Question:
Discuss about the Resistance to Change Implementation.
Change management is the most popular topic that is debatable these days. This is because bringing change and managing the same is very difficult for the managers of the organisations. One of the major reasons for this difficulty is resistance to change (Hayes, 2014). This is the essay that discusses about the resistance that obstructs the change implementation in the organisation. It also focuses on understanding the manager’s perspective regarding this problem so that various strategies can be made by the managers to overcome the problem. The later part of the essay is about power and resistance concept followed with ethical issues related to the same.
Resistance to change can be defined as the action which is the response of the unwanted change experienced by any of the individual. It is generally the response when the change that is coming is perceived to be as the threat. Changes need to be implemented now and then because of the requirement of the market and to bring innovation in the company’s processes (Doppelt, 2017). The change in the company affects its employees and their working environment. This may be one of the reasons why the employees resist the changes in the organisation. When any of the change is being implemented, the employees have to adapt those changes and also have to develop new skills which may reduce their efficiency to perform (Lozano, 2013). There are many cause of resistance to change by the individuals at the workplace. One of the causes is reluctance to lose control. Most of the leaders or the employees at the workplace resist the changes because they think that the changes that occur in the organisation can take away the control they have on their working style. Another reason for resistance of change by the employees at the organisation is cognitive rigidity. The people who are rigid and are close minded does not like to deal with the changes. It is the non-willingness of the people regarding the changes that has been implemented in the organisation. Other researchers suggest that change is the stressor and most of the people in the organisation perceive change as the activity that can put stress on the employees. This is the psychology of the people that controls their mind to neglect the changes occurred in the organisation also restrict them to participate in the change management process conducted in the organisations (Hanif, Khan & Zaheer, 2014). Apple is the company that has brought many changes in its company but all the changes were successful. This is because of the right strategy to implement the changes. Apple usually believes in involving its employees to share their views in the decision making process. This helps the company to reduce resistance from the side of employees.
It has been said that change is not the issue but resistance to change is the major problem for the managers. It has been analysed that when any of the change needs to be implemented in the organisation, it affects every single associated elements of the company (Cameron & Green, 2015). One of those elements is the employees. it is very easy to bring the change the organisation by implementing the same with the particular standard process but if the implementation process have to face the resistance from one or the other elements of the organisation. Employees generally resist the change at the organisations because of the various reasons discussed above. The major issue at this time is to manage the same. This is because resistance to change results in managerial problems. One of the major problems that develop because of resistance to change is employee turnover. If the employees are not happy with the change that has been implemented than it may be possible that the employees leave job, as it becomes difficult for them to work in the company (Cronin & McGuinness, 2014). This is because they are very much familiar with the environment and changes in that environment can affect their work. It also affects the job satisfaction of the employees working there. Managers have to implement new strategies to convince the employees to adapt those changes and also needs to conduct training and development session to build confidence in the employees to accept the changes. Identifying the reason behind the change is also a very big managerial issue. Different employees may have different reasons to resist the changes (Hon, Bloom & Crant, 2014). Thus, identifying those reasons and making strategies to overcome the same is also a big challenge for the managers. It becomes very time consuming for the managers to deal with resistance to change by the employees. There are some other elements that can also resist the changes in the organisations such as shareholders, clients; partner etc. managing all the stakeholders at the same time and convince them to support the change implementation in the organisation is the challenging task to perform.
Change that needs to be implemented in the organisation is influenced by many institutional powers. With the great influence of globalisation on the companies, it has been analysed that the levels of management is eliminated and organisations are becoming flattened. Thus, in organisational change process the power remains in the hands of top management people, change managers, consultants, employees and other interest groups (Starr, 2011). These groups have to perform the role of influencers who have to manage the change process in the organisations. It has been analysed that when the concept of power is integrated with the organisational change, it may lead to resistance very easily, this is because it involve power of one interest group over another (Waddell, Creed, Cummings & Worley, 2013). This means that if the change is because of the power of the top management people, them the employees at the lower level or the managers can resist the changes and if the changes are under the control of the managers than other interest groups can resist the change. This is a very big issue at the time of making changes in the organisations (Burnes, 2015). There are different types of power that are there in the organisations that can generate different types of resistance. Position power is one of the forms of power that is because of the hierarchical structure of the company. The use of power in this sense results in domination. Actions taken by other interest groups against the position power leads to resistance and also results in illegitimate behaviour that is against organisational interests. Personal power is another form of power that can be used to bring changes in the organisation. It has been analysed that this follows the expert model of power to influence others (Roseneil, 2016). The expert of a particular field brings the change in the organisation and this leads to resistance by the line managers. In this case, resistance can be maintained or reduced by roper communication of the vision behind the change. Another form of power that exists in the organisation is structural power.it is the power that is distributed all over the organisations in different departments. Every department has the power and the level of power changes as per the project on which they are working. It has been analysed that the influence in this case if from the department in high level of power at that time to the other departments. This generates conflicting resistance by other department of the organisation. It has been analysed that this resistance is the most important one to be reduced as this generates high conflicts in the organisation.
