Organisation Change Management

BMO 6624 - Organisation Change Management

Tutor: Dr Charu Hurria

Tutorial time: Thursday 1:30PM - 4:30PM

Linh Thuy Nguyen (Felicia Nguyen)

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Word count: 1956

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Organisation Change Management

Abstract

Change has become the essential role in the competitive business market. The fast pace

environment is forcing organisations worldwide to change in order to gain competitive advantages,

or at least to survive. However, changing is the long path with various challenges from both outside

worlds to internal companies. This paper will analyse literature review in organisational change,

focusing on individual resistance which can be seen as the top obstacle in resistance change. It

shows that employees understand the need for change but resistance still happens due to poor

communication, lack of desire to learn, habit, preference of stability, fear of moving on to a new

system and so on. Communication, management support, employee participation and involvement

are key issues for overcoming resistance change. A critique will be addressed in the second section

of the paper, based on two main approaches from the literature review.

Literature review

Hammer and Champy (2009) estimates that the rate of failure in change is from fifty to

seventy percent. Many authors (Maurer, 1996; Strebel, 1994; Waddell and Sohal, 1998) indicate

that resistance to change is one of the key reasons for change initiatives failure. Ansoff (2007) states

that resistance to change creates surplus costs and delays in business process, however, it is also a

source of information that needs to be explored for achieving better business implementation (Beer

and Eisenstat, 1996; Waddell and Sohal, 1998).

Studies conducted by Piderit (2000) analysed the term resistance to change and focused on

behaviour reaction and attitudinal resistant. Zander (1950), Folger and Skarlicki (1999) and Piderit

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(2000) shared a similar concept of behaviour which is intended to protect an individual from the

effects of real or imagined change (cited in Dent & Goldberg, 1999, p. 34). Lewin (1951) had also

developed a concept theory called force-field theory describing the resistance in organisational

change.

According to Lewin (1951), there are two different types of forces in an organisation: one of

them is in favour of changes while the other opposes it. The inertia represents the organisation

status when the two forces are balance. In order to achieve the new status which called

organisational change, forces for change need to be stronger than resistance to change.

Managements role in organisational change is to weaken the impact of resistance force while

strengthening forces of change.

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There are many reasons why individuals resist when it comes to change. Holt et al. (2007)

believe that people have feelings of fear and anxiety when something changes. He also argues that

those who prefer stability with higher needs of security have the possibility to resist the change

since their safety is being threatened. Fear of losing jobs, fear of the unknown, fear of lowering

social status, and being uncertain causes resistance. Besides, employees occasionally think change

is a mistake and they do not see any reason why the company needs to change when the current

situation is still good enough. Moreover, people tends to keep relationship with familiar things and

easily get connected with each other by the old method, generally speaking, in a loyalty way. Dent

(1999) perceives communication as the key to any organisational change because people are

sensitive regarding how they receive the information. If one gets the information from a third-party,

he might resist it as he feels lack of respect from the official source.

Resistance to change has always been perceived as an important part to direct an

organisation to other paths, for better or worse. Instead of focusing on employees, many authors

have been shifted their view toward the role of management. Flower (1962) states that changes

experience failure due to misunderstanding in a change process. He argues that management tends

to perceive change as an essential part which is quite straight forward and some managerial actions

failed because of the lack of communication. Watson (1988) shares the same point with Flower

(1962) in pointing out that managers tend to see negatively in employees resistance to change,

which perceived as disobey. When changes are introduced, employees experiences differ from their

managers who initiate the change: they tend to avoid being change. Moreover, if management does

not communicate and listen to employees, resistance will easily increase due to the feeling of being

unheard especially from those who work in the organisation for a long time. Employees also might

feel insecure regarding their positions at work, according to Flower (1962).

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While aforementioned authors investigate specific reasons why resistance happen in

individual level, De Jager (2001) examines resistance in general concept based on psychology. He

divided resistance into two categories: rational and irrational resistance. However, irrational

resistance does not have a clear definition until now, which raises a concern of mislabelled or

ignored (De Jager ,2001). Rational resistance, in his theory, can be addressed with a compelling

argument to facilitate change. It is divided into two sub-categories as justified and unjustified

resistance. Yukl (2002) suggests that those personal fear as mentioned above can be put in

unjustified section because it can harm their ideal or culture (Recardo, 1995; Yukl, 2002). Justified

resistance, on the other hand, happens when a real threat exists, not spiritually but present negative.

De Jager (2001) also points out that justified resistance is the source for organisations benefits if a

firm can analyse it effectively.

Traditionally, resistance has negative meaning represents an attitude which needs to be

removed for the development of an organisation (Waddell and Sohal, 1998). However, recent

studies have evaluated resistance as an essential part of business processes rather than perceiving it

as a barrier to success. Graetz et al. (2010) agree that resistance can be a positive and necessary

force that can benefit the organisation. They suggest using resistance as a source of alternative

option in considering problem-solving process. It allows management to look at a problem with

different angles provided by employees, and some of the angles might show bad aspects of a change

initiative. Waddell and Sohal (1998) also highlighted that resistance can be used as a tool to

understand employees thought, and from that point, management can revise their decision in

implementing changes.

