Leaders of change will hope, if not expect, that organizational members will comply with the change initiative: Change Management Assignment, NUI, Ireland

Minds, Hearts, and Deeds: Cognitive, Affective and Behavioural Responses to Change

Leaders of change will hope, if not expect, that organisational members will comply with the change initiative, and preferably enthusiastically support it with the appropriate action. Duck suggests that organisations that introduce change need to gain the hearts and minds of their members if the change is to be successful.

A number of researchers into organisational behaviour have criticised the neglect of emotion, both by managers and fellow researchers. Studies of organisational change, in particular, have also been criticised for excluding the affective domain and focussing on cognitive and behavioural aspects. Since change is often an “affective event” analysing its emotional impacts is critical.

Gersick has distinguished between incremental and radical change and points to the resulting positive and negative emotions. While she did not differentiate between the emotions that are likely under different types of change it seems logical that radical change will produce more emotional reaction than incremental change, since the ramifications of the former are much greater.

It must also be noted that change is often a process that unfolds over time, sometimes years, and that the human responses will be as dynamic as the changes themselves. Changes of greater complexity are likely to generate more negative and more intense emotions and more resistance and therefore require more careful and sustained management. However, it will be suggested in this article, that no matter what type of change is contemplated, leaders will need to gauge how employees might respond on all three levels.