The influence of leadership on employees’ emotions, change commitment and turnover intentions

Master Thesis

“The influence of leadership on employees’ emotions, change

commitment and turnover intentions”

Name and Student Number Raymond ’t Hoen (10278699)

Due date June 30, 2014

Assignment title Master Thesis

1e_{Supervisor Drs. Anitra van der voort}

Words of Thanks

First, I thank my wife, Manon, for her support in times of stress during the whole study. Furthermore, I want to thank my thesis supervisor Drs. Anitra van der Voort for her critical support during this master thesis by dedicatingthe following quote:

“

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”

Abstract

Outsourcing can be a good business strategy. It can provide efficiency, costs savings and allows organizations to focus on their “core competences” (Davies, 1995). But outsourcing also has an effect on the employees and their emotions. Especially on employees who are committed to their occupation and organization (Archer, 1999). The major aim of this paper is to determine which characteristics of leadership contributes to the ability of employees to cope with their emotions. It is important to get their support for the initiative of outsourcing to make a success of the outsourcing (Furst & Cable, 2008). This paper provides an

assessment of the characteristics of leadership on employees. In addition, how these characteristics can help them in handling their emotions and to help them affectively committed to the upcoming outsourcing. As hypothesized, we find support for the positive and effective influence of charismatic leadership on emotions of grief and relief in the context of outsourcing. Furthermore, the influence of transactional leadership has a negative and ineffective effect on employees their emotions and affective change commitment. Employees, who perceive charismatic leadership from their manager, are more willing to support

outsourcing than employees who perceive a transactional leadership style. Charismatic leaders can help, unite, and inspire employees to work for a cause. Passive and autocratic leadership does not have any significant influence. Second, this paper provides an assessment of the influence of leadership on employees their emotions and turnover intentions. Intentions of both inside and outside the same organization. No support has been found for the influence of leadership on emotions of grief and relief and affective change commitment in the context of outsourcing. To test the proposed hypotheses, the collected data came from a Dutch department of the MoD (Ministry of Defence). More than 470 employees filled in an online questionnaire. This paper shows an analysis of relationships between grief, change

commitment and turnover intentions. It also shows executions of correlations and hierarchical analyses by combining conceptual models to determine a causal connection between emotions and commitment, and the influence of leadership on this relation.

Table of content

Leadership within OPS ... 9

Research question ... 11

Theoretical Framework ... 14

Concept of grief ... 15

Concept of appraisal ... 18

Concept of coping ... 19

Factors that influence emotions ... 19

Responses on emotions ... 19

Change commitment ... 20

Turnover Intentions... 23

Concept of leadership ... 24

Method Section ... 32

Participants, procedure and data collection... 32

Sample ... 33

Measures ... 33

Analytical Strategy... 36

Results... 38

Discussion ... 51

Influence of leadership as a moderator. ... 52

Theoretical implications... 55

Practical implications... 56

Limitations and suggestions for further research ... 57

Conclusion ... 58

Appendix 1... 71

Introduction

The phases of grief, developed by Elzabeth Kübler-Ross are a great contribution to the public's understanding of how we die (Kübler-Ross, 1969), and how we prepare ourselves for death but ultimately, how we live (Butt, 2006). However, the pronounced stages of grief are applicable on several situations of loss. The change process in organizations show

resemblance to that of death and dying identified by KublerRoss (1969) in her study of terminally ill patients (Zell, 2003).

The understanding of the grief stages have become important for leaders and

managers who are involved with the management of change in the workplace. Employees can enter the process of grief by means of job loss, reorganizations, or other traumatic events, which causes job loss. The ultimate goal for a manager is to support employees and to help them in dealing with their emotions. Previous research shows that there are many similarities between the change process of what people go through on organizational level and the stages of grief defined by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1969). Kübler-Ross (1969) discovered during her dealings with terminal patients, that the grieving process is the same for almost everyone. This means that people experience different phases form denial to acceptance after a traumatic event. This makes her theory very well applicable to other traumatic experiences such as loss of a loved one, major setbacks or disappointments and dismissal situations. However, many organizations consider griefas maladaptive because it detracts on individual level the ability to function (Zell, 2013). This is also the case within the MoD, which, as a military organization, tends to have characteristics of amasculinity culture. It is not very common to express feelings of emotions and place value on relationships and quality of life, rather than on ambition and power (Hofstede, 1980).

In today’s competitive world,many organizations compete against each other to gain a competitive advantage by changing their organization continuously. It is necessary to see organisation as a system of multiple subsystems, better known as the “value chain” (Porter, 1980). Each with its own inputs, transformation processes and outputs of money, labour, materials, equipment, buildings, land, administration and management. The chain of activities gives the products, an in addition the organization, more benefit than the sum of added values of all activities (Porter & Cramer, 2011). This is necessary for organizations to survive (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1997; Burke, 2002). Therefore, organizational change is required in order to sustain competitive advantage and maintain growth (Scherer, Schorr, & Johnstone,

2001). But despite all the effort, many organizational changes are messy and prone to fail (McShane & Von Glinow, 2010), and according to Kotter (1995) even very capable managers tend to make mistakes in managing change which often involve changes of jobs, task assignments and or geographical locations (Dalton & Wimbush, 1997; Tsui et al., 1995; Pearce, Porter & Cramer, 2011). However, despite the organizational efforts in managing the organizational change, there was not a proper model to map andto understand the collective employee grieving process and their responses to worksite/function closure.

In recent literature, Blau (2006) developed a model for understanding employee responseson theses collective emotional processes and responses. His model made use of the Kübler-Ross’smodel for grief. (Kübler-Ross, 1969). He operationalized is and tested it further on a year later (Blau, 2007). The model of Blau (2006) discusses the different types of grief. These emotions involve denial, anger, bargaining and depression. These responses are combined in”negative” responses. The “positive” responses combine exploration and

acceptance. The phrases negative and positive refer to the reactions they cause. Negative emotions cause “destructive” response, and positive emotions cause “constructive” responses. After partially testing his model in 2007 (Blau, 2007), Gary Blau found proof for the

connections between the emotional process for grieving and positive and negative employee responses regarding similar events such as the upcoming outsourcing of the organization subject to this study, and the impact of personal and situational factors.

Operations (OPS)

DMO-Operations (Defensie Materieel Organisatie-Operations), further on in this document mentioned as OPS is subject to this study. OPS is a self-supporting organization within the MoD (Ministry of Defence). This means it has to generate its own earnings within the MoD in order to be a competitive organization. OPS, is responsible for the delivery of high-end secure ICT (Information and Communication Technology) services to the MoD and her chain partners. To deliver the required services, OPS exploits her own multiple data-centres with server and storage capacity, a nationwide fiber optic network, and 55.000 PC’s (personal Computers). OPS has four main locations across the Netherlands namely Utrecht,

Soesterberg, Maasland en Den Helder. At this moment, it is not clear if the outsourcing results in the divestment of locations. Currently the workforce of OPS consists of 1.800 employees.

