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

Wayne H. Bovey Bovey guidance (Certified Consultants), Queensland, Australia Andy Hede University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Keywords

organizational change, Resistance, Individual behaviour, Organizational behaviour

Introduction
Organizational change causes individuals to experience a reaction process (Kyle, 1993). Scott and Jaffe (1988) cast the process as consisting of four phases, namely: initial denial, resistance, inert exploration, and eventual commitment. Resistance is a natural and normal answer to change because change a good deal involves going from the known to the recondite (Coghlan, 1993; Steinburg, 1992; Myers and Robbins, 1991; Nadler, 1981; Zaltman and Duncan, 1977). Not only do individuals experience change in different ways (Carnall, 1986), they also differ in their skill and willingness to adapt to change (Darling, 1993). This paper investigates whether a relationship exists amid an individuals cognitive and affective processes and their willingness to adapt to major organizational change.



This issuance is important because the failure of many corporate change programs is oftentimes directly attributable to employee resistance (Maurer, 1997; Spiker and Lesser, 1995; Regar et al., 1994; Martin, 1975). For example, a longitudinal report of 500 large organizations found employee resistance was the most oft cited problem encountered by management when implementing change (Waldersee and Griffiths, 1997). More than one-half the organizations in that survey experienced difficulties with employee resistance. Successfully managing resistance is a major challenge for change initiators and is arguably of greater grandness than any other aspect of the change process (OConnor, 1993). Management usually focuses on the technical elements of change with a object to neglect the equally important human element which is often crucial to the...If you want to get a full essay, social club it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com



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