Managing Organizational Change A Multiple Perspectives Approach 3rd Edition Palmer Solutions Manual Download

Chapter 08 - Resistance to Change
Solution Manual for Managing Organizational

Change A Multiple Perspectives Approach 3rd
Edition Palmer Dunford Buchanan 0073530530
9780073530536
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change-a-multiple-perspectives-approach-3rd-edition-palmer-dunford-
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Chapter 8
Resistance to Change
Learning Objectives
On completion of this chapter you should be able to:
• Explain the benefits of resistance to change, as well as the disadvantages
• Understand the causes of resistance to change.
• Identify the symptoms of resistance to change.
• Recognize and diagnose middle management resistance to change, which
could be a blockage or could be highly beneficial
• Understand and apply different approaches to managing resistance.
Chapter Summary
Resistance is a very real and common issue that is faced by change managers during the
process of change. The signs of, and reasons why employees resist change can vary
greatly, and it is important that change managers are aware of these variations. It can be
considered “tridimensional” involving affective, behavioural and cognitive
components—how a person feels about change, what they think about it and how they
act in the face of change.
Images of Resistance to Change
Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education
Page 1
Image of Perspective on Resistance to Change

Managing
Change
Director Resistance signifies that not everyone is on board with the
change program. Managerial skills can be acquired to overcome
this.
Navigator Resistance is expected and represents different interests within
the organization. It should be overcome but this is not always
possible.
Caretaker Resistance is short-lived. Change occurs despite attempts to
stop it.
Coach Resistance is to be expected and managers need to show others
that the resistance does not promote effective teamwork.
Interpreter Resistance occurs when the change is not interpreted well or
understood. The manager’s role is to clarify the meaning of
change.
Nurturer Resistance is irrelevant to whether the change will occur.
Resistance is a matter of guesswork by the resistor.
The behavioural manifestation of resistance may take active or passive forms.

Examples of active resistance are: being critical, finding fault, ridiculing, appealing to
fear, using facts selectively, blaming or accusing, sabotaging, intimidating or
threatening, manipulating, distorting facts, blocking, undermining, starting rumors, and
arguing. Examples of passive resistance are: agreeing verbally but not following
through (“malicious compliance”), failing to implement change, procrastinating or
dragging one’s feet, feigning ignorance, withholding information/suggestions/
help/support; standing by and allowing change to fail.
People resist change for a number of reasons, including:

• dislike of change
• discomfort with uncertainty
• perceived negative effect on interests
• attachment to organizational culture/identity
• perceived breach of psychological contract
• lack of conviction that change is needed
• lack of clarity as to what is expected
• belief that specific change being proposed is inappropriate
• belief that the timing is wrong
• excessive change
• cumulative effect of other changes in one’s life
• perceived clash with ethics
• legacy of previous changes
• disagreement with the way change is being managed
Page 2
It is often assumed that resistance is a problem that originates with employees at the
operational level of an organization. However, resistance can also come from those at
the managerial level.
Sidebars in the Text

The following table provides a brief summary of the key points in each sidebar.
Sidebar Page
Fear That YouTube Will Change
• Illustrates that reactions to proposed change are not restricted to 255
employees of an organization; customer/clients can form strong
attachments to an organization and have very strong views about what
sort of change is acceptable to them.
Excessive Change: The Consequences
• Resistance to change is sometimes due to ‘initiative’ fatigue which can 257
result when people in an organization have been subject to a lot of
change in a short period. This vignette identifies some of the outcomes
that can result from excessive change.
Does Your Organization Have an Acceleration Culture?
• Provides a perspective on the characteristics of an organization that might 258
be showing signs of an excessive attachment to change
Managing Change, Managing Memories 259
Page 3
• Argues the case for the power of personal experience of change which
via ‘legacy affects’ are likely to impact on individuals’ reaction to future
change initiatives.
Merger in Adland 261
• Provides a very graphic example one manifestation of resistance to
change.
• Reminds us that resistance to change may come from within the ranks of
‘the managers’ and not just ‘the managed.’
Resistance to Change at Bloomberg 262
• Provides another example of resistance coming from within the ranks of
management which in some organizations can be more a collection of
factions than one united body.
• Traditional ‘resistance to change’ was typically presented as a form of
industrial conflict between ‘management’ and ‘the workers.’ However,
with fewer and fewer industries being ‘blue collar’, a more subtle
understanding of resistance in regard to who can manifest it and what
forms it can take is required.
Find the Attractor
• Provides examples of the application of attraction strategies to reduce 264
resistance to change.
Exercises and Answers

