Power Dynamics and Resistance to Change

The assignment content discusses the concept of power and resistance to change in an organisational setup. It highlights that higher the power a person holds, higher will be the resistance they offer to a change program if it perceives as a threat to their authority or power. The content also emphasizes the importance of understanding ethical issues related to power and position. It concludes by stating that powerful people in an organisation should understand the importance of workplace changes and help implement required changes rather than spreading negativity or resisting change.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT –
618549

Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................3
Change management.................................................................................................................3
Resistance to change..................................................................................................................3
Why employees resist workplace changes?........................................................................3
Loss of status, power or job insecurity........................................................................................4
Fear of the unknown and improper communication...................................................................4
Peer pressure.............................................................................................................................4
Organisational climate and politics.............................................................................................5
Poor timing................................................................................................................................5
Lack of reward...........................................................................................................................5
Relation between power and resistance to change............................................................6
Ethical issues related with power and position...................................................................7
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................8
Bibliography.......................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Change management
Change management is a process of identifying changing market trends, designing a change
program and introducing a change in the workplace in order to cope up with the market
trends and to remain competitive (Kotter, 2007).
The spread of globalisation has made the business world more complex and competitive.
With the increase in the reach of business organisations and also of the customers, business
organizations in all industries are competing with each other at a global scale and have
become vulnerable to multiple internal and external environment factors, which can undergo
a change in real time. Environment factors, such as social, economic, technological, etc. can
undergo a change in real time, which forces business organisations to introduce changes in
their work operations and processes, in order to remain competitive and ensure market
sustainability (Techtarget, 2015).
Resistance to change
Introducing changes in the workplace has become an important factor in organisation success
as it assists business organisations in increasing their overall competencies and in remaining
competitive but managing workplace changes is not an easy task (McSweeney & Murphy,
2014). Designing and implementing changes in the workplace is such a dubious task that a
number of organisations have miserably failed in their attempt to introduce workplace
changes while some organisations have lost their market share to their competitors in their
attempts to implement changes.
One of the prime reasons behind the failure of business organisations in implementing
workplace change is resistance to change. Resistance to change is a natural process where the
stakeholders demonstrate a negative reaction towards the change program if they perceive it
as a threat (Changingminds, n.d.).
Why employees resist workplace changes?
Resistance to change has been considered as one of the prime reasons behind the failure of
change initiatives but most of the times, it is the inability of the management to implement

the change effectively and in dealing with the resistance to change offered by the
stakeholders.
Resistance to change during a change initiative can occur due to a number of reasons. Some
of the reasons behind the origin of resistance to an organisational change are discussed
below:
Loss of status, power or job insecurity  it is a natural tendency of human
beings to resist changes that can have an impact on their work lives, personal lives or can
bring them out of their comfort zones. In an organisational setting, resistance to change can
be shown by employees whenever they feel threatened by upcoming technological or
administrative changes, which can result in their role and responsibility being reduced,
undermined or eliminated. The employees perceive such changes as a threat to their existence
in the organisation and end up offering resistance to the change program (Tanner, 2017).
Organisational wide changes can sometimes involve downsizing of the workforce or can
sometimes involve a complete restructuring of an organisation. When such changes are being
planned and implemented, the employees become insecure about their jobs and are more
likely to resist such change programs (Bytestart, 2015). Therefore, loss of status, power or
being insecure about their jobs is one of the prime reasons, which makes the employees show
resistance to change programs.
Fear of the unknown and improper communication  another major reason
behind the failure of change management programs and also behind the origin of resistance to
change is the fear that the employees develop in their mind when they are not properly
informed about the change program and its objectives (Stark, 2010). Most of the times, the
management fails to effectively communicate the change management program with its
stakeholders and lesser the stakeholders know about the change program and its likely impact
on the organisation, more will be the resistance that they would offer to the change program.
As a result, most of the people are of the view that keeping the employees involved in the
change management process can help business organisations in dealing with resistance to
change (Adenle, 2011).

Peer pressure  Whether introverts or extroverts, all employees working in a business
organisation are a part of a group and have a tendency to resist changes that are against the
interests of the group to which they belong. If a change is perceived by the employees as a
threat to the bond that they have with the other people, they will show resistance to change
and make it difficult for the organisation to successfully implement a change.
Organisational climate and politics  the climate of an organisation and the
politics within a workplace has a major role to play in the process of introducing workplace
changes. If there is lack of trust in the organisation, implementing a change can become a
night mare for the managers as the employees are not able to place their trust in anybody and
perceive a change program as a threat to their jobs (Rick, 2011).
On the other hands, organisational politics and bureaucracy can also become a prime reason
for resistance to change because the employees can resist change to prove that the leaders of
the change program are not worthy of their position or to prove that their initiatives are not
going to bring any fruitful results for the company.
Poor timing  in certain cases, it is not just about the actions of the change facilitators
that paves way for resistance to change but can also be sometimes because of the change
being introduced at a wrong time or in an awkward situation. It is important for the managers
to introduce a change at the right time so that the employees are adequately prepared for the
change and do not consider it unwanted or ineffective (Ford, Ford, & D'Amelio3, 2008).
An appropriate example of resistance to change due to poor timing or not recognizing the
need for a change can be studies from the rivalry between traditional taxi companies and
companies like Uber and Ola. The traditional taxi companies resisted some technological
changes at a time when they were necessary and tried to implement them at a time when it
was already too late. Thus, a majority of the traditional companies have still not been able to
implement technological changes and have been entirely thrown out of the market
competition. (BOUQUET & RENAULT, 2014).
Lack of reward  one of the most obvious reason for the origination of resistance to
change is the lack of reward that can possible help in reinforcing the changes that the

