Overcoming Government Organizational Change Failure

This study examines the role of spiritual behavioral support to change in overcoming organizational change failure by enhancing employee change engagement within government organizations. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, the study investigates how inclusive leadership and organizational change climate influence employee engagement in change through value-based spiritual behavioral mechanisms. Using a quantitative survey of 457 functional employees in government organizations, data were analyzed employing Structural Equation Modeling Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The findings reveal that inclusive leadership and organizational change climate exert significant indirect effects on employee change engagement through spiritual behavioral support to change, while inclusive leadership shows no direct effect. Moreover, spiritual behavioral support to change significantly predicts employee change engagement and fully mediates the effects of inclusive leadership and partially mediates the effects of organizational change climate. These results support the argument that one mechanism to overcome failure in the change process is by integrating spiritual values into behavior support to change, which has been proven to increase employee change engagement and overcome transactional change support, especially in the context of government organizations that are oriented toward public services.