The influence of management concepts' language on change resistance: adopting agility in the public sector

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the influence of the language of management concepts on resistance to change, exemplified by the adoption of agility within public administration. Design/methodology/approach – We draw our conclusions from a pre-registered survey experiment among German civil servants (n = 4, 196). In the survey experiment, civil servants were presented with one out of four different options for a change initiative. The four options varied in terms of the vocabulary used to describe the planned change initiative (either agile or public sector contextualized) and their label (whether or not the description of the change initiative contained the term “agile”). Findings – Our findings suggest that using vocabulary typical of management concepts in the private sector leads to higher resistance to change. In contrast, using vocabulary contextualized to public organizations reduces resistance to change. However, the mere labeling of the change initiative as “agile” has no effect on resistance to change. Originality/value – This study contributes to institutional translation theory by providing causal evidence that linguistic framing is an effective way of overcoming resistance. It introduces “linguistic incompatibility” as a new barrier to public sector reforms, linking macro-level institutional theory with micro-level behavior. In terms of change communication, the findings highlight that successful implementation of new management concepts depends on linguistic contextualization, shifting the focus from the content communicated to its translation for the public sector context.