MGMT8270 Chap.10 Responses and Resistance to Change
Responses and Resistance to Change
How people respond
Week 10 maps responses to change by valence and activation into four kinds: resistance, proactivity, disengagement and acceptance.
It explains ambivalence, holding positive and negative evaluations at once, and shows how everyday change events, not only announcements, shape the experience, with negative events weighing more than positive ones.
Reading and working with resistance
The chapter breaks reactions into affective, cognitive and behavioural components, shows why behaviour alone misleads, and sets out the heart, head and hands response.
It contrasts the traditional view of resistance as an obstacle to eliminate, illustrated by a 2022 social media takeover, with the modern view of resistance as valuable feedback, illustrated by a scrapped volunteer card fee and other cases.
Managing responses in your presentation
The Team Presentation must explain how the intervention will manage responses to change, and this chapter gives the tools: the response grid to anticipate who will react how, the three components to diagnose what drives a reaction, and the modern view of resistance as information.
A plan that only lists ways to overcome resistance misses the course's main argument.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Valence and activation
- 02
Resistance, proactivity, disengagement and acceptance
- 03
Change ambivalence
- 04
Organisational and everyday change events
- 05
Affective, cognitive and behavioural reactions
- 06
Heart, head and hands
- 07
Traditional and modern views of resistance
- 08
Resistance as a constructive force
Worked example · free
Placing three employees on the response grid
- 1Loud complaining is negative valence with high activation: change resistance.
- 1Quietly withdrawing is negative valence with low activation: change disengagement.
- 1Volunteering to plan the layout is positive valence with high activation: change proactivity.
- 1For the disengaged employee, a positive everyday event, such as being asked for input on their own workspace, can rebuild engagement over time.
Key terms
- Change Proactivity
- A positive, high-energy response to change, marked by excitement and enthusiasm.
- Change Disengagement
- A negative, low-energy response to change, marked by despair, sadness or helplessness.
- Change Ambivalence
- Holding both positive and negative evaluations of the same change at the same time.
- Everyday Change Event
- A small day-to-day moment through which a change shows up for an employee, such as a reassigned task.
- Cognitive Reaction
- The beliefs a person forms about whether a change is necessary, fair and workable.
Responses and Resistance to Change FAQ
What are the four types of response to change?
Plotting valence against activation gives resistance (negative, high energy), proactivity (positive, high energy), disengagement (negative, low energy) and acceptance (positive, low energy). The grid helps leaders notice quiet disengagement as well as loud resistance.
Why do small daily events matter so much during change?
Employees react to how a change shows up every day, not only to the announcement. Negative events weigh more than positive ones, so frequent bad moments erode fairness, while frequent positive ones can build engagement and commitment.
Is resistance to change always a bad thing?
No. The modern view treats resistance as feedback that can expose flaws, risks and overlooked values. The course's examples include staff concerns that made health record systems safer and a fee that was scrapped after community pushback.
What does engaging heart, head and hands mean?
Responding to all three components of a reaction: acknowledging emotions and creating safety, explaining the rationale with credible evidence, and enabling involvement, rewarding contributions and modelling the new behaviour.
What did the study of everyday change events find?
During a public sector merger, negative daily events had a stronger effect than positive ones; frequent negative events particularly hurt perceptions of fairness and intense ones hurt engagement. Positive events still helped, building engagement, performance and commitment, especially when they showed care and support.
Assessment move
Choose a change you resisted, write one line each on your affective, cognitive and behavioural reactions, and note which of heart, head or hands would have moved you most. Then plan one small positive everyday event that would address the component you identified.
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