Changing attitudes about change: Longitudinal effects of transformational leader behavior on employee cynicism about organizational change
Abstract
Using longitudinal data collected in two waves, nine months apart, from 372 employees, this research is an empirical assessment of individual‐level change within an organizational setting. Specifically, strategies used by change implementers were operationalized as six transformational leader behaviors, and then hypothesized to influence employees' cynicism about organizational change (CAOC). A combination of social learning theory, and communication research served as the theoretical rationale to explain transformational leadership's hypothesized effects. As posited, transformational leader behaviors (TLB) generally were associated with lower employee CAOC. Further, the direction of causality was consistent in suggesting that the TLB reduced employee CAOC. A discussion concerning the ethical use of TLBs and recommendations for future research are provided. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
The theory of planned behavior
Ajzen, I. (1991) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t · Cited by 90,587 · see citing works
Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411 · Cited by 41,941 · see citing works
(1985) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 19,180 · see citing works
Structural Equations with Latent Variables
Bollen, K. A. (1989) · Wiley series in probability and statistics · doi:10.1002/9781118619179 · Cited by 17,512 · see citing works
Structural Equations with Latent Variables.
Clogg, C. C., & Bollen, K. A. (1991) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2072165 · Cited by 17,471 · see citing works
Longshore, J. M., & Bass, B. M. (1987) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258081 · Cited by 12,424 · see citing works
The Theory of Social and Economic Organization.
Salomon-Delatour, G., Weber, M., Henderson, A. M., & Parsons, T. (1948) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2086579 · Cited by 11,302 · see citing works
Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers
Hambrick, D. C., & Mason, P. A. (1984) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.1984.4277628 · Cited by 10,220 · see citing works
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Paine, J. B., & Bachrach, D. G. (2000) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/014920630002600307 · Cited by 5,897 · see citing works
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/1048-9843(90)90009-7 · Cited by 5,628 · see citing works
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986) · doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-4964-1 · Cited by 5,219 · see citing works
Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change
Marquart, F., & Naderer, B. (2015) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-09923-7_20 · Cited by 5,007 · see citing works
Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analytic Test of Their Relative Validity.
Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755 · Cited by 4,464 · see citing works
Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes
(1991) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/c2013-0-07551-2 · Cited by 3,237 · see citing works
Predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership.
Bass, B. M., Avolio, B. J., Jung, D. I., & Berson, Y. (2003) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.207 · Cited by 3,026 · see citing works
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Weick, K. E., & Quinn, R. E. (1999) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.50.1.361 · Cited by 2,829 · see citing works
Lowe, K. B., Kroeck, K. G., & Sivasubramaniam, N. (1996) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(96)90027-2 · Cited by 2,765 · see citing works
Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior
Bass, B. M., & Steidlmeier, P. (1999) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00016-8 · Cited by 2,528 · see citing works
Niehoff, B. P., & Moorman, R. H. (1993) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.2307/256591 · Cited by 2,484 · see citing works
Competitive Advantage Through People
Pfeffer, J. (1994) · California Management Review · doi:10.2307/41165742 · Cited by 2,472 · see citing works
(2017) · doi:10.5040/9798400682018.ch-003 · Cited by 2,247 · see citing works
Piderit, S. K. (2000) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.2000.3707722 · Cited by 1,873 · see citing works
Podsakoff, P. M., MACKENZIE, S. B., & Bommer, W. H. (1996) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1016/s0149-2063(96)90049-5 · Cited by 1,763 · see citing works
Self-citationToward a Behavioral Theory of Charismatic Leadership in Organizational Settings
Conger, J. A., & KANUNGO, R. N. (1987) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.1987.4306715 · Cited by 1,661 · see citing works
Organizational Change: A Review of Theory and Research in the 1990s
Armenakis, A. A., & Bedeian, A. G. (1999) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/014920639902500303 · Cited by 1,625 · see citing works
Baer, M., & Fresé, M. (2002) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.179 · Cited by 1,567 · see citing works
Personality and Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analysis.
Bono, J. E., & Judge, T. A. (2004) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.901 · Cited by 1,566 · see citing works
Proposed hostility and Pharisaic-virtue scales for the MMPI.
Cook, W. W., & Medley, D. M. (1954) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0060667 · Cited by 1,489 · see citing works
The two faces of transformational leadership: Empowerment and dependency.
Kark, R., Shamir, B., & Chen, G. (2003) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.246 · Cited by 1,384 · see citing works
Common methods bias: does common methods variance really bias results?
