Resistance to Change: Unraveling the Roles of Change Strategists, Agents, and Recipients

Departing from traditional conceptualizations of resistance to change as a systemic phenomenon, a significant and increasing body of organizational research has examined how change and resistance to change occur through individuals in strategist, agent, and recipient roles. Yet despite this perspective's rising prominence, the literature lacks an integrative framework to organize how these roles separately and interactively shape resistance to change. This review synthesizes this fragmented literature, providing a holistic perspective structured around change roles. Categorizing the literature in terms of the three roles, we organize the role combinations into levels of analysis. We use this combined framework to describe the current state of theory building and testing, which guides our identification of important future research directions. Through our analysis, we capture the nuanced dynamics of resistance to change and the need for further understanding of how differently situated individuals shape the overarching change effort.

Automated summary

This article synthesizes fragmented literature on the impact of roles on resistance to change and provides a holistic perspective structured around change roles. Through describing the current state of theory building and testing, it guides the identification of important future research directions.