A Test of the Measurement Validity of the Resistance to Change Scale in Russia and Ukraine

Abstract

The authors developed a Russian-language version of Oreg’s (2003) Resistance to Change (RTC) Scale, a multidimensional dispositional measure of an individual’s tendency to avoid or resist change, and tested its generalizability to the post-Soviet context with data from Russia and Ukraine. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated a lack of configural consistency for the cognitive rigidity subscale, and post hoc examination suggested an unintended frame of reference for the cognitive rigidity items. The other three subdimensions of the scale—routine seeking, emotional reaction, and short-term thinking—were measurement-invariant in the two countries, providing a psychometrically acceptable measure of individual resistance to change. As a result, this respecification of the RTC Scale should be useful for much needed research devoted to individual resistors to change in the post-Soviet context, an effort essential for understanding obstacles to organizational change, and for generating prescriptive guidelines in a situation where most organizations are pressed by transition-induced need for systemic change and development.