Resistance To Change In International Business And Management: Reasons And Management Strategies

Why is Change Resisted and why is Resistance Problematic as Something to be managed?

Discuss about the Resistance to Change for International Business and Management.

For remaining competitive, organisations undergo constant changes and adapt to these changes continuously (Balogun & Hailey, 2008). However, organisational change that is effective is something that appears to be rare (By, 2005). Leaders consider only about a third of the efforts of change in the organisations as being successful (Meany & Pung, 2008). This indicates that implementation of change programs within the organisations is a process that is quite problematic. The lower rates of success of the programs of change can generally be attributed to resistance to change that is shown by the employees (Ford, Ford, & D’ Amelio, 2008).

This essay will be discussing why resistance to change is frequently demonised as a problem that needs management, the ethical implications that it has and the other ways of managing resistance.

Regardless of the fact that an organisational change is administratively perfect or successful, individuals within an organisation either implement the change or break it as a representation of a type of influence. Despite the fact that the initiative for organisational change can generally be taken by managers or their imposition is a result of specific procedural or policy changes or external pressures, it is the attempt of the management to make the members of the organisation think, behave as well as perform in a different manner (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). Differences however, exist among people in relation to their perception in relation to change. Certain members take change into consideration with low levels of tolerance; others adopt the initiatives of change readily while still others fight change to the death because they consider them to be unnecessary (Burke, 2008).

Resistance to change within organisations, that is concerned with thoughts of implications in relation to change are any behaviour or attitude which indicates a willingness for supporting or making changes that are desired (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005).  It is often resisting losing something which is of value or losing something that is known by moving in the direction of the unknown. At times the imposition of change which is accepted as being a “universal truth” is resisted by the people (Burke, 2008). Resistance might be in the form of deliberate sabotage or a resignation of passive kind (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). For example, resistance to change might be faced in the case of schools when there is introduction of change and the members of the schools are forced to practice the change without being given any choice. Moreover, the schools might have to make adaptations to the environment and also operate in a comfortable way within the procedures, policies and structures that the new environment has brought in. however, for ensuring effectiveness, persons within the schools might show preference to emphasise on routine things that they might be performing well and build up defences against the new state or changes by attempting to resist it. Additionally, members of the schools might reject these changes as they feel the changes are not worth their attention, effort and time.

Critical Analysis of Relationship Between Power and Resistance in Context of Organisational Change

Resistance can either be ideological, political or blind. Blind resistance occurs when certain people within the organisation are intolerant or afraid of changes irrespective of what it might be like to have reaction that is “knee jerk” to change. Political resistance occurs when members of the organisation who have political resistance might think that implementation of change will result in loss of something valuable like losing power base, personal compensation, budget size, status, role or position within the organisation. Ideological resistance occurs when honest people show disagreement with organisational change. Some of them might think that the change is not timed correctly or it will not be successful or will result in damage. Thus, such a resistance will be due to intellectual differences in philosophies, feelings and beliefs (Y?lmaz & K?l?ço?lu, 2013).

Change is resisted due to several reasons. The forces which resist change in the organisations consist of disregarding the expectations and needs of the members of the organisation, provision on insufficient information in relation to nature of the change and lack of acknowledgement for a necessity for change. Hence, anxiety and fear might be exhibited by people for matters such as changes in the conditions of working, individuals losing control on work, differences in wage rates, losing job satisfaction, levels of employment and job security (Mullins, 2005). Even though change might be implemented for reasons that are positive such as making adaptations to volatility in the environmental conditions, the members of the organisation might show a negative reaction and resist it (Boohene & Williams, 2012). The major reasons for this are uncertainty, stress and pressure that accompany change. Other reasons comprise interference with the fulfilment of needs, limited resources, structure of the organisation, obsolescence of skills and knowledge, threats to influence or power, fear of the unknown, past security, economic implications, loss of freedom or inconvenience, habit and selective perception (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2008) (Robbins & Judge, 2009). The fact that change affects the individual members of the organisation psychologically and requires them to make transitions and change their status quo, which they often resist, makes it problematic to manage change as convincing the people of the necessity of change and changing their ideological, political or blind beliefs becomes a difficult.

