Analysing Resistance to Change and its Management in Organisations

This essay delves into the complexities of managing change within organisations, specifically addressing why managers often view resistance to change as a problem. It defines organisational change management (OCM) and highlights the importance of effectively managing human resources during such transitions. The essay explores the reasons behind employee resistance, including job security concerns, communication breakdowns, and lack of incentives, and examines the behavioural and ethical implications of such resistance. It also analyses the relationship between power and resistance, discussing ethical considerations and the need for transparent communication. The essay concludes by suggesting strategies for successful change management, such as employee involvement, ethical considerations, and the use of external change agents, to foster a more collaborative and effective approach to organisational change.

Running head: MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Management of Change
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Why 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 any
change in a corporation relating to its culture, structure or business process. It focuses on
effectively managing human resources during an organisational change. In today’s
competitive world, top-level executive of a corporation takes up the responsibility of
incorporating 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 is
benefited by the implementation of organisational change policies. Organisational change
requires members of an enterprise to learn new skills and change their behaviour as per the
requirements. During an organisational change, managers face the issue of resistance from
employees which increase the obstacles to the implementation of change plan. This essay will
focus on analysing the role of resistance in organisational change and why executives are
required to effectively manage resistance in order to implement an organisational change
plan. Further, the essay will discuss ethical implications of resistance from the example of
different organisations and how it affects managers’ decisions.
Organisational change is necessary for a firm’s growth since it assists employees in
increasing their productive performance and directs them towards achieving corporate
objectives. Organisational change is divided into two parts: evolutionary and
transformational. Incremental or evolutionary change is referred as small-scale changes that
focus on improving quality of a company’s framework. Transformational or revolutionary
changes are radical, and they completely transform corporation’s basic framework. The
primary objective of radical change is to increase a company’s potential to compete in a
market which results in increasing its profitability and performance (Langley, Smallman,
Tsoukas & Van de Ven, 2013). Change includes two forces, one is driving force that pushes
the company towards new direction and second is restraining force which prevents
organisational changes from occurring. Google is a good example; the company did not focus
on five-year plans, instead it implements policies as per rapidly changing technologies. The
company’s effective change management program provides them competitive advantage over
others (Re:Work with Google, 2014). These factor influence the change policy in a
corporation and managers have to consider these factors while formulating change strategies.
Effective organisational change strategy assists corporations in increasing engagement with
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employees, improve their productive performance, reduce operating costs, and enhance
innovative approach which provides corporations a competitive advantage and sustain their
future 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 per
marketing 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).
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Employees are hesitant to learn new skills or routine, and they express their
unwillingness by resisting the change. For example, introduction of Uber application in
London 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 causes
employees’ resistance. Employees feel discouraged in case company did not provide enough
incentives to workers for new changes which make them discouraged to cooperate with the
change policies (Bouckenooghe, 2010). Social constructions also increase employee
resistance because employees did not prefer to leave their comfort zone and lack of support
system 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 person
leading 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 factors
increase the employee resistance during the implementation of the change program.
Behavioural Impact of Employees’ Resistance
Resistance influence the outcomes of an employee’s psychological state and factors
relating to it such as emotions and attitude. The employees might act selfishly because they
might feel that organisational change program did not incorporate their interest. As per
Kotter, the change program must incorporate individual self-interest along with
organisational 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 a
corporation, and they focus on achieving common organisational objectives. The managers
also face the issue of cognition during a change program because lack of communication
makes 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, job
loss, status or other. Some employees might not have appropriate capacity to deal with the
changes which cause them to feel powerless or sceptical. These factors increase
organisational issues which reduce employees’ performance and their trust in the corporation.
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What are the ethical implications of this and how else can resistance
is understood?
Relationship between Power and Resistance
Traditionally, resistance and power are preserved differently in which power was a
dominating factor and resistance was considered as diffusing, or multidimensional. But, in
recent years, many experts have provided that there are no relations of power without
employees’ resistance. Weber defined power as coercion and manager use it to implement
new changes which might not incorporate interest of employees (Thompson, 2013). Power
and politics influence each part of an organisation partly because employees have different
taste, interest, perspective, or experience and different access to various forms of power.
Foucault provided that both power and resistance are linked with each other in a complex
web which influences everyday operations in a corporation (O’Farrell, 2008).
Power is never complete, and the resistance of employees open the possibility for
promoting preferred meaning in a firm. Therefore, even though senior managers have right to
implement organisational change, it is difficult to guarantee that such policy will prevail
without proper negation with employees. For example, former Microsoft’s CEO, Steve
Ballmer, provided on the launch of iPhone that this phone will never succeed and he resisted
to invest in modern smartphone technology (Heyl, 2015). The struggle between managers and
employees is not necessarily repressive or negative, instead, it provides managers a creative
potential to use the power-resistance relationship to their advantage and negotiate the terms
of change (Thomas & Hardy, 2011). Therefore, while implementing organisational change,
managers analyse power-driven resistance from employees which has a negative influence on
a change initiative.
