Running Head: LEADER BEHAVIOR AND EMPLOYEE READINESS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Wilbur A. Reid
Regent University
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 2
Abstract
The unprecedented pace of change in today’s society makes it imperative for leaders to model
behavior that will encourage followers to be readiness for change. The purpose of this study is
behavior is likely to influence the employee. The model that is being presented is that a leader’s
behavior influences the employee’s readiness for change. However, that influence is moderated
correlation between the leader behavior and employee readiness, which leads to positive
organizational performance.
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 3
As organizations change, there are a number of types of changes that individuals need
to make within the organization: technology, management, products or services, policies and
procedures, and organizational structure (Miller, Madsen, & John, 2006). With the staggering
growth of information availability from the internet, growing communication capabilities, and
the globalization of the economy, leaders today face unprecedented challenges in change
management and the rate of change has never been greater (Kotter, Rathgeber, & Wyman,
2006). Haynes (2002) contended that change is necessary to remain healthy. However, Beer
and Nohria (2000), Kee and Newcomer (2008), Oakland and Tanner (2007) and Bunker (2009)
show the failure rate of organizational change initiatives to be between 66% and 90%.
Readiness is a “combination of ability and motivation” (Grow, 1991, 1996, p. 125), and the style
of management and leadership preparing for change should be appropriate for the readiness of
the individuals within the organization. Burnes (2003) says that “the two greatest challenges
facing organizations today are leadership and change” (p. 627). There has been an abundance
of research on readiness for organizational change (Reid, 2009), but there is a gap in the
research regarding a leader’s behavior and the impact that the behavior has on an employee’s
readiness for organizational change. The link between these two variables may be moderated
by the employee’s perception of the culture of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to
examine these variables and model the relationship between them. In much of the research,
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 4
the terms leader or manager are used somewhat interchangeably, as well as the terms follower
or employee.
Figure 1
Armenakis and Harris (1993) described readiness for organizational change as the
“beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding the extent to which changes are needed and the
organization’s capacity to successfully undertake those changes” (p. 681). Since an organization
is comprised of individual employees that will be making the change happen, it is important to
understand how individual employees impact the change. For organizational change to be
successful, individual employees must be “open, prepared, and ready for change” (Eby, Adams,
Russell, & Gaby, 2000). An individual employee’s readiness for change means that the
employee is “prepared mentally and/or physically for immediate action that will improve, alter,
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 5
vary, or modify something” (Madsen, 2003). Lewin (1951) developed a simple, yet powerful,
change model that can be summarized as unfreeze, change, freeze. According to Lewin, the first
step in changing a situation is to unfreeze the current situation to allow for change. Once
unfrozen, the change can be made. To make the new behavior permanent, the situation needs
Miller, Madsen, and John (2006) surveyed 464 employees from four companies to
determine how three work factors correlated with an employee’s readiness for change. The
work factors were management-leadership relationships, job knowledge and skills, and job
demands. The results showed that the management-leadership relationships had the strongest
correlation to an employee’s readiness for change and the results “suggest that managers’
relationships with subordinates is critical to the subordinates’ readiness for change” (Miller,
Madsen, & John, p. 12) Employees develop relationships with the managers that they work
with, and the employee’s perception that their manager is trustworthy and cares about them is
measure readiness for change at the individual level, and utilized over 900 participants in the
study. They began by asking managers to describe their experiences with recent organizational
changes, then compiling the responses into 33 themes important to the concept of readiness.
Other managers were then asked to rate the importance of these 33 themes on a scale of 1 to
This analysis indicated that the most influential readiness factors, isolated empirically,
were (a) discrepancy (i.e., the belief that a change was necessary, (b) efficacy (i.e., the
belief that the change could be implemented), (c) organizational valence (i.e., the belief
that the change would be organizationally beneficial), (d) management support (i.e., the
belief that the organizational leaders were committed to the change), and (e) personal
valence (i.e., the belief that the change would be personally beneficial) (Holt,
This questionnaire will define the employee’s readiness for change as the dependent variable.
Leader Behavior
is important to examine the follower’s perceptions of the leader’s behaviors. Fields (2007)
noted that “authentic leaders whose actions are consistent with their own beliefs are likely to
have more influence on followers in part because followers interpret authenticity as evidence
of reliability of the leader” (p. 195). A model was developed that focused on how followers
judged a leader’s authenticity and integrity: (a) number of follower observations of leader
actions and interactions to gauge leader motives, (b) multiple followers observe same actions
of leader and gather similar information about motives, (c) stability of the leader’s behavior and
motives across instances, (d) similarity in follower interpretations of leader actions and
underlying motives, (e) extraneous information about leader available to the followers, and (f)
communication among followers concerning the leader, the situation, and leader motives
(Fields). Yukl (2006) identifies three types of leader behaviors that are relations-oriented that
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 7
are appropriate for consideration in readiness for change: (a) supporting, (b) developing, and (c)
recognizing. An effective leader will support his followers, develop them to increase their ability
to succeed, and then recognize people with praise and more when they are successful.
