Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 1

Running Head: LEADER BEHAVIOR AND EMPLOYEE READINESS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

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

to evaluate research on employee’s readiness to change and understand how a leader’s

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

by employee’s perception of the organization’s culture. The research demonstrates a positive

correlation between the leader behavior and employee readiness, which leads to positive

organizational performance.
 Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 3

Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change

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

Employee’s Readiness for Change

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

to freeze again (Lewin, 1958).

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

related to attitudes about change (Miller, Madsen, & John).

Holt, Armenakis, Field, and Harris (2007) developed a questionnaire to be used to

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

6, and the top five readiness factors were recognized:

 Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 6

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,

Armenakis, Feild, & Harris, 2007).

This questionnaire will define the employee’s readiness for change as the dependent variable.

Leader Behavior

Since the leader’s behavior is critical to success in organizational change management, it

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

leader relationship in terms of leader modeling, consideration for subordinates, external

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

predictor of subordinate organizational commitment, community citizenship behavior, and in-

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

following him/her will be more likely to be ready for a change.

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)

institutionalize the new approaches (Kotter).

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

questions, including the following open-ended questions: “based on your experience as a

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

the independent variable to be measure in this model.

Employee Perception of Organizational Culture

That critical link between the leader and the employee may be moderated the

employee’s perception of the organizational culture. The employee’s perception of

organizational culture may be impacted by their perception of the organization’s leaders and

their social relationships (Madsen, Miller, & John, 2005).

There are a number of recent studies that evaluate employee perceptions of

organizational culture and leadership. Steyrer, Schiffinger, and Lang (2008) surveyed

employees from 78 German and Austrian companies and found that employee perceptions lead

to organizational commitment, which leads to organizational performance. Salamon and

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

correlated to an employee’s readiness to change. Kee and Newcomer identified a “resistant

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

establish sufficient readiness.

Therefore, the leader’s behavior is moderated by an employee’s perception of the

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

institutionalize the new way of worshipping the one true God.

 Leader Behavior and Employee Readiness for Organizational Change 11

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

The model of the relationship between the dependent variable of an employee’s

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

change his/her behavior so that the organization is more likely to be successful in a

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

of a leader that demonstrates positive behaviors, if follower’s perception is that the

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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