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Change agent's contribution to recipients' resistance to change: A two-sided story

Vos, Janita F.J ; Rupert, Joyce

European management journal, 2018-08, Vol.36 (4), p.453-462 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

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  • Title:
    Change agent's contribution to recipients' resistance to change: A two-sided story
  • Author: Vos, Janita F.J ; Rupert, Joyce
  • Subjects: Change leadership behavior ; Change recipient ; Resistance to change ; Change agent ; Change depth ; ORGANIZATIONAL-CHANGE ; CHANGE MANAGEMENT ; IMPLEMENTATION ; CONFLICT ASYMMETRY ; CONVERSATIONS ; TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ; SENSEMAKING ; RADICAL CHANGE ; LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE ; Good ; PLANNED CHANGE
  • Is Part Of: European management journal, 2018-08, Vol.36 (4), p.453-462
  • Description: In the change management literature, most studies on recipients' resistance to change include only the views of agents or of recipients, thereby ignoring that these parties may have different perceptions. In this quantitative study, we include the perceptions of both parties in studying the recipients' resistance and the impact of the agent's leadership behavior. In a sample of 117 agent-recipients groupings, covering 110 different change projects in 90 organizations, we found that agents perceive higher levels of recipients' resistance than do the recipients themselves. Additionally, we found that agents who create space to enable recipients to think and act differently (by employing creating behavior) report higher levels of recipients' resistance, whereas recipients perceive their resistance to be lowered when agents facilitate an emotional connection to the change (framing behavior). The depth of the change appeared to moderate the relationship between agent's leadership behavior and recipients' resistance, indicating that agents and recipients differ in which change leadership behaviors they perceive as increasing or decreasing resistance at different levels of change depth. These findings imply to reconsider the relationship between agent and recipients and we propose some promising avenues for future studies in resistance research.
  • Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 0263-2373
    EISSN: 1873-5681
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2017.11.004
  • Source: ScienceDirect Government Edition
    ScienceDirect Polish National Consort 2007
    ScienceDirect Journals (5 years ago present)
    ScienceDirect Social & Behavioral Sciences College Edition Backfile
    Elsevier:ScienceDirect:Business, Management And Accounting Subject Collection:2018
    Medium Multidisciplinary Collection [ECMMC]
    ScienceDirect Journals (Transactional Access)
    Narcis: Open Access
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