KEY INFORMATION ON RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

What is resistance to change?

Resistance to change is defined with slight variations across the literature. But at it's core, the definition remains the same.

Resistance to change is defined as a non official and covert behavior of workers in an institution in regards to proposed changes (Mares, 2018; Cheraghi et al. 2023).
Resistance to change is a form of organizational dissent to a change process that the individual considers unpleasant or disagreeable or inconvenient on the basis of personal or group evaluations (Mares, 2018).
The phenomenon of resistance to change reflects the negative attitudes and behaviors expressed by employees during times of change (Rehman et al., 2021).
Resistance to change refers to the unwillingness of individuals to embrace or adapt to new circumstances (Olstead, 2024) .
Most commonly the main barrier to any innovative process is staff resistance to change (Drejeris et Drejeriene, 2022). Change creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety for employees. In some way, organizational change can be considered as being outside of one’s comfort zone.
It can be a source of innovation because it encourages alternative thinking and contradictory perspectives (Karaxha, 2019).

Employees are psychologically unprepared to understand changes.
Inertia: practices standing for several years in a row and never changing creates a state of low motivation amongst staff members. The most hostile staff members to change have been working in the same position for a long time.
Fear of potential failures: motivated employees want to carry tasks out without the fear of making mistakes due to the lack of experience. The fear of failure is stronger when leadership communication is rather vague.
Lack of confidence in management: a manager can be a leader who shows the way forward to the whole team.
Lack of skills in working under new conditions: providing adequate training will help staff adapt to innovation and become less reluctant to resist .
Inaccurate planning: timely information and effective communication to all members affected will reduce resistance to change.
Qualified leadership: not all managers are properly trained in innovation planning and can lead to negative and hostile change environments .

(Mares, 2018; Ellis et al., 20203;Cheraghi et al. ,2023;

According to Mares (2018) there are three obstacle groups that affect resistance:

Structural (insufficient resources, organizational difficulties, organizational management attitudes)
Environmental (political, economical and socio-cultural)
Personal (intellectual, perception motivation, psychological)

Factors that contribute to successful organizational changes:

Fostering a culture of teamwork.
Effective communication :diminishes staff fears and uncertainty regarding changes and boosts confidence in their ability to cope with changes.
Empowerment: making employees feel prepared and ready for change.
Goal setting : Setting goals helps motivate and direct change and effects behaviors. Learning goals are related to skills and competencies to be acquired. Performance goals are related to behaviors and outcomes
Communicating the vision : frequent referencing to the vision in open communication methods helps motivate for the change process.
Fairness or equity: respectful treatment of all parties involved in the change. Distributive fairness refers to how benefits and burdens are allocated. Procedural fairness is the consistency in the change process and criteria used to make decisions which includes all staff members, regardless of their role. Interpersonal fairness is the respect show to individuals and groups.
Feedback: monitoring how change is progressing. Understanding if the efforts are on track with the communicated vision and if additional supports are required.
Education: recognizing all staff need to learn. Knowledge and skills are important in planning changes. Training is required to support individuals to accept the change.

(Cheraghi et al., 2023; Ellis et al., 2023; Rousseau & ten Have, 2022.)

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