Managing Human Resources Resistance to Organizational Change in the Context of Innovation

Abstract

Current global and complex economies demand change and restructuring processes. Besides the usual continuous change in their personal lives, when talking about changes in their working environment, employees offer considerable resistance. Difficulties related to managing this resistance on the part of the company will ultimately lead to organizational failure. Aimed at filling this gap, the present research provides a management model addressing both implicit and explicit resistance. The model comprises six key factors: leadership, communication, valuable HR retention, training, participation, and flexibility. Besides the theoretical model, it has been carried out a case study of a multinational company in the mechanical engineering sector, providing researchers and professionals with a roadmap of actions to manage the identified key factors. Furthermore, results reveal that Human Resources are no longer operational support. Instead, they represent a crucial asset to achieve the expected results in innovation and obtaining a sustainable competitive advantage.