70. Navigating Resistance to Change: Practical Strategies for Social Work Leaders

Today, we're diving into a topic that affects every organization, every team, and quite frankly, all of us – resistance to change. As Waldman and O'Reilly (2022) found in their research, resistance to change is one of the main reasons why up to 70% of organizational changes fail to achieve their desired results. We will unpack why this happens and, more importantly, how you can successfully navigate it – especially in social work settings where the stakes are often incredibly high.

Reference:

• Anderson, D. L. (2020). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.
• Bordia, P., Restubog, S. L. D., Jimmieson, N. L., & Irmer, B. E. (2011). Haunted by the past: Effects of poor change management history on employee attitudes and turnover. Group & Organization Management, 36(2), 191-222.
• Burnes, B. (2015). Understanding resistance to change — Building on Coch and French. Journal of Change Management, 15(2), 92-116.
• Coch, L., & French, J. R. P., Jr. (1948). Overcoming resistance to change. Human Relations, 1(4), 512-532.
• Dent, E. B., & Goldberg, S. G. (1999). Challenging "resistance to change." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 35(1), 25-41.
• Kotter, J. P., & Schlesinger, L. A. (2008). Choosing strategies for change. Harvard Business Review, 86(7/8), 130-139. Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method and reality in social science; social equilibria and social change. Human Relations, 1(1), 5-41.
• Waldman, D. A., & O'Reilly, C. (2022). Leadership for organizations. FlatWorld.
• Warrick, D. D. (2022). Revisiting resistance to change and how to manage it: What has been learned and what organizations need to do. Business Horizons, 66, 433-441.

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