When implementing changes and innovations, organizations often have to deal with resistance to change. Maybe because few subjects pertaining to organizational transformation are so broadly and consistently covered in the popular literature, we may have been induced to believe we must know all about it. If we know so much, why resistance is still a major barrier to organizational transformation, and why so many change agents still strive to overcome it? In this article, we attempt to respond this question by questioning the predominant models of resistance and the assumptions of the several "recipe-oriented" approaches to deal with resistance in organizations. Our understanding is that such "recipes" are not particularly helpful because they use a model of resistance to change that was built upon several questionable assumptions, according to which resistance is a) a "natural", inevitable fact; b) malignant to the organization; c) employee-driven; and d) collective. Based on counter-assumptions to each of these widespread premises and on Psychology of Perception, a new Model of Individual Resistance to Change is proposed. The model represents the individual's perceptual process during organizational change, from exposure to stimuli until behavior adoption. The seven-stage model culminates in four possible outcomes: resistance, resistance overcoming, indecision, or change adoption. Implications for theory and practice, limitations of the model and suggestions for future development are presented.
Resistance to change; organizational change; perception; cognition; organization