Considerations Concerning The Management Of Resistance In Organizations

The difficulty of organisational change is often exacerbated by the mismanagement of resistance derived from a simple set of assumptions that misunderstand resistances essential nature. It is suggested that management may greatly gain from techniques that carefully manage resistance to change by looking for ways of utilising it rather than overcoming it. Today, suggestions and prescriptions for managing resistance have left little room for utility in resistance. Traditionally, resistance has been cast as adversarial the enemy of change that must be defeated if change is to be successful. This article suggests resistance may indeed be useful and is not to be simply discounted. The literature on change management contains numerous prerequisites for successful change, with a predominantly negative view on the issue of resistance to change. Some authors have argued for the positive utility of resistance, but have lamented a lack of management theories which support this view.