Managing resistance and

organisational culture
Learning Objectives
 To understand resistance to organisational change
 To identify sources of resistance
 To understand what resistance means
 To examine managerial responses to resistance and
strategies that are used to respond to, and overcome
resistance
 To understand the impact of cultural diversity and levels
of economic development on the ability of the OD
professional to lead a planned change
Sources of Resistance to Change
 No general agreement
 Most research has focused on individual resistance to
change
 Others, have examined sources of resistance at different
stages in the implementation of a change process
 Others think that the focus should be on the drivers of
responses to change
Six Sources of Generalised
Disposition to Resist Change
What Do We Mean by Resistance?
 Lewin was one of the first to identify resistance to change
 Ford & Ford (2009) identify three ways of thinking about
resistance
 Mechanistic: natural and everyday; neutral; a product of
interactions
 Social: exceptional; detrimental; ‘over there, in them/it’
 Conversational: socially constructed meaning that can be
asserted and changed
 How and why do you resist change? Is it your
personality? Does it have to do with how you think about
change? Is it ‘bad’ or is it an important part of making
sure that people are treated well?
Managerial Responses to Resistance
 Managers employ a variety of strategies to deal with
resistance:
 Empathy and support for peoples’ responses
 Clear and effective communication about the change
 Ensure the involvement and participation of the maximum number of
people in the organisation and also key external stakeholders where
relevant
 They need to be able to identify excessive change
 Training is an important element in overcoming resistance
to change
 When do you consider resistance to change at work
justified and when is it not? Why do you think this?
Cooke’s (2009) ‘Reasons Why’ List
 Employees may know something that you do not know, which may, in
fact, make their resistance not only understandable but even correct
 People who are happy with the status quo will fight to protect it
 If they can see no clear path between their current state and the new
position then they cannot begin to move forwards
 If they do not believe they have the necessary skills to be successful
in the new order or are heavily invested in the current order then
again they will resist
 They need to have clear and credible role models of the new
behaviours
 They need to understand why the change is in their interests

 What other reasons do you think people might resist change at work?
Resources and Ground Rules
 Resources
 Access to client
 Commit and allocate time
 Ground Rules
 Specify how client and OD practitioner will collaborate
 Clarify applicable policies
 Confidentiality
Organisational Culture
Cultural Context
Economic Development

How do cultural context and economic development

affect the OD professional?
Cultural Context
• Based on the work of Geert Hofstede, Michael Bond and
others, it is now recognised that ethnic cultural diversity
has a significant impact on organisational culture
• Five important dimension have been identified as:
 Context orientation
 Power distance
 Uncertainty avoidance
 Achievement orientation
 Individualism
Cultural Values and Organisation Customs
Level of Economic Development
• It is now known that the success of planned change
approaches discussed here are dependent on the level of
industrialisation and economic development in the
country where the organisation operates
• Three levels of economic development have been
identified as:
 Subsistence economies
 Industrialising economies
 Industrialised economies
 Research now shows that planned organisational change
will have only limited success in some economic contexts
How Do Culture and Economic
Development Affect the OD
Professional?
 Subsistence economies offer little opportunity but some
industrialising and industrialised economies favour
planned change approaches
 Cultural context has significant impact on the success of
a planned change intervention. Central America, Eastern
Asia and Eastern Europe, all industrialised regions, do
not ‘fit’ well with traditional OD values
 There is no ‘one size fits all’ OD approach in a world that
is rapidly economically globalising
Summary
 Resistance and organisational culture impact significantly
on the potential success of a planned change strategy
 Resistance to organisational change takes many forms
 Resistance is not yet well-understood
 Management uses a variety of strategies to respond to,
and overcome, resistance
 Ethnic cultural context and level of economic
development, when considered together, affect the
effectiveness of the OD professional