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Essay on Resistance in Organisational Change

   

Added on  2020-05-16

11 Pages3357 Words54 Views
Running head: MANAGEMENT OF CHANGEManagement of Change0|P a g e

MANAGEMENT OF CHANGEWhy is resistance to change frequently demonised by managers, as a problem that must be managed? Organisational change management (OCM) is defined as the process of managing anychange in a corporation relating to its culture, structure or business process. It focuses oneffectively managing human resources during an organisational change. In today’scompetitive world, top-level executive of a corporation takes up the responsibility ofincorporating change within a firm that is aimed to increase positive outcomes (Jabri, 2012).The managers have to implement a systematic method to ensure that an entire corporation isbenefited by the implementation of organisational change policies. Organisational changerequires members of an enterprise to learn new skills and change their behaviour as per therequirements. During an organisational change, managers face the issue of resistance fromemployees which increase the obstacles to the implementation of change plan. This essay willfocus on analysing the role of resistance in organisational change and why executives arerequired to effectively manage resistance in order to implement an organisational changeplan. Further, the essay will discuss ethical implications of resistance from the example ofdifferent organisations and how it affects managers’ decisions.Organisational change is necessary for a firm’s growth since it assists employees inincreasing their productive performance and directs them towards achieving corporateobjectives. Organisational change is divided into two parts: evolutionary andtransformational. Incremental or evolutionary change is referred as small-scale changes thatfocus on improving quality of a company’s framework. Transformational or revolutionarychanges are radical, and they completely transform corporation’s basic framework. Theprimary objective of radical change is to increase a company’s potential to compete in amarket which results in increasing its profitability and performance (Langley, Smallman,Tsoukas & Van de Ven, 2013). Change includes two forces, one is driving force that pushesthe company towards new direction and second is restraining force which preventsorganisational changes from occurring. Google is a good example; the company did not focuson five-year plans, instead it implements policies as per rapidly changing technologies. Thecompany’s effective change management program provides them competitive advantage overothers (Re:Work with Google, 2014). These factor influence the change policy in acorporation and managers have to consider these factors while formulating change strategies.Effective organisational change strategy assists corporations in increasing engagement with1|P a g e

MANAGEMENT OF CHANGEemployees, improve their productive performance, reduce operating costs, and enhanceinnovative approach which provides corporations a competitive advantage and sustain theirfuture growth (Shin, Taylor & Seo, 2012). Why Employees Resist Change? Kotter defined employee resistance as a pathology that is necessary to be understood by managers in order to effectively implement organisational change program. Choi (2011) provided that it is manager’s responsibility to assess employee’s behaviour before implementing change policies since resistance is a natural action. Manager focus on addressing the issue of employees’ resistance since it assists in implementing necessary organisational changed. In today’s competitive world, corporations have to implement their policies as per rapidly changing market conditions to ensure that they are able to offer trending products and services. The companies that change their organisational policies as permarketing conditions are able to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors (Erwin & Garman, 2010). Therefore, managers focus on tackling the issues of employees’ resistance while implementing new organisational policies. There are various obstacles faced by managers while implementing effective organisational change policies such as lack of employee involvement, lack of effective communication strategy, unknown current state, culture shift and complexity. Employee resistance is one of the biggest obstacles faces by managers while implementing organisational change policies. There are a large number of factors which influence an employee to resist change. The employees’ resistance to change is a natural reaction, and managers can take various steps to address this issue. There are various reasons due to which employees’ resistance change in an enterprise. For example, loss of job is a major reason because of which employees’ resist organisational change. Managers introduce new machinery or innovative processes which result in decreasing the requirement of human resource in a firm that causes huge layoff or job losses, due to which employees resist change(Fugate, Prussia & Kinicki, 2012). Bad communication strategy also results in increasing employees’ resistance because workers did not have proper knowledge of the policies which increases their fear. Many employees fear lack of competence during an organisational change since new transformation requires workers to learn new skills (Fleming & Spicer, 2007). 2|P a g e

MANAGEMENT OF CHANGEEmployees are hesitant to learn new skills or routine, and they express theirunwillingness by resisting the change. For example, introduction of Uber application inLondon caused resistance from taxi drivers because they fear that it will make them jobless(Bouquet & Renault, 2014). Lack of proper rewards or incentives schemes also causesemployees’ resistance. Employees feel discouraged in case company did not provide enoughincentives to workers for new changes which make them discouraged to cooperate with thechange policies (Bouckenooghe, 2010). Social constructions also increase employeeresistance because employees did not prefer to leave their comfort zone and lack of supportsystem also increases this issue (Burr, 2015). Office politics also play a role in employees’resistance, for example, some workers might resist change if they also resist the personleading the change. Lack of trust and support from top-level executives increases employees’resistance which makes it difficult for them to implement change program. These factorsincrease the employee resistance during the implementation of the change program. Behavioural Impact of Employees’ ResistanceResistance influence the outcomes of an employee’s psychological state and factorsrelating to it such as emotions and attitude. The employees might act selfishly because theymight feel that organisational change program did not incorporate their interest. As perKotter,the change program must incorporate individual self-interest along withorganisational interest in order to increase efficiency (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo & Shafiq,2012). The manager has to ensure that employees are not acted selfishly while working in acorporation, and they focus on achieving common organisational objectives. The managersalso face the issue of cognition during a change program because lack of communicationmakes it difficult for employees to understand the change policies (Hon, Bloom, & Crant,2014). They might also face emotional reactions such as fear of potential loss, future risk, jobloss, status or other. Some employees might not have appropriate capacity to deal with thechanges which cause them to feel powerless or sceptical. These factors increaseorganisational issues which reduce employees’ performance and their trust in the corporation.3|P a g e

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