THE ENGINEROOM (2019)

Resistance to change is defined as “refusal to accept new ideas or changes” by the Longman dictionary of contemporary English (as cited in Bareil C, 2013). It’s a behavioural response of the change recipient or stake holders towards a change initiative which may emerge before, during or after change implementation. (Bareil, 2013). It is a main obstacle in the change management process. The basic assumptions, deep routed beliefs, individual attitude or perception and the present culture - these are the main reasons which cause resistance to change. These causes may delay the change process, increase the cost associated with the change process and at times can become the main cause of failure for these changes.

Change is inevitable; it remains the only constant (Smith, 2004). In today’s fast-paced world of technological advancement, transformation is happening in every aspect of our lives. To cope up with this speed of change is quite a challenging task for the global industry leaders. The amount of pressure, internal & external, is immense to meet organizational growth, justify shareholders’ investment by achieving high ROI and the last but not least is to survive in this highly volatile market, especially after the global economic meltdown of 2008 and falling oil prices thereafter.

There is a greater need from organisations to develop strategies to keep up with tomorrow, even if it includes changing the organisation culture. Although many might fight to hang on to the way things “used to be done,” others embrace the revolving door of change. Change is not the problem – but resistance to change can be a huge problem. In the 1920s, H.P. Lovecraft said “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” This quote, said over 96 years ago, still holds true today when it comes to organizational culture change. Basic understanding and how to interpret the resistance is still challenging even though the concept is quite popular (Bareil, 2013).

It is unrealistic not to have any resistance to change, but the mitigations measure like effective management, understanding of individual interpretation, clear communication of the idea behind the idea of change has emerged as the essential skill for the change manager. The change situation will worsen if purpose of change is not communicated well to the individuals (I Palmer, R Dunford, G Akin, 2009, P162-64). With the help of this paper, writer has tried to explain how to identify different types of resistances, reasons behind these resistances and most importantly how to manage this resistance (Manuela, Clara, 2003).

Resistance to change is defined as “refusal to accept new ideas or changes” by the Longman dictionary of contemporary English (as cited in Bareil C, 2013). It’s a behavioural response of the change recipient or stake holders towards a change initiative which may emerge before, during or after change implementation. (Bareil, 2013). It is a main obstacle in the change management process. The basic assumptions, deep routed beliefs, individual attitude or perception and the present culture - these are the main reasons which cause resistance to change. These causes may delay the change process, increase the cost associated with the change process and at times can become the main cause of failure for these changes.

Human nature is to maintain status quo and this itself can act as restraint for basic idea of change. This is often taken negatively by any change leader as a direct objection towards the change. It’s all about the feeling towards the change. Feeling can be comfortable in form of enthusiasm or elated, but there can be a negative feeling in the form of anxiety, apprehension, fear. All these negative apprehensions, anxiety are self-made, just like an “psychological contract”, which we make ourselves and then start believing that things around us should be according to that belief.

Studies in the behavioural aspects define the resistance as “intentional acts of defiance or omission” (Ashforth and Mael, 1998, as cited in Piderit 2000). The behaviour response is the output in the form of act or deed of the individual about the change (I Palmer, R Dunford, G Akin, 2009, P50). According to Bareil, 2013, “the behavioural response can also be interpreted as a resource that represents the feedback of discomfort about the change initiative”. In the contrary the compliant behaviour of individual is interpreted as evidence of reduced resistance (Sagie, Elizur, Greenbaum,1995, as cited in Piderit 2000). It’s a natural

human behaviour to oppose any action or idea or plan which requires any additional amount of work/effort to be put without knowing the benefit or result. If a person is happy and content, he doesn’t want to go out of comfort zone unless he himself needs it or does it selflessly for someone else.

All changes are situational or need of time, but it always has one thing in the vision and that is betterment/profitability/survival of the organisation where the change is being planned. If a change process is not properly disseminated, discussed and explained by the change manager it can lead to distorted perceptions from all individuals/ departments to the extent of implicit assumptions. This sometimes leads to a negative impact of the change on one’s sphere of interest, often described as parochial self-interest by Kotter & Schlesinger (2008).

Other reasons like monetary involvement, motivation factor, past experience may also influence change. Market condition, timing of the year, unclear understanding of the need for change or the strategic intentions among the employees will surely reduce the creativity in change process, and hence will be the part of resistance. Basically when the expectations of the organisation and the employees are incompatible it gives rise to resistance. (Burnes, 2015)

Another important source of resistance is the change process itself. Maybe the idea and philosophy behind the change is very good but if the planning of execution is not done properly, then resistance develops. So it very important for the change managers to study the proposal of change in the full context of that particular organisation.

It is unrealistic to consider ways which can totally eliminate the resistance from any change process. Managing resistance tactfully is an important skill for the success of the change process.

Kotter and Schlesinger (as cited in Palmer, R Dunford, G Akin, 2009, P172) propose managing resistance by communicating and educating the people, to apprise them of the reason for change, involving them in the change process, encouraging participation, providing technical and emotional support to address anxiety and uncertainty, manipulation by offering key role to certain individuals thereby getting support when the change is absolutely necessary for the existence of organization.

In the traditional approach coercive methods, explicit and implicit coercion, are often used to persuade the change resistors when the resources are limited, and the survival of the organization is at stake. The concept of managing resistance has undergone significant transformation over years - from traditional suggestions of coercive methods, minimising and eliminating resistance to the modern theories of analysing, simplifying and utilizing the resistance to change. (Bareil, 2013). As per some modern theories, the resistance can be a resource rather than a threat (Ford et al, 2009) to the change process which can help to bring sometimes a commitment from the change recipient.

Scott and Jaffe,1989, (as cited in Palmer, R Dunford, G Akin, 2009, P173) suggested that individual goes through four psychological stages, denial, resistance, exploration and commitment as they respond to the organizational change. In the denial stage, individuals don’t tend to give enough importance or sort of ignore the requirement of the changes having the perception that the change is short lived and things will come back to the status quo. As the change progresses, fear, uncertainty and anxiety of future creeps in and thus causes resistance to the change. In the exploration stage, when the individual realizes that the change is here to stay, one starts to evaluate his own position, visualise the upcoming changed scenario and will try to modulate oneself to fit for the change. Once the individual realizes the benefits of change, they will enter in a commitment stage and focus on the change process. Going through all these four stages will bring about the positive approach and remove the negative thoughts for the change resistance. ▄

Managing Resistance to Organisational Change

By Deependra Singh Roll number 4274 Class of 1995