Change Management Assignment: Factors Causing Resistance to Change

Question

Task: Your task is to conduct a detailed research on change management assignment and discuss the three main factors that cause resistance to change.

Answer

Introduction
As per the study byFineman(2017) undertaken in this change management assignment, change is inevitable and it is the only constant in life. It is a choice for people to either resist to a change or they might even be run over by the change. In this fast changing and competitive world, it is expected by people to adapt to the changes and cooperate with it. Instead of resisting to a change, people should learn and extract the good things from a change. For instance, many people say that smart phones have created a lot of damage to human lives. People have got addicted to it and neglect many important things of life. However, there is always a positive side to the change. The people should realize that smart phones can be used to the benefit of mankind. They should reap the benefits of it rather than succumbing to its negative impacts. A progressive person is one who readily embraces the change, learns and unlearns as required and finds the opportunity for growth from the change (Mangen&Brivot, 2020). However, few people are extremely rigid and do not open to accept changes.

Thesis Statement
The study in this paper will be based on the resistance to change. The paper will discuss the three factors which cause resistance to change. The readers can expect to know about the factors which hinders a change from being implemented successfully. The study begins with the discussion of the three factors: self-interest, lack of understanding about the change and the intolerance towards the change, which create the resistance. Furthermore, the paper will also discuss the process in which organizational change can be managed. There are few ways of eliminating or minimizing resistance to change which will be highlighted towards the end of the paper.

Resistance to Change
According to Khan, Raza& George (2017), resistance to change refers to the act of struggling with the amendments or opposing to transformations which change the status quo. The resistance to change could be the nature of an individual, an employee within an organization or the entire organization. The resistance to change hinders the chances of growth.

Self-Interest:
There are various factors which cause resistance to change. The first and very significant factor which resists change is the self-interest. There are many people who resist to change due to their self-interests (Rosenbaum, More &Steane, 2018). They either fear the change as they are afraid that they will not be able to adapt to it or they might resist to it as they know that they will have to pay a cost for it. The change could deprive the people for which they resist it. For instance, when the computers were introduced and it started replacing the typewriters, many employees resisted to this change as they knew that they would lose their jobs or at least have to learn something very new to them. The fear of learning new things or adapting to changes could lead to resistance. Another case could be the change and movement towards automation. When the organizations eventually transitioned from labour intensive to capital intensive production process, there was resistance. The people resisted as the number of employments would be reduced. Today, when many organizations are preferring automation over manual jobs, the employees are resisting to it as they fear of losing their jobs. The people who hold important positions in organizations fear change as they know the change might take away their power and position. Thus, they resist to it. In certain cases, it could be reduction in pays. Few people resist to change as they are afraid of losing their worth or value. A very relatable example in this context are the typists. The once highly paid and valued fast typists lost their value and pay when computers replaced the typewriters. Thus, based on self-interest people resist to changes.

Lack of Understanding:
In many cases, people resist to a change as they have least understanding about the change (Holtorf, 2018). They either misunderstand or mistrust the change that is being suggested. Therefore, they resist it. This kind of resistance to change is mostly seen in cases where the research and development team or some innovative employee suggests a change for the organization. However, the management resists to the change as they have least faith in the change or its benefits. Few organizations are so dated that they do not even want to change their process or product. They have closed their doors to all changes. The management at few big organizations like Apple Inc, Google and Microsoft are very encouraging and they are always open to change if they see the potential in it. The smaller organizations are usually risk averse and they fear making any change (Karaxha, 2019). They are afraid of incurring huge losses due to the changes. This is the reason these organisations resist to change. The resistance which originates due to the lack of trust in the change and its potential may not be identified at first as a resistance. In the beginning, the management might seem very supportive and speak in favour of the change. However, while sanctioning the finances or implementing the change they might back out showing other reasons. There are many employees in organisations who listen to the change plans.

They might seem accepting towards the change. However, in private they deny implementing it. They continue working in the same pattern as they used to and ignore the change completely. This is because they are rigid or orthodox. In case of older people, they often tend to doubt the capabilities or potential of the younger generations. They also disregard when a young employee comes up with a suggestion of productive change. They find the amendments inappropriate as they do not trust the change (Day, Crown &Ivany, 2017).

