Resistance to Change Management on the Example of an Integrated Iron and Steel Works

Today the world around is undergoing colossal transformations, and organizations are forced to adapt existing business models and approaches to interacting with the micro and macro environment, introducing a variety of digital tools for collecting, organizing and subsequent analysis of large amounts of data. Such changes are a key reason for the emerging resistance from the management and employees of the firm. This paper is devoted to the management of resistance to change from employees with developed social capital at a full-cycle metallurgical enterprise during the digital transformation of business. The purpose of this work is to develop practical recommendations for managing resistance to change from employees with developed social capital during the digital transformation. To achieve the highlighted goal, the following tasks should be completed: 1. Analyze the literature on managing resistance to change; 2. Conduct an in-depth semi-structured interview with the CEO of the enterprise; 3. Conduct a questionnaire survey of the company's employees, including representatives of middle and senior management; 4. Analyze the received data; 5. Identify the key factors of resistance to changes in employees; 6. Conduct a social network analysis; 7. Build a diffuse model of resistance propagation; 8. Provide a pool of practical recommendations for managing resistance to change among employees with developed social capital. Taking about research methods, the following can be noted: 1. Content analysis of literature on managing resistance to change; 2. An in-depth semi-structured interview with the CEO of the enterprise to identify the level of the company's intellectual capital before the start of digital transformation. 3. Questionnaire survey of employees of the enterprise to identify their attitude to changes and possible types of resistance; Quantitative analysis of the results obtained to identify the key factors of resistance to change. 4. Construction of a diffuse model of resistance propagation using a linear threshold model of cascades. As part of the practical part of this work, an in-depth semi-structured interview with the CEO was conducted. Moreover, a questionnaire survey was conducted with employees of the metallurgical industry. Based on the survey, the following conclusions were drawn. First, there is a relationship between the reasons for resistance and the department in which the employee works. Second, the mean values of the causes of resistance differ depending on the resistance. Moreover, an enterprise social network analysis (SNA) was carried out, and a predictive diffusion model was built that demonstrated with high accuracy the potential spread of resistance. The last block of work presents practical recommendations for managing resistance to change among employees with developed social capital.