The Following paper deals with resistance to radical organisational change and different ways to explain this phenomenon. Our goal is to show in which way a theoritical perspective concentrating on power, routines and individual rationality can contribute to a better understanting of resistance. First we address the change from a mechanistic to an organic mode of organisation as a particular example of radical organisational change. In the second part of our paper, we develop a conceptual framework which helps to analyse resistance and tries to remedy some of the short comings of more traditional approaches.In the third section, we apply our model to three cases of resistance drawn from a large empirical study on change processes in a major Swiss media corporation. Finally, we propose some conclusions regarding the nature of radical organisational change