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Overcoming resistance to change is a challenge for leaders worldwide. Creating readiness is

the method researched by Self (2007). He illustrated that management of readiness shapes the

attitude of employees towards the change so that the organisation can reduce the rate of resistance

behaviour. Firstly, leaders need to show everyone the difference between the current situation and

desired state of development, which lead to the need for change. Change agents role is to show the

benefits created by the change and demonstrate that members are the important factor to make it

happen so that everyone can contribute to the process.

Supporting the research conducted by Self (2007), Robbins and Judge (2017) suggest 7

strategies to help dealing with resistance: education and commitment between employees and the

firm, everyones participation and involvement, being supportive, developing good relationship

within the organisation, consistency in changes, manipulation if needed, and using direct threats on

opponents. However, the last tactic of forcing employees to change is not highly recommended.

Critique on literature review

During literature review, we have researched various approaches from authors in different

economic periods started with Lewin (1951) to recent research by Robbins and Judge (2017). As

analysed above, there have been two main approaches regarding resistance to change: negative and

positive. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages in their perception.

First of all, authors who have a negative approach towards resistance in change perceive it

as a reason for change initiative failure, which is absolutely true. However, they describe it solely as

a factor that needs to be eliminated for the development of a firm and believe that resistance is a

problem that prevents us from moving forward. As we can see that each individual is unique, thus

their behaviour causing resistance has different roots, nevertheless requires change agents handle it

in a proper way suitable for each situation. Since they see resistance as a negative factor, they have
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completely ignored the positive elements in it. Therefore when it comes to solutions, almost all of

those research focus on how to eliminate resistance especially from employees rather than

managing it properly.

Regarding the positive approach by the authors who support the positive elements in

resistance, we conclude that even though they see challenges in resistance of change, they still come

up with an idea of how to positively transform it into business process for a common goal. These

authors have inspired us to think about resistance as a crucial part of development, it might be a hint

for change agents to look at the scenario thoroughly from both sides of the problem. However, a

comprehensive theory is needed for analysing resistance management, which is a lack in

aforementioned research. To successfully handle resistance, we need to conduct an analysis of

individuals behaviour in relation to organisational change.

The one common issue witnessed in both negative and positive approach is the important

role of communication in an organisation. The findings reinforce the idea that lack of

communication can cause various impacts on productivity as well as change implementation.

Consequently, improving communication within companies becomes a key issue in reducing

resistance to change, as suggested by all authors.

Conclusion

Organisations experiencing the necessity of change should also be well-prepared for the

challenges occur during implementation. Resistance, which can be seen as an obstacle by many

authors, is becoming a key issue for management as well as change agents. Leaders should

understand that a group of employees will support the change while others might resist it. There are

two main approaches when researching the impact of resistance in change. Opponents see it solely

as a bad factor while advocates propose a positive perspective and solution for managing change.
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De Jager (2011) examines the differences in individuals behaviour which allows change agents to

apply other theories into change plans. Understanding resistant behaviours and having a proper

method of communication within organisations can reduce the extreme attitude on any change

initiative.

Reference list:

Ansoff, H., 2007. Strategic management. Springer.

Beer, M. and Eisenstat, R.A., 1996. Developing an organization capable of implementing strategy
and learning. Human Relations, 49(5), pp.597-619.

Dent, E.B. and Goldberg, S.G., 1999. Challenging resistance to change. The Journal of Applied
Behavioral Science, 35(1), pp.25-41.

De Jager, P., 2001. Resistance to change: A new view of an old problem. The futurist, 35(3), p.24.

Folger, R. and Skarlicki, D.P., 1999. Unfairness and resistance to change: hardship as mistreatment.
Journal of organizational change management, 12(1), pp.35-50.

Flower, O.D., 1962. Overcoming resistance to change [Film]. Beverly Hills, CA: Roundtable
Productions.

Graetz, F. and Smith, A.C., 2010. Managing organizational change: A philosophies of change
approach. Journal of Change Management, 10(2), pp.135-154.

Hammer, M. and Champy, J., 2009. Reengineering the Corporation: Manifesto for Business
Revolution, A. Zondervan.

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Holt, D.T., Armenakis, A.A., Feild, H.S. and Harris, S.G., 2007. Readiness for organizational
change: The systematic development of a scale. The Journal of applied behavioral science, 43(2),
pp.232-255.

Lewin, K., 1951. Field theory in social science.

Maurer, R., 1996. Using resistance to build support for change. The Journal for Quality and
Participation, 19(3), p.56.

Piderit, S.K., 2000. Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: A multidimensional view
of attitudes toward an organizational change. Academy of management review, 25(4), pp.783-794.

Recardo, R.J., 1995. Overcoming resistance to change. Global Business and Organizational
Excellence, 14(2), pp.5-12.

Robbins, S.P., Judge, T. and Campbell, T., 2017. Organizational behaviour. Pearson Higher Ed.

Self, D.R., 2007. Organizational changeovercoming resistance by creating readiness. Development

and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 21(5), pp.11-13.

Strebel, P., 1994. Choosing the right change path. California Management Review, 36(2), pp.29-51.

Waddell, D. and Sohal, A.S., 1998. Resistance: a constructive tool for change management.
Management decision, 36(8), pp.543-548.

Watson, D., Clark, L.A. and Tellegen, A., 1988. Development and validation of brief measures of
positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of personality and social psychology, 54(6),
p.1063.

Yukl, G.A., 2002. Leadership in organizations.

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Zander, A., 1950. Resistance to changeits analysis and prevention. Advanced Management
Journal.

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