The Effect of Leaders Threat Communication on Employees Resistance to Organisational Change: Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy: An Empirical Evidence

Abstract

This study aimed at examining the effect of leader’s threat communication on employee’s resistance to organizational change. The data was collected from a randomly selected 675 employees working in five public enterprises in Ethiopia. Confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling was conducted to confirm validity of measurement instruments and reliability was also tested generating Cronbach alpha values. The hypotheses were tested based on the results from multiple regression analysis. The finding revealed that threat communication of leaders during organizational change has significant and negative effect on employee’s resistance to change implying leaders who uses threat communication are likely to face less resistance from employees. Moreover, the moderation effect of self-efficacy in the relationship between threat communication and employee’s resistance to change is found to be significant implying higher level of employee’s change related self-efficacy makes the effect of threat communication on employee’s resistance to change stronger. The findings of this study contribute making the change literature more comprehensive and reminding change leaders about effect of threat communication during organizational change and the moderating role of change related self-efficacy in making the effect threat communication on employee’s resistance to change stronger. Limitations and suggestions for further study are forwarded.

Keywords: Threat Communication, Self-Efficacy, Resistance to Change

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