Organisations change and adapt continuously to remain competitive (Balogun and

Hope Hailey, 2008), and yet effective organisational change seems to be rare (By, 2005;

Meaney and Pung, 2008). Recent statistics reveal that only one-third of organisational

change efforts were considered successful by their leaders (Meaney and Pung, 2008;

Beer and Nohria, 2000). Apparently, implementing successful change programs in

organisations is quite problematic. The low success rates of change programs are often

Organisations change and adapt continuously to remain competitive (Balogun and

Hope Hailey, 2008), and yet effective organisational change seems to be rare (By, 2005;

Meaney and Pung, 2008). Recent statistics reveal that only one-third of organisational

change efforts were considered successful by their leaders (Meaney and Pung, 2008;

Beer and Nohria, 2000). Apparently, implementing successful change programs in

organisations is quite problematic. The low success rates of change programs are often

Power’s role has been recognised as significant factor in efforts of organisational change. Power is conceptualised as being latent-cultural, latent-personal, manifest-structural and manifest-personal (Bradshaw & Boonstra, 1998). Additionally, individuals as well as groups might possess formal or informal power sources in an organisation (John, 2009). Their push and pull can change completely the organisation’s political landscape. The behaviour and words of informal and formal leaders can result in exertion of positive or negative influence on organisational members. This impact permits the group members to work towards delivering the organisational goals. The success of a proposed change is determined by the influence that the formal and informal leaders exert.

As per the critical change management, resistance is associated to changes having “unequal power relations”. In case of the theory of change management, circumvention of power is done by the use of euphemistic concepts like empowerment, governance and leadership. However, the social realities related to power need to be ignored. The understanding of power is possible through three perspectives (Karreman & Alvesson, 2009). Firstly, power is a restraining force wherein people are made to do things by one actor. These are things that they would not have done otherwise. Hence, resistance is a reaction that is unconcealed for using force overtly. Secondly, the focus of power is on the way cultural socialisation and ideologies make people to show compliance with the order that exists in the absence of explicit force and it avoids overt conflicts. It is entailed by such a social power that a particular discourse becomes one that is accepted naturally which creates social practices, values and identities of the people involved (Grant & Marshak, 2011). The manipulative aspect of power is articulated by this perspective. Employees are shown to be at their managers’ mercy who use discursive techniques for imbuing the workers silently with mindsets that are compliant. Resistance in such cases is mostly impossible as dominant discourse here is viewed as “natural order of being” which prohibit reflection on it. Thirdly, power is conceptualised as a productive force and an element that is an integral part if every human being (Homan, 2010). For collaboration, people need to interact and reach a shared understanding to some extent. Such an interaction leads to struggle for meaning which causes “negotiated reality”.  Thus, resistance becomes an integral element of power play.

The process of change management is affected by ethical standings in the organisation. It is unethical when political behaviour and power is used by individuals for making decisions which will be serving their self interests only. The manager needs to ensure that there is no personal gain and stakeholders who are a part of the change process need to be monitored so that unethical decisions are avoided. A leader recommending a political strategy for implementing change which will not be beneficial to the organisational objectives is also unethical. The behaviour of the managers also becomes unethical if the rights of the people are being violated. During management of a change process, the managers are required to walk on the fine line between exerting influence on others for gaining their commitment and crossing the line to resort to manipulation which becomes unethical. Their goal is to bring in effective and ethical changes. The managers need to influence the process by actively participating in it but he cannot control the total system (Antonellis, 2014).

On the other hand, the resistant party should also maintain ethics and should not oppose the change just for the sake of opposing it or oppose it under the influence of some power, both of which are unethical. This should consider its pros and cons and then decide whether it is needed by the organisation.

For the achievement of an effective program of change management, it is necessary to have collaboration between the managerial and the resistant positions. The management should educate the employees and communicate to them the need and nature of change before its implementation along with the logic for its implementation. When the basis of resistance is information that is lacking or is in inaccurate, this strategy will be useful. People should be allowed to plan, design and implement changes and make contribution of their ideas and advise for bringing in changes. Agreement benefits can be offered and negotiations held with the potential and actual resistors of change need to be carried out by the management. This will be useful when the individuals are losing something valuable due to the change process. Co-optation and manipulation as well as coercion either implicit or explicit should be resorted to when all other approaches fail. Facilitation along with support should be provided by the individual members to the management so that the change that is for their betterment of the organisation can be implemented smoothly.

Conclusion

Any sort of organisational change results in tremendous impact on the people within the organisation and the reason why several organisations show failure in accomplishing the initiatives if change is because they underestimate the influence that change has on the individual members (Kavanagh & Ashkanasy, 2006). If the managers show neglect towards the psychological perceptions which the organisation’s employees have with respect to change, it results in the failure of the initiatives of change within the organisation (Devos, Buelens, & Bouckenooghe, 2007). For change implementations to be a success, management of psychological transitions of the employees in an effective manner is necessary (Martin, Jones, & Callan, 2005). Clarity in understanding the behaviour of human in the organisation is essential for realising change management effectively. People may show reactions with certain emotions such as fear, frustration and uncertainty and might feel disoriented and threatened due to challenges that change poses. This makes them to show an attitude that is negative and they start resisting the initiatives of change, making it problematic to manage. As it is a psychological and complex event, the change has to be managed effectively and respected. For success, effective management and a dedicated workforce are a necessity within organisations. It is also crucial to take into consideration the impact that change will have on individual along with its nature.

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