OPS is about to be outsourced, which involves transferring employees and assets from OPS to one or more companies (consortium). The organizational shift is necessary to

liberalise OPS’ services and to work in line with the market to be attractive for other

companies. The services provide all locations of the MoD in The Netherlands, Germany, and the Dutch Caribbean. The services also provide worldwide, during military missions such as the Mali mission, which is in process at this moment (June 2014). The total financial volume of activity of the MoD is approximately 356 million Euros on a yearly basis. At year-end 2011, the Secretary General of the MoD decided to procure the services supplied by OPS, because of the cost-reduction and innovation strategy. The core business of the MoD, defending the non-commercial and commercial interests of the Netherlands and its allied partners, can make use of the saved funds from noncombat military spending.

Sourcing of OPS

Why outsource? The outsourcing of OPS has to result in an improved employability and innovative capacity of the armed forces. Furthermore, the MoD should focus on "core competencies" and outsource activities not critical to its core mission (Taibl, 1997). For the MoD, its core mission is to defend the territories and interests of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and her allied partners.

Within OPS there are two kinds of ICT. The “green” ICT and the “white” ICT. The green ICT includes all ICT activities, which directly supports combat activities of the MoD, such as ICT on military property, vehicles, planes and battleships. The green ICT will always be part of the MoD, because this include activities engaged directly in the core mission of the MoD. The white ICT include all activities (Storage, Application Hosting, Environmental Management, Desktop Virtualization (VDI) and Server-based Computing). The white ICT include activities not engaged directly in the mission of the MoD. The white ICT should be classified as non-core and to be considered for outsourcing or privatization, if such services can be provided more efficiently and effectively by the private sector (Taibl, 1997).

Appendix 2 explain further substantiation for the outsourcing and the projects objectives. Within a few years, one or a consortium of market participants will provide the services of OPS. The employment of OPS, and whether and under what conditions, is to be determined.

Probably the major part of the contracts of the current workforce will terminate involuntary in 2017. Unfortunately, because the employees of OPS do not have a choice.

Furthermore, the selected company or consortium of multiple companies will contract the employees. The procurement selection committee of the MoD will select the company or consortium. Currently, the employees of OPS have perfect terms of employment. The terms of employment of the selected company or consortium are of course, still not known. This imminent situation for the workforce may lead to emotional reactions and feelings of grief or relief (Blau, 2006; Blau, 2007; Jenkins, 2010; Jenkins, 2012). Because for many, work is not only an economic necessity, but also a major element of one’s personal identity (Kaufman & Rosow, 1982).

In 2012, a survey about the upcoming sourcing has been conducted by the

commission participation among OPS (former IVENT) to measure the opinion about the outsourcing. The survey was sent to 1898 employees and completed by 884 employees. According the outcomes of this survey the majority of the employees are satisfied with the current workplace environment, and they don’t like the idea of sourcing. A minority still believes in a no-go for the outsourcing, or better phrased, are in a stage of denial. Employees expect an imminent tension on the balance between working and private life due to a rightly or wrongly expected increase of workload after the outsourcing. The majority of the

workforce indicates not to want to go along with the outsourcing, but remarkably enough, the majority has no intention to leave the MoD. Therefore it is interesting to investigate the turnover intentions, both outside OPS as outside the MoD.

Besides the context of outsourcing, each employee reaction depends also on situational factors and personal factors as well. Unfortunately, regarding the current

upcoming outsourcing, the termination of the employment contracts is involuntary (Voogd, 2012). For the time being, the workforce of OPS are expected to continue their jobs within the MoD with a considerable effort and motivation to “keep the shop open”. Even before the actual outsourcing, the aim of OPS is to reduce exploitation cost of approximately 30% by internally reorganizations and implement the IT implications of approximately 95 other reorganizations within the MoD. This aim is interpreted and explained by the commander of OPS Piet Voogd (2012). During the upcoming outsourcing, technological innovation is to be fully implemented within the existing IT infrastructure to continue a high level of

performance.

The connection has now been made between literature and the context of the present study. Employees express different emotions as a result of the announcement of outsourcing. The involuntary character of the outsourcing results in emotionsof denial, anger, bargaining,

acknowledge these emotions. It is necessary that employees are committed to the change. This commitment has its origin in three different perspectives. These perspectives, or

“mindset” is driven by emotions (affection) , perceived costs (continuance) if one resists and the obligation (normative) if one feels to commit (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002).

Commitment, regardless of its form should lead to the enactment of the focal behavior. Herscovitch and Meyer(2002) formulated the focal behavior forchange commitment compliant with explicit requirements for change. Failure to comply is a form of resistance or more friendly phrased non-cooperation. This tends to be similar to the context of the present study. To achieve cooperation of employees to commit, it isnecessary to link change

commitment-relevant behavior.

Leadership within OPS

Leadership is core business for the military. In 2007, the CDS (Chief Of Defense) formulated a central vision of leadership within Defense; “The conscious guidance on behavior and inspire others to achieve the common pursued objective”. This vision is based on two models: Situational Leadership and Inspirational Leadership. These models are quite independent of each other and are still not integrated. Most OPCO’s (Operational Commands) pay little attention to it and have their own vision on leadership. The strengths and weaknesses of both leadership models are investigated by Dalenberg and Vogelaar (2012). In addition, they try to show how to integrate both models. This provides opportunities for development of

education, training and leadership policy.

The first model used in the MoD is the Situational Leadership theory (Hersey & Blanchard, 1969). The fundament of the Situational Leadership theory is that there is no single "best" style of leadership. Situational leadership is task-relevant, and a successful leader is the leaders are that adapts the leadership style to the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence. Situational leadership has not only a varying influence on the person or group of interest, but also on the task, job or function.

The second model used in the MoD is the model of Inspirational Leadership (Burns, 1978) which is derived from the Transformational Leadership Theory (Bass, 1985), which has its focus on motivating employees by making them aware of the importance of their job and the impact on the organization and society. These two models are further explained in the theory section.

As mentioned, a major disadvantage is the failure to connect these two visions into one model (Dalenberg and Vogelaar, 2012). This makes it difficult to develop a coherent well balanced vision of leadership including education and training programs to train leaders and managers. Within OPS the operationalization of the leadership vision exists mainly of offering situational leadership training for operational management. The operational management layer consists of the unit managers of all 70 units.

The “span of control” of a unit manager is task orientated and refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor has. Factors to determine a “span of control” are geographical dispersion, the capability and experience of the manager and the volumes of task of the manager. Another factor of influence is the similarity of tasks performed by employees in the “span of control”. If the tasks performed by the subordinates in a unit are similar, the span of control can be wider. The manager can supervise them all at the same time.

