Resistance to Org Changes: Causes & Impact on Growth & Performance - Essay Sample

Introduction

Resistance to organizational changes has become a concern as it affects the growth of the organization. Organizations face pressure to implement changes in the organization. The pressure results from various factors, including political, economic as well as social factors, and technological factors. The change in the organization aims at adapting to the new environment while improving performance and changing the behavioral patterns of the employees at the workplace (Ford et al., 2018). For the organization to survive the growth and competitive organization in the existing global market, there is a need to focus and adapt to expected changes through various strategies such as redesigning the organization. The study aims at evaluating resistance to change based on the problems the management face in the process of implementing change. The study investigates the factors that are influencing resistance to change, including employees' lack of motivation and poor communication channels. The study also suggests methods of addressing resistance to organizational changes.

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Resistance to Change in Business Organization

Organizations are subjected to continuous change form one form to another. Management changes can be in the form of individuals, teams, organizations as well as society. Management faces several challenges in the effective adoption of change as they face a number of stumbling blocks within the organization. Resistance to change is usual as employees will seek to stick to the traditions, habits as well as customs. As a result, the organization has to invest resources and maintain stability to implement organizational changes. Management has the responsibility of minimizing organizational change by amending the interactive patterns of the employees based on the ability of the organization to address the changes that affect the business environment.

Change in the organization aims to expand the suppleness, value as well as the excellence of the organization while addressing the customer concerns (Biggs, 2019). Various issues of management are addressed in the organizational management, especially the problems associated with change on resource availability, regulations as well as market forces and expectations of employees. Although management does not implement plans concerning reasons why employees resist change, accepting change needs the management to address various issues. The factors to be addressed include the origin of change, the nature of the proposed change, and the impact of change in the organization.

Without addressing these organizational factors, resistance to change might arise. Reasons why individuals resist change, include their selective perception, habits, and security issues. Habits of the employees serve as the means of conform and security. It is not easy to change the habits of the employees. Also, individuals resist change due to fear of losing freedom as well as fear of the unknown. Economic implications might result in resistance to change, especially when the employees find that compensation and rewards in the organization will be affected (Thomas & Hardy, 2017). In various organizations such as McDonald's, organizational culture and maintaining stability results in resistance to change. The culture of McDonald's has developed and changed over time. Unproductive and more traditional lack of suppleness could lead to an organizational challenge.

Besides, maintain stability results in resistance to the organizational change as the employees think the change will give an insufficient definition of duties as well as responsibility assigned with the rules and procedures. Since organizational change may consume a large number of resources, the stakeholders might resist its implementation, especially for the new assets, including new technology (Thomas & Hardy, 2017). The changes in the organizations are implemented for positive reasons, such as the growth of the organization. However, employees respond negatively to the change and resist the change effort. The resistance to change leads to increased pressure, stress, as well as the uncertainty for the employees. Unsuccessful change in the organization is due to the lack of understanding that surrounds the organization's capacity.

Addressing Resistance to Change

Employees are resistant to any change in the organization. Therefore, the management has the responsibility of understanding the reasons as well as the nature of resistance while triggering effective strategies for the employees to accept the need for change in the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. Successful change in the organization is essential for its improved performance and competitiveness. Management has to embrace innovative ideas of management to address resistance to change of the employees.

Addressing resistance to change entails effective strategies. The organizations, therefore, have to lay down strategies that communicate the need to change to the employees. It has to offer external information for organizational change. Communication is essential for addressing resistance to change as it fosters an open environment, thus giving the employees opportunities to share their concerns and ideas openly (Coch & French, 2018). Communication also allows the management to promote understanding of the necessary change while providing relevant details that ensure the employees understand the change and what the change is expected to bring. Communication allows the employees to successfully access the required information, thus creating employees' readiness for change.

Management has to develop confidence within the organization to address the resistance to change. Confidence in the employees creates an atmosphere for constructive criticism; thus, management becomes ready to revise the change for appropriate and transparent change that benefits both the organization and the employees. Collaboration and sound management makes managers avoid using power to force the changes that the employees are not comfortable with. It entails developing quality relationships between the manager and employee while developing opportunities for improving the organizational outcomes. The approach for addressing resistance should include education, communication as well as participation and involvement while facilitating and supporting change in the organization. The management has to communicate the vision of the organization as well as the mission to achieve organizational change. Along with addressing the organizational change, strategies should be implemented to educate the employees on the importance of embracing change.

Participation in change alone is not enough for the effective adoption of organizational change. As a result, organizations have to consider other factors. It entails making progress in developing and maintaining communication in the organization for effective management while reducing the resistance level to change. Management of the organization has to consider actions perceived by the employees leading to resistance carefully. Effectively adapting to change entails establishing a variety of operations as well as procedures in various sectors of the organization. The business processes have to be redefined such that it adapts to the specific settings such as cultural settings of the organization. Besides, the organizational workforce needs retraining to acquire new knowledge and skills for organizational change (Kiernan-Stern, 2015). Also, the culture of the organization needs to be appropriately shaped to ensure it supports the processes of organizational change. The structures, systems, as well as roles of the managers and employees, have to be redefined with the leadership styles shifting to adopt the new ways of relating to customers as well as the other stakeholders. Organizations have to introduce technological advances and capabilities for successful adaptation to change necessities. The understanding change will allow the organizations to rebuild from the complexities and regenerate the new design for the change. It is therefore suggested that the organization should lay down effective strategies for the appropriate adaptation of change by both the managers and the employees.

Conclusion

Power strategies cannot enforce change as it evokes resistance. Systematic change in an organization should be based on the positive outcome evaluation with a combination of effective policies. Since organizations have contexts and problems that significantly differ, there is a need for specifying the approach to deal with the resistance from the employees. Employees should be allowed to take part in the process of change since they are critical parts of successful organizational change. The organizations should also utilize strategies that allow the involvement of the employee by enhancing the communication within the organization.

The employees should also feel valued and trusted by the organizations in terms of the process of making a decision. Management in the organization should build a proper coalition of the employees for the change initiatives with the identification of the opinions. The employees and managers should be encouraged to support change in the organization for effective and successful implementation of organizational changes. Participation in decision making allows the individuals in the organization to take responsibility for the process of transition to achieve organizational change. The motivation for the employees, especially during the change initiative, rewards the behaviors that right to the individuals allowing them to make a disciplinary approach to overcoming resistance to change. The management has to give a message that is clear regarding the need for change by involving the employees while addressing the vices such as anger.

References

Biggs, M. (2019). RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. Resource Sharing & Library Networks, 1(2-3), 3-23. https://doi.org/10.1300/J299v01n02_02

Coch, L., & French, J. R. P. (2018). Overcoming Resistance to Change. Human Relations, 1(4), 512-532. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872674800100408

Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W., & D'Amelio, A. (2018). Resistance to Change: The Rest of the Story. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 362-377. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2008.31193235

Kiernan-Stern, M. (2015). Managing resistance to change. The Case Manager, 16(5), 48-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.casemgr.2005.07.007

Thomas, R., & Hardy, C. (2017). Reframing resistance to organizational change. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 27(3), 322-331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2011.05.004