Organizational Theory: Strategies for Managing Change Resistance

This essay delves into the critical issue of employee resistance to change within organizations in the 21st century. It explores the various reasons behind this resistance, including poor communication, loss of control, lack of competence, and inadequate support systems, emphasizing the impact on organizational growth and competitiveness. The essay highlights the increasing competition and resource scarcity as exacerbating factors. It then argues that resistance to change is a more crucial problem than talent retention, advocating for proactive management strategies. The core of the essay focuses on potential solutions, such as training and development programs to equip employees with the skills and knowledge to adapt to changes, and motivation through incentives, promotions, and job security to foster employee engagement. Effective communication from management, explaining the benefits of changes, is also emphasized as a key component of successful change management. Ultimately, the essay underscores the importance of these strategies in mitigating resistance, facilitating organizational growth, and enabling companies to thrive in a dynamic market. The essay is a valuable resource for students seeking to understand and address the challenges of organizational change.

Running Head: Organizational Theory
Organizational Theory

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Organizational Theory
In the 21st century, the way of working of the organization is changing with the time.
Changing environment in the organization will definitely bring the positive changes in the
working but there are some organizations that are still facing the issues related to the employees.
These changes create problems or issues in the working of the organization. The major issue
which an organization is facing today includes resistance to change. No doubt, these are most
crucial issues which are faced by most of the management across the world. This issue affects
the working of the companies (Barrow, 2014). Resistance to the change is done by the
employees; the management of the company may face employee’s resistance when they are
willing to bring the changes in the internal processes or changes in the use of technology. These
changes might be resisted by the employees due to bad communication strategy, Loss of Control,
lack of competence, lack of support system, poor timing and lack of reward. The resistance of
the employees in the organization impacts the growth and the success of the organization.
Competition is increasing day by day. It could be a small business or large business there
is competition at a single step of an organization. Free trade across the world has given the
opportunities to the companies to enter into the new markets across the world. The entrance of
the companies affects the working of the existing companies in the market. To face the
competition the company brings the changes in the organization but the management faces the
resistance (Kunze, Boehm, & Bruch, 2013).
The scarcity of the resources is one of the issues which an organization is facing; this
issue also affects the company to compete with the competitors. Resources in the organization
can be financial, human resources, physical resources, and intellectual resources. The
management of the resources in an organization is must for the working of the company. The

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company who is willing to grow and compete in the market need resources. For instance, a
company who is willing to invest in the technology to enhance the quality of the services but not
able invest due to lack of finance. This became a growth hurdle for the company (Barnett, &
Morse, 2013). Though, a company can borrow the amount from the bank or by issuing equity
and debt. Though, this issue can be resolved by the organization with the use of the effective
strategies. Considering the scarcity of the resources and the resistance to the change I found that
resistance to change is a most crucial problem that the management is facing in the today's
century.
The retention of the employees is also one of the issues which are faced by the
management. Talent retention is must for the company and management is adopting strategies to
maintain the talent in the organization. Accordingly, the resistance to the changes by the
employees is more crucial than the talent retention. The reason being the company can easily
retain the employees by giving them better workplace environment and by giving good salary
packages.
The company takes the action to deal with the issues that the management is facing today.
These issues can affect the working of the company. It is must for the organization to take the
action to resolve the issues. To resolve the issue of the resistance to the change, the management
can bring the training and development sessions for the employees. One of the effective ways to
resolve the problem of resistance to change is Training and development of employees. This will
help the employees as they get to know about the implementation of the process in their work.
Most of the employees in the organization resist because they don't want to lose their status in
the company (van den Heuvel, Demerouti, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2013). This issue will be
resolved by providing training to the each and employee in the organization. A trained employee

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will welcome the changes because they want achievement of the personal as well as the
organizational goals.
Motivation is the best way to resolve the problem of the resistance to the change, in
motivation the leaders and the manager praise the work and enhance the confidence of the
employees for the achievement of the strategic goals. There are different ways with the help of
which a manager can motivate the employee. Manager of the company can offer the incentive to
the employees of the company for taking participation in the changes. Promotion and job
security help the managers to motivate the employees. The motivated employees will definitely
accept the changes taking place in the organization (Weiner, 2013). Motivation will take place
through the employee engagement; employee engagement is must in the organization.
Employees who are engaged are more productive and are loyal to the organization. Though, a
company needs to pay the special attention and apart from it, motivation process is very slow and
length to implement in the company. It is difficult for the management to define the rewards and
recognition for the employee. The management of the organization can collectively make the
decision considering the capabilities and the skills of the employees (Armstrong, & Taylor,
2014).
These potential resolutions will be effective for the management issues. Motivation and
training and development of the employees are effective for the management. This will help a
company to make the employees participate in the changes taking place and these changes will
help the company in growing and leading in the market training and development of the
employees will help the employees in communicating with each other and this communication
will also motivate the other employees to accept the changes taking place in the organisation
(Manzoor, 2012). The manager or leader needs to make sure that they communicate the benefits

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of the changes taking place in the organization. The role of the management in the organization
is very important; managers are the one who can communicate the benefits of the decision taken
by the management of the company (Hrebiniak, 2013). Effective communication will help the
employees in understanding the need of the changes in the company. The training and
development will enhance the knowledge of the employees and they can easily understand the
need of the changes and how changes will take place in the organization. The skills and
capabilities of the employees will enhance and they will be aware of the changes taking place.
The issues faced by the management have an appropriate solution which can be resolved
with the implementation of the training and motivation. These strategies followed by the
organization helps the management in reducing the resistance of the employees and bringing the
changes in the organization which helps the company to face the competition in the competitive
world. These changes open the opportunities for the company and help the company in achieving
the growth and development of the company.

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References
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Barnett, H. J., & Morse, C. (2013). Scarcity and growth: The economics of natural resource
availability (Vol. 3). Routledge.
Barrow, C. J. (2014). Developing the environment: Problems & management. Routledge.
Gupta, M. B. (2014). Employee Retention helps to reduce Employee’s Turnover in
Consultancies of Bhopal. JSSGIW JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 97.
Hrebiniak, L. G. (2013). Making strategy work: Leading effective execution and change. FT
Press.
Kunze, F., Boehm, S., & Bruch, H. (2013). Age, resistance to change, and job performance.
Journal of Managerial Psychology, 28(7/8), 741-760.
Manzoor, Q. A. (2012). Impact of employees motivation on organizational effectiveness.
Business management and strategy, 3(1), 1.
Oladapo, V. (2014). The impact of talent management on retention. Journal of business studies
quarterly, 5(3), 19.
Van den Heuvel, M., Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2013). Adapting to
change: The value of change information and meaning-making. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 83(1), 11-21.
Weiner, B. (2013). Human Motivation. Psychology Press.

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