Doty, D. H., & Glick, W. H. (1998) · Organizational Research Methods · doi:10.1177/109442819814002 · Cited by 1,380 · see citing works
Barling, J., Weber, T., & Kelloway, E. K. (1996) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.81.6.827 · Cited by 1,315 · see citing works
Toward A Taxonomy of Multidimensional Constructs
Law, K. S., Wong, C., & Mobley, W. M. (1998) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.1998.1255636 · Cited by 1,136 · see citing works
Rosen, N. A., Hunt, J. G., & Larson, L. L. (1979) · Industrial and Labor Relations Review · doi:10.2307/2523066 · Cited by 1,109 · see citing works
Bycio, P., Hackett, R. D., & Allen, J. S. (1995) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.80.4.468 · Cited by 1,088 · see citing works
Kirkpatrick, S. A., & Locke, E. A. (1996) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.81.1.36 · Cited by 1,081 · see citing works
Levine, J. M., & Hogg, M. A. (2010) · doi:10.4135/9781412972017.n193 · Cited by 1,045 · see citing works
The leadership challenge: How to get extraordinary things done in organizations
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (1987) · Jossey-Bass eBooks · Cited by 1,010 · see citing works
Kilpatrick, F. P. (1954) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0050834 · Cited by 967 · see citing works
The charismatic relationship: A dramaturgical perspective
Gardner, W. L., & Avolio, B. J. (1998) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/259098 · Cited by 965 · see citing works
Charisma and Leadership in Organizations
(2000) · The Journal of Academic Librarianship · doi:10.1016/s0099-1333(00)00147-6 · Cited by 861 · see citing works
Leadership theory and research: perspectives and directions
(1993) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.30-3339 · Cited by 847 · see citing works
Johnson, J. L., & O’Leary-Kelly, A. M. (2003) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.207 · Cited by 776 · see citing works
Understanding and managing cynicism about organizational change
Reichers, A. E., Wanous, J. P., & Austin, J. T. (1997) · Academy of Management Perspectives · doi:10.5465/ame.1997.9707100659 · Cited by 722 · see citing works
The heart of change: real-life stories of how people change their organizations
Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2002) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.40-1642 · Cited by 695 · see citing works
Employee Cynicism: An Examination Using a Contract Violation Framework
Andersson, L. M. (1996) · Human Relations · doi:10.1177/001872679604901102 · Cited by 677 · see citing works
Power and Managerial Dismissal: Scapegoating at the Top
Boeker, W. (1992) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2393450 · Cited by 649 · see citing works
Baum, J. R., Locke, E. A., & Kirkpatrick, S. A. (1998) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.83.1.43 · Cited by 622 · see citing works
The Psychology of Attitude Change and Social Influence
Zimbardo, P. G., & Leippe, M. R. (1991) · Cited by 608 · see citing works
Perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness
Awamleh, R., & Gardner, W. L. (1999) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00022-3 · Cited by 592 · see citing works
Transformational Leadership: Beyond Initiation and Consideration
Seltzer, J., & Bass, B. M. (1990) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/014920639001600403 · Cited by 579 · see citing works
Charisma and leadership in organizations
Hunt, J. G., & Ropo, A. (1993) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/1048-9843(93)90046-v · Cited by 576 · see citing works
CONSEQUENCES FOR MANAGERS OF USING SINGLE INFLUENCE TACTICS AND COMBINATIONS OF TACTICS.
Falbe, C. M., & YUKL, G. A. (1992) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.2307/256490 · Cited by 532 · see citing works
Cynicism about Organizational Change: Measurement, Antecedents, and Correlates
Wanous, J. P., Reichers, A. E., & Austin, J. T. (2000) · Group & Organization Management · doi:10.1177/1059601100252003 · Cited by 509 · see citing works
(1994) · Harvard business review · Cited by 502 · see citing works
Dean, J. W., Brandes, P., & Dharwadkar, R. (1998) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/259378 · Cited by 489 · see citing works
The Challenge of Organizational Change
(2018) · Bloomsbury Academic eBooks · doi:10.5040/9781350042414.0009 · Cited by 466 · see citing works
Toward the integration of transformational, charismatic, and visionary theories.
