Resistance to Change

John Caudill

Webster University

MNGT 5590

Dr. Kevin Henson

Abstract

The topic I researched was organizational change. My search criteria were limited to ABI/Inform, for peer-reviewed, full text documents, and scholarly journals. I didn’t have a specific time frame. However, most of the articles are within the last 5 years. Some of the search keywords used was organizational change, organizational behavior, and resistance to change. The results of the article analysis found that organizational change is a very complex process. Leaders, managers, change managers and employees have a lot of factors to consider and find solutions for in order for a change to be successful. Some of the common reasons that caused changes to fail are; employee’s attitudes, lack of employee empowerment, forcing employees to change the status quo, employees felt threatened by the change, perceived loss of jobs, new boss, new responsibilities, employees don’t understand the intent of the change, change doesn’t make sense, past experiences and group dynamics play a part. Resistance can be overt or covert. The differences in value congruence and organizational culture of small working groups, the individual and the organization as a whole must also be considered. In order for the change to be a success the leaders must study, analyze, and develop the plan around these conditions. The plan has to be well thought out, the intent and goals understood by the employees, the employees should be involved, identify, fix, and solve conflict or resistance issues that form, and lastly the plan must be adaptable as the process of change occurs.

Annotated Bibliography

Bouckenooghe, D. (2010). Positioning Change Recipients’ Attitudes Toward Change in the Organizational Change Literature. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 46(4), 500-531.