Change Resistance | Change Leadership management Approach

Organizational Change Resistance

How Resistance is Exhibited : Resistance to change is a continuous factor to be encountered in management. Workers resist the introduction of a new machine or the pressure to increase productivity, staff resist transfers and changes in procedures, executives resist organizational restructuring. Changes are resisted in various ways. The most obvious is aggression. This is expressed through strikes and violence. outright refusal and stoppage of work. But there are also many other ways in which changes are resisted. Objections are raised - Why do you want it ? What will be the effect on other parts of the system ? It won't work! These are the usual killer phrases and road-blocks to any new idea which one reads about in management literature. But more often, resistance is expressed in very subtle ways, particularly if the change is required by someone in authority and the people do not have the courage to object openly. The techniques used are:

Avoiding to implement the change, giving excuses, saying something and doing something else, ignoring instructions.

Making sure the change won't work by implementing it wrongly, or following it in letter and not in spirit.

Sliding back into old ways when control is not being exercised.

Using the grape-vine to lobby against the change.

Ridiculing and being sarcastic.

Resistance to change is not necessarily bad. just like the friction of the ground enables us to walk, or the pressure of the air lifts the aero plane off the ground, so also resistance makes way for progress. It is a natural and health phenomenon.

Why do leaders fear resistance ?

In India, change is a painful process. There is a basic mistrust between the workers and the management. The objectives are not congruent, and any change,

no matter how small, results in conflicts, conformation and bargaining. The cost of change, apart from the costs and systems development and costs of hardware and software, are the costs of time spent in selling the ideas to all levels, in implementation and in debugging the new systems. These costs are often so high that managements prefer to live with inefficiencies rather than attempt to make a change. Why do managements not see the positive uses of resistance, and, instead, live in fear of resistance to change ?  The reasons are:

It is a change to their ego. They take it that their plans and ideas are being questioned; their creditability or ability is in doubt; their authority is being eroded.

Revision of plans may call for a lot of work. People generally approach a new job with enthusiasm, but when asked to do it again, to revise and perfect it, to remove the hidden pit-falls, they resent it.