Responding to change: The importance of political skill and other dispositional variables in predicting resistance to organizational change

Early research in the field of organizational change oftentimes included dispositional variables as researchers attempted to understand why individuals resisted change. While some researchers began to uncover the dispositional nature of resistance to change, others pointed out the inherent flaws within this approach. As a result, attention them focused on situational/contextual factors related to employee resistance. However, in the past decade, researchers have again investigated these dispositional factors (in concert with situational predictors) in an attempt to understand the complexity of organizational resistance. The purpose of the current study is to continue building empirical knowledge regarding the importance of both dispositional and situational factors, and introducing a disposition that has yet to receive any attention as it pertains to resistance to organizational change: political skill.;The current study did find that dispositional factors, including political skill, did explain additional variance above and beyond common situational antecedents of resistance in this sample of 147 individuals within a single hospital setting. These individuals were asked to reflect upon their experiences regarding the transition from paper-based to electronic medical records. The current study also found support for the mediational nature of resistant attitudes between dispositions and organizational outcome (e.g., turnover intention), and began to explore the role of dispositions as antecedents of situational variables in the prediction of resistance to change.