Overcoming Resistance to Change in Oracle Corporation

This study investigates the factors causing resistance to change in Oracle Corporation and proposes strategies to overcome them. The study utilizes a mixed method approach, gathering qualitative data through structured interviews and analyzing theoretical models such as Lewin's Force Field Analysis, Kotter and Schlesinger's Six Change Approaches, and Lewin's Change Theory Model. The findings aim to improve readiness for change, develop strategies to overcome resistance, and facilitate effective change management in the organization.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Abstract
Oracle Corporation is one of the leaders in computer technology and software
solutions. The organization is driven by the values of providing trusted support to the clients
and maintains high quality of its products and services that can set them apart from their
competitors. The organization has grown significantly since its inception in 1977 and has
become the second biggest company in the industry. However the large workforce employed
in the organization, the stability of the company as well as external factors such as need for
higher quality of products and services and emergence of hi tech competitors have resulted in
a need for changing the organizational culture so that it can keep pace and maintain its
position as the leader in the industry. However, implementing change in the organization has
been found to be challenging which needs to be addressed to ensure effective change
management process. The study aims to understand the best approaches towards the
reduction of barriers to change and improve openness to change. The objectives of the study
are to understand the factors that are causing resistance to change, develop strategies that can
overcome those resistors and understand how to facilitate the implementation of change in
the organization. The study used a mixed method approach where qualitative data was
gathered from structured interviews with the management and employees at Oracle and
identifies theoretical models and framework from academic literature to analyze the problem
based on the data gathered from the interviews. The models identified for the study included
Lewin’s force field model, by Kotter and Schlesinger’s Six Change Approaches and Lewin’s
Change Theory Model. The force field model could be used to understand the factors
causing resistance to change, the six change approach model was used to develop a plan for
overcoming the resistance to change and the change theory model was used to understand
how the change can be implemented in the organization.

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Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................1
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
-Title.......................................................................................................................................3
-List of Organizational background and problem definition/Rationale figures:....................3
-Research Questions...............................................................................................................3
-Research Objectives..............................................................................................................4
-Methodology.........................................................................................................................4
Theoretical Framework:.............................................................................................................4
Findings, Discussion and Analysis:...........................................................................................8
Factors influencing change:...................................................................................................8
Approaches to overcome resistance to change:...................................................................10
Planning and implementing change:....................................................................................11
Conclusion and Recommendation:..........................................................................................13
Synopsis:..............................................................................................................................13
Major Findings:....................................................................................................................14
Answer to research question:...............................................................................................14
Recommendations:...............................................................................................................15
References:...............................................................................................................................16
Appendix 1: Interview Questionnaire:.....................................................................................20

3ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

4ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Introduction:
-Title
A Critical investigation into change resistance in Oracle Corporation
-List of Organizational background and problem definition/Rationale figures:
Oracle Corporation is an American company that has multinational presence and they
specialize on computer technologies like cloud computing, database software, networking
solutions and enterprise software. As of 2018, it was the second biggest producer of software
in terms of its revenues placing it after Microsoft (Oracle.com 2018b). The company had a
total income of 3.83 billion USD and has employee strength of 138,000 (reuters.com 2018).
The organization was established in 1977 with the name “Software Development
Laboratories” (dsp.co.uk 2018). The company’s vision is to be the trusted advisors for their
clients and its mission is to help the clients to achieve greater success by helping them to
move ahead to the future (Oracle.com 2018a).
The large size of the organization and its long standing history and success has
resulted in a resistance towards change due to which the organization struggles to maintain
pace with the changing environment (Fox 2014). The organizational culture in Oracle even
though is very positive shows resistance towards an organizational change that can help the
company to keep pace with the emergent technologies and work processes (Oracle.com
2018c). This has resulted in an increased stress on the work culture and has adversely
impacted performance of the organization (oracle.com 2018d). It is therefore necessary to
understand the factors that have caused resistance to change and develop strategies to
overcome such barriers and improve openness to change.
-Research Questions

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How to reduce the barriers of change at Oracle Corporation
-Research Objectives
 To understand the factors that have caused resistance to change in the organization
 To develop strategies that can help to overcome resistance to change and facilitate
openness to change
 To facilitate effective change management in the organization
-Methodology
The study would utilize a mixed method approach in which primary data would be
collected using in depth structured interview questionnaire conducted over the telephone and
secondary data would be collected to develop a theoretical framework to assess the problem.
For the questionnaire a non standardized format would be used that would be conducted over
the telephone and for the secondary data research would be done of academic journal articles
in order to identify framework and models that can be used for the assessment of the problem
and identify solutions. The mixed method can help to develop a greater understanding of the
situation (Morse 2016).
Figure 1: Qualitative data for the study (source: self work)

