University professors’ resistance to change: reasons and factors

The main idea of this case study paper is to introduce the practice of monitoring and analysis of the university professors’ resistance to changes, and to describe the possible solutions for the resistance management using the example of the Institute of Economics and Entrepreneurship of Lobachevsky University. The methodological background of the research was based on the basic understanding of the resistance to change, its negative role, its causes and circumstances. Different reasons for resistance were described based on the psychological approach. The idea of the questionnaire is the qualitative description of the dependence between the university teachers’ resistance to changes and the factors of their resistance. The basis of the questionnaire is the authors’ description of psychological reasons and organizational factors of resistance. The 170 members of the pedagogical staff of the Institute were questioned, which is more than 50 % of the personnel. The following conclusions were made: 1) the professors’ resistance to change has modest strength and, mainly, the passive form; 2) the main reasons of their resistance is the fear of negative results of changes and change of academic values; 3) the crucial factor of professors’ resistance is inefficient system of communication. The next step for the research is to improve the methodology of the measurement of the resistance to change and to extend that methodology for all the departments of the university. It is quite important to notice that the resistance is usually presented in the passive form, and it could create the illusion that there is no resistance at all. In order to have the real picture of the situation, it is essential to measure the quantitative characteristics of the resistance and to use different methods for different directions. The fear of the negative effect of changes is one of the problems to be solved by the explaining of the positive circumstances of changes. One possibility for that is to give the teachers the role of actors of the new policy, to describe the possible effects of changes. Another possible way is the substitution of the traditional academic university culture by the entrepreneurial culture; this can be achieved by the introduction of the new values. Also it is worth mentioning that one of the main organizational barriers for the resistance of change is the inefficient communication among the university staff, it slows down the distribution of the information about the changes. The results of the research are unique, as they lay in the suggested hierarchy of the causes and organizational factors of the resistance to change at the universities.