employees are able to demonstrate in their behaviour. In absence of rewards, the employees
are not able to associate any benefits with the change program and are more likely to resist a
change program as it would not have any benefits for them in any possible way (Glassman,
2009). Thus, it is important for the change facilitators to associate rewards with change
programs so that they can reinforce the changes that have been successfully implemented and
can reduce the resistance that the employees can offer to the change programs.
Relation between power and resistance to change
In an organisational setting, power refers to the possession of authority and influence that a
person has over others. Higher a person sits in the hierarchy, higher is the power that he
would possess. Business organisations that have complex structures, complicated hierarchies
and also have power distributed differently at different levels, are more likely to experience
politics and bureaucracy in the organisation (Merchant, n.d.).
Power has been considered to be have a negative effect on the behaviour of people, when
assessed in an organisational setup. A number of studies have concluded that higher the
power a person holds in an organisation, higher will be the resistance that he or she would
offer to the change program unless he or she is going to receive some benefits out of it. When
people, who possess power in an organisation, try to convert their power into actions, they are
likely to give rise to politics as well as groupism (Virtual Learning Environment , 2017).
One of the prime reasons for powerful people to resist organisational change is the fear that
they develop in their minds. People who enjoy a powerful stature in an organisational setup
often develop a fear in their minds that an upcoming change would undermine their authority
and it would become difficult for them to exercise their control over others. As a result, they
are more likely to indulge into politics and have a negative influence on others, which makes
it difficult for the managers of an organisation to implement workplace changes successfully.
On the other hand, change management theories also suggest that the senior level managers
can chose organisational leaders as change facilitators or change agents and convince the
people to accept the change through them (Dickson, 2013). But when the organisational
leaders are themselves opposing the change, it becomes very difficult for business
organisations to promote the change.

In one of the cases, a company experienced a lot of resistance from its managerial level
position when a change was being planned. The senior level management of the company
planned to implement a system where all the employees would receive instructions about
their jobs or tasks through an online portal. The managers thought that such a system would
limit their power over the employees, which would have an impact on their status in the
organisation. As a result, they demonstrated a lot of resistance to the change and the change
program had to be dropped because of the resistance (Strebel, n.d.).
Therefore, it is not wrong to say that power and resistance in an organisational setup are
directly proportional to each other i.e. higher the power that a person holds, higher will be the
resistance that he or she would offer to a change program if he or she perceives it as a threat
to his or her authority or power.
Ethical issues related with power and position
As discussed above, power and the ability to resist a change are directly proportional. In other
words, higher the power that a person has, higher and stronger will be the resistance that he
can offer to a change program.
The resistance that the powerful people in an organisation offer to change programs raises a
number of questions on an ethical ground. Where the scholars and the pioneers in the field of
change management have concluded that using leaders of the organisation and powerful
people as change agents, it becomes easier for the management to implement changes, if such
people are themselves exercising their power in a negative way to introduce politics and
groupism in the workplace, without understanding the need and importance of change and to
satisfy their own needs and demands, it is completely unethical on their part. Such people are
not just disturbing the overall environment of an organisation but are also not fulfilling the
responsibility that they have towards the stakeholders in the business because of the power
vested to them (Wisdomjobs, n.d.).
From an ethical point of view, it becomes an important duty of all those people who have a
higher authority in an organisation, to understand the change management program in depth
and figure out whether it is required for the betterment of the organisation on the whole or if
it will have certain negative impacts in future, which the higher management could not
foresee while designing the program (Jacobs & Keegan, 2016). People with power should

base their decisions to resist or to promote a change program on some credible piece of
information and not just base their decision to resist a change on the basis of fear that their
power would be undermined or they would lose the control that they have over the others.
Conclusion
Management of a change programs in business organisations is not an easy task. It requires a
lot of practice and careful administration to successfully implement even a smallest change as
even a small change can have a great impact on certain stakeholders in the business. It is
important to implement changes in the workplace in order to remain competitive and to
increase organisational competencies but it should only be done at the right time.
Implementing changes just for the sake of trying what others are doing can prove to be a huge
disaster for business organisations as many of them have already lost their entire market
shares to their competitors because of their failure to implement changes at the right time.
Further, it is also important for powerful people in an organisation to have a greater
understanding of the ethical role that they have to play towards the stakeholders and avoid
getting into politics or groupism to satisfy their own need of power or authority. Powerful
people should understand the importance of workplace changes and help their organisations
in implementing the required changes, rather than spreading negativity in the workplace or
resisting the change.

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