Assessment of Methodologies Employed by Change Agents in Managing Organizational Change: A Case Study in the Hospitality-Gaming Industry

Change resistance is one of the most serious issues confronting managers today. With the need for businesses to be agile at all times, especially as the frequency of change in today's environment is exponentially increasing, change agents must be able to manage any negative emotions from employees efficiently and effectively. The unwillingness of an individual or group to adapt to change within the organization is referred to as resistance to change. Resistance can manifest itself in various ways, such as low job satisfaction and morale, non-compliance, failure to adopt, decreased productivity, or even intentional sabotage.
This study aims to assess the efficacy of various methodologies used by change agents in managing change initiatives within their current organization to assist managers in managing changes within their organizations. Data was collected through a review of existing literature and interviews with ten participants from the same organization in Macau's hospitality-gaming industry. The ten participants included five change agents and five change recipients to gain perspectives from both sides. The interviews were analyzed using narrative analysis, and five major themes emerged: organizational culture, change recognition, types of change, change agent’s methodology, and change recipient’s evaluation of change.
The research has identified that the change agents all employed similar methodologies and processes when managing change initiatives. In addition, all of the identified themes have the ability to influence the outcome of each other. The change agents have collectively agreed that the communication and engagement with the stakeholders play a crucial part in their methodology, which will greatly influence how the change recipients react to change, either resistance or acceptance. The change recipients have also concurred that these two factors are what can make or break the success of a change initiative.