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Theoretical Framework:
Resistance to change can be understood as the behavior or actions of individuals or
groups due to a perception of a change as a potential threat (Hon et al. 2014). Such
perceptions leads to objections or disagreements being raised against the change and the
resistance in itself can be exhibited in various forms like passive or active, organized or
individual, timid or aggressive (Rafferty and Jimmieson 2017). The process of implementing
and managing change in an organization is called change management which includes
assessment for change, preparing for change, planning for change, implementing change and
supporting the sustainability of the change (Memon et al. 2017). According to Hesselmann et
al. (2017), effective change management requires a sound analysis of the factors causing
resistance to change which can help to understand how they can be overcome and facilitate
change in the organization. Additionally, it is also vital to understand effective method for
planng and implementing change in the organization (Memon et al. 2017).
Through a review of academic literature, three important models/frameworks could be
identified that can help to identify the factors causing resistance to change, how the resistance
can be overcome and how the change can be planned and implemented which are discussed
below:
Lewin’s Force Field Analysis: This framework gives an understanding on the change
problems that needs to be addressed by an organization by dividing the factors that can
influence change into two types namely the factors for change and factors against change.
The factors create opposing forces of driving and restraining factors (Capatina et al. 2017).
According to Shrivastava et al. (2017), this is an effective strategy to understand change
resistance in the organization and help in successful change management.

7ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Figure 2: Lewin’s Force Field model (source: Capatina et al. 2017)
Six Change Approaches by Kotter and Schlesinger: This model comprises of 6 steps that can
be used to overcome resistance to change. Rosenbaum et al. (2018) suggested that businesses
must constantly evolve to meet the challenges caused by changes in technology, addition of
new competitors, changing regulatory policies and exploiting new opportunities. However,
implementation of change might be challenging due to a resistance to change (King et al.
2017). The resistance can be caused due to misperceptions and feeling of uncertainty and
dread over the outcomes of the change. The change curve explains how
motivation/performance of employees can change over time, from a sense of shock and
denial to the successful integration or acceptance to change (Hon et al. 2014). According to
the model, the types of resistance to change include parochial self interest, misunderstanding
and lack of trust, difference in the assessment of situation and a low tolerance to change. The
six steps that can be used to overcome resistance to change include education and
communication, participation and involvement, facilitation and support, negotiation and
agreement, manipulation and co-optation and implicit/implicit coercion (Rosenbaum et al.
2018)

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Figure 3: The Change Curve (source: Rosenbaum et al. 2018)
Figure 4: Resistance to change (source: King et al. 2017)
Figure 5: Six Change Approaches (source: Rosenbaum et al. 2018)
Lewin’s change theory model: This model consists of three steps namely: unfreeze, change
and freeze which provides an approach towards planning and implementation of change in an

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organization (Burke 2017). According to Hussain et al. (2018), this model can help to make
changes in the organization, minimize operational disruptions due to the change and ensure
sustainability of the change. The first ‘unfreeze’ step aims to improve readiness to change,
the second ‘change’ represents implementation of the change strategies while the final ‘re-
freeze’ represents the sustenance of the change. Bakari et al. (2017) pointed out that using
these three steps, change can be managed strategically in an organization and thus ensure
better success.
Figure 6: Lewin’s change theory model (source: Burke 2017)
Findings, Discussion and Analysis:
Using the frameworks identified above and the data collected from interviews with
Oracle Corporation Employees, the factors that influence resistance to change can be
identified and also develop strategies to overcome the resistance as well as plan for the
implementation of change in Oracle.
Factors influencing change:
From the interviews several important factors could be identified which influenced
the organizations readiness for change and also identify the factors that was causing
resistance to change. According to the senior operations manager, the biggest factors that

10ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
supports a need for an organizational change includes a drive towards improving the
performance and profitability if the organization and optimize the performance. According to
the managing director, the organization also needs improvement in operational flexibility to
improve operational diversity. Moreover, there are also the external factors such as
competition and an increased demand for higher quality of services which also requires an
organizational change.
According to the CEO, the main factors that is causing resistance to change includes a
misperceptions of change among the employees, sense of insecurity and fear towards change,
disagreements between management regarding the advantage and disadvantage of change and
structural inertia of the organization. Interviews with some employees also highlighted that
ineffective communication with higher management, inadequate information regarding the
change process and old habits of the employees additionally caused resistance towards
change.
The diagram below uses the Force Field Model to identify the driving and restraining
forces that influences change management in Oracle Corporation using the data collected
from the interviews.

