Leadership behaviors and human agency in the valley of despair: A meta-framework for organizational change implementation (2024)

Potosky, D., & Azan, W. (2023). Leadership behaviors and human agency in the valley of despair: A meta-framework for organizational change implementation. Human Resource Management Review, 33(1), Article 100927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2022.100927

Potosky, Denise ; Azan, Wilfrid. / Leadership behaviors and human agency in the valley of despair : A meta-framework for organizational change implementation. In: Human Resource Management Review. 2023 ; Vol. 33, No. 1.

@article{902ed7eb8d524cf29d94f64121f935cf,

title = "Leadership behaviors and human agency in the valley of despair: A meta-framework for organizational change implementation",

abstract = "For organizational leaders, implementing change in a workplace means influencing employees to do something new or behave differently. For employees, implementing a change at work requires detaching from familiar routines and social systems, learning and practicing the change, and imagining a future in which the change is valued by the organization. As they apply their agency to implement change, employees may experience loss, uncertainty, and frustration that manifests as despair, which can jeopardize the change process and its outcomes. We assemble a meta-theoretical framework using human agency theory, the Valley of Despair model of organizational change, and Full-Range Leadership Theory to explore ways that leaders' behaviors relate to employees' agentic orientations and behaviors during the implementation phase of the organizational change process. Taking both organizational change leaders' and employees' perspectives into account, the theory derived from our meta-framework argues that leaders' behaviors can shape employees' agency and their behaviors during the implementation stage of change in two important ways: 1) certain leader behaviors are likely to prime agentic orientations that facilitate changing, and 2) certain leader behaviors may help to mitigate employees' despair, enabling the firm to derive value from employees' change implementation behaviors.",

author = "Denise Potosky and Wilfrid Azan",

note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the insights and examples of the challenges associated with implementing change received from graduate students at Penn State Great Valley, EM Strasbourg, the Business Science Institute, as well as from professionals and business leaders in the corporate community. We also express our appreciation for the constructive input provided by Human Resource Management Review anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Elsevier Inc.",

year = "2023",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1016/j.hrmr.2022.100927",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "33",

journal = "Human Resource Management Review",

issn = "1053-4822",

publisher = "Elsevier Limited",

number = "1",

}

Potosky, D & Azan, W 2023, 'Leadership behaviors and human agency in the valley of despair: A meta-framework for organizational change implementation', Human Resource Management Review, vol. 33, no. 1, 100927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2022.100927

Leadership behaviors and human agency in the valley of despair: A meta-framework for organizational change implementation. / Potosky, Denise; Azan, Wilfrid.
In: Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, 100927, 03.2023.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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N1 - Funding Information:We gratefully acknowledge the insights and examples of the challenges associated with implementing change received from graduate students at Penn State Great Valley, EM Strasbourg, the Business Science Institute, as well as from professionals and business leaders in the corporate community. We also express our appreciation for the constructive input provided by Human Resource Management Review anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this manuscript.Publisher Copyright:© 2022 Elsevier Inc.

PY - 2023/3

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N2 - For organizational leaders, implementing change in a workplace means influencing employees to do something new or behave differently. For employees, implementing a change at work requires detaching from familiar routines and social systems, learning and practicing the change, and imagining a future in which the change is valued by the organization. As they apply their agency to implement change, employees may experience loss, uncertainty, and frustration that manifests as despair, which can jeopardize the change process and its outcomes. We assemble a meta-theoretical framework using human agency theory, the Valley of Despair model of organizational change, and Full-Range Leadership Theory to explore ways that leaders' behaviors relate to employees' agentic orientations and behaviors during the implementation phase of the organizational change process. Taking both organizational change leaders' and employees' perspectives into account, the theory derived from our meta-framework argues that leaders' behaviors can shape employees' agency and their behaviors during the implementation stage of change in two important ways: 1) certain leader behaviors are likely to prime agentic orientations that facilitate changing, and 2) certain leader behaviors may help to mitigate employees' despair, enabling the firm to derive value from employees' change implementation behaviors.

AB - For organizational leaders, implementing change in a workplace means influencing employees to do something new or behave differently. For employees, implementing a change at work requires detaching from familiar routines and social systems, learning and practicing the change, and imagining a future in which the change is valued by the organization. As they apply their agency to implement change, employees may experience loss, uncertainty, and frustration that manifests as despair, which can jeopardize the change process and its outcomes. We assemble a meta-theoretical framework using human agency theory, the Valley of Despair model of organizational change, and Full-Range Leadership Theory to explore ways that leaders' behaviors relate to employees' agentic orientations and behaviors during the implementation phase of the organizational change process. Taking both organizational change leaders' and employees' perspectives into account, the theory derived from our meta-framework argues that leaders' behaviors can shape employees' agency and their behaviors during the implementation stage of change in two important ways: 1) certain leader behaviors are likely to prime agentic orientations that facilitate changing, and 2) certain leader behaviors may help to mitigate employees' despair, enabling the firm to derive value from employees' change implementation behaviors.

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Potosky D, Azan W. Leadership behaviors and human agency in the valley of despair: A meta-framework for organizational change implementation. Human Resource Management Review. 2023 Mar;33(1):100927. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2022.100927