It has been analysed that when power come into the way of bringing change in the organisation, it has been realised that most of the conflicts arise in the company and affect the working environment of the company in negative way (Burnes, 2009). Many ethical issues like disrespecting of other people, ignorance of emotional view of the employees etc. develops in the organisation due to dominance of power at the time of implementing change in the company. Ethics has taken the central point of giving a thought because it is the major concern of the society and the organisations these days. When the change is being implemented in the organisation, it is not just the organisation that is affected by the change but it is whole society that experiences its impact. As far as ethics in the organisation is considered, it has been analysed that the major issue that generates is by the employees (Sonenshein, 2009). The employees have to face many challenges when the company has to develop or implement any kind of change in the company. Employees resist the changes when the change is not found to be in their benefits. There are many other stakeholders that can also raise questions on the power of top management people to bring the changes. Thus it is required to consider all at the time of making any kind of change.
Another major ethical issue is the society issues. It is required to being the change in the manner that does not affect the society in negative way. The strategies that the company will use to make the changes should be ethical enough. As far as Apple is considered, it is the company hat uses the ethical approach of involving all the stakeholders at the time of making decision of brining any change in the company so that they can create the win-win situation for all.
Managers play a major role at the time of making and implementing change in the company. Effective change management is required to be conducted s that the predicted results of change can be achieved. It has been analysed that Kurt-Lewin approach of managing change is being used by many of the companies including Apple to make changes so that effective results can be reached.
It has been analysed that this approach can helps in bringing change in the company (Burnes, 2017). Following are the elements of Kurt Lewin change management theory:
Conclusion:
It has been concluded from the report that change management is the crucial function in the organisation and requires effective managerial skills to conduct the same. It has ben analyse that change is not the problem for the company but the factors that resists those changes is the big issue. Resistance to change can be defined as the action which is the response of the unwanted change experienced by any of the individual. employees are one of the biggest factor that resist the changes in the organisation as their have to make so much of efforts in learning new skills and developing their knowledge as per the change. Identifying the reason behind the change is also a very big managerial issue. Different employees may have different reasons to resist the changes. Thus, identifying those reasons and making strategies to overcome the same is also a big challenge for the managers. Power and resistance is also an important element of resistance to change which needs to be managed in ethical way to bring effective changes. Kurt Lewin approach is found to be the best approach in order to bring changes in the company.
References:
Burnes, B. (2009). Reflections: Ethics and organizational change–Time for a return to Lewinian values. Journal of Change Management, 9(4), 359-381.
Burnes, B. (2015). Understanding resistance to change–building on Coch and French. Journal of Change Management, 15(2), 92-116.
Burnes, B. (2017). Kurt Lewin: 1890–1947: The Practical Theorist. The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers, 1-15.
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cronin, H., & McGuinness, S. (2014). Examining the Relationship between employee Resistance to changes in job conditions and Wider Organisational Change: Evidence from Ireland. ESRI WP490. September 2014.
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations, 69(1), 33-60.
Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Hanif, M., Khan, Y. S., & Zaheer, A. (2014). Impact of organizational resistance to change on BPR implementation: a case of state bank of Pakistan. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(4), 186-196.
Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hon, A. H., Bloom, M., & Crant, J. M. (2014). Overcoming resistance to change and enhancing creative performance. Journal of Management, 40(3), 919-941.
Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2016). Kurt Lewin’s process model for organizational change: The role of leadership and employee involvement: A critical review. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge.
Lozano, R. (2013). Are companies planning their organisational changes for corporate sustainability? An analysis of three case studies on resistance to change and their strategies to overcome it. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 20(5), 275-295.
Roseneil, S. (2016). Transforming Politics: Power and Resistance. Springer.
Sonenshein, S. (2009). Emergence of ethical issues during strategic change implementation. Organization Science, 20(1), 223-239.
Starr, K. (2011). Principals and the politics of resistance to change. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 39(6), 646-660.
Waddell, D., Creed, A., Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. (2013). Organisational change: Development and transformation. Cengage Learning.
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