Antecedents of Resistance to Organizational Change: A Systematic Literature Review

Ackerman, L. (1986). Development, transition or transformation: the question of change in organization. OD Practitioner, 18(4), 1–8.
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, (2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Amarantou, V., Kazakopoulou, S., Chatzoudes, D., & Chatzoglou, P. (2018). Resistance to change: an empirical investigation of its antecedents. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 31(2), 426–450. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-05-2017-0196
Anderson, D., & Ackerman, L. (2001). Beyond Change Management. San Francisco: Wiley.
Appelbaum, S. H., Degbe, M. C., Macdonald, O., & Nguyen-Quang, T. S. (2015). Organizational outcomes of leadership style and resistance to change (Part one). Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(2), 73–80. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-07-2013-0044
Armenakis, A. A., & Bedeian, A. G. (1999). Organizational change: A review of theory and research in the 1990s. Journal of Management, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639902500303
Avey, J. B., Wernsing, T. S., & Luthans, F. (2008). Can positive employees help positive organizational change? Impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), 48–70.
Bakari, H., Hunjra, A. I., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2017). How Does Authentic Leadership Influence Planned Organizational Change? The Role of Employees’ Perceptions: Integration of Theory of Planned Behavior and Lewin’s Three Step Model. Journal of Change Management, 17(2), 155–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2017.1299370
Bartunek, J. M., & Woodman, R. W. (2015). Beyond Lewin: Toward a Temporal Approximation of Organization Development and Change. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Vol. 2, pp. 157–182. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111353
Belias, D., & Koustelios, A. (2014). the Impact of Leadership and Change Management Strategy on Organizational Culture. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10(7), 451–470. Retrieved from http://www.eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/2996
Berson, Y., Oreg, S., & Wiesenfeld, B. (2021). A construal level analysis of organizational change processes. Research in Organizational Behavior, 41, 100148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2021.100148
Besliu, D.-C. (2018). Institutional management of change resistance of the employees against organizational transformations. Scientific Research and Education in the Air Force, 20, 351–358. https://doi.org/10.19062/2247-3173.2018.20.46
Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Bolognese, A. F. (2002). Employee resistance to organizational change. Retrieved November, 14, 2006.
Buick, F., Ann, D., Michael, B., Donnell, E. O., Louise, J., Damian, O. F., … Damian, O. F. (2015). Can enhanced performance management support public sector change? Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 271–289. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-12-2013-0249
Charoensukmongkol, P. (2016). The role of mindfulness on employee psychological reactions to mergers and acquisitions. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 29(5), 816–831. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-05-2015-0068
Charoensukmongkol, Peerayuth. (2017). Contributions of mindfulness during post-merger integration. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 32(1), 104–118. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-02-2016-0039
Chung, S. H., Su, Y. F., & Su, S. W. (2012). The impact of cognitive flexibility on resistance to organizational change. Social Behavior and Personality, 40(5), 735–746. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2012.40.5.735
Cinite, I., & Duxbury, L. E. (2018). Measuring the behavioral properties of commitment and resistance to organizational change. The Journal OfApplied Behavioral Science, 54(2), 113–139.
Cinite, Inta, & Duxbury, L. E. (2018). Measuring the Behavioral Properties of Commitment and Resistance to Organizational Change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 54(2), 113–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886318757997
Daly, J. P., & Geyer, P. D. (1994). The role of fairness in implementing large?scale change: Employee evaluations of process and outcome in seven facility relocations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15(7), 623–638.
Danisman, A. (2010). Good intentions and failed implementations: Understanding culture-based resistance to organizational change. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 19(2), 200–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320902850541
De Ruiter, M., Schalk, R., Schaveling, J., & Van Gelder, D. (2017). Psychological Contract Breach in the Anticipatory Stage of Change: Employee Responses and the Moderating Role of Supervisory Informational Justice. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 53(1), 66–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886316672724
Jager, D. S. B., Born, M. P., & Van der Molen, H. T. (2022). The relationship between organizational trust, resistance to change and adaptive and proactive employees’ agility in an unplanned and planned change context. Applied Psychology, 71(2), 436–460. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12327
Dorling, J. L. (2017). Impact of psychological capital on the resistance to change during post-merger integration: A theoretical model. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 30(6), 936–956. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2015-0199/FULL/XML
Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986). Does pay for performance increase or decrease perceived self-determination and intrinsic motivation? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(5), 1026–1040.
Erwin, D. G., & Garman, A. N. (2010). Resistance to organizational change: Linking research and practice. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 31(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731011010371
Ferreira, A. I., Cardoso, C., & Braun, T. (2018). The mediating effects of ego-resilience in the relationship between organizational support and resistance to change. Baltic Journal of Management, 13(1), 104–124. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-06-2017-0171
Folkman, S., Lazarus, R. S., Schetter, C. D., & Gruen, R. J. (1986). Dynamics of a stressful encounter:cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 150–170.
