Which term best captures resistance arising from how authority is distributed within an organization?

• A. Inertia
• B. Balance of power
• C. Group norms
• D. Communication

Answer: (B)

Power distribution within an organization shapes how people resist or accept changes. When authority is allocated in a particular way, individuals and groups gauge how that shift affects their influence, control, and status. If a proposed change would alter who makes decisions or how much influence someone holds, that can trigger resistance as people strive to protect or restore their level of power. This dynamic is captured by the balance of power, which examines how influence is spread across roles, departments, and groups and how shifts in that spread provoke pushback.

For example, moving decision-making authority from a centralized leadership team to frontline supervisors changes who has control over important choices. Those who previously held that influence may resist to defend their position, while others may welcome the increased autonomy. Inertia, by contrast, is broader resistance to change in general, not specifically tied to who holds power. Group norms describe shared expectations for behavior, which can influence reactions but don’t inherently describe how authority is distributed. Communication concerns relate to information flow and misunderstandings, rather than the structural distribution of power itself.

So the best term for resistance arising from how authority is distributed is balance of power.