Abstract
Intellectual capital seems a matter of focus for the global economic environment, by being the most important part of company’s value. Change’s consequences forced the organizations to adapt. The latest financial crisis has faced change’s urgency and reality. Resistance to change should be understood as a normal reaction, because change determines employees to feel insecure. This insecurity directly affects the most important component of company’s IC: Human Capital. The aim of this paper is to investigate the problem of employees’ resistance to change and to explore different ways of acting. The research objectives are: to find out leaders and employees’ perception about change; to determine, through a literature review, the impact of change on the organizations’ members and to build a conceptual model for an effective management of employees’ resistance to change. The benefits of our study consist in offering an organizational leadership and change management frameworks, in identifying the relevant characteristics and behaviors for a leader under change’s circumstances, in showing change’s challenges influencing different attitudes of employees up to the change resistance one. Our research result is the elaboration of a conceptual model that is thought to be further tested and validated through a series of empirical researches.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Avey, J., Wernsing, T. S., & Luthans, F. (2008). Can positive employees help positive organizational change? Impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes on behaviors. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), 48–70.
Avolio, B. J., & Bass, B. M. (2002). Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Redwood City, CA: Mindgarden.
Baker, S. L. (1987). Managing resistance to change. Accessed July 18, 2014, from https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/1665/Baker5361.pdf?sequence=2
Baron, A. (2011). Measuring human capital. Strategic HR Review, 10(2), 30–35.
Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press.
Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Block, P. (1989). Flawless consulting. In R. Mc Lennan (Ed.), Managing organizational change. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bovey, W. H., & Hede, A. (2001). Resistance to organizational change: The role of cognitive and affective processes. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22(8), 372–382.
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Raw.
Chuang, Y. S. (2000). Individual resistance from employees to organizational change. Accessed August 14, 2014, from http://www.jgbm.org/page/19%20Dr.%20Chuang,Yuh-Shy.pdf
Collinson, D. (1994). Strategies of resistance: Power, knowledge and subjectivity in the workplace. In J. M. Jermier, D. Knight, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Resistance and power in organizations (pp. 25–68). London: Routledge.
Conner, D. R. (1998). Managing at the speed of change: How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail. Chichester: Wiley.
Craine, K. (2007). Managing the cycle of change. Information Management Journal, 41(5), 44–49.
De Board, R. (1983). Counseling skills. Aldershot: Gower Publishing.
Feldman, N. G. (1972). Pride in heritage-or resentment?: A sociologist analyzes library staff reaction. Wilson Library Bulletin, 46, 436–440.
Felicio, J. A., Couto, E., & Caiado, J. (2014). Human capital, social capital and organizational performance. Management Decision, 52(2), 350–364.
Fine, S. F. (1986). Technological innovation, diffusion and resistance: A historical perspective. Journal of Library Administration, 7(Spring), 83–108.
Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W., & McNamara, R. T. (2002). Resistance and the background conversations of change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15(2), 105–121.
Fry, L. W. (2003). Towards a theory of spiritual leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 14, 693–727.
Gamerschlag, R. (2013). Value relevance of human capital information. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 14(2), 325–345.
Goldstein, J. (1988). A far-from-equilibrium systems approach to resistance to change. Organizational Dynamics, 17(2), 16–26.
Guthrie, J., Petty, R., Yongvanich, K., & Ricceri, F. (2004). Using content analysis as a research method to inquire into intellectual capital reporting. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 5(2), 282–293.
Hater, J. J., & Bass, B. M. (1988). Superiors’ evaluations and subordinates’ perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 695–702.
Heathfield, S. M. (2012a). Change, change, change: Change management lessons from the field. Accessed August 26, 2014, from http://humanresources.about.com/od/changemanagement/a/change_lessons.htm
Heathfield, S. M. (2012b). Executive support and leadership in change management. Accessed August 26, 2014, from http://humanresources.about.com/od/changemanagement/a/change_leaders.htm
Jackson, B., & Parry, K. (2008). A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying leadership. London: Sage Publications.