EXERCISE 8.1 (p.270)
Diagnosing and Acting
Purpose
Here the challenge is for the students to increase their awareness of how they
themselves behave in response to resistance.
Options/Techniques/Requirements
Format:
• Individual.
Materials:
• Read through the sections on managing resistance (p.263-269).
Page 4
Time Required:
This exercise should take 20- 30 minutes (excluding the above reading).
Undergraduate:
Students may need to select another type of organization other than a business to draw
on their past experience of change.
MBA/Executive:
Students with professional experience will be more likely to have experienced
resistance.
Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

• Although some students may have had professional experience, they may
take some time to complete the exercise because they are unlikely to have
reflected on the experience this consciously or directly, previously.
Debriefing
Students need to realize that resistance may occur in many situations and be directed at
a manager even though they did not instigate the change; they may just be the person
who was accessible. Often an individual’s resistance or support in a change situation is
interpreted in terms that are polarised or extreme e.g. bad/good or they like me/they
don’t like me. A skilled change manager won’t react to resistance, rather they will be
able to look beyond it and try to find the source of the real problem. Resistance to
change is usually the symptom and not the cause of problems, as it is often a signal
indicating other issues, such as poor communication, are present.
Guidelines for Answers to Questions

The answers to the questions in the exercises will need to be assessed according to the
experience and education level of the students. The answers given here are only a
guide.
Consider a change in which you were involved and that was seriously affected by
resistance.
1. When did you first become aware of resistance?
Part of the learning from this question is for the student to assess their awareness of a
resistance situation.
2. What form did the resistance take?

The answer to this should include a description of the actions of the person who was
resisting the change.
3. What were your first thoughts (anger, betrayal, confusion, relief)?

The student’s response to this will give a good indicator of the student’s attitude to
resistance.
4. What made you decide that you had to do something?
Page 5
The motive given by the student for their decision will give some indication of their
priorities and what they believed was the “right thing to do,” or what they felt they had
to do.
5. What actions did you take?

The effectiveness of the actions of the student in this situation may be a reflection of a
lack understanding or skill in dealing with resistance rather than a problem with
reasoning or intelligence.
6. What was the impact in (a) the short term and (b) the long term?
When students understand the consequences of their actions, it gives them more insight
into the reality of the situation over time. An effective change manager needs to address
both the short term and the long term impact of actions.
7. If you could “rewind the tape,” what would you do differently?

The answer to this question may show what the student learned from the situation, or
describe merely a reaction to the end result(s) or process. This is a good question for
students to work through if they want to gain insight into what lessons they have taken
away from a situation that was seriously affected by resistance.
Jack’s Dilemma
Purpose
This situation describes a dilemma in change management, and encourages the student
to find what their answer would be in the described situation with Jack, the newly
appointed general manager. This exercise serves two purposes. Firstly it gives the
student a chance to consolidate the information learned in the other exercises in this
chapter, and secondly, it gives them an opportunity to practice working with a case
study scenario.
Page 6
Format:
• Individual or small groups of two to three students
Materials:
• Read through the sections on managing resistance (p.263-269)
Time Required:
Time for the class exercise is 15 to 30 minutes to work out the factors that would need
to be considered and formulate an answer to the questions.
Undergraduate:
Students may need more time if working individually on the exercise.
MBA/Executive:
Students with professional experience will probably be more aware of their views in a
given situation such as Jack’s because of past experience. The response of this group of
students would be expected to be more detailed and sophisticated compared to the
undergraduate student’s response.

