Resistance: A Constructive Tool for Change

Traditionally, resistance has been cast adversarial - the enemy of change that must be defeated if change is to be successful. While it is apparent that classical management theory viewed resistance in such a manner, subsequent years research contains much evidence that suggests resistance may indeed by usefial and not to be simply discounted. Present day suggestions and prescriptions for managing resistance have evidently disregarded this research and left little room for utility in resistance. This paper finds that the difficulty of organisational change is often exacerbated by the mismanagement of resistance derived from a simple set of assumptions that misunderstand resistance's essential nature. It is suggested that change management may greatly benefit from techniques that carefiilly manage the phenomenon resistance to change by looking for ways of utilising it rather than overcoming it.