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Figure 7: Analysis of driving and restraining forces in Oracle using Lewin’s Force Field
model (source: self work)
Approaches to overcome resistance to change:
Based on the Force Field analysis, strategies to overcome the resistance to change can
be identified which can be used in the organization. Discussed below are the steps that can be
used to increase readiness for change in Oracle Corporation:
1. Educating the employees on the need for change and communicating the change plan:
The employees can be communicated regarding the need for change with honesty and
clarity that can help them understand the logic behind the change and how it can help
DrivingForces:1.Adrivetoincreaseprofitability2.Aneedtooptimiseperformance3.Needformoreoperationalflexibilioty4.IncreaseddeRestrainingForces:1.Ineffectivecommunication2.Misperceptionstochange3.Inadequateinformation4.Senseofinsecurity5.Disagreementsonadvantageand

12ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
the organization as well as the employees themselves. Any misconceptions, wrong
notions and fear regarding the change needs to be addressed. The education and
communication should also be delivered consistently for long time duration for
maximum effect (Fairfield 2018).
2. Increasing participation of the employees in change management: The organization
should involve people showing resistance to change in the change management
process to increase their participation and helps to develop commitment to change.
However it is also important to consider the obstacles to participation (O’Connor et al.
2018).
3. Facilitating and supporting the change process: Support can be provided to the
employees during the transition phase by providing training and mentoring for the
employees that can help them to cope up with the new system. Counseling can also be
provided for the employees facing difficulties to adjust to the new process and
understand their concerns (Kirrane et al. 2017).
4. Negotiating on the terms of change: This can be done by incentivizing change, better
financial rewards for those who are able to accept and follow the change program.
The organization can also delayer some of its departments by increasing rewards for
leaving. Feedback from then employees can also be used to plan the change process to
negotiate new terms for change that can address their concerns (Rafferty and
Jimmieson 2017).
5. Involving managers in change management: It is vital to involve all levels of
management into the change management process and support individuals who are
opposed to change to co-opt into the process. This can help to develop a balanced
change plan keeping in mind the factors causing resistance to change (Hussain et al.
2018).

13ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
6. Coercion: This should be the last approach strategy towards mitigation of resistance
to change as it involves coercion of the employees to adapt to the change against their
free will. Even though this strategy can have faster results, it can increase a sense of
stress and anxiety among the employees as well as cause a sense of resentment
(Barnes 2017).
Planning and implementing change:
Using the three steps (unfreeze, change and re-freeze) of change model,
organizational change can be implemented in Oracle Corporations to implement the change
(Burke 2017). Discussed below is the implementation strategy in three steps:
Step 1 Unfreeze: In this step effective communication would be developed between the
employees and management that can help to understand the need for change. Participation
from the employees can be increased to support better communication and involvement in
change management as well as help the employee and management to see through each
other’s perspectives. Feedbacks can also be taken to understand key concerns and address
them to overcome resistance to change (Hussain et al. 2018).
Step 2 Change: Change can be implemented though new organizational policies and
operational planning that would incorporate the new system and replace the old one.
Developing strategies to streamline operations to increase productivity and performance can
be used to implement the change. Support from a strong change management team can also
facilitate the implementation process. Training and mentoring can be provided to help
employees adapt to the process and employee performance can be evaluated periodically to
analyze effectiveness of the implementation. The old system can be slowly phased out or
completely replaced with the new process/system (Bakari et al. 2017).

14ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Step 3: Refreeze: To ensure the change is being followed and is permanent, audits can be
done on its compliance. The new process or system can be included in the organizational
policies to ensure compliance and old system can be out dated to ensure maintenance of the
new process. Moreover, training and mentoring can also help to maintain the new system.
The change can also be incentivized by providing rewards, recognition and financial benefits
to employees who successfully adapted to the change thereby attracting and motivating more
employees towards it (Burke 2017).
Figure 8: Using the Unfreeze, Change and Freeze model to implement change (source: own
work)
Conclusion and Recommendation:
Synopsis:
ProvidingeducationfortheemployeesontheneedforchangeIncreasingparticipationfromemployeesandmanagementUsingfeedbackfrommanagementandemployeestodesignthechangeUnfreeze

15ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Oracle Corporations is an international organization that specializes in computer
technologies and software solutions for various companies. The organization is one of the
leaders in the industry. Due to the constantly changing environment caused by internal and
external factors, the organization needs to evolve constantly to keep pace with the changes
and maintain its position as global leaders. However the long history and success of the
company have increased resistance to change. Due to this, change management in the
organization has become difficult. Using Lewin’s Force Field model the resistors to change
have been identified while six change approaches by Kotter and Schlesinger has been used to
understand strategy to overcome the resistance. Lewin’s change theory model have been used
understand the strategy to plan and implement change.
Major Findings:
From the interviews with Oracle Corporation management and employees factors
causing resistance to organizational change have been identified which includes ineffective
communication between management and employees, misinterpretations of the employees
towards the change, inadequate information shared with the employees, a sense of insecurity
of the employees towards the new system, disagreements between the management on the
potential advantage and disadvantage of the change, structural inertia and old habits of the
employees.
The strategies that can be used to overcome the resistance was identified using the six
change approaches such as educating the employees on the need for change and
communicating the change plan, increasing involvement and participation at every level of
the organization in the change process, providing support to facilitate implementation,
negotiating new terms for change management, increasing managerial involvement and if
necessary using coercive approaches. The implementation of the change can be done using

16ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
three step model in which the readiness for change would be increased (unfreeze) followed
by implementation of the change (change) and then making the new process permanent
(refreeze) (Barnes 2017).
Answer to research question:
Barriers to change can be overcome by addressing the factors causing resistance to
change and by strategically implementing the change in a three step process of unfreezing,
changing and refreezing. The Kotter and Schlesinger’s six step model can be used to
implement the change in the organization and improve the openness towards change
(Rosenbaum et al. 2018).
Recommendations:
 Resistance to change can be identified using the Lewin’s Force Field model. This
model can help to understand why there is a resistance towards change in the
organization and thus understand what can be done to overcome them.
 Resistance to change can be reduced using the six step process by Kotter and
Schlesinger. The six steps can be followed; addressing the key challenges identified
by the force field model and develop a plan to overcome resistance to change.
 Change management can be done effectively by using Lewin’s Three Step model of
change management. The three step model can help in the implementation of change
in the organization.

17ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
References:
Bakari, H., Hunjra, A.I. and Niazi, G.S.K., 2017. How Does Authentic Leadership Influence
Planned Organizational Change? The Role of Employees’ Perceptions: Integration of Theory
of Planned Behavior and Lewin's Three Step Model. Journal of Change Management, 17(2),
pp.155-187.
Barnes, M.A., 2017. Robert Chin and Kenneth D. Benne: Change Management Biography. In
The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers (pp. 285-295). Springer
International Publishing.
Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Capatina, A., Bleoju, G., Matos, F. and Vairinhos, V., 2017. Leveraging intellectual capital
through Lewin's Force Field Analysis: The case of software development companies. Journal
of Innovation & Knowledge, 2(3), pp.125-133.
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at: https://www.dsp.co.uk/the-history-of-oracle-corporation-1977-2000/ [Accessed 28 Dec.
2018].
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in multi-brand engineering change management. In DS 87-4 Proceedings of the 21st
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enhancing creative performance. Journal of Management, 40(3), pp.919-941.
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Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement
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Appendix 1: Structured Interview Questionnaire:
Confidentiality Statement:
The interview is aimed towards understanding the factors that support and challenge the
implementation of change in the organization. Your identity would be kept strictly confidential and
shall not be divulged to anybody.
You can opt out from the study if you want to.
You can contact us at [contact number] at any point of time if you have any queries regarding the
study.
The results from the study would be shared with you through email.
Agreeing for this interview would mean you have agreed to the above terms and conditions.
Question 1. Have you been informed about the purpose of the study and do you agree to its terms?
Answer:
Question 2. What position do you hold in the organization?
Answer:
Question 3. How long have you been working in the organization?
Answer:
Question 4. Do you think a change is required in the organization?
Answer:
Question 5. Why do you think a change is required in the organization?

22ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Answer:
Question 6. What do you think are the challenges towards the implementation of change?
Answer:
Question 7. How do you think the management can do to ensure an effective change management and
encourage people towards the change?
Answer:
Question 8. Do you believe that the change can be advantageous for the organization? If so why or
why not?
Answer: