How Can We Measure the “Resistance to Change”? An Exploratory Factor Analysis in a Sample of Employees in the Greek Hotel Industry

The hotel sector is vulnerable on changes. These changes usually occur on the hospitality’s sector environment. That leads on frequent changes which occur within the hotels. One of the side effects of this is the resistance on change. The current literature indicates that although resistance on change is something which is highly expected to occur, still there is a lack of empirical research as well as an instrument of research. The purpose of this paper is to develop an instrument of research on resistance to change among hotel employees; more precisely on four-star and five-star hotels in Greece. The research instrument was developed by (Oreg, Journal of Applied Psychology 88:680–693, 2003); it is made by four variables (routine seeking, emotional reaction to change, short-term focus and cognitive rigidity). The participants of the sample were 372 hotel employees. The findings indicate that the questionnaire was reliable, though the cognitive rigidity dimension as marginally accepted by the Cronbach Alpha test. The outcome of the pilot study indicated that the resistance to change can be avoided if the hotel management tries to implement a well programmed change where the employees will participate on the decisions. Regarding the instrument of research, the exploratory factor analysis indicated that item 15 (“I often change my mind”) and item 18 (“My views remain constant over time”) would both have to be removed. In addition, in the unrotated factor solution, item 18 also showed multicollinearity; however, it could be retained in analysis, because its loading into the first factor was adequately higher (>0.3). Hence, the instrument of research can be used on future research, though it may need some modifications regarding the cognitive rigidity variable.