Fritzenschaft, T. (2014). Critical Success Factors of Change. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Fuchs, S., & Edwards, M. R. (2012). Predicting pro-change behaviour: The role of perceived organisational justice and organisational identification. Human Resource Management Journal, 22(1), 39–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2011.00167.x
Furst, S. A., & Cable, D. M. (2008). Employee Resistance to Organizational Change: Managerial Influence Tactics and Leader-Member Exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 453–462. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.453
Gartner, C. (2013). Enhancing Readiness for Change by Enhancing Mindfulness. Journal of Change Management, 13(1), 52–68. Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjcm20%5Cnhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2013.768433%5Cnhttp://www.tandfonline.com/
Gelaidan, H. M., & Ahmad, H. (2013). The Factors Effecting Employee Commitment to Change in Public Sector: Evidence from Yemen. International Business Research, 6(3), 75–87. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v6n3p75
Georgalis, J., Samaratunge, R., Kimberley, N., & Lu, Y. (2015). Change process characteristics and resistance to organisational change: The role of employee perceptions of justice. Australian Journal of Management, 40(1), 89–113.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0312896214526212
Giangreco, A., & Peccei, R. (2005). The nature and antecedents of middle manager resistance to change: Evidence from an Italian context. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(10), 1812–1829. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500298404
Graen, G. B., & Uhl-bien, M. (1995). Graen, G. B., & Uhl-Bien, M. (1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. The Leadership Quarterly, 6(2), 219–247.
Griffith-Cooper, B., & King, K. (2007). The partnership between project management and organizational change: integrating change management with change leadership. Performance Improvement, 46(1), 14–20.
Heath, M., Porter, T. H., & Dunegan, K. (2020). Obstacles to continued use of personal health records. Behaviour and Information Technology, 41(3), 574–587. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2020.1829051
Herscovitch, L., & Meyer, J. P. (2002). Commitment to organizational change: Extension of the three-component model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 474–487.
Higgins, J. P. T., Altman, D. G., Gøtzsche, P. C., Jüni, P., Moher, D., Oxman, A. D., … Sterne, J. A. C. (2011). The Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials. BMJ (Online), 343(7829), 5928. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d5928
Hobfoll, S. E. (1988). The Ecology of Stress Hemisphere. New York, NY.
Hobfoll, S. E. (2001). The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation of resources theory. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(3), 337–421.
Hughes, M. (2016). Who killed change management? Culture and Organization, 22(4), 330–347. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2014.966247
Hultman, K. (2006). Values-driven change: Strategies and tools for long-term success. iUniverse.
Johnson, J. R., Bernhagen, M. J., Miller, V., & Allen, M. (1996). The role of commu- nication in managing reductions in work force. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 24, 285–308.
Jones, D. A., & Skarlicki, D. P. (2013). How perceptions of fairness can change. Organizational Psychology Review, 3(2), 138–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386612461665
Jones, S. L., & Van de Ven, A. H. (2016). The Changing Nature of Change Resistance: An Examination of the Moderating Impact of Time. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 52(4), 482–506. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886316671409
Knodel, T. (2004). Preparing the organizational ‘soil’ for measurable and sustainable change: business value management and project governance. Journal of Change Management, 4(1), 45–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/1469701032000154935
Kotter, J. P., & Schlesinger, L. A. (2008). Choosing Strategies for Change. Harvard Business Review, 86(7/8), 130–139.
Kulkarni, V. (2016). Employee Interpretations of Change: Exploring the Other Side of the Resistance Story. Indian Journal Of Industrial Relations, 52(2), 246–263.
Lazarus, R. (1991). Emotion and Adaptation. New York, NY: Oxford Press.
Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers.
Lewin, Kurt. (1947). Frontiers in Group Dynamics: Concept, Method and Reality in Social Science; Social Equilibria and Social Change. In Human Relations (Vol. 1). https://doi.org/10.1177/001872674700100103
Lewis, L. (2019). Organizational change. In Origins and traditions of organizational communication (pp. 406–423). Routledge.
Liberati, A., Altman, D. G., Tetzlaff, J., Mulrow, C., Gotzsche, P. C., Ioannidis, J. P. A., … Moher, D. (2009). The PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies that evaluate health care interventions: explanation and elaboration. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 62(10), e1–e34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2009.06.006
Meier, R., Ben, E. R., & Schuppan, T. (2013). ICT-enabled public sector organisational transformation: Factors constituting resistance to change. Information Polity, 18(4), 315–329. https://doi.org/10.3233/IP-130315
Shaffril, M. H. A., Samsuddin, S. F., & Abu Samah, A. (2021). The ABC of systematic literature review: the basic methodological guidance for beginners. Quality and Quantity, 55(4), 1319–1346. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-020-01059-6
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & Group, T. P. (2009). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 62(10), 1006–1012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2009.06.005
Oreg, S. (2003). Resistance to change: Developing an individual differences measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 680–693. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.680
Oreg, S. (2006). Personality, context, and resistance to organizational change. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 15(1), 73–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320500451247
Oreg, S., & Berson, Y. (2011). Leadership and employees’ reactions to change: The role of leaders’ personal attributes and transformational leadership style. Personnel Psychology, 64(3), 627–659. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01221.x
Oreg, S., Vakola, M., & Armenakis, A. (2011). Change recipients’ reactions to organizational change: A 60-year review of quantitative studies. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(4), 461–524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886310396550
Pardo-del-Val, M., & Martinez-Fuentes, C. (2003). Resistance to change: a literature review and empirical study. Management Decision, 41(2), 148–155.
