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User resistance to change has been identified as a significant cause of information system (IS) implementation failure. Previous studies have proposed antecedents of user resistance to change. However, whether project leadership (e.g. authoritarian leadership) can lead to user resistance to change remains unclear. By drawing on project leadership, affective event theory and contingency theory of leadership, the authors address this void by empirically examining whether authoritarian leadership can lead to user resistance to change through the mediation of negative emotion and whether the magnitude of this mediation depends on the power distance level.

This study examines the authors’ research model that integrates authoritarian leadership, negative emotion, power distance and user resistance to change using data from a matched-pair survey of 278 users and their supervisors involved in IS project implementation in China.

Negative emotion plays a mediating role in the relationship of authoritarian leadership and user resistance to change. In addition, power distance moderates the relationship between authoritarian leadership and negative emotion and the indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on user resistance to change in IS project implementation through negative emotion.

The authors’ research provides a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents of user resistance to change in IS project implementation and ultimately contributes to the IS project implementation literature and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of organizational culture in governing the dynamics of resistance and facilitation of change by explicating the operational mechanisms underlying the Model of Organizational Change in Cultural Context (OC3 Model).

A conceptual definition of facilitation is introduced that parallels the psychosocial construction of resistance, while departing from traditional views that cast these constructs as polar opposites. Within the context of the OC3 Model, a multifaceted perspective on organizational change is advanced in which facilitation takes place alongside of, rather than in the absence of, resistance.

Two sources of resistance and facilitation are delineated, both stemming from the degree of cultural alignment of the content (strategic initiatives) and process (implementation strategies) elements of strategic change. The dynamic interplay of these independent sources of resistance and facilitation is explored within the context of the OC3 Model where the consequences of cultural alignment or misalignment are considered with respect to change implementation and linked to established theory and empirical evidence. Four interaction effects emerge from this analysis: augmentation, undermining, prevailing and immunity. A visual model illuminating the countervailing effects of facilitation on resistance is provided, along with illustrative examples derived from multiple ethnographic field studies.

Theoretical and practical implications of these interaction effects for advancing scholarship and leading organizational change are explored.

Articulating this theoretical extension of the OC3 Model provides a valuable corrective to extant theories of change that afford equal importance to all culturally embedded sources of resistance and fail to account for the counter balancing effects of facilitation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential barriers to deployment of information technology (IT) projects and evaluate strategies to overcome them in hotel companies.

Empirical data were collected through a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews from IT managers, chief information officers, and hotel general managers.

The research findings demonstrate that barriers to IT implementation occur in three different stages. They are pre-implementation (cost and return on investment, resistance by owners/executives); during the implementation (integration, time delays, vendor communication problems, and resistance by employees); and post-implementation (inadequate training and resistance from customers).

The research findings suggest a contingency approach where organizations should employ various specific strategies depending on the situation to overcome these barriers. Multiple theoretical perspectives should be utilized to evaluate potential barriers to IT projects and utilize specific strategies to overcome them.

This is one of the first empirical studies which provide specific theoretical and practical implications on barriers when implementing IT projects in hotels.

This paper aims to expose the behaviours through which modern professional people commonly obstruct information system (IS) implementations in their workplace. Users often resist IS implementations, and it has been established that this can cause an implementation to fail. As the initial analysis of an on-going research project, this paper does not yet seek to present IS resistance as a good or a bad thing, it simply identifies and codifies forms of IS resistance.

Inductive interviews with IS implementers threw light on 29 resisted projects across 21 organisations. Interviewees were introduced to established theories of attitude change from social and cognitive psychology then asked to reflect on their experiences of IS implementations using these theories as a lens.

Although it is not claimed that all approaches by which users obstruct IS implementations are identified here, we believe that those most commonly deployed have been uncovered. It is also revealed that such behaviours result from negative user attitudes and that their impact can be significant. They can emotionally or psychologically affect system champions and can often cause implementation projects to fail.

Our method was based on an epistemic assumption that significant understanding is found in the experience and knowledge (tacit and explicit) of IS implementation experts. The paper’s contents are drawn from reflections on a combined 302 years of experience using attitude change psychology as a lens. Using this method, a range of obstructive behaviours was identified. Although it is claimed that the obstructive behaviours most commonly deployed have been unveiled, it is not probable that this list is comprehensive and could be appended to using alternative approaches.

This paper has significant implications for stakeholders in IS implementations. It enables project risks originating from users to be better identified, and it highlights the critical role that negative user attitudes can play in an implementation.

This paper considers a common area of conflict in professional organisations, modelling its nature and effect. It also encourages system champions to consider user attitude cultivation as a critical part of any implementation project.

The contribution of this research is twofold. In the arena of user resistance, it is the first to focus on how implementations are resisted and is accordingly the first to identify and taxonomise forms of IS resistance. A contribution is also made to an ongoing literature conversation on the role of attitude in technology acceptance. This paper is the first to focus, not on user attitudes but on how negative attitudes are manifest in behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the resistance behavior of smart factories in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing upon dual factor perspective, this study examines how two types of quality and perceived usefulness impact user resistance as enabling factors and how switching cost, skepticism, habit and inertia contribute to user resistance as inhibiting factors. Additionally, multi-group analysis is employed to compare small and medium enterprises.

