Reframing resistance to organizational change

doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2011.05.004

Scandinavian Journal of Management

Volume 27, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 322-331

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2011.05.004 Get rights and content

Abstract

We examine the literature on resistance to organizational change and identify two dominant yet contrasting approaches: the demonizing versus the celebrating of resistance to change. We show that both of these approaches fail to address power relations adequately and, in so doing, raise practical, ethical and theoretical problems in understanding and managing change. We propose an alternative, more critical approach, which shows how both power and resistance constitute organizational change. We highlight how power-resistance relations lie at the heart of organizational change.

Section snippets

Resistance to change

Change is a firmly established priority for organizations. The 1980s and 1990s saw organizations experiment with TQM, customer service initiatives, reengineering, right-sizing, downsizing, culture change, and countless other managerial fads and fashions (Reichers, Wanous, & Austin, 1997). More recently, global environmental, technological and financial shocks have forced organizations to adapt and transform their activities (Bennebroek Gravenhorst and In’t Veld, 2004, Bercovitz and Feldman, 2008

Power-resistance relations and change

The work that has been concerned with resistance to change has not only ignored power as a theoretical concept linked to resistance, but also contributed to a situation where asymmetrical power relations – and the privilege of change agents – are taken for granted. We contend that, in light of the problems identified above, studies of organizational change need to consider both power and resistance. Our approach builds on Foucault, 1980, Foucault, 1982 work, which sees power and resistance as

An illustration

We illustrate the complex interactions between power and resistance and their role in constituting organization change with reference to a study of change published elsewhere (Kellogg, 2009). The study compares similar change programmes in two US hospitals, one of which was deemed successful – at Advent Hospital – and one which was not – at Bayshore Hospital. The programmes were proposed by surgical directors to reduce the working hours of surgical residents – doctors who undergo hands-on

Discussion and conclusions

We have proposed an understanding of organizational change in which power and resistance lie at the heart of the negotiation of meanings that shape particular instances of change. Such an approach acknowledges that there is always the possibility of resistance. This is not necessarily in a bi-directional way, with change agents against change recipients, but in multiple, transversal, iterative ways. Our approach throws light on how these dynamics unfold, and whether – and in what ways –

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Reframing resistance to organizational change

Abstract

Section snippets

Resistance to change

Power-resistance relations and change

An illustration

Discussion and conclusions

Scandinavian Journal of Management

The Leadership Quarterly

Critical Perspectives on Accounting

Organizational Dynamics

Institutionalized resistance to organizational change: Denial, inaction and repression

Journal of Business Ethics

Power and collaboration: Methodologies for working together in change

Academic entrepreneurs: Organizational change at the individual level

Organization Science

Organizational becoming as dialogic imagination of practice: The case of the Indomitable Gauls

Organization Science

From modern to postmodern organizational analysis. Organization Studies

Overcoming resistance to change

Human Relations

Organization development and change

Democracy in an age of corporate colonization: Developments in communication and the politics of everyday life

Disciplinary power in the modern corporation

Challenging ‘resistance to change’

Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

Reframing resistance to change: Experience from General Motors Poland

International Journal of Human Resource Management

Resources in emerging structures and processes of change

Organization Science

Resistance to change: The rest of the story

Academy of Management Review

Decoding resistance to change

Harvard Business Review

Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison

Afterword: The subject and power

Individual change transition: Moving in circles can be good for you

Leadership and Organization Development Journal

Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement

Reducing employee resistance to organizational change: Managerial influence tactics and leader-member exchange

Journal of Applied Psychology

One foot in each camp: The dual identification of contract workers

Administrative Science Quarterly

The nature and antecedents of middle management resistance to change: Evidence from an Italian context

International Journal of Human Resource Management

Resistance to change during restructuring

Journal of Management Inquiry

Power and change: A critical reflection

Further reflections on the elimination of framing bias in strategic decision making

Strategic Management Journal