Analyzing Resistance to Change: Power, Ethics, and Management

This essay delves into the critical issue of resistance to change within organizations, a significant obstacle for effective management. It defines resistance to change as a response to perceived threats, often stemming from the need for employees to adapt and acquire new skills. The essay explores various causes of resistance, including a reluctance to relinquish control and cognitive rigidity, while also highlighting the challenges managers face in addressing this issue. It examines the impact of power dynamics, ethical considerations, and the influence of institutional power on change implementation. The essay further discusses the ethical implications of power and resistance, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder involvement and ethical strategies. Finally, it presents managerial implications for effective change management, including the application of Kurt Lewin's change management model, encompassing unfreezing, transition, and freezing stages. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective managerial skills in navigating and overcoming resistance to change within organizations.

Running head: CHANGE 0
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................1
What is resistance to change?.....................................................................................................................1
Resistance to change as the problem for managers:...................................................................................2
Power and resistance:.................................................................................................................................3
Ethics in power and resistance:...................................................................................................................4
Managerial implications on effective change management:.......................................................................4
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................................5
References:..................................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction:
Change management is the most popular topic that is debatable these days. This is because
bringing change and managing the same is very difficult for the managers of the organisations.
One of the major reasons for this difficulty is resistance to change (Hayes, 2014). This is the
essay that discusses about the resistance that obstructs the change implementation in the
organisation. It also focuses on understanding the manager’s perspective regarding this problem
so that various strategies can be made by the managers to overcome the problem. The later part
of the essay is about power and resistance concept followed with ethical issues related to the
same.
What is resistance to change?
Resistance to change can be defined as the action which is the response of the unwanted change
experienced by any of the individual. It is generally the response when the change that is coming
is perceived to be as the threat. Changes need to be implemented now and then because of the
requirement of the market and to bring innovation in the company’s processes (Doppelt, 2017).
The change in the company affects its employees and their working environment. This may be
one of the reasons why the employees resist the changes in the organisation. When any of the
change is being implemented, the employees have to adapt those changes and also have to
develop new skills which may reduce their efficiency to perform (Lozano, 2013). There are
many cause of resistance to change by the individuals at the workplace. One of the causes is
reluctance to lose control. Most of the leaders or the employees at the workplace resist the
changes because they think that the changes that occur in the organisation can take away the
control they have on their working style. Another reason for resistance of change by the
employees at the organisation is cognitive rigidity. The people who are rigid and are close
minded does not like to deal with the changes. It is the non-willingness of the people regarding
the changes that has been implemented in the organisation. Other researchers suggest that change
is the stressor and most of the people in the organisation perceive change as the activity that can
put stress on the employees. This is the psychology of the people that controls their mind to
neglect the changes occurred in the organisation also restrict them to participate in the change
management process conducted in the organisations (Hanif, Khan & Zaheer, 2014). Apple is the
company that has brought many changes in its company but all the changes were successful. This

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is because of the right strategy to implement the changes. Apple usually believes in involving its
employees to share their views in the decision making process. This helps the company to reduce
resistance from the side of employees.
Resistance to change as the problem for managers:
It has been said that change is not the issue but resistance to change is the major problem for the
managers. It has been analysed that when any of the change needs to be implemented in the
organisation, it affects every single associated elements of the company (Cameron & Green,
2015). One of those elements is the employees. it is very easy to bring the change the
organisation by implementing the same with the particular standard process but if the
implementation process have to face the resistance from one or the other elements of the
organisation. Employees generally resist the change at the organisations because of the various
reasons discussed above. The major issue at this time is to manage the same. This is because
resistance to change results in managerial problems. One of the major problems that develop
because of resistance to change is employee turnover. If the employees are not happy with the
change that has been implemented than it may be possible that the employees leave job, as it
becomes difficult for them to work in the company (Cronin & McGuinness, 2014). This is
because they are very much familiar with the environment and changes in that environment can
affect their work. It also affects the job satisfaction of the employees working there. Managers
have to implement new strategies to convince the employees to adapt those changes and also
needs to conduct training and development session to build confidence in the employees to
accept the changes. Identifying the reason behind the change is also a very big managerial issue.
Different employees may have different reasons to resist the changes (Hon, Bloom & Crant,
2014). Thus, identifying those reasons and making strategies to overcome the same is also a big
challenge for the managers. It becomes very time consuming for the managers to deal with
resistance to change by the employees. There are some other elements that can also resist the
changes in the organisations such as shareholders, clients; partner etc. managing all the
stakeholders at the same time and convince them to support the change implementation in the
organisation is the challenging task to perform.

