In: Operations Management
The two reasons why People Resist Change in any organization are Surprise and fear of the unknown and Organizational politics. Explain what they meant and why they resist changes? Give some real examples of such kind for any organization.
Answer: The two major reasons why people fear change are surprise and fear of the unknown and the organizational politics. The surprise and fear of the unknown refers to the situation when the people are not aware that a change is going to take place and they also do not know about what will happen in future. This is the result of uncertainty and it is human nature to oppose and resist uncertainty. For example if a company merges with another company and the employees are not informed beforehand then they are gripped in surprise and fear about what will happen to them in future and they resist. Similarly often the organizational politics play a negative role during a change process where some vested interests may try to gain more power inside the organization during a change and this is resisted by others. For example during a departmental reorganization a manager may attempt to put his people in more powerful position and there can be resistance by the others against this.