According to Babyegeya (2002), Change in organization means
development which connotes doing things better, achieving more, or being aware
of environment problems and finding better solution to those problems.
Changes are an inevitable
aspect of life. It is the essence of any entity that has life or whose
existence finds validity in the presence of life. Even ‘time’ would lose its
significance in the absence of change. As change manifests itself in a variety
of ways, it does not hold the same connotation across change, situations, and
contexts. Times change, people change, things change, situations change, and do
organizations.
Resistance to change is
the action taken by individuals and groups when they perceive that a change
that is occurring as a threat to them. Resistance may take many forms,
including active or passive, overt or covert, individual or organized,
aggressive or timid.
Resistance to change is the act of opposing or struggling
with modifications or transformations that alter the status quo in the
workplace.
Resistance
to change is a natural reaction when employees are asked, well, to change.
Change is uncomfortable and requires new ways of thinking and doing. People
have trouble developing a vision of what life will look like on the other side
of a change. So, they tend to cling to the known rather than embrace the
unknown.
Resistance
to change is best viewed as a normal reaction. Even the most cooperative,
supportive employees may experience resistance. So, don't introduce change
believing that you will experience nothing but resistance or that resistance
will be severe. Instead, introduce change believing that your employees want to
cooperate, make the best of each work situation, and that they will fully and
enthusiastically support the changes as time goes by.
Manage Resistance to Change
Own
the changes.
No matter where the change originated - and change can show up at any point in
your organization, even originating with you - you must own the change
yourself. It's your responsibility to implement the change. You can only do
that effectively, if you step back, take a deep breath, and plan how you will
implement the change with the people you influence in your organization.
“Readiness
means both waiting to change and being able to change and is manifested in
active initiation of changes or in cooperation with respect to organizational
change” (Heinrich 2004:32)
Education and Communication:
One of the best ways to overcome resistance to change is to educate people
about the change effort beforehand. Up-front communication and education helps
employees see the logic in the change effort. This reduces unfounded and
incorrect rumors concerning the effects of change in the organization.
Participation and
Involvement: When employees are involved in the change
effort they are more likely to buy into change rather than resist it. This
approach is likely to lower resistance more so than merely hoping people will
acquiesce to change.
Facilitation and Support: Managers
can head-off potential resistance by being supportive of employees during
difficult times. Managerial support helps employees deal with fear and anxiety
during a transition period. This approach is concerned with provision of
special training, counseling, time off work.
Negotiation and Agreement:
Managers can combat resistance by offering incentives to employees not to
resist change. This can be done by allowing change resistors to veto elements
of change that are threatening, or change resistors can be offered incentives
to go elsewhere in the company in order to avoid having to experience the
change effort. This approach will be appropriate where those resisting change
are in a position of power.
Manipulation and Cooptation:
“Cooptation” (no it’s not misspelled) involves the patronizing gesture of
bringing a person into a change management planning group for the sake of
appearances rather than their substantive contribution. This often involves
selecting leaders of the resisters to participate in the change effort. These
leaders can be given a symbolic role in decision making without threatening the
change effort, Singh (2005:63).
Explicit and Implicit
Coercion: Managers can explicitly or implicitly force employees
into accepting change by making clear that resisting change can lead to losing
jobs, firing, or not promoting employees.
Help the employees identify what's
in it for them to make the change. A good portion of the normal resistance to change
disappears when employees are clear about the benefits the change brings to
them as individuals. Benefits to the group, the department, and the
organization should be stressed, too. But, nothing is more important to an
individual employee than to know the positive impact on their own career or
job.
“Discuss
each category briefly so that all team members
Have a
good understanding of what they are rating’’
Palmer
2004; 91
Listen deeply and empathetically to the employees. You can expect that the employees
will experience the same range of emotions, thoughts, agreement, and
disagreement that you experienced when the change was introduced to you or when
you participated in creating the change. Never minimize an employee's response
to even the simplest change. You can't know or experience the impact from an
individual employee's point of view. Maybe the change seems insignificant to
many employees, but the change will seriously impact another employee's
favorite task. Hearing the employees out and letting them express their point
of view in a non-judgmental environment will reduce resistance to change.
