Resistance to Change in Public Organizations

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Review of Articles
Amjad, A. & Rehma, M., 2018. Resistance to change in public organization: reasons and
how to overcome it. European Journal of Business Science and Technology, 4(1), pp. 57-68.
Summary
This article seeks to explore the sources of resistance to change and its effects on the
organization. The authors recognize the importance of change and how employees resist change
in the organization. Employees resist through different ways that vary from organization to
organization and are displayed in different ways. The study was based on a constructivist
approach and use of inductive reasoning through observation of employee's behavior when new
activities were implemented in the organization. Through a convenient sampling of the
respondents to determine the people who will participate in the study. Through the application of
Kurt Lewin's force field analysis, the study reported that push and pull factors exist in
organizations and as managers struggle to implement change in the organization, they must
understand the need to decrease the pull forces of resistance and increase the push forces of
change on the driving forces to achieve the required change. However, communication is
regarded as an important tool in achieving change since it ensures that employees understand the
need for change and how they will be able to cope with the new environment.
Critique
This study offers an organizational view of change and employee resistance to change. By
identifying the main factors for resistance, the authors present useful information that managers
can use in managing change and ensuring the efficiency of the organization. The research
proposes the use of communication and preparing employees before any new change is
implemented in the organization. By using constructivism inductive reasoning and observation,
this study offers qualitative findings on the issues that take place in organizations. Thus the
findings of this study can be replicated to other organizational areas and used for managing
change.
This study presents several weaknesses that make its generalization to the management of
organizational change difficult. The fact that the sample size was small means that it is difficult
to generalize the findings of the study since the reliability of any study is based on the size of the
sampling frame. Further, the use of qualitative study may not have measured the opinions, views
and even beliefs of the employees on the same topic. This means that the findings in this study
could be different if the study was done using a quantitative study design. Thus there is a need to
carry out the research using proper quantitative design to verify the findings.
Conclusion
This article offers an analysis of the employee resistance to organizational change when there is
a lack of proper communication and preparedness of employees before new changes are effected
in the organization. This study thus recognizes the need to involve employees in organizational
planning as a way of reducing resistance to change and ensuring that they meet the intended
changes. Thus communication and employee involvement have been presented by other studies

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as the best way of reducing employee resistance when implementing change. Thus this study
offers the best approach to managing resistance to change through the use of communication
tools to ensure that employees are involved in organizational change initiation.
Bovey, W. H. & Hede, A., 2017. Resistance to organizational change: the role of defense
mechanisms. Journal of Management Psychology, 16(7), pp. 535-548.
Summary
The authors view resistance to change as something normal since this is a reaction that people
exhibit when confronted with challenging situations in the organization. This article criticizes the
previous studies on resistance to change which have majorly focused on organizational issues
and not psychological factors. Thus this study was based on surveying employees in nine
organizations that were undergoing major changes. Responses were obtained from 615
employees who participated in the study. From the study, five maladaptive defense mechanisms
were identified as correlating with the behavioral intention of the employees to resist change.
These defense mechanisms are acting out, denial, dissociation, isolation of effect and projection.
However, humor was found to negatively correlate with the resistance intention of the employees
to change. Thus this study supports the work other researchers by proposing the need to adopt a
balanced approach to change and ensure that management also focusses on human factors to
reduce the resistance to change by addressing the reasons that make people resist any changes
made in their organization.
Critique
The strength of this study lies in the size of the sampling frame The findings of this study are
based on hypothesis testing through examining the relationship between the adaptive and
maladaptive defense mechanisms and the intentions of employees to resist change. This method
offers better results since it allows the researcher to observe a process through random variables.
The strength of this study lies in the research design which allows the researcher to test the
variables thus increasing the validity and reliability of the findings. Through the statistical
analysis, the correlation of the variables is determined to present the findings of the study in a
better way as compared to other research methods.
However, this study presents some challenges in its method of study and findings. The use of
purposive sampling and not random sampling means that its generalizability is reduced since the
researcher chose the sample of convenience rather than a random sample that could thus be
generalized to other organizations. Further, the researchers failed to test other significant
variables of the study that are associated to change resistance. Further, the criteria used by the
respondents to estimate their level of resistance may have biased the findings thus affecting the
validity and reliability of the whole study.
Conclusion
This study can be generalized to other organizations since it is based on a large sampling frame
that makes its findings valid. The fact that different organizations were used in the study means
that the correlation between the variables and the findings of the study can be applied to the field