Perceiving resistance to strategic organizational change : A barrier to success or an opportunity for improved decision-making?

Abstract: Background: To keep up with competitors and the ever-changing business environment, organizations constantly adapt and adjust their strategies. Strategic organizational change is the implementation of change to increase corporate performance and find new competitive advantages. Studies are showing how the majority of change processes fail. This high failure rate is dependent on several different factors. However, one factor which seems to be one of the most common is resistance to strategic organizational change. Resistance is often looked through a negative lens by the management, which can negatively affect the whole change process. Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge about resistance to strategic organizational change and explore the field of change management to yield valuable insights to managers' quest to implement change successfully. Research Question: How can understanding the source of resistance be used beneficially by management to improve the managerial decision-making and, therefore, increase the success rate of change implementation? Methodology: A qualitative research method with semi-structured interviews has been adopted. Conclusion: If resistance is not only seen as an obstacle but instead analysed thoroughly by the management it could contribute to an organizational discussion which potentially could improve the quality of the management decision-making and, thus, improve the success rate of strategic organizational change implementation.v