Intolerance:
Resistance to change is also caused by intolerance of a person to a change. Many people have very low tolerance towards a change. This could be either because they lack the capability to adapt to the change or the zeal to accept it (Cinite& Duxbury, 2018). Few employees at the organisations have lower ability to adapt to changes than their other team mates. Thus, the former shows intolerance towards the change. There are other people who may be capable of a change but they fear the uncertainty which is involved in anything that is new. They do not want to change or accept the change as they want to be certain about the after effects. As per Dorling(2017), the uncertainty that a change or an innovation brings might seem intolerant to some. When a new technique is introduced in an organization or a new technology is adopted, many employees show intolerance towards it because they are worried and anxious about the uncertainty. Many people doubt their own potential and capabilities. They fear that they will be lagging for their incompetency and not be able to learn the new techniques or skills which will come with the change.

Management of Resistance to Change
According to Mansaray(2019), whenever a change takes place, it has to be managed by following a systematic approach. This process of managing the change includes three steps. The first step is unfreezing, followed by change intervention and finally refreezing. The first stage of unfreezing refers to making the stakeholders of the change believe that the change is required. The employees in an organization need to feel the need for change. Only then the entire organization can change and progress. Without the preparation and mindset, implementation of a change is not possible. The employees in an organization will show resistance towards the change unless they are conditioned to accept and adapt to it.

In the next stage, change intervention takes place. The change intervention is the stage where the change is being implemented. The change is likely to intervene with the regular operations of the organizations (Amarantou et al, 2018). For adapting to the change, the management as well as the workforce has to adjust and amend their behaviour. The work practices also need to be molded as per the requirement of the changed situation. If everyone who is being affected by the change can make adjustments in their work and behaviour, there should not be any resistance to the change.

As stated by Fernando(2020), the final stage of change management in an organization is refreezing. Refreezing is a stage where the change has to be supported by all and constantly reinforced so that the change is imbibed. It is important to stick to the change. When the people are resistant towards a change, it implies that they are exhibiting frozen behaviour. When given an option, most of the employees and even the managers will prefer not to change. However, it is important to unfreeze the resistance to change so that the organizations can grow. Resistance to change can be eliminated through education, better communication, negotiation, participation, support of the management and employees (Blanco-Portela et al, 2017).

Conclusion
Change management is an essential skill in the modern-day organisations. They need changes to grow. The workforce needs to be mentally open to changes instead of resisting to it. The workforce should know how to adapt to the changes. The employees who show resistance eventually lose their existence. In the path of growth and development, change is inevitable. The employees need to acquire the skills to adjust with changes, learn the behaviors that are required for negotiation a change in the organization. The people need to stop feeling threatened by a change. They should be free and flexible to learn and unlearn. The effective management of change could lead to successful implementation of change.

References
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Blanco-Portela, N., Benayas, J., Pertierra, L. R., & Lozano, R. (2017). Towards the integration of sustainability in Higher Education Institutions: A review of drivers of and barriers to organisational change and their comparison against those found of companies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 166, 563-578.

Cinite, I., & Duxbury, L. E. (2018).Measuring the behavioral properties of commitment and resistance to organizational change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 54(2), 113-139.

Day, A., Crown, S. N., &Ivany, M. (2017). Organisational change and employee burnout: The moderating effects of support and job control. Safety science, 100, 4-12.

Dorling, J. L. (2017). Impact of psychological capital on the resistance to change during post-merger integration: A theoretical model. Change management assignmentJournal of Organizational Change Management.

Fernando, P. B. D. (2020). Employees on the move—a case study on managing organisational change to improve employee performance in the Sri Lankan health care sector.

Fineman, M. A. (2017). Vulnerability and inevitable inequality. Oslo Law Review, 4(03), 133-149. Holtorf, C. (2018). Embracing change: how cultural resilience is increased through cultural heritage. World archaeology, 50(4), 639-650.

Karaxha, H. (2019). Methods for dealing with resistance to change. Baltic Journal of Real Estate Economics and Construction Management, 7(1), 290-299.

Khan, S. T., Raza, S. S., & George, S. (2017). Resistance to Change in Organizations: A Case of General Motors and Nokia. International Journal of Research in Management, Economics and Commerce, 7(1), 16-25.

Mangen, C., &Brivot, M. (2020). Threats to professional identities can lead to resistance to organisational change. LSE Business Review.

Mansaray, H. E. (2019). The Role of Leadership Style in Organisational Change Management: A Literature Review. Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(1), 18-31.

Rosenbaum, D., More, E., &Steane, P. (2018). Planned organisational change management: Forward to the past? An exploratory literature review. Journal of Organizational Change Management.