Managing Resistance
Resistance is a natural part of any organizational change, however, when
managed ineffectively it can result in the failure of the change
initiative (Lewin, 1947). Change can either be visible by acts of
aggression, passive, or masked by questions of concern and factuality.
Discussing gender competence as a professional skill can help mitigate
the effect of viewing gender diversity initiatives as attacks on males
that are oppressing their female counterparts. Additionally, on an
individual level, communication about gender equality should make it
clear that the participant’s private life is not in question here and it
is merely the professional responsibility of employees to adhere to
institutional policy (European Institute of Gender Equality, 2016). The
involvement of leaders as change champions can also mitigate the effect
and help get the critical mass that can get the emotional investment
required for the change initiative (El-Murr, 2018). It’s also important
to train and map out change from an emotional level using frameworks
that can predict the changing emotions and communicate the framework to
employees and senior management. Such framework maps out forms of
resistance from passive to active starting with denial, disavowal,
inaction, appeasement, appropriation, co-option, repression and
backlash. (El-Murr, 2018)