Reasons Organizations, Groups and Individuals Resist Change
Discuss the various reasons organizations, groups, and individuals resist change. How do we overcome these forms of resistance?
Often when organizations, groups, and individuals resist change they feel threatened causing them to become defensive. People begin to feel threatened when their work environment becomes unpredictable and when the work environment becomes negative. Often when changes fail top management contracts out the problem or replace individuals unnecessarily. Organizations as a whole resist changes when the changes have a limited focus, reform the group’s dynamics, and caused employees to feel threatened. Employees feel their expertise is threatened when there are many new hires, when power dynamics is altered and when resource allocations change.
How do we overcome these forms of resistance?
When management approaches change as an opportunity rather than a problem the dynamic changes, focusing on teaching and internal improvements reduces the threat of change making the experience a positive environment. People within an organization require predictability in their environment. When management involves, their employees in the planning for the upcoming changes employees feel involved and informed of the new direction of their company. The key to successful change management is communication.
The best way to overcome resistance is to prevent it. When companies involve their employees in the planning process, they feel involved. Companies need to motivate the employees to demand the changes required. By highlighting the problem and surveying the employees about the issue, companies can encourage employees to demand the changes. After the research is done the company needs to inform the employees of the results and then involve their people in finding an opportunity to solve the problem. The risk of resistance requires careful analysis and monitoring. Companies need to analyze their strategy, communication practices and goals to ensure they are integrated and not conflicting with each other. Effective top management and management are required to coordinate and strategize the company as it changes its direction. The company’s restructure needs to be carefully planned to ensure that the coordinating departments are efficiently functioning in unison. Communication is key to change management. The company’s new direction needs to be communicated and reflected in the company’s vision statement. The benefits of the new structure need to be communicated to all stakeholders. Finally, the learning process has to be monitored as the changes are implemented to ensure successful integration of the proposed changes.
References
Locke, E. (2009). Handbook of principles of organizational behavior. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
