Implementing Project Delivery Process Improvements: Identification of Resistance Types and Frequencies

Owner organizations within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry are presented with a wide variety of potential process-related improvements aimed at increasing project efficiency and performance. Implementation of process improvements can prove to be extremely difficult; previous research cautions that perhaps more than half of all planned organizational change initiatives fail to accomplish their intended objectives, oftentimes due to resistance exhibited by the organization's own personnel. This study utilizes an action research approach to document and catalogue employee resistance across multiple owner organizations that were engaged in the implementation of new process improvements within their project delivery practices. An analysis of variance with Tukey post hoc testing was performed to identify a prioritized ranking of the most frequently encountered resistive behavior types within owner project teams. This study contributes empirical documentation of change resistance along with actionable recommendations to address various forms of project team resistance.