People Don’t Resist Change, They Resist Being Changed!

Change management according to many becomes essential for the following reason: external pressure; which can encompass competition, new technology, cost, and regulation changes. Furthermore, economic and social conditions can escalate long-term change necessary. This paper will discuss several aspects of change management models, theories, and application thereof. In addition, it will provide overviews of the drivers of change, factors necessary for to implement change successfully, strategies and expectations of management, and leadership styles needed for influence and effectiveness.

Change in an organization can be and usually is difficult for various reasons. Much of the difficulty is in the approach used to initiate change and the willingness to stay engaged and stamina to sustain change through to the end. Organizations can choose to lead by recognizing and implementing change, follow in the shadow of organizations leading the market, or get out of the way by standing still and eventually going under. With this said; if change was easily done and successful for every organization there would be no need for change management specialists and years

Fincham and Rhodes (2005, p525) define change management as ‘the leadership and direction of the process of organisational transformation – especially with regard to human aspects and overcoming resistance to change’.

Change management is designed to ensure the effective transition of an organization and its people from the current to future states, and is about effectively leading and managing individuals, teams and organization to successfully adopt the changes needed to achieve required or desired business results.

After acquired to change management subject, I think that change is a state of transformation which results in an essential shift in the way we observe and interact with the world. The concept of change is more important in our lives as it enables us to face new experiences, either it be good or bad. To be safe from bad experience of change, knowledge to manage the change is compulsory for

1.1 Change management is described by Armstrong (1) as “the process of achieving the smooth implementation of change by planning and introducing it systematically taking into account the likelihood of it being resisted”. Change, the fundamental constant in any successful organisation, can be adaptive, reconstructive, revolutionary or evolutionary and can happen for a number of diverse reasons:

to change behavior” (Mc Carthy and Eastman, 2010, p.3). The positive outcome from the implementation or “benefit realization is dependent, not on technology, but on people agreeing to go through personal disruption, learn new things, change established patterns and confront their fears (Mc Carthy and Eastman, 2010, p. 16). According to Lorenzi and Riley (2000), “one of the most difficult problems organizations face is dealing with change … the ability to change rapidly, efficiently, and almost continually (this) will distinguish the winners from the losers” (Lorenzi and Riley, 2000, p. 120). According to Jarrell (2010), top organizations understand the importance of change management and utilize these methodologies in their daily operations; “utilizing a change management methodology enables the implementation and leadership teams to

For any business in the rapidly evolving world of business, planning and implementing successful organizational change is indispensable. Essentially, organizational change refers to a process whereby an organization strives to optimize performance in order to achieve its ideal state characterized by high performance and profitability (Côté & Mayhew, 2014). Any business would be more likely to lose its competitive edge, as well as fail to meet the demands of its loyal consumers if it doesn’t plan and implement change. Weiss (2012) emphasizes that all organizations ought to embrace change, and it’s imperative to note that successful organizational change doesn’t involve simple process of adjustments; instead it requires appropriate change management capabilities.

Change is a common thing that happens all around us on a daily basis sometimes even without us noticing. It can range from family level to international levels, likewise in time frame it can happen on a daily basis, a monthly, yearly or even a decade. In the words of Senior & Fleming (6) Change can be simply defined as process of moving from one state to another. It is this transition that creates distress to the people due to fear of the unknown. We can not stop change but rather we can only manage it. So then what is change management?

Change can be traumatic for people and can lead to loss of prestige, power, and sometimes employment. Organizations do not change just because new processes or structures have been implemented. Organizations change because the employees within the company have adapted. It is only when the employees have made their individual transitions will a company benefit. The journey toward change needs to be as easy as possible.

It is in human nature to abhor boredom and predictability that result from daily routine .Yet , when it comes to making changes and venturing out of one ‘s comfort zone , most people will feel inclined to resist change, despite their prodigious desire to implement it .So why do we resist change ?

There are many reasons why people resist change. The most common of these are the idea of starting something new. An individual may have been asked to join a major club and they believe they are not ready. This new club will be in a new environment and the individual may feel uncomfortable as they do not know where they are. Also, this is a group of new people that this person is not used to being around therefor everything is new. Many people do not like this so will naturally resist this change.

There are two mental barriers which tend to undermine the acceptance of change initiatives that are interpreted as inconsistent with the existing organizational identity. First, passive resistance (for example, apathy or anxiety) occurs when managers exhort subordinates to implement a change without first clarifying the connection between the change and some aspect of the organizational identity. Second, active resistance occurs when a change is interpreted as directly in conflict with key elements of the organizational identity (Palmer).

Managing change is important in seeking the final component of successfully managing strategy, process, people and culture in most modern organizations. More and more, staying competitive in the face of demographic trends, technological innovations, and globalization requires organizations to change at much higher rates than ever before. Few people will argue with this statement, but fewer still will say their organization does a good job at managing those changes. Managing change well is a continuous and ongoing combination of art and science that assures alignment of an organization¡¦s strategies, structures, and processes (Worley & Vick, 2005).

Week 3, the lecture on Managing Change describes organizational changes that occur when a company makes a shift from its current state to some preferred future state. Managing organizational change is the process of planning and implementing change in organizations in such a way as to decrease employee resistance and cost to the organization while concurrently expanding the effectiveness of the change effort. Today's business environment requires companies to undergo changes almost constantly if they are to remain competitive. Students of organizational change identify areas of change in order to analyze them. A manager trying to implement a change, no matter how small, should expect to encounter some resistance from within the organization.