Middle Managers’ Role Overload, Workplace Anxiety, and Resistance to Change: The Moderating Effect of Emotion Regulation Strategies

Abstract

Middle managers play a pivotal role in organizational change. However, little is known about the antecedents of middle managers’ resistance to change. Drawing from the conservation of resource theory, this study examines the impact of middle managers’ role overload on their resistance to change. We collected time-lagged data from 242 middle managers in China. Our results show that middle managers’ role overload is positively related to resistance to change, and that this relationship is mediated by middle managers’ workplace anxiety. Furthermore, emotion regulation strategies moderate the effect of middle managers’ role overload on workplace anxiety as well as the indirect effect of middle managers’ role overload on resistance to change via workplace anxiety. These findings offer theoretical insights into how to effectively implement organizational change and manage middle managers’ resistance to change.