Resisting by not resisting: Constructing inconsistencies to resist dual mandated changes

Abstract

This article explains how employees construct inconsistencies between two separate mandated changes and use these inconsistencies to progressively resist the realization of both changes. Specifically, they use three practices – (1) demonstrating interdependencies between change elements, (2) framing these change elements as inconsistent and (3) establishing the consequentiality of specific change elements by constructing poor outcomes for these – to build capacity to critique, revise and eventually reject elements of both changes. As a result of this resistance, neither mandated change is fully realized. Our findings contribute to the literature on strategic change by illuminating the specific processual dynamics through which actors construct and manipulate the relationship between changes. This also allows us to contribute to the literature on resistance to change by illuminating the dynamics that over time enable actors to resist even mandated – that is, externally imposed – changes, by camouflaging resistance as non-resistance.