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Resistance to Change: Individual & Organizational Structural Perspective

Rebecca M. Price

Sandermoen School of Business, University of Fredericton

MBA 5025D: Leadership in Change Management

April 30, 2023

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Resistance to Change: Individual & Organizational Structural Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of resistance to change from the

perspective of both an individual employee or follower level, and of an organizational structure.

This paper will explore the obstacles faced by both organizations and individuals during a

change process, strategies for success, as well as both experiences gained, and lessons learned by

this author in the face of organizational resistance to change.

Business Problem: Resistance to Change

Universally, change and the feeling of increased pressure to change is an uncomfortable

human experience and in organizations, it can cause friction, disruption, and decreased

productivity if it is not managed with diligence. The problem of resistance to organizational

change, which can be defined as “the unwillingness to adapt to circumstances or ways of doing

things” (Spring, 2021), can affect both the individual employee or the organization as a whole.

The negative impact of resistance to change can range from reduced productivity and

performance to conflicts in the workplace, financial impacts, and employee turnover. Changes in

an organization do not fail due to technical reasons but because organizational leaders did not

attend to the healthy, real, and predictable reactions of people to the disturbances in their routines

and the status quo (Palmer, 2003). Organizational leadership should strive to create strong lines

of communication with employees and engage them for feedback throughout the change process

to gauge satisfaction, address concerns, and alleviate resistance. Additionally, ensuring that there

are sufficient resources available to employees to support the change and proper monitoring of

the change’s progression can lower the amount of resistance within the organization.

Obstacles and Barriers to Change

Organizational Level

To develop successful strategies for minimizing organizational change resistance,

organizational leaders must understand the obstacles and barriers that businesses can face which
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cause or increase change resistance. Cummings & Worley (2019) establish three types of

resistance at the organizational level that can have technical, political, or cultural sources. When

an organization is committed to a certain work method or production process which is then

affected by a change, a technical resistance can occur (Cummings & Worley, 2019). Political

resistance can occur when conflict arises between members of the organization who will gain

certain influence and resources from the change and those who will lose them, and cultural

resistance can occur when there is diversity in existing values, norms, and beliefs (Cummings &

Worley, 2019). Organizational communication strategies can also become major obstacles to

change as without proper communication employees may have doubts that the change is

necessary for the organization. Without being provided proper information or affirming a strong

need for this change by organizational leaders, employees may resist the change initiative.

Employee Attributes and Behaviours

On an individual level, there are numerous attributes and behaviours that can contribute

to employees’ resistance to a change; the fear of the unknown, fear of loss, fear of failure,

disruption of relationships, certain personalities and internal politics are some of the main

reasons for rejecting change (Employee Behavior & Attitudes During Organizational Change,

2013). According to Cummings & Worley (2019), employees resist change when they are

uncertain about its causes or consequences and that lack of adequate information fuels rumors

and gossip that adds to the anxiety generally associated with change. The fear of the unknown

and fear of loss can become apparent when employees worry that a change will make their

working situation or the organization worse, when employees worry that the change will cause

job loss, or when employees anticipate changes to their workload, responsibilities, or necessary

skillset (Employee Behavior & Attitudes During Organizational Change, 2013). Employees of an

organization gain comfort in their routines and confidence in the tool or processes that they have

already mastered and inherently resist changes made to these affairs. In addition, individuals can
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also resist change due to resentment toward organizations who exclude them from the change

process and change-related decisions. Employees who are not included in the conversation or

decision making throughout a change initiative can feel blind-sided or targeted by the change

instead of feeling prepared and supported by the change.

Personal Reflection on Resistance to Change

Attributes and Behaviours

While in my workplace and in my personal life, I am typically very resistant to change

and have noticed that I often struggle with a fear of the unknown when faced with a change. I

tend to feel most confident in my work performance when I have mastered the technology and

programs necessary to complete daily tasks and projects. Recently at my current organization,

our executive leadership made changes to the programs we used by attempting to streamline

workflows and lower costs by removing multiple programs used in our business and replacing

them with a singular integrated program. Although I wasn’t resistant to the new program itself as

we were provided a great deal of information prior to its implementation and were assured it

would make working together between departments more cohesive, I feared the extra time it

would take to learn the program, the increased time it would take to complete my responsibilities

with an unfamiliar program, and that I wouldn’t be able to master it like I had previously. This

change in technology at my organization also brought forth a fear of failure – that the program

may not be as easy to learn, and I would get behind on my projects and responsibilities and in

turn, could put my job in jeopardy.

I believe the attribute I exhibit the most when it comes to organizational change is a

personal fear of the unknown. When organizational restructuring happens and coworkers are let

go from our company, it’s very easy to worry about how it will affect your day-to-day work or if

your position is also going to be let go. This tends to cause me to resist future changes at my

organization in fear of how the aftermath will play out.

