Although change is intended to be a benefit for the
organization or its employees, the employees’ behaviour it is not always for
change process.
Ford and McNamara (2002) in a review of the
literature say that resistance occurs because it threatens the status quo, or
increases fear and the anxiety of real or imagined consequences including
threats to personal security and confidence in an ability to perform.
Resistance to change represents an obstacle to in any
change initiatives. Resistance to change is divided into three groups of
factors (Mabin, Forgeson and Green 2001):
Individual, Group and Organizational.
An interesting approach to the individual’s resistance
is Kotter and Schlesinger’s (1979) research, the authors suggest that people
resist change for various reasons, but the most common reasons for resisting
change are:
- Individuals interests, people are characterized by their
own interests and by the desire not to give up something of value;
- A misunderstanding of the change and its
implications;
- A belief that the change does not make sense for the
organization; - Low tolerance for change.
Coch and French (1948) focused their research on
individual factors by analyzing psychological factors such as: fear, feelings
of failure, resentment, frustration, and low motivation
Individuals’ reactions to change are a result of their
emotions with respect to change (Liu and Perrewe 2005). Also, recent studies
have provided evidence of a complex relationship between employees’ emotions
and their reactions to change (Avey, Wernsing, and Luthans 2008; Hareli and Rafaeli
2008).
Reference
Avey, J. B., Wernsing, T. S., &Luthans,
F., 2008. Can positive employees help positive organizational change? Journal
of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), 48—70.
Coch, L., & French, J. R. P., Jr.
(1948) Overcoming resistance to change. Human Relations, 1, 512-532
Jeffrey D. Ford, Laurie W. Ford,
Randall T. McNamara (2002) "Resistance and the background conversations of
change", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 15 Iss: 2,
pp.105 – 121.
Kotter, J. P., & Schlesinger, L. A.
(1979) Choosing strategies for change. Harvard Business Review, 57, 106-114
Liu, Y., &Perrewe´, P. L. (2005)
another look at the role of emotion in the organizational change: A process
model. Human Resource Management Review, 15, 263—280.
Mabin,
Victoria J., Forgeson, Steve and Green, Lawrence (2001) Harnessing resistance:
using the theory of constraints to assist change management. Journal of
European Industrial Training, 25(2/3): 168-191
Resistance to change is one of the major problems when it comes to change management. People don’t want to change from the comfort zone that they are in and the benefits that they get from. Certain people are scared of change thinking that it will create a problem to their job. However, expecting resistance to change and planning for it from the start of the change management progamme will allow organizations to effectively manage objections. Understanding the most common reasons people object to change gives the opportunity to plan the change strategy to address resistance to change.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with princy. resistance to change become one of major problem is faced by the management.such a resistance may be taken place in Number of forms.output reduction,Internal quarrels,slowdown strikes, the expression of a lot of pseudo logical reasons why the change will not work.
ReplyDeleteMany companies which have been affected in the past due to resistance to change because of their larger market share include major giants such as P&G, Kodak and Nokia. Change is something that is inevitable and something that should be embraced by all the companies to survive in the industry. Innovation has revolutionized every industry and all the employees from low level management to higher level management should give higher priority to be on the bleeding edge to survive the competition. This requires lot of effort but in the end it will pay off in archiving a combine goal of becoming better as a company.
ReplyDeleteSo true bro,Whenever a change is introduced into the organization there will surely be resistance to it. The main reason people resist change is fear of the unknown.
ReplyDeleteResistance to change will always play vital role where ever there are development in every aspect or process. People doesn’t want go away from their comfort zone. So they always reluctant to go with change even though its benefits to them. If you can apply some real life case here that would be understandable to every reader exempt people who seek practical solutions.
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