Examining the Relationship between Employee Indicators of Resistance to Changes in Job Conditions and Wider Organisational Change: Evidence from Ireland

Purpose
This paper uses a linked employer-employee dataset, the National Employment Survey, to examine the determinants of organisational change and employee resistance to change and, specifically, to examine the influence of employee inflexibility on the implementation of firm-level policies aimed at increasing competitiveness and workforce flexibility. A key finding arising from the research is that while workforce resistance to job-related change often forces firms to seek alternative means of achieving labour flexibility, there appears little that firms can do to prevent such resistance occurring. The presence of HRM staff, consultation procedures, wage bargaining mechanisms, bullying and equality polices etc were found to have little impact on the incidence of workforce resistance to changes in job conditions.

Design/methodology/approach
The objectives of this paper are two-fold: firstly, we model the determinants of a measure of workforce resistance to job-related change and, secondly, we assess the impact of workforce resistance on the probability that firms will implement various wider forms of organisational change using linked employer-employee data.

Findings
Workforce resistance to proposed changes in job conditions was found to be lower in organisations employing higher shares of educated workers and also in smaller firms. HRM and employee relations measures were found to have little impact on worker resistance to changing employment conditions, while trade union density was important only with respect to alterations to core terms and conditions. Resistance was found to be important for wider organisational change.

Research limitations/implications
From a policy perspective, the key finding arising from the research is that while workforce resistance to job-related change often forces firms to seek alternative means of achieving flexibility, there appears little that firms can do to prevent such resistance occurring or mediating its impacts. The presence of HRM staff, consultation procedures, wage bargaining mechanisms, bullying and equality polices etc were found to have little impact on the incidence of workforce resistance to changes in job conditions.

Practical implications
From a policy perspective, the key finding arising from the research is that while workforce resistance to job-related change often forces firms to seek alternative means of achieving flexibility, there appears little that firms can do to prevent such resistance occurring or mediating its impacts. The presence of HRM staff, consultation procedures, wage bargaining mechanisms, bullying and equality polices etc were found to have little impact on the incidence of workforce resistance to changes in job conditions.

Originality/value
The paper utlises a linked employee-employer dataset in a novel way to investigate within firm relationships and tests a number of hypotheses using advanced econometric techniques.