According to Robbins and Judge in Organizational Behavior, people resist change because of habit; the need for security; economic factors; fear of the unknown and selective information processing. Individuals rely on habits to cope with life problems. When threatened with change it becomes a source of conflict. People who need a feeling of security feel less safe when change occurs. When job obligations or habits are changed people fear they cannot perform the new duties as well. This particularly worries them if their pay rate is connected to the amount they produce. People are naturally fearful of things they have not experienced.
Individuals hear what they want to hear and disregard information that challenges the niche they have created for themselves.
Organizational sources resist change because of structural inertia; their limited focus of change; group inertia; threat to expertise and the threat to established power relationships.
Organizations have built in methods such as selection strategies and official directives to keep the organization steady during change. Changes in subsystems are prevented by the larger system. The group may prevent changes from occurring even if some members want it. The proficiency of specific groups may be threatened by change. Power relationships can be threatened when the decision expert is restructured. One of the main examples I can describe was the need for our Respiratory Care
Department to change the structure of shifts. The change would have been from an eight hour to twelve hour shifts. This would allow more adequate coverage for our department and give employees more time off. The technicians who had seniority protested against the longer hours so changes were put on the back burner. Coincidentally, a scheduling change was proposed in the sales department that I worked