Managing Resistance to Change in Organizations: A Critical Review of Strategies and Best Practices

Abstract

With the advancement of new technologies, change has become a necessary survival strategy in several industries. To survive in this unpredictable business environment, it is necessary to have a deep understanding about change management. In spite of commonness of changes happening in organizations, a considerable number of change initiatives have failed. As the perspective about change is different from an individual to an individual, most of the time organizations come across resistance from the employees. This research article explores the causes, effective strategies, and methods to overcome the resistance to change within the organizations. Aiming to provide an insightful understanding of organizational change, change management theories, processes through the literature review. This research is an outcome of several journals that have been published. Around fifty journal articles have been gathered from various platforms such as ScienceDirect, ResearchGate, Harvard review. The result of the discussion discovers the fear of employees for the change and ways to navigate resistance effectively and implement successful change initiatives by providing practical recommendations for managing resistance, with aid of leaders, manager and change agents.