Successful implementation of organisational change greatly depends on employees’ perceptions and reactions and managers’ skills in leading the employees during the process. Hidden and poorly-understood emotions could prevent employees from seeing the positive aspects of the required change and stop them from wanting to adopt and implement the change.
Research has shown that emotion plays a crucial role in how employees respond to organisational change yet change management practices often overlook these emotional dimensions. Leaders require effective tools to manage emotional resistance and interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) has emerged as a promising solution. Despite its potential, no existing studies have directly examined the relationship between IER and resistance to change. To establish a theoretical foundation for this relationship, a scoping review was conducted to explore the existing literature on resistance to organisational change and emotion regulation, formulating a key hypothesis: IER can mitigate employee resistance to change.
This dissertation investigates which IER strategies are most effective in reducing resistance and focuses on distraction, reappraisal and suppression – strategies featured prominently in the literature. Additionally, the research explores (1) the mechanisms through which IER strategies mitigate resistance; (2) the factors that predict the use and effectiveness of IER in leadership; (3) the knowledge and skills required by leaders for effective emotion regulation in the workplace; and (4) the importance of integrating emotional regulation into leadership development programmes.
To examine these issues empirically, an online survey was conducted with participants from Bulgaria and the UK. The survey included questions about leaders’ awareness, recognition, confidence, responsibility, motivation and strategies for using IER during OC. While managers in both contexts reported high awareness of the emotional impact of change and a sense of responsibility toward managing employee emotions, they expressed low confidence in their practical IER knowledge and skills. This finding suggests that, although managers acknowledge the importance of emotions in OC, this awareness does not consistently translate into effective practices that reduce resistance.
The results underscore the need for targeted emotional intelligence and emotion regulation training. Based on these findings, the dissertation recommends integrating structured EI and ER training into leadership development programmes. Implementing these recommendations can equip leaders with the tools to manage emotions effectively, mitigate employee resistance and foster a more adaptive and productive work environment during transformation.
