Organizational Psychology

Purpose. The paper aims to conceptualize the resistance factors to organizational change, to assess their impact on the resistance to change according to line managers as the key change agents. Мethodology. Employee resistance to organizational change is considered as a form of organizational behavior on different levels: individual, group and organizational. According to the literature review and expert judgment, three-level system of resistance factors to organizational change has been offered. The paper uses a sample of 177 line managers from Russian companies in different fields for economics for an empirical test of the model. Findings. The result implies that the greatest impact on the employee resistance to change occur at the individual level. From the perspective of line managers, inertia and fear of negative consequences of changes have an impact on an individual level and group norms on the group level. The differences in the perception of managers, among the factors with different degrees of influence on the resistance to change at the organizational level are not detected. Research implications for practice. Two groups of resistance factors to organizational change have been identified: internal and external. Internal factors include: individual (inertia, fear of negative consequences of change,lack of trust and respect for managers) and social (group norms, group cohesion, the threat of losing power). External factors include organizational conditions of resistance to change: "rigid" organizational structure, characteristics of organizational culture, unclear organizational strategy, ineffective organizational change management, communication problem in organizations. Value of the results. Study contributes to the understanding of the patterns and managing employee resistanceto change, through providing three-level system of resistance factors to organizational change and examining this system empirically. It also has great importance for the successful implementing and managing organizational change.