Resisting change: The role of justice and emotion regulation

Employees who perceive injustice during organizational change are likely to respond emotionally and resist the change. This study investigated whether employees’ way of regulating their emotions might play a role in this process. Two forms of injustice were studied: distributive injustice (concerning change outcomes) and interactional injustice (how employees were treated during the change). The findings indicated that employees who noticed injustice during change were inclined to reappraise the situation less and ruminate more, and subsequently developed more resistance to the change. In addition, both forms of injustice directly contributed to employees’ resistance to the change.