Resistance to organizational change: the role of cognitive and affective processes

Abstract

Most previous studies of organizational change and resistance take an organizational perspective as opposed to an individual perspective. This paper investigates the relationship between irrational ideas, emotion and resistance to change. Nine organizations implementing major change were surveyed providing data from 615 respondents. The analysis showed that irrational ideas are positively correlated with behavioural intentions to resist change. Irrational ideas and emotion together explain 44 percent of the variance in intentions to resist. Also outlines an intervention strategy to guide management in developing a method for approaching resistance when implementing major change.

Citation

Bovey, W.H. and Hede, A. (2001), "Resistance to organizational change: the role of cognitive and affective processes", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 22 No. 8, pp. 372-382. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110410099