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Power and resistance:
Change that needs to be implemented in the organisation is influenced by many institutional
powers. With the great influence of globalisation on the companies, it has been analysed that the
levels of management is eliminated and organisations are becoming flattened. Thus, in
organisational change process the power remains in the hands of top management people, change
managers, consultants, employees and other interest groups (Starr, 2011). These groups have to
perform the role of influencers who have to manage the change process in the organisations. It
has been analysed that when the concept of power is integrated with the organisational change, it
may lead to resistance very easily, this is because it involve power of one interest group over
another (Waddell, Creed, Cummings & Worley, 2013). This means that if the change is because
of the power of the top management people, them the employees at the lower level or the
managers can resist the changes and if the changes are under the control of the managers than
other interest groups can resist the change. This is a very big issue at the time of making changes
in the organisations (Burnes, 2015). There are different types of power that are there in the
organisations that can generate different types of resistance. Position power is one of the forms
of power that is because of the hierarchical structure of the company. The use of power in this
sense results in domination. Actions taken by other interest groups against the position power
leads to resistance and also results in illegitimate behaviour that is against organisational
interests. Personal power is another form of power that can be used to bring changes in the
organisation. It has been analysed that this follows the expert model of power to influence others
(Roseneil, 2016). The expert of a particular field brings the change in the organisation and this
leads to resistance by the line managers. In this case, resistance can be maintained or reduced by
roper communication of the vision behind the change. Another form of power that exists in the
organisation is structural power.it is the power that is distributed all over the organisations in
different departments. Every department has the power and the level of power changes as per the
project on which they are working. It has been analysed that the influence in this case if from the
department in high level of power at that time to the other departments. This generates
conflicting resistance by other department of the organisation. It has been analysed that this
resistance is the most important one to be reduced as this generates high conflicts in the
organisation.

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Ethics in power and resistance:
It has been analysed that when power come into the way of bringing change in the organisation,
it has been realised that most of the conflicts arise in the company and affect the working
environment of the company in negative way (Burnes, 2009). Many ethical issues like
disrespecting of other people, ignorance of emotional view of the employees etc. develops in the
organisation due to dominance of power at the time of implementing change in the company.
Ethics has taken the central point of giving a thought because it is the major concern of the
society and the organisations these days. When the change is being implemented in the
organisation, it is not just the organisation that is affected by the change but it is whole society
that experiences its impact. As far as ethics in the organisation is considered, it has been analysed
that the major issue that generates is by the employees (Sonenshein, 2009). The employees have
to face many challenges when the company has to develop or implement any kind of change in
the company. Employees resist the changes when the change is not found to be in their benefits.
There are many other stakeholders that can also raise questions on the power of top management
people to bring the changes. Thus it is required to consider all at the time of making any kind of
change.
Another major ethical issue is the society issues. It is required to being the change in the manner
that does not affect the society in negative way. The strategies that the company will use to make
the changes should be ethical enough. As far as Apple is considered, it is the company hat uses
the ethical approach of involving all the stakeholders at the time of making decision of brining
any change in the company so that they can create the win-win situation for all.
Managerial implications on effective change management:
Managers play a major role at the time of making and implementing change in the company.
Effective change management is required to be conducted s that the predicted results of change
can be achieved. It has been analysed that Kurt-Lewin approach of managing change is being
used by many of the companies including Apple to make changes so that effective results can be
reached.

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It has been analysed that this approach can helps in bringing change in the company (Burnes,
2017). Following are the elements of Kurt Lewin change management theory:
 Unfreezing: Unfreezing is the approach in which the employees of the company unlearn
the things that they have already learnt before and were working on that. This makes
them raw and it becomes easy for them to learn new things (Cummings, Bridgman &
Brown, 2016).
 Transition: It is the crucial state where the actual change has been implemented. It has
been analysed that it is the stage where the company trains the employees about the new
things and the changes that needs to be implemented (Hussain, Lei, Akram, Haider,
Hussain, & Ali, 2016).
 Freezing: It is the stage where the employees have to start working as per the new
guidelines and processes. It is time till when the employees get familiar with the new
processes.
Conclusion:
It has been concluded from the report that change management is the crucial function in the
organisation and requires effective managerial skills to conduct the same. It has ben analyse that
change is not the problem for the company but the factors that resists those changes is the big
issue. Resistance to change can be defined as the action which is the response of the unwanted
change experienced by any of the individual. employees are one of the biggest factor that resist
the changes in the organisation as their have to make so much of efforts in learning new skills
and developing their knowledge as per the change. Identifying the reason behind the change is
also a very big managerial issue. Different employees may have different reasons to resist the
changes. Thus, identifying those reasons and making strategies to overcome the same is also a
big challenge for the managers. Power and resistance is also an important element of resistance
to change which needs to be managed in ethical way to bring effective changes. Kurt Lewin
approach is found to be the best approach in order to bring changes in the company.
References:
Burnes, B. (2009). Reflections: Ethics and organizational change–Time for a return to Lewinian
values. Journal of Change Management, 9(4), 359-381.

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Burnes, B. (2015). Understanding resistance to change–building on Coch and French. Journal of
Change Management, 15(2), 92-116.
Burnes, B. (2017). Kurt Lewin: 1890–1947: The Practical Theorist. The Palgrave Handbook of
Organizational Change Thinkers, 1-15.
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cronin, H., & McGuinness, S. (2014). Examining the Relationship between employee Resistance
to changes in job conditions and Wider Organisational Change: Evidence from Ireland.
ESRI WP490. September 2014.
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps:
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Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
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Hon, A. H., Bloom, M., & Crant, J. M. (2014). Overcoming resistance to change and enhancing
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strategies to overcome it. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 20(5), 275-295.

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Roseneil, S. (2016). Transforming Politics: Power and Resistance. Springer.
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Starr, K. (2011). Principals and the politics of resistance to change. Educational Management
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