Resistance to Organizational Change
The causes of resistance to organizational change
The role of the individual in and the contribution of the change agent to the occurrence of resistance during change processes.
The causes of resistance to organizational change
The role of the individual in and the contribution of the change agent to the occurrence of resistance during change processes.
Master Thesis Name: Studentnumber: Date: Myrna van Engelen 1941623 6th of October, 2010
Business Administration – Management Consulting Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Supervisor: Dr. G.J. Schuiling Second reader: Drs. G.P. Melker
Source figure on frontpage: http://www.prsarichmond.org/attachments/wysiwyg/1/changes_next_exit.jpg
ABSTRACT
This research focuses on resistance to change from two perspectives. The first is the relation between the defense mechanisms of the individual and the intention to resist change. The second is the relation between interaction between the change agent and change recipient and resistance to change, i.e. the contribution of the change agent to resistance. A web-based questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data from 179 employees within several organizations in the Netherlands. The questionnaire consists of three parts. The first two parts are a retest of Bovey and Hede (2001) on the relation between defense mechanisms and the behavioral intention to resist change. The third part was a new developed scale based on the theory of Ford, Ford and d’Amelio (2008) on the role of the change agent in the occurrence of resistance. First, the reliability of the new scale to measure the contribution of the change agent was tested. After that, the relation between defense mechanisms, the contribution of the change agent and resistance to change was tested statistically. The results show that the scale on the contribution of the change agent is reliable. From the factor analysis several subscales were created, with keywords that are mostly in line with the concepts
The role of the individual in and the contribution of the change agent to the occurrence of resistance during change processes.
The causes of resistance to organizational change
The role of the individual in and the contribution of the change agent to the occurrence of resistance during change processes.
Master Thesis Name: Studentnumber: Date: Myrna van Engelen 1941623 6th of October, 2010
Business Administration – Management Consulting Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Supervisor: Dr. G.J. Schuiling Second reader: Drs. G.P. Melker
Source figure on frontpage: http://www.prsarichmond.org/attachments/wysiwyg/1/changes_next_exit.jpg
ABSTRACT
This research focuses on resistance to change from two perspectives. The first is the relation between the defense mechanisms of the individual and the intention to resist change. The second is the relation between interaction between the change agent and change recipient and resistance to change, i.e. the contribution of the change agent to resistance. A web-based questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data from 179 employees within several organizations in the Netherlands. The questionnaire consists of three parts. The first two parts are a retest of Bovey and Hede (2001) on the relation between defense mechanisms and the behavioral intention to resist change. The third part was a new developed scale based on the theory of Ford, Ford and d’Amelio (2008) on the role of the change agent in the occurrence of resistance. First, the reliability of the new scale to measure the contribution of the change agent was tested. After that, the relation between defense mechanisms, the contribution of the change agent and resistance to change was tested statistically. The results show that the scale on the contribution of the change agent is reliable. From the factor analysis several subscales were created, with keywords that are mostly in line with the concepts