Does the vision fit? How change context construal and followers’ regulatory focus influence responses to leader change visions

Abstract

Leaders today must motivate followers to engage in organizational change. Although leader change visions are considered a key motivator, limited research and theory explore how leaders’ use of different change visions influences the extent to which followers are motivated to pursue organizational change goals. Building on issue selling and sensemaking literatures, we offer an expanded typology of leader change visions that more fully represents how leaders can depict the future state of their organization to create a case for change. We further propose a framework that explains how and under what conditions leader change visions motivate followers—individually and collectively—to support change efforts. To explain how followers respond to change initiatives, we highlight the role of regulatory construal fit—the degree to which leader change visions fit with followers’ understanding of the threats or opportunities facing the organization—and regulatory focus fit—the extent to which leader change visions fit with followers’ goal pursuit focus. In addition to contributing to a fuller understanding of the motivational underpinnings of leader change visions, our framework can help leaders tailor their communication to engage followers in the pursuit of organizational transformation goals.