Change Ready, Resistant, or Both? Exploring the Concepts of Individual Change Readiness and Resistance to Organizational Change

Abstract

This paper is a qualitative review of two concepts: change readiness and resistance to change. We review their use, clarify their conceptual underpinnings, and address the assumption of them being the opposite poles of the same continuum. We juxtapose the two concepts and analyze their dimensions which commonly represent a source of ambiguity about their meaning, review their evolution, and compare them to similar concepts. We argue that resistance to change addresses two important aspects: resistance as behavior and resistance as attitude. We argue that because resistance to change and change readiness share attitudinal roots, they should be looked at in conjunction – not on a bipolar continuum but as coexisting orthogonal dimensions – to grasp the full complexity of change-related attitudes. We discuss implications and offer guidance for future research. DOI: 10.15458/85451.82