AbstractIn this survey research study, the researcher employed a causal‐comparative, or ex post facto, design to explore the relationship between how union employees of a U.S. county government perceived implementation of a new electronic performance appraisal process and how they responded to the planned organizational change along cognitive, emotional, and intentional dimensions. Using Chin and Benne's seminal classification of change strategies (1961), three groups of respondents were formed according to how they perceived the change implementation process: as rational‐empirical, normative‐reeducative, or power‐coercive. Multiple analysis of covariance was used to explore cognitive, emotional, and intentional response differences across the three groups. The findings suggest that a significant relationship exists between the perception of planned organizational change leadership strategy and response to change along cognitive, emotional, and intentional dimensions. Hypothesis testing revealed that perception of a rationalempirical or normative‐reeducative change leadership strategy elicits positive responses along cognitive, emotional, and intentional dimensions; perception of a power‐coercive strategy produces ambivalence across those dimensions. The study offers insights into the complex nature of resistance and the relationship between change leadership strategy and response to planned organizational change.