coram and Burnes 2001;McHugh and Brennan 1994) and employees feeling unprepared to address change initiatives, both of which are related to change resistance (Helpap and Bekmeier-Feuerhahn 2016). These issues highlight how poor change management can actively elicit and enhance employee resistance to change.…”

“…They can engage in inquisitive change conversations that seek to get to the cause of employee resistance to change (Ford et al 2008) and enable a more nuanced identification of what is going on (Dent and Goldberg 1999). This matters because employees react with a variety of emotions toward organisational change (Helpap and Bekmeier-Feuerhahn 2016) and their responses to change may evolve over time (Piderit 2000). Piderit (2000) suggested that managers should pay attention to the evolution of employee responses to change to see patterns of attitudes over time; observations of which could be useful in predicting the success of a change initiative.…”

Exploring the Emotional Experiences During Organizational Change: A Leader and Followers Perspective

“…Thus, several studies on emotions during the change show the behavioral outcomes of the employees who had shown either positive or negative emotions but have seldom studied emotions in depth and as a resource to improve processes. Instead of focusing on individual emotions, several emotions, both positive and negative, can emerge during the change process that may be either complementary or contradictory that the current research lacks in its investigation (Vince, 2006;Helpap & Bekmeier-Feuerhahn, 2016).…”

“…This signifies that emotions are crucial to understand in the context of change. Hence, emotions and change should be treated as inseparable as it is inherent in the change process (Dasborough et al, 2015;Helpap & Bekmeier-Feuerhahn, 2016).…”