The “span of support” is people oriented and builds further on the alternative view of Jaques (1988), where a manager may have up to as many immediate subordinates that he or she can assess personal effectiveness. To give employees maximum support it is of great importance to monitor the “Span of Support” in terms of unit-size (Lucas, 2008; Kluemper, 2008). If the unit size is too big, this may have a negative effect on the effectiveness of support. It is necessary to ensure maximum support for the workforce in guiding and facilitating them in change processes and to ensure that everyone receives the support they need to succeed in their job, to help employees to clear problems, and to develop them professionally. In the past, the number of direct reports to HR- manager, also known as "span of control” was high, up to 80 employees. Today the "span of support” of OPS lies from 20 up to a maximum of 25 per unit. All new managers receive a Situational leadership training provided by the Hershey and Blanchard education group.

At this point the connection has been made between leadership within the organization and the context of the present study. Employees can express emotions as a result of the announcement of outsourcing as a result of the involuntary outsourcing results in emotions Blau (2006). This study investigated which leadership style employees perceive from their manager. Furthermore, thisstudy investigated which characteristics of leadership, if the requirements for change are spelled out, can manage the desired behavior and support employees with their emotions. The research question contains the aim of this study.

Research question

Grief. Blau (2007) found support for the statement that the emotional psychological stages of grief have an impact on several responses, both positive as negative. Such as train, work incivility and interpersonal and organizational deviance. The model of Blau (2006) is further explained in the theory section. He found support for several influences on these responses, such as personal factors and situational factors. Whereas the foremost biggest influential grieving stage in his study, the “negative” spectrum, seems to be anger. This phase my lead not only to destructive responses, but also are likely to engage in lower commitment and an increased level of job search activities (Blau, 2007; Brennan & Skarlicki, 2004). This means that organizational commitment is being influence by the emotional state of employees. This can either be positive or negative.

Turnover intentions. The emotional state of employees also affects the level of turnover intention. In the present study the turnover intentions were investigated, because in case of the OPS, employees have the possibility to transfer to other sites of function within the same organization, the MoD, either during the closure process or later (Uchitelle, 2007). This stresses the influence of grieving categories during events such as the closure process or outsourcing. The grieving stages are necessary “to go through” in order to move on to the next job (Kübler-Ross, 1969; Blau, 2007). Or, as argued in the present study, turnover and move to another occupation at the new company or consortium. Grief has been established in the literature as a likely emotional response to firm failure (Shepherd, 2003; Shepherd et al., 2009b; Jenkins, 2012). Feelings of grief, influences by personal and situational factors, also have an effect on the individual coping strategies (Blau, 2007).

Commitment to change. Change commitment increases the likelihood that an employee maintains membership in an organization, which is necessary for the successful

implementation of organizational change initiatives (Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993;

Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002). According the latest sourcing survey, conducted in 2012, more than 70 percent of the workforce voted against the outsourcing, which they see as a

managerial decision the cannot influence. This is a decision with a tremendous impact on the workforce.

In addition, support has been found for the argument that when employees feel that the employer is letting them down in a certain situation, such as the intended outsourcing (ranging from frustration to betrayal), they feel a sense of injustice which leads to lower job

satisfaction and eventually lead to a higher intent to leave the organization (Sutton & Griffin, 2004). However, is it possible for managers to influence this negative attitude towards the outsourcing and change commitment? Does leadership in general has an effective influence on the emotions of employees regarding the outsourcing, and which leadership style is most suitable in helping them with their emotions in order to commit with the outsourcing?

Leadership. Research has established that there is a significant impact of leadership in general (George, 1995; Bono & Ilies, 2006; Sy et al., 2005) and that charismatic and

transformational leadership in specific can act as a mediator between on behavioral response (Hur, 2011; De Hoogh, 2004). Hur (2011) examined the mediating role of transformational leadership on leader effectiveness, team effectiveness. The results show that transformational leadership mediates the relationships between emotional intelligence and leadership

effectiveness. Emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor one's own and other people's emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior (Coleman, 2006). If transformational leadership has a positive effect on emotional intelligence, it is possible that transformational leadership has the ability to influence emotions in order to enhance commitment.

Cummings (2010) investigated the impact of several leadership styles, and found that organizations must be encouraged to develop and implement transformational and relational leadership; their characteristics are needed to enhance job satisfaction, recruitment, retention, and healthy work environments. The transactional style encourages maintenance of the normal flow of daily operations with disciplinary power and an array of incentives to motivate employees to perform at their best. Whereas transformational leadership should be encouraged because of its focus on team building, motivation and collaboration with

employees at different levels of an organization to accomplish change (Bass, 1985). Further assessment of Bass’s (1985) conceptualization of transactional and transformational leadership leads to support for the statement that transformational and charismatic leadership behaviors are significantly negatively associated with intentions to leave the job. Where charisma displayed the strongest negative relationship with intentions to leave the profession Bycio (1995). Nevertheless, is this also the case in an organization with excellent term of employment? Which leadership style is most present in the organization? How do the employees perceive leadership? Can leadership truly play a role of significance in relation to turnover intentions and change commitment? And is charismatic leadership the best suitable style of leadership, with regards of personal and situational factors? Previous

questions will be answered after investigation of the posted research question as stated further on in this document.

It can be argued that there are similarities in employee reactions by experiencing contract violation and outsourcing. Both situations evoke negative associations, and both events find no cause by the employees. However, attitudes do not always lead to certain behaviors (Ajzen, 1991). When employees feel that the employer is letting them down this can lead to anger and a decreasing of perceived fairness and a feeling of injustice. Injustice leads to lower job satisfaction which leads to a higher intent to either leave the organization or and a decrease of commitment towards the organization (Sutton & Griffin, 2004; Turnley & Feldman, 1999; Zhao et al., 2007). Research by Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) found that change commitment contribute to the prediction of change-relevant behavior. Although the model of Blau (2007) does not include the effect of leadership as a construct and its influence on grief, it is very much suitable for the present study. This because of its contribution on the relation between emotions and responses. The model of Blau has its focus on the gap between situational and personal factors, stages of grief and the response to certain events. Present study builds further on the findings of Blau (2007)

Therefore, this study investigates if leadership can influence the emotions of employees to help them cope with the intended outsourcing, and which leadership style is best suitable in supporting employees. It is possible that leadership has a positive effect regarding change commitment and possible turnover intentions. This study has its focus on the effects of leadership on employee’s affective commitment to change and turnover intentions.Affective commitment best reflects positive attitudes toward organizational change. Leadership behaviors can influence attitudes toward organizational change.

