How does regulatory focus affect uncertainty towards organizational change?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a research model on Taiwan's National Police Administration setting, extending the theory of planned behavior, reasoned action, and expectancy‐valence, and developing the more neglected aspects of the goal‐setting theory. Design/methodology/approach Participants were Taiwan's National Police Administration employing 500 full‐time employees. Structural Equation Modeling was used to explore the relationship among regulatory focus, uncertainty towards organizational change, and organizational commitment. Findings The results were that promotion focus or prevention focus had a significantly positive influence on uncertainty towards organizational change, and only promotion focus had a significantly positive influence on organizational commitment. In addition, uncertainty towards organizational change had a significantly negative influence on organizational commitment. The results supported the significant role of uncertainty towards organizational change as a mediator in the relationship between promotion focus (or prevention focus) and organizational commitment. Originality/value The results of the research help fill important research gaps (lack of empirical research and generalization) in the regulatory focus theory literature, clarifying the special role of regulatory focus in a traditional police organization's change processing, and its implications for police officers utilizing a non‐US setting to allow a cross‐cultural examination of regulatory focus theory.