Organizational change from the perspective of employees: a case study on the reasons for resistance of private sector employees in Kosovo

Abstract

In today's circumstances, global competition has almost affected every business or organization. As a result of competition, change in the organization can be considered a necessity. Accordingly, businesses must work as an open system and make decisions to make changes that are appropriate to the new circumstances that have been created in the business environment. Given that organizational changes are necessary for the survival of the enterprise, then this process must be managed with special care, without neglecting the parties that may be affected by these changes. Change is a painful process, because it aims to change individual and organizational habits; regardless of the severity of the changes, it will always encounter resistance from the employees of the organization. Employee resistance is considered one of the main obstacles in this process. Succeeding in this process, requires understanding the reasons why employees show resistance to change and taking preventive measures to mitigate this resistance. Thereupon, in this paper, an effort has been made to understand the reasons of employees’ resistance, to understand the ways of their resistance, as well as the factors that can help mitigate the resistance of employees who work in local businesses in Kosovo. In order to provide data related to the goals of this paper, direct interviews were conducted with 10 employees of large category businesses. In this paper, a qualitative research method was used, using the "case study" model. For data analysis, the "MAXQDA 2020" program was used, with which codes and categories were created, while the frequencies of these codes were obtained from these results. In addition to the frequencies of the codes, the answers of the employees regarding the reasons for the resistance are also presented. The results of this study have presented important data regarding employee resistance. From the findings of this paper, a number of reasons have been identified as to why employees of organizations show resistance. The forms of how these employees react to changes have also been identified. On the other hand, some techniques have been identified on how the management of the organization can use them to reduce the resistance of the employees.