Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how change leadership activities help bring about employee support for planned organizational change.Design/methodology/approachUsing a non-experimental quantitative research design, and a self-administered Likert-type questionnaire survey, the study sourced data from employees in an organization undergoing significant change. Data analysis was by structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsChange leadership behaviors bearing on; visioning, communication, participation, support and concern for change participants' interests were found to be of significant importance in ensuring employee buy-in and support for planned change efforts. Although change leadership had no direct effect on employees' behavioral intentions to support change, it was strongly related to employee cognitive appraisal of change. The relationship between change leadership and employee behavioral intentions to support planned change was serially mediated by employee cognitive appraisal and emotional response toward the planned change event.Practical implicationsIn appraising planned organizational change efforts, managers tend to focus on employee behaviors toward the change instead of conditions that drive such behaviors. This study underscores the need to focus on employee attitudes as precursors to desired behavior toward change.Originality/valuePrior research suggests that change leadership behaviors affect employee attitudinal reactions to change but yet lacked empirical validation. By applying a multidimensional approach to attitude and investigating its hierarchy of effects, this study enhanced our accuracy in explaining the influence change leadership has on employee attitudinal support for change.