My Decision At Hand, Embrace It, And Expect Others

“The images, metaphors, or frames that we hold, both of managing and of change, influence our ideas of what we think managing change is all about” (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2009). As people we all see through our own eyes, we call see a different perspective and have a different reaction to what is coming next. As human beings we react differently to situations. Situations of change are transitions that some are able to adapt to quickly while others have a hard time. Being the leader of that change can be difficult and helping make a change does not come easily or effectively. Keep and Newcomer (2008)

Resistance to change is an expected reaction of human nature. We are not accustomed to change, as it is possible to lead to failure; however, there are also ways to manage the resistance within the company.

The more active the participants are in the planning, the less resistance there will be later (Sullivan & Decker). If staff does not trust leadership, does not share the organization's vision, does not buy into the reason for change, and aren't included in the planning, there will be no successful change, regardless of how brilliant the strategy (Goman, 2000). How people react to change is important to understand. Change takes an emotional toll on people, some more than others. It is important not to underestimate that toll and understand who will have a harder time adapting to change. Fear of change has many roots. Those roots can be a lack of trust, fear of failure, fear of loss of income or a belief that the change is unnecessary (Sullivan & Decker). By understanding the reason for the resistance a manager can help the employee overcome his or her fear and become a supporter of the change. The last two steps are to provide feedback mechanisms to keep everyone informed of the progress of change and evaluate the effectiveness of change (Sullivan & Decker). People need to be kept informed of the change process to minimize anxiety. Sometimes there are unexpected consequences to the change, and it is important to have a system in place for those consequences to be discussed and if needed more changes made in order to accommodate those consequences.

Communication breakdowns within an organization may contribute to resistance in changing organizations. Managers must be prepared to talk candidly about the needs for change, otherwise fear and uncertainty will remain a prevailing element that can damage morale and prevent successful implementation of the desired changes at all levels of the organization. Employees need comprehensive information about the nature, processes, and consequences of organizational change.

The issue with change is not so much what we think of change, but rather how we respond to change. In all honesty, there are few words that can throw up such a kaleidoscope of differing interpretations and emotions.

Leaders within a business need to be cognizant of the signs of change resistance and develop strategies to overcome them. Individuals are averse to change for four reasons: fear of loss of value, lack of understanding regarding the modification, belief change is not warranted, and an intolerance for change (Kotter, & Schlesinger, 2008). Comprehending and addressing these concerns are crucial steps between success or failure.

Change is particularly difficult if it is unexpected. It is far easier to accept change if an employee has time to digest the news and prepare to take action once the change has occur. Some of the concerns that worry employees may be address by creating clear goals and timelines that employee can easily follow. As well as addressing the chief objective “why are we changing?” Once these questions have been answer and employees buy in to them change will be easier and resistance will diminish (Strebel, 1996).

The organization must implement specific strategies to identify and resolve resistance to change. O Connor (1993) stated "In an organization, resistance is opposition or witholding of support for specific plans or ideas. It can either be intentional or unintentional, covert or overt" (p. 30). Employees will likely consider how change affects them personally and that may naturally cause some resistance. One of the most important things an organization can do to minimize resistance is to address these personal concerns. It is also important to identify any potential loss or gain that comes from implementing, or not implementing, the change initiative. Leaders

The strategy to handle this resistance is to prepare employees for the changes forthcoming; managers should have an expectation of resistance to change. Engagement of the best-qualified change management team is vital to successfully address concerns. Knowing the primary concerns, change management teams have the tools to present a compelling case why change is needed (Prosci, n.d).

The need for each individual to recognizing and accepting change has in fact become such a mantra, and been given so much lip service within the organization, in recent years, that it has nearly lost its meaning from over exposure. This may be due in part to the fact that many of the leaders feel the need to affect changes simply for the sake of making changes. Things that they can then lay claim to and take credit and receive potential recognition for. Every leader in turn steps in to affect their own series of changes during their short tinier in change, with little thought to the long term effects on those who must live through all this unnecessary and relatively disruptive turmoil. This is because few of these leaders have taken the time to identify and exact meaningful, necessary and therefore truly lasting positive changes. No, instead the vast majority is change simply for the sake of change and the turmoil that accompanies

Change is inevitable in this world, how we handle it is what makes the difference. While most agree that change is typically a challenging issue for an organization it does not mean that is can not be accomplished with little to no upset. Be it a simple change or a major project there are strategies that can be used to make the change a positive experience for both sides of the change; but first an understanding of resistance to change must occur.

One of the biggest obstacles is resistance to change. People resist change because change disrupts habits, conflicts with certain personality types, cause a fear of failure, can have potentially negative impacts, can result in a potential for loss of power, and, when done too frequently, can exhaust employees. There may be key people who publicly support the change effort while silently undermining the planned changes. It is the management’s job to identify, understand, and remove these obstacles. (Kotter J. P.

Individuals when faced with any major change will be inevitably resistant and will want to preserve the status quo, especially if they think their status or security within the organization is in danger (Bolognese, 2010). Folger and Skarlicki believe that organizational change produces skepticism in employees which make it problematic and possibly even impossible to contrive improvements within the organization (as cited in Bolognese, 2010) Therefore, management must understand, accept and make an effort to work with resistance, since it can undermine even the most well-conceived change efforts (Bolognese, 2010). Furthermore, Coetsee states for organizations to achieve the maximum benefits from change they must effectively create and

Resistance to change will derail even the best laid plans if not identified and dealt with in a positive, re-enforcing manner. In Organizational Behavior 6th Edition, resistance to change is defined as, "an emotional/behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an

To identify the key elements of the resistanceto change described in this situation, one may make use of the six Change Approaches of Kotter and Schlesinger.[1]The model prevents, minimizes or descreases resistance to change in organizations. According to Kotter and Schlesinger (1979), there are four reasons that why people resist change, three of which are applicable to this case: