Understanding Resistance to IS-Related Change

When adopting and diffusing new Information Systems (IS) people often show signs of resistance and animosity when they are required to change their behaviour through use of new digital technology in organisational settings. However, resistance may take many forms and may vary from stakeholder to stakeholder. Further, it may be very challenging to know how to handle and cope with different types of resistance. Understanding the type of resistance and how it is expressed externally is an extremely important part of any digital transformation in order to make the wished-for change happen. In this paper we analyse 6000 Facebook posts that revolve around a new digital healthcare platform with more than 40,000 daily users that all were required to adopt and use the new system. We infer an overall framework of resistance to change (RtC) that enhances the understanding of the phenomenon and paves the way for new potential coping strategies.