Furthermore, affective commitment has a theoretically and empirically link with charismatic leadership. Shamir, House, and Arthur (1993) argue that charismatic leaders are capable of increasing employee performance because they affect employee’s identification with the group and the shared group’s values. These are both aspects of affective

commitment. Furthermore, charismatic leadership, as one of the three elements of

transformational leadership, has a positive relation with affective commitment (Bycio et al., 1995)

Investigating the factors that influence the variance in grief, after employees heard the news that the organization is on the verge of outsourcing, is therefore an important step in understanding change commitment. This research question forms the foundation for this study. Formally stated:

“Can leadership influence employees’ affective change commitment and turnover

intentions in a positive way to the upcoming outsourcing in relation to their “negative” emotions?”

Because OPS is currently to be outsourced and perfectly fits in the context of the research question, OPS is subject of data collection to perform this study. The organizational change of OPS has an impact on the workforce as a whole and therefore suitable to test the change commitment and turnover intentions. This study is approved by the top-management of OPS, who wants to have more insights in the present leadership styles within the organization and their influence on the workforce. As earlier mentioned, previously more than 70 percent of the workforce voted against the outsourcing. Nevertheless, they still have positive attitudes towards their current job and OPS.

Theoretical Framework

This section provides a critical consideration of underlying theoretical models used in this particular study. As mentioned in the introduction, this research aims for an investigation based on the context of knowledge provided by Blau (2007), which is derived from the grieving model defined by Kübler-Ross (1969) regarding the emotions which arise from organizational and political choices. Central to the model of Blau (2006) are the emotional employee responses. Blau (2007) partially tested the process model for employees’ response and several factors to have an impact on these responses. Blau (2007) found support for the proposition that the coping strategies of employees are affected by emotions.

These emotions affect an employee’s commitment to organizational change and turnover intentions. To investigate the change commitment, the extension of the three component model of the three component model is used as overarching framework (Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993; Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002) to examine the relation with the process model for understanding “victim” responses to an anticipated worksite closure (Blau, 2007). This study has its focus on the relationship between the negative grieving stages, change commitment and turnover intentions.

Furthermore, the complex and multifaceted reactions involving grief and relief is used to explain why people who feel a sense of relief are more committed the upcoming outsourcing

than people who are in grief. This explains why employees vary in the extent to which they react positively or negatively to the upcoming outsourcing. This knowledge has been successfully used in a similar context in by Jenkins (2010) to understand the implications of job loss, where emotions were extracted from evaluations (appraisals or estimates) of events that cause specific reactions in different people.

Change commitment is investigated by the use of the extension of the Three component mode (TCM) developed by Meyer and Allen (1991), which explains that commitment to an organizational change is a psychological state, and that it has three distinct components that affect how employees feel about the organization that they work for.

Turnover intentions are subject of investigation, because the emotional state of employees also affects the level of turnover intention. In case of OPS, employees have the possibility to transfer to other sites of function within the organization of the MoD, either during the closure process or later (Uchitelle, 2007). This stresses the influence of grieving categories during events such as the closure process or outsourcing.

Furthermore, the CLIO questionnaire (De Hoogh, 2004) is used to measure the effects of several leadership styles. This method is derived from the Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire (MLQ) to measure the contract of transformational leadership with different dimensions of transactional and laissez-faire leadership. The MLQ is developed by Bernhard M. Bass and his colleagues (Bass, 1985; Bass & Avolio, 1993). First, an explanation of the concept of grief is stated.

Concept of grief

The concept of grief and mourning is subject by many researchers to be the profound emotional process, which leads from denial to acceptance through a number of different phases (Kübler-Ross, 1969; Seitz & Warrwick, 1974; Volkan, 1981). The concept is about a series of emotional stages experienced when faced with impending death or death of

someone. The five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Literature suggest that terminally ill people go through each or some of the grieving stages of Kübler-Ross (1969).

The first stage is the stage of denial, where the person does not accept what is

happening with phrases like “no, it can’t be true” stage and actually denies the situation. The second stage is the stage of anger, when the patient will experience emotions such as rage and frustration. The third stage is the bargaining stage, where the person acknowledges the

situation but tries to negotiate in terms of time or evading activities such as unfinished businesses, far from the actual situation, in an attempt to delay of what is to be inevitable. When, as the fourth stage, depression sets in, emotions like melancholy and dejectedness will occur, and the person will argue that they are already for the now and always. Finally, the person will reach the stage of acceptance where they will no longer fight the inevitable and prepare for their end. During this stage, they will experience a sense of peace (Kübler-Ross, 1969).

Kübler-Ross defined these series of emotional stages experienced when faced with impending death or death of someone also known as the DABDA (Denial, Anger,

Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance) acronym. She originally developed this model based on her observations on people suffering from terminal illness. Further on, she added other applications to this model to generalize her theory applicable to other forms of loss. For instance: personal loss, death of loved ones and even the loss of a relation, a job or salary. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross argues that the stages can occur in any order and that not everyone who experiences grief will feel all five of the emotional stages because of personal

differences. People can experience several stages like a "roller coaster". The stages do not necessarily come in order, nor are all stages necessarily experienced (Kübler-Ross & Kessler, 2005). Although the Kübler-Ross concept of grief has become widely accepted, there are universally questions about the validity of the concept.

Criticism on the Grieving stage model. Critics recognize the emotions, but doubt the existence of the stages as appearance. (Stroebe & Schut, 1999; Bonanno & Kaltman, 2001; Bonanno et al., 2002). Bonanno (2001) found support that not all people show grief, but tend to be resilient. He argues that if there is no grief, there are stages of grief and he concludes that a natural resilience is the main component of grief and trauma reactions. A study of bereaved individuals obtained some findings consistent with the five-stage hypothesis and others that were inconsistent with it (Maciejewski, Zhang, Block, & Prigerson, 2007). Inconsistent findings arise from the criticism that Kübler-Ross did not consider the personal environment. Positive surroundings may result in positive experiences; better known as the personal and situational factors (Blau, 2006; Blau, 2007). However, late literature criticize the existence of the phases in its entirety, and despite the appearance of grief as an emotion and its intensity, empiric research shows that it is not possible to isolate emotions of grief entirely (Jenkins, 2010; Jenkins, 2012; Jenkins 2014).

2006; Blau, 2007; Blau, 2008; Jenkins, 2010; Jenkins, 2012). Kiefer (2002) already argued that itis important to note that from a psychology of emotional point of view, emotions are not dysfunctional. They help individuals adapt to difficult situations, such as a process of outsourcing. Emotions drive behavior and constitute the construction of the individual and social meaning of the change process. Dealing with different types of emotions may require differentmanagerialinterventions.

