Chapter 1: Feeling Positive, Negative, Ambivalent, or Apathetic: The Complexity of Emotional Responses Toward Major Organizational Change

In this chapter, we develop an overarching framework for examining emotional responses to major organizational change. Utilizing affective events theory as the foundation, we incorporate empirical findings to develop our model. We highlight the following important contributions: (1) organizational change is not just one affective event for employees, but rather is a series of affective events unfolding as the change is implemented; (2) this series of affective events can evoke positive, negative, or a mixture of emotional responses, allowing for some employees to feel emotional ambivalence; (3) these emotional responses are shared by employees with the same mindset regarding the change; (4) emotional responses of employees change over time as organizational change is implemented; and finally, (5) it is also possible that some employees do not respond emotionally to organizational change events, and as a result they are apathetic.