ESADE

School of Management and Law

Essay on “Understanding Resistance to Change”

(Burnes, 2015), applicability and shortcomings

Essay

ESADE

Change Management for Service Excellence

9 April 2019

Tom Eberle

tom.eberle@alumni.esade.edu
To my understanding, what is the relevance of this article as regards change
management in an organizational context?

The relevance of this paper might be articulated around three distinct points: it gives context,
gives an overview and helps to understand how theories links together.

At first, the article of Burnes (2015) is interesting as it gives context on the founding of
resistance to change theories. The critique explains the basics of Lewin’s early work on the
subject and how the researches of Coch and French (1948) takes place within the larger
framework established by Lewin. Also, it depicts the problems of the company in which most
of Lewin’s studies took place, Harwood Manufacturing Corporation. The firm was
experiencing high labour turnovers mainly due to the constant change in methods of work.
Context might be useful as it could help the reader to better understand the models created
by the authors.

Secondly, the article gives a clear overview on resistance to change theories. In fact, Burnes
(2015) retraces the origins of resistance theories from Lewin’s work, explains the contribution
of Coch and French work, and then depicts the evolution of researches findings on the subject
in academic research. In addition, the paper clearly depicts how each study presented relate
to the two main sources of resistance to change, organisational context and individual’s
psychology. Further, the study also underlines the widely spread practice of using Lewin’s
findings to support other researches, without understanding the its complete work. Often
leading to misconceptions and contradiction, impacting the progress of research on the
subject of resistance to change.

Thirdly, in addition to providing a clear overview on the subject, the article shows how the
different phases of research on resistance to change might be linked together, even if they
might seem contradictory at first. For instance, on the one hand, Coch and French (1948)
demonstrated that resistance to change does not arise from the individual but from the
context in which the change takes place, i.e. the organisation. While later on, new researches
such as the cognitive dissonance by Festinger (1957) have shown that resistance might result
from individuals’ psychology. However, Burnes (2015) article adroitly links both researches

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showing that they are complementary and not contradictory. In addition, he goes back to the
foundations of Coch and French (1948) researches at Harwood Manufacturing Corporation to
explain his though in more details. As the article goes through the four main theories that
built up on Coch and French findings, namely cognitive dissonance, the depth of intervention,
the psychological contract and the dispositional resistance, Burnes systematically explains
how they should be interpreted in line with the original findings of early resistance to change
theories.

All in all, this article might be relevant as it gives some context on early resistance to change
works. Also, it gives a clear overview on the way resistance to change theories evolved later
on and helps to link them together properly. Thus, the metanalysis probably is an important
contribution on resistance to change research.

Describe what you think to be both its applicability and its possible shortcomings

The article summarises numerous studies’ findings and links them together. This might be of
great help for organisational members leading or implied in a change process and
encountering resistance to change. In fact, certain researches cited on Burnes’s metanalysis
(2015) explains the potential sources of resistance to change, while others help to understand
how to cope with it efficiently. For instance, Coch and French (1948) study demonstrates that
participation of concerned employees might increase productivity, and confidence while and
decreasing labour turnover. On the other hand, Huse (1980) temper this findings by
explaining that individual psychological factors such as the psychological impact of the change
for an employee should be studied before considering participation. Hence, leaders inspire
themselves from the accumulation of knowledge presented in this analysis.

Possible shortcomings of Burnes (2015) article could be articulated around three axes:
complexity, abstractedness and general incompleteness in organisational resistance
research. At first, as described above the article summarises the findings from numerous
researches. However, the many works cited and critics made could be hard to grasp in a few
lines. Multiple works are based on complex models and explanations that are only shortly

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described in the analysis. Secondly, while the findings of researches cited might be easy to
understand, the theories behind could seem abstract for the reader. This probably became
especially true as works on resistance to change departed from field studies and started to
build upon other studies (Marrow, 1969). As a consequence, the overall understanding of the
subject became vaguer and more abstract. Again, further explanation might be required to
fully understand the content of the article. Thirdly, Burnes (2015) work shows that even in
2015, research on the field of resistance to change was still partly incomplete. Numerous
studies exist and proposes explanations on the subject. Still, majority of them have strength
and weaknesses when compared to others and are unable to perfectly explain what happen
in real world organisations facing change.

Bibliography
Burnes, B. (2015). Understanding Resistance to Change - Building on Coch and French.
Journal of Change Management, 15(2), 92-116.
Coch, L., & French, J. R. (1948). Overcoming resistance to change. . Human Relations, 512-
532.
Festinger, L. (1957). The theory of cognitive dissonance. Redwood City, CA: Standford
University Press.
Huse, E. F. (1980). Organisation development and change. St. Paul, MN: West.
Marrow, A. J. (1969). The practical theorist: The life and work of Kurt Lewin. New York:
Teachers College Press.

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