According to Yukl (2010), organizational changes can cause the experience of

personal pain for people, because of realizing existing practices have failed and by the loss of things, they became attached to (Yukl, 2010). Review of existing literature shows that Gary Blau (2006) was the first scientist who operationalized the Kübler-Ross (1969) stages of grief for job loss. He stated that emotions like grief occur in many organizational contexts in order to understand individual responses to emotional events with strain involved. This makes it possible to conduct research on the concept of grief among a large population. Blau (2006) described a model for the collective employees' emotional process for grieving during organizational closure, by the use of the stages of dying model of Kübler-Ross (1969). The model proposes relationships on general negative and positive grieving categories, and employee responses to the Kübler-Ross (1969) stages of grieving. Blau (2006) defined a theory about the emotional process, which affects employees who go through an emotional process during a worksite/function closure. This is distinguished from the model of Latack (1995) which concerns the stress of involuntary job loss is and the crucial role of direct supervisors in the process of layoff and other critical changes issues, such as earlier

mentioned in this paper (Katz et al., 1966). Latack (1995) noted that individuals with better self-esteem believe they are more capable of dealing with the threat of job loss because they have a positive perception of their abilities. Thus it is expected that high core self-evaluation has a positive impact on facilitating employees from negative to positive grieving.

Positive Grieving/Relief. Bonanno (2001) already found support that not all people show grief, but tend to be resilient. If one doesn’t grief, one doesn’t have to go through the stages of grief. Jenkins (2010) found support for the idea that employees can also experience relief (Pekrun, 2004), besides grief. Pekrun (2004) investigated emotions in a series of six studies. He developed a multi-scale questionnaire assessing test-related emotions such as joy, hope, pride, relief, anger, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness. The scales to measure positive (joy, hope, pride, and relief), and negative (anger, shame, and hopelessness) emotions can be used to measure both trait and state test emotions. By the use of these validated instruments, Jenkins (2010) investigated emotions in het study. She examined how people vary in their

reactions to a similar experience (firm failure). She builds further on the appraisal theory. She found support that, the more an organizational event is appraised as personally negatively relevant, the greater the feelings of grief. The other way around is also supported, the more an organizational event is appraised as personally positively relevant, the greater the feelings of relief (Jenkins, 2010).

Concept of appraisal

This theory helps to explain why people vary in the extent to which they react positively or negatively to organizational events. Central to this theory is the idea that people’s emotional reactions depend on their subjective evaluation – appraisal of the event (Lazarus, 1984; Griner & Smith, 2000). Lazarus (1984) evolves and expands the appraisal theory developed by Magda Arnold (Scherer, Schorr, & Johnstone, 2001), by including new research, methods, and procedures. Lazarus (1984) identified two essential factors concerning cognitive aspects of emotion. He examined the nature of the cognitions (or appraisals) which underlie separate emotional reactions (e.g. fear, anger, hope, acceptance, etc.). Furthermore, he investigated the conditions of these cognitions. These two aspects are crucial in defining the reactions to assess how people cope with emotions. Two categories can divide the appraisal:

The Primary Appraisal (Lazarus, 1991). A person evaluates two aspects of a situation: motivational relevance “How relevant is this situation to my needs?”, and motivational congruence. “Is this situation congruent or incongruent (consistent or inconsistent) with my goals?”

The Secondary Appraisal (Lazarus, 1991). Secondary appraisal of situations can influence by people’s emotions. This involves a person’s evaluation of their resources and options for coping (Lazarus, 1991). The concept of coping builds further on the appraisal theory. One aspect of secondary appraisal is that the question arises if it is possible to attribute certain situation to anyone.

The way in which people evaluate the question of accountability directs and guides their efforts to cope with the emotions they experience. Another aspect of secondary appraisal is a person is coping potential. Coping potential is the potential to use either problem-focused coping or emotion-focused coping strategies to handle an emotional experience. (Smith & Kirby, 2009)

Concept of coping

Latack (1985) derived his coping strategies from the appraisal theory. One description of coping is a person’s ongoing efforts in thought and action to manage his or her specific demands appraised as taxing or overwhelming (Lazarus, 1993b). Coping strategies can help individuals to recover from negative emotions associated with failure and help them alter or manage their environment to reduce the causes of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Lowe, 2003; Jenkins, 2012). When individuals feel grief, this can trigger different coping strategies (Parkes, 1988). Can one truly overcome the feelings of grief, and cope with the situation? Two major coping dimensions are recognized (Latack, 1995; Smith & Kirby, 2009). 1. The problem-focused: with its aim to problem solving and try to think about the situation as an opportunity. 2. The emotion-focused: which deals with the emotions as a result to the stressful situation. Emotion will motivate coping, but appraisal will also influence coping (Lazarus, 1991). Appraisal may influence coping by directing attention towards certain environmental features or opportunities (Carver, 1989; 1997)

Factors that influence emotions

Personal factors. Blau (2007) argues that personal factors such as self-intrinsic motivation, which should be relevant for influencing that a person’s coping with job loss show weak relations with grief. On the other hand, core-self-evaluation, such as self-esteem (Feldman, 1992; Blau, 2007) generates a positive initial reaction and a positive influence on grief. Situational factors. Blau (2007) found support that situational factors have an impact, paced by higher perceived contract violation, which leads to responses such as strain, work

incivility and organizational deviance. Contract violation is strongly positive related to the profound negative grieving stages (denial, anger, bargaining and depression).

Responses on emotions

Blau (2007) investigated the emotional responses. The grieving stages (Kübler-Ross, 1969) explain responses by individual antecedents. He found support for the following arguments: Negative grieving (denial, anger, bargaining and depression) will lead to destructive responses, such as higher strain, work incivility and organizational deviance, and lower transactional obligations. Positive grieving (exploration and acceptance) will lead to

constructive responses, such as lower strain, work incivility and organizational deviance, and higher transactional obligations.

To summarize, review of downsizing literature indicates that several factor influence emotions, the responses are dependent of a variety of personal and situational factors and determines how people cope with certain stressful situations. In these situations there is a central role of grief during a process of closure (Blau, 2006). People vary in the extent to which they react positively or negatively to organizational events, better known as appraisal (Lazarus, 1991). A person will evaluates the relevance and level of congruence. During this process, people determine how to cope with the current situation. They can try to solve the” problem”, and seek for opportunities.

Alternatively, employees can deal with the emotions they feel caused by stressful situations (Latack, 1995; Smith & Kirby, 2009). As earlier stated, support was found for the relation between grief/relief and the responses. To investigate if grief is also related to change commitment, present study has its focus on the commitment to the upcoming outsourcing of OPS, because“the most prevalent factor contributing to failed change projects is a lack of commitment by the people”(Conner & Patterson, 1982; p.18). Outsourcing can lead to organizational efficiency, costs savings and give the opportunity to focus on “core

competences” (Davies, 1995). But outsourcing also has an effect on the employees and their emotions. Especially on employees who are committed to their occupation and organization (Archer, 1999).