• Students should be encouraged to be creative and told that there is no
“wrong” answer, only a poor justification for the answer that is given, or a
lack of good reasoning.
Debriefing
The option for creativity in the answer could be illustrated by a few scenarios of “what
I should tell Jack and why.” The students could be taken through a “how to” approach
for this type of mini case that would help them with future situations. The debriefing
after the exercise is completed will need to address the complexity of the situation and
give some examples of simple steps that could have been taken by Jack.

experience and education level of the students. The answers given here are only a
guide.
Jack White is the newly appointed general manager of the pet food division of
Strickland Corporation. He has completed a strategic review that has convinced him
that the division needs to undergo substantial change in a number of areas and to do so
relatively swiftly given the recent strategic moves of key competitors.
Although he is new, he is familiar enough with the company to know that there will be
significant resistance to the changes from a number of quarters. He also suspects that
some of this resistance will come from people with the capacity to act in ways that
could seriously impede successful change.
Page 7
Jack reflects on the situation. He believes that it is important to introduce the proposed
changes soon, but he also recognizes that if he acts speedily in this regard, he’ll have
virtually no time to have a dialogue with staff about the proposed changes, much less
involve them in any significant way.
One option is to act speedily and to make it clear that “consequences” will follow for
anyone not cooperating. He certainly has the power to act on such a threat. The risk,
Jack knows, is that even if no one outright resists, there’s a big difference between not
cooperating and acting in a manner that reflects commitment. He knows that he needs
the cooperation of key groups of employees and that sometimes “minimum-level
compliance” can be as unhelpful as outright resistance when it comes to implementing
change. “But maybe I’m exaggerating this problem,” he thinks to himself. “Maybe I
should just go ahead with the change. If people don’t like it, they can leave; if they stay,
they’ll come around.”
But Jack’s not sure. He reflects on another option: Maybe he should spend more time
on building up support at least among key groups of managers and employees, if not
more broadly within the organization. “Maybe,” he thinks, “the need to change is not
quite as immediate as I think.” “I just know that I’d feel a whole lot better if this
consultation could happen quickly.”
Your Task
Jack respects your opinion on business matters and has asked you for your views on his
situation. What factors would you suggest to Jack that he take into account in deciding
what course of action to take?
The answer to the question would include the following considerations:

• an explanation of the default options, characteristics, and limitations, of the
different positions that Jack thinks the staff could take
• an assessment of the positives, negatives and neutrals of each of the above
positions in isolation using scenarios
• ideas relevant to managing resistance should be discussed for each of the
options
• an assessment of the combined “best” and “worst” scenario of the groups
together
• a decision as to what options are not worth the risk, and what could be
workable
• reviewing the workable scenarios and determining if there are any actions
that could improve the response
Case Analysis: Moneyball