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Guidelines for Followers to Support Change

An important guideline that should be accepted by followers to increase support for a

proposed organizational change is to embrace requests for feedback from leadership and promote

open communication. Organizations often struggle with responses when requesting feedback –

via surveys, forms, or questionnaires – from followers despite seeking feedback to learn from

employees. When a small number of followers respond with suggestions and concerns regarding

an organizational change, many issues can be missed, and employees can become unhappy when

changes are inevitably made. Followers must be positive advocates for responding to leadership

requests for feedback and take into consideration that their feedback is what helps management

make the right decisions for the organization. There must be change advocates at each level of

the organization to encourage ample feedback response throughout the company which will

allow leadership to make more informed decisions and gain follower support.

Another guideline that should be obeyed by followers is to view organizational changes

from the perspective of the organization rather than individually. Resistance to change can stem

from feeling that a change is only going to affect you and your own work but, if an organization

goes through a difficult change, followers need to realize they are going through this mutual

experience together as an organization. Supportive followers need to work together to help

leadership make a change a positive experience for the entire organization rather than resisting.

Personal Guideline Adherence

Although previously mentioned that I find myself unconsciously resisting due to the

unknown consequences of change, I am an advocate for completing feedback requests in my

organization. Whenever there is an opportunity to anonymously submit issues of concern or

suggestions to my organization regarding business processes, employee satisfaction, or potential

changes, I always submit my feedback with detail and examples when requested. I believe that

employee feedback can affect the trajectory of many potential initiatives within my organization,
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and I wouldn’t feel satisfied if my voice wasn’t heard when it was asked for. In contrast, I

believe I could do a better job in looking at a change from the perspective of the whole rather

than individually. I tend to not look at the big picture when change occurs and focus on how it

may cause problems for myself rather than how it may positively affect the entire organization.

Resistance Reduction Strategies

At my organization, leadership utilizes surveys and employee feedback when

implementing a change as well as holding small team discussion meetings to help reduce change

resistance. Both these strategies were used prior and during the change to our departments’ work

programs to gauge employee satisfaction and hear any concerns. Information was provided to

our team stating the purpose and goal of implementing this change and throughout the process

leadership looked to us for our input through anonymous surveys which were then discussed in

small team meetings.

I believe that these strategies were successful as our team did not feel that we were left

“in the dark” throughout the change implementation process, we felt that we were a part of the

decision-making process, and that our concerns were heard and acknowledged. Once our team

had discussed the concerns brought forward in the surveys, we were able to brainstorm potential

solutions which everyone agreed on and our manager was able to bring these suggestions and

solutions forward to executive leadership.

Practical Applications for My Organization

A lesson learned from this analysis that can be applied to my organization is that

employee feedback requests and communication needs to continue after an organizational

change has been fully implemented. When my organization implemented new technological

programs, they needed to allow a proper testing or trial period for employees who are ultimately

the end-users of the organizational change. I believe that no matter how much information

employees are provided before or during a change like a technology transition, it’s impossible to
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estimate how quickly end-users were learn the new technology or how well it will improve

productivity (if this is a business goal) until it is fully functional and in use. Even if a change has

been fully implemented, there is still a chance for change resistance to occur if leadership is now

following up. Assuming employees will immediately learn the new skills needed and boost

departmental collaboration and productivity isn’t always accurate and a grace period for

employees needs to be given to allow this transition to be successful. Our organization’s

communication strategies are strong prior-to and during the change process and there was

initially a very small amount of resistance but not allowing employees the opportunity to learn

the technology without the stress of leadership could have potentially caused resistance.

My role in applying these lessons would be to make sure that these concerns are

communicated with leadership when a change is being implemented in the future. Leadership

should be aware that they need to continue following up on employee feedback once the change

has been fully implemented and this is something that I would mention in a survey or during a

team brainstorming meeting.

Conclusion

As shown throughout this paper, resistance to change can be detrimental to the health and

stability of organizations who do not make the proper effort to support employees through the

implementation process. Although there are many obstacles which cause resistance to change in

organizations, individual employee resistance is the most important barrier that companies

should strive to reduce. Empowering employees, supporting their needs, and having empathy for

their concerns are the easiest ways for organizations to reduce resistance to change. An

organization whose employees feel that their voices are important and that their leadership is

seeking to do what is best for them is an organization strong enough to successfully achieve any

change.
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References

Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2019). Organization Development and Change. Cengage.

Boston, MA

Employee Behavior & Attitudes During Organizational Change. (2013, August 14). Retrieved

from https://study.com/academy/lesson/employee-behavior-attitudes-during-

organizational-change.html.

Palmer, B. (2003). Making change work: Practical tools for overcoming human resistance to

change. ASQ Quality Press.

Spring, K. (2021, October 27). Overcoming Resistance to Change within Your Organization.

BetterUp. https://www.betterup.com/blog/resistance-to-change