Change commitment

There is support that change commitmentis arguably one of the most important factors involved in employees’ support for change initiatives (Armenakis, Harris, & Feild, 2001).To study the setting of organizational change commitment, a definition of the concept is

necessary. One definition describes change commitment as “the glue that provides the vital bond between people and change goals” (Conner, 1992; p. 147), or “a mind-set that binds an individual to a course of action deemed necessary for the successful implementation of an organizational change initiative” (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002). Change commitment is important when organizations change. The main aim of organizational change is to change the ongoing business to cope with a changing, new or more challenging market environment (Kotter, 1995). The literature of Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993) shows that employees with strong affective change commitment, might identify themselves with the new organizational direction more likely than employees who are not so attached to keep up with organisational developments. The same is to say about employees have a strong normative commitment, or

must “pay a price”, might be less inclined than those who remain for other reasons to involve themselves in occupational activities, besides those required to continue membership.

The basic premise of organizational change is to change the way we do business and better cope with a changing, new or more challenging market environment (Kotter, 1995). Unfortunately, between 60 and 80 percent of all organizational changes fail (Beer et al., 1987). There are several reasons for change, but the outsourcing of OPS has not come from a competitive or economic perspective but from political and social forces. If an organization performs well, and one does not feel the urge of changing, it is very difficult to create full support for the organizational change, which will often result in employee resistance, which on its turn is reflected by the workforce from openly opposing against the change to subtly continuing the old way (Furst & Cable, 2008).

If the communication and urgency for outsourcing are not sound, clear and correctly perceived by the employees (Kotter, 1995), the outsourcing can be interpreted as a contract violation, which is significant positiveley related with grief (Blau, 2007). If employees experience the decision of outsourcing as a contract violation, this will have an impact on employees ‘attitudes and behaviour. It may lead to turnover intentions, lack of commitment and a decrease of job satisfaction (Turnley et al., 1999). These consequences are similar to the situation within OPS, where employees seek for job alternatives to avoid the upcoming outsourcing.

Kotter (1995) also argues that transformations are accompanied by short-term sacrifices from employees. It is of great importance to get employees willing to commit. In the present study, it is hypothesized that employees who experience a high level of grief will have a negative attitude towards change. These emotions have an impact on the employee’s organizational behaviors, expressed in organizational commitment and turnover intentions.

This study has its focus on change commitment based on the extension of the three-component model (Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993; Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002), which on its turn is based on the three component model Meyer and Allen (1991) to predict if employees’ change-related behavior can be improved by managerial intervention. Although recent

literature criticizes the normative and continuance components of the TCM model for its lack of attitude elements (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Solinger, Van Olffen, & Roe, 2008), it is still a good predictor for the change commitment as a whole based on three different psychological states of mind.

Affective commitment is based on desire and the “degree to which an individual is psychologically attached to an employing organization through feelings such as loyalty,

affection, warmth, belongingness, fondness and pleasure” (Meyer et al., 2001). An employee

in this category attached to the company because they like their work and are willing to do extras to help the organization, also within an organizational change. Positive correlations are measures based on demographic characteristics such as age, sex, tenure and education, because affective commitment is about a person’s individual attachment to social relationships and the organization, he or she recognizes the value of relevance. This will result in positive reactions. Herscovitch & Meyer (2002) investigated affective change commitment, and they found support for a positive correlation between affective change commitment with cooperative behavior.

Continuance change commitment is based on needs and cost avoidance. Employees need the organization to survive and “the desire to remain a member of the organization” (Meyer et al., 2001). Leaving the organization will lead to economic (pension) and social (Friendship with co-workers) loss, unless alternatives provide more or less in similar benefits. Herscovitch & Meyer (2002) argue that employees with strong continuance commitment show negative reaction, because they have no choice. Herscovitch & Meyer (2002)

investigated continuance change commitment, and they find support for continuance change commitment to correlate negatively with cooperative behavior.

Normative change commitment finds its origin in moral obligation and needs to stay within an organization by the consideration of supporting the change as a moral obligation. This is caused by organizational investments in individual developments and the urge to “repay debt” for offering training and personal development opportunities. Normative committed employees are mainly committed because of a high loyalty towards the

organization, influenced by cultural, familiar or organizational socialization. Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) argue that employees with a strong affective and/or normative change

commitment are more willing to contribute to change, as “a feeling of obligation to continue

employment”. Herscovitch & Meyer (2002) found support for a positive correlation between

Therefore, it is hypothesized, that there is a relation between grief and change commitment. These findings result in the following hypothesis;

Hypothesis 1a: Grief is negatively related to the employee’s affective change commitment. Hypothesis 1b: Grief is positively related to the employee’s continuance change commitment. Hypothesis 1c: Grief is negatively related to the employee’s normative change commitment.

Turnover Intentions

As earlier mentioned, the emotional state of employees also affects the level of turnover intention. In case of OPS, employees have the possibility to transfer to other sites of function within the organization, either during the closure process or later (Uchitelle, 2007).

Zhao (2007) argues that turnover intentions refer to the individually intend to leave the organization within a certain period of time’.

When employees are involved with an organizational closure or job loss it is possible that they react with a certain behavior as a result to the psychological contract violation (Ajzen, 1991; Turnley et al., 1999; Blau, 2006). A result of this perceived contract violation initiated by the organization is that the employer is “cutting corners” at his or her daily job. There is support for the idea that when employees feel that the employer is letting them down. This can lead to anger and a decreasing of perceived fairness and a feeling of injustice. Injustice will lead to lower job satisfaction which will lead to a higher intent to leave the organization (Sutton & Griffin, 2004), and a decreasing of commitment towards the organization (Turnley & Feldman, 1999; Zhao et al., 2007). This can lead to voluntary turnover intentions of desirable employees, which may have tremendous negative consequences to the company, especially in the context of replacement costs and work disruption (Hellman, 1997). Downsizing literature and literature concerning outsourcing suggests that there have been many theoretical studies on the intentions of leaving organizations in the future (Rusbult & Farrel, 1983: Van Dam et al., 2008: Chen et al., 2011).

Employees, especially the skilled ones, are in a constant search for better jobs, working environment, experience, and training to enhance their skills and improving of their personal situation. Bodla and Hameed (2008) argue that the employees’ turnover is a

company. Literature provide support for a relation between the organizational commitment of employees who are emotionally attached to their organization, where a high level of

commitment is positively related to individual performance of employees and may inter alia lead to a lower level of turnover intentions (Beck et al., 2000; Sturges et al, 2005). When employees feel that the employer has initiated the contract violation this will significantly influence the turnover intentions (Bal, 2013; Zhao et al., 2007), and will lead to more negative grieving like anger (Blau, 2007).

Support is also found for the statement that if the employer is letting the workforce down this can lead to anger and a decreasing of perceived fairness and a feeling of injustice, injustice and this will lead to lower job satisfaction which will lead to a higher intent to leave the organization (Sutton & Griffin, 2004). Therefore, it is hypothesized, that there is a

relation between grief and turnover intentions.Successfully moving through the process of grief, these emotions mobilizes job search, hopefully resulting in successful reemployment. If the job search is not successful, this can bevery detrimental to an individual's psychological and physiological health (Finley & Lee, 1981; Latack et al., 1995). Toinvestigate the relation between grief the followingfollowing hypothesis is formulated.

