Case Study: Theories & Models for Overcoming Resistance to Change

Consider the following Hill Country Community Hospital case study:

Hill Country Community Hospital is a 100-bed acute-care facility in rural Texas. The hospital has served the local community for over 40 years but has experienced financial decline over the past 3 years. Hospital administrators believe that the best way to cut costs is to terminate all contracts with staff physicians and allow a large, Dallas-based physician group to take over in-hospital patient care. The move would quickly solve the current budget crisis, even enabling the hospital to show a profit for the fiscal year.

However, community residents are strongly opposed to the plan, as they have always been accustomed to receiving in-hospital care from their family physicians. The proposed move is creating public relations problems, both with external and internal audiences.

Employees are also highly resistant to the change, as they fear that their jobs may also be outsourced, and that bringing in outsiders to provide patient care will ruin the hospital’s reputation. This is creating emotional labor, poor morale, and increased patient complaints.

As a first step toward overcoming resistance to change, experienced practitioners will identify the types and sources of resistance. Next, they will use strategies based in OD theories and models to guide their client company through the resistance to change. Consider how the theories and models you have read about would be relevant to this case study and how they would aid you in guiding this organization to reestablish homeostasis.

To prepare:

Review the Hill Country Hospital case study and this week’s Learning Resources related to resistance to change. Consider which theories related to change resistance might apply to this organization. How might you implement change models in this organization to help overcome resistance to change?

By Day 7

Submit a 2- to 3-page paper written in APA format and style in which you assess how change models can be applied to the Hill Country Hospital case study. In your assessment identify and discuss two theories and two models related to change resistance. As you reflect on the Hill Country Hospital case study, explain the theories you observe and how you would implement one—or both—of the change models you identified to help this organization reestablish homeostasis. Provide a brief discussion of how you might evaluate the efficacy of your interventions. Include in your response why evaluation is important to the process.

Support your Application Assignment with references to recent (within the last 5 years) peer-reviewed, scholarly sources and this week’s Learning Resources.

Learning Resources

Required Readings

Caruth, D. L., & Caruth, G. D. (2018). Managing workplace resistance to change. Industrial Management, 60(4), 21–23.

Hallak, D. (2015). Coaching People to Change, One Step at a Time. TD: Talent Development, 69(3), 72–73.

Klonek, F. E., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., & Kauffeld, S. (2014). Dynamics of resistance to change: A sequential analysis of change agents in action. Journal of Change Management, 14(3), 334–360.

Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Approaches to managing organizational change. International Journal of Scholarly Academic Intellectual Diversity, 12(1). 1–10. Retrieved from http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%…

de Pádua, S. I. D., da Costa, J. M. H., Segatto, M., de Souza Júnior, M. A., & Jabbour, C. J. C. (2014). BPM for change management: Two process diagnosis techniques. Business Process Management Journal, 20(2), 247–271. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-03-2013-0039

Swann, A. (2018). The Human Workplace. London, England: Kogan Page.

• Chapter 7, “Getting There: Making the Change” (pp. 183–207)
• Chapter 8, “Final Thoughts” (pp. 208–212)

Varney, G. H. (2017). Change your change process and make change work. Organization Development Journal, 35(1), 25–33.

Wheeler, T. R., & Holmes, K. L. (2017). Rapid transformation of two libraries using Kotter’s Eight Steps of Change. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 105(3), 276–281. doi:10.5195/jmla.2017.97