Question

In response to a variety of expected environmental changes in your industry, your business has decided to change its organizational structure to be more consistent with a new strategy for increased competitiveness. They plan to move from a mechanistic model of organization to a flatter, more organic structure with an emphasis on self-managing work teams. Needless to say, these are significant internal changes, not to mention the external changes which are bound to occur as well. Using what we have learned from our readings:

• What resistance to the changes do you expect and why?
• How would you advise key decision-makers on the best ways to successfully affect the planned changes?
• Share any personal experiences and cite all resources.

Answer 1

Change is an inevitable thing in all environment. Especially when it comes to the business scenario, organization need to adapt with changes in its environment to cope up with the completion and sustain in the market.

In the given scenario, in response to a variety of expected environmental changes in the industry, the business has decided to change its organizational structure to be more consistent with a new strategy for increased competitiveness. They plan to move from a mechanistic model of organization to a flatter, more organic structure with an emphasis on self-managing work teams. Needless to say, these are significant internal changes, not to mention the external changes which are bound to occur as well.

It’s easy to get excited about making changes in an organization when you’re the force behind the change, but everyone else may not share your enthusiasm. There may be resistance to change from the part of team members. There are several reasons for such resistance to change. Such resistance may take a number of forms—persistent reduction in output, increase in the number of “quits” and requests for transfer, chronic quarrels, sullen hostility, wildcat or slowdown strikes, and, of course, the expression of a lot of pseudological reasons why the change will not work. Even the more petty forms of this resistance can be troublesome.

Top Causes of Resistance to Change within an Organization can be listed as under:-

1. Mistrust and Lack Of Confidence

2. Emotional Responses

3. Fear Of Failure

4. Poor Communication

5. Unrealistic Timeliness

1) Mistrust and Lack of Confidence

When employees do not trust or feel confident in the person making the change, their resistance to it can be a huge barrier. In fact, change advisor and author Rick Maurer believes that lack of confidence in change-makers is a cause of resistance to change in organizations that is most often overlooked.

Maurer’s 3 Levels of Resistance to Change are:

I don’t get it,

I don’t like it, and

I don’t like you.

That’s right — people may not resist the change itself but rather the person making it. Of course, “you” does not always refer to the change-maker specifically. It could also be someone the change-maker represents, such as corporate headquarters or a faceless CEO.

To avoid this level of resistance of change, choose change leaders that people already trust. Employees are more likely to have confidence in a change leader who understands their daily routines and job duties, such as a direct supervisor. However, trust is easy to lose, so if change leaders have mishandled organizational changes in the past, they need to own up to those mistakes. Once trust is re-earned, change leaders can proceed with empathy and understanding as they guide their team through the transition.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world,” or, in this case, be the change you wish to see in your organization. When you lead by example, employees will feel more comfortable with the transition because they will see you as a trusted resource who is available to provide support and guidance.

2) Emotional Responses

Changing the status quo is difficult, and many people will have emotional reactions to anything that upsets their routine. This is a natural and inevitable response. Brushing it off will only lead to stronger resistance.

Use change management models that focus on emotional reactions to change, such as the Kübler-Ross Change Curve or Bridges Transition Model, to mitigate this common cause of resistance to change. Both models recognize that change sometimes leads to feelings of loss and grief. As such, change-makers must be prepared to manage these emotions and move people towards acceptance of the change.

Common Causes of Resistance to Change in Organizations

Begin by coaching change leaders to approach resistance to change with empathy, recognizing that people will have a wide range of emotional reactions. Some may even skip steps in the Kübler-Ross Change Curve or slide back to negative reactions multiple times throughout the transition.

In order to manage these reactions, change leaders should clearly explain the need for change while also listening attentively to feedback from those affected by it. People want to feel heard. Make it clear that their opinions are valuable to the change process. Additionally, change leaders should check in frequently to provide support, gather additional feedback, and nudge people towards change acceptance and adoption.

3) Fear Of Failure

People will not support a change if they’re not confident in their own abilities to adapt to it. When people feel threatened by their own shortcomings (real or imagined), they protect themselves from failure by resisting the change.

The ADKAR Model has two goals that address the fear of failure: knowledge and ability.

Common Causes of Resistance to Change in Organizations

Knowledge is about training. The goal is to give people the tools they need to make the change, including those needed to handle transitions. Let’s take a technological change as an example. If your company is integrating a new software system, employees should know how to move existing information into it, as well as how to make the most of the new system in the future.

Ability is more about self-confidence. After training, people need to feel comfortable applying the knowledge they have acquired. Give employees enough hands-on experience to develop and test their new skills before fully launching the change.

4) Poor Communication

The key to great change management communication is to create an active conversation. When you talk at people as opposed to with people, you’re bound to get resistance to change.

Start by making a change communication plan. Before you initiate change, you should have several communication actions planned, such as the announcement of the change, small group discussions, one-on-one meetings, and methods for gathering feedback.

When talking with employees about change, answer the questions, “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) and “What does it mean to me?” (WDIMTM). When you appeal to individual concerns, you increase their engagement. People want to know how the change will benefit them specifically and what they will need to do to implement and solidify the change.

Furthermore, providing continuous motivation throughout the change process is essential. In fact, Kotter’s Theory highlights the importance of focusing on short-term wins in step six of the eight-step change process. When employees are recognized for their efforts, it builds their enthusiasm as well as their desire to support the change.

5) Unrealistic Timeliness

Find a balance between creating a sense of urgency and allowing time to transition. Don’t force change too quickly. When you push too hard for a change to happen, it’s easy to get tunnel vision and neglect important elements of your change plan.

Begin with a change implementation timeline. Map out every action and set deadlines so that you have a general idea of how long the entire transformation will take. Often, designing the path between the current state and change adoption helps you identify additional steps that are needed to facilitate the transition.

Of course, you should not be afraid to make adjustments. If your team needs more time to understand the change or would benefit from additional training — make it happen.

You Cannot Avoid It, But You Can Work Through It

Anticipating and planning for resistance is an essential aspect of implementing organizational change. When you dig into the reasons behind the resistance to change, you are better prepared to address it and move past it, regardless of which type of organizational change you undergo within your company.

Some ways to respond to resistance to change:-

1. A solution which has become increasingly popular for dealing with resistance to change is to get the people involved to “participate” in making the change. But as a practical matter “participation” as a device is not a good way for management to think about the problem. In fact, it may lead to trouble.

2. The key to the problem is to understand the true nature of resistance. Actually, what employees resist is usually not technical change but social change—the change in their human relationships that generally accompanies technical change.

3. Resistance is usually created because of certain blind spots and attitudes which staff specialists have as a result of their preoccupation with the technical aspects of new ideas.

4. Management can take concrete steps to deal constructively with these staff attitudes. The steps include emphasizing new standards of performance for staff specialists and encouraging them to think in different ways, as well as making use of the fact that signs of resistance can serve as a practical warning signal in directing and timing technological changes.

5. Top executives can also make their own efforts more effective at meetings of staff and operating groups where change is being discussed. They can do this by shifting their attention from the facts of schedules, technical details, work assignments, and so forth, to what the discussion of these items indicates in regard to developing resistance and receptiveness to change.