“Maintain clear focus, embrace
resistance, respecting who resist, staying calm to stay engaged and join with
the resistance, that is working with the resistors to find a common vision and
plan to understand their perspective and deal with their resistance” (Sharma
2007 :105)
Empower
employees to contribute.
Control of their own jobs is one of the five key factors in what employees want
from work. So, too, this control aspect follows when you seek to minimize
resistance to change. Give the employees control over any aspect of the change
that they can manage. If you have communicated transparently, you have provided
the direction, the rationale, the goals, and the parameters that have been set
by your organization. Within that framework, your job is to empower the
employees to make the change work. Practice effective delegation and set the
critical path points at which you need feedback for the change effort - and get
out of the way. (Russel 2006 :93)
Kotter
and Schlesinger (1979) argued that organizational change often meets some form
of human resistance and that individuals react to change in different ways.
Thus, implementation of change requires the management to be aware of how human
processes, like that of indulging in irrational ideas and emotions, influence
individuals’ behavior towards change. They further suggested six major methods
of reducing resistance to change.
Nielsen
(1981) suggested the use a consensus – building approach to reduce resistance
to change. The basic mechanism driving this approach builds on the premise that
a 100 per cent agreement does not necessitate change. Change is usually driven
by the consensus of the majority of those who may resist the change efforts.
This may be archived in the following three steps.
·
Identify
the groups and individuals whose support or non – opposition is important to
the strategic plan.
·
Discussion
with the key group and individuals should attempt to identify special interest
goals or needs in terms of how they are related to a strategic plan.
·
Discuss,
evaluate and negotiate the optimization of the institution’s central strategic
objective while reasonably satisfying special interest goals or needs.
Ellis
(cf. Corey, 1996) outlined a seven step intervention strategy to deal with the
irrational beliefs so that individual resistance to organizational change may
be reducing. These seven steps are:
1. People need to fully accept that
they are largely responsible for their own emotion and behavior;
2. They need to acknowledge and accept
that they possess the ability to significantly alter their own emotion and
behavior;
3. They need to recognize that their
irrational beliefs are the origin of their emotional and 0behavioral
disturbances;
4. They need to aware of their
frequently used irrational beliefs;
5. They have will and courage to
actively challenge these beliefs;
6. They also need to accept that they
would have to work hard to change to challenge and counteract their
dysfunctional thought, and;
7. They would need to be persistent in
their efforts mentioned above and continually challenge their irrational
thoughts and beliefs.
Maurer
(1996b) identified some approaches the use of power, force of reason, ignoring
and making deals, which are commonly used to handle the resistance to
organizational change. In order to guard against such in ineffective ways, he
suggested the following principles that aid successful but unconventional
treatment of organizational resistance to: maintain clear focus, embrace
resistance, respecting those who resist, staying calm to stay engaged and join
with the resistance (that is, working with the resistors to find a common
vision and plan to understand their perspectives and deal with their resistance.
Finally In an
organization that has a culture of trust;
transparent communication; involved, engaged
employees; and positive interpersonal relationships, resistance to
change is easy to see - and also much less likely to occur. Employees feel free
to tell their boss what they think and to have open exchanges with managers.
When a change is introduced in this environment, with a lot of discussion and employee
involvement, resistance to change is minimized. Resistance is also
minimized if there is a wide-spread belief that a change is needed.
REFFERENCE
Babyegeya
, E. N. K. (2002) Educational Planning and Administration, The Open University
of
Tanzania, Dar es Salaam
Heinrich.T.(2004)
Resistance to change, does age matter? Predicting negative attitude towards
Organizational change .Turnshare Ltd
London
Palmer,B.(2004) American society for quality ,Quality press
USA
Sharma,R.R.(2008),Change
management concept and application ,published by Tata Mc Graw-
Hill Publishing
Company Limited, 7west Patel Nagar, New Delhi
Singh, K
(2005), Organization change and development, New Delhi India.
Russel, J et al (2006), Change basics. American
Society
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