Resistance to Change

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Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is the most important facets of change management and resistance is human nature to react to changes. Organizations must make every effort to implement changes with minimum hassle rather than resisting changes.

Reasons for Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is common in every organization and to succeed in the changing process, leaders should able to identify the actual reasons for resistance.

  • Employees are trying to find a convenient method to continue the existing works they have always been doing. Implementing new things is very difficult for them.
  • Employees who have affected by the changing process will always resist as changes are always come out with alteration in powers, influence and workers' duties.
  • Employees who are inflexible on continuing duties instead of doing new things and accepting risk will always resist changes. This will be happened due to the lack of creativity of organizational staff.


Types of Resistance to Change

Resistance to change can be categorized as follows,

Logical Resistance
This type of resistance mostly rises from the time employees unaffectedly take to adjust to changes. For example, accountants had to move from accounting on paper to digital accounting after the computers became common. This process will take time to adapt to. 

Psychological Resistance
This kind of resistance occurs due to mental and psychological factors. Employees frequently resistant to change as they are less tolerant to change, fear of the unknown, dislike towards the management, etc.

Sociological Resistance
This type of resistance relates not to individuals but rather to the common values and customs of the group. Individuals may be like to transform but will not due to peer pressure from the group they belong to. For example, if employees' union protests against new management policies, all employees face pressure to protest together.

How to overcome Resistance to Change

Because of changes always face resistance, managers should concern on possibilities to overcome and help their workforce to adapt to new variations in functioning.
Leaders must be able to convince employees that the necessity of proposing changes and positive factors of the changes. Management can consider the following implementations to make changes smoothly.

  • Changes should not occur in one go as it is easier to implement them in stages.
  • Changes should never cause security problems for the employees.
  • Leaders must consider the ideas of all workers on whom the proposed change will have an effect.
  • If managers portray leadership by first adapting to the changes themselves, employees are less likely to resist.
  • Sufficient prior training of employees can help them accept changes with confidence.



Importance of Employee participation

To succeed in the changing process, employee participation is an important thing and it will make them less likely to resist the implementation of changes.
Leaders can arrange small informal meetings or conferences with the team for this. Managers should present all the related details of the projected changes. Workers must be encouraged to offer their opinions as well.

References
Anon., n.d. business-management-and-entrepreneurship/recent-trends-in-management/resistance-to-change/. [Online]
Available at: https://www.toppr.com
[Accessed 18 February 2020].

Comments

  1. Lakshan Kulasooriya5:27 AM, February 22, 2020

    Covert resistance to change can damage the progress of your desired changes seriously as it is more difficult to deal with the resistance that isn't visible, demonstrated, or expressed except in these types of actions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chathuri11:02 PM, February 24, 2020

      Agreed with the comment.As you said resistance to change can damage the progress of your desired changes

      Delete
  2. chamila6:23 AM, February 22, 2020

    I accept that your comment about managers adopting first to their organisational changes employees might less resistant to change their behaviour. Management has to consider about security while implementing regulations to increase institution targets and goals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chathuri11:03 PM, February 24, 2020

      Yes Chamila. What you said is correct. Thank you

      Delete
  3. Virajt10:57 AM, February 22, 2020

    Excellent list and explanation ! Awareness of these reasons why people resist to change can go long way towards overcoming that resistance. Seeking input, communicating plans,and listening to concerns go a long way towards resolving many of these obstacles to successful change implementation. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anjanika Pothuhera3:51 PM, February 22, 2020

    Nice article.
    In order to facilitate transitions and changes, managers should first be able to determine the exact reason for resistance. Such resistance to alter is common altogether organizations.

    ReplyDelete
  5. thusitha86.blogspot.com11:51 PM, February 22, 2020

    Much resistance to change can be avoided if effective change management is applied on the project from the very beginning. While resistance is the normal human reaction in times of change, good change management can mitigate much of this resistance. Change management is not just a tool for managing resistance when it occurs; it is most effective as a tool for activating and engaging employees in a change.

    Many things learn from this article and very important to me as these days facing same issue with a special project. Thanks for your information.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nanda T5:19 PM, February 23, 2020

    Change is always inevitable but so is resistance to change. It is basic human nature of people to try and keep their methods and customs constant. This is where change management comes into play. An organization always must strive to adapt to change if it wants to be successful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. shelton wijesundara8:51 PM, February 23, 2020

    It is indeed true, humans by nature has never favored change. It is inevitable. As for an organization, the top level should handle this situation consequentially without upholding the resistance of the employees.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Malaka Jayawardena3:59 PM, February 24, 2020

    Resistance is a healthy part of any change process. Manage it effectively and it can strengthen your change initiative. Ignore it and it can quietly undermine all your great intentions.

    ReplyDelete

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