Resistance to Organizational Change: The role of cognitive and affective

processes
Synopsis:
Resistance to organizational change is seen as one of the barrier to organizational expansion and
growth due to its negative consequences. This study therefore sought to investigate the factors
that influence resistance to organizational change. The paper also outlines an intervention
strategy to guide management in developing a method for approaching resistance when
implementing major change. Organizations operate within an increasingly volatile environment
and are in a state of constant change. The pressure to change stems from a variety of internal and
external sources such as political, economic, social and technological factors conceive that
organizational change is aimed at adapting to the environment, improvement in performance and
changes in employees behavioral patterns at the work place. For the sake of survival, growth, and
having a competitive advantage, organizations have attempted to anticipate and adapt to changes
through strategies including organizational redesign, which often embodies changing the very
culture of the organization.

Issues:

Does a relationship exist between an individuals cognitive and affective processes and

their willingness to adapt to major organizational change?

How much influential is the Employee resistance in corporate changes?
Are the irrational ideas positively correlated with behavioral intentions to resist change?

Arguments and Opinion:

According to Damanpour (1991), managers attitudes to change determine employee
participation and the successful development of programs of change, which suggests that
individuals cognitive processes constitute a determining factor in processes of organizational
change. Moreover, part of the reason for the failure of many change programs in organizations is
precisely individuals resistance to the change (Bovey & Hede, 2001). This fact alone justifies
the analysis of peoples cognitive processes as a component of organizational

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 4th

Page 1

Resistance to Organizational Change: The role of cognitive and affective

processes
change. However, the literature on this issue includes many speculations about the relationship
between individual cognition, individual emotion and resistance to change, speculations fuelled
in part by a lack of empirical support. From the cognitive point of view, three basic types of
explanation of resistance can be identified. The first refers to resistance as a natural and normal
process generated by distorted beliefs or by individuals tendency to assess situations using
extreme categories. The second measures resistance as the intention to resist, and analyzes
resistance as the set made up of perception of the impact of change, of irrational ideas and of
affect (Bovey & Hede, 2001). The third attributes resistance to a negative emotional reaction
activated by the inconsistencies and discrepancies between the cognitive schemes of individuals
and those present in the proposals for change (George & Jones, 2001).
In today's economy, change is all-pervasive in organizations. It happens continuously, and often
at rapid speed. Because change has become an everyday part of organizational dynamics,
employees who resist change can actually cripple an organization. Resistance is an predictable
response to any major change. Individuals naturally rush to defend the status quo if they feel
their security or status is threatened. Folger & Skarlicki (1999) claim that "organizational change
can generate skepticism and resistance in employees, making it sometimes difficult or impossible
to implement organizational improvements". If management does not understand, accept and
make an effort to work with resistance, it can undermine even the most well-intentioned and
well-conceived change efforts. Coetsee (1999) states "any management's ability to achieve
maximum benefits from change depends in part of how effectively they create and maintain a
climate that minimizes resistant behavior and encourages acceptance and support"
From the article, it can be clearly analyzed that there is a huge impact of employee resistance in
corporate change. We all know that change creates anxiety and fear. The current state has
tremendous holding power, and the possibility of losing what we have grown accustom to (and
comfortable with) creates worry and anxiety. For many employees, the future state of workplace
changes is often unknown or ill-defined, and this uncertainly creates fear about what lies ahead.
These physical and emotional reactions are powerful enough by themselves to create resistance
to change. It is likely that each of us have experienced these reactions in our own lives, whether
at work or at home. But there is more to resistance than our emotional response. From a change
management perspective, we must examine the other drivers that influence an employees
Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 4th

Page 2

Resistance to Organizational Change: The role of cognitive and affective

processes
resistance to change. A good place to start is the nature of the change itself and how this change
is impacting the employee:

Were they involved with designing the change?

Do they know why the change is being made?
Do they believe that the reasons for making the change are valid?
Do they trust the senders of the change messages within the organization?
How will the change impact them and their personal situation?

Talking about the ideas, it does have a correlation with the behavioral intention to resist change.
According to conceptual framework, the construct cognition is operationalized as the
independent variable irrational ideas. The cognitive approach that an individual holds to have an
automatic thoughts that integrates what has been described as faulty or irrational and this whole
assumption leads to emotional and behavioral disturbance. Beck (1988) describes that
individuals have a tendency to develop a self schema about themselves and their life events that
results in an attitude and is consistently cynical. There are few references to irrational ideas and
cognitive distortion and their influence on resistance to organizational change. According to
Coghalan and Rashford (1990), there is an argument that non adaptive thinking thrive the
workplace. During organizational change individuals create their own interpretation about the
situation like what is going to happen, how they themselves are perceived and what other are
thinking or intending. When there is an absence of adequate information, cognitive distortions
impair an individuals relationship with the organization. If these circumstances are not handled,
the resistance to change will increase. It is therefore can be stated that the individuals with higher
level of irrational ideas will have higher levels of resistance to organizational change.

