Exploring Linkages in the Cognitive-Emotional Model within the Context of Organizational Change

Abstract

To better understand linkages between cognition and emotion within the context of an organizational change, a study of employees was conducted in a public university during the introduction of a technological change. Quantitative supervisor and subordinate self-report data are analyzed from survey questionnaires. Results support a number of relationships proposed in cognitively-based models of emotion including relationships between change beliefs and felt emotion. Additionally, the impact of change message strategies on change recipient beliefs is assessed. HLM analysis suggests supervisor beliefs about a change influence subordinate beliefs.