Essay on Management of Change: Addressing Employee Resistance

This essay delves into the critical aspects of managing change within organizations, focusing on the prevalent issue of employee resistance. It begins by highlighting the importance of understanding why employees resist change, emphasizing that leaders need to respond to employee sentiment effectively. The essay explores common reasons for resistance, such as concerns about meeting needs, perceived risks, and lack of trust in management. It then discusses various forms of resistance, including decreased output, conflicts, and resignations. The essay also critiques the popular solution of employee participation, suggesting that it can sometimes exacerbate problems if the underlying causes of resistance are not properly understood. The paper presents a SWOT analysis of Coca-Cola in the context of change management and discusses ethical frameworks relevant to the topic. The essay concludes by examining the implications of resistance to change, such as lowered morale and reduced efficiency, and suggests strategies for mitigating these negative effects, including open communication and addressing employee concerns. The essay emphasizes the power dynamics involved in change management and the need for leaders to understand the social and technical aspects of organizational change.

Running head: MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Management of Change
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

2MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Introduction
Resistance to change is highlighted as the main issue in this assignment. The leaders are
not so much capable of changing their surrounding world but they have the power to respond to
the way the employees feel about a change. It is important to understand the most popular
reasons why people object to change and thus provide the opportunity to plan the change
strategically and address the factors of the issue. If resistance to change is expected and planned
from the beginning of the change management program will be helpful in effective management
objections. There are certain common beliefs and reasons behind resisting change by people
(Hon, Bloom, & Crant, 2014).
Why employees resist change
It is the role and responsibility of the employees to resist change although there is not
always an actual need for the change to take place. The main problem is that any kind of change
in the organization makes it difficult for the employees to meet their needs. This is because the
risks that are associated with it sometimes surpass the benefits. The employees don’t have the
ability to make the change and they think that the change might fail. It might occur that the
change is not properly handled by the management and thus the change becomes inconsistent
with the values. According to (Winstanley & Woodall, 2000), ethics was not a major part of
business and management of employees very recently but ethical awareness gradually developed
among the managers, as it can be found out in the article. This is because the primary
controversies in the business have revolved around the corporate social responsibility in
association with the clients and the working environment. The employees have a notion that
those who are responsible for bringing about change in the organization are not trust- worthy.

3MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
When an organization has a culture of trust, clear and apparent communication, involvement,
engagement of the employees and optimistic interpersonal relationships, it is easy to see the
resistance to change. The employees feel independent about telling their supervisors what they
think and can have open communication with the managers. When a change takes place in the
organization, the resistance to such change is minimized after the involvement and indulgence of
the employees. Resistance is reduced in a situation when the majority believes that a change is
required within the organization (Lines, Sullivan, Smithwick, & Mischung, 2015).
Understanding resistance
The most common issue in the business that is faced by the employees is resistance to
change. These resistances to change can come in various forms and it becomes a difficult task for
the supervisors to manage that (Battilana & Casciaro, 2013). These forms include consistent
decrease in the output level, increasing transfer and resignation requests, quarrels, conflicts,
hostility, strikes, violence and other made-up logical reasons for the ineffectiveness of work.
When the organizational management can feel the resistance to change they clarify it by some
common explanations and do not go into details. But still change must be consistent in the
industry. This is applicable with particular stress to all the significant little changes that keep on
taking place in the organization. The change can continuously take place in the structure of work,
in the daily procedures, location of the machine or desk, in the personnel documents and
assignments and in the job designations. But all the changes mentioned above are not so
significant that they will be highlighted in the limelight but contribute to the increase in
productivity of the organization. These might not be any spectacular technological revolutions
involving traditional skills but these are extremely important for the operational activities of the
organization. As per (Dawson & McLean, 2013), this particular article has presented the

4MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
empirical elements from a longitudinal study based on the information of performance appraisal
system. The power of persuasion that is inculcated in this article gives a prospective sense-
giving device which can affect others in the promotion of a chosen result.
Critical perspective
On the contrary, the popular solution of these days for resistance to change is to make the
employees involved and participate in the process of change. But in many organizations it is seen
that participation of the employees did not prove to be fruitful, in fact, it led to more trouble
(Bovill, Cook-Sather, Felten, Millard, & Moore-Cherry, 2016). These problems arose because
there is a lack of understanding the actual nature of resistance. It needs to be understood that the
employees do not resist technical change but social change. Resistance takes place because of
certain misunderstandings or attitude problems which take place among the staffs due to the
fixation with the technical views of the new ideas, whereas it is the management who can handle
the attitude of the staff in a better way. They can emphasize new set of performance standards for
the staff members so that they can be motivated to think differently. They can utilize that fact
that the symbols of resistance can be used as a practical signal to create alert for directing and
timing the technological changes. On the contrary, the supervisors can also be more effective in
the meetings with the staff members to discuss about the change. These can be done by shifting
away from the monotonous facts, schedules, assignments and technical details to what the
discussion was regarded for developing resistance to change (Fernandez, 2015).
Participation is a feeling and not a mechanical act just for the sake of it. It is suggested
that employees will react in the same way as they are treated for instance; if their opinion is
respected they will feel valued and contribute more towards the benefit of the organization. With

5MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
participation come a lot of problems in many organizations where the employees were called for
a meeting but were not given a chance to speak at all. It will be useful for the purposes of change
management to think in both technical and social respect. From the viewpoint of technical
aspect, change is considered as the amendment in the daily procedure of the job (McKay, Kuntz,
& Näswall). Whereas, the social aspect of change considers those ways that that get affected by
the way it is thought and will bring about a change in the established relationships of the
organization.
The management needs to check every day with the experience of the industry (Lloyd &
Mey, 2010). There are many changes, which if given time to think will be understood, takes
place without any resistance. There are employees who are working with each other are
consistently exchanging ideas about the procedures and the changes taking place in the
organization. But such ideas take place in the form of change so easily that they are mostly
overlooked. The reason behind this is that the employees work very closely with each other and
are able to understand each other closely so that they can take into consideration the social
arrangements of work and are not at all threatened by the ongoing changes (Lozano, 2013).
Management actions that lead to change are normally introduced outside the small group of
people. It is the nature of their work that do not allow the staffs of the industry to have intimate
contacts with the operating group and gain an intuitive insight of the complicated social
arrangements.
SWOT analysis

6MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
To draw a SWOT analysis between power and resistance, the instance of Coca Cola can
be taken into consideration. The following diagram will clarify the SWOT analysis by
categorizing between strength, weakness, opportunity and threat.
Ethical Issues
The four ethical frameworks that can be used for the given topic include basic rights,
organizational justice, universalism and community of purpose. The basic rights need to be
consulted about those affecting factors at workplace; organizational factors look into the fairness
and equality in treatment, opportunity and reward; universalism pays attention that the individual
is rewarded; and community of purpose holds the view that the stakeholders are comfortable
with the organizational decisions. Therefore the main ethical issue that can be considered for this
assignment is community of purpose which takes care of the relationship building and sufficient
exchange of opinions.
Strength- Brand awareness
is widely recognized; large
distribution network of Coca
Cola is spread across 200
countries
Weakness- Water
management is critical
to their prosperity;
fluctuation in the foreign
currency is unexpected
Opportunities-
Diversification of the
company and their extended
reach boosts the business
activities
Threat- Preference of
natural and organic
products by the
customers and indirect
rivalry from competitors

7MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Analysis
It can be assumed that most of the works on the change recipient reactions involve self-
centered employees (Maag, 2016). In an assessment done for the organizational change, the
employees do not only care about their personal outcomes but go much more in their self-
oriented concern for showing authentic interest in the effect of change on other staffs and the
organization. It is added to the organizational change literature by initiating a behavioral ethics
perspective on the reaction of the change employees by focusing on their ethical direction. This
happens when the moral intentions are triggered by change in order to get more attention than
required. The authentic concern of change recipient is intended for the welfare of others, and its
effect falls on the organizational activities and the internal and external stakeholders which
require more systematic investigation on the organizational change (Thomas & Hardy, 2011). As
per the article, the literature on resistance to organizational change is examined and the two
strong as well as contrasting approaches are recognized. Both these approaches have not
succeeded in addressing the power relations properly and with this, there arises theoretical as
well as ethical problems incorporating change. Therefore, an alternative approach was proposed
which was far more critical in showcasing the organizational change through power and
resistance.
Implications
Change is the part and parcel of any business. Although for some individuals, it is an easy
process to deal with but not for all. There are some employees who put resistance in the process
of change in the organization that can pose negative effect on the organization itself. Such
negative effects are spread at large and can have a drastic impact on the morale of the employees

8MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
if the concern is not addressed in the proper time (Critchley, 2014). It can be argued that when
the employees resist a change taking place at the organization they do not feel hopeful about it
and neither about their future in the organization. Lowered morale among the staff is one such
negative effect which can spread throughout the organization and this might lead to a challenge
in the process of retention of employees and new recruitment. When the employees tend to spend
more time thinking about the resistance of change, their focus shift from their actual work and
this reduces their efficiency at the workplace. The reduced efficiency can also be a barrier in the
path of the change taking place in the organization (Pullen & Rhodes, 2014). There exists several
ways to lessen the negative impact of the resistance to change among the employees and staff.
The management can conduct a discussion for all staffs where everyone will be encouraged to
voice their grievances and opinions. They can say whatever they feel right about the ongoing
changes in the organization which will make them comfortable to share their independent ideas
and will lead to positive effects for the organization (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014).
Power and resistance
Resistance to change is the power and potential in the organization which can either
create or destroy. It plays a critical role in the consistently evolving operations of the
organization. As per (Erkama, 2010), this article states that the sequential expansion of resistance
and discursive effort followed by the shutdown of an element assessment and a wider
arrangement plan for the international industrial organization. It is reported that the discourse of
local capitalization and globalization were employed for justification and challenging the
rearrangement plans. But the author argued that although the resistant groups of the organization
can hardly reverse the rearrangement plan, resistance is responsible for evolving the
organizational themes and identity creation along with the formation of organizational ideology.

9MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
There are certain reasons for resistance to change which include misunderstanding and
miscommunication about the change when the reason is not clear. The employees are scared of
the unknown danger that might come with the new change. Then there is lack of competence
among the people which they refrain from admitting. They always go against the management
when they are told to do a work in a new way. They hold a notion at the back of their mind that
new is always scary. This lowers the amount of trust among the employees and they take the
change as a temporary trend (Smither, Houston, & McIntire, 2016).
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that for this particular assignment social construction of reality
theory will be applicable because the knowledge and communication in the theory evaluates the
combined development of construction apprehension of the world to form the basis of change
management. The constant characteristic of human being is their inborn talent of resisting the
change. The source of change resistance stays in the form of human characteristic traits such as
needs, perceptions and personalities. The extremely competitive nature of contemporary local
and international business is the latest fad of any business strategy. Those companies which
refuse to take part in the process of change face the risk of losing their market share and the
loyalty of their customers. So, in today’s world most of the companies have understood the
significance of change management and thus, try to implement the changes at a continuous basis
for developing their efficiency and improving the business process. But it is not sufficient for the
company only to understand the necessity of change and implementing a plan for it, but there are
many obstacles in the process of implementation and that includes individual resistance to
change. The assignment has stressed on the individual resistance to change which means this is
one of the main factor in the process of change management. If ethics is considered as an

10MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
organizational behavior, then it is said to have comprised of principles, concepts and values of
different individuals in the organizational perspective with the highlight on the individual as well
as group actions and procedures. Employee participation is also important to create shared
perspectives and a successful organizational change.

11MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Bibliography
Battilana, J., & Casciaro, T. (2013). Overcoming resistance to organizational change: Strong ties
and affective cooptation. . Management Science, 819-836.
Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., Millard, L., & Moore-Cherry, N. (2016). Addressing
potential challenges in co-creating learning and teaching: overcoming resistance,
navigating institutional norms and ensuring inclusivity in student–staff partnerships.
Higher Education, 195-208.
Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder
management. Nelson Education.
Critchley, S. (2014). Infinitely demanding: Ethics of commitment, politics of resistance.
Dawson, P., & McLean, P. (2013). Miners’ tales: Stories and the storying process for
understanding the collective sensemaking of employees during contested change. Group
& Organization Management, 198-229.
Erkama, N. (2010). Power and resistance in a multinational organization: Discursive struggles
over organizational restructuring. . Scandinavian Journal of Management, 151-165.
Fernandez, S. (2015). Understanding and Overcoming Resistance to Organizational Change.
Handbook of Public Administration,,.
Hon, A. H., Bloom, M., & Crant, J. M. (2014). Overcoming resistance to change and enhancing
creative performance. Journal of Management, 919-941.

12MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Lines, B. C. (2015). Overcoming resistance to change in engineering and construction: Change
management factors for owner organizations. International Journal of Project
Management,, 1170-1179.
Lines, B. C., Sullivan, K. T., Smithwick, J. B., & Mischung, J. (2015). Overcoming resistance to
change in engineering and construction: Change management factors for owner
organizations. International Journal of Project Management, 1170-1179.
Lloyd, H. R., & Mey, M. R. (2010). An ethics model to develop an ethical organisation. . SA
Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-12.
Lozano, R. (2013). Are companies planning their organisational changes for corporate
sustainability? Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 275-
295.
Maag, J. W. (2016). Behavior management: From theoretical implications to practical
applications. Cengage Learning.
McKay, K., Kuntz, J. R., & Näswall, K. (n.d.). The Effect of Affective Commitment,
Communication and Participation on Resistance to Change: The Role of Change
Readiness. . New Zealand Journal of Psychology.
Pullen, A., & Rhodes, C. (2014). Corporeal ethics and the politics of resistance in organizations.
Organization, 782-796.
Smither, R., Houston, J., & McIntire, S. (2016). Organization development: Strategies for
changing environments.

13MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Thomas, R., & Hardy, C. (2011). Reframing resistance to organizational change. Scandinavian
Journal of Management , 322-331.
Winstanley, D. &. (2010). The ethical dimension of human resource management. Human
Resource Management Journal, 5-20.
Winstanley, D., & Woodall, J. (2000). The ethical dimension of human resource management.
Human Resource Management Journal, 5-20.