In organizational development, as OD practitioners assist their clients with managing change, they almost always find themselves dealing with some form of resistance to change.
Resistance from the organization - Members of the organization undergoing change (e.g. a company merger), may resist the change. For example, if they fear that they will be disturbed or disadvantaged in some way by the outcome of the change, they may oppose the change.
Resistance from the client - The client may resist the change. For example, if he or she feels coerced, or feels personally threatened in some way, the client will be less than enthused about the change.
Resistance from the OD specialist - Even the OD professional may resist change if he or she finds their own personal value system in conflict with the values of the organization.
Dealing with resistance to change involves influencing, often without authority.
Theories of planned change acknowledge the presence of forces for change and for resistance to change, but resistance tends to be interpreted as the client's problem (the coach is usually seen as a source of positive energy).
It is inherently contradictory to argue on the one hand that change occurs through a relationship and on the other hand that resistance to change is not a property of the relationship, but rather is the fault of only one party.
If team members are "resisting" their manager's directives, for example, we might facilitate group meetings where we communicate the need for change and encourage group plans to enact the change.
At the individual social agent level, changeresistance is the refusal of a person or organization to fully support or adopt new behavior.
In the field of organizational development changeresistance is also known as resistance to change, organizational momentum, or inertia.
Changeresistance tends to be high when an agent perceives they will be worse off if they adopt the new behavior, such as when the short term losses outweigh the long term benefits.
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