The Machiavellian Personality of Managers; Transformational and Servant Leadership Style and Resistance to Change

This study examines the phenomenon of resistance to change from the perspective of personality theory and leadership style and its purpose is to investigate the impact of transformational and servant leadership styles on employees' resistance to change. It, as well, examines the moderating role of managers' Machiavellian personality in this relationship. The data related to these variables were collected through standard questionnaires from the sample of the statistical population of employees and managers of public organizations in Ahvaz by voluntary non-probability sampling method. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the evaluation and comments of experts and professors, and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data and test the research hypotheses. The results of data analysis show that transformational leadership style has a significant negative effect on employees' resistance to change, whereas this effect is negative but non-significant in servant leadership style. Moreover, the results show that the machiavellian personality of managers strengthens the negative impact of transformational and servant style on resistance to change. So, the effect of servant leadership style on resistance to change has been negatively influenced by manager Machiavelli's personality.