Hypothesis 2: Grief is positively related to the employee’s turnover intentions.

Blau (2006; 2007) didn’t propose and investigate the possible impact of managerial intervention in general and the influencing element of leadership in specific to deal with organizational grief by supporting the workforce to deal with accompanied emotions and help them in accepting the outsourcing. This wasn’t the scope of his investigation. But the concept is interesting to invest because leadership may help employees by coping with their emotions. It can be argued that leadership has a positive influence on the processing of a stressful situation and which personal and situational circumstances will this occur.

Concept of leadership

Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members (House et al., 1997, p.184). The study on leadership styles generated much theory, Bass (1985) extended the work of Burns (1978) by explaining the psychological mechanisms

that underlie transforming and transactional leadership. They studied the effect of

transformational and charismatic leadership contrary to transformational leadership primarily in terms of the leader's effect on his or her followers, and the behavioral implications.

Transactional theories have a strong focus on process of exchange between leaders and employees while transformational and charismatic theories have a strong focus on leaders who have the capability to enhance the effect of transactional leadership by giving meaning to the work with a result that employees are willing to work and or produce more than expected to be done (House, 1987; Bass, 1985).

Nevertheless, support has been found on the impact of leadership in general on employee’s behavior (George, 1995; Bono & Ilies, 2006; Sy et al., 2005). Yukl (2010, p. 26) defines leadership as: “The process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives”

Situational leadership Theory (SLT). A more pragmatic approach of leadership is offered in the model of situational leadership developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1997). They characterize leadership styles in terms of the amount of Task-Behavior and

Relationship-Behavior, which the leader provides to their followers. The leadershipstyles can be categorized into four behavior types ranged from Style one up to four. S1: Directing, which is characterized by the one-way communication in which a leader defines the different roles and provides guidelines to do the task. S2: Coaching, the leader is guiding the direction, the leader is using a two-way communication and gives socio-emotional support in order to allow the follower to be influenced. S3: Supporting is how shared decision-making about how to accomplish the task. The leader is providing guidance while maintaining high

relationship behavior. S4: Delegating is about how the leader is still involved in the decisions. However, the process and responsibility are transferred to the follower. The leader is only involved with the monitoring process. It is to say that no single style is optimal for all leaders at all situations at all times. In order to be effective, leaders need to be flexible and have to adapt themselves according to the situation. Downside of this model is that there is no scientific proof for the effectiveness of this apparently practical model of leadership. The advice to give maximum guidance to unexperienced personnel, without supportive leadership is sometimes hard to defend in certain situations, such as a warzone (Dalenberg & Vogelaar, 2012). Dalenberg & Vogelaar (2012) posted another downside. They investigated leadership within the Dutch MoD. The providence of short-term solutions of the model increases the possibility that the leader loses sight of the long-term implications of his or her situational

leadership approach. They pointed also the last point of critic. The effectiveness of situational leadership depends on the professionalism and motivation of the employee. Especially in a military organization, such as the MoD, this is not always preferred. Leadership is also about the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members (House & Wright, 1997). The SLT is based on learning a technique rather than a leadership style for short-term solutions (Bennis, 1985), where a manager has a short-range view, and a leader needs a long-range perspective. Bennis (1985) argues that when a manager adapts a problem-solving style to a specific situation, a short-term problem-solving approach will be provided.

Transactional leadership. A leadership style, which emphasises managerial intervention, is also known as managerial leadership. It has its focus on the role of supervision, organization, and group performance. Transactional leadership is a style of leadership in which the leader promotes compliance of his followers through both rewards and punishment (Bass, 1985). As stated earlier, transactional leadership encourages

maintenance of the normal flow of daily operations with disciplinary power and extrinsic motivators as incentives. This, to motivate employees to perform at their best by the use of reward and punishments. A transactional leader emphasises task orientation, he or she will tend to define objectives, organize tasks and give precise instructions and provides feedback after completion. Transactional leaders tend to be directive, action-oriented, and think “inside the box” when solving problems. This makes this leadership style a passive one (Bass & Avolio, 1993), not to confuse with the passive (management-by-exception) leadership style, which provides employees with very little guidance and gives them freedom to make decisions.

Transformational/ Charismatic leadership. A theory, which is more explicit for the long term, is transformational leadership. Bycio (1995) assessed Bass’s (1985)

conceptualization of transactional and transformational leadership, and studied the three factors of transformational leadership: charisma (amount of faith, respect and inspiration of the leader), individualized consideration (degree of support to individuals) and intellectual stimulation (enabling followers to rethink their ways of action). Transformational leaders attract commitment and energize people. The charismatic element of the transformational leadership style was at first described by Max Weber (1946) who described the concept of charismatic leadership as the result of follower’s perceptions that their leader owes

them to connect followers on an emotional level, they show interest in employees’ welfare and encourage employees to assess their performance and think of ways to improve.

Charismatic leadership can been defined as “the ability of a leader to exercise diffuse

and intense influence over the beliefs, values, behavior, and performance of others through his or her own behavior, beliefs, and personal example” (House et al., 1991, p. 366). They have a clear vision, confidence and moral convictions, which helps them in their pursuit to enable their followers. De Hoogh, Den Hartog and Koopman (2005) studied the impact of charismatic leadership in work environments and found support for their hypothesis that charismatic leaders are more effective in dynamic and uncertain environments than in stable environments. The context of an ICT organization to be outsourced suits perfectly the within the characteristics of a dynamic environment.

Transformational leaders in general and charismatic leaders in particular articulate an attractive and realistic vision of the future which can be shared, stimulate subordinates to see old problems in new ways and support subordinates and pay attention to the differences among them (Bass, 1985).

The charismatic and transformational leadership styles relate to each other. To date, researchers do still not agree on whether these two leadership styles are distinct or fit in one concept (Yukl, 1999). Yukl (1999) distinct them as two different concepts. Conger (1999) acknowledges similarities in vision, inspiration, role modelling, intellectual stimulation, meaning, appeals to higher-order needs, empowerment, setting of high expectations, and fostering collective identity (Elbers, 2007). De Hoogh and Den Hartog (2004) consider them similar. Because the many similarities on prominent aspects, charismatic and

transformational leadership are treated as synonyms in this study, which means that the terms will be used interchangeably.

As earlier mentioned, Bycio (1995) found support that the transformational leadership behaviors significantly negatively associate with intentions to leave the job. Charisma

displayed the strongest relationship with intention to leave the job and intention to leave the profession, but it is difficult to determine whether both of these leadership factors influence turnover intentions (Rafferty, 2004), or whether one of these leadership factors is responsible for relationships with turnover intentions.

