1.

Summary
This article tries to see the influence of leadership styles on the acceptance of organizational change by employees.
We have introduced a conceptual framework to elaborate on the relationship between employees and the acceptance
of organizational change. The focus on employees lies in their openness to experience, something that is considered
to be related to the acceptance of the change. Leadership styles will be linked to the openness to experience of
employees, and propositions are formed to predict how individuals are influenced by the leadership styles when it
comes to acceptance of organizational change. The mangers control the employees during the implementation or new
system of organization change by using different leadership styles. There is some sort of employee’s resistance, so at
this time how can I control.

2. Objective
The main goal of this article is to elaborate on the topic of organizational change by studying how employees accept the
organizational change as influenced by different leadership styles applied by their managers.

3. Research question:
How can leadership styles influence employees on their acceptance of organizational change?

4. Academic Relevance
This article will contribute to the gap in the literature that fails to connect leadership styles with the feelings of
employees while accepting organizational change.
5. Practical Relevance
The propositions produced by this conceptual paper will provide a deeper insight into the process of organizational
change. More specifically, organizations can influence the acceptance of change of employees by using different
leadership styles.

6. Conceptual Background
Below, the concepts introduced in the research question will be explained and elaborated on to get a full
understanding of what the problem entails.
7. Managers
Whittington and Johnson (2011) in their book ‘Exploring Strategy’ distinguish four levels of managers that they call ‘the
strategists’, i.e. Top managers and directors, strategic planners, middle managers and strategy consultants. According to
these definitions, the focus of this paper will be on the strategic planners as managers responsible for implementing the
organizational change.

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 8. Business
Burns and Stalker (1961) distinguish between two types of organizations; the organic and the mechanistic organization.
This study focuses on organic businesses which undergo change more often, making them more appealing for the purpose of
this research.

9. Organizational change
Organizational change refers to any modification in organizational composition, structure, or behavior (Bowditch & Buono,
2001). Furthermore, organizational change can be divided in ‘incremental change’ and ‘radical change’ (Tushman and
Romanelli, 1985), in this study, the propositions are based on a type of organizational change that is radical, discontinuous,
second-order and forced. Summarizing, Covey enunciates that a manager should try to provide the four principles (security;
wisdom; guidance and power) in all four levels (persona; interpersonal; managerial and organizational), using the 8
characteristics of principle-centered leadership.

10. Leadership styles

There are many different leadership styles distinguished by many different authors. Some of these leadership styles called
‘transformational’, ‘transactional’ and ‘laissez faire’ leadership. Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
(2001) elaborated on six emotional leadership styles distinguished are: the visionary leader (emphasis on empathy), the
coaching leader (connect organizational goals with the goals of individuals), the affiliate leader (emotional needs over work
needs), the democratic leader (commitment of employees via participation), the pace-setting leader (challenges and sets
goals for employees), the commanding leader (uses authority to give directions to employees). Principle-centered
leadership uses four principles (security, wisdom, guidance and power) along four different levels, according to Covey:

11. Acceptance of change as an employee

The Kübler-Ross model describes five stages that denial, anger, Depression, bargaining; and acceptance, someone is going
through when something in his or her life is changing (like an organizational change that affects the individual). As we can
see on the graph, the model describes a U-shape.
12. The Big Five personality traits
The Big Five model “Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism is not
new in the area of organizational change and has been empirically tested by Vakola et al. (2004).
13. Concluding Discussion
Some leadership styles are thought to have a positive influence on employees´ acceptance of change, no matter how open
they are experiencing, whereas other leadership styles would have a negative influence on the acceptance of change of
employees. Three leadership styles are hypothesized to have a different influence on employees with a lower amount of
openness to experience than on employees with a high amount of openness to experience. Studying the effect of the six

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emotional leadership styles on the openness to experience of employees yielded twelve combinations. Scrutinizing the
literature on the concepts in play, we developed eleven propositions.
14. Criticism of Research
14.1. Strengths of the Study
The author design/crated achievable objective.

The researchers put clear and important Abstract.

The researcher gives the authentic and presumable conclusion.

The researchers give some possible sound concluding for the organization.

14.2. Weakness of the Study

The researchers can not follow the proper procedure on the writing system of research.

The researchers did not say/show/ about a descriptive research design.

The type of sampling techniques which is not clear.

The type of research methodology which is utilized for the study is not clear.

It does not indicate the responsible bodies that shaped and prepare clear guidelines about Corporate Social
Responsibility.

The researchers did not identify the problem of the study properly and the study addressed it.

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