Differentiating the Three Components of Resistance to Change: The Moderating Effect of Organization‐Based Self‐Esteem on the Employee Involvement‐Resistance Relation

• Date: 01 December 2014
• Published date: 01 December 2014
• Author: Antonia Mercedes García‐Cabrera,Fernando García‐Barba Hernández
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21193

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY,, vol. 25, no. 4, Winter 2014 © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21193 441

Differentiating the Three

Components of Resistance

toChange: The Moderating

Effect of Organization-Based

Self-Esteem on the Employee

Involvement-Resistance Relation

Antonia Mercedes García-Cabrera, Fernando García-Barba

Hernández

This article deepens and expands the study of the three dimensions of

resistance to change in employees: resistant thought, resistant feeling, and

resistant behavior. It includes an analysis of the moderating effect of the

employee’s organization-based self-esteem on the infl uence of variables

related to the management of the change process (i.e., involvement in the

change—communication and participation) on each of these dimensions

of resistance. The empirical analysis uses a sample of 143 employees who

work in companies that embarked on programs of structural change in

the two years prior to the current research being carried out. The results

support the moderating effect of organization-based self-esteem on the

infl uence of employee participation on resistant thought and resistant

feeling, but not on resistant behavior. The results also suggest that resistant

thought, resistant feeling, and resistant behavior have different antecedents

related to the context of the change (employee involvement in the change

and employee perceived benefi ts).

Key Words: resistance to change, dimensions of resistance, employee involve-

ment, communication, participation, perceived benefi ts, organization-based

self-esteem, moderating effects

442 García-Cabrera, Hernández

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

Resistance to change in employees is a psychological state that affects the

success of change initiatives in organizations (Choi & Ruona, 2011). As the

majority of changes meet some resistance (Oreg, 2006), it is essential that

organizations understand the phenomenon (Giangreco & Peccei, 2005);

clearly, it also concerns researchers. In the organizational development (OD)

and management fi elds, and building on the work of Coch and French (1948)

and Lewin (1951), researchers have studied resistance as part of the change

process. This article contributes new insight into the multidimensional nature

of resistance to change and the effect of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE)

as a moderator of resistance to change.

Many works study resistance as a unidimensional construct, while a few

approach this topic from a multidimensional perspective. From the former

perspective, researchers analyze resistance from cognitive (e.g., Watson,

1982), emotional (e.g., Argyris & Schön, 1978), and behavioral approaches

(e.g., Coch & French, 1948), with the understanding that any of these three

aspects of resistance comprises all three dimensions (Szabla, 2007). The mul-

tidimensional view adopted here considers cognition, emotion, and behavior

in a differentiated manner, since they may be conceptually distinct and have

different antecedents. If this is so, the individual could react differently with

respect to each facet of resistance when facing a change (Piderit, 2000; Szabla,

2007). Reducing each facet would then be important because otherwise the

employee could obey his or her manager and support the change but harbor

thoughts and/or feelings of rejection. Thus, new work is needed to advance

knowledge about this approach (Van Dam, Oreg, & Schyns, 2008) and sug-

gest measures that human resource development (HRD) practitioners can take

to reduce each form of resistance.

The literatures on organizational change (OC) and OD coincide in

suggesting that resistance is determined by a large number of antecedents

(e.g., Lewin, 1951; Ning & Jing, 2012) having to do with the individual,

the organization, and the change context (Holt, Armenakis, Field, & Harris,

2007). With respect to the latter, the literature fi nds that how a change is

carried out—the change process—and how favorable its outcomes are for

participants—the change content—infl uence employees’ reactions to the

change events (e.g., Van Dam et al., 2008). Although the change process has

been studied through different variables in the areas of HRD (Foster, 2010)

and OC (Giangreco & Peccei, 2005), both the strategic and fairness aspects

of the process have been prevalent. These approaches suggest the use of prac-

tices to involve employees in the change process, such as informing about

changes (Chin & Benne, 1985) and offering employees the opportunity to

make suggestions—that is, communication and participation. Regarding the

change content, employees resist the consequences of change more than the

change itself (Oreg, 2006), but research often ignores these consequences

(e.g., Lau & Woodman, 1995), so the estimated models are unlikely to offer

a real understanding of resistance.