While sitting in a leadership meeting discussing future organizational needs and ideas to enhance the service delivery system, it happens. It is almost inevitable that it will, and it does. The person to your left says, “No one likes change; they will resist.” Next, the electric shock is felt by those in the room who disagree with this perceived perception. Simply put, not everyone has the same view point when it comes to change. However, our society has clearly fostered a fearful response to the unknown and it is an ongoing management issue in the workplace. This research paper is an attempt to better understand why some processes in the XYZ organization are stagnant as well as identifying key factors that keep the organization from moving forward at all times. More specifically, are stagnant processes a result of employees actually resisting change or are the processes stagnant because of management’s perceived perception of change and resistance? In addition, the research will focus on understanding key reasons why some people resist change and others do not. Further, it will explore to understand management’s role and the need for management to individually analyze their own attitudes and beliefs prior to the on-boarding of others. Last, it is an attempt to convince others that not everyone is resistant to change and in order to continuously improve, change is necessary for the continuous growth and development of the organization. Problem Statement: Some
As a result, Zwick (2002, p. 542) has noted that implementing change programmes in organisations that realise positive outcomes remain problematic for many organisations in the 21st century. Ayodeji & Oyesola (2011, p. 235) have postulated that organisational change is a dynamic process, which when taken poorly contribute to employee resistance to it, and eventually leads to failure of the whole process. 3|Page Organisation Behaviour; MGTS 1601; Individual Essay; Employee resistance to change Yuanli Zhang 43401163 Employees resist changes when they occur in the organisations for several reasons. Many organisations when they introduce changes are likely to stick to the ‘top-down organisational change’ process (Awasthy, Chandrasekaran & Gupta, 2011, pp.
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
“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.
This article discusses the pros and cons of advocating change within the workplace. It also discusses the reason (s) individuals are said to resist change because of habit and inertia, fear of the unknown, absence of the skills they will need after the change, and fear of losing power. OD approaches to organizational change presents a solid consensus that change and resistance can and should be "managed" by developing a strategy for change and using the OD tool kit of interventions such as training and communication programs, confrontation meetings, stakeholder
Organizational change is a necessary outcome when considering various scenarios contributing to the resulting vision. Perplexing as it may seem, change initiatives don’t always result in positive outcomes. In fact, many never succeed. As a change agent, one should always have formulated a vision of what change will “look” like for the organization. One would be hard pressed to paint a landscape without having a vision of what the landscape should resemble. Yet, resistance to change usually becomes a significant factor contributing to an initiative’s failure. It is likely an
Changes are very critical to enhance organizational effectiveness. An organization needs to implement changes to stay productive, competitive as well as avoiding calamity in the case of aviation sector. Changes are the process of instilling new attitudes, values, norms and behaviors within an organization to support the way of doing work. However, the implementation of changes is a task that requires adequate planning and design since changes are not always welcome and could lead to individual's resistance to change. (Agboola,& Salawu,2011). The identification
In the situation in our organization, the resistance to change is primarily due to the continuous, incomplete changes that occur. The process is not tested and there are system incompatibilities that are ongoing. The company is basically trying to file a square peg in round holes by not updating the servers to support the software. This is causing the employees and lower management to try to accommodate for the insufficiencies with various “fixes.” These are definitely issues that a growing organization has to address in order for change to be
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.
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
Bolognese, A. (2002). Employee Resistance to Organizational Change. Retrieved December 2, 2006 from Internet, http://www.newfoundations.com/OrgTheory/
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:
In order to effectively adapt to the ever changing culture of multinational corporations (MNC) continuous change is inevitable for success. Whether the change is extensive or minute, employee resistance is common. To combat resistance it is important to understand that changes arouse feelings of fear in many. This fear can stem from a number of uncertainties; employees might see the perceived change as a threat to their job security or they may fear change strictly out of habit. Therefore, the goal when initiating change is to help employees accept the change, while consequently addressing the nature of resistance. To accomplish this, mangers need to establish proper communication, accurate timing and be emotionally sensitive to employee concerns. In addition, providing incentives and training will encourage a smooth change transition within the workplace. Thus, with proper implementation one can combat the effects of change resistance within an MNC.
Dent and Goldberg challenge currently held beliefs about Resistance to Change in organizations, seeking to reestablish its true meaning and thus replace it with a more appropriate mental construct. This was expedient for applicability to change management in organizations. In achieving this, the authors retraced the origins of the concept in the field of organizational behavior, through a systematic literature review.