Ethical Issues Linked to Power and Resistance
While dealing with power-driven resistance, managers have to ensure that the actions
taken by them are ethical and did not negatively influence the corporation or its entities.
Managers face various ethical issues while implementing organisational change (Erkama,
2010). Factors such as organisational culture, office politics, and ethical standing affect the
change management process in a firm. The organisational change is considered as unethical
when individuals use power and political behaviour to implement them, and they only serve
their self-interest. The managers have to ensure that there is no personal gain involved in
organisational change, and they are also required to monitor different stakeholders that are
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affected by the change policies to ensure that their interest is not affected by the strategy.
Ethical implications provide that organisational dimensions include various entities such as
employees, communication, teamwork and other stakeholders, and they are all affected by the
change policies (Agboola & Salawu, 2010). It is important that managers assess
organisational change impacts and determine how it influences the interest of different
stakeholders.
A leader who uses political influences to forcefully implement an organisational
change program upon company’s stakeholders that is not in the common interest of objects,
goals, and corporation is also considered unethical (Fiedler, 2010). The managers have to
assess the political pressure and power of different leaders to ensure that change program is
implemented successfully. Since top-level executive management fundamentally initiates the
change program, there is a common perception that change is based on power relationship
between top and middle-level executive (Battilana & Casciaro, 2012). The low-level
employees often feel like their interest is not included in the change program which makes
them resist the change policies. There are various ethical dilemmas rises during the
implementation of a change program such as misrepresentation, coercion, misuse of data,
conspiracy, deception, promising unrealistic outcomes, conflict of values, and professional
ineptness. Lack of communication channels and transparency increases employees’ resistance
which creates obstacles to the implementation of change policies.
Implications for Achieving Effective Change Management Program
As provided by Thomas & Hardy (2011), managers can implement ‘Foucauldian
approach’ which focuses on establishing power relationships in a corporation that are
nurtured by effective communication channels which assist in reducing employee resistance.
Ethics plays a crucial role during the change process, and effective communication is
necessary to establish between the company and its stakeholders. The communication
channels must have to be transparent and easily available to each stakeholder to ensure that
they are able to collect all the necessary information regarding the change policies. Effective
communication avoids unethical behaviour of managers, and it increases stakeholders’ trust
in the company. Due to poor planning, the resistance of employees increases because
managers did not take appropriate measure to avoid their resistance. The manager should
incorporate employees’ knowledge and expertise in the change program which assists in
effectively implementing change program (Choi, 2011). The managers should also invite
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employees to participate in the formulation of change program which assist them in
understanding the policies, and they will also be able to add or remove policies from the
program which contradicts with their interest. The issue of power and resistance relation can
also be reduced by increasing the contribution of the employees in the change program.
Before formulating change policies, the manager should also consider the interest of
each stakeholder to ensure that change policies did not contradict their interest, and they are
suitable for their future growth. For example, Royal Dutch Shell analyse the interest of its
employees and provided that appropriate knowledge about the change program which avoid
employee resistance (Shell, 2017). Managers are required to hire ‘External change agents’
which gather data and provide analysis of the change program that assists managers in
formulating policies as per stakeholders’ interest (Oreg, Vakola & Armenakis, 2011).
Managers should also focus on establishing a positive organisational culture which promotes
and supports the change program. Effective culture automatically reduces employees’
resistance because it maintains transparency in the operations. Managers should also act
ethically while implementing organisational change policies. Ethical behaviour includes
constructive criticism, clear communication, workplace respect, department openness, and
conformity of policies (Jabri, 2012). The enterprise should also establish a code of ethics in
the company that provides provisions for the effective implementation of change program; it
will assist in reducing employees’ resistance and effectively implanting the change policies.
In conclusion, employee resistance is a critical issue faced by managers during the
implementation of the organisational change program. There are various factors which
increase employees’ resistance such as lack of communication, fear of future, lack of
competence, lack of reward programs, absence of support program, and many others. While
addressing these issues, managers have to understand the relationship between power and
resistance because it creates obstacles and reduces the effectiveness of change program. The
managers have to address various ethical issues while implementing organisational change
programs such as contradiction with interest, misuse of power and many others. In order to
address issues relating to organisational change program, the managers can implement
various policies such as effective communication channels, the establishment of a code of
ethics, positive working environment, the involvement of employees in the decision-making
process and many others. Managers should focus on implementing an effective change
program since it assists in increasing employees’ productive performance and company’s
profitability that sustain their future development.
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