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The multi-dimensional nature of resistance to change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Roy K Smollan
Roy K Smollan*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
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Abstract

Resistance to organizational change has too often been portrayed in a limited way, usually as a negative behavioural response of first-level employees. While the academic literature has identified a number of dimensions of resistance, it has not assembled them in one study. Therefore, the aims of this article are firstly to explore resistance to change as a more complex multi-dimensional concept, secondly to examine how actors at various hierarchical levels react to organizational change and thirdly how they construct the meaning of the term resistance. The findings of a qualitative study shed considerable light on the range of ways in which change participants at different levels reacted to a change and how they interpreted their own responses and those of others.

Keywords

organizational changequalitativeresistance
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 17 , Issue 6: 25th ANZAM Anniversary Edition Remembering 2011: Managing for the Human Spirit , November 2011 , pp. 828 - 849
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2011

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