Understanding and Coping with Change - Essay Example

Change can be planned where the activities involved are intentional and goal oriented and it can also be observed that change is mainly influenced by both internal and external factors. However, change in an organization is often met by resistance as a result of various reasons. Individual resistance to change is caused by a variety of factors such as fear of the unknown, security issues, lack of trust among the management as well habit among the employees (Baack, 2012). If carefully managed, resistance to change can be a source of functional conflict in the organization.

Through resistance to change, the employees raise meaningful debate where their ideas can be taken into consideration in the decision making process in the organization. Resistance to change only becomes dysfunctional when it becomes counterproductive in the organization. In my career, I have often witnessed people resisting change mainly as a result of low tolerance to change coupled with personal interest. For instance, I used to work in a fashion and clothing shop as a till operator. We used to start work at 8:00 AM and finish at 5PM.

After realising that the company was recording a significant increase in the number of sales towards closing time, the management decided to extend the closing time from 5 PM to 6PM. This was not just an ad hoc arrangement since proper measures were taken in order to establish the impact of such proposed change to the operations of the whole organization. Indeed, there were benefits likely to be derived from implementing this kind of change in the operations of the organization. For instance, the change initiative was likely to result in an increase in the number of sales.

This meant that the revenue collected through the operations of the organization would be improved. Through intolerance of change, it was realised that some sections of the organization were against this proposed change. Some people argued that this change will negatively impact on