Our suggested responses to the five case questions are:
1. Who is resisting this change and why?
Page 8
Art Howe (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) manages the players, and he strongly
resists the new approach to evaluating and selecting players. As the team manager, he
will be blamed if the team performs badly. His resistance is also based on a lack of
understanding of the new approach. Beane and Brand do not explain sabermetrics to
him, nor do they involve him in their selection decisions. However, explaining the
approach to him may not have overcome his scepticism; the change is radical, and he
sees it as unnecessarily risky. The team’s talent scouts - around a dozen of them - are
deeply hostile to the change. Their experience and professional judgement will no
longer be required if the selection of players is based on their ‘on base percentage’
statistics.
2. What behaviours are used to demonstrate that resistance?
The resistance is open. Howe and the talent scouts argue loudly with Beane, describing
his approach as crazy and misguided. Howe defies Beane by ignoring his instructions
and playing the traditional team of his choice, leaving the new recruits on the bench
(the team lose that match). The lead scout, Grady Fuson (Ken Medloch) argues that,
‘Major league baseball thinks the way I do’, suggesting that Beane does not fully
understand the game, and is making a grave mistake. In a radio interview, Fuson tries
to undermine Beane’s credibility in public, along with the credibility of his methods.
Howe tells Beane that ‘You are out of your depth’, and asks him to ‘Leave me alone to
manage my team’.
3. What role do emotions play, on both sides of this argument?
Emotions are key, and drive most of what happens in this story. Beane is frustrated
that competing teams have ‘deeper pockets’, and that the Oakland Athletics’ owner,
Steve Schott (Bobby Kotick) will not give him more money to buy star players. Beane
is extremely angry when Oakland lose their match against the New York Yankees.
Beane also becomes increasingly frustrated as he listens to his talent scouts basing their
evaluations of players on their looks, attitudes, personality, and girlfriends, rather than
on their skill and performance. It is Beane’s frustration and anger that drive him to
look for other ways to build a competitive, winning team.
After the game which the team lost, when Howe ignored instructions to use the new
recruits, Beane visits the dressing room and expresses his anger - loudly and physically
- to the players, leaving them in no doubt about his emotional state.
The lead scout, Grady Fuson (Ken Medlock), puts forward an emotional argument that
the game is about people: ‘You don’t put a team together with a computer’. He also
argues that his experience and intuition are critical for understanding the ‘intangibles’
that outsiders are not aware of. Fuson begins with this emotional appeal, but when he
realizes that Beane will not be persuaded, he turns hostile: ‘F*** you Billy’. Beane
fires him on the spot and appoints a new head scout.
4. What tactics and behaviours do Billy Beane and Peter Brand use to overcome
resistance to their new approach?
Page 9
Rational argument: Beane tries to convince his scouts that the new approach is
appropriate. They define the team’s problem in terms of replacing the good players
that they have just lost. But Beane argues that this is not the problem at all, because
they cannot afford to pay for similar players. He argues that, because Oakland is a poor
team, ‘We have got to think differently’. Brand points out that, ‘Perceived flaws [in
individual players] don’t matter, statistics do’.
Sidelining: The team manager, Howe, is not included in discussions about the new
method, or in selection decisions. Howe’s contract is annually renewable, so his
position is vulnerable, but he is still prepared to argue against using the new approach.
Interestingly, Howe’s resistance starts to fade once the team start winning, and as team
manager, he gets a lot of the credit.
Coaching: Brand gives detailed advice to the new recruits on tactics to improve their
performance. Beane speaks to one of the more experienced of the new recruits, asking
to act as a role model to the younger players, by passing on his experience and advice.
Brand and Beane spend a lot of time with small groups of players, discussing the game
and tactics, and offering their views and advice.
Behind-the-scenes moves: With Brand’s help, Beane trades two of Howe’s star players
to other teams in exchange for inexpensive players that Brand believes (from the
statistics) have been undervalued. Beane does not discuss these actions in advance with
anyone else, but he is successful in persuading the owner, Schott, to give him $250,000
for one of the players. Beane and Brand recognize that these are very risky moves, but
Brand reassures Beane with the statistics, which indicate that this will work. These
trades force Howe to use the players that Brand and Beane have recruited.
5. What lessons can you take from this experience concerning the nature of
resistance, and methods for overcoming resistance to change?
Purpose: Beane’s aim is not to win matches or to make money. His goal, he explains,
is ‘to change the game’. Without a strong sense of purpose, it is difficult for the change
leader to keep going in the face of resistance and setbacks.
Persistence: At first, Beane’s plan appears to be failing. The team loses matches. The
sports media are critical of what is happening at Oakland. There are calls for Beane to
go. His daughter asks him if he is going to lose his job. (See ‘the classic change
curve’, and Kanter’s Law that everything looks like a failure in the middle, in chapter
10). But Beane and Brand believe in the approach and they do not give up, even when
the system appears not to be working well.
Enemies: People generally resist change that will make their once valuable skill and
experience unnecessary. The change leader must be prepared to lose friends and to
make enemies.
Emotions: Radical change can be an emotionally-charged process. Change leaders

need to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as understanding the
Page 10
emotional responses of others. Emotional displays can also be used effectively to

