When employees’ become change agents: Unfolding the mechanism promoting the change supportive behavior

Abstract

Purpose. Organizational change does not always have just negative repercussions but also have positive implications. Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study aims to examine the effects of empowering leadership on employees’ change supportive behavior through job crafting behavior, a relationship that is moderated by hope. Study design. Data was collected from bank staff of one of the leading banks in Pakistan that is going through major techno-structural change by cross-sectional means. We distributed 342 questionnaires and collected 211 in return; the final sample size was 203. In corresponding sample, 84% of the respondents were male; about 47% of them found in age between 26–35 years old, while 34% had experience of 5–10 years comprising the highest bracket. The questionnaire comprised of multi-dimensional facets of empowering leadership and job crafting, and one-dimensional aspect of hope and change supportive behavior. PLS-SEM approach was opted to make inferences and estimations of the proposed model. Findings. Consistent with our expectations, the result shows that empowering leadership positively predicts employees’ change supportive behavior. It also reveals that the relationship between empowering leadership and change supportive behavior is mediated by job crafting. Furthermore, hope moderates the relationship between empowering leadership and job crafting. Value of the results. The study offers fresh theoretical, empirical, and practical insights into the existing body of change literature. It contributes to the research on organizational change by addressing multiple perspectives in a single study by simultaneously examining the person and context factors and activation phenomenon to unfold one’s behavioral support for change.