Managing Resistance to Change in Organizations

The essay analyses the complexity of resistance to change in organizations and identifies the factors that lead to it. It also suggests four methods to manage resistance effectively. The content covers the subject of management and provides insights for course codes and names related to it.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The essay helps in analysing the complexity of the resistance of employees in the
organization. The different kind of processes has to be analysed in an effective manner that
will help in understanding the three factors that is leading to resistance in different
organizations. Identifying and description of the four methods is required as this will help in
managing the resistance to change in the organizations.
The main aim and purpose of the essay is to successfully manage the resistance of the
employees in the organization. Proper ascertainment is required to be done as this will help in
solving such issues of resistance to change in the organizations among the different
employees in an effectual manner.
Meaning of resistance to change
Resistance to change is the proper kind of action that is taken by the different kind of
individuals along with groups in order to perceive the change and the reasons of occurrences
of such threats to them as well. Proper management of the resistance is essential in nature as
this will perceive the change in an effectual manner. Resistance is caused among employees
in the organization due to several reasons wherein the reason of resistance among employees
is due to the bad management of the change and the changes are not acceptable by the
employees in the organizations as well (Appelbaum et al., 2015).
Factors that lead to resistance
There are different kind of factors that lead to resistance to change that includes the
loss of status or the job security in the respective organization. It has been seen that
resistance to change occurs in the organizations as there is huge forced change cause
employee resistance in the organizations. There is lack of trust among the individuals in the
organizations and this creates huge pressure on the employees along with the employer in the

2MANAGEMENT
organization. Without implementation of the effective change management strategy, there
will be strong kind of resistance among the employees and there will be huge organizational
turnover among the different employees as well. When the approach is misused, this will
cause huge turnover issues among the employees in different kind of organizations and this
will trigger huge employee turnover.
The poorly aligned reward systems are the other essential factor of the resistance of
change and this is causing huge kind of inequality among the different employees in the
organization. Without offering proper rewards to the different employees in the organization,
this is causing no such motivation to the employees as well. The changes that is required to
be made has to be in such a manner that will be less costly and this will help the companies in
managing the change in an effectual and appropriate manner.
All the employees are not treated in an effectual manner wherein they feel
demotivated and they do not like to perform the tasks with same kind of motivational
approach. It has been seen that there are different kind of managers in the organization who
do not treat all the employees in an effectual manner and the poor communication is the other
factor wherein poor kind of communication cause resistance to change among the employees
(Amarantou et al., 2018). It has been seen in the different kind of organizations that the
employees resist change as the higher officials do not inform them about the different kind of
tasks along with how to perform such tasks as well.
It has been seen that the communication is inaccurate in nature and therefore it can
cause resistance to change as there is lack of trust among the different individuals in the
organization who are performing well, however there is no motivational incentives provided
to them. Furthermore, it has been seen that the reallocation of the resources is the other main
factor that causes resistance to change and rate of turnover of the employees increases to a

3MANAGEMENT
huge extent as well. There has been different kind of instances wherein it is seen that with the
different kind of changes in the organization along with some groups and departments, there
are few sectors in the organization that receive the resources, however there are others who
lose such resources. Due to this kind of reallocation of resources, this causes resistance from
the individuals as they lose some of the current available resources (Andrews & Benedicktus,
2015).
Lastly, the increasing workload is the other factor that causes resistance to change
among the different employees in the workplace. It has been noticed that in process of the
organizational change, except the normal kind of working hour activities, when the
employees perform and implement different other activities, this increases the workload and
this increases the resistance to change in the individuals who are performing in the
organization (Grama & Todericiu, 2016). The limited availability of the different kind of
resources is the other normal issue in the organization wherein resources are limited in nature
and with such kind of proposed organizational changes, this causes resistance to change
among the different employees as well.
The weakness of the different kind of proposed changes is the other weakness
wherein it is seen that there are different kind of employees in the organization who are not
being able to understand and analyse the proposed change and this causes huge issues in the
organization in making the employees understand about such changes as well (Amarantou et
al., 2018). The different employees in the different kind of organizations are not being able to
understand the different kind of resistance of the change and implementation of the respective
process as well.
It is noticed that the different kind of organizations has their own rules and regulations
and the individuals need to change their behaviour accordingly. However, it is not possible

4MANAGEMENT
for the employees to perform the different kind of activities as per the different kind of
changes in an effectual manner (Georgalis et al., 2015). These bring threat to the
interpersonal relationships and this is regarded as the threat inside along with outside of the
organization as well. However, such kind of issues will create weakness of the proposed
required changes and cause resistance to change among the different employees as well
(Courpasson, 2016).
These are the different kind of factors that are responsible for the resistance to change
among the different kind of employees in the organization (Clark, 2015). However, these
kinds of factors have to be reduced as this will help in solving the different issues in the
organization and reduce the turnover of the employees in different kind of organizations as
well. Furthermore, the different kind of steps that are required to be adopted by the
companies in order to reduce the turnover of the employees along with reducing the
resistance of the change among the employees in different organizations (Johansson et al.,
2014).
The four methods that has to be adopted by the companies in reducing the turnover
among the employees and resistance of change as well. Proper facilitation of the different
participation and involvement of the employees is essential in nature as this kind of
technique provides lot of importance to involve the resistors in the process of change by
setting a collaborative kind of environment and implementation of such kind of change will
help in minimizing the resistance to change by involving different kind of employees in the
organization and seeking their participation in an effectual manner as well (Lynch, 2017).
Proper support and facilitation will help the company in reducing the fear among the
employees related to the resistance to change and proper transformation is essential in nature
to reduce the resistance to change (Hon, Bloom & Crant, 2014). Proper emotional support is