influence the thinking and behaviour of others.
Tactics: In circumstances such as these, rational arguments are not always powerful
arguments. Brand’s statistics did not influence the team scouts, until much later, when
the team began its successful winning streak. The change leader thus has to use a range
of tactics other than rational appeal, and including under-cover deals to force behaviour
change when necessary.
Success: Oakland eventually won 20 consecutive games, and set a new league record.
One key to overcoming resistance is to demonstrate success. Oakland stakeholders
resisted this change, but so did the league as a whole, and the sports media. Eventually,
when Oakland had won as many games in a season as the New York Yankees, it was
calculated that the average cost per winning game to the Yankees was $1.4 million, and
to Oakland $260,000. Other teams in the league began to be persuaded by those
statistics.
Postscript: At the end of the movie, Beane is offered the position of general manager
for the Boston Red Sox. At $12.5 million, this would make him the highest paid
general manager in the history of sport. He turns down the offer, and stays with
Oakland. Two years later, basing their approach on the methods that Beane and Brand
had pioneered, the Red Sox won the series.
Page 11
ADDITIONAL EXERCISE (not in the textbook)
Identify Your Change Script

Purpose
Previous experiences in life can often influence the way we see the world. These tightly
held assumptions/beliefs are often subconsciously affecting our attitude to situations in
such a way that there is a strong bias. The aim of this exercise is to increase the
awareness of some of the “scripts” that students have in relation to change.
The Task
People’s previous experiences of change provide them with a “script”- a set of
assumptions/beliefs as to what happens in a situation of organizational change. Based
on your previous experiences of organizational change, what are your expectations in
terms of what events/actions/outcomes will follow the announcement of a program of
change in an organization?
Format:
• Individual only
Materials:
• Read through the initial sections on resistance to change (p. 250-261)
Time Required:
This exercise is estimated to take 5-15 minutes (excluding above reading) depending on
the student’s experiences and their willingness and/or ability to identify their
assumptions.
Undergraduate:
Students with limited professional experience may need to select another type of
organization other than a business to be able to draw on their past experience of change.
MBA/Executive:
Students with professional experience would probably have more experience of change
than the undergraduates but may not be very aware of their attitude to previous change.

• Students without professional work experience may feel they don’t have an
example to use to answer this question. The criteria for the exercise could be
broadened to be an organizational routine they experienced (or are familiar
with because of the experience of a partner or family member) while at
school, in a club (sport or association), while in a summer job, or in a
church or formalised group (debating team, or as a volunteer on a project).
The main criteria would be that they were involved over time, and they are
familiar with the procedure of “how things were done”.
Page 12
• This is an awareness exercise, so some students may find this uncomfortable

and have difficulty analysing their responses. This will especially be true for
the students who are looking for the “right” answers. This could be a
challenging or threatening exercise for some students, and the instructor can
help the process by emphasizing that any written work submitted for this
exercise will be kept confidential on request.
• Possibly this exercise should only be graded pass/fail in relation to effort
made to complete the work, not in relation to the revelations that they share
in their answers.
• It may be useful to set a length limit on the answer, e.g., one page. Indicate
whether you require a short essay or whether a set of bullet points is ok. At
its most basic, the requirement could be just for a set of adjectives.
Debriefing
The scripts that people have produced can provide an interesting basis for discussion of
people’s experiences of change. They can also be used to make the point that managers
who are placed in the situation of managing change are likely to face a situation where
the people they are dealing with have such scripts. These scripts will influence the
reaction of people to proposed changes independent of the actions of the current
manager of change.

experience and education level of the students.
Some guidance should be give
People’s previous experiences of change provide them with a “script”- a set of

assumptions/beliefs as to what happens in a situation of organizational change. Based
on your previous experiences of organizational change, what are your expectations in
terms of what events/actions/outcomes will follow the announcement of a program of
change in an organization?
Note: Choose the format that suits you; for example, one option is bullet points;
another is a narrative (story-like) approach.
A good answer would reveal the student’s thoughts and feelings about change.
Page 13
ADDITIONAL EXERCISE (not in the textbook)
Preventing Resistance
Purpose
Resistance takes many forms, and can be the cause for the failure of a potentially good
change program. Understanding resistance involves the ability to identify it, and then
take action to diminish its effect. The reason for resistance to a change can vary from
one person to another and from one situation to the next. This exercise is to help equip
students with some options for dealing with resistance.
The Task
Listed below are a number of reasons why people may be resistant to a change. For
each of the reasons, identify at least one action that could be taken by management to
reduce the prospect that it will be a significant source of resistance.
Reason for Resistance Proposed Action

