Kieliszek

Organizations are frequently unsuccessful in creating employee support for change. Research has asserted that one important
reason for change resistance is employee uncertainty. Yet despite wide consensus that leadership and communication are
key vehicles to influence employees’ change reactions, employee uncertainty concerning the leader of the change, and how
this uncertainty can be addressed have been largely disregarded. Drawing on signaling theory, I propose that leaders who
signal their charisma and change commitment when announcing change can alleviate uncertainty by assuring employees
about the leader’s characteristics and intentions, and thereby foster supportive responses to change. Specifically, I test the
main and interactive influence of leader charisma and change commitment signals in determining employees’ affective and
normative commitment to, and behavioral support for, organizational change. In line with the proposition that charismatic
signaling is inherently values-based and needs to be morally validated by followers, I investigate its effect on follower change
commitment as a function of followers’ openness to change and self-transcendence values. My findings from an experimental
vignette study in a sample of 284 US employees reveal that in particular leader charisma signaling, and weakly leader change
commitment signaling, have positive main, but non-interactive effects on follower behavioral support for change, which do not
operate indirectly through follower affective and normative change commitment. Further, I report that followers’ behavioral
support for change elicited by leader charisma and change commitment signaling varies as a function of followers’ openness
to change and self-transcendence values. Above and beyond effects concerning behavioral change support, leader charisma
signaling is revealed to increase followers’ expression of openness to change, conservation, and self-transcendence values
when advocating organizational change. I discuss implications for theory and practice in managing employee responses to
organizational change.