Verified Document

Resistance To Change In An Organization Essay

¶ … Coping with Change Change is a process that occurs everywhere though many people are generally reluctant to embrace the concept. One of the major reasons for difficulties in accepting or embracing change is that humans are creatures of habit and adhere to daily routines. Consequently, when change occurs, people's activities and thought patterns are interrupted. While understanding and coping with change is an important part of daily life, embracing the concept is relatively a difficult process for many people. Actually, this process is characterized by resistance to change due to internal and external factors. Some of the major reasons why individuals are resistant to change include self-interest, lack of trust in management, lack of understanding, low tolerance for change, and varying assessments of the need for change. Regardless of whether the resistance is fueled by internal or external factors, individuals need to develop an appropriate plan for overcoming that resistance and embracing the concept.

A Situation involving Resistance to Change:

Human beings have a tendency to resist change even when the change contributes to growth and development, increased productivity, and greater efficiency (Baker, 1989, p.53). In most cases, resistance to change occurs in the workplace because changes in an organization affect the individuals within the organization. Moreover, individuals within an organization resist change because of fear of unknown based on the potential impact of the change on their job performance, relationship with co-workers, and other job related issues.

An example of a situation involving resistance to change in the workplace is a recent scenario at a community-based organization that carries out empowerment programs for young people. The employees in the organization used to work in traditional offices and without clear structures regarding their respective roles in the organization. The management asked the employees to move to a modern building that used open landscaping and introduced a document with details about the role of every employee in the organization. The move to a new building and clarification of roles represented environmental and structural changes that...

A couple of weeks before implementing this organizational change, the management provided detailed information to the employees about the change. During the process, the management also requested for feedback from employees on what they felt about the change.
While most of the employees responded positively regarding the change, some of them had difficulties in embracing it. They provided differing assessments of the need for change and argued that they preferred working in the traditional office and with the existing structure. In addition to providing differing assessments, they also raised concerns on whether the change could accomplish the desired objectives. Robert Smith, an employee, argued that implementing the change was seemingly expensive and would affect the organization's ability to conduct its empowerment programs effectively. He also stated that the existing working structure enabled them to spend more time with young people, through which they were effective in their empowerment initiatives. Therefore, the introduction of a new working structure would affect their ability to spend more time with these young people and become effective.

Evaluation of the Resistance to Change:

The resistance to movement to a new building and introduction of new working structures at this organization was mainly caused by differing assessments of the need for change. These differences in assessments can be attributed to internal and external factors that contribute to resistance to change. According to Lunenburg (2010), some of the most common internal and external factors that contribute to resistance to change include uncertainty, concern over individual loss, economic changes, people problems, and administrative procedures (p.2). In this scenario, Smith's reason for resisting the move to an ultra-modern building and new working structure was due to uncertainty and concern over individual loss. He expressed the uncertainty by arguing that the organizational change could not lead to the accomplishment of the desired results. His concern over personal loss was demonstrated in his preference for the existing mode of operation and organizational…

Sources used in this document:
References:

Baker, S.L. (1989). Managing Resistance to Change. Library Trends, 38(1), 53-61. Retrieved

March 7, 2014, from https://ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/7649/librarytrendsv38i1h_opt.pdf?sequence=1

Kotter, J.P. (1995, April). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business

Review, 59-67. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.sykehusapoteket.no/Upload/Topplederprogrammet/Litteratur/2.1%20Leading%20Change%20-%20Why%20Transformation%20Efforts%20Fail%20by%20JP%20Kotter.pdf
Lunenburg, F.C. (2010). Forces for and Resistance to Organizational Change. National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal, 27(4), 1-10. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%20C.%20Forces%20For%20and%20Resistance%20to%20Change%20NFEASJ%20V27%20N4%202010.pdf
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Change Management Organizational Change Organizational Change Aims...
Words: 3237 Length: 11 Document Type: Essay

Change Management Organizational Change Organizational change aims at ensuring that the implementation of changes in an organization is smooth and successful. Moreover, it ensures that the benefits of these changes are achievable (Burke 2010). The introduction of social media and technology has recently had much effect on business in the recent past. Accessing information by the organization is easier nowadays thus; the need for introducing changes to business to cope with the

Organizational Change Managing Change Organization. Provide a
Words: 1244 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Organizational Change Managing Change Organization. Provide a significant change place a major organization, compare contrast established change management models/frameworks implementation phase common lessons learned. Managing change in the organization: Best Buy One of the most recent successful changes to be implemented at a major organization is that of the technology company Best Buy's shift to a results-only workplace (ROWE). In the ROWE model, workers are judged solely on their output, not on how

Organizational Change Communication Issues
Words: 1578 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Resistance to Change There are any number of reasons for resistance to change in an organization, among them poor communication, self-interest, exclusion, lack of trust and lack of skills (Brookins, 2017). Sometimes change is resisted specifically because the organization does not communicate the need for change effectively -- the people see the disruptive aspects of change but they don't understand the motivation behind the change nor the objectives of the change.

Organizational Theory 2 What Core Competences Give
Words: 2740 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Organizational Theory #2 What core competences give an organization competitive advantage? What are examples of an organization's functional-level strategies? Core competencies are those capabilities that are critical to a business achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Typically, core competencies can be identified by certain common characteristics -- offering a benefit to the customer, difficult to imitate, uniquely identify the organization and easily leveraged to create many products or operate in many

Resistance to Change: The Various Analyses Regarding
Words: 1279 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Resistance to Change: The various analyses regarding resistance to change tend to take the perspective that change agents are usually doing the right thing whereas its recipients establish unreasonable barriers to hinder the occurrence of the change. Consequently, change agents tend to be viewed as undeserving victims of the dysfunctional and absurd reactions of change recipients. Rather than the perspective of change agents as people who develop their environments and realities,

Organizational Change and Stress Management
Words: 1764 Length: 5 Document Type: Case Study

Organizational Change and Stress Management How Change Agents Can Contribute to Change Resistance According to Hussey (2000), as far as effective management is concerned, change remains a critical aspect. It can be noted that through their actions or inactions, change agents in most cases end up contributing towards the very occurrence of resistance (Ford et al. 2008). To begin with, by breaking agreements before or during the change process, change agents make

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now