From Losers to Winners: Overcoming Negative Leader Legacy in Radical Organisational Change

Abstract

This study examines how a new leader reshapes the negative legacy of a previous leader to influence employee identification during radical organisational change. Drawing on a longitudinal study in one of the world’s oldest airlines, we analyse the organisational discourse surrounding a radical transformation spanning the tenures of two successive Chief Executive Officers (from now on CEO). Our findings show how the first CEO’s coercive discourse of “responsibilisation” led to resistance and conflict, ultimately leading to his departure. Subsequently, the second CEO reframed the negative discursive legacy of the previous CEO into an aspirational identity for the organisation. Our findings elaborate on the conditions these discourses provided for employee identification. We discuss the implications of our study for the literature on leadership legacies and provide new insights into leaders’ restorative use of discourse in the context of organisational change.