Innate dislike of change
Low tolerance of uncertainty
Perceived negative effects on interests
Attachment to organization culture/identity
Perceived breach of psychological contract
Lack of conviction that change is needed
Lack of clarity as to what is expected
Belief that the proposed changes are inappropriate
Perception that the timing is wrong
Too much change
Cumulative effect of other life changes
Perceived ethical conflict
Legacy of past changes
Disagreement with how the change is being managed
Format:
• Individual or small groups of three to four students.
Materials:
• Read the chapter (pp.249-277),
• Flip chart/easel and paper if exercise is completed in groups.
Page 14
Time Required:
This exercise lists fourteen reasons for resistance that can be applied to almost any
situation. If class time is limited the list could be split in two, with each group having
to find proposed actions for only seven of the reasons for resistance. Completing the
exercise in this manner would only take 20 minutes. At the end of the time the groups
could present their information back to the whole class. If a longer time for the
exercise is available, then students could work in smaller groups. If this is presented as
an individual exercise for assessment the time required to complete the exercise would
be up to two hours.
Undergraduate:
Students may not be sure how to complete the exercise. To avoid this problem, the
instructor can select four of the reasons for resistance (from the list) and discuss the
associated proposed actions in class. These examples should help students to
understand how to work with the other ten reasons for resistance in the exercise. The
exercise could then be completed individually or in small groups.
MBA/Executive:
This exercise could be very dynamic if completed in groups of three to four, with each
group assigned two or three reasons for resistance being required to find at least three
proposed actions for each one. This could then be presented by the groups back to the
whole class. The exercise could then be extended to have the students try to rank the
proposed action for each resistance to change in order of assessed effectiveness.

• Lack of business experience could be overcome by challenging students to
think of situations in school, people they know from clubs, children who do
not want to do something, or even ideas from movies they have seen.
Debriefing
If the instructor has a few humorous stories describing the extent to which people will
go to resist change, this will illustrate the topic well and make the information more
memorable. Remind students that even though some of the stories are funny, the
situations for those involved were often very serious. After listening to these stories of
resistance, students could be asked to suggest what they think would be a proposed
action that would be appropriate.

experience and education level of the students. The cited actions should draw from the
range of strategies discussed in the section “Managing Resistance” (pp.263-269).
Page 15

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Chapter 08 - Resistance to Change

Solution Manual for Managing Organizational

Download full test bank at:

Images of Resistance to Change

Image of Perspective on Resistance to Change

The behavioural manifestation of resistance may take active or passive forms.

People resist change for a number of reasons, including:

Sidebars in the Text

Exercises and Answers

Diagnosing and Acting

Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

Guidelines for Answers to Questions

2. What form did the resistance take?

3. What were your first thoughts (anger, betrayal, confusion, relief)?

4. What made you decide that you had to do something?

5. What actions did you take?

7. If you could “rewind the tape,” what would you do differently?

EXERCISE 8.2 (p.270)

Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

Guidelines for Answers to Questions

The answer to the question would include the following considerations:

Case Analysis: Moneyball

1. Who is resisting this change and why?

2. What behaviours are used to demonstrate that resistance?

3. What role do emotions play, on both sides of this argument?

Emotions: Radical change can be an emotionally-charged process. Change leaders

emotional responses of others. Emotional displays can also be used effectively to

ADDITIONAL EXERCISE (not in the textbook)

Identify Your Change Script

Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

• This is an awareness exercise, so some students may find this uncomfortable

Guidelines for Answers to Questions

Some guidance should be give

People’s previous experiences of change provide them with a “script”- a set of

ADDITIONAL EXERCISE (not in the textbook)

Reason for Resistance Proposed Action

Potential Problems and Helpful Hints

Guidelines for Answers to Questions

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