Exploring the Phenomenon of Resistance to Change in a University using Hermeneutic Phenomenology

Resistance to change is a phenomenon to which persuade change administrators exploring its quiddity, quality, and managing methods. The purpose of this study is to achieve a deep understanding of resistance to change phenomenon from viewpoints of staff and line employees of a public university. The research strategy was hermeneutic phenomenology and participants were aforeside employees that selected through a typical method sampling process. Qualitative data were gathered through deep interviews up to theoretical saturation and analyzed using Maxqda software. The results showed that there are six general antecedents effecting on resistance to change in considered university: individual, job, and group, managerial, organizational and environmental factors. Furthermore, we found that there are four categories of aforeside university employees that resist to changes differently: veteran staff, new entrance staff, add-in staff, and line employees.