IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dug/actaec/y2012i6p5-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Change Agent – A Force Generating Resistance To Change Within An Organization?

Author

Listed:
  • Mariana Prediscan

    (West University of Timisoara, Romania)

  • Daniela Bradutanu

    (West University of Timisoara, Romania)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to identify if the change agent represents or not a force generating resistance to change within an organization. The employees affected by a change process are usually the ones who oppose to new implementations. Their opposition is bigger or smaller, depending on the extent that they are affected and also by the direction, either positive or negative. However, employee’s opposition can be potentiated or reduced, depending on the manifestation of the following forces within an organization: communications, the type of organizational structure, management style and organizational culture, forces which refer to the organizational climate. To answer our question, we have researched the current literature and discovered that the change agent can represent a force generating resistance to change within an organization in those situations when he or she identifies with a middle or top manager from the organizational pyramid. This information is valuable to researchers and practitioners, as for a long time, employees were considered the only ones manifesting resistance, the possibility that the change agent can oppose new changes being ignored.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariana Prediscan & Daniela Bradutanu, 2012. "Change Agent – A Force Generating Resistance To Change Within An Organization?," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 6(6), pages 5-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:dug:actaec:y:2012:i:6:p:5-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/oeconomica/article/view/1566/1346
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martha S. Feldman, 2004. "Resources in Emerging Structures and Processes of Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 295-309, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niki A. den Nieuwenboer & João Vieira da Cunha & Linda Klebe Treviño, 2017. "Middle Managers and Corruptive Routine Translation: The Social Production of Deceptive Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 781-803, October.
    2. Högström, Claes & Tronvoll, Bård, 2012. "The enactment of socially embedded service systems: Fear and resourcing in the London Borough of Sutton," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 427-437.
    3. Ruthanne Huising, 2014. "The Erosion of Expert Control Through Censure Episodes," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 1633-1661, December.
    4. Ryan W. Quinn & Monica C. Worline, 2008. "Enabling Courageous Collective Action: Conversations from United Airlines Flight 93," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 497-516, August.
    5. Jie Mein Goh & Guodong (Gordon) Gao & Ritu Agarwal, 2011. "Evolving Work Routines: Adaptive Routinization of Information Technology in Healthcare," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 565-585, September.
    6. Cindy Zawadzki, 2011. "L'évolution du fonctionnement de la PME lors de l'introduction du contrôle de gestion : leçons d'un échec," Post-Print hal-00650594, HAL.
    7. Stefan W. Konlechner & Barbara Müller & Wolfgang H. Güttel & Irina Koprax & Karin Link, 2016. "Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing: The Role of Artifacts in Interpretive Schema Change," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 17(2), pages 129-150, August.
    8. Luciana D’Adderio, 2014. "The Replication Dilemma Unravelled: How Organizations Enact Multiple Goals in Routine Transfer," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 1325-1350, October.
    9. Daniel Geiger & Jochen Koch, 2008. "Von der individuellen Routine zur organisationalen Praktik — Ein neues Paradigma für die Organisationsforschung?," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 60(7), pages 693-712, November.
    10. Anja Danner-Schröder, 2021. "Without actors, there is no action: How interpersonal interactions help to explain routine dynamics," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(7), pages 1913-1936, October.
    11. Miguel Pina e Cunha, 2005. "Bricolage in organizations," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp474, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    12. Pingsheng Tong & U. N. Umesh & Jean L. Johnson & Ruby P. Lee, 2016. "Collaborative Relationships — The Role of Information Technology," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(03), pages 1-30, June.
    13. Gretchen Spreitzer & Kathleen Sutcliffe & Jane Dutton & Scott Sonenshein & Adam M. Grant, 2005. "A Socially Embedded Model of Thriving at Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 537-549, October.
    14. Régine Teulier, 2007. "Strategizing a journal with PRP. How individual work become collective judgement," Post-Print hal-00263331, HAL.
    15. April L. Wright & Gemma Irving & Asma Zafar & Trish Reay, 2023. "The Role of Space and Place in Organizational and Institutional Change: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 991-1026, June.
    16. Alex Coad & Max Planck, 2012. "Firms as Bundles of Discrete Resources – Towards an Explanation of the Exponential Distribution of Firm Growth Rates," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 189-209.
    17. Rodrigo Canales, 2014. "Weaving Straw into Gold: Managing Organizational Tensions Between Standardization and Flexibility in Microfinance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 1-28, February.
    18. Alexandra Michel, 2014. "The Mutual Constitution of Persons and Organizations: An Ontological Perspective on Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 1082-1110, August.
    19. Laura Girella & Roberto Tizzano & Elisa Rita Ferrari, 2019. "Concepts travelling across disciplinary fields: the case of the business model," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(2), pages 373-402, June.
    20. Splitter, Violetta & David Seidl & Whittington, Richard, 2018. "Lower-level employees’ participation in strategy making over time," SocArXiv jr8bs, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dug:actaec:y:2012:i:6:p:5-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniela Robu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fedanro.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.