Intra‐department communication and employees' reaction to organizational change : The moderating effect of emotional intelligence

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of employee emotional intelligence on the relationship of intra‐department communications and employee's reaction to organizational change in China. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the literatures in organizational change, organizational communications and emotional intelligence, the authors derived three hypotheses which were tested with data collected in a large state‐owned enterprise (SOE) in the telecommunication industry. Factor analysis and regression analysis were combined for the hypothesis tests. Findings – It was found that intra‐department communications positively influenced employee's reaction to organizational change with employees' emotional intelligence moderating the relationship. When employee's emotional intelligence is higher, intra‐department communication has greater positive effect on employee's reaction to change. Research limitations/implications – With the adopted western measurement scales, this study was unable to reveal the Chinese contextual aspect of organizational communications. As the data were self‐reported, they may have common source deviation. Practical implications – To foster and maintain employees' positive reactions to change, managers and organizations may consider developing strategies to improve employees' emotional intelligence, so as to embrace future changes. Originality/value – This is an initial effort in examining the joint effect of intra‐department communications and employee's emotional intelligence on employee's reaction to organizational change. It may lead to additional research on organizational change management.