Kavanagh, M. H. (2006). The impact of leadership on change management strategy on organizational culture and individual acceptance of change during a merger. British Journal of Management, 17(1), 81–103.
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (1998). Procedural justice, strategic decision making and the knowledge economy. Strategic Management Journal, 19(4), 323–338.
Knowles, E. S., & Linn, J. A. (2004). The importance of resistance to persuasion. In E. S. Knowles & J. A. Linn (Eds.), Resistance and persuasion (pp. 3–11). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaurn Associates.
Kyle, N. (1993). Staying with the flow of change. Journal for Quality and Participation, 16(4), 34–42.
Lawrence, P. R. (1969, January). How to deal with resistance to change. Harvard Business Review, On-line Edition, The Magazine. Accessed July 2, 2014, from http://hbr.org/1969/01/how-to-deal-with-resistance-to-change/ar/1
Lucas, H. C., Jr. (1974). Toward creative system design. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lundgren, M. (2010). Lecture leadership and rhetoric: An introduction to classical rhetoric. Kalmar: Linnaeus University.
Mainardes, E. W., Alves, H., & Raposo, M. (2011). The process of change in university management: From the “Ivory Tower” to entrepreneurialism. Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 33, 124–149.
Maltz, M. (2008). Managing resistance to change. TRIAD Consulting Group LLC. Accessed September 2, 2014, from http://www.triadllc.com/pdf/ManagingResistance.pdf
Maurer, R. (1997). Transforming resistance. HR Focus, 74(10), 9–10.
Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. A. (1985). Of strategies, deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6(3), 257–272.
Morris, K. F., & Raben, C. S. (1995). The fundamentals of change management. In D. A. Nadler, R. B. Shaw, A. E. Walton, & Associates (Eds.), Discontinuous change (pp. 47–67). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Myers, K., & Robbins, M. (1991). 10 rules for change. Executive Excellence, 8(5), 9–10.
Organizational Development. (2009). Understanding and managing reactions to change (pdf). London: Gateshead Council (pdf). Accessed 13 September 13, 2014, from https://www.gateshead.gov.uk/DocumentLibrary/council/pois/managingreactionstochange.pdf
Plate, K. H., & Stone, E. W. (1974). Factors affecting librarians job satisfaction: A report of two studies. Library Quarterly, 44(April), 97–110.
Postmes, T., Tanis, M., & De Wit, B. (2000). A meta-analysis of communication and organizational commitment: the coldest message elicits the warmest feelings. Unpublished manuscript, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
Postmes, T., Tanis, M., & De Wit, B. (2001). Communication and commitment in organizations: A social identity approach. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 4(3), 207–226.
Shaw, D. (1986). Staff opinions in library automation planning. Special Libraries, 77(Summer), 140–151.
Sinetar, M. (1981). Mergers, morale and productivity. Personnel Journal, 60(11), 863–868.
Spiker, B. K., & Lesser, E. (1995). We have met the enemy. Journal of Business Strategy, 16(2), 17–21.
Steinburg, C. (1992). Taking charge of change. Training and Development, 46(3), 26–32.
Sullivan, M. F., & Guntzelman, J. (1991). The grieving process in cultural change. The Health Care Supervisor, 10(2), 28–33.
Veaner, A. B. (1974). Institutional political and fiscal factors in the development of library automation. Journal of Library Automation, 7(March), 5–26.
Yukl, G. (1998). Leadership in organizations (4th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Zaltman, G., & Duncan, R. (1977). Strategies for planned change. New York, NY: Wiley.
Acknowledgment
This work was co-financed from the European Social Fund through Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development 2007–2013, project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/142115 “Performance and excellence in doctoral and postdoctoral research in Romanian economics science domain”.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Nedelcu, A.C., Buşu, C. (2016). Managing Employee’s Resistance to Change: A Conceptual Model Based on Human Capital Perspective. In: Bilgin, M., Danis, H. (eds) Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics - Vol. 1. Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics, vol 3/1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27570-3_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27570-3_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27569-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27570-3
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)