Pereira, V. R., Maximiano, A. C. A., & Bido, D. de S. (2019). Resistance to change in BPM implementation. Business Process Management Journal, 25(7), 1564–1586. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-07-2018-0184
Petrini, C., & Hultman, K. (1995). Scaling the wall of resistance: Employee resistance to change. Training & Development, 49(10), 15–18.
Piderit, S. K. (2000). Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: A multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change. The Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 783–794. https://doi.org/10.2307/259206
Rafferty, A. E., & Jimmieson, N. L. (2017). Subjective Perceptions of Organizational Change and Employee Resistance to Change: Direct and Mediated Relationships with Employee Well-being. British Journal of Management, 28(2), 248–264. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12200
Rizzuto, T. E., & Reeves, J. (2007). A Multidisciplinary Meta-Analysis of Human Barriers to Technology Implementation. Consulting Psychology Journal:Practice and Research, 59(3), 226–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.59.3.226
Robbins, S. P., & Judge., T. A. (2014). Essentials of Organizational Behavior (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Edcation.
Robbins, S., Sanghi, S., & Judge, T. (2009). Organizational behaviour: concept, features and importance. London: Pearson Education.
Rusbult, C. E., & Farrell, D. (1983). A longitudinal test of the investment model: The impact on job satisfaction, job commitment, and turnover of variations in rewards, costs, alternatives, and investments. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68(3), 429–438. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.68.3.429
Schlesinger, H. J. (1982). Resistance as Process. In P. L. Wachtel (Ed.), Resistance: Psychodynamic and Behavioral Approaches (pp. 25–44). New York: NY: Plenum Press.
Singh, K., Saeed, M., & Bertsch, A. (2012). Key factors influencing employee responses towards change: a test in the telecom industry in India. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 13(3), 66–81.
Singh, R., Goel, G., Ghosh, P., & Sinha, S. (2022). Mergers in Indian public sector banks: can human resource practices ensure effective implementation of change? Management Decision, 60(3), 606–633. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-09-2020-1279
Smith, I. (2004). Continuing professional development and workplace learning 7: Human resource development – a tool for achieving organisational change. Library Management, 25(3), 148–151. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120410522370
Smollan, R. K. (2011). The multi-dimensional nature of resistance to change. Journal of Management & Organization, 17(6), 828–849.
Stanley, D. J., Meyer, J. P., & Topolnytsky, L. (2005). Employee cynicism and resistance to organizational change. In Journal of Business and Psychology (Vol. 19). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-005-4518-2
Tanner, G., & Otto, K. (2016). Superior–subordinate communication during organizational change: under which conditions does high-quality communication become important? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(19), 2183–2201. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1090470
Thakur, R. R., & Srivastava, S. (2018). From resistance to readiness: the role of mediating variables. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 31(1), 230–247. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-06-2017-0237
Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., & Smart, P. (2003). Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review. British Journal of Management, 14(3), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375
Trice, H. M., & Beyer, J. M. (2001). Changing organizational cultures. In J. M. Shafritz & J. S. Ott (Eds.), Classics of organization theory (pp. 125–137). Fourth Worth: Harcourt College Publishers.
Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–463.
Vakola, M., & Petrou, P. (2018). An overview of the impact of organizational change on individuals and organizations: An introductory note. In Organizational Change (pp. 1–11). London: Routledge.
Van Dam, K., Oreg, S., & Schyns, B. (2008). Daily work contexts and resistance to organisational change: The role of leader-member exchange, development climate, and change process characteristics. Applied Psychology, 57(2), 313–334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00311.x
Van den Heuvel, S., & Schalk, R. (2009). The relationship between fulfilment of the psychological contract and resistance to change during organizational transformations. Social Science Information, 48(2), 283–313.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018409102415
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425–478.
Voracek, M., Kossmeier, M., & Tran, U. S. (2019). Which data to meta-analyze, and how? A specification-curve and multiverse-analysis approach to meta-analysis. Zeitschrift Für Psychologie, 227(1), 64–82. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000357
Vos, J. F. J., & Rupert, J. (2018). Change agent’s contribution to recipients’ resistance to change: A two-sided story. European Management Journal, 36(4), 453–462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2017.11.004
Walk, M. (2022). Leaders as change executors: The impact of leader attitudes to change and change-specific support on followers. European Management Journal, (xxxx). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.01.002
Wanberg, C. R., & Banas, J. T. (2000). Predictors and outcomes of openness to changes in a reorganizing workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(1), 132–142. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.1.132
Wu, Y. T. (2009). The study on the relationship among employees’ cognition of change, resistance to change and organizational commitment in organizational change. Zhejiang University,China.

In-Text Citation: (Deng et al., 2023)
To Cite this Article: Deng, W., Alias, S. N., Rami, A. A. M., & Ismail, I. A. (2023). Antecedents of Resistance to Organizational Change: A Systematic Literature Review. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 13(2), 1210 – 1236.

Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non0-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode