Resistance to Change

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.

Many types of risk are created – risk to the project, to the organization, to the employees involved and to the individuals supporting the change.

Managing Transitions by William Bridges is a well-constructed text written on Change Management. Bridges begins by expressing the clear distinction between “change” and “transition”, with emphasis that change and transition are not interchangeable terms, but completely separate processes. The concept, according to Bridges, is simple: Change is situational, it is eventful, visible and tangible. Change is the WHAT. Transition is psychological, a continuous process that happens over a span of time, it is internalized by people. Transition is the HOW. Transition is internal, it is what happens to the person mentally as they process the change.

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

Our textbook lists the four major reasons for resistance to change as inertia, misunderstandings, group norms and balance of power. Misunderstandings, while difficult to recognize and overcome, can be handled through training, by clearly stating the changes made and the expectations of the department, and by establishing a clear line of communication between officers and superiors. The department can handle group norms resistance by allowing officers to participate in the planning and implementation of the approaching changes. The balance of power is a struggle faced by many departments, and it can create significant resistance to change. Anytime a department is attempting to make a change to an officer autonomy or power there will be resistance, however, by factoring in this resistance and clearly establishing roles and role expectation,

There is a lot of discussion about if passive resistance and nonviolent protests are the best way to bring about social change. The people who agree with this idea, such as Gandhi himself or Martin Luther King Jr., they were able to push their agendas with these methods and still be successful. Although it took some time for what they wanted to happen, they still came in time with patience. For example, when South African law required Indians to carry identity documents and to be fingerprinted, Gandhi encouraged Indians to openly disobey the act by picketing major government offices and burning identification papers, even though he faced jail time for this act, but he still persisted this for 8 years. Another example is when Gandhi refused

I think change should be feared and resisted depending on the types of changes and why they are happening. I think this because there are good changes and there are bad changes and you can’t avoid all of them because you would end up missing out on a lot of things. You also cannot accept every change because you could end up in situations that you would not like to be in. In the story the humans are changing into martians. I think that this change should be feared and resisted because the people in the book have no idea what the effects of this change could be. An example of a good change would be an adult getting a new and better job. This would be a bad change to fear and resist because you could be missing out on a great opportunity. In

Susan, I read your summary reaction response for part three of the book, “Immunity to Change” and was a bit confused. I was confused because you were stating that the summary reaction response you were submitting was for part three of Immunity to Change but on blackboard it was stating that the paper you were posting was for “Beyond the Wall of Resistance”. However, once I started to read it and saw your comments about gut, head and heart, and hand, I realized it was your reaction response to “Immunity to Change’.

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

When people take risks they are willing to put themselves into situations that they can both lose or gain something valuable. The object can be both tangible and tangible. Uncertainty is when a person is unsure about a situation. An example of uncertainty is when a person is in doubt and not sure how to handle the situation. Risk and uncertainty are separate, but they are typically found within the same situation (McConnell, 2015).

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.

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:

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.

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