Background: To maintain their survival, organizations are forced to keep pace with the changes that occur. Participative management could be one way of reducing resistance to change by increased participation and commitment of the employees. The present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between participative management and resistance to change from the perspective of administrators at educational hospitals of Yazd in 2013.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional and analytical study performed in 2013. The subjects consisted of 81 senior, middle, and operational managers working in educational hospitals of Yazd Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. Data were gathered through 2 questionnaires of participative management and resistance to change. The reliabilities were assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient to be 0.78 and 0.70, respectively. The data were analyzed using SPSS ₁₉, and Pearson correlation coefficient test.
Results: The findings showed an inverse relationship between participative management and resistance to change which was meaningful (p ˂ 0.05, r = - 0.300). Also, 2 parameters of participative management including participation in implementation (p ˂ 0.05, r = - 0.325), and control and supervision (p ˂ 0.05, r = - 0.292) indicated an inverse significant correlation with resistance to change.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study applying participative management could be an appropriate and beneficial strategy to reduce staff resistance to change.