Organisational Change and Resistance to Change

MANAGING CHANGE – 960382

Organisational Change and Resistance to Change
Due to the spread of globalisation and liberalisation, the competition between rival firms has
increased beyond expectations. Almost all business organizations are feeling the impact of
globalisation in the form of rapidly changing internal and external environment trends.
Because of the changing environment, business organizations are being forced to implement
workplace changes and change has become inevitable for them (Elsmore, 2017).
Organisational change can sometimes prove to be a nightmare for human resource managers
because of the human element involved in it. Whenever there is a change in an organisation,
the stakeholders (especially employees) perceive it as a threat to their well-being and they
end up resisting the change program, which leads to its failure (Hayes, 2018). Some common
reasons that make people and organizations to resist changes are discussed below:
- Firstly, workplace changes force the employees and business organizations to come
out of their comfort zones and put in extra efforts to remain competitive. As a result,
they resist workplace changes in order to retain their comfort.
- Secondly, during a change initiative, employees develop a fear of the unknown in
their minds if the communication is not proper within the organisation. The fear of the
unknown makes them resist organisational changes (Burnes, 2015).
- Thirdly, the absence of an organisational culture that supports changes can also makes
the employees resist workplace changes. If the employees are not open to change
programs and are experiencing politics in the workplace, a negative work culture
comes into play and makes them resist workplace changes.
Models of Change Management
Force Field Analysis:
Force field analysis was developed by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s. He suggested that during a
change program, there are two types of forces that come into play. The first type of forces are
the forces that derive a change while the second type of forces are the ones that resist the
change. Kurt Lewin suggested that for a change to take place, an organisation should either
strengthen its forces of change or should weaken the forces that are resisting the change
(Shrivastava, et al., 2017).