Managerial interventions like transformational and charismatic leadership influence the emotions of employees (Shamir et al., 1993; Hur, 2011; McColl et al., 2005; Bono et al., 2007). Research has been done on the effects of transformational and transactional

transactional leaders can influence employees, also called charismatic leadership (Bass, 1985; Bryman 1992)

Research of Kiefer (2005) demonstrates that organizational issues are one of the antecedents of emotions in change situations, including managerial actions. It is important to state that leadership influences the relationship between change and negative emotions and therefore it is connected to the success of implementing organizational change (Kiefer, 2005; Carter et al., 2012).

So despite the differences, leadership styles in general are all linked with influence. The effect of transformational and charismatic leadership influences the well-being in the context stress and coping with organizational change in specific (Rafferty, 2006; Carteret al., 2012). Transformational and charismatic leaders have the ability to change characteristics which influence individual employee appraisal of uncertainty associated with change, and, ultimately, job satisfaction and turnover (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Avolio and Yammarino (2013) showed that the charismatic characteristics influence the emotions of followers in a positive way. The way that employees deal with their emotions is represented in the “pattern of emotions over by transformational and charismatic leaders”. Charismatic leaders

communicate the company vision and urgency of future plans and organizational changes by increasing follower awareness of vision through current and possibility emotions to enhance interest, awareness and hope. (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013;p317).

MLQ. Cummings (2010) executed an imperial study on the impact of several

leadership styles and their effects on the workforce and the organizational environment. They are surrounded by and argues that efforts by organizations must stimulate the development of transformational and relational leadership are needed to enhance satisfaction and employee retention. The MLQ (Multi Leadership management Questionnaire) is designed by Bass and Avolio (1993) as a tool to measure different leadership styles and their effects within an organization. Downside of the MLQ is the under representation of understanding of the underlying influence process in charismatic leadership and the pitfall to attribute positive effects to transformational leadership, while a portion of these effects can be attributed to unmeasured positive effects of transactional leadership (Yukl, 1999).

Critique on the MLQ. The MLQ is criticized by Gary Yukl (1999) because of the absence of the measurement of distributing power, and its lack of focus on charismatic traits of transformational leadership which is important for understanding the underlying processes of influence in charismatic leadership. The CLIO questionnaire builds further on the basis of

situational context. Furthermore the CLIO helps to determine which leadership style will most effectively support the workforce with their emotions to accept the outsourcing with regards to the situational context and the personal and situational factors.

CLIO. To counter the shortcomings of the MLQ, De Hoogh, Koopman and Den Hartog (2004) developed the CLIO (Questionnaire for Charismatic Leadership in

Organizations) which doesn’t only focus on charismatic leadership, but also on empowerment leadership which include individual managerial attentions to stimulate employees and to make them feel responsible. Charismatic leaders communicate a vision to their subordinates and make sure that output is generated according to this vision (Alon & Higgins, 2005). Besides charismatic leadership, other leadership styles are to be tested in the CLIO. Autocratic leadership is characterized by the individual managerial control over decisions with little input from employees. Autocratic leaders make their choices based on their own ideas and judgment. Transactional leadership focuses on the role of supervision, organization and group performance. Passive leadership allows employees to do the work independently by the avoidance of managerial responsibilities.

The CLIO operationalizes leadership with its aim on creating empowerment of intellectual stimulation and individual consideration as part of participative leadership (de Hoog et al., 2004). Charismatic and empowering managers exist mainly in countries with a low distance power like the Netherlands (Hofstede, 2001). With strong equality values these managers tend to be more effective then managers in countries with a high distance power and low equality values. Regarding the literature review it has been argued that

transformational leadership in specific can act as a mediator between on team outcomes (Hur, 2011), and that transformational leadership performances influence the emotions of

employees (McColl et al., 2005; Bono et al., 2007). Transformational and charismatic leaders have the ability to change. These characteristics influence individual employee appraisal of uncertainty associated with change, and, ultimately, job satisfaction and turnover (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Avoilo and Yammarino (2013) showed that charismatic characteristics influence the emotions of followers in a positive way.

DuBrin (2013) stresses the importance of leadership in stressfull situations. If leaders and managers can influence employees by helping them accepting the upcoming outsourcing and whether this has a possible impact on their change commitment and possible turnover intentions. Which elements of leadership helps employees by coping with the upcoming outsourcing with regards of personal and situational factors? In addition, does “one

intended outsourcing, and continue their journey to the next chapter? Does charismatic leadership helps employees in coping with their emotions? As earlier mentioned, coping is motivated by emotion, but is also influenced by appraisal (Lazarus, 1991).

Managerial supervision and control should be effective so that people go through this process positively and eventually open up their eyes emotionally for the upcoming

outsourcing in terms of acceptance and commitment and that both manager and employee know what interventions suits best with respect to the different coping strategies. Mansour-Cole and Scott (1998) found support of a strong relation between the manager and the employee and that the influence of a leader is significant positively related to the affective commitment of employees. This implies that a leader or manager can influence a person in order to deal with the emotions and coping strategies of the workforce and the style of leadership is essential to coping.

Regarding recent investigation, Michealis (2010) found support for the idea that transformational and charismatic leadership relate strongly to followers’ behavior. Bennis (1985) argues that when a manager adapts a problem-solving style to a specific situation, a short-term problem-solving approach suits best. A theory, which suits long-term solutions best, is transformational or charismatic leadership (Latack, 1995). Can leadership support employees in helping them with problem solving and appraise the situation as an

opportunity? Can leadership support employees in dealing with the emotions as a result to the stressful situation in a dynamic environment? Can leadership support employees in dealing with the emotions as a result to the stressful situation?

Regarding the leadership literature, charismatic leadership is to be, in the context of dynamic and unstable environment of ICT outsourcing, the best long-term facilitator for employees who cope with emotions. With its stronger emphasis on emotions rather than tasks, charismatic traits should increase the affective change commitment. It makes sense, that employees, who are affectively change committed, feel less pressure to seek for other job opportunities with a tempered turnover intention.

Therefore, it is hypothesized, that charismatic leadership can help employees to enhance their affective commitment to the upcoming outsourcing and will decrease the urge of turnover intentions. In addition, in the context of turnover intentions, Bycio (1995) argues that charismatic leadership behaviors show a significant negative relation with turnover intentions.

These findings result in the following hypotheses;

Hypothesis 3a: Charismatic leadership moderates the negative relationship between

grief and employee’s affective change commitment, such that the negative relationship

is strongest when charismatic leadership is lowest.

Hypothesis 3b: Charismatic leadership influences the positive relation between grief and turnover intentions, such that the positive relationship is strongest when

charismatic leadership is lowest.

Visualization of hypotheses in a research model