Resistance to Change in Organizations

There are many reasons why people fear change. One of the major reasons is the loss of control that can be experienced during change. They fear that they will lose control of their territory and they lose their sense of self-defense (Ten Reasons People Resist Change). This is shown when in Jenny’s

43-45). Top-down change process provides prescription that has only been developed by top managers and given to lower cadre employees down the ranks to consume without their input. According to Bovey & Hede (2001, p. 540) resistance occurs at the individual level, where employees are motivated by psychological factors to change that include resentment, frustration, low motivation and morale, fear, and feelings of failure. At the same time, earlier publication by Yilmaz & Kilicoglu (2013, pp. 17-18) identified four factors that motivate employees to resist changes in the organisation: employees focusing on self- interests as opposed to those of the organisation, having inadequate understanding of

Many people may resist change because they fear they will lose their jobs, status or position. It may be because they do not fully understand the purpose of change, or they may have a different perspective on the change than their management. “Individuals, groups, and organizations must be motivated to change. But if people perceive no performance gap or if they consider the gap unimportant, they will not have this motivation. Moreover, they will resist changes that others try to introduce,” Bateman and Zeithaml explained. Many times change for people at work

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.

Employees who feel pushed out of their comfort zone may also resist change, due to the unfamiliarity of new implications or managers. The fear of uncertainties due to the lack of communication can also lead to resistance to change on an individual level. If employees are not informed of the needs of the change then the fear of the unknown can cause resistance.

Certainly, there are several reasons why people don’t like to undergo a change situation. Firstly, some people are more concerned about the implications of change to themselves rather than thinking of the benefits it could bring for the company for example, I feel more comfortable working where there is more interaction with customers rather than working inside the office. Secondly, it somewhat also depends on the individual’s level of tolerance to change; some people feel more secured and satisfied with current working environment. Furthermore, there might be inadequate information about the benefits a change can bring in to them and the organization. Therefore employees are usually hesitant of undergoing a change situation. However, chapter 6 of Organizational Change looks into how we can minimise resistance to change in an organization which is described as Kotter’s theory. Kotter suggested six strategies for overcoming resistance to change:

Change starts with the perception of its need, so a wrong initial perception can be the first

In these instances, change is seen as evil and not "healthy". Change is not looked on as a positive opportunity and thus is rejected by the individuals in a company, which may result in incohesiveness within the organization and eventual collapse. Personal instances of resistance like those stated above often hold companies back because of their conservative views as they often result from lack of individual confidence in oneself to be creative. Stemming from personal instances of resistances is the occurrence of group resistance to change. Sources of group resistance to change include: Conformity to Norms (Inertia), Vested Interests, Sacrosanct, Rejection of Outsiders, Overdetermination, and threatened power. Vested Interests is probably the most interesting source of resistance because how can interest in being the best be a resistance? Vested Interests can be a resistance because it often promotes conformity to norms, as workers are less likely to contribute their ideas to the advancement of innovation and as a result the company suffers as past new ideas become old, and new ideas are needed to survive in the ubercompetitive business world today. Rejection of Outsiders can be looked on as positive or negative, but more negatively, thus placing it as a resistance to change. Rejection of Outsiders might cause more cohesion within a group to rely on each

People often resist change based on fear of the unknown, fear of loss, fear of failure, disruption of interpersonal

Since human beings are adaptive and familiar with change, how is it that they often resist change in their work environment? This question had troubled managers since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the fast peace of change required by the electronic age has made

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:

➢ Insecurity: Safety and security are high priority for every individual. One of the major reasons for resistance to change is uncertainty about the impact of change, especially on the job security. When employees feel that the security of the job is threatened   by change, they resist it. The fear unknown always has a major impact on the decision of the individual.

Organization change is due to the dramatic increase of competition in the world. A few of the companies will survive in these competitive world and others will fail or make any reorganization plan to sustain. In order to manage the changes in organization effectively the managers must have to understand the various forces either external or internal forces and plans an appropriate time to implement it efficiently otherwise it will affect the entire organization system.

Organizational change is an essential tool for companies to be able to cope with changes within the company along with challenges outside the company. This will be the point where the company will change how their company runs. This change will take the current way of business and allow them to tweak operations to fix their new problems.

NASA had a firm hierarchy and this brought about a lot of resistance to change from people. NASA could have gotten more of the people involved in the changes. I find that by getting people involved and having some key people or champions to support the change, there is less resistance. People want to feel involved and a part of decisions, especially if it impacts them directly. When it comes to successful change management, get people involved earlier, which will contribute to greater buy in and acceptance. Keep in mind that this should not be the sole solution for employee resistance; successful change management is about understanding the true nature of the resistance.