Case Study Analysis: Resistance to Change at Glenrothes Colliery

This case study solution delves into the resistance to organizational change at Glenrothes Colliery, an Australian coal mine. The analysis highlights the miners' reactions to a new performance appraisal system implemented by the chief executive officer without prior consultation. The miners viewed the change as a threat to their common identity and occupational community, fueled by stories that emerged and aggravated the deteriorating employee-employer relationship. The solution underscores the importance of understanding employee sentiments, maintaining open communication, and considering cultural and social contexts before implementing organizational changes. It emphasizes that successful change management requires employee consent and detailed explanations of new systems to avoid resistance and foster a more positive work environment. Desklib provides this solution as part of its extensive library of solved assignments and case studies.

Running head: QUESTION AND ANSWER
Question and answer
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

QUESTION AND ANSWER
1. How important is the concept of resistance in helping us to understand the
responses of the miners?
The act of resistance of the miners is very important to understand how
coercive relations between employees and their respective superordinate do not
stand. This kind of united action taken towards the entire management proves the
importance of the labour and their collective consciousness. The resistance also
proves that any person regardless of their employment status should be provided
with their legal rights.
2. Outline the extent to which the stories that emerge act as a vehicle for individuals
and groups to make sense and give sense to change.
Stories that emerged in the case of Glenrothes Colliery serves as a fuel to
mislead the worker and it also aggravated the deteriorating employee and
employer relationship. The stories that aggravated collective identity were mostly
related to the inferior positive of the employees. They did not consider themselves
as dignifies employees rather they thought themselves of the dirty rags. Thus a
kind of solidarity was imposed by them celebrated the love mateness and the
anger against the managerial board started burgeoning on the misinformed
grounds.
3. Provide brief comments on why or why not stories and storytelling help us
understand what is happening in the case of Glenrothes Colliery.
Story telling helps the receiver of information to get a clear understanding
of the occurrences in a holistic way. Storytelling definitely helps to understand
the cases of Glenrothes Colliery because in the act of storytelling one can gloss of
the multiple aspect of the particular incidence. Moreover for a person to story-
tell, he or she needs to be aware of the cultural and the social implication
articular stories can have on people across different mindset. For instance for
introducing stories induced with negative repercussions can affect the behaviour
of the employees is a negative way.
4. Explain why the miners generally viewed change as a threat to their sense of
common identity (culture/occupational community).
The miners view the performance appraisal as a common threat because
the discrepancies between their expectations and the outcome. Moreover, this
kind of appraisal process confirmed to their fear of being used and abused.
Furthermore, along with their self-proclaimed inferior status to the higher levels
of the management deteriorated the entire situation.
5. Are there any general lessons that can be learnt from this case study on
resistance and organizational change?
For a change to be implemented it is very important to understand the
nature of the employees and a proper on-the-ground communication with the
employees need to be maintained. The cultural and the social built of the
employees working a particular company should be analysed properly. Before
implementing any decision it is very important take the consent of the employees
and the every ground regarding the new system should explained in details with
patience.
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