Change Resistance

Individual Resistance

We begin the discussion of resistance by looking at the individual. You might be wondering how the discussion will ever get to the multinational level if we begin with the individual. While some research may explore focusing on the group, organization, or country (Sverdlik, & Oreg, 2023), the truth is that change involves individuals following through in ideology and behavior. To accomplish this, it is critical to get buy-in from all interested parties. Consider the owner of the information in the electronic health record, the owner of the system housing the record, the location where the conversation happens to create the record, administrators making decisions about the records, legislative bodies making laws about the records, governments funding the records, and individuals looking at ways to share information so that the information may be accessed in multiple nations for all the reasons discussed in earlier chapters. The point is that each of these interested parties is an individual, so we must begin by looking at the potential for individual resistance.

Some individuals are resistant to all change, which is a condition of blind resistance as described by Burke (2018). This type of resistance to change may be an element preventing interoperability strategies from being implemented. When there is reluctance to discuss the fact that change must happen, it delays the inevitable. It isn’t just the difficult person who won’t accept the change that is causing the delay. It is a very real fear of the unknown that keeps some people from considering a new approach. Resistance must be overcome before an individual can be included in the change process. This may seem like a simple decision to just select individuals who are not resistant to participate but all change is individual at some level. If the resistant individual is the leader of a significant part of the population, the resistance must be overcome for multinational interoperability to be possible.

Additional types of resistance including political resistance and ideological resistance may also be a factor contributing to the reluctance to a larger conversation on the subject. If individuals see a real chance that they will lose something of value (political resistance) or that the integration may not work (ideological resistance), the conversation about multinational systems interoperability seems doomed from the start (Burke, 2018). Reasons for resistance could be from a multitude of factors including cost, time, scalability, variance, and cultural differences. Regardless of the reason, resistance should be faced early to avoid reluctance to implement change once the decision is made.

Resistance to change is a gift (Carter, B., 2019). It shows where communication and leadership have failed to explain and embrace the needs of others in the transformation process. When an individual is resistant, communication can often present both the individual and the organization with information they may have missed in previous discussions. Once there is a group demonstrating resistance, the discussion may need to be resolved using town hall or listening sessions to identify the real issues. Strategies to include people in the change planning can help the change process be smoother. Once the information has been uncovered, it is possible to identify the point of resistance and address the issue.

More recent changes due to the global pandemic may cause those with resistant behaviors to reconsider their position. Several recent studies have found that individuals may have had varying experiences and are more likely to have innovative conversations because of the experience during the pandemic (Gupta et al., 2021; Kliuchnikava, 2022; Liao & Wang, 2023). Depending on the issues or challenges that were present in a country during the pandemic, some may be more willing than others to have a conversation to solve the issues that may have caused the spread of the disease, created conditions to close or damage businesses, and complicated the resulting multinational problems including those issues with the supply chain. Additionally, changes in attitudes could cause multiple areas of business innovation to be stalled or accelerated as researchers have discovered (Kliuchnikava, 2022).