Methodology:

Study Design:
The main purpose of this study is to test hypothesis to examine the strength of
relationships between the variables and is designed in natural setting with the minimal

research and without the interference of organizational activities.

Study Location and Sample:

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 4th

Page 3

Resistance to Organizational Change: The role of cognitive and affective

processes
The study was done in Brisbane, Australia in 9 separate organizations in the research and
the organizations consisted of federal government corporations and agencies, state
government departments and agencies, local government and large private sector
organizations.

Sample Size:
A total of 615 useable questionnaires were returned at a response rate of 39 percent.

Instrument:
The broad objective of this study is to evaluate for measuring the independent variable
so, the Irrational belief scale, Emotion Scale and behavioral intention Scale were
used for this purpose.

Data Collection Method:

For irrational belief scale, the scale is a 20 items self administered questionnaire
developed to measure Ellis irrational beliefs and consists of two items for each of the ten
irrational ideas as mentioned in Table I of the article. For emotion Scale 20 item scale is
measure both positive and negative moods and for behavioral intention scale, a 20 item
seven point interval scale was developed to measure the dependent variable behavioral
intentions to resist. This scale was designed to measure both supportive and resistant
behavior.

Contribution and gaps of the article:

There are different illustrations approached from the research. A descriptive analysis of the
significance of change scale shows that approximately 90 percent of respondents believe that the
change in their organization affects them at least moderately. Whereas 2.1 percent reported that
they are not affected by the change. 8.2 percent of the respondent is affected by a small amount,
whereas 20.2 percent by moderate amount and 32.2 percent by a large amount. And remaining
37.3 percent reported being affected by a great deal. Thus the majority of the respondents
experiences high impact of organizational change.
From the analysis done from Table II of the article, six factors were identified. The irrational
ideas need approval and fear failure. An interrelationship also exists for inert existence,
doesnt not accept reality and doesnt control ones destiny. Other ideas like influenced by
Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 4th

Page 4

Resistance to Organizational Change: The role of cognitive and affective

processes
personal history, blames self/others, avoid life difficulties and feels depressed when
frustrated each loaded on separate factors. A factor analysis was done on the emotion scale
identified three factors. The two dimensions good natured grouchy and elated depressed lied
on the same factor and also the two dimension confident-unsure and relaxed anxious lied on
the same factor indicating comparable in the underlying structure. Energetic-fatigued was the
only dimension to load different on its own. A factor analysis was done on the behavioral
intention scale. Three factors were identified which are overt support for change, covert
resistance to change and passive neutrality toward change.
There are few gaps which can be acknowledged for the better research and result through the
analysis. The sample location extends to only government organization and the working
environment is very different of governmental organization compared private organizations. And
thus the study adopts non probability sampling rather doing probability sampling for the better
outcome. The data collection method was structured which did not allow the respondents other
significant variables that may be associated with the resistance to change. And also the self
reporting questionnaire was subjective rather than objectives. If these gaps are properly filled,
the hypothesis proved will be enhanced.

Future Research and Conclusion:

Employee resistance to change is a complex issue facing management in the complex and everevolving organization of today. The process of change is ubiquitous, and employee resistance has
been identified as a critically important contributor to the failure of many well-intend and wellconceived efforts to initiate change within the organization. In many cases, vast amounts of
resources are expended by organizations to adjust employees to a new way of achieving desired
goals. Management must also seriously take into account and consider the numerous of problems
that may result if they are not responsive to issues of resistance in the workplace. In order to
facilitate a smooth transition from the old to the new, organizations must be competent in
effective change management. The process of change management consists of getting of those
involved and affected to accept the introduced changes as well as manage any resistance to them.
This investigation stresses that change usually involves an individual's awareness, so there are no
Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 4th

Page 5

Resistance to Organizational Change: The role of cognitive and affective

processes
concrete textbook answers and solutions to the problem. Since each individual is different, their
perceptions and reasons for resisting are also different. As a result, researchers and scholars can
conceive on how to lessen or remove employee resistance to change, but in the final analysis the
only way to do so effectively is to understand the unique circumstances within each individual
that is causing their particular resistance.

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 4th

Page 6