House, R. J., & Shamir, B. (1993) · Cited by 446 · see citing works
Jaccard, J. J., & Wan, C. K. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.2.348 · Cited by 444 · see citing works
Transformational leadership and performance: A longitudinal investigation
Yammarino, F. J., Spangler, W. D., & Bass, B. M. (1993) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/1048-9843(93)90005-e · Cited by 440 · see citing works
Gamson, W. A., & Scotch, N. A. (1964) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/223739 · Cited by 394 · see citing works
Williams, L. J., & Anderson, S. E. (1994) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.79.3.323 · Cited by 388 · see citing works
The psychology of attitude change and social influence
(1992) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.29-3609 · Cited by 349 · see citing works
Podsakoff, P. M., Todor, W. D., & Skov, R. B. (1982) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.2307/256100 · Cited by 342 · see citing works
Rush, M. C., Thomas, J. C., & Lord, R. G. (1977) · Organizational Behavior and Human Performance · doi:10.1016/0030-5073(77)90046-0 · Cited by 329 · see citing works
Hunt, J. G., & Larson, L. L. (1977) · Southern Illinois University Press , Feffer & Simons eBooks · Cited by 314 · see citing works
The challenge of organizational change
Jordan, W. (1993) · Organizational Dynamics · doi:10.1016/0090-2616(93)90072-9 · Cited by 304 · see citing works
Interpersonal Trust and Attitudes toward Human Nature
Wrightsman, L. S. (1991) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-590241-0.50012-5 · Cited by 294 · see citing works
Ethical dimensions of leadership
KANUNGO, R. N., & Mendonça, M. (1998) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(98)90007-8 · Cited by 279 · see citing works
Davis, W. D., & Gardner, W. L. (2004) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.05.002 · Cited by 277 · see citing works
Assessing the discriminant validity of transformational leader behaviour as measured by the MLQ 1
Carless, S. A. (1998) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8325.1998.tb00681.x · Cited by 271 · see citing works
Taming and promoting charisma to change organizations
Beyer, J. M. (1999) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00019-3 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Organizational Diagnosis: Six Places To Look for Trouble with or Without a Theory
Weisbord, M. R. (1976) · Group & Organization Studies · doi:10.1177/105960117600100405 · Cited by 259 · see citing works
Ensley, M. D., Pearson, A. W., & Pearce, C. L. (2003) · Human Resource Management Review · doi:10.1016/s1053-4822(03)00020-2 · Cited by 240 · see citing works
ATWATER, L. E., Waldman, D. A., Atwater, D. C., & Cartier, P. (2000) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00202.x · Cited by 211 · see citing works
Setting the stage for effective leadership: Antecedents of transformational leadership behavior
Bommer, W. H., Rubin, R. S., & Baldwin, T. T. (2004) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.02.012 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Self-citationNiederhoffer, A. (1968) · Washington and Lee law review · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Ratner, P. A., Bottorff, J. L., & Johnson, J. L. (1998) · Sage eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781452204840.n8 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
ORGANIZATIONAL CYNICISM: AN INITIAL STUDY.
Wanous, J. P., Reichers, A. E., & Austin, J. T. (1994) · Academy of Management Proceedings · doi:10.5465/ambpp.1994.10344804 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Locke, E. A. (1991) · Cited by 139 · see citing works
The power of emotional appeals in promoting organizational change programs
Fox, S., & Amichai‐Hamburger, Y. (2001) · Academy of Management Perspectives · doi:10.5465/ame.2001.5897664 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
How to manage change effectively
Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1985) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
Hirt, M. J. K. (2016) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2222-1 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
The impact of technology characteristics and job control on worker mental health
Mullarkey, S., Jackson, P. R., Wall, T. D., Wilson, J. R., & Grey‐Taylor, S. M. (1997) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199709)18:5 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Ethical dimensions of leadership
(1996) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.33-4607 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Strategic Change and Leader–Follower Alignment
Werther, W. B. (2003) · Organizational Dynamics · doi:10.1016/s0090-2616(02)00136-5 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Implications of Transformational Leadership for Organizational Policies
Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781410617095-9 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
McClough, A. C. (1998) · Organization development journal · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Organizational Change and Development
Derungs, I. M. H. (2010) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9780230304185_5 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Liu, W., Zhu, R., & Yang, Y. (2010) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.014 · Cited by 555 · see citing works
Employees' attitudes toward organizational change: A literature review
Choi, M. (2011) · Human Resource Management · doi:10.1002/hrm.20434 · Cited by 520 · see citing works
Michaelis, B., Stegmaier, R., & Sonntag, K. (2010) · Journal of Managerial Psychology · doi:10.1108/02683941011035304 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
Michaelis, B., Stegmaier, R., & Sonntag, K. (2009) · Journal of Change Management · doi:10.1080/14697010903360608 · Cited by 216 · see citing works
Hill, N. S., Seo, M.-G., Kang, J. H., & Taylor, M. S. (2012) · Organization Science · doi:10.1287/orsc.1110.0662 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Kim, H., Im, J., & Shin, Y. H. (2021) · Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management · doi:10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.07.010 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Döring, M., Mikkelsen, K. S., Madsen, J. K., & Haug, K. B. (2024) · Government Information Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.giq.2024.101911 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bommer, W. H., Rich, G. A., & Rubin, R. S.
- Affiliations
- Cleveland State University (US)
- Bowling Green State University (US)
- DePaul University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bommer, William H.
- Venue
- Journal of Organizational Behavior
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005-10-07
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 733-753
- ISSN
- 0894-3796 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-1379
- OpenAlex
- W2147829904
- Cited by
- 522
- References
- 88
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 54 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 29
- FWCI
- 18.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Organizational Behavior (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Organizational Change and Leadership
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Organizational Management and Change
- Keywords
- transformational leadership, organizational change, employee attitudes, social learning theory, communication, ethical leadership
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review