IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v13y2023i7p162-d1188811.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organizational Change: The Challenge of Change Aversion

Author

Listed:
  • Jason A. Hubbart

    (School of Natural Resources, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA)

Abstract

Organizational change has been investigated for decades, with many works addressing change adoption challenges. Change aversion, like change resistance, is not uncommon, but going unchecked can reduce organizational change initiative success. This communication aims to provide a concise in-road for students and practitioners to the organizational change and change aversion literature. An attempt is made to enter this complicated discussion in a way that may assist the reader in understanding what change aversion is, how vital acceptance of organizational change is, and that there are operational practices that can facilitate a culture of change acceptance. Aversion to change may result from many factors, including (but not limited to) fear of the unknown, discomfort over a potential loss of control, and the instinctive tendency to prefer the familiar over the unfamiliar. However, despite advancements in the administration of inevitable organizational change moments, challenges related to change resistance can always occur, particularly lacking effective change leadership. Leadership can address resistance early, thus more readily guaranteeing a positive and productive organizational change outcome. Offering employees quality jobs and an inclusive, empathetic, and considerate environment can lead to early organizational buy-in and change acceptance, thereby improving long-term organization efficiencies and outputs. Ultimately, organizational change initiatives are most likely to succeed with buy-in and acceptance, thereby enabling businesses to remain competitive in a continuously evolving environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason A. Hubbart, 2023. "Organizational Change: The Challenge of Change Aversion," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-9, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:13:y:2023:i:7:p:162-:d:1188811
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/13/7/162/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/13/7/162/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jason A. Hubbart, 2022. "Organizational Change: Considering Truth and Buy-In," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Erdogan, Berrin & Bauer, Talya N. & Peiró, José María & Truxillo, Donald M., 2011. "Overqualified Employees: Making the Best of a Potentially Bad Situation for Individuals and Organizations," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 215-232, June.
    3. Broadberry, Stephen & Wallis, John, 2017. "Growing, Shrinking and Long Run Economic Performance: Historical Perspectives on Economic Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 11973, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Claudia Peus & Dieter Frey & Marit Gerkhardt & Peter Fischer & Eva Traut-Mattausch, 2009. "Leading and Managing Organizational Change Initiatives," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 20(2), pages 158-175.
    6. Claudia Peus & Dieter Frey & Marit Gerkhardt & Peter Fischer & Eva Traut-Mattausch, 2009. "Leading and Managing Organizational Change Initiatives," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 20(2), pages 158-175.
    7. Keow Ngang Tang, 2019. "Leadership and Change Management," SpringerBriefs in Business, Springer, number 978-981-13-8902-3, October.
    8. Paul Collins & Alan Doig & Mari‐Liis Sööt & Kadri Rootalu, 2012. "Institutional Trust And Opinions Of Corruption," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(1), pages 82-95, February.
    9. Steinar Askvik & Ishtiaq Jamil, 2013. "The Institutional Trust Paradox in Bangladesh," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 459-476, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ilona Lipowska & Marcin Lipowski & Dariusz Dudek & Radosław Mącik, 2024. "Switching Behavior in the Polish Energy Market—The Importance of Resistance to Change," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Jason A. Hubbart, 2023. "Harmonizing Science and Society: A Change Management Approach to Align Scientific Endeavors with Societal Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-13, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joanna Georgalis & Ramanie Samaratunge & Nell Kimberley & Ying Lu, 2015. "Change process characteristics and resistance to organisational change: The role of employee perceptions of justice," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 89-113, February.
    2. Suada Penava & Dzevad Sehic, 2014. "The Relevance Of Transformational Leadership In Shaping Employee Attitudes Towards Organisational Change," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 59(200), pages 131-162, January –.
    3. Mariana PREDI?CAN & Roxana Nadina ROIBAN, 2012. "Change Opportunity and its Importance for the Romanian SME`s," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 185-188.
    4. Martin Mabunda Baluku & Julius Fred Kikooma & Edward Bantu & Peter Onderi & Kathleen Otto, 2019. "Impact of personal cultural orientations and cultural intelligence on subjective success in self-employment in multi-ethnic societies," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, December.
    5. Seow Eng Ong & Davin Wang & Calvin Chua, 2023. "Disruptive Innovation and Real Estate Agency: The Disruptee Strikes Back," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 287-317, August.
    6. Herrmann, Tabea & Hübler, Olaf & Menkhoff, Lukas & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2016. "Allais for the poor," Kiel Working Papers 2036, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    7. Christiane Goodfellow & Dirk Schiereck & Steffen Wippler, 2013. "Are behavioural finance equity funds a superior investment? A note on fund performance and market efficiency," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(2), pages 111-119, April.
    8. Berg, Joyce E. & Rietz, Thomas A., 2019. "Longshots, overconfidence and efficiency on the Iowa Electronic Market," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 271-287.
    9. Reckers, Philip M.J. & Sanders, Debra L. & Roark, Stephen J., 1994. "The Influence of Ethical Attitudes on Taxpayer Compliance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(4), pages 825-836, December.
    10. Bier, Vicki & Gutfraind, Alexander, 2019. "Risk analysis beyond vulnerability and resilience – characterizing the defensibility of critical systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(2), pages 626-636.
    11. Sitinjak Elizabeth Lucky Maretha & Haryanti Kristiana & Kurniasari Widuri & Sasmito Yohanes Wisnu Djati, 2019. "Investor behavior based on personality and company life cycle," HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 23-38, August.
    12. Theo Arentze & Tao Feng & Harry Timmermans & Jops Robroeks, 2012. "Context-dependent influence of road attributes and pricing policies on route choice behavior of truck drivers: results of a conjoint choice experiment," Transportation, Springer, vol. 39(6), pages 1173-1188, November.
    13. van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. & Botzen, W.J.W., 2015. "Monetary valuation of the social cost of CO2 emissions: A critical survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 33-46.
    14. Frank D. Hodge & Roger D. Martin & Jamie H. Pratt, 2006. "Audit Qualifications of Income†Decreasing Accounting Choices," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 369-394, June.
    15. Philippe Fevrier & Sebastien Gay, 2005. "Informed Consent Versus Presumed Consent The Role of the Family in Organ Donations," HEW 0509007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ran Sun Lyng & Jie Zhou, 2019. "Household Portfolio Choice Before and After a House Purchase," Economics Working Papers 2019-01, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    17. Homonoff, Tatiana & Spreen, Thomas Luke & St. Clair, Travis, 2020. "Balance sheet insolvency and contribution revenue in public charities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    18. Shuang Yao & Donghua Yu & Yan Song & Hao Yao & Yuzhen Hu & Benhai Guo, 2018. "Dry Bulk Carrier Investment Selection through a Dual Group Decision Fusing Mechanism in the Green Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-19, November.
    19. Senik, Claudia, 2009. "Direct evidence on income comparisons and their welfare effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 408-424, October.
    20. Rand Kwong Yew Low, 2018. "Vine copulas: modelling systemic risk and enhancing higher‐moment portfolio optimisation," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(S1), pages 423-463, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:13:y:2023:i:7:p:162-:d:1188811. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.