Moving Beyond Resistance and Readiness: Reframing Change Reactions as Change Related Subject Positioning

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, line managers’ experiences of, and discursive subject positioning in, a participatory work environment initiative in four nursing homes called ‘The Health Circle Project’ is examined. We focus on line managers’ change related subject positioning by interviewing the managers of the four workplaces before and after the initiative and conduct a comparative case study from a discursive psychology frame. The aim of this paper is to focus on change reactions from managers and move beyond a reductionistic dichotomy of change resistance/readiness. Instead, we focus our analysis on the change related subject positioning the managers engage in, and how they position both themselves and their subordinates. Hence, we examine how the line managers experienced the participatory Health Circle intervention, and how they reacted to potential loss of power to discursively construct and define work environment problems caused by the initiative. The study exemplifies how the line managers experienced the Health Circle intervention as both confirming and challenging their subject positions as capable managerial subjects. Finally, in the light of the analysis, the potential unintended consequences of engaging in participatory work environment intiatives and similar activities are discussed. MAD statement Resistance to change is one of the most frequently used explanations for why change processes fail. The current study presents a more nuanced theoretical concept, change-related subject positioning and explores how increasing employee participation, can elicit unintended reactions from managers. This study hence contributes to our understanding of how a, in principle, positive change process of empowering employees to improve working conditions leads to a multitude of change related subject positioning from managers. Some managers embrace the change and position themselves in line with the employee participants. Others feel threatened which in extreme cases leads to negative positioning of their subordinates.