5MANAGEMENT
required to be provided to the employees in an effectual manner wherein this will help the
employees in the organizations to be able to cope up with the different kind of changes and
challenges. The support is essential in nature in the organizations wherein this helps the
organization along with the employees to cope up with different kind of changes that is
affecting the work life of the employees (Certo, 2018).
Proper education and effective kind of communication is the other technique that
can be applied by the different kind of individuals in the organizations. The communication
process is effectual and appropriate in nature as this helps in minimizing the resistance to
change among the different employees by educating the individuals and promoting the
awareness through effectual kind of communication process as well (Rothmore, Aylward &
Karnon, 2015).
The different officials of the organization have to be incorporate different kind of
changes in the organization and inform the lower level employees as this will be an example
of effectual communication and this will help in gaining much needed support from the
officials as well. With the implementation of the two-way communication technique, the
different oppositions and queries of the employees that is related to the different kind of
aspects of the change that can be addressed quickly (Weinert, Derby & Paustian, 2016).
Proper structuring of the team is required to be done to maximise the potential of the
individuals in the organization. The team members of the organization need to be provided
with different kind of roles and responsibilities with the usage of the different skills as this
will help the organization and employees to provide the potential for the team development in
an effectual manner as well (Allen, Porter & Angle 2015).
The conflicts have to be resolved effectively with the proper kind of guidance that is
provided to the employees of the organizations. The conflicts are one of the main barriers in

6MANAGEMENT
the effective communication process that is responsible for reducing the resistance to change
among the different employees (Ortiz, 2016). The change has to be delegated among the
different employees of the organization in such a manner that will help the employees and
managers of the organization to overcome the resistance to change (Wells & Xenias, D
2015).
The resistance has to be fought with the culture wherein the team leaders are the
natural kind of leaders and they will be served as the role model along with influencers of the
organization as well. In order to foster deeper kind of understandings along with strong
culture of the organizations, it is essential in nature to create different kind of great
opportunities for the employees in the organization that will be helpful in nature to socialize
the staffs and this will be the best strategy to reduce the employee turnover among the
employees as well.
Lastly, identification of the root cause of the resistance is required to be identified as
this will help in understanding the viewpoints of the employees and solve the queries in an
effectual manner as well. The lack of awareness along with fear of the loss of the job has to
be identified and it has to be removed from the minds of the employees as this will help them
in performing effectually as well.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that proper causes of the resistance of the change has
been identified and this helped in understanding the major issues of the resistance to change
that is caused among the different kind of employees in different organizations. Proper
factors has been identified that are the major causes of the resistance to change and solved
them with proper implementation of different kind of strategies as well.

7MANAGEMENT
References
Allen, R. W., Porter, L. W., & Angle, H. L. (2015). Organizational Dynamics and
Intervention: Tools for Changing the Workplace: Tools for Changing the Workplace.
Routledge.
Amarantou, V., Kazakopoulou, S., Chatzoudes, D., & Chatzoglou, P. (2018). Resistance to
change: an empirical investigation of its antecedents. Journal of Organizational
Change Management, (just-accepted), 00-00.
Andrews, M. L., & Benedicktus, R. L. (2015). Are consumer innovators less resistant to
change than market mavens?. In Revolution in Marketing: Market Driving
Changes (pp. 223-227). Springer, Cham.
Appelbaum, S. H., Degbe, M. C., MacDonald, O., & Nguyen-Quang, T. S. (2015).
Organizational outcomes of leadership style and resistance to change (Part
One). Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(2), 73-80.
Certo, S. C. (2018). Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Education.
Clark, R. E. (2014). Resistance to change: Unconscious knowledge and the challenge of
unlearning. In Fostering change in institutions, environments, and people (pp. 83-
102). Routledge.
Courpasson, D. (2016). Impactful resistance: The persistence of recognition politics in the
workplace. Journal of Management Inquiry, 25(1), 96-100.
Georgalis, J., Samaratunge, R., Kimberley, N., & Lu, Y. (2015). Change process
characteristics and resistance to organisational change: The role of employee
perceptions of justice. Australian Journal of Management, 40(1), 89-113.

8MANAGEMENT
Grama, B., & Todericiu, R. (2016). Change, resistance to change and organizational
cynicism. Studies in Business and Economics, 11(3), 47-54.
Hon, A. H., Bloom, M., & Crant, J. M. (2014). Overcoming resistance to change and
enhancing creative performance. Journal of Management, 40(3), 919-941.
Johansson, C., Åström, S., Kauffeldt, A., Helldin, L., & Carlström, E. (2014). Culture as a
predictor of resistance to change: a study of competing values in a psychiatric nursing
context. Health Policy, 114(2), 156-162.
Lynch, F. R. (2017). The diversity machine: The drive to change the white male workplace.
Routledge.
Ortiz, C. A. (2016). The psychology of lean improvements: Why organizations must
overcome resistance and change the culture. Productivity Press.
Rothmore, P., Aylward, P., & Karnon, J. (2015). The implementation of ergonomics advice
and the stage of change approach. Applied ergonomics, 51, 370-376.
Weinert, D., Derby, D., & Paustian, K. (2016). IMPACT OF UNIONIZATION ON
FACULTY RESISTANCE TO CHANGE, JUSTICE, TRUST, CONFLICT, AND
CLIMATE FOR INNOVATION. Chiropractic Journal of Australia, 44(3).
Wells, P., & Xenias, D. (2015). From ‘freedom of the open road’to ‘cocooning’:
Understanding resistance to change in personal private automobility. Environmental
Innovation and Societal Transitions, 16, 106-119.