There are several recent studies that show that leader behavior has a direct and
significant impact on followers. Wei, Zhang, and Yang (2008) studied Chinese employee and
encouragement, rationalization norms and rules, and behavioral consistency. They found that
all five factors have significant effects on employees. Bezuijen, van den Berg, van Dam, and
Thierry (2009) studied Dutch employees and evaluated four leadership effects: (a) leader-
member exchange relationship, (b) goal setting, (c) providing learning opportunities, and (d)
feedback. They found leader expectations to be a key for employee engagement. Graham
(2009) found that interpersonal relationships between the employee and manager maintain
motivation led to employee satisfaction with the leader’s effectiveness and contributed to long-
term success.
Liden, Wayne, Zhao, and Henderson (2008) defined the behaviors that define servant
leadership and then conducted a study that found that servant leadership was “a significant
role performance” (p. 175). Based on a literature review of existing scholarship, they identified
nine dimensions of servant leadership: (a) emotional healing, (b) creating value for the
community, (c) conceptual skills, (d) empowering, (e) helping subordinates grow and succeed,
(f) putting subordinates first, (g) behaving ethically, (h) relationships, and (i) servanthood.
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 8
(Liden, Wayne, Zhao, & Henderson). If a leader exhibits these behaviors, the individuals that are
Once the leader has established a trust relationship with followers, it is time for the
leader to take the steps to lead followers through the change process. Kotter’s 8 step model
for transforming organizations has been the most popular of a number of change processes
introduced in the 1990s or early 2000s (Reid, 2009). Kotter (1996) said that preparing the
organization for change begins with (a) establishing a sense of urgency. The stakeholders in the
organization need to realize that the status quo is no longer acceptable and that change is
inevitable. Once that is done, the leader needs to (b) establish a powerful coalition of
individuals that embrace the need for change. These champions will lead the way to make the
change successful in their part of the organization. The leaders must (c) create a vision and (d)
communicate the vision effectively to the organization. Once this preliminary work is done, it is
time to (e) empower others to act on the vision, which includes removing obstacles and
changing systems or structures that will undermine the change. To maintain momentum, it is
important to (f) plan for and create short-term wins and publicizing the success. Build upon
success by (g) consolidating improvements and producing more changes and, finally, (h)
Longenecker and Fink (2008) realized that some managers were successful in stable
environments, but struggled in dynamic environments. The key question that the researchers
wanted to answer is: “what criteria are currently most important to getting promoted in rapidly
changing organizations?” (p. 241). To do this, they surveyed 311 managers from over 100
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 9
different service and manufacturing organizations in the U.S. Managers were asked a series of
manager, what factors are most important to being promoted in your organization?” The top
five responses were each mentioned by at least half of the managers: (a) getting desired results
and strong performance track record, (b) possessing strong business networks and connections,
(c) excellent personnel and communication skills, (d) strong industry, organizational, and
functional knowledge and (e) motivated and having a strong work ethic (Longenecker & Fink).
Leader behavior is critical to the success of an individual’s readiness for change and is
That critical link between the leader and the employee may be moderated the
organizational culture may be impacted by their perception of the organization’s leaders and
organizational culture and leadership. Steyrer, Schiffinger, and Lang (2008) surveyed
employees from 78 German and Austrian companies and found that employee perceptions lead
Robinson (2008) found that employee perception of a culture of trust led to “increases in the
presence of responsibility norms, as well as in the sales performance and customer service
performance of the organization” (p. 593). Madsen, Miller, and John (2005) found that social
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 10
relationships at work are primarily related to “employees’ feelings, attitudes, and perceptions,
toward workplace colleagues (supervisors, subordinates, and peers)” (p. 217). Hanpachern
(1997) found that social relationships and perceptions of organizational culture are directly
organizational culture as the chief culprit” (p. 5) in causing initiatives to fail, and Kotter (1996)
estimated that half of all large-scale organizational changes fail because the leaders failed to
organizational culture.
Biblical Examples
The Bible is full of stories of individual transformations when God established the sense
of urgency, communicated the vision, and the follower changed. Lewin’s (1951) unfreeze,
change, freeze concept can be seen in dramatic Biblical accounts, such as Saul’s conversion on
the road to Damascus (Acts 9), Jonah spending 3 days inside a great fish before going to
Nineveh (Jonah 1-3), and Moses becoming a spokesman for God after the encounter at the
burning bush (Exod. 3). Organizational change can be seen in Old Testament stories such as
Josiah leading the Israelites away from idolatry toward God (2 Kings 22-23). The following
scripture shows how he used unfreeze and communicated a sense of urgency that the status
quo was unacceptable, change to follow the Book of the Covenant, and freeze to
Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the
temple of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the
prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the
words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the
LORD. The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the
LORD -to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his
heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book.
Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant (2 Kings 23:1-3).
He then used an authoritarian style of leadership to direct his followers as he burned the
symbols of the idols and killed their prophets (2 Kings 23). The perception of the followers
seems to be that God will be true to His word on the promises and threats in the law.
Conclusion
readiness for organizational change and the independent variable of a leader’s behavior
demonstrates that the leader has a direct impact on the employee’s ability to successfully
transformational change. This relationship between the leader and follower is moderated by
the follower’s perception of the culture of the organization. Even if the follower has the benefit
organization, for example, is not loyal then the leader’s positive behaviors would be
moderated.
Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 12
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