Purposive sampling technique was employed to collect 460 Korean SMEs employees, consisting of 235 small enterprises and 225 medium enterprises. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

The results reveal that all three inhibiting factors, switching cost, skepticism and habit, are key antecedents of inertia. In small enterprises, skepticism has a greater impact on inertia, which in turn strongly affects resistance. Additionally, system quality is more crucial for small enterprises, whereas information quality holds more importance for medium enterprises in mitigating resistance. Moreover, when the implementation level of a smart factory is high, the effect of perceived usefulness on user resistance diminishes.

This study has revealed the importance of considering both enabling and inhibiting factors for the adoption of smart factory systems in the context of SMEs. Additionally, it has provided evidence that as the level of the smart factory system increases, the effect of perceived usefulness on user resistance decreases, thus making the transition to smart factory systems more challenging.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the post–enterprise resource planning (ERP) issues and challenges in the context of Saudi Arabia. There is a lack of research in the context of developing countries regarding post-ERP implementation issues and challenges. The high failure rate of the ERP system is a reflection of many management issues that occurred at different phases of ERP implementation. Previous research indicated that even after a successful implementation, the ERP system was unable to sustain itself in the organizations.

An exploratory case study design was adopted to proceed with this research process at two organizations in Saudi Arabia. The interviews of the top and middle management are conducted and transcribed. These case studies were further analyzed using the Creswell approach to generate several themes, and descriptions provided a deeper understanding of the post ERP implementation issues and challenges.

Research findings show that for successful ERP implementation, identified factors are top management support, integration, strategy, employee resistance, BPR, change management, vendor selection, team formation and culture. Moreover, factors for the post-ERP implementation that led to sustainability are top management support, training, system adoption, system testing, data migration, cost overrun, employee retention and post-implementation support.

This study is unique in its type to examine the issues and challenges organizations face after deploying ERP initiatives. This research's findings were useful and supportive for the senior management interested in successfully sustaining such an initiative in the organization.

Electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) has become the latest paradigm in the world of customer relationship management. Recent business surveys suggest that up to 50 per cent of such implementations do not yield measurable returns on investment. A secondary analysis of 13 case studies suggests that many of these limited success implementations can be attributed to usability and resistance factors. The objective of this paper is to review the general usability and resistance principles in order to build an integrative framework for analyzing eCRM case studies. The conclusions suggest that if organizations want to get the most from their eCRM implementations they need to revisit the general principles of usability and resistance and apply them thoroughly and consistently.

The purpose of this study was to explore and interpret how frontline leaders define, experience and rationalise their approaches to the successful implementation of clinical guidelines in mental health care.

Employing an interpretative phenomenological design, the authors conducted and analysed individual interviews of frontline leaders at 14 psychiatric clinics involved in a national study of implementing evidence-based clinical guidelines in mental health.

The authors found a broad spectrum of attitudes and attributes, as well as a wide repertoire of strategies for frontline implementation leadership. Three main approaches were revealed, comprising “Curious and welcoming”, “Integrity and setting standards” and “Caring and collegial”.

The study present what experienced frontline leaders emphasise to enable implementation of guidelines, not empirical pieces of evidences for what they in fact do or if these actions lead to implementation. The generalisability to other settings is unknown. Another sample profile, context or organisational level may have impacted the result. The concreteness of the frontline leaders’ considerations, approaches and actions gives important knowledge about frontline leaders leadership across traditional leadership theories.

Existing leadership theories describe different leadership styles, while this study reveals the need for a wide range of approaches to balance the many needs and demands. The complexity of leadership approaches this study found is in line with implementation theories; thus, the present study incorporates implementation science into the leadership literature.

Puts forward an “ideal Islamic administration model” (based on Islamic principles “synthesized with modern thought”), explains the role of the Islamist as change agent and outlines the sources, process, outcome, implementation methods and end results of administrative development in Muslim countries. Discusses implementation methods in more detail, contrasting the informal/personal method with the formal/institutional method suitable for Islamic states. Considers the effects on society of introducing the Islamic model and the likely sources of resisteance to it.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the large case of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation in Latin America, performed between 2011 and 2015 in a Brazilian, multinational, publicly traded company. Using the organizational change literature as background, this research analyzes the barriers and factors of success by comparing the perspectives of ERP implementers and end-users, identifying success factors and barriers of this project. A conceptual framework is developed.

The case study method was used to conduct an in-depth analysis of the interviews that captured the complexity of this process. The change management project team had exactly 11 implementers, of whom ten were interviewed, and 45 end-users, of whom 20 were interviewed.

The results suggest that end-users and implementers have opposite perceptions regarding the role of previous experience, organizational processes, capacity for change, leadership behavior, and the interaction of business units. In general, implementers presented a more critical perception of the change processes. Conversely, implementers and end-users agreed that business needs and cultural values facilitated the ERP implementation, whereas organizational structure and geographic dispersion constrain it.

This research could have analyzed the results by region or by production line.

The major contribution of this research is to offer a conceptual framework to analyze different views about the same project. This study deepens the understanding of ERP implementations by adding studies from other countries and different cultures. For practitioners, this case study aims to offer the experiences and perceptions that implementers and end-users had about the largest ERP implementation system in Latin America.